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The architecture of libraries

Tianjin Binhai Library

In this piece, I focus on libraries, looking comprehensively albeit not exhaustively at a broad range and selection of atheneums around the world; each of which may serve a particular social or academic purpose for a specific time and context. Or they could just be a visually inspiring, beautiful, or stunning environment in which to find or read your book.

I love libraries. They are much more than mere repositories for books. Depending on scale, location, and specific charter, they may be symbols of culture and wealth, cathedrals of knowledge, provide the opportunity for social activity or be just a delightful haven facilitating the quiet act of reading and personal learning.

Libraries can be places for escape, inquiry, and discovery. For children, they can be magical places staffed by trained and creative librarians who devote their time not just organising books into a manner for easy access and retrieval but who also promote reading, plan quizzes, book hunts, competitions, and author visits.

I recall with much fondness my own experience, as an 8-year-old in a Catholic all-boys primary school. Along with a few other schoolmates, I was hauled off to the neighbourhood Queenstown Public Library by my schoolteachers Mrs Nathan and Mrs Leong to participate in a nursery rhyme costume competition. They forced me into a silly dress (and shoes borrowed from my sister) to play “My Pretty Maid’; to be serenaded and propositioned, “Where are you going to?” by my dashing German exchange schoolmate, Gunther.

In bygone times, in certain parts of England, to ask a maid if you could go ‘milking with her’ was tantamount to a marriage proposal. This rhyme appears to be a cleaned-up version of an old Tudor song about a milkmaid and a man with dishonourable intentions towards her.

“Where are you going to, my pretty maid?”   “I’m going a-milking, sir,” she said.

“May I go with you, my pretty maid?”  “You’re kindly welcome, sir,” she said.

“Say, will you marry me, my pretty maid?”   “Yes, if you please, kind sir,” she said.

“What is your father, my pretty maid?”   “My father’s a farmer, sir,” she said.

“What is your fortune, my pretty maid?”   “My face is my fortune, sir,” she said.

“Then I can’t marry you, my pretty maid.”   “Nobody asked you sir,” she said.

Where are you going to, my pretty maid?
Other schoolmates in library nursery rhymes costume competition

For a young impressionable boy, it was a totally immersive learning experience, never mind there were no cows or milking to be seen in my immediate sphere of existence. I was unwittingly and subtly introduced to—through having to act out some ‘innocent’ innuendo and ‘traditional’ limericks—the social concepts of courtship, relationship dynamics, consent, acquiescence, and gender politics!

History and evolution of a social institution

Is it possible to have a civilized society without a library? The library, as a building housing a collection of books and literary resources, dates to ancient Mesopotamia, coinciding, more or less, with the advent of the written word. It is impossible to think of the value of a library by solely considering their fundamental purpose: to offer infinite access to knowledge to anyone at no cost. As the location of countless community and academic resources and places of cultural discourse and social engagement, the draw of these institutions is inherent. In the words of Albert Einstein, “The only thing you absolutely have to know is where the library is.”

Over the centuries, the architecture of libraries has undergone several evolutions, often depending on their use, the architectural trends of the time, and the technology available to build them.

Classification of books; visibility of knowledge

A significant aspect of organising library content is the classification system. Books and other resources are usually ordered according to one of three types of classification methods:

  • universal (English language) scheme, eg. the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), Library of Congress Classification (LCC) or Colon Classification (CC)
  • specific classification scheme, eg. Iconclass (for art), British Catalogue of Music Classification or Dickinson classification (for music), or the NLM Classification (for medicine)
  • national scheme, eg. Sweden’s own classification system SAB (Sveriges Allmänna Biblioteksförening), the Japanese NDC, German RVK, Russian BBK, Chinese Liu’s Classification or CLC, Korean KDC, etc.

I remember the thrill and privilege of the specially arranged field trip to the stunningly old British Museum Reading Room during my MSc course at UCL in London in 1996. This was before the British Library was relocated to its new premises at St Pancras, and just before construction of the British Museum’s new Great Court surrounding it had commenced. The cavernous circular space with its spectacular dome above was laid out in a way here, it was explained to us, that presented a fine example of spatial organisation, representing the hierarchy of visible knowledge. Each category of knowledge (captured by library classification and physically manifest in tomes on shelves) was on display within the large room and each classification had its symbolic and rightful place in this universal space.

Adding to my awe at the impact of the space was the realisation that I was in the same historic, hallowed, and iconic place that had been frequented by the likes of Karl Marx, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Pankhurst, Bram Stoker, Joseph Conrad, Lenin and George Orwell. These social luminaries were all at some point in time readers granted membership to use the space for their research and writing.

Beautiful, inspiring environments for reading

The construction, restoration and renovation of libraries are significant to architects as well as the public, with design firms eagerly vying over prestigious and significant commissions.

Some libraries have a firmly aesthetic appeal. All around the world we find libraries that are hundreds of years old, adorned in gilded finishes, elaborate decoration, architectural craftsmanship and captivating frescoes and artwork. Others are strikingly modern, with sleek lines and a futuristic nod. In either case they capture the spirit of wonder and the pursuit of learning that is both necessary to design a one-of-a-kind space and often found in the patrons who visit it. 

While many of the centuries-old libraries that have been preserved are still admired today for either their elaborate decorative efforts or awe-inspiring spatial qualities that reinforce, celebrate, and match the cultural value of the books and inherent literary knowledge they hold, modern libraries may do this differently. Today, the focus of expression may be more about the ease of social accessibility, sustainability, functional flexibility (to address inevitable growth requirements), naturalism (as seen in some recent Asian examples) while still trying to please and inspire aesthetically.

Purpose and patronage of libraries

The purpose of libraries has evolved over time, corresponding with changing socio-political trends and circumstances. While public libraries of today, at least in modern democratic populations, are now seen as a vehicle for the creation of opportunities for learning, supporting literacy and education, and to help shape the new ideas and perspectives that are central to a creative and innovative society, this has not always been so.

Before the advent of such socialist ideals, the earliest libraries were dependent on the patronage of royal or church which was perhaps more focused on the preservation of culture, heritage, and knowledge, especially of religious material and artifacts which motivated the need for printing and the wider circulation of the written word. Knowledge was power and societies that valued, sponsored and built libraries knew this; emerging from the Middle Ages into Scholasticism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and eventually the development of liberal democracy. 

These days state and national libraries have also become concerned with the process of copyright. And libraries are keenly aware of the need to maintain the balance between protecting the rights of authors and safeguarding the wider public interest. 

As such, elaborate and richly decorated private libraries—which were more about preserving the wealth of knowledge for the elite—has given way to more egalitarian social objectives of making it accessible to all. While the richly decorative and ornate libraries of the past, often limited to the privileged, may have its sentimental appeal, there’s something even richer and more intrinsically beautiful seeing a light-filled modern environment that is open to all and provides social opportunity and access to a potentially better life through the knowledge these contemporary libraries contain.

Digital transformation of the library typology

Where libraries may have once been silent sanctuaries for the housing and consumption of books, their contemporary interpretations—thanks to new technology and trailblazing design—are far from quiet. Step inside the world’s most recent and modern libraries and you’ll find dynamic tools and spaces, including amphitheatres for talks and discussions, interactive learning exhibits, podcast recording studios and game development labs. The introduction of robotic book-retrieval systems has made way for communal spaces punctuated with art, turning the library into a social sphere.

According to Pew Research Centre analysis of US library attendance undertaken in 2015, millennials use libraries more than any other generation. As a result, services and spaces have evolved to appeal to digitally native generations. One tradition has remained though: The art of making the library an architectural centrepiece. In the spirit of historic examples such as Dublin’s Trinity College Library or London’s British Museum Reading Room, today’s institutions are often designed to inspire. While historians consider the 17th century to be “the golden age of libraries,” these contemporary projects suggest a biblio-renaissance is well underway.

Towards libraries of the future

In my own city of Sydney in New South Wales, the recently completed and excellent examples of the Marrickville Library and Pavilion, Green Square Library, Exchange at Darling Square in Chinatown, Surry Hills Library and Parramatta Square Library are assuring indications that libraries are still seen as valuable social infrastructure with its valid place in any urban community. It is heartening to see these institutions as well worth investing in by state and local government, with briefs and design commissions that have produced commendable and award-winning architectural outcomes.

The current social media trajectory and the digitisation of books, with e-books and audiobooks, and ever-evolving audio-visual formats now becoming a part of the mix of library content, hasn’t diluted importance of libraries from a space and social synchronicity perspective. Rather than kill off the need for libraries it has ensured that libraries continue to thrive and evolve as a highly relevant and important social institution.

Featuring some libraries in detail

Here’s a look at some significant libraries, both ancient and new. You can take a virtual tour of these libraries via the videos included with each one. The list is organised by continents, namely: 

  • Australasia
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • North America
  • South America

You can also search libraries according to category of architectural style listed on the side-bar on the right.

Australasia

Australia - Barr Smith Library @ Uni of Adelaide

  • Completed: 1932                         
  • Designer: Woods, Bagot and Laybourne Smith
  • Architectural style: Georgian Revivalist

In 1927, the last heir to a prominent philanthropic Australian family offered £20,000 to the University of Adelaide for a new library, on the condition that it be named after his father, Robert Barr Smith. The red brick library was completed in 1932, complete with two friezes commemorating the donations of the Barr Smiths. Since the collection expanded quite quickly, addition after addition had to be added. These days, the library holds over two million volumes and now spans over almost 21,000 m2.

Australia - Exchange @ Darling Square, Sydney, NSW

  • Completed: 2019       
  • Designer: Kengo Kuma & Associates
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Housed in a spiralling bird’s nest, The Exchange Darling Square features a new library spread out over two levels. The state-of-the-art library offers free Wi-Fi, public use computers, study spaces, meeting rooms, couches to sit and read and even a dedicated children’s area making it one of the best Sydney community libraries. If all that studying and reading gets your tummy grumbling, check out the restaurant area on the ground level and the many other eateries around it.

Australia - Green Square Library, NSW

  • Completed: 2018       
  • Designer: Studio Hollenstein
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Green Square Library and Plaza is an urban living room located at the heart of Australia’s largest urban renewal area and includes a 3,000 sqm library and an 8,000sqm plaza. The commission was won through an anonymous global design competition with the scheme unanimously selected by the jury, which included Pritzker Prize winner Glenn Murcutt.

The competition brief called for two distinct components — a public plaza and a library. The unique design response fuses these elements together by placing the library largely underground and maximising the public open space at ground level. This arrangement allows the community to gather outdoors and enjoy the pleasant Sydney climate, whilst providing a light-filled, community haven below with 42 large skylights delivering light to the space below and where visitors can retreat from the noise of the city.

Key volumes protrude from the underground library puncturing the public realm at plaza level bringing light, air, and access to the space below. The legible geometries of a triangle, circle, square and trapezium are placed strategically as a field of social instruments within the plaza. The design is intentionally informal and programmatically sustainable, providing a shared territory for multiple uses—suitable for the evolving role of the library and an expanding population. The building includes brightly coloured meeting rooms, a computer lab, a music room for practice and performance, double height reading room, children’s area, and outdoor amphitheatre for events.

The library and plaza achieve a 5-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. Its sustainability features include a central wastewater system and a low energy displacement ventilation system within the library bookshelves. In response to its location within the water table, the underground library utilises a 3-layer waterproofing system.

Australia - Marrickville Library & Pavilion, NSW

  • Completed: 2020       
  • Designer: BVN Architecture (Bligh Voller Nield)
  • Architectural style: Modernist, Heritage Adaptive Re-use

If you’re looking for a Library with modern and spacious design, ample seating areas and a place to enjoy a coffee then you must check out Marrickville Library and Pavilion in a Sydney suburb. The well-stocked shelves are sure to have your favourites and new releases that you can enjoy in a quiet space. From the moment you walk up to this immaculately designed space, you’ll find a warming sense of community. There is beauty wood toned which flows throughout the space, inviting you in for refuge from the concrete jungle outside. Throw in the fact tht it has an on-site cafe and it’s no wonder many would spend a few weekends here during winter.

An oversized folding roof is a kind of exclamation point on the busy Marrickville Rd, in Sydney’s inner west. It’s a beacon of change, for what used to be a humble little library. Set back from the street by a lush sunken lawn, the floating roof canopy sits atop huge timber columns, providing shelter, connection, and a dramatic welcome. It’s eye-catching and proud. And it’s gained iconic status already, amongst the community.

Inside, Marrickville Library is a mecca for book lovers. It’s also a leisure space, workplace, family zone and study nook. A hub for many different people in many ways. Enter, and immediately you’re basking in sunlight. Double and triple-height spaces create a vast open foyer with warm wood tones. There are skylights for extra illumination, and a large timber auditorium stair with comfortable, cushioned seating. Sculptural open-air verandas, a suspended bridge and connective spaces reveal activity everywhere.

The brief called for a style that would entice people for study, work and events as much as for library services. We brought our insights from workplace and school design to create a space that met deeper needs: bringing people out of their homes, giving them opportunities for connection and independence, then surrounding them with natural light, fresh air and warm colours.

Marrickville Library includes the adaptive re-use of the 1897 Marrickville Hospital. Paying tribute to this legacy many of the original features were retained and restored, including timber windows and balustrades, terrazzo flooring, and ceiling beams.

Marrickville Library is uncompromising on sustainability. The bricks of demolished buildings on the site were recycled for reuse in the retaining walls and forecourt paving. We incorporated natural and mixed-mode ventilation and rainwater tanks. Solar gain was reduced with overhangs and sun shading, used recycled timber and low maintenance planting. The result: a sensitive heritage adaptation, an environmentally friendly contemporary design and a 25% reduction in ongoing energy use.

Australia - Parramatta Square Library, NSW

  • Completed: 2023       
  • Designer: Design Inc, Lacoste & Stevenson, with Manuelle Gautrand Architecture
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Parramatta Square library, aka PHIVE is one of the newest libraries in Sydney and a fantastic hub for book lovers in Western Sydney. The library made a big splash when it opened in April 2022, courtesy of its enormous floor space. The six-storey building houses not only a state-of-the-art library but also cultural heritage spaces, exhibition areas, cafes, live performances, and creative spaces plus more.

