Architecture Award Winner 2011: Open Air Library, KARO Architekten and Architektur+Netzwerk, Germany

"The development of the Open Air Library began five years ago when the community of Magdeburg staged an intervention in an abandoned district that formally housed a public library. A 1:1 scale model was developed using beer crates and overwhelming public support was shown with book donations that totalled more than 20,000. Occupying a central outdoor space, the Open Air Library operates a trusting open shelves policy where residents are free to borrow books 24 hours a day." www.designsoftheyear.com

Although the idea would never work in South Africa because of obvious reasons, the concept excites me. The possibility of a trusting society, non-selfish. Maybe my utopian ideals are coming over. It is definately a design concept structured around how people move and use the space. It is a pity about the grass blocks because i think they had the opportunity to make the landscape part of the building since the building is not defined. I would have loved to see forms like those below, whereby it is not only the vertical space that is interactvive but the horizontal space:

Tianjin Bridged Gardens, Hedong District, Tianjin City, China circa 2005