Kanazawa Umimirai Library


Kanazawa Umimirai Library is a public library located in Kanazawa city, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. This is a contemporary building by the Japanese architects Kazumi Kudo and Hiroshi Horiba, completed in 2011.
Its surface creates a decorative grid made of some 6000 small circular blocks of glass which puncture the concrete surface of the building in a triangular array.

Building

The firm that designed the library, Coelacanth K&H, describe the building as a "simple space" of 45m by 45m and 12m high. It was completed in March 2011. The floor area is 5,641.9 square metres; the building's area is 2,311.9 square metres. The "single quiet and tranquil room... resembles a forest, filled with soft light and a feeling of openness reminiscent of the outdoors".

Prize

Hiroshi Horiba and Kazumi Kudo won a Japan Institute of Architects Prize for the library in 2013.

Gallery