Tianjin Binhai, China's most beautiful library

Recently, the Tianjin Binhai Library has been on fire. The library is super-high, from the floor to the ceiling, with stacked bookshelves, like a large terrace, the atrium has a huge round LED ball screen, and the outer wall is a shutter made up of bookshelves, quite spectacular. However, it is said that there are many fake books with only a cover on the bookshelf? We specifically asked the designer of the library.

Put countless fake books? The designer has something to say...

Text / Wang Wei spicy (a video reporter)

Recently, many netizens have been screened by "China's most beautiful library." It is the Tianjin Binhai Library.

The library is super-high, and the most amazing thing is the stack of bookshelves from the floor to the ceiling. It looks like a book mountain and can climb up.

However, many friends who have been to the news broke the news that there are fake books in the library!
Sure enough, when we got there, we saw the legendary fake book effortlessly. Especially in the upper bookshelves, most of them are replaced by fake books printed on the backboard, which constitutes the decorative Shushan Book Sea.

So we found the Dutch design side of the library. Shi Wenqian, a partner and project leader of the architectural firm MVRDV, said that the fake book is not the original intention of the designers.

In the design of MVRDV, all bookshelves are filled with real books for people to read, not printed cardboard. All bookshelf readers in the atrium can arrive and take the book to see. A two-story bookcase arrives from the inside of the atrium, while a three-story, four-story bookcase rises from the back of the atrium.

Because the entire museum has only been in design for three years, many concepts have not been realized, which is quite regrettable. For example, the surface of the original ballroom is designed to be mirrored to reflect the park's scenery and atrium activities. These design concepts are biased in implementation.

Library highlights

Aside from the topic of fake books, this library actually has a lot of wonderful places. It is a pity to miss it.

It is located in the Binhai New Area, on the easternmost side of Tianjin, 50 kilometers from the city. Although the location is remote, the library has been lined up almost every day since the opening of the library on October 1 this year.

Binhai New Area is a new development zone in Tianjin, and it attaches great importance to the development of cultural projects. The library is only part of the Binhai Cultural Center. It is adjacent to it, as well as four cultural buildings including the Art Gallery and the Performing Arts Center, which are jointly completed by five international architectural firms and the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute.

Eye of the sea

The exterior of the library is a cube. It requires a lecture hall, and the architect designed the lecture hall into a 21-meter-diameter sphere. From the outside of the library, you can see the shape of an eye.

The ball, called "Eye of the Sea", is still a full-color LED screen.
During the construction process, the architect first embedded the sphere into the library, and then, around the sphere, formed a cave-like atrium space.

Innovative atrium

From the floor to the wall, to the ceiling, the atrium is completely wrapped in a terrace-like bookshelf, forming a bookcase, a seat, and a step.
The narrowest one is used for walking, the slightly wider one is used to stand or stay, and the widest one can sit down and read.

The continuous bookshelf extends from the interior to the outside, forming a blind on the facade of the library. The blinds block the strong sunlight, protect the book, and provide enough light for the interior, which is very suitable for sitting down to study.

It has also been said that each step has a large span and is not suitable for climbing. The architect has taken this into account and has set up a reading room for the elderly and children on the ground floor, which is more convenient to arrive.

Traditional space

In addition to the more innovative atrium, the library also has a hidden "traditional space." It can hold a total of 1.2 million books and has 1,500 reading seats.

Even the architect did not expect that it would become a net red building: "We are also very surprised. There are so many people who, in addition to reading books, take photos and share them."

The design of cultural buildings should be considered for 5 years. After 10 years, how will its future users use this place. The Binhai Library wants to break people's old and old-fashioned impressions of the library. As a city living room, people can read, socialize, inspire and take pictures here.

Address : Southwest side of the intersection of Central Avenue and Dalian East Road
Opening hours : except for closing on Monday morning, the rest time is 10:00-21:00
Traffic Information :
1. Light rail is also the 9th line 
to the Civic Square Station, the subway After taking a taxi to the Binhai Library
2, the train harmony number 
from Tianjin Station to Yujiapu Railway Station, bus 940 to the New District Cultural Center North Gate Station, get off more than 1000 meters

About MVRDV

Speaking of MVRDV, it has been active in the forefront of the world of architecture since the 1990s and is one of the most influential architectural firms in the Netherlands. The founders are three good friends, Winy, Jacob and Nathalie.

This group of crazy architects used a decade to spend 1.3 billion to transform a market in Rotterdam; they created a crystal store for Chanel; now they are designing a park of about 100,000 square meters in Pudong, Shanghai... Looking forward to their new work.