Beijing Library Wins AIA Hong Kong Awards 2025

Beijing Library has received two distinctions at the AIA Hong Kong Honors & Awards 2025. Opened in December 2023, it ranks among the world’s largest public reading spaces. The project tests how libraries can serve as social infrastructure. Its design combines spatial flexibility, environmental responsiveness, and accessibility within Beijing’s new sub-center.

Beijing Library facade at twilight, showing its glass curtain wall and sculptural canopy with visitors on the plaza. — The building’s layered canopy structure creates a permeable boundary between interior and public space. Image © Yumeng Zhu

Design Concept

The structure rejects monumentality. Instead, it uses layered reading zones and interconnected atriums. These encourage movement and informal gathering. This reflects a global shift in architectural design. The Beijing Library enables visual continuity between interior spaces and surrounding public areas.

Beijing Library interior with sculptural white columns and layered canopy above tiered reading terraces. — The internal space features a forest of slender columns supporting an undulating ceiling canopy, creating zones for reading and circulation. Image © Yumeng Zhu

Materials & Construction

Steel and glass form the façade. Both materials were sourced locally to support contextual dialogue. Prefabricated components reduced on site waste and sped up assembly. This approach aligns with low impact standards for building materials. It also supports efficiency in large civic buildings.

Modern building with layered canopy structures and glass walls framed by pine trees under daylight. — The building’s layered canopy elements create a rhythmic visual pattern against the sky, while vegetation integrates the structure into its surroundings. Image © Yumeng Zhu

Sustainability

The project won the Sustainable Design Award. It uses passive cooling, daylight harvesting, and efficient mechanical systems. These meet regional benchmarks for low-carbon public architecture. More on such strategies appears in ArchUp’s sustainability coverage.

Urban Impact

The Beijing Library sits in a fast developing district. It influences pedestrian flow and nearby construction. Beyond storing books, it functions as a daily public room. ArchUp’s cities section often explores how such spaces shape urban dynamics.

Architectural Snapshot: As digital reading grows, can physical spaces like the Beijing Library still sustain meaningful human presence?

A multi-level civic library in Beijing merges passive environmental systems with daylight rich interiors to redefine shared learning in the digital age.

Interior view of a multi-level reading space with wooden bookshelves, tiered steps, and sculptural ceiling panels. — The reading hall’s structural system doubles as spatial organizer, with columns supporting an undulating ceiling that diffuses daylight. Image © Yumeng Zhu

ArchUp Editorial Insight

The article presents Beijing Library as a civic experiment in post-digital public space, framed through award recognition rather than independent critique. It relies on institutional validation AIA Hong Kong as its primary legitimacy, echoing a broader trend where architectural journalism substitutes honors for analysis. While the text accurately notes spatial strategies and material choices, it avoids questioning the library’s actual public accessibility, operational model, or socio political context within China’s urban governance. Still, its concise focus on passive environmental systems offers a rare technical anchor amid celebratory noise. Yet without addressing who truly uses such grand civic gestures and who doesn’t the narrative risks becoming archival decor rather than architectural documentation.