Heike Hanada

On 16 November 2007, Hanada's proposal Delphinium won the international architectural competition on the grand expansion of the Stockholm Public Library, one of architect Gunnar Asplund's most important works.

Hanada defeated five other finalists from Denmark, Italy, Finland, Lithuania and the United Kingdom in the competition to expand the famed rotunda library building by Asplund, which opened in 1928.

The project named Delphinium includes a glass building, which connects to Asplund's library by a low, podium-like structure enclosing a circular, "secret" garden.

To me the inner courtyard and the low-rise entrance section between the high buildings are a way of marking a distance, creating a rhythm and tranquility in the townscape.

[2] The extension has officially been put on hold in autumn 2009 after a change in local government[3] and a massive campaign about what critics saw as an unacceptable impact on the original, Asplund approved complex.