A new video tour offers an on-the-ground view of MVRDV?s out-of-this-world design When Netherlands-based architecture firm MVRDV unveiled its undulating, glowing-orb-filled public library for Tianjin, China, the architecture world went bananas. The cascading bookcases! The stairs! That giant ball! The space became an Instagram sensation.
Now, a pair of architecture buffs?Wahyu Pratomo and Kris Provoost?have gone to Tianjin to make a short video about what being in the space is really like. And yes. It?s awesome.

Visitors or visitor hopefuls may be disappointed to find out that the upper bookshelves in the main atrium are currently inaccessible (what we see up there in the tantalizing images are actually books printed on aluminum plates). But as the duo?s jaunt suggests, it?s really the spatial ?experience? people come for, or at least, remember. ?From sunrise to sunset, there was never an empty moment,? write Pratomo and Provoost over on ArchDaily. ?Visitors line up at the entrance doors, eagerly waiting for their peek inside. With their smartphones in hand, visitors come through the doors with joyful reactions?it almost feels like Disneyland. This enthusiasm has definitely brought a soul to the building.?
The library?s five floors surround a central orb containing an auditorium. In addition to the main shelf space, the building has educational facilities, reading rooms, offices, lounges, storage for books, a large archive, and service areas.
Read Pratomo and Provo...