8 ms·

Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

169 points by late 7y ago

late 7y ago
This is interesting due to the concept of Oodi being totally different from most libraries and only to some extent fitting the definition of a library [1]. Oodi is more of a living meeting place for people where you can play board games, video games, make art, 3D prints, music and such. It might be dubbed as a library to ensure that its visitors have a vague understanding of the place i.e. it's free to use all the services and open to anyone. [1] "A library is a curated collection of sources of information and similar resources.." as per Wikipedea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library
- blakesterz 7y ago
  "Oodi is more of a living meeting place for people where you can play board games, video games, make art, 3D prints, music and such." Ask any librarian today and they'll say that's what a library is now. Or at least that's probably what they want their library to be now. This probably only goes for public librarians.
  - fhbdukfrh 7y ago
    My love of wandering through the stacks of a library is definitely nostalgia-driven but there's something about being around mountains of books that is exciting. Probably the same reason people like old record stores, flea markets and bargain stores like winners...
tow21 7y ago
Weird. I think it’s rubbish as a public library. I mean, it’s an interesting building, and a nice place for a cup of coffee, but it’s absolutely useless if you want to go and browse some shelves and borrow some books; it’s like it’s been actively designed to make that hard to do.
- tenaciousDaniel 7y ago
  This is how I felt about the New York Public Library. It's famous; everyone goes there. There's even a Gutenberg Bible there. But I've been 2-3 times and I never found a book. It's like the books are all deliberately hidden, it's infuriating.
  - SolaceQuantum 7y ago
    The NYPL In Bryant Park? Basement floor hallway past the bathrooms. There’s a separate entrance for it also on 42nd st? I go there all the time for books and free public restrooms. The big NYPL space is for all the other things libraries do, like workspaces, meeting spaces, etc. I think there’s also a very rare book section but that requires special permission.
    - ghaff 7y ago
      The renovated Rose Reading Room is really beautiful. Great place to work for a couple hours. (So is Bryant Park on a nice day of course.)
  - BeepBoop2k 7y ago
    The main building at Bryant Park is a research library. It's beautiful - but it doesn't have much circulation, just items of interest for researchers. The Mid-Manhattan branch is a HUGE circulation library. It's across the street from the main library but confusingly enough - it's in the middle of being renovated so, for now, its colocated in the basement of the main library and a subset of its collection is available. It is _very_ browsable.
- trm42 7y ago
  Actually, it’s awesome that they have realized that the definition of library is changing from a store of media into place where people can meet and hang around and do stuff together. There isn’t that much of public space for people unless you’re attending some school. And in case somebody asks, hanging outside in Finnish winter is not that fun all the time ;D I’ve visited Oodi a lot more than traditional libraries as I already have the need for books satiated with Kindle and such.
deleted 7y ago
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AriaMinaei 7y ago
In the library, next to a row of regular PCs for internet surfing, they have a couple of beefed up workstations for CG artists and video editors and even data scientists. The workstations had super juicy internals, connected to large displays, and came with a very nice Wacom tablet!
deleted 7y ago
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pm90 7y ago
When I was in Austin, Texas I checked out the new library. It’s fucking awesome, reminded me of hogwarts with its staircases and shit.
- hsnewman 7y ago
  I live in Austin and the new library has everything (except alot of books...).
zaroth 7y ago
