Oodi Helsinki Central Library

Oodi occupies a hugely significant site in central Helsinki. Oodi has a peaceful open-plan reading room on the upper floor that has been nicknamed “book heaven”, but books only fill one third of the space within the library.

Architects

ALA Architects
Location

Töölönlahdenkatu, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Lead Architects

ALA Architects
Main contractor

YIT
Area

17250.0 m2
Project Year

2018
Photographs

Tuomas Uusheimo

By reducing on-site storage and consulting library-users on how they access culture, the designers and librarians of Oodi have been able to introduce facilities including a café, restaurant, public balcony, movie theatre, audio-visual recording studios and a makerspace.

This is representative of broader experimentation within Finnish libraries to offer new services in addition to loaning books.