Spijkenisse Book Mountain has been announced winner of a red dot design award, one of the worlds most acclaimed design awards. Book Mountain received a red dot for high design quality in the Architecture and Urban Design category, and was selected from 4,662 entries from 54 countries. The jury recognises work that distinguishes itself through highly refined detail solutions.
The official awards ceremony will take place at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Germany on 1 July 2013.
The new public library in Spijkenisse manifests itself clearly as a mountain of books on the towns market square, it is both an advertisement and an invitation for reading, which holds great significance for a community with 10 percent illiteracy.
Besides the library, the building houses an environmental education centre, a chess club, auditorium, meeting rooms, commercial offices and retail. Clever stacking of the buildings commercial functions produces its pyramidal form, which in turn, is wrapped in the librarys 480 meters route along bookshelves to its peak where a café offers panoramic view s over Spijkenisse. Underneath the librarys barn shaped glass envelope the book gains a strong educational presence in this formerly agricultural community located close the docks of the Port of Rotterdam.
The building was officially opened last October by Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands.
All winners of a red dot design award, comprising a total of 2,000 products in 19 categories, from architecture to lighting design and entertainment technology, will be on display from 2 – 28 July 2013 in the exhibition Design on stage winners red dot award: product design 2013 in the red dot design museum at the world heritage site of the Zeche Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen, Germany.
The red dot award is granted annually to designs which stand out for their exceptional quality and refined detail solutions. The award dates back to 1955 and is now the worlds largest and most distinguished design competition.