Tianjin Binhai Library in China by MVRDV with TUPDI.

MVRDV in collaboration with local architects Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute (TUPDI) has completed the spectacular Tianjin Binhai Library in a coastal metropolis outside Beijing, China. The 33,700sqm cultural centre features an arresting luminous spherical auditorium around which bookcases cascade from floor to ceiling. 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. In addition to several media rooms, the library offers space for 1.2 million books.

The building’s mass extrudes upwards from the site and is ‘punctured’ by a spherical auditorium in the centre. Bookshelves are arrayed on either side of the sphere and act as everything from stairs to seating, even continuing along the ceiling to create an illuminated topography. These contours also continue along the two full glass facades that connect the library to the park outside and the public corridor inside. These serve as louvres to protect the interior against excessive sunlight whilst also creating a bright and evenly lit interior.

“The Library interior is almost cave-like, a continuous bookshelf. Not being able to touch the building’s volume we ‘rolled’ the ball-shaped auditorium demanded by the brief into the building, and the building simply made space for it, as a ‘hug’ between media and knowledge,” says Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV. “We opened the building by creating a beautiful public space inside; a new urban living room is its centre. The bookshelves are great spaces to sit and at the same time allow for access to the upper floors. The angles and curves are meant to stimulate different uses of the space, such as reading, walking, meeting and discussing. Together they form the ‘eye’ of the building: to see and be seen.”

The five-storey building also contains extensive educational facilities, arrayed along the edges of the interior and accessible through the main atrium space. Public program is supported by subterranean service spaces, book storage, and a large archive. From the ground floor, visitors can easily access reading areas for children and the elderly, the auditorium, the main entrance, terraced access to the floors above and connection to the cultural complex. The first and second floors consist primarily of reading rooms, books and lounge areas whilst the upper floors also include meeting rooms, offices, computer and audio rooms and two rooftop patios.

The library is MVRDV’s most rapid fast-track project to date. It took just three years from the first sketch to the opening. Due to the given completion date, site excavation immediately followed the design phase. The tight construction schedule forced one essential part of the concept to be dropped: access to the upper bookshelves from rooms placed behind the atrium. This change was made locally and against MVRDV’s advice and rendered access to the upper shelves currently impossible. The full vision for the library may be realised in the future, but until then, perforated aluminium plates are printed to represent books on the upper shelves. Cleaning is done via ropes and movable scaffolding.

Since its opening on 1 October, 2017 the building has been a great hit in Chinese media and social media; reviews describe it as an ‘Ocean of Books’ (CCTV) and the ‘Most beautiful library of China’ (The Bund).

Tianjin Binhai Library was built according to the Chinese Green Star energy efficiency label and has achieved a two-star status. In addition to the local architects TUPDI , MVRDV also collaborated with structural engineers Sanjiang Steel Structure Design, TADI interior architects and Huayi Jianyuan lighting designers.

Related: Jaw-dropping Crystal Facade of CHANEL Amsterdam Flagship Store by MVRDV.

[Photography by Ossip van Duivenbode.]