According to Aldo Rossi, every city needs a study room. A library is the study room for a city. Michelangelo’s Laurentian library brings up the question: is the library the interior or exterior of a city?

Woman and man, rich or poor are all welcome to the library. It is a socially inclusive heterotopias space in modern cities. In a way, a “library” is the “house” for the collectives. Library is a place for thoughts. As it concerns with the classification of knowledge, library is also a critical program to a civilization. 

We attempt to reinvent the program of library by breaking down the separation between reading and storage areas. By having the two spaces intertwined, an abstract field of knowledge is formed, one could easily move from the perception space to the projection space. There is a direct connection between the pattern of circulation and the trajectory of one’s thought about knowledge. The act of circulation becomes an act of creation. Cross-connections between different knowledge are spontaneous, and inter-disciplinary studies are encouraged. Critical thoughts are latent in this matrix of knowledge. 

We base our formal transformation on the architectonic of a “vertical folded-plate.”As we designate the solids to be the structure and storage, the voids in-between are collective space for reading and gatherings.

Client: Qujing Culture and Sport Center Building Commission

Location: Qujing, Yunnan, China

Architect: Hordor Architecture & Engineering Design Group+Atelier Alter

Principals in Charge: Yan Huang

Design Architect: Xiaojun Bu, Yingfan Zhang

Project Architect: Haipeng Guo, Langtian Weng

Architecture Design Team: Haipeng Guo, Langtian Weng, Zhenqing Que, Ling Zeng, Jeff Ding

Civil/Structure/MEP Engineer: Shuchuan Zhang, Guangyu Zhang, Xiaonan Zhu, Yongfeng Fan

General Contractor: Qujing Dafeng Construction Engineering Group Co. Ltd.

Cost: $13,419,997  

Area: 18,800 Square Meters