4 / Qatar QATAR NATIONAL LIBRARY

This diamond-shaped monolith by global design heavyweights OMA welcomed its first visitors last April. Corrugated glass walls and a reflective aluminum ceiling filter and diffuse the bright desert sun to create optimal light for reading, and its vast open-plan interior—measuring in at 42,000 square meters— features tiers of marble bookcases arranged around a central space. Styled as an archaeological dig, a sunken heritage section in travertine marble contains some of Qatar’s most important texts and manuscripts on ArabIslamic civilization.