Ishikawa Prefectural Library

This guide to the Ishikawa Prefectural Library in Kanazawa opens with an odd question: why hand a library commission to a man who had spent nearly fifty years designing swing sets and slides? It follows architect Mitsuru Senda, who since 1972 built a theory of play-loop structure for zoos, science museums and a baseball stadium, and turned it, in his mid-seventies, on shelves of books. The atrium's tiered Great Hall and its looping reading corridor, staff call it the Ring, put that theory into shelves and seats. Pick a seat from among the hall's many chair styles before you pick a book.