Library in Kanazawa from Coelacanth K & H Architects

In March 2011 the Japanese city of Kanazawa architects Kazumi Kudo and Hiroshi Horiba of the Coelacanth K & H Architects have completed construction of the regional library in the form of a box from under the cake.

“Box out of the cake,” it’s called by architects themselves. The building is square, 45 to 45 m, with high walls, rows of “windows” in which an impression of the ornament. “Perforated” wall provides an even and diffuse light in the room. In this case the load is distributed over the wall as evenly as the light in the interiors, thus achieving the required standards for local anti-seismic stability of buildings. The main hall of the 12-meter height, where the space for reading are interspersed with bookshelves and recreation, occupies an entire floor, a perforated wall surrounds it on all four sides. Role model (of course, not literally) for the architects was a masterpiece of architecture of XIX century – the reading room of the Paris National Library of Henry Labrusta. The architects sought to equip the space, which would serve as a joyful orchestration tactile contact with the book. Simultaneously, a reading room – a place to meet and talk. Perhaps the silence is to guard the Japanese etiquette. “germinate” in the function library of the club, community center – a common feature of modern Japanese libraries are fighting for survival with electronic means of communication.