Tama University Library Tokyo
(7 vote, 74.29% worth checking out) 
Show on map & checkout the other sites nearby 2-1723 Yarimizu
Tokyo
Hachioji 192-0394
Japan
coordinates: 35.6115685,139.3509521
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Building names(s): Tama University Library Tokyo / Hachioji Library
Architect/Designer: Toyo Ito
Images:
Completion date: 2007
function(s): academic, library
check out: Physical and visual links to the building are achieved through the open gallery on the ground level which not only allows cross campus traffic but one to freely enter and the huge glazed arches on the floor above allowing views into the building. The structure of “randomly placed arches” create the sensation as if the sloping floor and the front garden’s scenery were continuing within the building. These characteristic arches are made out of steel plates covered with concrete. They are arranged along curved lines which cross at several points. With these intersections, the arches are kept extremely slender at the bottom and still support the heavy live loads of the floor above. The spans of the arches vary from 1.8 to 16 metres, but the width is kept uniformly at 200mm.
Scale: 2 stories, 1 basements
Site Area: 159,184.87m2
Building Area: 2,224.59m2
Total Floor Area: 5,639.46m2
University website: http://www.tamabi.ac.jp/english/about/
getting there: (approx 26km west of central Tokyo)
- Access from Narita Airport (New Tokyo International Airport):
- Take a Keisei Honsen express train bound for Ueno to Keisei Yawata station (51min.). Transfer at Moto-Yawata to the Toei Shinjuku line bound for Shinjuku and get off at Shinjuku (30 min. by rapid service). Tranfer to the Keio line bound for Hashimoto and get off at Hashimoto (36 min. by rapid service).
Take the Kanagawa Chuo Kotsu bus for Tama Bijutsu Daigaku (Tama Art University) from the north exit of Hashimoto station.
admission: Free
To enter the library, please bring your identification (ex. passport). You can use the library as “1-day user”.
Available service for “1-day user”:
- Open stack & reading room
- New arrival magazines
- Self-service photocopier
* Checkout service, materials in the closed stacks, audio-visual materials, online databases and reference service are NOT available.
NOTE:
-A group over 4 persons must make an appointment before the visit
-Taking photographies is prohibited inside the library.
Opening Hours:
Mon. – Fri.: 9:00-20:30
2 comments/reviews
Architectural Record says:
Sep 26, 2008
Defined on two sides by bowed walls, it makes a strong first impression: monumental without being a monument, and contextual in scale and material without getting lost in the shuffle.
To capitalize on the building’s strategic location, Ito first wanted to submerge the library and top it off with a single-story gathering place where students and professors could cross paths and exhibit their work. But this idea did not go over well with the university administration, which envisioned a conventional 3- or 4-story building with a gallery below. Also, buried infrastructure prevented a full-scale site excavation. Despite these roadblocks, Ito was unwilling to abandon his original concept altogether. So he inverted his underground grotto and turned it into a 60,700-square-foot building with a single, large space on each of its two stories, each one loosely divided into functional zones by arcades.
A continuous sheet of concrete, the building’s cavernous ground floor flows down to the north, following the land’s natural slope. It reads as a unified, slanting space accessed through an arcaded gallery. A circulation conduit and multipurpose exhibition hall all in one, this informal gallery has plenty of room for students to congregate around one of its built-in tables or display their work, be it a painting or a performance piece. It also acts as the entry foyer leading into the library, whose ground level contains the circulation desk, an administrative area, a media bar, and magazine display tables topped with glass that parallel the angled floor. A set of stairs shaped like a floating curlicue of concrete ascends to the second floor, where the main reading area flows into open stacks on one side and a two-story block of closed stacks on the other. Unlike downstairs, the floor plane here had to be level for the book trolleys that transport the library’s 10,000 volumes. But overhead, the ceiling tilts up gently, filling the entire second floor with soft, north light.
read more at Architectural record
Tama University says:
Sep 26, 2008
Regarding the design of this newly opened library, the entire first floor slopes gently from the front entrance. Its exterior glass walls and large arches allow the contours of the natural environment surrounding the campus to extend into the interior creating an exhilaratingly open space.
The first floor features an all-purpose and gallery space available to hold various events and exhibitions as well as a theater area with a big screen. At the back of the first floor, students are able to read the latest magazine issues and view video materials.
On the second floor, there are open access stacks holding about 100,000 books as well as private reading seats and photocopying machines.
The Hachioji Library contains about 77,000 Japanese books, 47,000 foreign books and 1,500 periodicals. A large collection of books covers the special fields of art, design and architecture, ranging from reference books necessary for the university’s classes to specialized research materials. In order to enhance its collection, we are collecting catalogues of overseas exhibitions and catalogue raisonnes.