Finland’s ‘ode’ to a new era in libraries

HELSINKI: What do you give the world´s most literate country for its 100th birthday? For Finland´s politicians and public, the answer was simple: a vast, state-of-the-art library, a new "living room for the nation".

Twenty years in the planning, Helsinki´s central library officially opens on December 5 at the end of a year of festivities marking the centenary of Finland´s independence after breaking with Russia in 1917 following six centuries under Swedish rule.

It is a huge, flowing structure of wood and glass sitting on a prime spot in the city centre, directly opposite the Finnish parliament. But whereas the parliament building is an austere and imposing hunk of granite, the new library was designed by Finnish firm ALA Architects as a welcoming, undulating structure, clad in 160 kilometres´ worth of Finnish spruce, drawing people inside with a "warm hug".

Named Oodi -- "ode" in Finnish -- it is intended as a paean to knowledge, learning and equality in what was ranked the world´s most literate country by a 2016 report based on official statistics.