los angeles CALIFORNIA
SCI-Arc
Critic: Ramiro DIAZ-GRANADOS
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Juicheng HUNG and Manying WANG: The library is not only an urban public space but also a monument to knowledge. The nature in which we live is also, by unquestionable criteria, a paramount source of knowledge.
- Juicheng HUNG and Manying WANG, “Monolith.”, Plan
- Juicheng HUNG and Manying WANG, “Monolith.”, Section
- Juicheng HUNG and Manying WANG, “Monolith.”, Perspective
- Juicheng HUNG and Manying WANG, “Monolith.”, Perspective
Based on these ideas, using modern technologies, we took pieces of terrain from around the world, stacking and reorganizing them together to create a “form of knowledge”. A machine language combined with the natural landscape, an artificial garden created by an architect.
Inside, the huge circulation core acts a container for physical and digital collections, and based on this, a unique experience is offered to visitors. They no longer search for books on bookcases; instead, to create the sacred feeling of knowledge, books are delivered to them directly from the core, a mysterious monolith made of stone.
Instead of being fully exposed to its neighbors, this library creates an inner world covered by a translucent envelope. It chooses the ways in which it engages in dialogue with its surroundings, being based on the idea of an abstract world sitting on the real world.
