Design by MVRDV
Photograph © Ossip van Duivenbode
 

Incredible ‘Ocean of Books’ Library Opens in China with Space for 1.2m Titles

MVRDV in collaboration with local architects TUPDI has completed the Tianjin Binhai Library, a 33,700m2 (362,744 sq ft) cultural centre featuring a luminous spherical auditorium around which floor-to-ceiling bookcases cascade. The undulating bookshelf is the building?s main spatial device, and is used both to frame the space and to create stairs, seating, the layered ceiling and even louvres on the façade. Tianjin Binhai Library was designed and built in a record-breaking time of only three years due to a tight schedule imposed by the local municipality. Next to many media rooms it offers space for 1.2 million books. [source]  

Design by MVRDV
Photograph © Ossip van Duivenbode
 
The library was commissioned by Tianjin Binhai Municipality and is located in the cultural centre of Binhai district in Tianjin, a coastal metropolis outside Beijing, China. The library, located adjacent to a park, is one of a cluster of five cultural buildings designed by an international cadre of architects including Bernard Tschumi Architects, Bing Thom Architects, HH Design and MVRDV. All buildings are connected by a public corridor underneath a glass canopy designed by GMP. Within the GMP masterplan MVRDV was given a strict volume within which all design was concentrated. [source]
 

Design by MVRDV
Photograph © ...