The building is sculpturesque in design, with more than 549 unique tessellated panels in five native flora-inspired colours gracing the building’s façade. The roof sits on a series of stacked, fragmented crystalline blocks designed to follow the sun and provide natural light throughout. Giant louvres respond to weather conditions and automatically open to fill the building with fresh air. It is a truly smart building. The design delivers permeability through the building with the use of voids, linking stairs and transparent materials, to create a welcoming, open and expressive building. 

Australia - State Library of New South Wales

  • Completed: 1845, Mitchell Wing in 1910
  • Designer: Walter Liberty Vernon
  • Architectural style: Academic Neo-Classical

The oldest library in all of Australia, the NSW State Library started as the Australian Subscription Library in 1826, before the current building was completed. The most famous, and most stunning, part of the library is the Mitchell Wing, which was completed in 1910. The wing was named for David Scott Mitchell who had a fantastic collection of older books, including original journals of James Cook. The library now houses over 5 million items, including 2 million books and 1.1 million photographs.

While the outside of the State Library is quite contemporary, the inside is ornate, classic, and very beautiful. The library is of particular interest to anyone who wants to learn more about Australian heritage and history. It’s home to a large selection of books by indigenous authors, since the library has collections focusing on pre-European settlement.

Australia - State Library of South Australia

  • Completed: 1884       
  • Designer: E J Woods
  • Architectural style: French Renaissance

The State Library of South Australia dedicates its work to preserving the stories of the Kaurna people in the Adelaide plains and South Australia. Blending both contemporary flair and Victorian charm, the library is comprised of three buildings: the modern Catherine Helen Spence Wing, the historic Mortlock Wing, and the studious Institute Building.

The State Library of South Australia is not as large as some of the other Australian State libraries, but it does have the distinction of having the largest collection dating from pre-European times in its South Australiana collection. This collection is mostly contained within the Mortlock Wing, the oldest and most gorgeous part of the library. Opened in 1884, the building known as the Mortlock Wing originally held 23,000 books and employed three librarians. Since then, the collection has expanded so much that two massive buildings had to be added to the library, although this wing remains the most visually impressive. The building is French Renaissance in style with a mansard roof. The walls are constructed of brick with Sydney freestone facings with decorations in the darker shade of Manoora stone.

The interior has two galleries, the first supported by masonry columns, and the second by cast iron brackets. The balconies feature wrought iron balustrading ornamented with gold while the glass-domed roof allows the chamber to be lit with natural light. Two of the original gas “sunburner” lamps survive in the office space located on the second floor at the southern end. The 19th-century Mortlock Chamber has been nicknamed the “Harry Potter Room” due to its resemblance to the fictional grand library in Hogwarts.

Restoration of the building occurred in 1985 as a Jubilee 150 project by Danvers Architects, consultant architect to the South Australian Department of Housing and Construction.

Australia - Surry Hills Library, NSW

  • Completed: 2009       
  • Designer: FJMT (Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp – Matthew Todd, Mark Brandon)
  • Architectural style: Modernist

This project is prominently located in the heart of Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney whose community is characterised by a diversity of age, income and cultural backgrounds. The architectural context is also diverse: residential apartments, terrace housing, shops and commercial/industrial premises vary in scale though their architectural style is predominantly Victorian. The site is very constrained, measuring just 25 by 28 metres and bound on three edges by roads: Crown Street, the main street of Surry Hills, to the east and two residential streets to the south and west.

The project’s brief was developed in close consultation with the very active local community. The key approach that emerged from these discussions was that the community wanted a facility that everyone could share. Rather than only a library or a community centre or childcare centre, it became clear that it was important to have all these facilities together in one building, in one place. In this way the building became a truly shared place where the whole community could meet and use in different ways. Important, too, was for the building to represent and reflect the community’s values.

In response a new type of public building was developed. It is not a singular typology, for which there are many precedents, but a hybrid public building that is many different things in one: a library/resource centre, community centre and childcare centre all integrated into one modest building and accessible by all.

Transparency became an architectural theme at many levels, allowing an inviting and welcoming building that is accessible and open to public view. At the same time, it was important that the building was not merely ‘transparent’, or only expose what is accommodated within, but that it represented and embodied the values of the community. Accessibility, openness, transparency, and sustainability were key values, as was a general sense of aspiration.

Australia - Victorian Parliamentary Library

  • Completed: 1861      
  • Designer: Peter Kerr and John George Knight
  • Architectural style: Roman Revivalist

The Victorian Parliament House was built in stages, starting in 1855, and the library was one of the first things completed after the Legislative Assembly and Council. While construction continued all the way through 1929, the building’s Roman Revival design is fluent and smooth, so the whole thing seems like one single entity rather than a series of extra wings tagged on throughout the years.

The three connected rooms of the parliamentary library hold more than 50,000 books, and reports. Upstairs, the Deakin Gallery displays just part of Parliament’s extensive historical collection.

Australia - Victorian State Library, Melbourne

  • Completed: 1856, domed reading room in 1913, revamp 2019
  • Designer: James Reed (subsequently Bates, Peebles & Smart), Architectus with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects (revamp)
  • Architectural style: Neo-classical, Modernist (extension)

This library was first opened with a mere collection of 3,800 books, and the famous domed reading room was subsequently opened in 1913. While the dome’s skylights were covered with copper sheets in 1959 due to water leakage, they have since been renovated, allowing beautiful natural light to fill the reading room once again. This library is not only massive – containing over 2 million books – it also has some fantastic rarities, including the diaries of the city’s founders, folios of Captain James Cook, and the armour of famed outlaw Ned Kelly.

One of the first free public libraries in the world, the State Library of Victoria has remained dedicated to being a place for discovery and education since 1854. Inside the Neoclassical library several books and artifacts detailing the history of the Victoria region and its culture. The regal La Trobe Reading Room alone houses nearly 32,000 books across its octagonal walls.

At the heart of Vision 2020 program, completed in 2019, was the refurbishment of the library’s incomparable heritage spaces, the creation of innovative new spaces for children and teenagers, and the reinvention of our services as we embrace new technologies and promote digital literacy and creativity for all Victorians. The program has ensured that the library continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of our vibrant, diverse community of the people of Victoria, today and into the future.

Asia

Bhutan - National Library of Bhutan, Thimpu

  • Completed: 1984       
  • Designer: Unknown 
  • Architectural style: Traditional Bhutanese

The National Library of Bhutan is also technically a Buddhist temple, and the structure is intended to integrate the three aspects of Buddha and his teachings: the physical represented by statues and paintings, the speech represented by books and printing blocks, and the heart represented by the eight small bowls found on the shrine on the first floor. The library is home to about 6100 Tibetan and Bhutanese books, manuscripts, and xylographs, and about 9000 printing boards and wood printing blocks. While the collection isn’t massive, it is one of the largest collections of Buddhist literature in the world.

China – Mulan Weicheng Library & Visitors Centre, Hebei

  • Completed: 2017       
  • Designer: Zhang Hai’ao (HDD)
  • Architectural style: Organic Modernist

Mulan Weicheng is in the northeast of Hebei province, connected to inner Mongolia grassland, which is one of the most beautiful landscapes on the earth. The ancient Chinese emperors used to hold autumn hunting festivals there through the history.

The architects’ main goal was to blend the building into this vast nature seamlessly. The goal was achieved in three different ways. The first was to be inspired by local architecture. The second was to use local material including old stone, used wooden beams and rattan. Together with surrounding micro landscape, the building could fit into the vast nature.

The architect Zhang Hai’ao thinks the relationship between architecture and symbolism was so overwhelmed along the human history. The most difficult part of the project was to create eternal relationship between grassland and the building. Many elements were taken from the traditional yurt building, for example: the pattern and the facade.

Two big circles create the main living room, extending the traditional yurt layout. While the extended boxes become the semi-public space. This kind of layout makes the yurt fit the modern lifestyle. In terms of facade designing, by creating wooden frames in different thickness, the flower shaped roof could be made. The interior space is derived from the traditional yurt interior by using framing in different direction.

The main core of the building is the double circled lobby, also serving as a local library. The second floor provides the area for kids. The design concept of the main lobby is based on the yurt interior. In the future, it will also be the central library for the region. Local children could come here to read and play.

China – Liyuan Library, Huairu

  • Completed: 2018       
  • Designer: Li Xiaodong Atelier
  • Architectural style: Eco-friendly Modernist

The Liyuan library designed by Li Xiaodong Atelier is a modest addition to the small village of Huairou on the outskirts of Beijing, just under a two hours’ drive from busy Beijing urban life.

On the one hand it forms a modern programmatic complement to the village by adding a small library and reading space within a setting of quiet contemplation. It also uses architecture to enhance the appreciation of the surrounding natural landscape. Rather than adding a new building inside the village centre, this site was chosen in the nearby mountains, which is a pleasant five-minute walk from the village centre.

Because of the overwhelming beauty of the surrounding nature, the buildings intervention is modest in its outward expression. The building blends into the landscape through the delicate choice of materials and the careful placement of the building volume. Especially the choice of material is crucial in blending with the regional characteristics. After analysing the local material characteristics in the village, large amounts of locally sourced wooden sticks were found piled around each house. The villagers gather these sticks all year round to fuel their cooking stoves. This ordinary material was selected to be used in an extraordinary way, cladding the building in a familiar texture, but in a way that is strikingly sensitive.

The inside of the building has a very expressive character; its interior is spatially diverse by using steps and small level changes to create distinct places. It frames views towards the surrounding landscape and acts as an embracing shelter. The building is fully glazed to allow for daylight into the interior space. The wooden sticks temper the bright light and spread it evenly throughout the space to provide for a perfect reading ambiance.

China - National Library of China, Beijing

  • Completed: 1987 (old buildings),    
  • Designer: KSP Jurgen Engel Architekten
  • Architectural style: Traditional Chinese, Modernist

If you’re looking for info on China’s ancient history, the National Library of China’s old buildings might be a good place to start. They serve as the home to a vast array of historical and ancient books and manuscripts—even inscribed tortoise shells. And though the buildings themselves are designed in a traditional Chinese style, they were only completed in 1987.

Founded in 1909 by the government of the Qing dynasty, the National Library of China has amassed an astronomical collection of over 37 million items including the largest array of Chinese literature in the world. Students, researchers, and book lovers from across the country flood the three different structures of the library. The newest addition, the North Area, is divide into two levels: the lower holding the geometric reading room and reference library signifying the old, and the upper, housing the digital library representing the future and evolving technology.

China - Tianjin Binhai Library, Tianjin

  • Completed: 2017       
  • Designer: Dutch architectural firm MVRDV
  • Architectural style: Modernist

It’s no surprise that images of the Tianjin Binhai Library went viral when the building opened its doors in 2017 to receive over 10,000 visitors per day. The futuristic library features an atrium with floor-to-ceiling shelving that appears to house an endless number of books. It makes visiting the Tianjin Binhai Library feel as though you are traveling through a sea of books, with a spherical auditorium at the centre of this library. The five-story space has the capacity to fit over a million books, but the only stores 200,000 volumes. 

There’s a catch though: Not all the books are real. Inaccessible shelves have been filled with aluminium plates digitally printed with book images. Regardless of this controversial detail, the building’s social media popularity has turned the project into Tianjin’s number one tourist attraction and a testament to the important role of design in library attendance.

China - Tianyi Pavilion Library, Ningbo City

  • Completed: 1561       
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Traditional Chinese

If you’re looking for real traditional Chinese architecture, you’ll need to leave Beijing and head over to Ningbo City—home to the oldest private library in Asia. Built in 1560 by a retired imperial minister, Tianyi Pavilion Library is the third oldest private library in the world. As you might expect, the collection is rather impressive: 300,000 ancient books, including several woodcut and handwritten titles.

China - Zhongshuge Bookstore, Dujiangyan, Chengdu

  • Completed: 2019      
  • Designer: X+Living Architectural Design (Shanghai) Co.
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Not quite a library, this Chengdu bookstore will seem like it is playing tricks on your mind as you step inside its labyrinth of mirrors, black interiors and – of course – thousands of books. Mirrored ceilings and zigzag staircases help form the perplexing interiors of this bookstore in south-west China.

China - Zhongshuge Bookstore, Yangzhou

  • Completed: 2016      
  • Designer: X+Living Architectural Design (Shanghai) Co.
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Once one of China’s most prosperous cities, Yangzhou has a long history of wealth both material and cultural. The artists, poets, and scholars who have called Yangzhou home have found their inspiration in the ancient gardens, temples, and public pavilions, set against a picturesque landscape of lakes and canals alongside the Yangtze River as it flows down to Shanghai. Now the postcard-perfect locale has also inspired a bookstore, Zhongshuge, by X + Living Architectural Design (Shanghai) Co.

Known for combining arresting displays with plenty of room to peruse, Zhongshuge, named after the owner’s daughter, is a hugely successful chain. That’s thanks, in general, to the enduring popularity of print in a country that is also whole-heartedly embracing the Internet and, more specifically, to interiors that are more library than commercial space. X + Living had already completed five of Zhongshuge’s stores when the firm was entrusted to design the Yangzhou location. X + Living design director Li Xiang says she was allowed a free hand in developing the shop’s concept, due to the trust that the owner placed in her talent: “He didn’t have too many demands, as he respects my philosophy.”

Number six is in the low-rise riverside Zhenyuan shopping and dining district. “The complex is a landmark, with architecture that conforms to the historic buildings in the surrounding areas,” Li says. “Zhongshuge’s design takes these environments into account. Their solution was to extract Yangzhou’s cultural symbols as well as elements from the complex, then convey them as much as possible through contemporary means.” The result is a microcosm of Yangzhou. 

India - David Sassoon Library, Mumbai

  • Completed: 1870       
  • Designer: J Campbell and G E Gosling
  • Architectural style: Gothic Revivalist, Venetian Gothic

The David Sassoon Library is one of only 145 monuments protected by India’s government, and the oldest library in Mumbai. One of its most famous features is the beautiful garden in the back—a rare sight in the commercial area in which it is located. The library and reading room were originally intended to be an entire institute dedicated to mechanics, science, and technology, but funding ran short. The Sassoon Mechanic’s Institute was renamed the David Sasson Library and Reading Room after its primary donor.

