With Tongji University, Shanghai

The library of the University of Earth Sciences in China is a symbol of high historical, cultural and architectonical value; the plan for its expansion aims to safe the existing building, together with supplying top comforts to the users, and reorganizing the spaces. A glass parallelepiped is constructed on the current building. The geometrical presence of the new volumes is matched by the dynamism of its exterior that changes according to the lights, the natural outside and the artificial inside. This dynamic effect is achieved with the use of a special screen-printing and treatment of the glass on the facade. These varies according to the moments of the day and of the relation between the light inside and the light outside the building.  The floors of the library share a visual identity in a great semi-cone empty space, where rest and relation areas are arranged.