work

architecture
project
Neo Trivium
year
2025
category
architecture
design
Jeong Jongbo
location
77 Yongbong-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju (Chonnam National University Central Library Annex)
site area
13,651 m²
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Context & Question

Baekdo, the annex to Chonnam National University's Central Library, has long served as a symbolic building on campus, yet within the campus's changed patterns of movement and use it has accumulated a number of spatial disconnections.
Although its position—once close to the edge of campus—has become a new center through the expansion of surrounding facilities, the building still holds a strong frontality toward one particular direction and remains insufficiently connected to the spaces around it.

The basement level, in particular, was cut off from the outside, and the building's east and west sides were, paradoxically, divided by the very structure meant to unite them.
The goal of the renovation was set not as filling the building with new program, but as reconstructing the relationship between the building and the campus.

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Observation & Interpretation

Around the library lie the May 18th Democracy Square, the College of Engineering, the College of Education, the College of Art, and areas of natural green space, each oriented in a different direction.
Many students move through this surrounding area, yet the library's existing internal circulation does not directly connect with these campus-wide flows.

The library was therefore reinterpreted not simply as a destination but as a space of passage linking different zones of campus—a building one enters to read, and at the same time a building one naturally passes through and lingers in while moving across campus.

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Design Strategy

The previously buried basement level was exposed to the outside, and a sunken space was formed to create a new level of entry.
Pedestrian axes extending from the building's east and west sides were drawn into the interior, linking the existing lobby, reading spaces, lecture hall, and outdoor space into one continuous flow.

The green space and walking path on the east side were extended to reach the sunken court and the rooftop garden, reorganizing the building's several levels into a single three-dimensional pedestrian system.
The building's previously strong frontality was softened, and new entrances and outdoor spaces were created that can be approached from multiple directions.

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Spatial Outcome

After renovation, the library is no longer a single, self-contained building but a place where several campus flows converge.
Even students who are not using the library can pass through its interior and exterior spaces on their way elsewhere, naturally encountering programs such as reading, exhibition, and rest along the way.

Rather than erasing the existing building to build anew, Neo Trivium proposes a renovation that reorganizes how a building is used by inserting new paths and relationships into what already exists.

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