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Architecture porn: the project of the moment you need to see
The 'continuous bookshelf' everyone is obsessing over
A new library and cultural center outside of Beijing has become the obsession of the moment for book lovers online.
Designed by the Rotterdam-based design firm, MVRDV, the almost 363,000-square-foot Tianjin Binhai Library’s book shelves simultaneously serve as stairs to take readers higher into the stacks as well as seating areas.
“The Tianjin Binhai Library interior is almost cave-like, a continuous bookshelf,” MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas said in the firm’s press release.
The curving walls and smooth wave-like edges of the book shelves are meant to act as a social hub “to see and be seen” in — a concept its architects hope transforms this library into a “new urban living room.” The building was completed in three years as part of a five-building development with each new structure devoted to a public and cultural function. They’ve got the Internet’s attention.
— E.K. Hudson