COLLODI Children's Library

Location: Collodi, Italy
Type: Cultural - Library and Community Center, Ground Up Addition and Renovation
Status: International Competition
Size: 40,000 SF
Team: Daniel Markiewicz, Miroslava Brooks

How can a building stimulate imagination, encourage playful interaction and promote learning? This project explores these aims in the form of a children’s library located in the ‘birthplace’ of Pinocchio – Collodi, Italy.  Similar to the famous puppet protagonist, the library’s design arouses visitor’s imagination and fosters learning through an atmosphere of adventure and discovery.

The project references two local typologies; the bell tower, a familiar sight within the region, and the gabled-roof structure of the existing but defunct Paper Factory already on site. This elemental form – a linear bar – is replicated across the site, and like Pinocchio, stretches in uncharacteristic ways both horizontally and vertically to create an interconnected network of library spaces. 

Some towers provide views of the surrounding landscape, while others contain vertical stacks of books complete with circular staircases and ‘lounge’ netting.  The large interior is punctured by a series of unique courtyards, each with its own character, including communal fire pits, cypress tree gardens and viewing platforms to the dry riverbed below.  Playful curvilinear bookshelves snake through the library, encouraging spirited interaction, and occasionally doubling as a slide or a hideout nook.  Whether sliding into a cozy ‘book-nook’, climbing a tower of stories, or frolicking through a cypress garden of fairy tales, a visit to this library leaves no shortage of fun but much to the imagination.