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The soaring glass-walled atrium and concrete-framed book stacks of

Shigeru Bans Seikei University library seem far removed from the
lightweight structures and recycled materials for which the architect is
best known. In fact, several of Bans earlier buildings inspired key
features in this ambitious new facility. The client requested that the
library harmonise with its Neo-Classical brick neighbours on the
century-old Beaux-Arts campus and respect the scale and spirit of the
structure it replaced. Contextualism is usually a recipe for timidity, but
Ban has turned the planning constraints to advantage and has created a
building that is intelligent, welcoming, and dramatic.
The library is set at right angles to the main entrance, facing over a
grassy quadrangle, and serves as a symbolic gateway to the campus
and, at night, as a beacon of learning. The sandwich of solid and void,
brick and glass, stacks and study areas explains the building at rst
sight, but the apparent simplicity masks its complexity. Ban was asked
to take into account the feelings of those alumni who opposed the
demolition of the former building. To please them, he analysed its
geometry and applied this to the design of the new structure,
generating plan and elevation from three golden rectangles. The walls
of the stacks are concrete cantilevers to which bricks are attached and
these are separated by oating ribbons of glass. The glass facade and
rear wall of the atrium reveal the row of zelkova trees behind the
library and dematerialise the volume.
Each of the three sections is structurally independent. In the two
wings, bookshelves assume the role of columns, sharing much of the
lateral force and vertical load, as in Bans 1995 Furniture House. The
bowed roof of the atrium is supported on a steel truss, tensioned with
laminated timber beams, and faced with Strandboard a recycled
wood composite that absorbs sound. Its graceful arc derives from the
Paper Museum completed ve years ago.
There are ve levels in the library, with a ramp for the handicapped
leading to the partly sunken ground oor, and steps leading up to the
main entrance at rst oor level. At night, the ve meeting rooms that
rise from the base like gracefully tapered mushrooms are clearly
visible; by day they are revealed as you step inside, and they draw your
eyes up to the vault, past a stack of bowed galleries to either side.
Round and oval, these pod-like enclosures serve as break-out areas for

1
The new library
and its Beaux-Arts
neighbours.
2
Giant pods appear
to gaze quizzically
from behind the
glazed facade of the
reading room.

Library

Existing Building

site plan

POD LIFE
His largest building to date, Shigeru Bans
new library is a bold celebration of structure.

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UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ,
TOKYO , J APAN
ARCHITECT
SHIGERU BAN

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10

6
10

fourth floor

3
The giant vitrine
of the reading
room is flanked by
book stacks.
4
Within the
studious reverie of
the reading room,
the mushroomlike pods provide
enclaves for
informal meetings
and casual
encounters.

10

10
9

third floor

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ,
TOKYO , J APAN
ARCHITECT
SHIGERU BAN

10

6
4

9
7

second floor

4
6

2
1

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

main entrance
decompression lobby (chat zone)
entrance lobby
reading room
information/reception
book stacks
quiet study carrels
secondary entrance
atrium void
pods

first floor

cross section
4
7

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ground floor plan (scale approx 1:1000)

long section

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UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ,
TOKYO , J APAN
ARCHITECT
SHIGERU BAN
5
Glazed carrels provide enclaves
for solitary study around the
perimeters of each oor.
6
Detail of the tall glazed facade
and the bowed reading-room roof.
7
Typical book stacks.
8
Inside a pod.
9
Walkways y vertiginously across
the soaring space.

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seminars and staff conferences; as vantage points and sculptures that


animate the void. Each has arched steel ribs that frame glass and
support a luminous ceiling. Flying bridges link them to the galleries
which are accessed from angled glass lifts. Anyone who remembers the
futuristic set Lszl Moholy-Nagy conceived for the 1936 movie Things
to Come, will eagerly await the entry of a toga-clad Raymond Massey,
intoning a sermon by H. G. Wells on the marvels of technology. You
wonder if Ban ever saw the movie, and whether a science ction lm
may be shot here during the summer vacation.
However fanciful these steel and glass mushrooms may seem, they
reinforce an artful strategy to increase attendance. The planning
committee noted that many students used the college library only on
the eve of examinations. Entering the reading room required that they
stop chattering to each other and to friends on their mobile phones, a
deprivation as cruel and unusual as denying wine to a sophisticated
adult. Ever sensitive to human needs, Ban had a solution: create a
spacious glass-walled lobby and furnish it as a comfortable lounge to
provide a decompression chamber between the talkative world beyond
and the realm of study within. The atrium provides a second layer in
which only quiet conversation is allowed, and students even reprove
staff for using mobile phones at the check-out counter. The pods are
aerial versions of the lobby. Finally, there is the quiet zone of the stacks
and galleries, and glass-enclosed carrels for solitary study at the ends
of each oor. There, users can adjust light and temperature to suit
themselves, and these private spaces serve as a thermal barrier that
reduces the heating and cooling load within. MICHAEL WEBB

Architect
Shigeru Ban, Tokyo
Structural engineer
Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei
Photographs
Hiroyuki Hirai

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