India - Raza Library, Rampur

  • Completed: 1870       
  • Designer: J Campbell and G E Gosling
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The Raza Library in Rampur was once part of a palace. While many of the royal family’s other properties have been left to crumble, the library is still protected by the Indian government—another one of the country’s few protected monuments. The royal family started gathering works for the library way back in 1774. Included in their collection are 17,000 rare manuscripts, 205 hand-written palm leaves and 5000 miniature paintings.

As an archive of Indo-Islamic cultural heritage, the halls of Raza Library are full of books, paintings, historical documents, and manuscripts of significant national importance. The library was established by Nawab Faizullah Khan in 1774, the institution is now run by the central government. Housed in a fort named Hamid Manzil, the building was designed in a style known as Indo-Saracenic. This aesthetic combines elements of Islamic, Hindu, and Victorian Gothic and was mainly use by British architects in India during the 19th century.

The grand building that houses the collection was originally built in 1904 as a mansion for Nawab Hamid Ali Khan, but it was converted into a library in the 1950s. The palace-like library houses an incredible collection of Indian and Asian works, including manuscripts, historical documents, Islamic calligraphy, and even an original parchment manuscript of the Quran.

Japan - Hachioji Library @ Tama Art University, Tokyo

  • Completed: 2007       
  • Designer: Toyo Ito & Associates
  • Architectural style: Minimalist, Modernist, Brutalist

With an open floor plan and concrete colonnades, this brutalist-inspired building exudes cool minimalism. Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning firm Toyo Ito & Associates, the head of the university, Hidemi Kondo, says the space plays an important role for students. Not only is it a place for research and education, but also a source of inspiration for the artists.

Minimalist yet breathtaking, the concrete arches of the Tama Art University Library in Tokyo echo ancient, vaulted spaces such as wine cellars and storied libraries. The architect’s intent for the sleek structure was for the curved details to seamlessly flow with the slopping outside landscapes. The first floor features an open gallery space for various art exhibitions with nearly 100,000 books making up the second-floor stacks.

Japan - Kanazawa Umimirai Library

  • Completed: 2011       
  • Designer: Kazumi Kudo and Hiroshi Horiba
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Kanazawa Umimirai Library is a contemporary public library located in Kanazawa city, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Its surface creates a decorative grid made of some 6000 small circular blocks of glass which puncture the concrete surface of the building in a triangular array.

Japan - Nakajima Library, Akita International University

  • Completed: 2010       
  • Designer: Mitsuru Senda
  • Architectural style: Eco-friendly, Modernist

This library, which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, never sleeps and always welcomes the students. It is the realization of the university’s desire to provide a place where students can study at any time.

The building has a complex structure with a unique design that combines wood and steel-enforced concrete in a semi-circular “book colosseum” theme. It uses plenty of Akita cedar trees grown in the prefecture, and while its umbrella-roof that makes use of traditional techniques exudes an overwhelming presence, at the same time users are given a sense of peace of mind and tranquility from the beautiful cedar all around.

Japan - Musashino Art University Museum & Library, Tokyo

  • Completed: 2010       
  • Designer: Sou Fujimoto Architects
  • Architectural style: Modernist

In addition to chairs and tables, there’s one piece of furniture you’re guaranteed to see in nearly every library—a bookshelf. But for the library at Musashino Art University, the architect took that idea to the extreme, building full-height walls “comprising enormous bookcases. Enclosed within the building’s glass façade, the otherwise ordinary storage units create a compelling architectural statement when used in multiples.

Although there’s plenty of room for storage, most of the bookshelves remain empty. A surprising twist for a library, it represents Fujimoto’s knowing nod to the growing importance of digital information. In this library, the stacks are populated with people.

Japan - Nakanoshima Children’s Book Forest, Osaka

  • Completed: 2019       
  • Designer: Tadao Ando
  • Architectural style: Modernist

After a long and fruitful career, Tadao Ando decided that it was time for him to make an altruistic contribution to Osaka, the city where he was raised and developed as an architect. Ando wanted to pay tribute to the children of Osaka, the next generation of Japan, through a building based on two essential concepts: the idea of growth associated to childhood, and the belief that books are nutrition for the developing mind. By creating a children’s library, both concepts are fused to create a place for knowledge: a truly ‘free’ architecture to read and enjoy books.

With the understanding that Ando would take care of the construction costs, the city government agreed to cede a site adjacent to Nakanoshima Park, located on an island that harbors some of the city’s cultural institutions. The library is an arc shape that is connected with Dojima River, along the rear facade, through a large terrace covered by a concrete canopy. A triple-story atrium with full-height bookshelves characterizes the interior, and each of the unique architectural elements including the stairs, bridges, and passageways are composed like a three-dimensional labyrinth of Escher.

Japan - Nakanoshima Libary, Osaka

  • Completed: 1904       
  • Designer: Noguchi Magoichi and Hidaka Yutaka
  • Architectural style: Neo-Baroque

This library might not be something one would immediately associate with Japan, but the 1904 Nakanoshima Library fits in quite well in Osaka, as the area has quite a few other stone-walled buildings with similar architecture. This building, complete with a copper roof dome, is one of the more stunning.

North Korea - Grand People’s Study House

  • Completed: 1982       
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Traditional Korean

The Study House was completed 1982 in honour of Kim Il-Sung’s 70th birthday and features an amazing 600 rooms with capacity for 30 million books. Of course, being housed in North Korea, foreign publications are only available with special permission, so it will probably be a while before all the shelves are full.

People’s Study House is one of the most famous buildings in Pyongyang. North Korea’s central library is located at Kim Il-Sung Square in the heart of Pyongyang. It was built in a traditional Korean style over a period of 21 months and was opened as the “centre for the project of intellectualising the whole of society and a sanctuary of learning for the entire people.”

Singapore - National Library of Singapore

  • Completed: 2005       
  • Designer: Ken Yeang (T. R. Hamzah & Yeang)
  • Architectural style: Eco-friendly, High-tech Modernist

Following the demolition of the old and iconic National Library at Stamford Road in 2004 (a controversial move to make way for a new road tunnel), a new National Library building was developed via a design competition at a new site on Victoria Road. The new 16-storey complex houses mainly the collections of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, with the Central Public Library occupying the first of three basement floors. Designed by competition winner, ecologically conscious architect Ken Yeang, the building is replete with environment-friendly architectural features and has garnered many accolades both at home and abroad.

An architectural highlight of the building is the incorporation of environment-friendly technologies such as intelligent sensors that help reduce energy consumption. For instance, rain sensors reduce the amount of water channelled to the irrigation systems for the indoor gardens during rainy days, while light sensors dim or switch off indoor lights when there is sufficient sunlight entering the building. Motion sensors are also installed within escalators and toilet taps so that they switch on only when being used. Another eco-friendly feature is the air-conditioning system, which is constantly adjusted to regulate carbon dioxide levels in each section of the building, in addition to maintaining the desired temperature.

Unfortunately, whatever progressive, forward-looking, technology driven agenda for this institution was subsequently overshadowed by the backwardness of a small-minded censorship episode that ensued in 2014. This came in the form of a bigoted public complaint about the library holding two children’s books, namely ‘And Tango Makes Three’ and ‘The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption’, which were perceived to be promoting homosexuality and not in line with the condoned ‘pro-family’ national values. In response to divided public response to this complaint, the National Library Board proceeded to not just remove the objectionable books from the shelf but to pulp them.

It was heartening to see a reading event, effectively a peaceful protest, occurring at the library when an event ‘Let’s Read Together’ was organised by two mothers against the small-minded censorship by the institution. A compromise was eventually reached, and the matter resolved by the then Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts. He decided not to pulp the books but to instead place them in the adult section, thereby leaving the decision for what books children should read in the hands of parents who could borrow the books for their children should they wish. What a relief that good sense prevailed then, but to think that this regressive, intolerant anti-social move could have preceded the current DeSantis’ Florida conservative culture wars debacle—which has effectively revived religiously and hate-driven censorship in modern times—is nothing less than alarming!

South Korea - Haeinsa Monastery, Mount Gaya

  • Completed: 802       
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Korean Vernacular

The Haeinsa Monastery isn’t what we think of as a library, but since the Middle Ages it has housed the Tripitaka Koreana, “the most complete and accurate corpus of Buddhist doctrinal texts in the world,” according to UNESCO. The Haesina is a repository for the woodblocks used to print pages before the invention of the printing press. The woodblocks are stored on shelves much like bookshelves and the building is one of the largest wooden storage facilities in the world.

South Korea - National Library of Korea, Sejong City

  • Completed: 2013       
  • Designer: Samoo Architects & Engineers
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The National Library of Korea is in the Seocho District of Seoul, South Korea. The library was established in 1945 and houses over 10 million volumes, including over 1,134,000 foreign books and some of the National Treasures of South Korea.

The new National Library of Sejong City was designed with the motif of a book page being turned over, a simple geometry of a gently curved paper forms the basis of the design and creates a unique outline that is easily recognizable as one of the landmark buildings of the city. As one of the strategies in designing the building, the library was also planned to become an Emotional Library, a place where analogue and digital formats converge for the convenience of the users and to maximize the possibilities of the library.

South Korea - Starfield Library @ COEX Mall, Gangnam, Seoul

  • Completed: 2017       
  • Designer: Gensler
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Sitting inside the world’s largest underground shopping mall, the Starfield Library houses nearly 50,000 books and magazines spanning genres. Lights from the two-story athenaeum cause the space to glow throughout the day and welcome in visitors to relax on the plush sofas. Each month, the library hosts a range of events from author lectures to art exhibitions.

One might mistake this modern space for a bookstore because it’s located within a shopping mall, but the architectural marvel is very much a public library. The airy, double-story space is filled with giant, wraparound bookcases and impressive rotating artworks, such as holiday displays or stacks of books painted to create charming illustrations. There’s ample seating, iPads, and more than 50,000 books to keep you busy in this mind-blowing library.  

Taiwan - Beitou Library

  • Completed: 2015       
  • Designer: Kuo Ying-chao
  • Architectural style: Eco-friendly, Organic Modernist

While this attractive building might not be the most beautiful one in this selection, it may be one of the more eco-friendly ones. The slanted roof collects moisture from humidity and rain, and then recycles it for the restrooms and gardens. The Beitou Library has also been fitted with solar panels and deep-set and latticed windows to reduce energy use.

Reading just got a lot greener with the ecological design of the Beitou Public Library. The slanted roof of the two-story wooden facility captures rainwater which is stored to use within the structure’s lavatory; the large French-style ushers in natural light, reducing electricity consumption. Complete with balconies overlooking native flora, the Beitou Public Library feels as though you’ve stepped into a literary treehouse.

Taiwan’s first green library, this building’s sloping turf roof preserves rainwater which is recycled back into the library’s operations, as well as features photovoltaic cells which capture solar energy. But when you’re there you’ll be forgiven for forgetting its eco-friendly bona fides in favour of its light-filled, airy levels containing an impressive selection of newspapers and periodicals, Chinese-language books, and special collections. The glass-and-wood respite with idyllic surrounding greenery looks like a book-lover utopia as much as it feels like one.

Middle East

Egypt - Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria

  • Completed: 2002       
  • Designer: Snøhetta
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The original Library of Alexandria housed the largest collection of books and manuscripts of its time and was regarded as the capital of knowledge before it was destroyed in a fire nearly 2,000 years ago.

The original Library of Alexandria, established in the third century BC, was one of the ancient world’s most important centres of knowledge until it was destroyed in the third century AD. It housed the largest collection of books and manuscripts of its time and was regarded as the capital of knowledge before it was destroyed in a fire nearly 2,00 years ago. Julius Caesar might have burned down the famous, ancient library of Alexandria, but these days, Egypt is paying homage to that great monument of antiquity.

The new Bibliotheca Alexandrina was to be built with the hope of recapturing the spirit and scholarship of the ancient world’s largest and most comprehensive library. The circular, granite building may not look like the original library (based on historical descriptions), but it is certainly beautiful — it’s covered in carvings from local artists and surrounded by a clear, blue reflecting pool.

The project marked the arrival of Snøhetta, a previously unknown Norwegian architecture firm that beat out more than 1,400 competitors for the design commission (and went on to design many other high-profile buildings, among them the National September 11 Museum pavilion in New York). The enormous lopsided building, which tilts toward the Mediterranean Sea, holds a range of specialized libraries, four museums, a planetarium, a virtual-reality environment, academic research centres, art galleries, and a conference centre.

The new institution includes a library room with room for eight million books, four museums, four art galleries, a planetarium, and a manuscript-restoration laboratory. Etches of 120 different scripts cover the grey Aswan granite walls as a tribute to the evolution of human language.

Qatar - National Library, Doha

  • Completed: 2017       
  • Designer: OMA
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The wow factor of the Qatar National Library begins at its entrance, which immediately brings visitors to the centre of a 44,130 m2 space designed by Dutch firm OMA. With over a million books from the Doha’s National Library, Public Library, and University Library, the library’s collections are best perused via the “people mover” (a cross between an elevator and an escalator).

Since opening in 2017, the library’s programming has focused on bridging the past and present through concerts and an exposition of historical archives in six-meter-deep glass vitrines, symbolizing an excavation site. “From the main library in the plaza, you can look down and see all the books from the Heritage Collection”, says Vincent Kersten, Senior Architect at OMA. “It’s not only a storage but also an exhibition.”

Europe

Austria - Admont Abbey Library

  • Completed: 1776       
  • Designer: Joseph Hueber
  • Architectural style: Baroque

The Admont Abbey Library is the largest monastery library in the world. The ceiling is adorned with frescoes depicting the stages of human knowledge up until the Divine Revelation. The entire design reflects the ideals and values of the Enlightenment.

Attached to one of the oldest and largest monasteries remaining in Styria (a state in Austria), the Admont Abbey Library exhibits striking Baroque-style artisanship and holds an impressive 70,000 volume collection. The hall is drenched in gold and white hues with seven cupolas and elaborate lime-wood carvings throughout. The jaw-dropping ceiling frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte depict different phases of human knowledge and play off Joseph Stammel’s sculptural series “Four Last Things.”

Austria - Austrian National Library, Vienna

  • Completed: 1723       
  • Designer: Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and his son Johann Emanuel
  • Architectural style: Baroque

Austria’s largest library is in Hofburg Palace in Vienna and houses over 7.4 million items in its collections. The library was completed in 1723 and features sculptures by Lorenzo Mattielli and Peter Strudel and frescoes by Daniel Gran.

