This new public library by Canadian firm RDHA features a large slab that cantilevers over the landscape, and a sloping green roof and exterior stair that runs up the front of the building.
The Waterdown Library and Civic Centre is located in the city of Hamilton, about an hour's drive from downtown Toronto.

Encompassing 23,500 square feet (2,183 square metres), the building is nestled into a grassy escarpment near Lake Ontario. While it appears low-slung from the exterior, the building contains six levels ? several of which are carved into the hillside.
The multi-use facility houses a library, a community service office, a heritage society archive, and a recreation centre for senior citizens. RDHA ? a Toronto firm established in 1919 ? was given a budget of $6.8 million Canadian (£4 million) for the project.
"RDHA applied the studio's practice of customising off-the-shelf components to create an extraordinary building from ordinary materials," the team said. "Even the most standard elements such as strip lights were treated with a degree of care that adds elegance."
The building is clad in expanses of glass and limestone panels and fins. The facades vary from nearly opaque to fully glazed. Ceramic frit on the glass helps mitigate solar heat gain.

The building's upper slab cantilevers over the sloped site "like a hovering block of dolomitic limestone".
An exterior stair gently ascends the site and arrives at an outdoor terrace bordered b...