A reading hall wrapped around a four-hundred-year-old olive tree.
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Design story
Design story
In a village square stands an olive tree that has outlived the buildings around it. The hall does not replace the square; it frames the tree with a low arcade of terracotta brick.
The reading room is a single ring of shelves and benches between the arcade and the trunk. Readers sit facing the tree, and the roof opens in the centre so rain still reaches the roots.
The arcade is open on all sides. At night the hall becomes a lantern, and the tree, lit from below, does the rest.
