Branch of children's library to be built in Putuo
An artistic rendition of the Putuo branch of the Shanghai Children's Library.
A new branch of the Shanghai Children's Library will be built in the western downtown area, the city government announced over the weekend.
It will be located inside a new urban park on Daduhe Road in Putuo District, along Suzhou Creek. The new library will become a center to promote information, knowledge, reading and cultural heritage for children aged between 4 and 16.
The architectural design of the new facility was unveiled for the first time over the weekend. It shows what appears to be a “floating pavilion” with a rooftop garden. Spiral stairs and bridges take readers from a garden on the ground floor into the main building.
The design symbolizes the "bridge of knowledge," according to the government. It was inspired by "The Library of Babel," a short story by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), who conceived the idea of a universe in the form of a vast library with infinite library rooms.
The current Shanghai Children's Library on Nanjing Road West dates back to 1941. It contains 820,000 books, newspapers and comic books, some dating back to the early 1900s.
An artistic rendition of the Putuo branch of the Shanghai Children's Library.
