“It is not just a library but a garden as well.”  Have a private talk with a garden.

Located in the north of the tobacco factory, “Not Just a Library” is set in a renovated women’s bathhouse. As you look through the semicircular window, a sunken garden stands ahead of you.

Since the factory ceased to produce cigarettes in 1998, a large area of the garden has become dominated by volunteer coconut trees. As hard as concrete, their roots are intertwined with underground structures from different eras. We hope to employ a different method to build a connection with past textures of space and bring a new sensory experience — a close contact with time and space.

The inner space of the garden has a private and tranquil atmosphere. The texture of time is imprinted on the surrounding walls, letting go of superfluous expressions, and anti avant garde materials that urge people to consciously let go of superfluous things.

The branches and leaves spreading upward, up to four meters high, spreading out a touch of light in between, and the sun shone and shone among the translucent green leaves of the treetop. The mixed plants are juxtaposed and blended with the historical wall. Different levels of greenery are set against the ash of the gravel. In this simple and harmonious space, light, shadow and form all show graceful temperament.

Simple and plain furniture provides a cozy place for visitors to stay for a while. Enjoying the slow pace of life in the garden is how the pace in the bathhouse used to be. Bathing in the atmosphere brings a totally different reading experience. At night, when the trees and flowers are illuminated by floor lamps, the garden seems to be immersed in a mysterious and silent world, quietly revealing the history.

It is with hope that words are seen as mist and knowledge is seen as water, to represent the spirit of bathing: thoughts, considerations and self-growth of gratitude to be transformed into the cultural heritage and radiate outward.

Landscape Architecture: Motif

Other designers involved in the design of landscape (architects and landscape architects):

Client: Taiwan Design Research Institute

Interior Designers: J.C. Architecture

Photography: Slow Geng

Project location (Street, City, Country): Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Xinyi District, Taipei City 11072, Taiwan

Design year: 2020/02-2020/04

Year Built: 2020/06