An Australian says …we say magnificent, marvelous, terrific. Only Americans say AWESOME…(题记，参观路易·康的Exeter Library)

As soon as I entered the town of Exeter I saw a giant sign LIBRARY with an arrow pointing to the right, so I made a right. Then I realized that I got to the wrong place. It was Exeter Public Library. Of course I went in and asked the way to Philip Exeter Academy Library by Louis Kahn. Not only did the librarian tell me the way, but she said that library is awesome!

However, the surprise was since killed because she also told me what to expect on my way there,  so when I saw a church from a block away, I knew I was gonna see the building as I have seen its pictures in tons of books. I took a detour and approached the building from the far end of the lawn, and I circled the building at first. It is symmetrical and the four elevations have got the same look except for very minor differences in the openings on the wooden windows. There is something familiar here: the building has got a humble, low entrance and the interior is paved with rough marble. As I held up my head, the curved double stairs jumped into my eyes. They looked odd because they appeared so abruptly, with absolutely no indication from the outside. Across the stairs, on the concrete walls the giant circular holes with horizontal wooden bars behind could be seen. All of a sudden, the clock struck twice; it was two o’clock.

The Exeter Library is truly a master piece. Hardly has anyone else achieved such altitude in making buildings. Someone said that the spirit of an architectural work lies in its details. I am deeply convinced and amazed in this one, because the details of the building are so perfect that they seem unreal. The scales of the spaces are so well considered and managed, some are gigantic like the cross over the atrium, the circles on the walls; some are so tiny as the staircases and the corridors on the mezzanine levels, yet they are just wide enough for me to walk comfortably. The big concrete cross beneath the roof is incredibly thick, which brings enormous pressure. I doubted its structural necessity, but it works just perfectly to block direct sunlight onto the stacks while letting enough into the atrium. The four circles on the wall look way too big and heavy for the atrium, but the horizontal wooden bars behind balance their emptiness. The wooden bars come out about half a foot toward the atrium, making a little display area along the corridor railing and giving space for installing light fixture beneath the railing. If you look close enough, you see the way the giant circles are divided, you see the ways they meet the corners. The architect must know every single molecule of this building in order to have everything under his control. I kept asking myself, how could a piece of architecture be so perfect, absolute and extreme? Everything here is well considered and sorted out to extreme clarity. It is the kind of sublime beauty that declares power. The library is actually a kingdom where the architect has the supremacy.

I was made to believe what I saw was not accidental. Every time I came out of the stairwell, I saw exactly the same thing, the gigantic circles presented to me in different angles. Every picture I took had a part of the circles…Not long after I entered the building, I was carried away. A low yet firm voice kept speaking to me the world is made up of squares and circles…Scottish accent! Then I woke up and asked myself why. Hummm, the architect made it seem so. Why are there only squares and circles, why is everything so absolute and unquestionable? Why is there even why?

It indeed scared me when the clock struck three o'clock as I was staring up at an opening on the wall, through which I saw the silhouette of stacks and books and was kind of expecting somebody to pop up or something to happen. The strikes woke me up and I felt that it was the opening that was staring, like an eye, at me. I was being encaged and watched. I ran off in a hurry…

I agree: the library is awesome! It is a building of extreme control and power. It has to be viewed with awe.