Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects — The New Shanghai Library — 上海/哥本哈根

“We see the library as the focal point in a park. A central rock within a city scale Chinese garden. One of the most compelling things about this project is its location within a parkland setting. You are in the heart of the world’s largest city, yet we have the opportunity to create a sanctuary for knowledge and media in the trees.”

Schmidt Hammer Lassen has won a two stage international competition to design the new city library for Shanghai, China. Organised around a grand central atrium in the form of three staggered reading rooms that open up and connect to various parts of the library and various contextual parts of the city; the library volume is carved and twisted to reflect the surrounding park and sky, and continuously clad in a facade of clear, insulated and fritted glass. The 110,000m² library, located in Pudong District is now progressing through Scheme Design, with Detail Design expected to be completed in the first half of 2017. The Library is expected to be completed and ready to open in 2020.