Helsinki Central Library

Helsinki Central Library Oodi by ALA Architects

ALA Architect's Helsinki Library is a true civic landmark for the city.

The Oodi Library in Helsinki is not actually the central library of Finland, but the last public face of a network of national libraries that is part of the history and cultural tradition of that country. As a recent article by Architectural Review (December 2018), the transition from an oral to a literary culture occurred only in the 19th century, explaining the enthusiasm for the written word that later brought Finnish independence in 1917.

ALA Architects - led by Juho Grönholm, Antti Nousjoki and Samuli Woolston - designed the new library in the Töölönlahti cultural district, opposite the Finnish Parliament. A competition was held in 2013 with 545 entries. The eye-catching design features an undulating roof over three levels: the upper level features traditional library functions with a flexible space, panoramic views of the city and a large terrace; the middle level contains workshops, recording studios and rooms for additional services and installations; and the ground floor, which acts as an extension of the civic square, houses multi-purpose rooms, exhibition areas, a café and a cinema. The building was developed as an "asymmetric inhabited bridge", with two steel arches spanning over 100 metres, column-free, above the covered entrance. (ALA Architects)

The public plaza in front of the library continues into the building, blending with a catalog of meeting and experience features. The ground floor is a robust, busy, and frequently updated space, suitable for quick visits and walkthroughs. Active zero-threshold public spaces are visible, attractive, understandable, and welcoming to all visitors.
The serene and traditional atmosphere of the library is located on the top floor. This is a calm and contemplative area that floats above the bustling center of Helsinki. It offers majestic and unobstructed views of the surrounding park and cityscape.

These two contrasting spaces that perfectly complement each other are created by an arched wooden volume. The spaces inside the volume are closed and more intimate. The wooden volume is stretched vertically to create connections to the open main floors below and above.

Oodi (pronounced Ordee) was commissioned to celebrate the country’s centenary, and indeed had a grand opening in 2017, before being opened late last year. A labor of love for all concerned, the tripartite landmark sits on Kansalaistori square, opposite the Finnish Parliament, with spectacular views of the city, not least of Aalto’s Finlandia Hall.

A major public consultation program took place as part of the design process rather than in reaction to a series of designs; these "invited dreams" helped shape an outcome that is anything but a conventional book museum. The context is the Finnish Library Act, which gives libraries responsibilities to promote active citizenship, democracy and freedom of expression, as well as to promote lifelong learning.

The three levels of the building, which reflect this mandate, have completely different functions. In the case of the ground floor, there is a dual program for internal and external use. Inside, citizens can get advice on housing and other social issues; there is a temporary exhibition area, a cinema and space for pop-up events. During the summer months, external events can take place in a 1.000 mXNUMX public plaza located under the cantilevered central floor of the building.

The first floor, the mid-level, is the building’s most prominent architectural element. A hive of diverse activity takes place in rooms arranged around what the architects describe as “nooks and crannies” that populate the spaces between the trusses of the building’s bridge structure. Here you’ll find music rooms, recording studios, places to make things with or without production kits, a quiet reading room, tiered seating, and a soft background music not usually associated with book buildings.

Structure (engineer Ramboll) comprises two 145 m steel arches; in effect Oodi is an inhabited bridge, with its closed entrance space free of columns, the upper level of the "Book Paradise" entirely open plan.
The books themselves are located on Oodi’s upper level, a pavilion sitting atop the mid-level deck structure, which sweeps upward at both ends to accommodate prosaic facilities like restrooms and fire escapes, and which offers a dramatic architectural promenade for patrons interested in the views through the sophisticated framed glass. The books are in low-level stacks that allow patrons to look out across a kind of interior savannah, graced by multiple trees in tubs.

A curved roof and an outdoor summer balcony add to the sense of fluidity that characterizes the project as a whole, and while the third-floor ceiling, punctuated by circular skylights, is less uniform than one might wish, the overall use of the building (currently 10.000 visitors a day) is impressive, as is the variety of activities that take place in the building, where any book from the national collection (totalling 3,2 million) can be picked up for later delivery. There are 100.000 books available for loan, but of the total area of the building, only a third is given over to books.

While the load-bearing structure is steel, the exterior and much of the interior is a celebration of wood. It is in fact the largest enclosed wooden building in Finland, perhaps in Europe, designed for human occupancy; meeting fire safety standards was a major challenge for the designers, despite the low burning time of the material (spruce). There is no evidence of any difficulties with the regulations, the result is an impressive set, sitting on a former railway site that is now an extension of the city's Central Park.

The geometry of architecture derives partly from the strict limits set in Helsinki's local plan, but the use of the overhang and the usable space created beneath it has cleverly responded to the constraint. This is a memorable new piece in the city's urban puzzle and a worthy marker of Finnish independence; it is also a forceful response to the library's evolution in a digital age.

Author of interior and exterior photographs: Tuomas Uusheimo
© 2019 Tuomas Uusheimo photography