Libraries are increasingly the places in which culture is produced as well as collected and disseminated.  The Ambient Exchange promotes a culture of collaboration, creative inquiry and community engagement through provision of functional and exuberant spaces that engage the strong cultural and craft traditions of the Finnish built environment.

The Ambient Exchange engages it’s site, and the broader city, by placing its cultural and shared amenities at the level of the park and the street.  The building is an extension of the site topography, pulling people up into the spaces that encourage interaction and collaboration among the various users.  Views of the Parliament and cultural amenities of the city inform the library’s formal and functional arrangements.

Ramping floors with platforms for meeting rooms, collection, and other programmatic spaces promote easy circulation for both the patrons and library materials.  The open plan spaces, accentuated by nodes for meeting, teaching, learning and interaction, reinforce the library as a space for collaboration and the development of new ideas.  

The Ambient Exchange is a collaboration between Minus Architecture Studio and Synthetiques.

Project Credits: 
Design: Jason S. Johnson (MAS)  & Josh Taron (Synthetiques)
Energy Consultant: Dr. Jim Love
Systems Research: Keir Stuhmiller
Project Team & Imaging: Stephen Rowe, Mahdiar Ghaffarian, Mike McGee, Jodi James and Matt Parker