{"id":134407,"date":"2022-12-14T14:33:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T06:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/?post_type=press&p=134407"},"modified":"2026-09-07T16:20:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:20:43","slug":"cuhk-rural-library-project-wins-at-the-oscars-of-architecture-the-world-architecture-festival-2022","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/press\/cuhk-rural-library-project-wins-at-the-oscars-of-architecture-the-world-architecture-festival-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"CUHK rural library project wins at the Oscars of Architecture \u2013 the World Architecture Festival 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-134407","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"title_alt":"","sub_title_alt":"","press_date":"20221214","keep":false,"details":"

The Pingtan Children\u2019s Library (the Library), designed and built by Prof<\/strong>essor<\/strong> Peter W. Ferretto<\/strong> at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) School of Architecture and his team at Condition_Lab, has received the World Interior of the Year Award and the Best Use of Natural Light Prize at this year\u2019s World Architecture Festival (WAF), often referred to as the Oscars of architecture.<\/p>\r\n

Opened in late 2021, the Library is located in the Dong Minority village of Pingtan, Hunan Province. This small structure, three storeys high and approximately 180 sqm in area, is entirely built from timber. The building sits within a primary school courtyard serving more than 400 local children. Rather than a building with floors and rooms, it consists of two interwoven spiral staircases, a double helix that becomes both the vertical circulation and the seating for the children. As a building typology, the Library follows the traditional Dong house, with a tiled pitch roof, and a mortise and tenon timber construction system of interlocking columns and beams. It sets a new paradigm for rural village libraries in China, as it is a place where kids read, play and explore.<\/p>\r\n

Professor Ferretto said, <\/strong>\u201cThe building is mainly made of timber, and was built by local villagers using traditional Dong carpentry skills. By incorporating local materials, techniques, and labour, the project was completed under the construction cost of HK$600,000. This shows that social impact does not require large amounts of financial investment, and good design is not limited to high-end projects. Architecture must have a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

WAF judges applauded the \u201cdeep level of personal engagement and local traditions of crafts and construction\u201d of the project, acknowledging it to be a building \u201cmade for children\u201d with scale and components created with the children in mind. They praised Condition_Lab for setting out to \u201crealise a building with the community, for the community\u201d.<\/p>\r\n

Celebrating its 15th year, the World Architecture Festival is among the most prestigious architectural prizes in the world. The 2022 World Architecture Festival was held in Lisbon, Portugal. It received 772 entries from more than 50 countries. Of the entries, 479 were shortlisted and nominated to present at the live-judged awards programme. On the last day of the festival, the Pingtan Children\u2019s Library was awarded World Interior of the Year, one of the event\u2019s four highest accolades; as well as the Best Use of Natural Light Prize, one of 14 special prizes.<\/p>\r\n

The project has previously won the Grand Award at the DFA Design for Asia Awards 2022, as well as a Highly Commended Award at the Dezeen Awards 2022 in the Cultural Building category.<\/p>","show_as_achievement":false,"achievement_category":[],"show_as_clarification":false,"show_as_announcement":false,"photos":[{"photo":134404,"caption":"Pingtan Book House. \u00a9 Zhao Sai"},{"photo":134406,"caption":"Professor Peter Ferretto, CUHK's School of Architecture (right) and the Condition_Lab team."},{"photo":134402,"caption":"Children reading at Pingtan Book House. \u00a9 Zhao Sai"},{"photo":134405,"caption":"Spiral Staircase Lightwell \u00a9 Zhao Sai"}],"attachments":[{"text":"About Condition_Lab","link":"","file":134399}],"video_source":"","video_file":"","add_play_button":false,"video_caption":"","show_migration":false,"original_id":0,"photos_original":null,"attachments_original":null},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/134407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/134407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239312,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/134407\/revisions\/239312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}