Amidst the hustle and bustle of China, ‘Reading Mi’ emerges as a haven of tranquility surrounded by books. In the open atrium space of a shopping mall in Foshan, Panorama Design Group has designed a bookstore for families that combines reading with social and cultural activities. The resulting structure consists of reading nooks, a parent-child area,…

The newly completed library and culture house by Christensen & Co is the new living room for the small town of Viby, Denmark. The building is a place for lingering and staying, as well as a short-cut permeating the urban space of the town. This is achieved through a focus on social zones, open architecture,…

Architecture studios Mecanoo and OTJ Architects have added a rooftop garden and statement staircases to the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library in Washington DC, as part of its renovation of the Mies van der Rohe-designed building. Dutch architecture office Mecanoo collaborated with New Orleans studio OTJ Architects for the project, which involved a three-year-long…

A responsive, people-centered front-of-house, is essential for today’s modern library. In this blog, we are exploring how to choose service desks that create comfortable and engaging spaces that are fit for purpose. In particular, we will focus on the new generation of smart desks that are functional, adaptable, open and ergonomic; service desks that enhance…

Maru Architecture has revitalised the central library of Matsubara in Osaka prefecture, Japan, by adding a monolithic extension floating on a serene pond. Modeled on a historical Japanese tumulus surrounded by large burial mounds and moats, the library, which is also known as the ‘Forest of Reading’, encourages locals to enjoy peaceful moments of solitude,…

Helsinki-based JKMM Architects has renovated and extended a library named Fyyri in the Finnish town of Kirkkonummi. The studio doubled the size of the previous library and wrapped it entirely in a copper facade to create a counterpoint to the town’s medieval stone church. “The core urban concept was to design a modern counterpart to…

The Yale University Center for Innovative Thinking by architecture studio Weiss/Manfredi is an elliptical glass pavilion for students on the New Haven campus. New York City-based Weiss/Manfredi designed the two-storey pavilion to stand out from the brutalist and gothic-style buildings of the historic Yale University. The pavilion was built on top of an existing laboratory…

The collaborative team of Mecanoo and MAYU Architects has completed a public library in Tainan — Taiwan‘s oldest city. The design references the history of the region, which comprises remnants of maritime trade with Europe from the 17th century, the Chinese Ming dynasty, and Japanese settlements from the beginning of the 20th century. The library…

In Ontario’s city of Brampton, the Springdale Library and Komagata Maru Park by RDH Architects (RDHA) introduces an inclusive gathering place, a counterpoint to the otherwise flat suburban area, and a point of pride for the Canadian city. The project site was physically constrained, framed by a commercial plaza to the east, a main road…

Dutch street artist Jan is De Man, in collaboration with Tattoo and graffiti artist Deef Feed, have painted a massive bookcase on the side of an apartment building in Utrecht, Netherlands. The Trompe l’oeil mural features a three-level bookcase — one for each floor of the building — featuring a selection of both the artist’s…