MAYU Architects 張瑪龍陳玉霖聯合建築師事務所

Yuwen Library

YUWEN LIBRARY

Mayu Architects

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

ARCHITECTS
Mayu Architects

PHOTOGRAPHS
Guei-Shiang Ke

CATEGORY
Library

LOCATION
Taiwan (Roc)

YEAR
2012

AREA
2965.0 m²

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

Text description provided by architect.

Tainan Yuwen Library is located in the East District, Tainan City. The site is bounded by streets ranging from 12m to 20m widthwise and also surrounded by public facilities: elementary school to the north, community center to the east, and the park to the south.

The Yu-sin Boulevard to the west is the main south-north corridor in the area. The library is a 4-story concrete construction on a 2965 m2 site with 3144 m2 total floor area. 

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

The projected collection capacity is 110,000 books. The construction budget is around NY$122,000,000.

Library is a place of reading. However, in this information age, digital media and visual-audio resources have formed significant parts of any library collections.

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

Therefore, in contemporary library, the visual acts of reading, browsing, and gazing create a web of inter-reference, resulting a fluid relationship of subjects and objects.

In order to capture such contemporary phenomenon, the architectural interpretation of gaze and looking becomes guiding concepts of this project.

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

GAZE AND LOOKING: CONCRETE VOLUME AS VISUAL VEHICLE

The site is adjacent to several urban programs with high public value; therefore, a concrete lower volume is proposed to negotiate those urban events on the one hand, and organize internal functions on the other.

Large fenestrations articulated with concrete panels and canopies are located at dramatic moments: street corner facing elementary school (children’s library), frontal view toward community center (young-adult area), gaze window viewable from the park (reading room), and finally the horizontal glazing along the boulevard (lobby and new arrival).

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

These symbolic openings convey the public character of the library, allowing citizens’ gaze penetrates the library boundaries from all angles.

The coexistence of the expansive concrete walls and openings suggests enough aura that lures citizens to explore the knowledge inside.

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

SIMULTANEOUSLY ICONOGRAPHIC AND TRANSPARENT: WOOD VOLUME AS SYMBOL OF BOOKS

The significant position of Library in the historical and social-cultural context always calls for symbolic formal language.

A wood volume is half-lodged on top of the lower concrete volume: this volume contains collective human knowledge and clad in vertical wood louvers. It is the metaphor and representation of books.

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

Characterized by four carved in curves, the form of the wood volume is distinct and iconographic.

Internally, the combination of louvers and expansive glazing generates a transparent and universal space full of diffused sunlight.

Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke

Here, the desire of gaze and looking is minimized; what is left is the very original act of reading.


Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke
Yuwen Library
© Guei-Shiang Ke


Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects
Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects


Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects
Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects
Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects


Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects
Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects
Yuwen Library
Courtesy of MAYU architects

MAYU Architects 張瑪龍陳玉霖聯合建築師事務所
T +886 7 3389098
MAYU Architects 張瑪龍陳玉霖聯合建築師事務所
3F-1, 10, Siwei 4th Road, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 802 高雄市苓雅區四維三路6號16樓之1