Architecture Library, Chulalongkorn University by Department of Architecture Co.: 2019 Best of Year Winner for Library
Once solely book repositories, libraries are being reinvented as multifunctional spaces as information increasingly moves online. A 12,640-square-foot example at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok is a case in point. Department of Architecture Co. co-principal Twitee Vajrabhaya Teparkum calls the three-level space “a creative incubator.”
A steel grid system adds maximum flexibility, there to serve whatever needs arise. On the lowest floor of the library—devoted to coworking, collaborating, and display—the grid incorporates magnetic pin boards and a digital screen, allowing the school’s architecture students to create exhibitions or hang up work on an impromptu basis. On the next floor up, the grid displays reading material.
The top floor has a mezzanine reading area tucked under a ceiling decorated with a map of Bangkok made of layers of painted and printed acoustic panels. Elsewhere, a maze of carrels arranged in a labyrinth—designed to minimize disturbance from those passing back and forth—has dividers of translucent laminated glass lit from below. A mirror image of the maze hangs from the ceiling, helping students find their way.




Project Team: Amata Luphaiboon; Chaiyapat Mirasena; Boonvadee Laoticharoen; Pattamapa Komonniramit.
> See more from the December/January 2020 issue of Interior Design