Miraion
A welcoming library where anyone can find a place to belong
Miraion is a proposal that serves as a prototype for libraries, whose role is undergoing a major transformation. In addition to being only the second joint prefectural and municipal library in the country, we worked to create a space that fosters the unique encounters with books that only a library can provide in an era where books can be bought online.
The project site is located on an alluvial fan overlooking Omura Bay, with Mt. Tara in the background. We envisioned a "bay"-like shape that connects this nature-rich environment with the central urban area and draws in the flow of the town. Beneath the generous embrace of the "bay-shaped single roof," a rich space for spending time with books is created. This place features a stepped "terrace library" that connects the first through fourth floors, creating a space where everyone can spend their time just as they like.
This reading space, called "Book Kadan (Flower Bed)," lives up to its name by allowing carrels and reading rooms to be rearranged just like replanting flowers.
And the cores of the administrative rooms and closed stacks, which cross each floor and have independent circulation paths, are positioned as the base and heart supplying library service, and named "Book Dock," inspired by the local character of Nagasaki.
Under a single curved roof, we intended for the space where "Book Dock" and "Book Kadan" merge to create a seamless experience in which library activities and scenery flow continuously together.