Southwark's brief was to design a free-standing iconic civic building which exemplifies the importance of library, education and community facilities to the people of the borough. The Canada Water Library is the civic centrepiece of the regeneration of the area and focus for the community. Its inverted pyramid form is an innovative response to providing an efficient single large library floor on a smaller footprint site. It also incorporates a multi-purpose community / performance space, education and meeting rooms and a café and incorporates an entrance to the adjacent tube and bus station. 

The building is a strong civic gesture in an area of mixed buildings. The sloping form invites people under its wings. The more vertical walls to north and west elegantly enclose the plaza and street respectively. The more angled walls engage the scale of Canada Water basin to the south. Large window openings give the building a civic scale. The whole is clad in aluminium sheets, anodised a light bronze with sequined perforations, a finish which mimics the ruffled waters of the basin.