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Architects: MAT Office
- Area: 78 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Arch-Exist
Text description provided by the architects. This small book house is a public welfare project we have finished recent years, the site is located on Wanchun Town, Wenjiang District, Chengdu, a typical agricultural landscape with suburban and rural communities surrounded. The book house is one of the “Pyramid Book House” series in Wenjiang District. As a high-quality livelihood service plan, the “Pyramid Book House”is committed to make reading services out of public libraries, create a cultural life with the idea “No matter how late it is, leave a light here for me”, and bring warmth and emotional recognition to the community.
The book house is a temporary building located in the green belt of Tuanjiequ Road. This design defines the three main spaces for reading, display, and leisure through three pyramid-like geometric shapes. The high sloped roof not only shapes the architectural form, but also provides bright skylight into the book house. The three volumes are connected by a glass ceiling, so as to create an outdoor feeling by the transparent inside and outside spatial experience. The exterior walls of the book house are clad with wood tiles, this usage of local materials blends with the rural community and also fits the traditional material characteristics of the Chengdu Plain.
Low-cost construction is an important prerequisite for this public welfare project, and it also contributes to its simple and visible architectural results: the whole book house is built with a simple wooden structure while we have abandoned all structure handovers that may increase cost. The flinches used as beams and columns are not only the structural frame, but also form interior spatial definitions; the pine plywood is not only the wall enclosure structure, but also the decorative surface of the indoor walls and ceilings; the wooden tiles hanging on the walls are protecting the small building from rain erosion, at the same time, it also fits the green and renewable characteristics of this temporary building.
The book house quickly became a scenic spot on the roadside of the village once after completed. Residents of the surrounding rural communities gradually became familiar with this small building that suddenly came to them. From looking around as they passed by at the beginning, they started reading and exploring inside spontaneously. The small book house has also become a daily social place in the rural community. It is often to see that adults are basking in the sun, while children are running and playing on the grass around. On weekends, there are also a few young people from nearby urban areas ride by for leisure and entertainment. When night falls, this small building seems like a book tower rising from the plain landscape, and a shining beacon light that warming the sailing people.
