A simple gesture like opening the pages of a book became the inspiration for Ghirardelli Architetti in their design proposal for the Daegu Gosan Public Library Competition. By interacting with their intellectual awareness, art, science and history, this can transform into a different state of being, separated from what is happening around us in where we discover leisure, tranquility and food for thought with infinite horizons to explore inside and outside ourselves. Their library design contains this knowledge and makes it available through intriguing spaces and activities, providing at the same time, individual detachment from the daily ritual. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Just as books do, we’ve imagined our library as spaces full of knowledge and tools as if we are opening up the pages of a great book. A pop-up book from which arise extraordinay enrichments. In the park we find the long pathway that leads to the south, by following it, the trees gradually give way to the big white pages resembling pages of a book which is the architectural setting. One after the other these pages run along the path revealing the high volume of the library suspended between them and filtering the atmospheric light, just like the leaves of a tree.
The park adjacent to Dalgubeol Main Road with its trees, plays a very important role in the area of the library and with its crossway as we reach the main entrance. Then imagine a reformation of the existing plants and the restructure of a new design with pathways and lighting instrumentation enhancing the natural element. A large wooden pathway from the edge of the Main Road slowly rises as an archway suspended over the lower garden of the library extending through the whole area and then slowly bends reaching the level of the southern border. Along the way, the trees gradually give way to the white pages which are large plate walls of precast polished concrete that also act as a carrier for the entire support of the building.
This idea of permeability is the second cornerstone upon which the entire project is designed and imagined of the cultural center and of the whole area. A very transparent window placed on the pathway defines the entrance to the library allowing visualization of the entire pathway stretching throughout from north to south. The pages mark the succession of crossings. In this long space, glass rises passing above the basement, continually following one another set between the pages dividing the functions within the common space. They are articulated by the views that open from the side of the garden below where there is direct access from within the library and some functions can also be accessed independently from the rest of the structure.
Along the pathways center, there is a large empty vertical space centrally visible that connects all four levels of the building in which you can see the vertical connections that are created by the divisions of the long pages. In the basement there exists a direct relationship with the garden and there is also independent access to allow proper functioning of the multi-purpose room or cultural classroom with a small coffee area, along with other areas of facility management.
Climbing to the upper floors there we find the literary collections. On the first floor, spaces are enclosed in large screen printed glass blurring the view of the city as if from inside to the exterior it appears that the city is distanced between the pages that are accompanying the view making it almost stationary, like a painting on the wall, and further filtered through the trees that rise from the garden below. The spaces defining the children’s rooms, reading, newspapers and magazines and the digital room all enjoy this atmosphere a bit allayed, easily accessible and well connected with the rest of the cultural center.
The second floor gives attention to reading rooms and collective studies. Here the light is seen overhead to imply the opening made possible by the infinite value of knowledge. It is emphasized by the matte coated perimeter walls and from the mass collection of books placed on large shelves. In the latter respect, sound gives way to silence and tranquility, the central void that allows a visual connection with the rest of the whole building emphasizes the idea of a space suspended between earth and the infinity of the sky, held suspended from the pages of the books that nurture our souls.
Architects: Ghirardelli Architetti Location: Daegu, South Korea Project Leader: Giancarlo Ghirardelli (Architect) Team: Delphine Chouaib (architect) Collaborators: Laura Alesiani (engineer), Mario La Mattina (architect), Ferdinando Savio Flores (architect), Valentina Bove (Render) Project Year: 2012
