The Regional Library is organized into alternating stacks of open- and closed-accessed shelf floors. Cuts through the closed stacks generate grand reading rooms with different orientations to the city beyond.
图书馆的设计灵感来源于：（左图）城市网格状布局结构的对比规律; （右图）摆满书的书架和空书架的力量是相等的/The design is inspired by: (left) the contrasting regularity of the urban grids; (right) the power of full and empty bookshelves, equally.
1. Consolidate / Intertwine
The new Varna Regional Library brings together three functions: public events, a circulating library, and the Bulgarian archives of national literature. Rather than isolate these functions into independent building volumes, the design intertwines them, encouraging a visitor to engage directly and indirectly with each of them. The Varna Library extends the legacy of plaster and concrete architecture at a civic scale. The structure is inspired by artist Rachel Whiteread’s plaster castings of book shelves. The archive floors are expressed as a series of solid cast concrete panels, which yield a notched ceiling for the open library floors that it supports.
新的地区图书馆的选址毗邻瓦尔纳市政厅，在OSMI Primorski波克大道上，这是一个位于市中心和海滩之间的主要林荫道/The new Regional Library is sited adjacent to Varna's City Hall on Osmi Primorski Polk Blvd, a major boulevard between the city center and the beaches.
入口大厅显露出楼梯的上层和下层空间，同时作为公共图书馆的社交纽带/The entry lobby reveals openings to below and above, and is the social nexus of the public library.
2. Books / Shelves / Voids
The library is organized into alternating floors of circulating library stacks and compact archive stacks. The archives are conceived of as solid “shelves” that support the “books” of the circulating library. This alternation of solid archive and open stack is made legible within the building and from the street. Double- and triple-height openings cut through the thick slabs of the archives to give visitors a glimpse into the archival memory of the building.
上图从左至右依次为：一层平面图，三层平面图和六层平面图。平面图展示出每层空间设计的多样化，开放性和密集型，以及书架间的缝隙空间和书架排列的肌理/From left to right: Level 1, Level 3, and Level 6. Plans showing the diversity of openness and density on floors created through the voids and grain of shelving.
开架式书库阅览室内部空间视图。楼梯是用来连接相邻的开架式书库层，同时穿过一层闭架式书库档案存储馆，此闭架档案存储馆的设计是为了在高峰阅读时间段调节人流的活动/View from inside one of the readings rooms of the open stacks. The stair to the next open-stack floors cuts through the closed-stack floors offering a mediated peak at activity within.
3. Courtyards / Beaches / Balconies
The building uses the vernacular exterior language of Varna: courtyards, beaches, and balconies. The entrance landscape is a public “reading beach.” Sunken courtyards bring light to the lower level public program and gives controlled gathering space for exhibition or theatre events. Above, public balconies emerge as the building steps back, offering open-air reading spaces.
该图书馆允许各种类型的使用者相互之间有组织的进行控制，使用者包括普通市民、图书馆会员、图书管理员和档案保管员/The building is organized to allow for controlled interaction between its various users: general public, library memebers, librarians, and archivists.
剖面图（南北方向）显示出了交替排列的开放式阅读书架层和闭架式档案储存层空间，以及一层的大型阅读空间和室外的公共景观/Section (north-south) revealing alternating floors of open and closed-stacks, as well as generous reading rooms and the public nature of the ground floor.
项目团队：Lateral Office (建筑事务所)
Mason White, Lola Sheppard, Alex Bodkin, Daniela Leon, Leon Lai, and Matthew Wilson
Project Team: Lateral Office (Architect)
Mason White, Lola Sheppard, Alex Bodkin, Daniela Leon, Leon Lai, and Matthew Wilson
