Timber structure behind exposed concrete
Lea Bridge Library in London by Studio Weave
Lea Bridge Library, © Jim Stephenson
Studio Weave has added an extension to a local library in east London. The low-slung building features a concrete colonnade and a motley-hued timber interior.
© Jim Stephenson
The extension is to make the library built in the early 20th century a social gathering spot for the whole neighbourhood. A café with further informal reading places and a space that can be partitioned off and hired for private occasions were included in the room programme.
Continuous skylight
The existing wall of the rear garden forms the rear one of the extension, which runs the length of the garden's western boundary. A continuous overhead window in the single-pitch roof rings natural light to the rear part of the interior. Laminated veneer lumber was chosen by the architects for the roof trusses. In the garden area, the timber structure is fronted by a colonnade made of precast exposed concrete parts, coloured red in reference to the brick architecture of the old library.
© Jim Stephenson
Full-height glazing
The floor-to-ceiling glazing of the garden front recedes somewhat at the middle in semi-circular fashion to protect the root system of a big linden tree. It is also here that a large pivoting door is integrated in barely visible fashion into the extension's rear wood panelling, enabling the secondary room in the back part of the building to be partitioned off as required.
© Jim Stephenson
© Jim Stephenson
Varied types of wood
The rather variegated aesthetic of the wall linings and fitted furniture is what mainly catches the eye in the extension, and is the result of the sheer variety of wood used to produce them, the surfacing and furnishings having been made by a local joiner out of London street trees that had to be felled. Whether poplar, ash, oak, sequoia, horse chestnut and so on, whatever emerged from the authorities' saw blades was used. Shelves alternate with seating niches and benches along the back wall, providing additional informal reading places for the library's users.
Architecture, landscape architecture: Studio Weave
Client: London Borough of Waltham Forest
Location: Lea Bridge Rd, London E10 7HU (GB)
Structural engineering: Timberwright
Building services engineering, budgeting: NPS London
Gallery
These articles might also interest you
-
Meeting point in the city
Library in Catalonia by BCQ Arquitectura
Biblioteca Pilarín Bayés in Vic is not just a place for reading. Behind its wooden brise-soleils a varied interior environment with a café, areas for encounter, games and citizen information services is to be found.
-
A treasure house of books
Atelier Bruno Gaudin Updates the National Library of France
New entrances, new stairways, refurbished reading rooms, repurposed bookstacks – the old home of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris has lost its labyrinthine character after 15 years of renovation work.
-
Update for an icon
Restored Book Tower in Ghent and Building Culture in Flanders
Ghent’s Boekentoren [Book Tower] is a late masterpiece by Henry van de Velde. After undergoing restoration by Robbrecht en Daem, the architectural icon has taken on new life as a busy centre of the Flemish university town.