This is absolutely the new definition of “library”, and honestly though I came here to criticize an egotistical architectural exercise, after reading more about Oodi I am suitably impressed. $100 million is an extremely good deal for what they got, and they say that includes the equipment? I don’t quite believe they built it for that little. My town (population ~15,000) wanted to build a new library last year — it was voted down as unnecessary — at a cost of almost ~$30 million for a two story 30,000 sq. ft building. Oodi’s 185,000 square feet is an exquisite leisure center, and with up to 20,000 visitors a day sounds like a fantastic investment for Helsinki.
- WillPostForFood 7y ago
  Similar story in my city, though the library was built. Took 6 years, $46 million dollars ($10 million over budget), for a two story 40,000 sq foot building. It again raises the question of why projects like this are so hard, expensive, and slow in the US.
- hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
  Wow, where does it say $100 million? Austin opened a new central library recently, and while I was originally skeptical I think they did an amazing job - really cozy, human-centered architecture that's beautiful. I love going there to work and read, and it's become my favorite building in Austin. But it was considerably more than $100 million (I think around $125), so kudos to the Finns for such a great job.
- zepearl 7y ago
  I guess that one of the real problem are the recurring yearly fixed & variable costs of the facility after it has been built (which is often "forgotten" by the politician/s that try to push a project to get votes), which might be a bit challenging for such a small town (~15'000) if it has to maintain as well other existing structures (e.g. swimming pool, museum, etc...). My town (~10'000) has a library, 3 schools, a big outdoor public swimming pool that can be used as well during wintertimes (gets covered by a roof) + another small swimming pool in one of the schools, a modern art museum, an ice rink, an athletics & football stadium, 3 indoor gyms (a big public one for national competitions + 2 small ones usually used by the schools), a parkour track in the woods, a theatre, a cinema, (maybe I've forgotten something) => it was absolutely no problem building them, but the $ needed for the maintenance&depreciation of the structures and the salaries of the employees was underestimated => now that the town is not anymore in the "big boom"-phase we have a huge budget problem (I'd like to get rid first of the modern art museum but apparently the opposition is very strong and well-connected).
simplecomplex 7y ago
It’s cold and uninviting, not a warm and relaxing environment for reading and pondering. You’d think it was a museum not a library. What’s with the recent trend of libraries and coffee shops that look like modern art museums (cold, bright, lack of wood, metal, sharp acoustics..)? I can’t be the only one who notices this.
- jhbadger 7y ago
  At least in the US, the minimalistic design style where things are "cold and bright" is called "Scandinavian Design", which makes it rather appropriate for Helsinki. Personally, I like the style and find it more cheerful than the dark wood and stone "Victorian" style that is traditional to libraries.
- trm42 7y ago
  Actually, in practice Oodi is bright and open place inviting both participation and hanging around. It also has quieter space, separate story and play area for small children, cafes, movie theatre. It's like hanging out in a mall without need to buy anything and everything is open instead of small and closed.
enra 7y ago
I'm a Finn but been living in SF for the last few years. Went to Oodi couple of weeks ago was impressed by the facilities and the building. In addition to books, there were workstations, 3D printers, large format printers, sewing machines, video games, board games, kids play area, restaurant, and a cafe. Our startup also worked there for one day. There is free Wifi, a lot of chairs and places to sit and even meeting rooms you can book. Noise levels are also quite low that you can read or work, much better than in a regular cafe even in the large open spaces. They have seemed to have worked a lot on the acoustics. There are also books you can