PROJECTWATCH
PROPOSED , CURRENT AND FUTURE PROJECTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA AND ABROAD
THABO MBEKI PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY , JOHANNESBURG
Designed by Adjaye Associates , the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library is a space of excellence , learning , research , discourse and cultural exchange predicated on the African perspective . The new library will feature a multiplicity of functions including a museum , temporary exhibition space , research center and special collections , auditorium , women ’ s empowerment center , reading room , shop , cafeteria , digital experience space , seminar rooms , office space and an archive center .
The archive center will act as a repository for the papers , artifacts and key documents of President Mbeki and other significant African historical figures . Providing infrastructure for the preservation and distribution of African history and knowledge , the library will become a new anchor point and campus for local and international scholars .
Design Concept Conceptually , the new building makes visible the invisible knowledge of ancient and contemporary African history through both form and programme . Situated in Riviera , Johannesburg , the library will harbour the knowledge of the land whilst acting as a space for connection in which the advancement of an African Renaissance becomes the premise of the structure . Represented in design as a metaphor for knowledge-based nourishment , the
new building references the structures of granaries - which allow for the extension of grain production and the systematisation of cycles of feeding , planting and harvesting .
Using architecture as a tool to reimagine storage and sustenance into form , the granary stores guide the overall building concept . The eight cylindrical granary-styled forms are made contemporary through the
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