The accounts of Buddha's enlightenment and Newton’s discovery of gravity share an important detail—the visuals of sitting under a tree—which seem to universally evoke the symbolism of intellectual and spiritual pursuit. While being representative of an individual quest for some great minds, the shade of a tree has also been an enduring shelter for collective learning throughout the world—from Plato’s academy in the grove of olive trees in Greece to the banyan tree acting as a place for education in Indian villages. Forest of Knowledge, a library at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai appears to resoundingly echo the age-old association of the pursuit of knowledge under the shade of trees, while also attempting to facilitate a sense of community and collective learning.

Built by the Mumbai-based design atelier Studio Hinge, the library has been built to simulate the sensation of reading outdoors and to increase the time visitors spend inside. The space sits within an Art Deco building that overlooks a historic cricket stadium. While the library was originally proposed to be built in a standalone shed with a yard, the building was temporarily relocated to the fourth floor of the admin building. However, the temporary location became its permanent home. The former space carried a grim demeanour with its long lightless corridors and bookshelves stacked in front of windows that blocked natural light. There was no separate area for staff either. These factors coupled with people's increasingly shrinking attention spans made the library quite an unfavourable space to spend time in. With the library’s design being developed during the COVID lockdown in India, Studio Hinge acknowledged that people yearned to meet and share ideas in person more than ever, that added to the purpose of designing a library.

“Whilst we were disappointed not to have had our scheme for the original location realised, the proposed landscaped gardens and outdoor reading areas stayed with us, to be reimagined in the new location,” stated Studio Hinge. Connecting with the original idea of reading outdoors, the existing concrete columns were interpreted as trees and clad with circular bookshelves in Western Hemlock supported on arching branches. The branches are built from 20mm square hollow box steel sections and clad in 16mm thick timber, also functioning as conduits. Their use along with the panelling over the RCC beams allowed the designers to avoid using lowered ceilings to accommodate electrical wiring. The intertwined branches and intricately woven meshes were conceived to mimic foliage, which recreated the feeling of walking under trees, with their meshed nature creating a sensation of sunlight filtered through the thicket. The flooring was designed to complement the entire scheme—with custom terrazzo tiles that created the impression of leaves on the forest floor using chips of marble and green glass. Freestanding bookshelves are arranged concentrically around the central trees, giving them the appearance of a hedge-like arrangement.

“We have enlarged the windows and decluttered the space in front of them, besides keeping a large proportion of them openable. This achieves an increase in both natural light and ventilation across two facades, reducing the reliance of the library upon artificial light and mechanical ventilation. The enlarged windows face east and north, avoiding the harsh glare of the southwest,” adds Studio Hinge. The design team ensured that no bookshelf in the open space was taller than 1.2m, allowing natural light to permeate deeply into the space and create an unobstructed view for most adults while standing. The perceptional quality of the space significantly changes when it comes to children, which is particularly labyrinthine—designed to spur their spatial curiosity.

The library houses over 55,000 books including long-term storage for rare and undisplayed paperbacks. The cylindrical pod bookcase that serves as the main reception also screens the spaces for admin and book sorting. Adhering to their intention of making the library worthy of spending more time in, Studio Hinge convinced the Cricket Club of India to repurpose the adjacent under-utilised Zumba studio into a multi-functional space that interests library visitors—facilitating activities such as screenings, book clubs, book launches, author readings, and workshops for children and adults. The transformed space can still be used as a dance studio when required. It features engineered oak flooring, flush mirrored cupboards housing the books not on display, storage for stacking furniture, and a large screen TV, all under a ceiling of undulating timber slats that illustrate movement whilst concealing the mechanical, electrical and plumbing services above it.

Using timber as the primary material, the library features the use of sustainably harvested sources of yellow cedar for the windows and western hemlock for the furniture. The library’s design was informed by research into what a library in the modern digital age can be—expanding from just being an archive of books to a space that invokes curiosity and enriches the reading experience of savouring a physical book, while also providing an opportunity for people to come together and learn. The Forest of Knowledge signifies how design does not need to just evolve with time to accommodate technological advancements, but can also function as a counter-measure to not let these advancements distract from us the simple joys of living—like reading a hard-cover huddled away in the thick of library shelves.

Project Details

Name: Forest of Knowledge
Location: Mumbai, India 
Architect: Studio Hinge
Area: 420 sqm
Year of Completion: 2023