read, borrow and return. The book selection seemed more recent/popular, not a lot of old books (still it has 100k books). To those that comment on the how little books there are: There are several other libraries in Helsinki that house old and vast amounts of books. Helsinki has nearly 40 public libraries and numerous scholarly libraries: https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/see-and-do/sights/helsinki%E2%80%99s-most-beautiful-libraries https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/see-and-do/sights/helsinki%E2%8... Overall it feels like a great place for people to go outside of their home or office to read, meet with people, take their kids to, and for free. I uploaded a few mobile photos and videos if anyone is interested: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z7ez8rhisktpaac/AAD7xd6xsCESP6LhJkC1Wmi9a?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z7ez8rhisktpaac/AAD7xd6xsCESP6LhJ...
- kiliantics 7y ago
  The Omni in Oakland has all of this and more but is entirely owned and run by the member community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY Shame that government in the US does not invest in such resources for the community.
  - dluan 7y ago
    What if we gave the community of upstarts and creatives that run the Omni the same $100m budget of the Oodi library? I've been to the Omni space where Counter Culture Labs is - and while it's cool that it is completely organic and has a great supportive and local feel, it also really feels cobbled together and limited. At least with lots of tool libraries popping up around the US, there's volunteers who just hang out and get involved with projects that people bring in. Imagine if that was the new kind of 'librarian' job - coder, fabricator, artist, designer, community oral historian, and archivist.
minikites 7y ago
Libraries are one of the few indoor spaces left where you can spend time there without a requirement to purchase something.
jpalomaki 7y ago
There have been some complaints about the building, because there’s not that many books. But the law that governs public libraries actually gives libraries quite wide mission. Quick automatic translation from the finnish version. Not perfect, but you get the point. ”The purpose of this Act is to promote: 1) equal opportunities for education and culture for the population; 2) access to and use of information; 3) reading culture and diverse literacy; 4) opportunities for lifelong learning and skills development; 5) active citizenship, democracy and freedom of expression.” https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2016/20161492 https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2016/20161492
- trm42 7y ago
  It's kind of funny that the amount of physical media is criticized. It still has 100k books, movies, magazines and other loanable stuff in total. And it's only one of the libraries in Helsinki region, and into which you can order loanable stuff from the other libraries as well.
  - Gravityloss 7y ago
    I personally have found good books and loaned from Oodi. Mostly about music. Regular libraries with more books in general tend to have a similar "hit rate" for me. If you are in Helsinki and want to visit a nice more classical library, Kallion kirjasto and Töölön kirjasto are easily accessible by tram or electric scooter. Kallio is old and nice and Töölö is by Alvar Aalto.
Mediterraneo10 7y ago
I no longer live in Helsinki, but I am curious how quick the local homeless and the Balkan Roma migrants have been to settle into Oodi as a free, warm place to hang out at during the day. Starting from around 2010 there started to be examples of “defensive architecture” in the Helsinki city center to discourage those two demographics from hanging around, e.g. removing the once ample seating at the entrance to the Kirjasto 10 library that Oodi supersedes. Such architectural changes had a small but nevertheless rather unsavory impact on the center.
xornox 7y ago
Oodi is not very good as a library. I do not understand what are criterias for this choice. There is only one quite small, noisy and restless floor for books. If I should visit in a library, Oodi would be the last option.

