Keskustakirjasto 2017

The proposed designs selected for the second stage of the Helsinki Central Library architectural competition will be put on public display at Helsinki Art Museum Meilahti.

Heart of the Metropolis, the architectural competition on the Helsinki Central Library, is part of the programme of World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. The six designs selected for the second stage of the competition will be on public display from 23 March to 5 April. The public is welcome to give feedback on the designs.  

The architects and teams of the second competition stage have been given an opportunity to develop their designs further on the basis of guidelines from the jury. The exhibition in Meilahti will include images of the reworked designs and architectural models of the designs. Visitors can give feedback both at the exhibition and online. Feedback can also be given on digital city screens located in various sections of Helsinki. Read more »

For the very first time, the library is offering Helsinki residents the opportunity to collectively decide how €100,000 of development money will be spent. The money is part of the Central Library’s budget and will be used on pilot schemes for developing the library of the future. Come and help us decide which of the schemes will be launched in libraries next year! You can influence the planning of the library of the future today. Let’s make a new library together, piece by piece.

Participate in workshops and online:

• 25 October 5–8 pm Kontula Library, advance enrolment
• 29 October 5–8 pm Meetingpoint, advance enrolment
• 30 October 5–8 pm Töölö Library (Mika Waltari hall, 4th floor), advance enrolment

Discuss, comment and ask questions online in week 42 at keskustakirjasto.fi.

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People were inspired to dream around the dressed-up trees. City residents shared their ideas about the Central Library at the Knit’n'Tag event held in Helsinki’s Vanha kirkkopuisto Park on 25 August. Suggestions, hopes and dreams were hung on two trees to whisper in the wind and minds. The trees were decorated and united by a communal chain of yarn crocheted in workshops during the summer. Its soft colours and hard “chain-like” appearance invited people to fiddle with it and to continue the chain. Many passers-by sat down to try out their crocheting skills under the Dream Tree of the Central Library. Read more »

People in the sauna hut of the Central Library sigh with content. That’s some great sauna steam! A wood-heated sauna stove sends out heat in the middle of a yurt sauna and soon receives another scoop of water. Soft but firm sauna steam caresses sauna-goers sitting on wooden benches, until they just have to take a dip. Töölönlahti, with its summer atmosphere, basks in the sun as the sauna-goers boldly descend into the cool water. “Wonderful!” they yell out in unison. And it is indeed wonderful. Read more »

The Central Library is a place for city residents, which will be completed at Töölönlahti Bay in 2017. What kind of urban space and culture would you like to see in the heart of Helsinki? Come and take part in the development! Leave your mark, dream your dream and have your say in the various workshops held by professional artists representing a number of fields. There is no point waiting around for inspiration during the library weekend. Simply interact with people through data, text, image, words and motion, and bring out your creativity for others to enjoy – just like in the upcoming Central Library where the role of the customer will expand from a passive recipient to an active participant. Read more »

Antti Reini and Outi Mäenpää, the leading actors in the film Vares, like to spend time at the library.

Libraries are full of stories that people read. Today, many of these stories can also be seen, even without the eyes of our minds. For filmmakers, literature is a treasure trove, a source of both light-hearted and more serious material that can be taken to the silver screen.

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The international library conference discussed lighter and more serious topics regarding the Central Library and other intriguing library plans.

A sunny and interesting library conference took place in Helsinki on 10–11 February. The New Library – Design and Function conference gathered library professionals from all over Europe to the Marina Congress Center in Katajanokka. The visitors included lecturers and seminar participants from, for example, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Greece, Estonia, England and Holland as well as representatives from many Finnish libraries. The seminar discussion was characterised by avid excitement and love for libraries and library development. The Helsinki Central Library project received many insights from countries that already have a major central library as well as from countries that are currently exploring the same options as Helsinki.

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The Central Library building is almost ready!

The Central Library stands firm. The spacious and bright lobby invites visitors and is an open window towards wonderful Töölönlahti. Multiple entrances across the building draw in library enthusiasts and random travellers. All the different floors blaze with various colours and themes, the stairways race upward overlapping each other towards a high-rise platform that offers a stunning view down to the lobby. The highest level hosts a scenic café and a beautiful garden.

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