Margaret Drive

Completed in 1969, it was the first full-time branch library in Singapore that once served residents as far as Jurong and a forerunner in the national drive to inculcate the reading habit. Generous use of transparent glass windows allowed the reading rooms to be lit with direct light, and clever orientation of rooms allowed the library to stay cool with natural ventilation. The queues to borrow and return books used to snake outside the two-storey building.