Ministructure No 16 / Book Bar

2004–2006 | Jinhua CHINA

Client Jinhua Municipality / Jindong New District
Architect Michael Maltzan Architecture
Structural Engineer Guy Nordenson and Associates
Awards 2007 AIA Los Angeles Design Citation; 2006 Los Angeles AIA NEXT Honor Award

Situated in a park among a series of pavilions designed by an international group of architects, Ministructure No 16 provides a place for visitors to read, eat and think. The pavilion’s form pulls its central wall outward into two, unequal cantilevered volumes, each of which conceals a public space for learning. The shorter wing contains a bookstore and café, organized into a series of terraces that rise to frame a view of the park to the west. The smaller wing, perforated by an abstract pattern, is a reading porch; an irregular opening in the underside of this volume serves as the visitor entrance. The first iteration of the pavilion’s design included a perforated concrete wall for the structure. Local structural engineers advised that the building be constructed with steel due to a high water table and the need for additional support.  Michael Maltzan Architecture and Guy Nordenson and Associates rethought the skin, designing instead a double layer of slotted perforated metal panels with larger rectangular openings.  High strength steel rods between the planes of the wall, oriented to pass between the openings, resist the overturning moment of the cantilevers.