0106 Helsinki Central Library

Cultural Building

Year: 2012
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Size: 10.000m2
Status: Competition entry

The modern library is more than a space to store books and information, it’s a place for the citizens of Helsinki to feel at home, share and interact in; a shared urban Living Room. This project is highly concerned with this notion of the library as a public place and interface, studying and building upon historical examples like Forum Romanum, The Baths of Diocletian and the Helsinki Senate Square while pointing towards the history of the site as a public domain for the (sub)cultures of the city, inhabiting the blank canvas, making it their provisional place of interaction and creation; a new public realm open to everyone.