Located in the heart of Helsinki, the 16,000 square metre library building will majorly consist of public spaces and will serve as the new central point for the city’s public library network.
As per the winning design, the functions of the library have been divided into three distinctive levels: an active ground floor, a calm upper floor, and an enclosed in-between volume containing the more specific functions. These three levels interplay with each other, creating a seamless transition.
The public plaza in front of the building continues inside and leads to various meeting and experience features. All the public spaces are featured on ground floor, which is a busy and frequently updated space suitable for quick visits and walk-throughs. The top floor offers a calm atmosphere for contemplation, and will offer unobstructed, majestic views to the surrounding park and cityscape. These two contrasting spaces complement each other and are joined by an arching wooden volume which has been stretched vertically to create connections to the open main floors below and above. The spaces inside the volume will be enclosed and more intimate.
The top floor will be a traditional library space as well as a modern, open, flexible platform for a multitude of functions. The middle floor will offer opportunities for learning-by-doing with contemporary media and latest tools. It will contain workshop spaces for music and multimedia, as well as a public sauna. A multipurpose hall, a restaurant and a cinema will be located on ground floor.
The building will feature various soft, curved shapes such as the curved ceiling covering the ground floor, the intensive flowing spaces on the middle level, as well as the curving floor surface of the top floor. All of these are enclosed within the timber-clad mass.
There will be three public entrance points in the building: one in the south for the main pedestrian flow from the direction of the Central Railway Station, one next to the public plaza to the west of the building shielded by an overhanging canopy, as well as a secondary one in the northeastern corner. The top floor can be reached from the southern entrance by an escalator or from the main lobby via a spiraling double-helix stair.
The library building will also be energy-efficient. It will be constructed using local materials and with local climate conditions in mind. Some of the main load-bearing components will be made of timber while the wooden façade will be built from pre-assembled elements finished on-site. The building’s cladding would be constructed using 30 millimeter thick Finnish first grade Siberian Larch wood, and shaped with a parametric 3D design and manufacturing process to achieve a perfect execution of the desired geometry. The appearance of the façade will develop over the years towards a deeper, richer version of its initial hue. The design of the façade was intrinsic to the passive design approach adopted by the project team.
The open international two-stage competition attracted over 540 entries from all over the world. The library is slated to open in 2018.