The former court library to the House of Habsburg, this Baroque treasure hosts over 7 million objects dating back as far as the 4th century. The Austrian National Library found its permanent home in the Hofburg Palace in 1735 after the space was constructed by architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and his son Johann Emanuel. A work of art all on its own, the State Hall of the library stretches nearly 80 meters with a vibrant ceiling fresco by painter Daniel Gran and a collection of four Venetian globes.

Austria - Kremsmünster Abbey Library

  • Completed: 1680-1689       
  • Designer: Carlo Antonio Carlone
  • Architectural style: Baroque

This magnificent Benedictine monastery library is one of the great libraries of Austria and contains about 160,000 volumes, besides 1,700 manuscripts and nearly 2,000 incunabula (ie. books, pamphlets or broadsheets that were printed in the earlier stages of printing in Europe). The library interiors feature elaborate ornamentation and distinctive ceiling frescoes.

The most valuable book held by the library is the “Codex Millenarius”, a Gospel Book written around 800 in Mondsee Abbey. Facsimiles of this codex may be found in the libraries of several universities throughout the world.

Austria - Melk Monastery Library

  • Completed: 1736       
  • Designer: Jakob Prandtauer
  • Architectural style: Baroque

This abbey and its library include a world-famous collection of musical manuscripts and features stunning frescoes by artist Paul Troger.

Austria - St. Florian Monastery Library

  • Completed: 1747       
  • Designer: Johann Gotthard Hayberger
  • Architectural style: Baroque

A succession of monasteries has stood on the grounds since 819, but the current building, a masterwork of Baroque architecture, was completed in the 18th century. Its basilica and art gallery are both celebrated destinations on their own, but it’s the monastery’s library that is perhaps the most transporting environment of all. The library’s interior is a masterwork of Baroque architecture with elaborate carved-wood bookcases and balustrades with gilded details. A ceiling fresco by Bartolomeo Altomonte, completed in 1747, presents allegorical subjects who watch over the great room from the clouds.

The library comprises about 130,000 items, including many manuscripts. The gallery contains numerous works of the 16th and 17th centuries, but also some late medieval works of the Danube School, particularly by Albrecht Altdorfer. As an aside, the St. Florian Monastery was home to Anton Bruckner, where he received his early education as a choirboy and later returned as teacher and organist.

Czechia - Strahov Monastery Library, Prague

  • Completed: 1679       
  • Designer: Giovanni Dominik Ors
  • Architectural style: Baroque

The oldest part of the Library of Strahov Monastery, the Baroque Theological Hall, was established between 1671 and 1674, making the establishment one of the oldest historical libraries in the world. It is regarded as one of the best-preserved historical libraries with its thousands of books dating all the way back to the 16th century. Otherworldly frescoes by Siard Nosecký and Anton Maulbertsch decorate the ceilings as gilded and carved bookshelves house the library’s tomes. The Philosophers’ Hall features a rarity cabinet filled with different animals, minerals, and mock fruits.

This impressive library collection contains over 200,000 volumes, including just about every important title printed in central Europe by the end of the 18th century. And as if the gorgeous décor and impressive book collection weren’t impressive enough on their own, the library also has a favourite feature of many geeks – two secret passageways hidden by bookshelves and opened with fake books.

This beautiful library features an ornate, stucco ceiling of Biblical artwork. On top of being home to several thousand volumes of books, it’s also a splendid art gallery that is certainly a must-see for anyone visiting Prague.

Czechia - Klementinum National Library, Prague

  • Completed: 1722       
  • Designer: Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer
  • Architectural style: Baroque

The series of buildings that make up this National Library owe their inception to an 11th century chapel dedicated to Saint Clement (hence the name). The National Library itself was founded in 1781 and has served as a copyright library since 1782. The collection now includes historical examples of Czech literature, special materials relating to Tycho Brahe, and a unique collection of Mozart’s personal effects.

With its ornate ceiling frescoes by Jan Hiebl and rich gold-and-mahogany spiral pillars, it’s no wonder why the Klementinum is touted as “the Baroque pearl of Prague.” The library first opened in 1722 as a part of a Jesuit university but now serves as the National Library of Czechia, housing over 20,00 volumes of foreign theological literature. A portrait of Emperor Joseph II sits at the head of the hall to commemorate his work in preserving books from abolished monastic libraries, many of which remain in the hall today.

With elaborate ceiling frescoes and spiralling wood columns topped by gilded capitals, there is no mistaking the aptly named Baroque Library’s grand ambitions. Containing a selection of unusual, oversized globes, it offers a reminder of its former patrons’ quest for worldly knowledge.

Denmark - Danish Royal Library, Copenhagen

  • Completed: Black Diamond extension 1999, old library 1648       
  • Designer: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The Danish Royal Library is the national library of Denmark, founded in 1648 by King Frederik III. The library holds all works printed in Denmark since the 17th century and nearly every Danish book ever written, dating back to the first Danish book printed in 1482. The Danish Royal Library is the largest library among the Nordic countries. Many significant works, including the correspondence of Hans Christian Anderson and historical maps of the Polar Region, are held here. Holdings also include the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, named for Icelandic scholar Arnas Magnæan, who dedicated much of his life collecting manuscripts from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden until his death in 1730.

The modern extension doubled the size of Copenhagen’s original Royal Library when it was completed in 1999. Clad in polished black granite, the structure is nicknamed the Black Diamond. But it isn’t just a dark box—the building’s monolithic form is bisected by an atrium of clear glass, which offers a dramatic sense of transparency. The central atrium opens the library up to the city and water, softening the edifice’s powerful stature. Most of the public functions are located here at the core of the building, which is intended to serve as a public gathering space, while deeper interior spaces offer more insulated rooms for study.

Finland - Helsinki Central Library Oodi, Helsinki

  • Completed: 2018       
  • Designer: ALA (Juho Grönholm, Antii Nousjoki & Samuli Woolston, lead)
  • Architectural style: Modernist

For a cultural institution defined by silence, in a country known for its love of the same, the new Helsinki Central Library, which opens this week, has been the talk of the town. The 185,774-square-foot, Finnish spruce timber–clad library, called Oodi (“ode” in Finnish) is the work of local architect firm ALA, led by Juho Grönholm, Antti Nousjoki, and Samuli Woolston, who were chosen following an anonymous competition. Some of Oodi’s famous neighbours include Finlandia Hall, Alvaar Aalto’s magnificent iceberg-inspired Concert Hall, and Finnish Parliament.

Finland is known for its vibrant library culture, but ALA’s design upset any traditional library model, most noticeably by relegating reading space and bookshelves to the top floor, which sits under an undulating roof (it also resembles an iceberg, creating a visual rhyme with Finlandia Hall). The library’s other two levels seem to meld into each other through a series of curving zero-threshold spaces that start in the outdoor plaza. They are spaces designed just for the public to hang out in in the heart of the city, “a civic living room.” That’s a dominant theme of the library’s design, following a mandate to promote democratic equality (other themes—active citizenship and freedom of expression—are answered by Oodi’s proximity also to the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper and the Parliament. The Living Room area also includes a theatre, a “Makers Space” equipped with 3-D printers, a children’s play area, and a recording studio. (At one point the architects considered a sauna as well.)

Art by Finnish artists Jani Ruscica and Otto Karvonen was commissioned for the building. With only a third of the library’s space devoted to books (a relatively meagre 100,000 volumes are on the shelves at a given time), Oodi is allowed to embrace emerging technology—including book-sorting robots—to create new opportunities to access books. The library’s 3.4 million other volumes are available, for example, through a much larger, cutting-edge distribution system. It’s an exciting, new space, miles away from the old idea of libraries as dark, immovable, and quiet temples. Antti Nousjoki, one of ALA’s three partners, says, “Oodi is a large public forum of thought and action operating under the library organization, but with a range of reach and functionality well beyond a traditional book depository.”

France - Biblioteque Nationale de France

  • Completed:1868, Extension 1994
  • Designer: Dominique Perrault (new building)
  • Architectural style:

The National Library of France has expanded greatly since new buildings were added to house the collection in 1988. Even so, the old buildings on the Rue de Richelieu are still in use and are utterly gorgeous as well. These buildings were completed in 1868, and by 1896 the library was the largest book repository in the world, although that record has since been taken from it.

Founded by Charles V. Despite in 1368, the first collection of the France’s national library was housed within a special room in the Louvre. Today, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France spans over four locations across Paris and houses over 10 million titles ranging from arts to law to philosophy. The institution displays countless exhibits and works of art including King Louis XIV’s colossal globes, which formerly lived at Versailles until the French Revolution.

In 1989, then-President of France François Mitterrand announced an international design competition for a new library that would be a part of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The bid was awarded to Dominique Perrault for his monumental design incorporating four glass towers shaped like open books on the four corners of a huge esplanade. Perrault’s design was modern and minimalist, which garnered him much criticism from the French, though many have grown to admire the library’s design. The reading rooms are sunken below and arranged around a garden courtyard containing full-size trees.

France - Bibliothèque de la Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, Paris

  • Completed: 1879, renovated 2004-2007
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Romanesque

The library at the Cite de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris is a must visit for any architecture lover. Not only because of the stunning location in a Romanesque sistine, but also because its entire collection is dedicated to works about architecture, urbanism, and landscaping. The library also houses the largest collection of preserved Romanesque wall paintings in France.

France - Bibliotheque Interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne, Paris

  • Completed: 1783       
  • Designer: Henri-Paul Nénot
  • Architectural style: Beaux-Arts

This centuries-old library is part of the famous Sorbonne at the University of Paris. Originally built in the 18th century, it’s now one of the largest libraries in Paris, with two million volumes on various subjects, especially history, geography, philosophy, and French literature. The Saint-Jacques Reading Room is a particularly beautiful part of the library, with rich wood walls and mint green and cream colours.

France - Domaine de Chantilly Reading Room, Oise

  • Completed:       
  • Designer: Honoré Daumet
  • Architectural style: Renaissance

The reading room is a modern library, remarkably well integrated into the ancient structure of the Petit Château, built during the Renaissance. The metal structure with two levels is typical of library architecture in the second half of the 19th century. It houses a collection started by the Duke of Aumale in 1848.

France - Sainte-Geneviève Library, Paris

  • Completed: 1850       
  • Designer: Henri Labrouste
  • Architectural style: Neo-Gothic

The Sainte-Geneviève Library is located adjacent to the Pantheon on Paris’s famed Left Bank. Although built in the mid-19th century, it holds materials much older than that—the library inherited the collections of the ancient Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, which was founded in the 6th century. Architecturally, the library is best known for its exposed iron structure. The barrel vaults of the reading room are supported by lacy iron arches, which are held aloft by a central row of slender iron columns. Surrounded by windows, the room feels bright and inviting rather than heavy or oppressive.

Germany - Cottbus Technical University Library

  • Completed: 2004       
  • Designer: Herzog & de Meuron
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The University Library was built in the city of Cottbus, Brandenburg state, Germany, in the eastern part of the BTU campus between the University and the city.

The amoeboid form denies entry easy reading. Located on an artificial hill, the library seems impenetrable fortress. However, the milky white facade is mixed with clouds. The building occupies an ambiguous terrain between monumentality and invisibility. Dispensing with certain areas of land in the floors above the lobby and administrative area, or each part of the building, gave considerable freedom in designing spatial sequences within the building.

Externally, the library appears as a curved glass building with no edges or corners, resembling a giant amoeba design. Unusual shape without front or rear and four protrusions of different sizes.

The glass library building is located opposite the main entrance of campus. From this point of view, the library appears as an impressive body anchored in the park. As one approaches the building from the city centre or from the north, it looks completely different, slenderer, almost like a separate tower. In fact, the building looks different from all avenues of focus, however, is still one continuous, flowing as a whole. Although it appears to be organic and explicitly self-referential, its design is also derived from the expressed will provide the site a distinctive new survey quality within its urban context.

Germany - Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

  • Completed: 1886       
  • Designer: 
  • Architectural style: Neo-Renaissance

The Herzog August Library is not just a repository of books, but a treasure trove of knowledge and history. Located in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, this renowned library holds a special place in the world of academia and cultural heritage. Its rich collection comprises over a million volumes, covering various fields of study including theology, philosophy, history, literature, and much more.

Hermann Korb’s original round building, Bibliotheksrotunde, was replaced in 1886 by the present more conventional building.

Germany - Philological Library, Berlin

  • Completed: 2005       
  • Designer: Norman Foster (Foster + Partners)
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Nicknamed the ‘Berlin brain’ for its cranial form, the Philological Library on the campus of the Free University of Berlin has been applauded for its eco-intelligent structure since opening. British architect Norman Foster spent years researching and experimenting with how buildings can employ active and passive technologies to increase energy efficiency.

As a result, the building’s naturally ventilated, bubble-like enclosure consists of three parts. The external shell features aluminium and glazed panels that regulate the internal temperature. The supporting steel frame, formed from radial geometries, separates the inner and outer layers. And lastly, a translucent inner membrane filters daylight, allowing just the right amount of ambient light to shine through and create a perfect studying environment.

Germany - Stuttgart City Library

  • Completed: 2011       
  • Designer: Eoun Young Yi (Yi Architects)
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Appearing like a perfect cube from the exterior, the Stuttgart City Library was designed and intended to combine tradition with innovation. “The form and symmetry of entrance of the building was inspired by the ‘Cenotaph for Newton’ by Étienne Boullée, but the heart and core of the library follows the design of the ancient pantheon,” the architects shared on Arch Daily.

The gleaming white surfaces and crisp lines create a dreamy and relaxed atmosphere within the Stuttgart City Library. Taking design cues from the Pantheon in Rome, German-based Yi Architects took a minimalist approach toward designing the nine-story library with an open multi-floor reading room shaped like an upside-down pyramid. The only colour within the cube building comes from the thousands of books that line the shelves.

This cube-like library isn’t as opulent as some of the older, grander halls, but it’s certainly one of the most interesting. Its bright, white, five-story design makes it seem like a modern art gallery. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the main reading room which is shaped like an upside-down pyramid. 

