Tsinghua Law Library Building Proposal / Kokaistudios

Kokaistudios was recently announced as the winner of the competition for the new Tsinghua University Law Library located in Beijing, China. Proposing a reflection on the role of void in structuring functions and programs within the building, their design also defines, at the same time, its relations within its surroundings. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Circulation and public spaces, both indoor and outdoor, are interlocked in a innovative sequence of ‘places’, a coherent continuum of solids and voids directly inspired to the traditional urban carpet of the Courtyard Houses, characteristic of Beijing. Within the proposed site, three new multifunctional buildings are located around a public square, center of a system of new sunken gardens and outdoor pedestrian connections providing access to the buildings’ public functions located in the basement and ground floor.

Inside the Library of Law Faculty, the program is structured in three major functional areas, vertically organized according to their increasing requirement from privacy: classrooms and students’ facilities are located in the lower floors, the Library at the center, while teachers’ laboratories and Research Institute occupy the three top floors, opened around the roof garden.

This inner system of voids and public spaces is expressed as a seamless and continuous sequence of openings carved in the stone modular façade of the Law Library Building.

Architects: Kokaistudios
Location: Beijing, China
Design Team: Filippo Gabbiani, Andrea Destefanis, Pietro Peyron, Li Wei, Qin Zhantao, Daniel Ding
Client: Tsinghua University
Area: 20,000 sqm
Competition: December, 2011