Underground Sydney library lauded as world’s best design
Sydney’s Green Square Library has been recognised for its visionary design with an award that marks it as the best library design in the world.
And it’s not hard to see why.
The stunning space in the heart of Sydney won the The Architectural Review’s Library Award 2018, which pitted it against some of the best libraries (and other buildings for books) completed anywhere in the world since January 2013.
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Sydney architects Stewart Hollenstein designed the building, which includes an above-ground 8000sqm civic space with jewel-like sculptures and buildings that emerge from the ground.
The unforgettable rotunda design at the Green Square Library.
The main library building sits below the surface, spanning 3000sqm and with entry via a wedge-shaped hall at ground level, incorporating a cafe.
Visitors to the library itself will likely remember its glass-encased, central sunken garden rotunda as the defining feature, with the circular garden accessible from the library for outdoor reading, and incorporating a ‘story tree’ and children’s reading circle.
Yes, there are actually books inside.
Thirty-nine circular skylights punctuate the public plaza and deliver filtered natural light and fresh air to the underground building.
A separate, six-storey above-ground tower incorporates a series of community and library functions that require separation, including a double-height reading room (with suspended mezzanine level), a computer lab for teaching (coding, robotics and 3D printing), a ‘black box’ theatre and sprung floor music room for practice and performance, and a flexible, bookable community space called the ‘Anything Room’.
The space features 39 skylights, as well as a large, circular rotunda. Picture: Julien Lanoo
The Architectural Review award required libraries to have both public plaza and library components, with the Sydney design winning points for combining the two elements.
Stewart Hollenstein director Matthias Hollenstein says the project aimed to redefine what a traditional public library can be.
The Green Square Library in Sydney. Picture: Julien Lanoo
‘The project is a celebration of the potential of public space and public architecture and what it can mean to an emerging community,” he says.
“Libraries play a unique role in our cities as highly democratic spaces. Here we designed an urban living room for all to share and to come together to tell stories.”