Envisioned as a contemporary rectilinear Pantheon for the modern age, the Stuttgart City Library, designed by the Cologne-based firm Yi Architects, is a cube-shaped building that pulls in sunlight through its translucent roof. The concrete façade is punctuated by a grid of glass blocks that offers a play of colourful lights at night—resulting in inevitable comparisons to a Rubik’s Cube. The main circulation space and book stacks are located on the building’s top five floors, where a spiralling series of staircases gives the whole arrangement a funnel-like shape. Finishes are kept deliberately simple—bright white surfaces help mix and maximize both natural and artificial light to create study spaces that are decidedly crisp and fresh.

Germany - Old Library @ St. Mang's Abbey, Füssen

  • Completed:       
  • Designer: 
  • Architectural style: Baroque

This Bavarian monastery has over a thousand years of history. St. Mang’s Abbey was converted into a Baroque-style church in the early 1700s, when the Counter-Reformation movement saw many Catholic churches convert to Protestantism throughout Europe.

While little remains of St. Mang’s Abbey’s original library contents in Füssen, Germany, the interior architecture is grand enough to warrant a visit nonetheless. Books still line the ornately decorated oval room adorned with stunning frescos, and it boasts a view of the monks’ dining room. The library’s original collection of books and manuscripts was removed in the early 1800s after the princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein took control of the abbey following the Napoleonic wars. Those books and manuscripts are now housed at the University of Augsburg.

Germany - Wiblingen Monastery Library, Ulm

  • Completed: 1744
  • Designer: Christian Wiedemann
  • Architectural style: Baroque, Rococo

This library, completed in 1744, was modelled in the Baroque style after the Austrian National Library, but it is by no means just a cheap imitation of the original, and it certainly stands on its own. Just outside the library there is an inscription reading “In quo omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae,” which translates to “In which are stored all treasures of knowledge and science.”

While the Wiblingen Monastery was founded in 1093, the whimsical Rococo library wasn’t completed until 1744 under the design direction of Christian Wiedemann. The hand-carved wooden columns and statues, painted to resemble marble, depict the Christian virtues and disciplines with the books placed to correspond with the statues. The 15,000-item collection includes a large collection of both Pagan- and Christian-related imagery.

Appearing like the physical manifestation of a Baroque fairytale, one of the world’s most beautiful libraries is hidden in an unassuming location: inside a German monastery. The Rococo-style space is, however, somewhat of a trick—though an extremely convincing one. What looks like blue and pink marble columns, porcelain and gold statues, and intricate marquetry along the doors is, in fact, an illusion. Besides the floor and ceiling, the room is mostly painted wood, crafted in the hyper-realistic style known as trompe l’oeil, or optical illusion, as it translates to in English.

Ireland - Trinity College Library, Dublin

  • Completed: 1733 (OId Library), established 1592
  • Designer: Benjamin Woodward and Sir Thomas Deane
  • Architectural style: Georgian

Aside from being gorgeous, with two story dark wooden arches, this is also the largest library in all of Ireland. It serves as the country’s copyright library, where a copy of all new books and periodicals must be sent when they apply for copyright protection. 

This space is located within the Old Library at Trinity College. Previously, the room’s ceiling was flat and only shelved books on the lower level. However, the college was granted a free copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland, requiring the expansion of the cavernous space.

The 213-foot-long wooden chamber with barrel-like ceiling, appropriately named the Long Room, acts as the perfect display for treasured texts like The Book of Kells (an illuminated manuscript created by Celtic monks around the year 800) and The Book of Durrow. Located off the cobblestone pathways of Dublin City, the Trinity College Library holds over 6 million printed works over its four separate buildings.

Italy – Biblioteca dei Girolamini, Naples

  • Completed: 1586       
  • Designer: Arcangelo Guglielmelli
  • Architectural style: Baroque

Located within the Church and Convent of the Girolamini in Naples, this 16th century church has at times held works of enormous value. Sadly, many of them were stolen in a looting in 2012, although 80% of it has since reportedly been recovered.

Italy - Biblioteca Marciana, Venice

  • Completed: 1564       
  • Designer: Jacopo Sansovino and Vincenzo Scarmozzi
  • Architectural style: Renaissance

Also, named the National Library of St. Mark, after the patron saint of Venice, and located on St. Mark’s Piazza, the Biblioteca Marciana is one of the oldest surviving libraries in Italy and contains one of the greatest collections of classical texts in the world. Originally, the books were secured by long iron chains to the lecterns, which stood in rows like school desks. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, books were often kept in this way so thieves could forget about trying to steal them.

Italy - Piccolomini Library, Siena

  • Completed: 1492       
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Renaissance, French Gothic, Tuscan Romanesque

Upon stumbling into the Piccolomini Library, it’s hard not to let out an audible gasp from seeing the glittering frescoes adorning the walls. The opulent library, located in the Duomo di Siena, features work by famous painter Pinturicchio and his workshop, who were tasked with creating scenes that celebrate Pope Pius II. Centuries-old manuscripts surround a marble sculpture of the Three Graces at the centre of the vault.

Netherlands - Cuypers Library Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  • Completed: 1885       
  • Designer: Pierre Cuypers
  • Architectural style: Neo-Gothic

The Cuypers Library is the oldest art history museum in the Netherlands, and one of the main ones in the world. Visitors are welcomed here.

Netherlands - Delft University of Technology Library

  • Completed: 1998       
  • Designer: Mecanoo
  • Architectural style: Modernist

While modern architecture can often be fascinating, it rarely stands up to more classical designs in terms of the quality of space, elaborate decoration, and detailing (not to confuse these with beauty). The Delft University of Technology library, with its massive skylight in the ceiling that becomes a steel cone after escaping the confines of the library, and an eco-friendly grass-covered roof, is both stunning and totally modern.

The interior of the library is characterised by an enormous spaciousness, thanks, particularly to the large, central hall. The atmosphere in the building is warm. The floor has the colour of the Sahara, and the furniture is made of warm MDF board. The most requested books are housed in a four-storey high bookcase hanging in front of a deep blue rear wall. The hard, metal ceiling is softened by the light coming from the columns. The lower part of the columns consists of gratings through which warm air is blown into the building. Via glazed facades and interior walls, a necklace of glazing placed around the cone, and the glazed roof at the apex of the cone, daylight penetrates deep into the building. The transparency that is thus created makes the building bright and surveyable. 

Netherlands - Handelingenkamer, Binnenhof, Den Hague

  • Completed:       
  • Designer: C H Peters, Pierre Cuypers
  • Architectural style: Neo-Dutch Renaissance

The library of the Dutch Parliament contains every record of parliamentary hearings and discussions. Because it was built before electric lighting made the storage of books a lot safer, the building was constructed with a massive leaded glass dome in the ceiling to allow in light and minimize the need for candles and gas lamps inside the library.

Norway - Vennesla Library & Culture House

  • Completed: 2011       
  • Designer: Helen & Hard Architects
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Serving as the cultural hub of Vennesla, Norway, the wood-and-glass library houses nearly 80,000 items in its collection along with a cafe and venues for concerts, shows, and art exhibitions. The architects designed the 27 ribs wrapping around the ceiling and walls to house the bookshelves and create personal study rooms.

Not all beautiful libraries are Baroque windows into the past. This contemporary Norwegian library is an elegant, modern space that’s won architectural prizes for its undulating design. The sustainable, low-energy building integrates wooden ribs and inset lighting to create a bright, welcoming public space that allows us to glimpse the future of what libraries could be instead of only what they’ve been. 

The Vennesla Library and Cultural Center reveals itself at a glance—even before you step inside. All public rooms, including the library, café, and meeting places, share space under a single curvaceous roof, while a continuous ground plane seamlessly connects the building with the street outside. The main structure of the library area is formed by 27 laminated wood ribs, which support the ceiling and then curl down to the floor to provide functional elements such as bookshelves and seating. The ribs also conceal required building components, such as air-conditioning ducts and lighting, creating a clean, streamlined envelope that supports quiet contemplation.

Portugal - Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra

  • Completed: 1725 (Joanina Library); 1962 (New Building) 
  • Designer: João Carvalho Ferreira,
  • Architectural style: Baroque, Spanish Renaissance, Modernist

The General Library of the University of Coimbra consists of two buildings: the Edifico Novo (New Building) built in 1962, and the Joanina Library built in 1725. The Joanina Library is adorned with Baroque décor and houses the library’s volumes that date from before 1800.

This gorgeous space is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it’s easy to see why. This building is quite possibly one of the most important sites of the Spanish Renaissance. Like many old European libraries, it began as a monastery, and is known for its beautiful frescoes, painted on the ceiling for library goers to admire.

We were fortunate to be able to visit this historic library in 2019 when we stopped over in Coimbra.

Portugal - Biblioteca do Convento de Marfa

  • Completed: 1771       
  • Designer: Manuel Caetano de Sousa
  • Architectural style: Rococo

The Rococo splendour apart of the Palace of Mafra was built in 1771 by royal court architect Manuel Caetano de Sousa to be used as a museum. Natural light floods through the numerous windows lining the hall, causing the rose, gray, and white marble floor to sparkle throughout the day. In 1745, the Pope granted the royal commission permission to house “forbidden books,” which remain a part of the 35,000 leather-bound collections.

With intricately carved wooden shelves and a sweeping, arched ceiling, the Mafra Palace Library is probably what you’d picture when thinking of classic, storybook libraries. The fairytale rooms are filled with around 36,000 leather-bound volumes you can appreciate on a tour of the palace grounds. Adding to the library’s gothic charm is a most unusual group of workers: A colony of bats.The bats are instrumental in controlling the bookworms, moths, and other insects that could damage the old, fragile tomes. You probably won’t see any during your visit, as they are nocturnal animals, but many of the bats sleep behind the bookshelves, so be satisfied knowing they’re always there.  

This Rococo-style library has some interesting residents – a colony of bats. At night, they track down and consume the pests that would threaten the 36,000-strong collection of leather-bound books.

Spain - Library of Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial

  • Completed: 1565       
  • Designer: Juan de Herrera
  • Architectural style: Spanish Renaissance

This library is in the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the historical residence of the King of Spain. Phillip II was responsible for adding the library and most of the books originally held within. The vaulted ceilings were painted with gorgeous frescoes, each representing one of the seven liberal arts: rhetoric, dialectic, music, grammar, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. These days, the library is a World Heritage Site, and it holds more than 40,000 volumes.

Established by Phillip II, the Library of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a pristine example of renaissance architecture. The king was both a humanist and a bibliophile, two identities that prompted his decision to create the stunning location. Now, the monastery and its surroundings are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Apart of the El Escorial Monastery, this Spanish library acts as a statement of intellectual leadership and Renaissance artistry with more than 40,000 volumes in its collection. King Philip II of Spain commissioned the construction of the complex in 1563 that also includes a monastery, gardens, and pantheons for former rulers. The vaulted library showcases a series of seven frescoes, done by notable artists, such as Pellegrino Tibaldi and Federico Zuccaro, depicting the liberal arts: arithmetic, astronomy, dialectic, geometry, grammar, music, and rhetoric.

The brainchild of King Philip II of Spain, who wanted to build a library filled with priceless writings, scientific equipment and other instruments of learning, El Escorial is today a popular attraction for day-trippers from Madrid.

Sweden - Stockholm Public Library

  • Completed: 1928       
  • Designer: Gunnar Asplund
  • Architectural style: Post-modern, Swedish Grace

Stockholm Public Library is one of the city’s most notable structures. The name is today used for both the main library itself as well as the municipal library system of Stockholm. It is a great example of the style called Swedish Grace.

Partly inspired by the Barrière Saint-Martin (Rotonde de la Villette) in France, the architect abandoned earlier ideas for a dome in favour of a rotunda whose tall cylinder gives the exterior some monumentality. In the course of its planning, he reduced elements of the classical order to their most abstract geometrical forms, for the most part eliminating architectural decor.

Stockholm Public Library was Sweden’s first public library to apply the principle of open shelves where visitors could access books without the need to ask library staff for assistance, a concept Asplund studied in the United States during the construction of the library. All the furnishings in all the rooms were designed for their specific positions and purposes.

This library has been listed as one of the world’s most beautiful libraries, with a gorgeous facade and a stunning interior.

Switzerland - Abbey Library of St Gall, St Gallen

  • Completed: Mid-18th century   
  • Designer: Peter Thumb
  • Architectural style: Baroque-Rococo

This lovely library is not only the oldest in Switzerland, but one of the oldest and most important monastery libraries in the world, holding over 160,000 volumes many of which date back as far as the 8th century. The Rococo-styled library is often considered one of the most perfect libraries in the world and has earned the Abbey recognition as a World Heritage Site.

Early architectural plans that depict a library attached to the main church of the Abbey of Saint Gall suggest the collection dates to around 820 CE. As the abbey’s catalogue of science writings and manuscripts grew, the collection moved to its lavishly decorated Baroque-style hall by Peter Thumb in the mid-18th century. Nearly 160,00 volumes make up the intricately carved-wood shelves, all of which are available for public use.

Considered one of the oldest surviving in Europe, this library was originally attached to a Benedictine abbey. The current site features intricate mouldings, Baroque touches, and Rococo art, which are just as worthy of hours of contemplation as the library’s collection, acquired over the span of 12 centuries.  

A medieval monastic library whose collection dates back to manuscripts from the eighth century, the Abbey Library of Saint Gall has around an estimated 160,000 volumes.

UK - Bodleian Library in Oxford

  • Completed: 14th Century       
  • Designer: James Gibbs
  • Architectural style: Neo-Classical

Oxford University’s Bodleian Library is one of the most celebrated in Europe with the Magna Carta and Shakespeare’s First Folio amongst the institution’s 13 million printed items. One of the most recognizable buildings apart of the library group, the masterful Radcliffe Camera, is the earliest example of a circular library in England. The neoclassical structure has gain popularity in mainstream culture after being feature in films such as Young Sherlock Holmes and The Golden Compass.

Of course, Oxford is home to many impressive libraries, but Bodleian looks like an ancient cathedral. With a history that goes back to the 14th century, the library has more than 13 million items to explore, including Shakespeare’s First folio, a Gutenberg Bible, and Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”

UK - Bristol Central Library

  • Completed: 1906       
  • Designer: Charles Holden
  • Architectural style: Tudor-Revivalist

This library is fascinating for its unique combination of architectural styles. The front exterior was designed in Tudor Revival and Modern Movement styles in order to allow it to harmonize with the next-door Abbey Gatehouse. It was built on a slope, and the front of the building is only three stories tall, but thanks to the two basement levels built into the hill, the back of the building has five stories. Inside, the design is mostly Classical, featuring ample arches, marble flooring and a stunning turquoise glass mosaic at the entrance hall.

