A natural library

Photo credit: Jin Weiqi

Zheshui Village is located in Taihang Mountains, Shanxi. The village and the topography are closely related. Many houses there are built by leaning on the mountain.

Zheshui Natural library is inspired by this traditional construction method, and the building is attached to the rock face. The river runs along the other side of the structure, and there is even a tree growing through the roof.

Designed by LUO Studio, but actually commissioned and constructed by Zheshui villagers themselves, the ‘bookshelf’ element provides a column grid structure, places for seating, and bookshelf and display functions.

All foundations are light foundations with minimal natural damage to the land. For the sake of saving materials, the timber used was very thin. The timber columns are 4 cm thick in section, the timber beams are 2.5 cm wide in section. Each structural component is connected to each other to form a stable structural system. The gap between the columns is filled with glass bricks, which is both an internal and external partition. The roof is assembled with two layers of panels, one layer laid horizontally, and the other layer laid longitudinally.

Credits for construction are given to ‘Old Wu XiaoWu and his workmates, Xiao Fang and his workmates, and the villagers of Zheshui’.

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