After a series of earthquakes left New Zealand's second largest city badly damaged, a new city has begun to gradually emerge. The city of Christchurch, NZ has spent the following years working on a major rebuilding phase, that includes the recently opened $92 million central library designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects.

The Tūranga public library is one of a number of government lead anchor projects intended to spark growth and bring people back into the central city. Its opening weekend saw nearly 13,000 visitors turning out for a first look.

"The new central library is a visually stunning symbol of hope, unity, and rebirth that will fundamentally change the way residents and visitors experience Christchurch’s city centre" said the architects. The five-story building took two-and-a-half years to complete and is now the largest library in the South Island.

The Danish architects collaborated with local firm Architectus as well as Matapopore Charitable Trust—an organization working to center the local Ngāi Tūāhuriri people in recovery efforts—on the design, which weaves ancestry, traditional knowledge, and culture throughout the building scheme.

One of its most striking features is its graphic façade, which cloaks the building in a golden veil inspired by the surrounding rolling hills. At night, the curtain lights up the Cathedral Square, connected to the library by its ground floor entrance, cafe and retail space. The openings on the upper floors of the building are also oriented to significant points in the landscape. 

The ground floor is a continuation of the public realm and an extension of the Cathedral Square. A social staircase for gathering, reading, and resting leads visitors to the second floor, which is designated as the Community Arena—a space for the people of Christchurch to discuss, debate, share, and celebrate. The upper three floors are then dedicated to housing the various book collections, staff offices, and other library programs. 

To ensure the building's durability, the team worked with Lewis Bradford Consulting Engineers to meet a very stringent performance criteria. A self-centering mechanism was devised to allow the building to sway during a significant seismic event.

Part of this innovative set up is "a seismic force-resisting system made up of a series of large-scale concrete walls that can rock and shift to isolate the building from peak earthquake accelerations," as described by the architects. "Each wall has high tensile, pre-tensioned steel cables that clamp the wall to the foundations with approximately 1,000 tonnes of force per wall. The stretch of these cables return the building to its original position after an earthquake, ensuring the library will stand as a unifying landmark in Christchurch for generations to come."