Baiyun Library and Archive is located at a key urban junction in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, serving as a cultural and public service hub for the surrounding community. The building engages with its urban context through contrasting black and white volumes: the towering black block functions as a vertical service core, while the white block extends diagonally along the northern city road as a multi-level horizontal composition. A circular roadway encloses the site, forming an independent plot. The design integrates diverse community functions into a cohesive, large-scale architectural form, establishing a clear cultural landmark within a complex urban environment.

The building opens to both the community and the city. The horizontally extended white block houses community reading and activity centers on its wings, a community psychological counseling and support center, and an art exhibition hall at its core. The black block contains professional training spaces, television studios, public meeting rooms, network services, and administrative offices, providing vertical support for community services. Together, the black and white volumes create a functional framework, with the north-oriented urban street axis defining a spatial hierarchy of “horizontal center and vertical focus.”

Visitors enter the art exhibition hall from the front plaza, ascend large staircases to a central platform, and then access either the community wing spaces or the vertical public hall of the black volume, creating a clear and intuitive circulation path.

The design concept emphasizes the black and white volumes as a model for a community cultural and public service collective: the black block acts as a vertical visual anchor, the white block delivers horizontal cultural experiences, and the “negative space” subtly conveys a sense of real place within an abstract organizational layout. Through the careful interplay of form, function, and circulation, the building provides an open, rich, and high-quality public space, establishing a cultural landmark that embodies both modern urban identity and human-centered care.