The construction of a large-scale library to be built in Songdo International City, Incheon, is about to begin.
Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, announced on the 27th that the groundbreaking ceremony for the Songdo International City Library will be held on the 2nd of next month, four years after the land purchase.
The district purchased the library site at Songdo-dong 115-2, which had been unused for a long time, from Songdo International City Development Co., Ltd. (NSIC) to build a representative library for the region.
The library, with an investment of 47.7 billion KRW, will be built on a 9,427㎡ site with one basement floor and three above-ground floors (total floor area of 8,197㎡). The first floor will house a children’s and toddler’s reading room and a book caf?; the second floor will include study spaces, club rooms, and lecture rooms; and the third floor will feature a multimedia room.
This project was initially promoted on the premise of securing 11.4 billion KRW in national funding, but when the policy change in the Balanced Development Special Account made it impossible to secure national funds, the district faced the risk of bearing the 70% financial burden alone.
However, through negotiations with Incheon City, the budget originally planned as national subsidies was secured as city funds, allowing Yeonsu-gu to proceed with the construction with a 30% project cost burden without additional financial resources.
The library is designed to form an eco-friendly exterior using practical facade materials and to go beyond the conventional typified libraries, creating a new type of library unique to Songdo.
In particular, by separating large and small spaces and using repetitive configurations, unlike the vertical layout of typical libraries, the horizontally spread form offers users diverse circulation experiences and has been praised for presenting a new paradigm for libraries.
Lee Jae-ho, head of Yeonsu-gu, said, "I am pleased to be able to smoothly promote the construction of the Songdo International City Library, which has been a long-standing wish of the residents," and added, "We expect it to serve as a hub for promoting local reading culture through its role as a representative library of Yeonsu-gu and the establishment of a public network."
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