169 points by late 7y ago

late 7y ago

This is interesting due to the concept of Oodi being totally different from most libraries and only to some extent fitting the definition of a library [1]. Oodi is more of a living meeting place for people where you can play board games, video games, make art, 3D prints, music and such. It might be dubbed as a library to ensure that its visitors have a vague understanding of the place i.e. it's free to use all the services and open to anyone. [1] "A library is a curated collection of sources of information and similar resources.." as per Wikipedea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library

blakesterz 7y ago
"Oodi is more of a living meeting place for people where you can play board games, video games, make art, 3D prints, music and such." Ask any librarian today and they'll say that's what a library is now. Or at least that's probably what they want their library to be now. This probably only goes for public librarians.
- fhbdukfrh 7y ago
  My love of wandering through the stacks of a library is definitely nostalgia-driven but there's something about being around mountains of books that is exciting. Probably the same reason people like old record stores, flea markets and bargain stores like winners...

tow21 7y ago

Weird. I think it’s rubbish as a public library. I mean, it’s an interesting building, and a nice place for a cup of coffee, but it’s absolutely useless if you want to go and browse some shelves and borrow some books; it’s like it’s been actively designed to make that hard to do.

tenaciousDaniel 7y ago
This is how I felt about the New York Public Library. It's famous; everyone goes there. There's even a Gutenberg Bible there. But I've been 2-3 times and I never found a book. It's like the books are all deliberately hidden, it's infuriating.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago
  The NYPL In Bryant Park? Basement floor hallway past the bathrooms. There’s a separate entrance for it also on 42nd st? I go there all the time for books and free public restrooms. The big NYPL space is for all the other things libraries do, like workspaces, meeting spaces, etc. I think there’s also a very rare book section but that requires special permission.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    The renovated Rose Reading Room is really beautiful. Great place to work for a couple hours. (So is Bryant Park on a nice day of course.)
- BeepBoop2k 7y ago
  The main building at Bryant Park is a research library. It's beautiful - but it doesn't have much circulation, just items of interest for researchers. The Mid-Manhattan branch is a HUGE circulation library. It's across the street from the main library but confusingly enough - it's in the middle of being renovated so, for now, its colocated in the basement of the main library and a subset of its collection is available. It is _very_ browsable.
trm42 7y ago
Actually, it’s awesome that they have realized that the definition of library is changing from a store of media into place where people can meet and hang around and do stuff together. There isn’t that much of public space for people unless you’re attending some school. And in case somebody asks, hanging outside in Finnish winter is not that fun all the time ;D I’ve visited Oodi a lot more than traditional libraries as I already have the need for books satiated with Kindle and such.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

AriaMinaei 7y ago

In the library, next to a row of regular PCs for internet surfing, they have a couple of beefed up workstations for CG artists and video editors and even data scientists. The workstations had super juicy internals, connected to large displays, and came with a very nice Wacom tablet!

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

pm90 7y ago

When I was in Austin, Texas I checked out the new library. It’s fucking awesome, reminded me of hogwarts with its staircases and shit.

hsnewman 7y ago
I live in Austin and the new library has everything (except alot of books...).

zaroth 7y ago

This is absolutely the new definition of “library”, and honestly though I came here to criticize an egotistical architectural exercise, after reading more about Oodi I am suitably impressed. $100 million is an extremely good deal for what they got, and they say that includes the equipment? I don’t quite believe they built it for that little. My town (population ~15,000) wanted to build a new library last year — it was voted down as unnecessary — at a cost of almost ~$30 million for a two story 30,000 sq. ft building. Oodi’s 185,000 square feet is an exquisite leisure center, and with up to 20,000 visitors a day sounds like a fantastic investment for Helsinki.

WillPostForFood 7y ago
Similar story in my city, though the library was built. Took 6 years, $46 million dollars ($10 million over budget), for a two story 40,000 sq foot building. It again raises the question of why projects like this are so hard, expensive, and slow in the US.
hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
Wow, where does it say $100 million? Austin opened a new central library recently, and while I was originally skeptical I think they did an amazing job - really cozy, human-centered architecture that's beautiful. I love going there to work and read, and it's become my favorite building in Austin. But it was considerably more than $100 million (I think around $125), so kudos to the Finns for such a great job.
zepearl 7y ago
I guess that one of the real problem are the recurring yearly fixed & variable costs of the facility after it has been built (which is often "forgotten" by the politician/s that try to push a project to get votes), which might be a bit challenging for such a small town (~15'000) if it has to maintain as well other existing structures (e.g. swimming pool, museum, etc...). My town (~10'000) has a library, 3 schools, a big outdoor public swimming pool that can be used as well during wintertimes (gets covered by a roof) + another small swimming pool in one of the schools, a modern art museum, an ice rink, an athletics & football stadium, 3 indoor gyms (a big public one for national competitions + 2 small ones usually used by the schools), a parkour track in the woods, a theatre, a cinema, (maybe I've forgotten something) => it was absolutely no problem building them, but the $ needed for the maintenance&depreciation of the structures and the salaries of the employees was underestimated => now that the town is not anymore in the "big boom"-phase we have a huge budget problem (I'd like to get rid first of the modern art museum but apparently the opposition is very strong and well-connected).

simplecomplex 7y ago

It’s cold and uninviting, not a warm and relaxing environment for reading and pondering. You’d think it was a museum not a library. What’s with the recent trend of libraries and coffee shops that look like modern art museums (cold, bright, lack of wood, metal, sharp acoustics..)? I can’t be the only one who notices this.