UK - British Museum Library, London

  • Completed: 1857       
  • Designer: Sydney Smirke
  • Architectural style:

The round Reading Room stands at the heart of the British Museum, in the centre of the Great Court.  When it first opened it was hailed as one of the great sights of London and became a world-famous centre of learning. The room had a diameter of 42.6m and was inspired by the domed Pantheon in Rome. 

The new Reading Room was such a great success and became an iconic venue in its own right. Notable readers included Karl Marx, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Pankhurst, Bram Stoker, Joseph Conrad, Lenin and George Orwell.

UK - Chetham's Library, Manchester

  • Completed: 1653 (dating back to 1421) 
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Medieval

This is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, housed in building whose construction goes back even further, to 1421. The library holds more than 100,000 volumes of printed books, of which 60,000 were published before 1851. They include collections of 16th and 17th-century printed works, periodicals and journals, local history sources, broadsides, and ephemera. In addition to print materials, the library holds a collection of over 1,000 manuscripts, including 41 medieval texts.

Chetham’s was the meeting place of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels when Marx visited Manchester in the summer of 1845. Facsimiles of the economics books they studied can be seen on a table in the window alcove where they would meet. The research they undertook during this series of visits to the library led ultimately to their work, The Communist Manifesto. Therefore, the library acts as a site of historical importance for visiting communists.

UK - Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford

  • Completed: 1751       
  • Designer: Nicholas Hawksmoor
  • Architectural style:

The Codrington Library is also known as the All Souls College Library at Oxford University and has been used by scholars ever since. In the late 1990s, the building underwent a massive renovation to provide better protection for the books and to make the library more user friendly with better wiring and some new electronic workstations.

UK - Library of Birmingham

  • Completed: 2013       
  • Designer: Francine Houbern (Mechanoo Architecten)
  • Architectural style: Post-Modernist, High-tech

Palazzos Centenary Square, the largest public square in the heart of Birmingham, previously lacked cohesion or a clear identity or atmosphere. Mecanoo’s design transformed the square into one with three distinct realms: monumental, cultural and entertainment. These palazzos form an urban narrative of important periods in the history of the city; The Repertory Theatre (REP), a 1960s concrete building, the Library of Birmingham, designed in 2009 and Baskerville House, a listed sandstone building designed in 1936. The busiest pedestrian route in the city, what Mecanoo calls the red line, leads pedestrians into Centenary Square. The cantilever of the library is not only a large canopy that provides shelter at the common entrance of the Library of Birmingham and the REP, but additionally forms a grand city balcony with views of the events and happenings on the square.

The Library of Birmingham is a transparent glass building. Its delicate filigree skin is inspired by the artisan tradition of this once industrial city. Elevators and escalators dynamically placed in the heart of the library forms connections between the eight circular spaces within the building. These rotundas play an important role not only in the routing through the library but also provide natural light and ventilation.

The rooftop rotunda houses the Shakespeare Memorial Room, designed in 1882. This Victorian reading room is lined with wood from the first Birmingham Central Library. Its prominent position as a rooftop aerie makes this delicate room visible from the square. The REP with its unique and beautiful auditorium will be renovated. New workshops, staff accommodations and a shared theatre and foyer space will be created for both the REP and the library.

UK - St John’s College Library, Oxford

  • Completed: 2019 (new extension)       
  • Designer: Wright & Wright Architects
  • Architectural style: Modernist

For over 40 years, St John’s College had been looking for a way to extend its historic Laudian Library in Canterbury Quadrangle.  Wright & Wright’s new Study Centre and Archive resolved this conundrum.  Balanced in scale, faced in stone sumptuously modelled by artist Susannah Heron, it sits discreetly behind a 17th century wall in the President’s Garden, connected with Canterbury Quad but also read autonomously as a new building.

Housing the College’s world-class Special Collections and containing 120 reader desks, the new Study Centre creates an active connection between Canterbury Quad and the more modern elements of the College, strengthening links between different eras.  The site in the President’s Garden was chosen as it had the least impact on existing surroundings and landscape, while enabling library resources to be consolidated in a single location in strictly environmentally controlled conditions.

UK - University of Aberdeen Library, Scotland

  • Completed: 2005       
  • Designer: Schmidth Lassen Architects
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, is one of the world’s oldest English-language schools. However, its New Library makes it clear that the university is anything but stuck in the past. With bold, irregular vertical stripes formed by insulated panels and high-performance glass, the building serves as a beacon for students while maximizing natural light and energy savings.

The outside of the 167,000-square-foot building may be a strict box, but the interior is full of fluid curves. The eight floors wrap energetically around a central atrium, establishing an airy, light-filled environment. The layout creates a visual connection among the students—but when it’s time to focus, the building also offers 1,200 individual study spaces.

North America

Canada - Calgary Central Library, Alberta

  • Completed: 2018       
  • Designer: Snøhetta
  • Architectural style: Modernist

As one of Canada’s most anticipated projects, Calgary’s new Central Library was a design-forward response to the city’s fast-growing library system. The $245-million project, designed by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta and Canadian firm Dialog, pulls inspiration from Alberta’s arch-shaped Chinook cloud formations. The façade’s interlocking hexagonal pattern speaks to the library’s focus on the collective community, as does the fact that all sides of the building function as its front.

Inside, sustainably sourced western red cedar interiors juxtapose a sleek digital learning lab with gaming and podcasting programs. “By investing in their Central Library to create an open platform for making, not just taking, the city has opened a new door into a future that banks on a culture of creativity and innovation,” says Snøhetta’s founding partner Craig Dykers. Works by indigenous artists are prominently featured as part of a $500,000 Indigenous Placemaking project, marking a step forward in the library’s goal of inclusivity.

Canada - Central Library of Vancouver

  • Completed: 1995, extension 2018       
  • Designer: Moshie Safdie & Associates + local DA Architects
  • Architectural style: Post-modernist (Neo-Roman)

Many modern building designs are based on historical icons, but few of these designs have focused on the ruins rather than the original. The Central Library of Vancouver is an exception. Based on the Roman Coliseum, this massive 9-storey building takes up one full city block and features not only a library, but also retail shops, restaurants, a parking structure, office buildings and a rooftop garden.

The library not only holds 2.3 million items (including books, e-books, CDs, DVDs, newspapers, and magazines), but also a complex with exhibition spaces, a theatre, meeting and reading rooms, and even a rooftop garden.

Canada - Library of Parliament, Ottawa

  • Completed: 1876       
  • Designer: Chilion Jones and Thomas Fuller
  • Architectural style: Gothic

The Library of Parliament was once part of the city’s original Parliamentary headquarters. The building had been under construction for ten years before it was revealed that the builders didn’t know how to create a domed roof as seen in the plans. To get around this issue, the Tomas Fairbairn Engineering Company of England was commissioned to create a prefabricated dome. As a result, the building had the distinction of being the first building in North America to have a wrought iron roof. The unique Gothic building is so iconic that today it is even featured on the Canadian ten-dollar bill.

Since its creation on Parliament Hill, the Library of Parliament serves as the main research centre for the government of Canada. Its architects pulled design inspiration for the main reading room’s vaulted ceiling and delicately carved white pine panelling from the British Museum Reading Room. Just as stunning as the interior, the entrance to the Victorian High Gothic institute showcases stone carvings in floral motifs and 16 flying buttresses. The statue of Queen Victoria by Marshall Wood stands over the 600,000-item collection, which is tended to by 300 dedicated curators.

Mexico - José Vasconcelos Library

  • Completed: 2006       
  • Designer: Alberto Kalach and Juan Palomar
  • Architectural style: High-tech, Modernist

Nicknamed the “mega library” by the Mexican press, this giant library takes up a whopping 40,000m2, making it large enough to dwarf the painted grey whale skeleton displayed inside the main hallway. Outside of the library is an impressive botanical garden that protects the building from the loud city streets, providing a moat for this castle of knowledge. Inside, over 500,000 books are displayed on glass shelves hanging from the five stories of the building. The result is as striking as it is stunning.

The books and shelves at the Biblioteca Vasconcelos are arranged in such a way that they appear almost like a futuristic space in some kind of pixelated alternate reality. The illusion is just given what then President of Mexico Vicente Fox said at its inauguration in 2006: that it was among the 21st century’s most advanced constructions. The building is decorated with a collection of art and sculptures by Mexican artists and was designed by Alberto Kalach and Juan Palomar.

Open, scaffold-like shelving and see-through walls turn a day at the library into an artistic experience in the Biblioteca Vasconcelos. The 820-foot building, designed by Alberto Kalach, lies within a verdant botanical garden that was once a barren area of Mexico City. Named after Mexican writer José Vasconcelos, the institution also acts as a gallery for artists to display their work like the Gabriel Orozco’s Ballena, a sculpture made from a whale skeleton.

This steel and glass mammoth looks like it might be found in a Kubrick film instead of sitting in downtown Mexico City. You can ascend its six levels, open and mezzanine-like, and peruse the 600,000 tomes found within. The main level is overseen by “Matrix Móvil,” the giant plastic skeleton of a grey whale by artist Gabriel Orozco.  

An immense fortress of a building surrounded by gardens, the 11,600 m2 José Vasconcelos Library is a major effort to promote increased Mexican literacy. However, ambitious architecture sometimes suffers unforeseen problems—in this case, the library closed for nearly two years after an initial opening in 2006, during which time workers remedied construction defects. The library’s interior has a futuristic appeal, featuring a soaring grand central hall inhabited by a matrix of glass-and-steel boxes. Appearing to hover in midair, the elevated bookshelves provide plenty of room for future growth—only one-third full at present, they offer space for 1.5 million books.

Mexico - Palafoxiana Library

  • Completed: 1646       
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Baroque

This Puebla library was the first public library in Mexico; some even argue that it was the first library in the Americas. It is now listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and its 41,000 books and manuscripts include an array of rare and antique titles.

USA - Arabian Library, Scottsdale, Arizona

  • Completed: 2007  
  • Designer: Richard Kennedy (richärd+bauer Architects)
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Inspired by Arizona’s slot canyons, the Arabian Library’s distinctive pre-rusted steel façade makes it one of Scottsdale’s most expressive buildings. The interiors were designed to feel more like a retail-store-meets-living-room than a traditional library, encouraging younger generations to check out a book using the self-serve kiosks or read in one of the library’s many Herman Miller chairs.

Despite all the activity, Phoenix-based architecture firm richärd+bauer wanted to ensure the library offered a calm escape and pay homage to the environment. Thanks to its use of sustainable materials, including recycled cotton, for insulation and recycled perforated MDF board for the ceilings, the library received the 2008 IIDA/Metropolis Smart Environments Award. More than a decade later, its parking lot—filled with charging stations for alternative fuel vehicles—is rarely empty.

USA - Armstrong-Browning Library @ Baylor University, Texas

  • Completed: 1951       
  • Designer: Eggers and Higgins, New York and Wyatt C. Hedrick, Fort Worth
  • Architectural style: Italian Renaissance

Philanthropist Dr AJ Armstrong wanted to create the “most beautiful building in Texas,” and justified the expense by pointing out that the “compelling beauty” of the building might be able to inspire someone enough that “if we by that means give the world another Dante, another Shakespeare, another Browning, we shall count the cost a bargain.”

This grand three-story Italian Renaissance-styled masterpiece resulted, with exterior walls of Indiana limestone and front terrace and steps of granite, is decorated with sixty-two magnificent stained-glass windows, soaring marble columns, black walnut marquetry panelling, intricate ceiling designs, and an impressive terrazzo entrance floor bearing a brass-inlaid bells and pomegranates motif, a motif that is reflected throughout the building. The McLean Foyer of Meditation was the heart of Armstrong’s great design. Its interior astonishes all visitors.

USA - Austin Central Library, Texas

  • Completed: 2017       
  • Designer: Lake Flato and Shepley Bulfinch Architects
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Heralded as the most day-lit library in the U.S., the $120 million Austin Central Library has attracted attention for its hyper-flexible design and sustainable resource use. The library responds to Texas’s droughts with a 1,400 litres rainwater system created from a concrete vault that existed on the site. “It represented a challenge and an opportunity. Removal would have been expensive, but its location gave us the chance to capture all the rainwater from the roof of the library,” says Sidney R. Bowen, managing principal at Shepley Bulfinch. In addition to its light-filled atrium, the library embraces the outdoor life of Austinites with two reading porches and a roof terrace shaded by solar panels.

USA - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscripts Library @ Yale University, New Haven

  • Completed: 1963, 2016 (facelift)
  • Designer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) (Gordon Bunshaft, lead)
  • Architectural style: Modernist

One of the world’s largest libraries to focus on rare books and manuscripts can be found at Yale University. From the outside, this windowless monstrosity really isn’t much to look at, but the interior of this Yale library is quite impressive and undeniably unique with its beautiful marble walls. The library is now the largest building in the world designed exclusively for the protection of rare books and manuscripts. And it has quite the collection to protect, as the building is home to one of 48 known copies of the Gutenberg Bible, ancient papyri, rare maps, medieval manuscripts, early American newspapers and more.

The Vermont marble façade appears to glow on the inside when the sun is strong but protects the books from harmful rays. SOM created this modernist masterpiece using Vermont marble and granite, bronze, and glass. Six stories of illuminated stacks in the centre of the library store the books.

USA - Boston Public Library

  • Completed: 1895; Extension 1972       
  • Designer: Charles Follen McKim
  • Architectural style: Beaux-Arts

Talk about old school: The Boston Public library, established in 1848, was the first municipal library in all the U.S. Its first location was a small Massachusetts schoolhouse, but it had to expand almost immediately. In 1895, the current building, called a “palace for the people” by architect Charles Follen McKim, was completed in Copley Square. The building was subsequently expanded in 1972, and it now contains over 8.9 million books, several rare manuscripts, maps, musical scores, and prints. It even has first edition folios from Shakespeare and original music scores by Mozart.

USA - Braddock Carnegie Library

  • Completed: 1889       
  • Designer: William Halsey Wood
  • Architectural style: Romanesque (addition)

The first Carnegie library in the U.S., this library was designed in an eclectic medieval style by William Halsey Wood and opened in Pennsylvania in 1889. Only five years later, it received a Romanesque-styled addition, doubling the size of the building. At the time, it featured a variety of entertainment options, including billiards tables on the first floor, a music hall, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool.

