This library was built in Kikuchi City in Kumamoto Prefecture, a city with an abundance of water and many canyons. The Kikuchi River is an important part of the city’s identity, so we designed our space around 100m long bookshelves with a curved shape invoking an image of a flowing river. We named these gigantic bookshelves a “book river ”.
The gigantic shelves wind through the building, dividing it into different spaces. The book river begins in the children’s room, with low shelves enclosing the space. The “river” swells as it enters the main library area, gradually forming a dense area that subtly surrounds patrons with books. The book river leads patrons to areas with different atmospheres, through a progression that always feels natural.
We even created 13 holes in the shelves to emulate the way waterfalls and rocks add interesting differences to the flow of a river. The holes provide places to sit, pass through, come closer or look through, creating interactions between patrons and the shelves and thus between patrons and the books themselves.
This design turns the library into one big area like square where patrons can find the area that feels most comfortable for them at any given time.