My Tree House” is the first library in the world to be steered by green principles in all facets from design, infrastructure and use of sustainable materials, to collection and programming. Eco-friendly building materials such as energy-efficient LED lighting, refurbished bookshelves and carpets with green properties were used. The canopy of the tree house centrepiece is built and installed with over 3,000 recycled plastic bottles collected. Children can interact with The Knowledge Tree, which is a shadow play wall, to learn about the environment and energy conservation. Budding meteorologists can also discover Singapore’s temperature, rainfall and wind speed “live” through The Weather Stump which charts real-time weather information provided by the Meteorological Service Singapore. A significant 30% of the 45,000 books will focus on green topics such as animals, plants, nature, water resources, weather, environment, recycling and climate change. Children can take part in an interesting line-up of green themed programmes, for which NLB is partnering other public agencies. These programmes include storytelling sessions and workshops on creating games and craft-making. NLB will also be organising tailored library tours for schools for environmental education and outreach. In addition, there is a Cardboard Re-invented exhibition within Central Public Library and Level 1 Lobby hosted in conjunction with the launch. Do visit us to take a look at the Library.
Here are some pictures:
By Soh Lin Li, Central Public Library