Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2017-2019

A pilot project for a series of low-cost, eco-conscious reading facilities in urban and rural villages, the Microlibrary aims to help combat Indonesia’s low literacy rates. An elevated library and book storage space was added above a pre-existing stage used for community events. The upper structure is steel and concrete, with façades made of 2,000 upcycled ice-cream buckets, which help with day light and cross-ventilation. The pattern, in zeros (open) and ones (closed), presents a binary coding of a message from a former Bandung mayor that translates as “Books are the windows to the world”. The stage below remains as a semi-open public space, and the stairs also serve as seating. Various social-oriented events that take place every week have proved highly popular among locals.