Children's Book Forest Sapporo – Hokkaido University (こども本の森 札幌・北大)

In 2022, Tadao Ando (安藤忠雄) proposed to Hokkaido University (北海道大学) that he design a Children's Book Forest (こども本の森) on its campus, build it at his own expense and give it to the university. On 7 November 2023, the City of Sapporo, the university and Ando's office (安藤忠雄建築研究所) signed the basic agreement: the office designs and builds the building and then donates it to the university, which remains its owner and manager, while the City and the university run the library together. Construction began in March 2025. On 9 May 2025 the name and the first images were presented; Ando said he had made it "a form that lives together with nature" (自然とともに生きているという形にした). The building was handed over to the university on 31 March 2026, and the library opened on 1 August 2026, the sixth Children's Book Forest in Japan after those of Nakanoshima, Tōno, Kōbe, Kumamoto and Matsuyama.

A call for book donations from the public, from 1 October to 9 December 2025, supplied about 4,000 volumes of the collection. Ando hopes that the children who find an important book here will grow up strong, in the words Dr Clark gave the young, "Boys, be ambitious", and take flight from Hokkaidō into the world. The manga artist Mari Yamazaki (ヤマザキマリ), honorary director since January 2026, says that Hokkaidō's nature and books carried her through her childhood.

The building is a single storey: a steel frame, about 350 m² of floor area, set on the campus near a campus stream (サクシュコトニ川) and surrounded by big trees. Ando designed it on the idea of living together with nature (自然との共生). The outer walls are curved and the windows large: the curves of wall and roof go around the trees already on the site, and the building, raised on piles, spares their roots. No concrete is left exposed. From inside, the view takes in greenery and the campus.

Inside, cylindrical bookcases rise to the ceiling; the director, 紺野宏子, likens them to big trees reaching for the sky. Books are shown face-out, covers visible, and wood is abundant, even in the chairs, which are made of Hokkaidō timber.

It is a reading-on-the-spot library, designed for primary- and middle-school pupils and open to everyone; it is meant to be the first library of its kind in Japan to stand on a university campus. About 15,000 books are divided into 14 themes of the library's own classification, which opens at the entrance with "Living in Hokkaidō" (北海道で生きる). Several themes answer to the campus's faculties: "Nature and People" (自然とひと) to the Faculty of Science, "Creating the Future" (未来をつくる) to engineering, "Coexistence with Animals" (動物との共生) to veterinary medicine, "Food and Resources" (食べものと資源) to agriculture and fisheries sciences; one theme, "For Little Children" (ちいさなこどもたちへ), is for the youngest. Picture books, illustrated reference books, literature, art books and books in foreign languages sit side by side, and students and staff of the university took part in choosing the titles.

There is no lending: one reads on the spot, or outside on the campus, except in bad weather and winter, after telling the staff. "Learning programmes" (学びのプログラム), workshops and exhibitions tied to the university's nature and knowledge, extend the books.

Entry is free. It opens from 10 am to 6 pm; it is closed on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, from 29 December to 3 January, during the annual stock-take of the collection and on some days of university events. Visitors enter in time slots of one and a half to two hours: most places are booked online, from 14 days ahead, and the rest are kept for walk-ins. It is aimed mainly at primary and junior high school pupils, but anyone may come in; the books stay on site and cannot be borrowed.

The building is on the Hokkaido University campus (北8条西6丁目, Kita-ku), near the south gate (南門), a 10-minute walk from the north exit of JR Sapporo Station; there is no car park.