Project Name : Garden Bibliotheca

Students Name : Heffrence Teow Hai-png

School : Department of Architecture and Sustainable Design, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia.
Adviser : Ar. Lee Chor Wah, Ar. Quake Huay Tin, Ar. Mel Soong

Arch2o has received this project from our readers in order to participate in the Students week 5 event,
you may submit your own work for publication in the Students Week 6 by sending it to
igraduate@arch2o.com
Living in the midst of a 21st century city, buildings are dashing out from the surface of our mother Earth
is just a blink of eye. Punching holes to the ground, altering the natural topography, cutting off drains,
diverting rivers all of these are done for nothing but one reason, to build the so called buildings for
human, which by definition it used to mean shelter. But do we as human require that much of shelters?
And does a shelter need to be so extravagant that it become wasteful rather than purposeful? If no, then
why even bother invading the land for further development if the demand is so low? The answer to this
question is just only two word, profit and power. Lands are being commercialized to gain profit, and
buying power of people are increasing most are just to show that they are one level higher than the others,
that they have the ability to purchase more and deserve more, that they have the money to do so. Sooner
and later, the world will be so dominated with the concrete and glass and steel, as if the concretes are the
new stones, glass are water and steels are trees. With this trend propagating down the line, human will
start to have the problem of spatial shortage, whereby the living environments are just too cramped to
live in, make it even worse for a place to work and play.
In studying architecture, we commonly understand that architecture shapes the world, but what can
architecture do, to help makes a better world?
What done is done, unless the law enforced and that it urged people to change that way. What more
towards our field of architectures concern is, of course, how to shape the future of unknown and bring
people to live in a better way. The real difficulty of this objective lies in how to make the public shifts from
a common living lifestyle to a new one effortlessly, so that there is no restrains in enjoying their life.
To do this, the most important point is to look at how people live their life and how they want to live their
life.
By having a site in the midst of Malaysias capital city, Kuala Lumpur as one of the most hectic lifestyle city
cramped with skyscrapers and traffics, the site identity itself already call for a more meaningful scheme
that tame down the surrounding context. As the brief goes for designing a cultural or community center,
an iconic mega structure building to show off the identity of Malaysia is definitely a no because it serves
no purposes is serving the public. The design must be something related to the lifestyle of local people
and to make them feel proud of it. Hence, we must trace back to problem that most Malaysians have hectic city environment that lack of public spaces for people to slow down their footsteps. It is always
better to make the place we work, as a part of the place we play. This will slows down the stressful
environment.

This reasoning gives the idea of creating a public space where people can occupies the space at zero cost
and at any time. There is no extra effort to be given in order to utilize the space. But, a problem arises
when determining what space to be provided at the expensive site in the midst of city that everyone is
fighting for. It is a very important site, in which a good scheme will change the city environment, and a
bad scheme will be doomed. Thus the proposed activity must be something meaningful, something
purposeful that it is able to serves every single person around rather than just a certain group of people
with certain interest, so that it is fair for everyone to be a part of the expensive site.
This brings back to the analysis of who is around the site and who will be using that, and since people at
the city center comprises of a wide range of users, it is almost impossible to target every single kind of
users and specially tailored the scheme to suit them. Hence, what we can do is, to group them all into two
big groups, namely the reserve group and the outgoing group, and they define the words public place
for a pause differently. The former called for a library, and the later called for a park. These are 2 very
contradicting spaces that all the spatial requirements for them to coexist seems to be quite impossible at
first: a noisy but quiet environment, an outdoor but indoor space, a fun but strict atmosphere, a place
surrounded with natural element but also with man-made furniture. But then again there exist some
phrases like all work and no play make Jack a dull boy and knowledge is the key of success, and these
give a very firm confirmation that these two spaces, in fact, are best meant to be balance and together.
By mixing the function of a library with a park, it also promotes a more interesting and lively environment
whereby we try to break through the conventional strict and boring reading style by replacing the chairs
and tables with lawn and fresh air. It forms something like a reading garden or outdoor reading lounge
that allows the beauty of nature to flow in and out of the formal library. Hence, reading will not be that
boring anymore, you still can have a walk and enjoy the green; relaxing will not be that guilty anymore,
you still can get a dip of knowledge and get to know what is happening around. I would like to call this
new space, a Parkibrary.
Besides, it is equally important as well to reintroduce this new program in a way that it attracts people to
use it and carries the identity of Malaysia as a tropical country. With this, the faade of the building and
its entrance play a major role. The entrance must be something dramatic, in order to break away from the
conventional institutional building. The whole site is being excavated down to create 360 degree park
below, with trees growing up forming a canopy walk above, connecting the public to the library. It also
provokes the public to invade the bottom part of the library, to celebrate the rebirth of a new typology
under the shaded walkway.
As for the faade, it is best that it becomes a crucial part of the library itself, being responsive the indoor
environment and outdoor environment and changes accordingly, so that it creates a more meaningful and
playful faade at the same time. Bookshelves are directly attached to the glass faade, with aluminum
louvers all around so that when books are being kept at the bookshelves, it creates an inspiring interior
atmosphere of when you take out a book, more light will come in, giving the idea of the more you read,
the brighter your future are. On the other hand, during the night, light will shines through the faade to
the exterior environment, and the pattern forms of the skin is determined by the books on the shelves,
creating another attractive idea of the more you read, the more light you shine to the others. Hence, it
forms a kind of interactive faade invite people to play with it and to change it.
With this scheme, it is an effective way to counter the problem that we previously talk about: the issue of
spatial shortage in the future and also lack of public spaces, but now with this scheme we actually created

2 public spaces, in just 1 place. Besides, it not only shows an efficient use of space, but a meaningful
architecture that is truly Malaysian and something purposeful at the city center as it serves right to
everyone around. This might be the new trend of architecture to be introduced, the kind that make it an
ease for public to use and enjoy using it, the kind that exist for a reason. We need to save more space on
this planet Earth so that human can still live under the green shade, not under the shadow casted by
skyscrapers.
It is always in my thought that, Architecture should not be called beautiful; It should be meaningful and
purposeful. If it achieves those, then by all means it is already a beautiful piece of architecture.