A porous brick shell shapes Taobun Literacy House in Makassar

Located within an educational district in Makassar, Taobun Literacy House transforms a former university professor’s residence into a community oriented space dedicated to reading, gathering, and cultural exchange. Designed by INS Studio, the project positions architecture as an active participant in everyday learning, responding directly to its context of nearby universities, schools, and kindergartens.

Rather than functioning as a conventional café or library, the building operates as a hybrid environment where literacy, social interaction, and informal public life overlap. The intervention preserves the domestic scale of the original structure while introducing new spatial strategies that encourage openness and collective use.

The result is a quiet yet highly adaptable community hub where reading, conversation, coffee, and creative activity coexist within a carefully choreographed architectural setting.

The project’s spatial organization is structured around a compact library positioned at the center of the plan. This core establishes the identity of the building while organizing movement and activity around it. Visitors circulate fluidly between reading areas, workspaces, and communal seating zones, creating an atmosphere that feels both intimate and socially open.

Inclusivity is embedded throughout the project as a central architectural principle rather than an added technical layer. Tactile guiding blocks integrated into the flooring create accessible circulation paths, while braille signage and ramps ensure seamless navigation across the site.

Inside, the architecture balances warmth and clarity through restrained material choices, exposed surfaces, and carefully framed moments of color. A curved timber bookshelf system wraps around one of the primary reading spaces, transforming the room into a quiet interior landscape dedicated to books and reflection. Elsewhere, vivid red transitional volumes punctuate the otherwise neutral palette, creating moments of spatial intensity that contrast with the softer communal areas.

Natural light filters deeply into the interiors through large openings and semi open thresholds, reinforcing the relationship between indoor activity and the surrounding neighborhood.

The outdoor areas extend the project’s communal atmosphere beyond the interior walls. Benches constructed from reclaimed timber salvaged from dismantled traditional houses introduce layers of local memory into the contemporary setting, allowing reused materials to carry traces of previous domestic lives.

A lightweight framework of stainless steel pipes spans across parts of the site, integrating lighting elements and adaptable exhibition infrastructure. During the day, the structure functions as a shaded extension beneath existing trees, while at night it transforms into an illuminated gathering space capable of hosting exhibitions, discussions, and public events.

This flexibility allows the project to shift continuously between café, reading room, exhibition venue, and informal public forum without relying on rigid spatial boundaries.

Bookshelves, ledges, and transitional spaces are designed not only as storage surfaces but as opportunities for interaction and discovery. Reading materials appear throughout the building in informal ways, encouraging spontaneous engagement rather than controlled institutional order.

Through these gestures, Taobun Literacy House proposes architecture as a framework for shared participation. The project moves beyond accommodation toward a more collective understanding of accessibility, where different users inhabit the space equally and naturally within everyday life.

Project Credit

Project Name: Taobun Literacy House
Location: Makassar, Indonesia
Gross Built Area (m²/ ft²): 345 m²
Design Firm: INS Studio / @ins.studio
Completion Year: 2026
Lead Architects: Wisnu Wardhana
Photo: Akasa Rana