Shirasagi Children’s Library

In a residential area near the Shirasagi Park with beautiful cherry blossoms, which is loved by local residents, we built “a children’s library that is fun and attractive for children and is familiar to local residents”. The goal is to become an attractive facility that nurtures children in the community by creating a cycle of proactive involvement of local people, businesses, and universities with children at its core.

In designing the “private children’s library,” which can be considered a modern program, we set five goals.

1. The space should be easily recognizable by children, and they can enter easily.
2. The space for reading books should be a calm space
3. The space should be fun and safe with a variety of places to stay, and be a comfortable space that welcomes children who do not like to read or study
4. The library’s activities should be communicated to the outside world and connected to the community
5. The library should be connected to the park and feel as one with it.

First we decided to set “slanted L-shape” that fills the entire site. By bringing closer the face of the building toward the park, the library connects well to the park. And this shape maximized the surface facing two roads connecting the library. The facade is entirely made of glass, making it easy to recognize the children’s activity from the outside and also allowing visitors to feel the seasonal changes from the inside through the cherry blossom trees. This maximized the effect of the plan to connect to the park and the community.

Next, a weeping roof is erected in the short direction of the “slanted L-shape” plan to draw the spatiality of the park’s cherry blossom trees into the library. The roof adjusts the connection between the library and the town, and makes a pilotis well balanced with open feelings calm feelings. Besides, it creates a first floor that connects to the town (reception area, babies’ zone, and children’s cafeteria), and a second floor (reading and study space) that is open to the park, yet calm and serene. The roof, with its long tail, not only cuts off the westering sun and directs indirect light bouncing off the ground into the building, but also creates continuity from the park bridge to the library.

The roof is an entity that can be felt anywhere in the building, and to make it a symbol of the library, it is made a single surface. By creating a variety of places under the roof, each child has his or her own place, and at the same time, the library allows then to feel connected to each other under one roof.

The roof, we also designed it to catch and convey to children the forces of nature, such as the changing sun light, water from rain, wind, and gravity. This makes the library, the building itself to be an hint of learning and awareness.

In the longer direction, on the park side, a staircase leading to the second floor, benches, and bookshelves are integrated into a space with a sense of movement, as if it were an extension of the park. The children who enjoy spending time there share the fun atmosphere of the library to the park and the community through the window. On the residential side, a children’s cafeteria is located on the first floor. By showing both adults and children in the community what’s going on there, children can casually come to eat and adults can watch their activities, thus fostering an atmosphere that nurtures children in the entire community.

The bookshelves are integrated with the walls so that they do not interfere with other uses. On weekday mornings when there are few children, each space can also be used for community activities. The elongated plan shape maximizes the wall bookshelves, resulting in a storage capacity of over 3,000 books. In addition, the wall bookshelves are shaped like a “slanted L-shape” creating a “wall that looks like an open book”. The library became a magnet for intuitive and curious children by placing fun books there.

The library has been the center of children’s attention since it was under construction, and children rushed to the library as soon as it opened. Rumors spread through the children’s network, and the library is now being used by children from outside the area that was originally envisioned. Some children were doing homework in the piloti, others were relaxing on the benches, and others were eagerly reading books in the reading area. We felt that we had achieved what we had set out to do, as we could see that each child was unconsciously taking in and enjoying the ideas that we had put into the architecture.