Helsinki celebrates 100 years of independence from Russia with a public library by ALA Architects.

To celebrate 100 years of independence from Russia, the country has opened Oodi, a gigantic public library designed by ALA Architects. It has become a symbol of Finland’s far-sighted cultural policy

THE CURVED AND UNDULATING CEILING IS REMINISCENT OF A LONG GROTTO OPEN TOWARDS THE SQUARE, with tactile paving to allow the blind to “read” the space as if it were a book. The first feeling you get when you enter Helsinki’s new Oodi Central Library – which encompasses some 17,000 square metres dedicated to culture and social life in the city centre – is that of being in a welcoming light-filled cave. But then the allusions multiply because this building, whose gestation lasted twenty years (culminating in the competition in 2016), is really a complex “machine” with multiple meanings. According to Antti Nousjoki and Juho Grönholm, partners at ALA Architects, the firm which designed the project, “We wanted to create a continuity with urban space on the ground floor and have an upper floor that floated above the city, where people could study and read protected from the noise. Then a more introverted intermediate level took shape between the two, where the gigantic supporting arch that holds up the structure develops, surrounded by

smaller rooms that are open to everyone for work meetings and other activities. Because people come here not just to read but also to sew, print in 3D, make music. In addition to the space there’s the equipment, including robots”.

On the ground floor, the long wing that includes the entrance, the hall (with the auditorium and cafe restaurant) and the theatre (with direct access from the square) stretches from south to north, as the architects explain: “connecting two different landscapes, one decidedly urban and the other more rural, thanks to the presence of the park.” In the middle of this route a spectacular black spiral staircase connects the three levels. And the biggest surprise awaits visitors on the third floor. “Welcome to book heaven”, the architects announce as you arrive at an expansive birch platform that looks like a ship’s deck and contains thousands of books, capped by a soft and white ceiling that absorbs noise. Here daylight, enhanced by the use of light shades, is key. It pours in from the round skylights cut into the ceiling, but also from the glass perimeter walls, screened only by a thin “snow-like” mesh.

The most profound expression of the purpose of the imposing Oodi library, built with €100 million of public funds, lies in this large and comfortable “living room” that is suspended over the

“OODI IS THE SYMBOL OF IMPORTANT VALUES AS EQUALITY, TRANSPARENCY, DEMOCRACY”

“IN HELSINKI LIBRARIES REPRESENT THE SECOND BIGGEST PUBLIC SERVICE EXPENDITURE, AFTER WATER”

city. “The main window looks onto the neoclassical outline of the Finnish Parliament, slightly above it. One of the objectives of the project was that the library should interact on an equal footing with this institution. That is how the unusual reading room in the clouds was born”. The pride of feeling like one of the country’s great institutions is not an ancillary fact, but rather the central pillar of a cultural policy that has deep roots here. As the City of Helsinki’s Executive Director for Culture and Leisure, Tommi Laitio, states: “In Helsinki libraries represent the second biggest public service expenditure, after water. And Oodi’s director, Katri Vänttinen, adds that: “In the city there are and will continue to be many, at least one per neighbourhood, all working at full speed. It’s no coincidence that we’re the only country in the world to have a law governing this matter, the Library Act. Statistics show that the Finns read an average of 40 books a year and visit facilities like this at least ten times a year, accessing not just books but also games and rooms that are open to everyone.” And all this for free, naturally. The mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori, remembers that: “From 6 to 16 I spent most of my time in libraries. And for me it wasn’t an option. So to those who today ask me why we built a library in the most valuable part of the city, I respond that we are a poor country that has invested in human resources. That is our little miracle. Oodi is the symbol of this policy but also of equality, of transparency, of democracy, values we believe in deeply and that today it is important to reaffirm”. ○