Additionally, it held a bathhouse in the basement so mill workers could take a shower before accessing the facilities. These days, the bathhouse is a pottery studio, but the tiled floors and walls remain.

USA - Fisher Fine Arts Library of University of Pennsylvania

  • Completed: 1888       
  • Designer: Frank Furness
  • Architectural style: Gothic, Venetian Gothic

In its time most architects were focused on Romanesque styles built with marble and granite. But this library’s architect wanted the building to reflect the architectural style of Philadelphia’s many red brick factories. Throughout the following years it received several additions and alterations and finally, in 1962, most of the school’s collection was moved to a new location and the former main building became the home to the fine arts library.

USA - Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library @ Vassar College

  • Completed: 1865       
  • Designer: Francis R Allen
  • Architectural style: Perpendicular Gothic

This massive historical structure consists of three wings and a central tower, and now houses around a million books, 7500 periodicals, and a massive microfilm and microfiche collection. While the main tower is quite striking, the most famous part of the library is the enormous stained-glass window in the West Wing showing Elena Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman to earn a doctorate in Europe, receiving her degree from the University of Padua. The building was constructed from Germantown stone with Indiana limestone trimmings.

USA - Geisel Library @ University of California, San Diego

  • Completed: 1970       
  • Designer: William Pereira
  • Architectural style: Brutalist, Futurist, Modernist

Geisel Library is the main library building of the University of California, San Diego. It is named in honour of Audrey and Theodor Seuss Geisel. Theodor is better known as children’s author Dr. Seuss. The building’s distinctive architecture, described as occupying “a fascinating nexus between brutalism and futurism”, has resulted in its being featured in the UC San Diego logo and becoming the most recognizable building on campus.

The library was initially the Central Library. It was subsequently renovated in 1993 and rededicated as the University Library Building and renamed Geisel Library in 1995. Further renovations undertaken in 2022 would bring functionality up to contemporary and modern standards.

USA - George Peabody Library in Maryland, Baltimore

  • Completed: 1878       
  • Designer: Edmund G Lind
  • Architectural style: Neo-Greco

Designed by Baltimore architect Edmund G Lind and completed in 1878, the George Peabody Library is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful libraries in North America. When not supporting research activities as part of Johns Hopkins University, it also doubles as one of the city’s most popular event spaces. The library’s interior is what most visitors find captivating—five book-filled floors with cast-iron balconies encircling a central atrium where, if you’re lucky, you can pull up a chair at one of the reading desks. The skylight 18.6m above allows sunlight to spill onto the black-and-white marble floor with gold scalloped columns and cast-iron balconies and create a mesmerizing space for teaching and research. As the university notes on the library’s web page, the space is “essential for teaching and research.”

The beginnings of the George Peabody Library date back to the founding of the Peabody Institute in 1857 by George Peabody, who dedicated the institution to the citizens of Baltimore. Now a part of Johns Hopkins University, the “cathedral of books” contains nearly 300,000 volumes ranging from religion to British art to science.

USA - Harold Washington Library, Chicago

  • Completed: 1991       
  • Designer: Hammond, Beeby and Babka
  • Architectural style: Post-modernist

As a modern library it takes new construction techniques and applies them to neoclassical building styles. The result is a vintage look with a modern twist. The red brick base perfectly balances the glass rooftop adorned with seven massive aluminium adornments. Best of all, the designers took their inspiration from other famous Chicago buildings, ensuring the whole structure fits in perfectly with its surroundings.

Rising amidst the iconic buildings of Chicago, the Harold Washington Library stands 10 stories high and has been noted as one of the largest libraries in the United States. The architects responsible for the building, Hammond, Beeby and Babka are known for producing designs which employ modernism with historical allusion, often described as belonging to the postmodern movement of design.

Zahner’s involvement on the project was regarding the architectural forms and building cornices designed by artists Kent Bloomer and Raymond Kaskey. These works form the iconic figurehead of the building, a modern take on the gargoyle iconography and the flourishes of baroque sculptures in patinated copper tones. However, the sculptures produced were manufactured using contemporary materials, plates of aluminium, riveted and finished with a polyester finish in the traditional Verdigris tone.

USA - Hearst Castle Gothic Study

  • Completed: 1947       
  • Designer: Julia Morgan
  • Architectural style: Gothic

Hearst Castle is one of the most famous buildings in California, but most tour groups miss the opportunity to explore the second story of the building, which includes a massive guest library and a cozier gothic library and study. This room also played a vital role in Hearst’s life, as the mogul preferred to use this room as his executive board room, doing business here whenever possible.

The library is on the second floor, directly above the assembly room. The ceiling is 16th century Spanish, and a remnant is used in the library’s lobby. It comprises three separate ceilings, from different rooms in the same Spanish house, which Morgan combined into one. The fireplace is the largest Italian example in the castle. Carved from limestone, it is attributed to the medieval sculptor and architect Benedetto da Maiano. The room contains a collection of over 5,000 books, with another 3,700 in Hearst’s study above.

USA - Indianapolis Public Library

  • Completed: 1917, 2007 addition     
  • Designer: Paul Philippe Cret (with Borie & Medary Zantzinger), Woollen, Molzan and Partners 
  • Architectural style: Greek Doric, Modernist

This Indiana library manages to balance old and new influences in a refreshingly unique manner. The original building is in the front of the complex, while a massive, modernized addition from 2007 sits in the background. The first building was designed in the Greek Doric style and is often called one of the most outstanding architectural libraries in the U.S.

The addition is just about as modern as can be, with glass and wood panelling throughout the building, and the 6-story, 27,200m2 tower provides even more space for books and reading rooms.

USA - James B Hunt Jr Library, Raleigh, North Carolina

  • Completed: 2013       
  • Designer: Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee and Snøhetta
  • Architectural style: Modernist

North Carolina State University’s brand-new library goes a step beyond the rest — it’s run by robots. BookBots, to be precise, are programmed to retrieve any of the library’s 1.5 million books in under five minutes. Library patrons can watch through a glass wall as the bookBots zoom through the Robot Alley storage area, directed by a supercomputer hidden in the bowels of the building. This system uses one-ninth of the space needed for open stacks, freeing up valuable square footage for study rooms, learning commons, auditoriums and a Makerspace, which has 3D printers, a 3D scanner and a laser cutter.

The canary-yellow stairway isn’t the only thing that’s pleasantly “disruptive” about the North Carolina State University’s revamped Hunt Library. The building eschews traditionally introverted spaces in favour of surprising design features and stimulating technology zones. Interactive digital surfaces and HD video display screens are scattered throughout the building, as are creative spaces that include a video game development lab. With North Carolina’s state energy requirements being stricter than LEED requirements, several sustainability measures were implemented. Solar panels line a high-albedo roof built to control the interior climate. And thanks to a sleek automated book-retrieval system, the library was able to cut its space in half—delivering high-design and innovation in less than 20,440m2.

USA - Jay Walker’s Private Library

  • Completed: 2002     
  • Designer: Mark P Finlay
  • Architectural style:

Priceline.com founder Jay Walker’s gorgeous wooden library, filled with an array of historical and pop culture artifacts, has been labelled by Wired as “the most amazing library in the world.” As if the gorgeous etched glass, labyrinthine design and multiple stories of bookshelves weren’t impressive enough, the collection of rarities stored in the library is completely mesmerizing. Between books bound in rubies, a Sputnik, a chandelier from Die Another Day, and a list of plague mortalities from 1665, visitors to the private library might just have a hard time leaving.

USA - Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, Chicago

  • Completed: 2011       
  • Designer: Murphy, Helmut Jahn
  • Architectural style: Modernist

At first glance, the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Library almost appears to be out of a sci-fi film. Its 3.5 million books are stored underground in a repository tended by robotic cranes, while a glass dome covers an expansive reading room upstairs. “By putting the book storage below, we were free to create an open and luminous space,” says Chicago-based architect Helmut Jahn about the project.

Upper sections of the dome’s glass panes feature patterning that blocks heat and UV rays, ensuring that the atmosphere is comfortable for up to 180 students at a time. Though the University of Chicago doesn’t have an architecture program, notes Jahn, the library is a perfect match for the Physics and Science departments’ devotion to innovation.

USA - Library of Congress, Washington DC

  • Completed: 1897  
  • Designer: John L Smithmeyer, Paul Johannes Pelz & Edward Pearce Casey (Thomas Jefferson Building)
  • Architectural style: American neoclassical

The Library of Congress in Washington DC is essentially both the national library of the US and the country’s oldest federal cultural institution. Though it consists of only three buildings, it is the largest library in the world for shelf space and number of volumes. While open to the public for on-site research and as a tourist attraction, as the research institution of Congress, only members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and other specified government officials can check out books. The library is formally known as the “library of last resort” in the US, charged with making certain items available to other national libraries if all other means have been exhausted.

The library’s holdings are vast, including more than 32 million books, more than 61 million manuscripts, a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, one of only four perfect vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible in the world, over one million newspapers from the last three centuries, over five million maps, six million pieces of sheet music, and more than 14 million photos and prints.

Among its several buildings, the oldest is the Thomas Jefferson Building, which just might be the most beautiful structure in the library system. The library’s neoclassical style features some of the most intricate interiors of any building in the US, including murals and sculptures from a variety of classically trained American artists. Interestingly, the building’s exterior was even more lavish than it is now, as it was originally gilded, but this was criticized as it was believed to draw attention away from the Capitol Building. These days, the roof consists merely of copper that has aged to a sea green shade.

USA - Morgan Library, New York City

  • Completed: 1906, Extension 2006        
  • Designer: Charles Follen McKim (of McKim, Mead & White), Renzo Piano
  • Architectural style: American Renaissance, Modernist

This amazing New York landmark was originally built as the personal library and museum space for financier Pierpont Morgan’s impressive collection of rare books, manuscripts, drawings, artifacts, and prints. After Pierpont’s death, his grandson, JP Morgan Jr, opened the library to the public in 1924.

Spanning across three buildings on Madison Avenue, the Morgan Library & Museum holds the private collection of financier JP Morgan. Bronze and inlaid Circassian walnut bookcases line the gold-decorated room with illuminated and original manuscripts of Sir Walter Scott and de Balzac sitting at the centre of the space. Behind the shelves lie two secret stairways that connect to the balconies above and offer exquisite views of the fresco-covered ceilings by H. Siddons Mowbray. The galleries of the New York City landmark also display drawings from renowned artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso.

In order to welcome more visitors, and searchers, to present them a broader range of the collection, and to reinforce ultimately its characterizing campus atmosphere, the Morgan Library decided to reorganize its space thoroughly, while preserving its architectural legacy.

The new extension integrates three historical buildings—the original 1906 J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library, designed by Charles McKim; the 1928 Annex building, designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris; and the mid-nineteenth-century Morgan House—with three intimately scaled pavilions to create an accessible and inviting setting.

The three new pavilions face 36th Street, 37th Street, and Madison Avenue, with the largest centring the campus and providing the new entrance on Madison. The smallest contains a 6 x 6 x 6 metre “cube” gallery, the Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery, and was inspired by Renaissance chambers Piano encountered in Italy. It is an essential element in the interplay of the three new structures with the three historical buildings.

The pavilions are constructed of faceted steel panels and glass, with the steel coated in a rose-hued, off-white paint (a subtle nod to the Tennessee pink marble of the McKim building and Annex). The design also features high-transparency, low-iron glass and baffled roof systems for filtered natural light. The glass-enclosed Gilbert Court connects the buildings and seamlessly joins the old and new, providing many views both in and out of the 14,000m2 campus. In total, the Morgan expansion project adds about 7,000m2 to the complex.

USA - Richard J Riordan Central Library, LA

  • Completed: 1925, renovation 1993       
  • Designer: Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (original building)
  • Architectural style: Egyptian + Mediterranean Revival, Modernist + Beaux-Arts

Like the Indianapolis Public Library, the Central Library of Los Angeles features a striking balance between old and new architecture. The original library building was completed in 1926 and featured influences from ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean Revival architecture, including pyramids and mosaics. A 1993 renovation added a new wing with Modernist and Beaux-Arts influences, including an eight-storey atrium and more storage space for the museum’s ever-growing collection. These days, the library is the third largest public library in the US and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Richard J Riordan Central Library, also known as the Los Angeles Central Library, is the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), in Downtown Los Angeles. It is named after Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan.

It consists of two buildings: the Goodhue Building and the Tom Bradley addition, from 1925 and 1993, respectively.  Goodhue designed the original Los Angeles Central Library with influences of ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean Revival architecture. The central tower is topped with a tiled mosaic pyramid with suns on the sides with a hand holding a torch representing the “Light of Learning” at the apex. Other elements include sphinxes, snakes, and celestial mosaics. It has sculptural elements by the preeminent American architectural sculptor Lee Lawrie, like the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, also designed by Goodhue. The interior of the library is decorated with various figures, statues, chandeliers, and grilles, notably a four-part mural by illustrator Dean Cornwell depicting stages of the History of California which was completed around 1933.

The 33,000 m2 addition, eight stories tall, had a cost of $213.9 million. The addition has about the same size as the original building. The project included a garage with 940 spaces, an atrium with a glass roof, an auditorium with capacity for 235 people, and a puppet theatre. Amy Wallace of the Los Angeles Times wrote that “Where the old edifice was cramped, the new is expansive and imaginative”. Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times described the wing as “a major architectural disappointment” but that some of the pieces of art that were commissioned to be installed in the building “partially mitigates the fiasco.

USA - San Francisco Main Public Library

  • Completed: 1996       
  • Designer: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners (James Ingo Freed, lead)
  • Architectural style: Post-Modernist

Paid for by $104.5 million in bond funds and $22 million in private donations, the Main Library represents the largest public/private partnership in the history of San Francisco. Its Sierra White granite facade, obtained from the quarry that provided the stone for other Civic Centre buildings, is consistent with its Beaux Arts style. The facade on Grove and Hyde streets has a more contemporary feel, compatible with the commercial activity on Market Street.

