Chinese architecture studio Atelier Xi has completed a library in Henan province featuring a curving concrete volume that emerges from the ruins of a derelict house.
Library in Ruins is part of a series of buildings designed by Shenzhen-based Atelier Xi for the municipal government of rural Xiuwu County.
Library in Ruins comprises a concrete volume built around a dilapidated house
The firm was initially commissioned to design a large public building housing various cultural amenities for the county's inhabitants.
However, due to Xiuwu's large area and the difficulty of travelling between scattered villages, the architects suggested separating the proposed functions and distributing them across various buildings in different locations.
The library is located in a mountainside village in Henan province Each of the buildings in the Miniature Series is constructed using in-situ cast concrete and features organic forms intended to evoke tree branches reaching towards the sky ? like the Peach Hut community pavilion, based on the shapes of nearby peach trees.
The library building is located in Sunyao Old Village, a mountainside settlement comprising cave dwellings and buildings made from adobe mud. The village was gradually abandoned from the mid-1990s onward as the population moved to newly constructed accommodation nearby.
Its roof offers views of nearby cave dwellings
Having initially examined the possibility of restoring one of the derelict houses to create the library, the ar...