OFFICE 229

The new public library in the small town of Sint-Martens-Latem – a collaboration with Richard Venlet – serves as a gathering place for the local community. Set up as a large shared living space for the townspeople, it is actively used by the adjacent school. A saddle-shaped roof, typical of the surrounding detached houses, is combined here with a circular plan – a simple formal gesture that defines a distinctive figure within its urban setting. The main space of the library is enclosed by bookshelves that follow the curved perimeter, doubling as a timber structure that carries the roof. A square figure inserted within the perimeter organises the plan: on one side there is a multipurpose hall and technical spaces with a mezzanine; on the other, an open garden. The reading room has a direct relation to the interior garden, with its podium-like object by Venlet. Similar to the books, which are only glimpsed through a single window from the outside, the only outward sign of the existence of the secluded interior garden is the tops of the trees protruding from the roof. This garden is the centre of the library, as the ‘biggest room in the biggest house’ in town.