Another library tonight that forms a nice contrast from the museum of last week’s post.  Where the watch museum went for a delicate and unique form, this one takes its cues from its agrarian surroundings, exuding rugged beauty and muscle, though done with an equal eye to proportion and detail.

Using brick and concrete, the heavy frame with its open-gable roof rises from the terraced paddy fields that surround it.  The shell is treated almost like an independent structure, like a found building (with a tree nearly growing into it at one end!) into which are inserted the lighter and glass-faced interior spaces.

Inside the contrast continues, with wood and steel and glass playing off the coffered robustness of the frame.  Plenty of cutaways and punched windows lets the light in and allows for little details like the study nooks and the upper terrace to look back out to the fields all around.

I dig it.  A nice and textured solidity that settles into the fields around it coupled with an airy interior that has plenty of moments to delight.  Nicely done.

The Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Library of Huxi by Tanghua Architect & Associates