The Cloudscape Library

A building without a straight line

On the shore of Haikou Bay, only about a hundred metres west of the Century Bridge, stands a white building that looks as if the sea had washed it up. Walls, floor and ceiling flow into each other, round holes open up everywhere, and nowhere does the eye find an edge. Locals have given it nicknames: some see a dolphin leaping out of the water, others a rubber clog with holes.

Officially it's called the “Cloudscape Library”, also known in English as the “Wormhole Library”. It opened in spring 2021 and has since been one of the most photographed buildings on the island.

The architect Ma Yansong

It was designed by Ma Yansong and his Beijing firm MAD, one of China's most internationally renowned architects. He became known in 2006 for two curving residential towers in Canada, nicknamed after Marilyn Monroe for their shape. He later built the Harbin opera house, which looks like a snowy landscape, and designed filmmaker George Lucas's museum in Los Angeles.

His signature is flowing, organic forms reminiscent of landscapes. In Haikou this idea is concentrated in a small space: the library has only just under 1,400 square metres of floor area but feels like a little world of its own.

Concrete in one pour

What's special is the construction. The building was cast inside and out in one piece of exposed concrete — walls, floors, ceilings and even parts of the furniture in a single mould. A construction firm specialising in such concrete needed elaborate formwork, because every curve is different.

Ma Yansong said, roughly, that exposed concrete is usually seen as cold, hard and angular. He wanted to rethink it — flowing, soft and changeable, like the sea next to it. And indeed the material here feels almost like sand or fabric.

The cloud caves

The many openings aren't just beautiful. They let light deep inside and provide a through-draught and fresh sea air in the hot, humid climate. There's also a covered walkway that gives shade and invites passers-by to linger.

Ma Yansong compared the holes to ears through which the building listens to the sea. For visitors they're above all picture frames: through each opening you see a different piece of sky, sea or bridge. In the late afternoon the light falls slanting through the holes and wanders across the concrete as a bright patch.

Library and rest stop in one

The building has two parts. The southern one houses the actual library, with room for about ten thousand books, reading places and a room for films and events — all freely accessible. The northern part holds something very practical: a café, public toilets, showers, a room for mothers with babies, seating and a roof garden.

That's no accident. The library is also a rest stop for everyone walking, jogging or swimming along the waterfront. The idea behind it: a public building shouldn't only be beautiful but used in everyday life.

A string of pearls by the sea

The library is the start of a bigger plan. Haikou is having a series of small pavilions by well-known architects built along its coast, “rest stops by the sea”. Each is to look different and offer something public: reading, resting, a view. Another pavilion, the “Mountain of Heaven”, is also free and open daily.

If you like, you can combine several of them along the promenade in one evening. Together they tell how Haikou wants to see itself: as a modern coastal city, not just a stopover on the way to Sanya.

Why a city builds something like this

There's also city marketing behind the building. The British newspaper The Times named the library one of the most anticipated buildings of 2021 even before it opened. Photos of it went around the world, and since then visitors from all over China have come to be photographed in front of the holes.

You can find that superficial. But you can also see that a city used one of its most beautiful seafront plots not for a hotel but for a free public building. In China, as everywhere, that can't be taken for granted.

Booking at midnight

Admission is free, but you have to reserve, and places are limited: around five hundred visitors a day are allowed in. Booking is via the library's WeChat channel, up to seven days ahead, and booking for each day opens at midnight. At weekends places are often gone within minutes.

Booking doesn't always go smoothly with a foreign passport. Best ask the hotel reception to make the reservation a few days ahead. If you don't get a place, you can still experience the building from outside and from the walkway.

How to approach the visit

The best time is late afternoon, when the light falls through the openings. Afterwards walk the few steps to the Century Bridge and experience the blue hour over the bay.

And take your time. Many visitors come only for a photo and are gone after ten minutes. Sit in one of the niches with a book and listen to the sea, and you'll understand what the architect meant.