The Bridge of Tonlé Sap - Bridging Native and Tourist, One Bookshelf at A Time - Tiny Library 2019 Architecture Competition

The Bridge of Tonlé Sap - Bridging Native and Tourist, One Bookshelf at A Time (Tiny Library 2019 Architecture Competition)

"Bridging Tonle Sap's tourist and poverty, one bookshelf at a time."

The bridge of Tonlé Sap is a hybrid library-bridge system that has a series of bookshelf portals. 









The Threat
The poverty in Tonlé Sap is a result of the negative tourism impact, a natural, regional land-form - the Mekong basin as seasonal flood-prone area, and the government trading activity that jeopardized the native socio-economical heritage. 

The difficulty of not having good access to educational infrastructure results in the local population's hunger, dead by drowning, and the inability to reside in a better settlement.


The Potential
The ever-rising tourism in Tonlé Sap is unable to benefit the poverty of the region. 

The already rich Southeast Asia largest freshwater lake region bio-sphere continues to flourish with the proof of the constant trading between the local government and the private sector for individuals good, but not the native as a whole.




The Ideas 
The bridge of Tonlé Sap is a hybrid library-bridge system that has a series of bookshelf portals. 

It bridges the poor accessibility with a skill-based learning amphitheater, a walkway of influential, encounter learning, cross-culture interaction hub, formal class area, and reading spaces. 

As the tourist and the native maneuver through the bridge-library, they experience a chance of knowledge exchange by influence, interaction, and observation. 

As visitor increases in the future, the library bridge has a framework to expand.



The Proposal 

A library can be a hybrid system. The bridge-library hybrid has more purposes than an archiver of books and a reading place in the traditional sense.

Active learning, not passive. Active practice, skilled-based learning can be done by observation. This can be architecturally done from the porosity of the building envelop design between the inner spaces and the outer environment, engage in the world of practice, seeing and participating in the real-life surviving activities.  

Cross-culture learning happens, start from the interaction between passer-by of different interests in shared spaces. Allow chance meetings like the common corridor, staircases, and common entryways.  

Classroom for formal learning, a chance meeting is a form of informal learning. 

Learning by influence and visual connection.  

Cross-culture learning between tourists and natives through resource sharing. For example, one million travel per year means one million book donation per annum to the library.

Private reading area, so that one can spontaneously grab a book and read in a corner.

Group learning area, so that learning made broad, fun, and interactive.

Learning by a cue from encountering spaces, digital wall, and open class. Most of the time we spend walking and doing nothing if replaced with an informative, beneficial reminder, will give us knowledge in an indirect or even unconscious way.

Team:
Lim Gim Huang
Liu Wei Ming
Kent Leong Yang Jiann