Cognitive Cube for the Book
Jinju is one of the historical cities in Korea and also well-known as a city of education and culture. This project has started with the idea that the space-form of the library needs to be the meaningful. Among the city’s cultural images, we found Chokseokru, the representative monument of Jinju. And it brought us the first referential image of ‘the pavilion on the hill’. JanggyeongPanjeon in Haeinsa temple was referred to since it is regarded as the most symbolic archive in Korea and located in the same province. Its quadrangle layout and ventilation system were transformed here into the space surrounded by the book, vertically open-connected for effective ventilation. The form of the new library was also designed in a contemporary way with the traditional motif of JanggyeongPanjeon. The space-form which has a referential meaning will provide a cognitive aesthetic sense to the visitor. So, the new library becomes not only the space for the book but also a significant place of the city. The new library will be an eastern gateway for the whole park, and its cultural education center. Since the site is steep, the library needs to provide people a convenient vertical mobility. So, the spatial composition of the library was made in a way that a step-like activity area was established using the terrain level as it was, on which a cube was put to define the library’s territory. This minimized the transformation of the topography and will make it easy for people to access the park and the book.
Materials used here are carefully selected from traditional Korean architecture and culture. Brass, wood and concrete were used as main building materials to establish a calm and noble atmosphere. The design of the furniture therefore is deliberately simple. And, we thought the book and people are the key elements of the library so that we selected light-coloured wood - birch and maple - for the furniture. In this way the furniture will turn into the background of the library. However, the layout of the furniture follows the architectural concept of the space surrounded by the book and provides a reading space with surrounding bookshelves.