House of Wisdom Library and Cultural Center / Foster + Partners
© Chris Goldstraw Text description provided by the architects. Located on the Sharjah International Airport Road, ten kilometres from the city centre, the two-storey building embodies a sense of clarity and lightness, with a large floating roof cantilevering on all sides of a transparent rectilinear volume. The 15-metre-wide overhang shades the façades throughout most of the day, while fixed aluminium screens with differing densities filter the low sun in the evenings. Movable bamboo screens at a low level are deployed by the building users, to provide privacy or to control glare. When not...