Library of Forms

Project Details

A new public library for Helsinki that reimagines the civic function of the library for the 21st century.

The Library of Forms is organized as a landscape rather than a building. The floor plates undulate gently from ground to roof, creating a continuous topography of reading terraces and quiet alcoves. The collection is distributed throughout this landscape in open shelving that acts simultaneously as program and spatial divider, encouraging serendipitous discovery. The building is heated and cooled by a ground-source heat pump system, with passive solar gain managed by deep overhangs on the south facade.