Steven Holl Architects . + archdaily
Steven Holl Architects’ design for a new library at the center of a new campus plan has been approved by The Miracle for Africa Foundation.
_
The 66,000 sq. ft. library is organized via a section that provides maximum reflected light to the interior with optimum solar PV collection on the roofs. Natural light bouncing off curved prefabricated roof structures made of Ductile concrete form space like a “field within a field.”
The free plan library has meeting rooms and archives encased in glass for humidity control. A central rain collecting pool demarks the main circulation desk and ripples through the roof geometry like a wave field in cloud-like light.
The construction will utilize local stone and bamboo and local labor. Screens of locally crafted bamboo define the building perimeter leaving a shaded arcade space all around.
This library will be the initial construction of a new campus whose plan morphology has been inspired by paintings of a Malawi batik artist.
