Once upon a time

Children's Library Design : Summoning Fairy tale characters into the real world
Location : Collodi, Italy

The ability to imagine something that does not exist is probably the most extraordinary feature of human being. This capability allowed human to establish sophisticated environment and culture that we are experiencing recently. Fairy tales are one of them. With the author’s outstanding imagination, fantasy characters were created such as Pinocchio, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and etc. Pinocchio is a fictional character, probably one of most renowned character of all the fairy tales, originally created by Italian writer Carlo Collodi from his novel ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ in 1883 and later re-imagined by Walt Disney in 1940. Even though Pinocchio was portrayed quite differently throughout many different versions, it is obvious that this living wooden puppet has become a cultural icon and a proverbial figure, adapted into many forms on stage, screen, merchandise, and hundreds of new editions of the classical fairy tales.

As fairy tales sparked reader’s imagination, the goal of the proposed design is also to create a library that can visualize children’s wonderland. The adventure begins upon reaching the bridge. (Via della Filanda) On the exterior, the architecture references of wooden block toys. The resulting curvilinear façade composed of wood blocks gives a hint of playful spaces of the library. Upon entering the main lobby, visitors are encircled by the forest of bookshelves, covering the entire wall from floor to ceiling. The library is trying to avoid the common problem of library fatigue caused by rows of monotonous book stack spaces. Rather, randomly extruded bookshelves are to enhance the interaction between children and space. In terms of books, it may sound conventional, but human beings have recorded both visible & invisible matters through a form of written script for millions of years. Books were not only used as a tool to deliver knowledge and experience that has accumulated from ancient times but also trained the sense of imagination. From fairy tales to Sci-fi fictions, written scripts helped human to expand their inspiration.

The configuration of the library composed of eight blobs. The easily identifiable reading areas, along with the multimedia space, café and auditorium, are at once pleasant and inviting. They create a very open, lively atmosphere, free from artificial separations. Courtyard is located in the center of the library, which serves as source of sunlight and function as a perfect place for event and children to read and play. More importantly, the library will also provide Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices from the lobby desk which is introduced as a state-of-the-art technology to enjoy the library. This is a key strategy to shift a library space as a wonderland. With the aid of the advanced technology, children can not only access to all the library information, but also they can see, interact and play with the characters from the fairy tales.