Beijing, China
Snøhetta created an impressive library of 75,000 square meters in Beijing, China, made of towering columns that appear as huge trees.
Located in Tongzhou District, a designated sub-center that is often considered the eastern gateway of the capital, the Beijing City Library functions as a key cultural landmark in the newly established sub-center.
The library aims to stand as a contemporary hub for learning, knowledge-sharing, social interaction, and community engagement. At its heart lies a dynamic central forum, where a sculpted interior landform of stepped terraces creates a versatile communal space for visitors to relax, talk, or dive into reading.
At the heart of the library is a sweeping, 16-meter-tall forum, that creates rhythmic curves and a central meandering pathway known as the ‘Valley.’
Serving as the main circulation artery, the ‘Valley’ is Snøhetta designed it in a way to mirror the course of the nearby Tonghui River, seamlessly continuing the experience of the landscape beyond and linking the north and south entrances to lead visitors to all other spaces inside.
The terraced hills rising from the Valley are designed to create a sculpted interior landform that serves as the ground, seating, and shelving—an informal zone with opportunities to relax, talk, or read quietly, all while staying connected to the larger space.
Semi-private reading areas and conference rooms are embedded into the hills, while book stacks and table seating are set on long, flat areas atop. This central open area is fully accessible and incorporates one of the largest book Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) in the world
The glass-lined building invites nature into the reading space and lends transparency to the enriched interior environment when viewed from outside.
Punctuating the large reading space to transition between the scale of the Valley and the books are tall, slender columns that mushroom into flat panels shaped like ginkgo leaves—referencing a 290 million-year-old tree species native to China.
The overlapping panels and the interstitial glass inserts create a canopy-like roof that floods the interiors with filtered daylight.
Under this ginkgo canopy, one can reach the summit that overlooks the valley of books and the horizon of the vast landscape beyond. At the northern and southern edges of the building where real ginkgo trees are planted at the entry points, the hills focus their views outwards to further enhance the connection with nature.
Furthermore, Beijing City Library’s sustainable design has earned China’s GBEL Three Star, the highest attainable sustainability standard in the country, by minimizing both embodied and operational carbon.
Project: The Beijing City Library
Architects: Snøhetta
Collaborators: ECADI, Eckersley O’Callaghan, Meinhardt, China Railway Construction Engineering Group
Client: Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources
Photographers: Yumeng Zhu