Oodi Helsinki Central Library
200best ES
ALA Architects
2018
Type
Library
Tags
cultural facilities, contemporary agoras, 200Best, urban porosity
Visitability
Allowed
Description
The impressive library in Helsinki city centre consists almost entirely of public space and offers a wide selection of services. The building is a highly functional addition to the local urban life. It offers a technically and spatially flexible framework for cutting-edge, adaptable library operations, and acts as the citizens’ common living room and work space from early morning to late evening, seven days a week.The key concept of the design is the interplay between the building’s three floors. The public plaza in front of the building continues inside, merging with the public spaces of the ground floor. This busy, constantly updated floor with a multi-purpose hall, a restaurant and the National Audiovisual Institute’s cinema is suitable for quick visits and walkthroughs.The traditional serene library atmosphere can be found on the top floor - a calm area floating above the busy city center, offering unobstructed views to the surrounding cityscape.These two floors, perfectly complementing each other, are created by the building’s arching wooden volume. The spaces inside the volume are more intimate, offering opportunities for learning-by-doing. This middle floor with the maker space is an environment optimized for contemporary media and latest tools, containing workshop spaces for music and Multimedia.(Description provided by ALA Architects)