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You can walk on the roof of this sloping brick library in India

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Go ahead, walk right over it

From a house whose roof is made from seaweed and driftwood, to a town hall that serves as a physical bridge over a river, there is no shortage of buildings that are designed to blend into their surroundings. This school library in India is continuing the tradition with a sloping shape that merges with the ground.

Mumbai-based architecture firm sP+a designed a library for a school in Kopargaon, in the state of Maharashtra, to fit into a narrow space between the school’s existing buildings. The result is a vaulted brick structure that rises into a mound-like extension of the ground that people can walk over.

The architects say they arrived at the library’s final form through a combination of low-tech and high-tech processes. The arched shape is inspired by 16th-century Catalan tile vaults that were popularized by the 19th-century Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino. The vault’s actual shape was created with a special rhinoVAULT plug-in that allows the library’s arched shape to rely on pure compression.

Interior of library with concrete floors Edmund Sumner via Designboom
Inside of school with concrete floor Edmund Sumner via Designboom
People walking on roof of building Edmund Sumner via Designboom

Via: Designboom