Library in Ruins

Project Details

Project Description

In the beginning, the architect received the original commission to design a 300-square-meter public building for facilitating the county’s culture and art education. However, considering the vast serving area and the difficulty of traveling between scattered villages, the architect came up with a proposal to divide one building into a series of miniature facilities in different locations so as to better serve local communities.

As a result, one of the series, "Library in Ruins", is constructed alongside the remnant of an adobe house in Sunyao Old Village which is located in a mountainous area far away from the town center. Villagers have moved into the brick-concrete houses in the new village, leaving behind many aged adobe houses and cave dwellings. When the abandoned village was examined by the architect, its surrounding undulating mountains, the barren cliffs adjacent to the site, and the vast fields above the cliffs all manifested rich topographical relationships that would evoke design inspirations.

At first, the village asked the architect whether it was possible to build inside the plot of the original house where only a part of ruined adobe walls was left. However, villagers were no longer able to find any craftsman who could build with the original rammed earth technique. Therefore, the architect proposed to build a new concrete structure to grow from the old ruins: allowing the new building to become a spatial device where people enter the ruins, jump over the old houses, and gaze into the village, the fields, and the mountains in the distance.

Furthermore, the architect hopes to present a duet of intertwined memories in this building: On the one hand, it connects cave dwellings, barren hills, and earth walls– physical remains with heavy texture and traces of time; On the other hand, it becomes an abstract sculptural space that grows from the terrain and rises to the sky. The two sets of memories spatially intersect each other: A concrete entrance protrudes out at the location of the original doorway on the remnant wall to invite people in; After entering the building, a corner of the remnant wall extends into the room, guiding people to the barren cliff in the rear garden;

The undulating outline of the roof echoes the terrain and distant mountains, and the roof ground naturally forms an outdoor terrace and a slide for children. The interior space functions not only as a stepped library, but also as a small projection room. The meandering plan of the building and the network of paths become an extension of the surrounding maze-like cave system.

The library is embraced in the open arms of the village buildings and trees. On the east and west facades of the building, large windows are designed to greet the idyllic, leafy surroundings. Many small special-shaped windows are cast with in-situ concrete on the north and south facades. These irregularly shaped openings curate a play of shadow during the day, and create a backdrop of twinkling lights throughout the night.