东立面夜景 © Christian Gahl

The Suzhou No.2 Library, which will be open to the public within the year 2019, is located north of the historic city center of Suzhou. It will bring more than just a new library to the ancient and traditional cultural city of Suzhou. In the new library, which is embedded in the landscape of a newly built Park, there are also cultural facilities such as built-in feature libraries and exhibition spaces. The main feature of this library is the first large-scale intelligent storage with the capacity of 7 million books in China. gmp · von Gerkan, Margand Partners Architects won the design competition in 2014 and was commissioned. The design is accomplished together with the Southeast University Architectural Design Institute.

苏州第二图书馆在传统图书借阅功能之外，还为苏州市带来了国内首座配备了最先进的地上智能书库的图书馆，藏书量将达700万册。高36.8米的图书馆坐落于新建的书香公园景观中，还设有苏州文学馆、设计图书馆、数字图书馆、音乐图书馆、儿童图书馆等特色馆中馆，以及研讨、展览空间等公共文化设施。

In addition to the traditional library functions, Suzhou No.2 Library has brought the first library in China with the most advanced intelligent storage system above ground, with a capacity of 7 million books. The 36.8-meter-high library is located in the newly-built Park landscape. It also has built-in feature libraries such as the Suzhou Literature Library, Design Library, Digital Library, Music Library, Children's Library, aswell as seminars, exhibition spaces, etc. cultural facilities.

鸟瞰夜景 © 严律己

The building’s shape creates a clear resemblance to a skewed stack of papers and books, and the skewed architectural form and the façade of light aluminum louvers are layered up to give the library aunique silhouette. Whereas the ground level with its minimal surface is square and runs parallel to the street, the upper stories expand outward and are rotated as to provide views of the surrounding landscape and more reading spaces with better view.

横向立面线条 © Christian Gahl

轻质遮阳铝百叶 © 严律己

根据公共空间与书库的不同使用要求，图书馆建筑被分为两部分，它们在基座与上层空间中相互连接。书库部分厚实的外墙设计采用水平线条木纹肌理的清水混凝土，与通透的玻璃幕墙包裹的公共区域相互交叠。立面较为封闭的智能书库位于地块北侧，而采用通透立面设计的阅览室则位于南侧，朝向城市景观。地上六层建筑层高均为5.7米。

According to the different use requirements of the public space and the storage, the building is formed with two parts, which are connected to each other in the podium and the upper floors. The closed façade of the storage is designed with horizontally lined wood grained fair-face concrete that overlaps with the public area enclosed by the transparent glass façade.The intelligent storage with closed façade is located on the north, while the reading room with a transparent façade is located on the south, opened to the city view. The six floors above ground are all in height of 5.7 meters.

设计图书馆 © 严律己

两部分建筑体量，被建筑东西方向轴线上的公共广场分隔开，图书馆主入口也位于这个被抬高的广场两侧，可经由大台阶到达广场，进入图书馆南北两区，同时可由广场到达书香公园。通过提供穿越场地的捷径，引导众多市民进入这两部分建筑，建立了建筑内外空间的功能性连接，将图书馆及其多元化的文化活动，整合到城市结构中。

互相连接的两个建筑体量 © Christian Gahl

总平面图 © gmp Architekten

底层平面图 © gmp Architekten

二层平面图 © gmp Architekten

四层平面图 © gmp Architekten

南北向剖面图 © gmp Architekten

东西向剖面图 © gmp Architekten