Snøhetta has shared new photos of its completed Beijing City Library design in the Chinese capital. 

What is billed by the team to be the "world's largest climatized reading space" is composed of a glass curtain wall fronted by a forest of sculptural columns resembling ginko trees in a design that harkens the natural landscape to affect an "emotional connection" between people, books, and the environment. 

Snøhetta says this is meant to challenge contemporary thinking on libraries and to disabuse designers (and critics) of the notion that the typology has become largely outmoded in the digital age.

Located in the city’s Tongzhou District, the library design was born out of a 2018 competition that paired the firm with local studio ECADI. Their effort was replete with integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) construction elements and other features aiming to reduce solar gain. This combines with the use of locally sourced construction materials and modular components set within a rationalized structural grid to achieve a GBEL Three Star (the country's highest environmental rating). 

The library also includes what's said to be one of the largest Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) in the world. 

At the heart of its interior spaces lies a sweeping 52-foot-tall forum from the base of which stepped terraces formed "smooth, rhythmic curves" that warp into a meandering central wayfinding route referred to as 'the Valley.' The design’s circulation is meant to mirror the path taken by the nearby Tonghui River. 

Users can access the stacks and seating areas which are laid out on a stepped incline, conceived as a series of terraced "hills" that culminate at the north or south orientations in vistas of the landscaped exterior and "valley" below. 

Additional conference spaces and quiet study areas are then placed underneath the wooden hillsides to maximize space and connect to the central open area, which is framed by slender white columns supporting the roof canopy and doubling as the containers for the library's climate control, lighting, and acoustic comfort systems.

"The role libraries play in society and the way people use them has vastly changed. They are now needed to function as vibrant community spaces, enabling social interaction and knowledge-sharing," Partner Robert Greenwood, the Director of Asia Pacific at Snøhetta, said about his teams's approach to designing the project.

"This is a place where you can be sitting under a tree, reading your favorite book. The Beijing City Library has an intergenerational quality about it, where you would pass on your stories to children and introduce them to the titles you’ve loved," he added. 

Elsewhere in China, Snøhetta is advancing towards the completion of the new Shanghai Grand Opera House and has proposed a concert hall for the city of Hangzhou. Another library design, the new Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina, is expected to reach completion by the spring of 2026.