. . . Red Line Library . . .
Red line library is located in Beijing Foreign Language University in Wudaokou. We were asked to renovate and transform a 400m2 ground floor of an existing building from the 80s into a french language library. A red line evolving throughout the spaces became the leitmotiv of the project. This continuous red strip houses all the required functions in a single gesture while connecting fragmented spaces together.
:: Plug-in / Plug-out::
Many of the housing blocks facades in China are nowadays colonized with what we could call plug-ins or extensions that the people build themselves in order to increase their living spaces or have a semi-outside area for laundry or plants. This extension phenomenon became for us a starting point for the project as we decided to plug spaces of various sizes on all the windows around the main space. If the program was difficult to fit in, why not put it outside? The library gets out of its walls, exposes and differentiates itself as a public open space. The plug-out boxes sheltered working cells where one could study in the middle of the surrounding trees. The extraverted cells,in the first proposal extending 2 to 5m outward, shrinked drastically in the built project because of the universities unwillingness to get out of its walls. They eventually became alcove-like spaces, a two person work cell that one can reach through small staircases wedged within the bookshelves.
:: Red Line ::
With its ups and downs, the continuous furniture becomes a sofa, benches, counters, tables, bookshelves, bookcases, exhibition displays, handrails, staircases, plateforms, etc... The pattern is reused in each and every details of the project (door patterns, logos, communication mediums, etc...).
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