Binhai Library one of World’s 100 Greatest Places

Time Magazine recently released its first annual list for the World's Greatest Places for 2018, including top 100 must-travel destinations that span six continents and 48 countries. 

The list also includes outstanding buildings by well-known architects from across the world, including the Tianjin Binhai Public Library in Tianjin, China.

Casey Quackenbush, a reporter at Time Magazine, describes the Binhai Library as “something out of a sci-fi movie”, and says that anybody who laments the decline of the public library should look to Tianjin. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The library is anchored by a giant spherical structure in the center of the space. The surrounding bookshelves curve and ebb around the sphere, and reach all the way to the ceiling.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Binhai Library, one of China's buzziest new attractions, opened in October, 2017. Covering a building area of 33,700 square meters, and with five aboveground floors and one underground floor, it's designed to hold about 1.2 million books (by comparison, the main branch of the New York Public Library has an estimated 2.5 million books according to a 2015 audit.)

The enormous design project was helmed by Dutch design firm MVRDV in collaboration with local architects from the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute.

"The Tianjin Binhai Library interior is almost cave-like, a continuous bookshelf," Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV, said in a press release. "We opened the building by creating a beautiful public space inside; a new urban living room is its center. The bookshelves are great spaces to sit and at the same time allow for access to the upper floors. The angles and curves are meant to stimulate different uses of the space, such as reading, walking, meeting and discussing. Together they form the 'eye' of the building: to see and be seen."

Stairs at the Tianjin Binhai Library allow readers to access high bookshelves.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The library has been dubbed "The Eye of Binhai."[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Public services such as book lending, consultations, public welfare lectures, and exhibitions are provided free of charge in the library. Readers’ cards can be registered with their ID cards, and readers can also use mobile phones to generate QR codes for card-free borrowing.