"If China does something wrong it's the end of the world" - Li Xiaodong on Liyuan Library

World Architecture Festival 2012: in this movie we filmed at the World Architecture Festival, Chinese architect Li Xiaodong tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs how "sustainability is a must" for new buildings in China, because if the country doesn't get it right it's "the end of the world".
The architect stresses that now China's population is approaching 1.4 billion, that the country needs to "really reconsider the way we construct and we think about our society."
Xiaodong won the award in the culture category with his design for the Liyuan Library clad in firewood in a small village outside Beijing and he describes how technology was an important aspect of the project. Although the building looks "untechnologically expressive," it features an integrated cooling system that draws cold air from the surface of a lake in summer and pulls it up through the building.
The frame of the library is made from chunky timber beams, while the cladding is wooden sticks. "I tried to go back to nature, said Xiaodong. "Around 99 percent of the materials can be recycled and this is part of the concept we need to promote."