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Architects: yuan Architects
- Area: 80 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Bowen Hou
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Manufacturers: Angell, Boyi, Marco polo, Shengxiang
Text description provided by the architects. The project is located in Taizhou Experimental Middle School, Jiaojiang County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. It is based on the central green space of the campus and has good vegetation. The school hopes that the library will not only be a building, but also a landscape in campus, which has a distinctive external form and provides spatial experience.
There is a giant tree in the site, which forms a prominent site feature. On this basis, we re-examine Louis Kahn's statement that "…school is originated under a tree" and try to provide architectural protection for students who read, think and discuss around the central tree.
We divide the building volume into four independent units which are randomly assembled around the big tree to construct the learning scene described by Kahn. In an entity way, we transform the bookstore from single to group, from a building to a village.
The separation of the volume also creates more surface area, which brings more contact between human and the nature.
As a new space, we try to connect the nature with architecture, the architectural tradition with the present, and the conventional experience of reading with the expectation of the future. As Kahn said: ... birds outside windows, people rushing to find shelter in the rain, leaves falling from trees, clouds drifting through and sunshine coming in are all great things. They are lessons in themselves.