OMA’s massive Qatar National Library officially opens

2018-04-17T14:20:00-04:00

The Qatar National Library in Doha officially opened its doors on April 16th. Designed by OMA, the new building encompasses the National Library, the Public Library, the University Library, and the Heritage Collection, which consists of valuable texts and manuscripts related to the Arab-Islamic civilization.

Photograph by Iwan Baan, Courtesy of OMA.

At 42,000 square meters, the library is conceived as a single room which houses both people and books.“We designed the space so you can see all the books in a panorama" said Rem Koolhaas. "You emerge immediately surrounded by literally every book – all physically present, visible, and accessible, without any particular effort. The interior is so large it’s on an almost urban scale: it could contain an entire population, and also an entire population of books.”

Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, Courtesy of OMA.

Photograph by Hans Werlemann, Courtesy of OMA.

According to the firm, the edges of the building are...

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OMA’s massive Qatar National Library officially opens