The Tama Art University Library is one of the most outstanding pieces of architecture by the 2013 Pritzker Prize Laureate Toyo Ito. The library is notable for its numerous unique arches that both envelop it and separate its interior zones. The library’s façades are majorly covered in glass, framed by those concrete-clad arches to reveal the surrounding rich greenery that characterizes its suburban site. Overall, the library is a combination of simple yet elegant geometries dyed in achromatic scale.
Tokyo-based architect and video photographer Vincent Hecht has recently released a video in which he reveals the graceful allure of Ito’s structure in action. Throughout the video, he tours the building, starting from the outdoors, then moving into the semi-shaded zone, and finally into the indoors. He shows how the building is framed by nature from the outside and nature is framed by the arches from the inside. He highlights the eye-pleasing contrast between the matt concrete and the transparent glass reflecting the outdoor scenery by day. He, also, films the building in use by readers seated on chairs, laying on benches, or walking between the shelves searching for books.
The video comes as number nine in a series by Hecht that goes with the name: Japanese Collection. The collection includes recorded videos of other outstanding structures designed by contemporary Japanese architects, like House N by Sou Fujimoto and the Ribbon Chapel by Hiroshi Nakamura.
