Gwangju - Urban Cultural Park and Public Library

Key concept

Heta developed a concept for a public library and urban cultural park for the city of Gwang-Ju, to serve as the city’s primary hub for learning and knowledge. The project was driven by the ambition of challenging traditional library typology to further evolve the function of library spaces in the context of the digital era.

A key aspect of the concept was to reduce the area required for book storage through automation and digital technologies to enable the design focus to be centred on how and where the visitors use the space.

Diversity of function

The meandering form of the Learning hub creates ‘pockets’ of varying sizes to accommodate a diversity of functions, including individual studying and group collaboration spaces. The form embraces the existing site conditions by immersing learning spaces in greenery and nature to enhance the wellbeing aspect of the learning experience.

Automated book depository

The ‘Tesseract’ consists of a rooftop garden, a lecture/events hall, and a special manuscript reading space adjoining to the verticality of the ASRS system which stores and distributes materials to users. A key concept was to celebrate the automated book depository as an animated spectacle, both internally and externally.