Kokaistudios has won the competition for the new Tsinghua University Law Library located in Beijing, China. The proposal is a reflection on the role of void in structuring functions and programs within the building, defining at the same time its relations with the surrounding. Circulation and public spaces, both indoor and outdoor, are interlocked in a innovative sequence of "places," a coherent continuum of solids and voids directly inspired to the traditional urban carpet of the Courtyard Houses, characteristic of Beijing.
Within the proposed site, three new multifunctional buildings are located around a public square, center of a system of new sunken gardens and outdoor pedestrian connections providing access to the buildings' public functions located in the basement and Ground Floor.
Inside the Library of Law Faculty, the program is structured in three major functional areas, vertically organized according to their increasing requirement from privacy: classrooms and students' facilities are located in the lower floors, the Library at the center, while Teachers laboratories and Research Institute occupy the three top floors, opened around the roof garden.
This inner system of voids and public spaces is expressed as a seamless and continuous sequence of openings carved in the stone modular façade of the Law Library Building.