GUANGZHOU, CHINA
NEW GUANGZHOU LIBRARY
2004
WITH DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS INC.
The design responds to the Zhujiang New Town Masterplan and takes the future planned environment into account to create a dialogue between the library, the Culture and Art Square and the other three cultural buildings. The rectangular shape of the book stacks complements the rectangular forms of the Children's Activity Center to the west and the Guangdong Museum to the south, while the curvilinear shape of the reading rooms resonates with organic shape of the Guangzhou Opera House to the southwest.
The library is an interplay between the dynamic, curvilinear shape of the "Sea of Knoledge" and the static, orthogonal form of the "Mountain of Books". The Book-Stacks are encased in translucent glass, while the Reading Rooms are clad with perforated metal panels so that the surface is opaque in daylight but the interior will glow like a lantern at night.