Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum Library, Osaka, Japan
Architect Tadao Ando designed a new concrete building to sit alongside the original family home of the late Japanese author, Shiba Ryotaro. The award winning memorial museum, opened to the public in November 2001, was designed to house the revered writer’s extensive library of more than 60,000 books. Ando decided that the library need not display all the books at one time and created a three-storey, 11 metre high display wall to showcase up to 20,000 books at any one time.
Architect Tadao Ando, explained his inspiration,
“an image of a faint space of light surrounded by books and surrounded by darkness”
















