Toyonokuni Library for Resources 1995

Client : Oita Prefecture
Design : Arata Isozaki & Associates

This six floor, one underground floor building is a multi-purpose information facility with a library, museum, and public archive. The open-stack reading room recreates the "Hall of 100 Columns" found in ancient Roman and Babylonian architecture.
The columns are laid out in 7.5 meter grid and the room is topped by a vaulted ceiling. Besides desktop illumination, the room's functional lighting needs include enhanced vertical illuminance when looking for the materials on the bookshelves. Rather than rely on appliance lighting attached to bookshelves and ceiling downlights, we proposed securing horizontal and vertical illuminance by means of "super-ambient lighting" produced by the light boldly reflected off the ceiling.