Is this the world’s most stunning library?
Located in China’s Binhai Cultural District In Tianjin, the futuristic eye-shaped library is every bookworm’s heaven and it boasts of a huge collection of books and novels.
The five-storey building, dubbed “The Eye of Binhai” was designed by Dutch design firm MVRDV in collaboration with the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute (TUPDI) covers 34,000 square metres and can hold up to 1.2 million books.
The library is built in such a way that the different levels of the building look like an eye socket with the centre of the auditorium having a huge spherical glowing auditorium that forms the pupil of the eye-shaped library.
Municipal officials in Tianjin had several years ago commissioned Dutch and Japanese architects to design five new buildings, including the library, for a cultural center in the city’s Binhai district. The designers were an international cadre of architects including Bernard Tschumi Architects, Bing Thom Architects, HH Design and MVRDV. All buildings are connected by a public corridor underneath a glass canopy designed by GMP.
The Tianjin Binhai Library is still striking even for book lovers who might end up staring at the amazing architectural design than focus on the books.
The futuristic library has curved lines that also act as bookshelves arrayed on either side of the sphere and the stairs can be used as a seating area too. Most of these futuristic-looking floor to ceiling shelves are painted to look like they’re full of books, but in reality, much of the covers in the hall are printed images. The real books are stored in other rooms in the building.
According to MVRDV, the five-level building also contains extensive educational facilities, arrayed along the edges of the interior and accessible through the main atrium space.
Visitors are able to easily access reading areas from the ground floor for children and the elderly, the auditorium, the main entrance, terraced access to the floors above and connected to the cultural complex. The first and second floor has reading rooms and lounges whereas the upper floors have meeting rooms, offices, computer and audio rooms and two rooftop patios.
The Tianjin Binhai Library opened on October 1, 2017 after a construction period of three years.
