Ueno Park, a gift from the Imperial family to the city of Tokyo, is a large public space where several cultural institutions are located. One of them, the old Imperial Library, was transformed into a library for children.

The old building has a pseudo-Western architectural style, built motivated by the dominant trends during the Westernization of modern Japan. The aim of this renovation was not merely a frozen preservation of the old building, but a ‘regeneration’ based on a dialogue of contrasts between old and new. The collision in the International Library of Childrenʼs Literature is manifest in the insertion of two glass boxes. One is at ground level and used as the approach route toward the library. The other is placed as if piercing the existing part at the third floor level, and functions as the main axis supporting the new program. The space interposed between the modern glazing and the existing brick walls is an engawa, a space that from the inside is a buffer between old and new, while from the outside it symbolizes their confrontational coexistence. Inside, the old reading room is reused as a museum with two cylinders for temporary exhibitions...[+]