At 34,840 m2, the Main offers twice as much usable space as its predecessor, which was located where the Asian Art Museum now stands. Inside, a dramatic skylight allows natural light into the building’s five-storey central atrium; bridges connect floors across lightwells, and a grand staircase rises four stories beside a wall installation lit with the names of more than a hundred authors, created by artist Nayland Blake. Other artwork in the library includes a three-storey interior wall filled with 50,000 annotated cards from the old card catalogue by artists Ann Chamberlain and Ann Hamilton; a mural in the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Centre on the Third Floor by Mark Evans and Charley Brown; and two works by artist Alice Aycock on the Fifth Floor a spiral staircase in the glass enclosed reading room and a companion piece suspended from the high ceiling.

A unique configuration of open spaces and smaller intimate corner rooms contributes both a sense of grandeur and welcome. These rooms highlight San Francisco’s diverse communities and interests. Among them are the African American Centre, the Chinese Centre and the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Centre on the Third Floor; the Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Music Centre on the Fourth Floor; the Wallace E. Stegner Environmental Centre on the Fifth Floor; and the Marjorie G. & Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Centre on the Sixth Floor.

The interior design of each centre includes inlaid hardwood floors, wool area rugs and upholstered chairs. Custom wall systems and cabinetry of sycamore, curly maple, lacewood and cherry evoke the warm imagery of traditional library interiors, counterbalanced in each room by a stainless-steel disc above, which integrates both lighting and air diffusion components.

The Main Library is one of the first major public buildings in the United States to have high indoor air quality included in the design criteria. Its mechanical system was designed to ensure sufficient ventilation. Materials such as carpets, paint and low-emitting adhesives were chosen to ensure a minimum off gassing of potentially harmful materials.

USA - Seattle Central Library in Washington

Imacon Color Scanner
  • Completed: 2004  
  • Designer: Rem Koolhaas (OMA) & Joshua Prince-Ramus (REX) in collaboration with LMN Architects
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The architects’ mission for the redesign of Seattle’s central library was to create an informational hub for all forms of media. They created a 11-storey glass and steel structure which houses over one million books and hundreds of computers along with a Mixing Chamber where librarians can interact with patrons and provide guidance for whatever they may need.

The modern library has lots of open space, a 275-seat auditorium, meeting rooms and an innovative stack system known as the books spiral. Four floors of stacks are connected by gentle ramps, and 75 percent of the collection is located there. The light-filled reading room is nearly 1,110 m2 and the library houses 400 computer terminals. The building’s diagonal grid system of concrete, steel, and glass was designed to withstand lateral forces of wind or earthquakes.

USA - Stephen A Schwarzman Building aka New York Public Library, NYC

  • Completed: 1911       
  • Designer: Carrère and Hastings
  • Architectural style: Beaux-Arts

You might recognize this American National Historical Landmark, better known simply as the “New York Public Library,” by the two stone lions guarding the building (known as either Lord Astor and Lady Lenox or Patience and Fortitude). The main branch of the New York City public library system, the Stephen A Schwarzman Building is a Beaux Arts masterpiece located in midtown Manhattan at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

Inside, the wooden shelves, frescoed ceilings and grand chandeliers give the entire building an old-world feel. The library featured more than 120 kilometres of shelves when it was first opened. The collection still managed to grow too large for its home by 1970, so the library was expanded by adding an underground area that extends under nearby Bryant Park. The library is divided into nine sections, with an estimated 2.5 million volumes in its collection. The Rose Main Reading Room measures 23 metres by 90 metres, roughly the size of two city blocks.

The idea for the Beaux-Arts landmark first came about in 1895, when the consolidation of the Astor and Lenox Libraries propelled the founders of the New York Public Library to build an enormous institution to compete with Paris and London. The historic building contains an estimated 15 million items from medieval manuscripts and ancient Japanese scrolls to contemporary novels and comic books.

USA - St Louis Public Library

  • Completed: 1912, revitalisation 2012  
  • Designer: Cass Gilbert (original), Canon Design (revitalisation)
  • Architectural style: Beaux-Arts, Modernist

The St Louis Library’s revitalization increases public space by more than 3,500 m2, modernizes the library for the 21st century, contributes to the urban renewal of St. Louis and enhances the building’s stature as a cultural treasure. More than 11,000 people visited the library in its opening week. The library continues to see increased visitation and acceptance, winning the Architizer A+ award for best library, a competition with more than 150,000 public votes worldwide.

The original three-story building was designed in Beaux Arts style featuring a ceremonial granite stair, vaulted reception foyer and centrally located Great Hall. The hall is surrounded by five wings, four dedicated to public reading rooms and the fifth, the North Wing, to a multistorey depository of books closed to the public. A structurally independent steel skeleton, doubling as a bookshelves and floor support, was inserted by Gilbert between the walls of the North Wing. This “building within the building,” required replacement to address fire and seismic hazard. The North Wing transformation rejuvenates the library and brings it into the 21st century with the removal of old book stacks and the insertion of a new “building within the building.”

Now, a multi-storey public atrium provides and accessible and welcoming entry. Glass enclosed upper levels house the collection with compact density bookshelves. These books are now visible to the public as visual elements of the space. The North wall windows, now clear glass, bounce natural light deep into the interior and provide striking views.

USA - Suzzallo Library @ University of Washington

  • Completed: 1926       
  • Designer: Charles H Bebb & Carl F Gould
  • Architectural style: Collegiate Gothic

Among the many impressive details of this Collegiate Gothic building are 18 terra-cotta figures set atop the buttresses featuring academic heroes such as Louis Pasteur, Dante, Shakespeare, Plato, Benjamin Franklin, Sir Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Gutenberg, Beethoven, Darwin, and more. Inside, a series of shields depict the coats of arms from many top universities around the world, including Yale, Oxford, Stanford, and Uppsala.

While the library is home to many rare volumes, the most famous item in its collection is one of the world’s largest, a photo book of Bhutan by Michael Hawley. Library staff turn the pages about once a month so interested viewers can slowly enjoy the entire work from front to back—assuming they visit regularly.

USA - William Rainey Harper Memorial Library, University of Chicago

  • Completed: 1912       
  • Designer: Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge
  • Architectural style: English Gothic

The dedication of Harper Memorial Library in 1912 represented a major milestone for the University of Chicago. With its elegant Gothic architecture and advanced technology—the building featured telephones and a system of pneumatic tubes to transmit book orders—the new library was, according to the Chicago Tribune, “the largest and most important building yet erected on the campus of the University of Chicago.”

Architects Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, who had come to prominence in Chicago for their work on the Art Institute of Chicago, designed the new building. The library took inspiration from King’s College Chapel at Cambridge, as well as Magdalen College and Christ Church College at Oxford. It featured other architectural nods to colleges and universities in Europe and the United States, including stone carvings of the coats of arms of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the University of California, among many others.

USA – William W Cook Law Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  • Completed: 1920s     
  • Designer: York & Sawyer Architects
  • Architectural style: English Gothic

The Law Library building forms part of the Cook Law Quadrangle, named after William W Cook, an attorney and alumnus who donated the funds for it. The quadrangle comprises four buildings designed in the English Gothic style. This law school was founded in 1859 and by 1870 had become the largest law school in the country.

South America

Brazil - National Library of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

  • Completed: 1810       
  • Designer: Sousa Aguiar
  • Architectural style: Eclectic Neo-classical, Art Nouveau

Another amazing library of Rio, the National Library of Brazil was constructed back in 1810 and has since become the largest library in Latin America and the 7th largest in the world. As a copyright library, publishers have been required to send over one copy of every title they’ve published since 1907, pushing the library’s collection to over 9 million items, including several rare books and an extensive collection of over 21,500 photos all dating from before 1890.

Brazil - Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Rio de Janeiro

  • Completed: 1887       
  • Designer: Rafael da Silva e Castro
  • Architectural style: Neo-Maueline, Gothic Renaissance

Also known as the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, this Neo-Maueline stunner holds the biggest and most valuable collection of Portuguese literature outside of Portugal with nearly 400,000 rare manuscripts, singular works, and unique proofs decorating the shelves.

A group of Portuguese immigrants and political refugees originally founded the cabinet in 1822 to bring literary traditions and masterpieces to the newly independent Brazil. In 1887, the doors of the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading opened to the public revealing three-stories of works to be discovered and the radiant Altar of the Homeland by goldsmith António Maria Ribeiro.

The building was completed in 1887, with designs inspired by the Gothic-renaissance style of the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon which was popular at the time of the Portuguese colonization of Brazil. Inside the library are both a stunning chandelier and a gorgeous iron skylight that was the first of its kind in the country.

It’s appropriate that “royal” is in the name of this library because it is truly fit for a king or queen. The striking, limestone exterior is only rivalled by the intricate, dark wood arches, stained glass windows, and vibrant blue ceilings that make this library a haven for book lovers. And with 350,000 volumes to choose from, you could spend all day here.

Chile - National Library of Chile

  • Completed: 1925, 2006 (Bicentennial Room)      
  • Designer: Gustavo García Postigo, A+F Arquitectos (Cristián Ayçaguer F., Cristián Ferrari C., Carlos Cavagnaro I)
  • Architectural style: Neo-Classical

Featuring a similar style to the National Library of Brazil, this beautiful building was designed in 1913 and completed in 1925 with a neoclassical design meant to commemorate the country’s centenary anniversary. Aside from housing the National Library, the building serves as headquarters to the country’s National Archives.

In 2006, an refurbishment project to recover an unused space in the original 1810 building was completed, which introduced a reading room open to the public.

Colombia - Biblioteca EPM (Empresas Públicas de Medellín)

  • Completed: 2005       
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Modernist

Designed like an upside-down pyramid, the EPM library may be a unique architectural feat. But its best-known feature remains the odd forest of white columns located just outside. Even so, the 9,940m2 interior is quite beautiful, particularly the strikingly angled walls.

Colombia - Parque Bibiloteca España, Santo Domingo

  • Completed: 2007       
  • Designer:Giancarlo Mazzanti
  • Architectural style: Modernist

The Parque Biblioteca España stands out from its native Santo Domingo more than any other library on this list. That’s because the striking modernist design of its three boulder-like structures stands in stark contrast to the simple homes of the neighbourhood around them. The architect designed the building, specifically its odd windows, to help the impoverished community imagine bigger and better things. “We wanted to take people from this poor community into another place and change their reality.”

Colombia - Villanueva Public Library

  • Completed: 2006 
  • Designer:Meza + Piñol + Ramírez + Torres (Carlos Meza, Alejandro Piñol, Germán Ramírez, Miguel Torres)
  • Architectural style: Eco-friendly Vernacular, Modernist

Perhaps the most famous of Colombia’s new libraries is the Villanueva Public Library, which was constructed using not only locally sourced materials, but also by the people of the village. Stones were gathered from nearby rivers and sustainable wood from nearby forests, and local people were trained to help construct the building. The design, created by four nearby college students, focuses on natural ventilation and plenty of shade to keep the interior nice and cool. All these cost-cutting measures went a long way in helping a truly impoverished area secure a much-needed library.

Colombia - Virgilio Barco Library

  • Completed: 2011       
  • Designer:Rogelio Salmona
  • Architectural style: Modernist

If you are a fan of modern architectural design, then you’ll really love what Colombia has created in recent history. Featuring red brick walls, blue water pools and green lawns, this creative design looks like a maze of colours housing a labyrinth of books inside.

Located in the Teusaquillo neighbourhood, in the northeastern sector of Bogotá, the Virgilio Barco Library forms a complex integrated by the Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park and the Virgilio Barco Library Park. The consolidation of the social, recreational, and cultural development centre displays the library a particular approach between the built work and the natural capital environment. Through its tour, it progressively reveals the solution of a program designed to form a cultural and landscape ensemble omitting its position within the city.

Recognized as one of Rogelio Salmona’s emblematic works, its circular forms open to the environment attract between 60,000 and 65,000 visitors a month. Initially, it was to be called the Simón Bolívar Park Library, due to its proximity to the metropolitan park, but because of the patronage it received from former Colombian president Virgilio Barco, it ended up taking his name.

Costa Rica - Biblioteca Nacional ‘Miguel Obregón Lizano’, San Jose

  • Completed: 1971       
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Architectural style: Modernist

With a massive upside-down arch above a glass window and concrete levels sandwiching a fragile-looking glass central story, the National Library of Costa Rica is quite striking. It still appears modern despite being over 40 years old. Unfortunately, the location has been subject to several earthquakes, leading to several closures over the years.

Peru - Home of Peruvian Literature, Lima

  • Completed: 1912 original train station, 2009 conversion to library      
  • Designer: Rafael Marquina
  • Architectural style: Neo-Classical

If you think the architecture of this building looks familiar, that’s because it was a commonly used design for train stations around the early 1900s. As for why this library looks like a train station, well, that’s simple—it used to be one. In fact, it wasn’t converted into a library until 2009. To get more of the country’s citizens to read and to support the country’s artists and writers, the library features over 20,000 works, mostly written by or about native Peruvians.

Terminology

Library

(noun); a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (such as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale OR a collection of such materials.

Origins: Middle English, from Anglo-French librarie, Medieval Latin librarium, from Latin, neuter of librarius of books, from libr-, liber inner bark, rind, book

Biblioteca

(noun): a collection of books OR a list of books

Origins: Latin, bibliothēkē, from bibli– + thēkē case; akin to Greek thithenai

Athenaeum

(noun); a building or room in which books, periodicals, and newspapers are kept for us. 

Origins: Latin Athenaeum, a school in ancient Rome for the study of arts, from Greek Athēnaion, a temple of Athena, from Athēnē

1799 – first known use of the word in the meaning defined above.

Archive

(noun); as in library – a place in which public records or historical materials (such as documents) are preserved OR a repository or collection especially of information.

Origins: French archivum from Latin Bodleian Library, from Greek archeion archē rule, governmentrom The Golden Compass.

Libraries by style/ type

Contemporary neighbourhood (Sydney, NSW)

Eco-friendly, high-tech, modernist

Contemporary modernist

Early modernist

Heritage + modern extensions

Eco-friendly, organic, modernist

Post-modernist

Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Baroque

Neo-Classical

Gothic, Neo-Gothic

Tudor Revivalist, Classical

Art Nouveau, Neo-Classical

Renaissance, Neo-Renaissance

Beaux-Arts

Romanesque, Roman Revivalist

Medieval

Georgian, Georgian Revivalist

Traditional non-Western (World Architecture)

Reference articles