Hankou junior school has a 30 year old campus which is square layout classroom building. Time gave the campus a courtyard fulled of trees, and the corridors are like around the forest. The library is located on second floor, 180 m² rectangle, the longitudinal side is faced the forest, but the windows and anti-theft bars blocked view. The library turned into a storeroom filled with books.
“Open Library” is the basic principal for design. We teared down the window sills, and placed glass wall. Bring the light into the library, and let the view out the forest. The simple design let the reading space expand unlimitedly.
“Place A Forest” is the main spirit of the library layout. The irregular curved shelves is like the forest in the courtyard, the aisle around the shelves are like the corridors around the forest. The shelves contain the rich knowledge in the books, just like the forest conserves the rich ecology. The different concaves are not only to increase collection of books, but also create the funny reading space. Beside the interior, we try to extend the reading atmosphere to the outside. Along the corridor, we create the bar reading table toward the forest.
White is the base color of space, and the wood figure of arauco plywood shelves is the main character of the library. On the ceiling, we reuse the abandoned aluminum latticed windows, hang on the ceiling like the branches and leaves, the light leaks from the sky!
This is a small library for school, but it also is a window for students to explore the world outside the classroom, let us make the space more interesting to attract kids to open the window.
Material Used:
1. Birch Plywood
2. Plastic Cement Floor
3. Paint
4. Formica / Melamine
5. Artificial Turf
