The success of this project depends on the treatment of scale; the library is located in a monumental urban system that consists of five entities.

For us, the question of function and flexibility depends not only on providing a performance space, but also on creating a social and sensory experience. We paid particular attention in order to allow a variation and evolution of uses.

The internal organization of our proposal opposes the traditional library typology: it becomes a new place in the city, a place in a confined space, frequented by researchers, users, and passersby. The glazed outer skin envelopes different lecture spaces: light and shadow become key players in an atmosphere which directly affects the reading benches.

We worked on the articulation of two essential and inseparable issues: reducing the environmental footprint and generating architectural value, quality and use of an environment conducive to work.

To this end, we chose to make strategic choices early on in the design process, combining different scales and taking advantage of specific climatic Finnish context.

The location and morphology of the project are definitive choices which precede aspects such as material choice, spatial qualities, and techniques, to create a building with “sustainable” performance.

Client: City of Helsinki / Cost: € 69M excl. VAT / Surface: 12600 m² / Schedule: 2012 / Team: Franck Boutté (HEQ)