Tiny Library

Chinese projects that dominate the headlines are either large in scale, located in the country’s megacities or designed by starchitects, often all three at the same time. The Chinese countryside, on the other hand, is often left behind, both figuratively and literally. This little library is one such gem.

The Pinch, a small village library and community centre designed by associate professors at the University of Hong Kong, John Lin and Olivier Ottevaere, and is bringing a bit of attention to China’s often forgotten country side.

Located in the village of Shuanghe, Yunnan province, the area was shaken by an earthquake in 2012. Prior to the earthquake, the village houses were built from ubiquitous mud bricks and timber roof structures. Post-earthquake, the government deemed these methods unsafe and set about replacing old and new buildings with generic, three-storey, cast-in-place reinforced concrete houses but progress has been slow and at the beginning of the year the project has all but been forgotten leaving most of the village still undeveloped.

The University of Hong Kong decided to sponsor the design and implementation of a new library building. Located in the new but empty public plaza, it would serve to activate the community and provide a physical memorial for the event. The architects decided to persist with timber as a building material for this project and developed The Pinch. The building is a perfectly site-specific, contemporary, timber structure built by local craftsmen – demonstrates how local, low-tech building methods can be applied to build safe structures, as well as providing a sense of participation and pride. Rather than submitting to the abandonment of wood construction, the project reasserts the ability to build contemporary timber structures in remote areas of China.

The structure is partially leaning against a retaining wall and the doubly curved roof between the village road and a large, concrete sports field built as a part of the government’s reconstruction efforts. The roof doubles as a pedestrian link and a viewing platform, as well as an extension of the playground. Underneath, shelves with books are suspended from the timber trusses, and the space is flooded with light from the large, translucent openings on either side of the structure.

See more pictures and read more here on DesignBOOM