The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Library Extension

This library extension adds a one-story structure to the existing library building at the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. Designed with a Metabolist ethos, the campus’ existing buildings have traces of the British Modernist architecture from the 1960s. Acknowledging this history and subverting the rigidness of the original design, our design seeks to transform the library into a pastoral landscape with a new material palette, urban gesture, and interior organization. Contrasting the Metabolist concrete core-and-slabs construction of the existing five-story building below, our addition is a lightweight structure made of steel and glass. The logic of a distinct material palette is emphasized in the visual lightness in structure and openness in the interior spaces. The lightweight mesh and steel posts are highlighted in vibrant colors, creating a forest-like assembly of study spaces. Situated along the Cross Harbour Tunnel, one of the busiest arteries in Hong Kong, the original library building sought to establish a monumental and stern, almost defensive urban presence. The addition introduces a contrasting formal language of organic curves, carving a curved skyline that brings nature into the hard geometry of the existing building. The curved terrace also becomes the instigator of the interior to create an organic pastoral space that subverts the systematic and rigid internal organization of the existing building. Inspired by the Bürolandschaft and Olmsted’s Prospect Park, organic forms of shades or canopies in an open plan operate like trees in a forest, offering different zones and modes of study space. The flexible layout is engaged through a series of pavilions for specific programs. Each pavilion, such as the floating riser or the 20-meter-long table suspended from the ceiling in perfect load equilibrium, is uniquely designed to accommodate a wide range of activities at different scales, from individual quiet spaces to group workspace for gathering or collaboration. This new interior organization strategy enables students to configure their own spaces and to have a greater sense of autonomy and ownership of this space.