jhbadger 7y ago
At least in the US, the minimalistic design style where things are "cold and bright" is called "Scandinavian Design", which makes it rather appropriate for Helsinki. Personally, I like the style and find it more cheerful than the dark wood and stone "Victorian" style that is traditional to libraries.
trm42 7y ago
Actually, in practice Oodi is bright and open place inviting both participation and hanging around. It also has quieter space, separate story and play area for small children, cafes, movie theatre. It's like hanging out in a mall without need to buy anything and everything is open instead of small and closed.

enra 7y ago

I'm a Finn but been living in SF for the last few years. Went to Oodi couple of weeks ago was impressed by the facilities and the building. In addition to books, there were workstations, 3D printers, large format printers, sewing machines, video games, board games, kids play area, restaurant, and a cafe. Our startup also worked there for one day. There is free Wifi, a lot of chairs and places to sit and even meeting rooms you can book. Noise levels are also quite low that you can read or work, much better than in a regular cafe even in the large open spaces. They have seemed to have worked a lot on the acoustics. There are also books you can read, borrow and return. The book selection seemed more recent/popular, not a lot of old books (still it has 100k books). To those that comment on the how little books there are: There are several other libraries in Helsinki that house old and vast amounts of books. Helsinki has nearly 40 public libraries and numerous scholarly libraries: https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/see-and-do/sights/helsinki%E2%80%99s-most-beautiful-libraries https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/see-and-do/sights/helsinki%E2%8... Overall it feels like a great place for people to go outside of their home or office to read, meet with people, take their kids to, and for free. I uploaded a few mobile photos and videos if anyone is interested: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z7ez8rhisktpaac/AAD7xd6xsCESP6LhJkC1Wmi9a?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z7ez8rhisktpaac/AAD7xd6xsCESP6LhJ...

kiliantics 7y ago
The Omni in Oakland has all of this and more but is entirely owned and run by the member community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY Shame that government in the US does not invest in such resources for the community.
- dluan 7y ago
  What if we gave the community of upstarts and creatives that run the Omni the same $100m budget of the Oodi library? I've been to the Omni space where Counter Culture Labs is - and while it's cool that it is completely organic and has a great supportive and local feel, it also really feels cobbled together and limited. At least with lots of tool libraries popping up around the US, there's volunteers who just hang out and get involved with projects that people bring in. Imagine if that was the new kind of 'librarian' job - coder, fabricator, artist, designer, community oral historian, and archivist.

minikites 7y ago

Libraries are one of the few indoor spaces left where you can spend time there without a requirement to purchase something.

jpalomaki 7y ago

There have been some complaints about the building, because there’s not that many books. But the law that governs public libraries actually gives libraries quite wide mission. Quick automatic translation from the finnish version. Not perfect, but you get the point. ”The purpose of this Act is to promote: 1) equal opportunities for education and culture for the population; 2) access to and use of information; 3) reading culture and diverse literacy; 4) opportunities for lifelong learning and skills development; 5) active citizenship, democracy and freedom of expression.” https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2016/20161492 https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2016/20161492

trm42 7y ago
It's kind of funny that the amount of physical media is criticized. It still has 100k books, movies, magazines and other loanable stuff in total. And it's only one of the libraries in Helsinki region, and into which you can order loanable stuff from the other libraries as well.
- Gravityloss 7y ago
  I personally have found good books and loaned from Oodi. Mostly about music. Regular libraries with more books in general tend to have a similar "hit rate" for me. If you are in Helsinki and want to visit a nice more classical library, Kallion kirjasto and Töölön kirjasto are easily accessible by tram or electric scooter. Kallio is old and nice and Töölö is by Alvar Aalto.

Mediterraneo10 7y ago

I no longer live in Helsinki, but I am curious how quick the local homeless and the Balkan Roma migrants have been to settle into Oodi as a free, warm place to hang out at during the day. Starting from around 2010 there started to be examples of “defensive architecture” in the Helsinki city center to discourage those two demographics from hanging around, e.g. removing the once ample seating at the entrance to the Kirjasto 10 library that Oodi supersedes. Such architectural changes had a small but nevertheless rather unsavory impact on the center.

xornox 7y ago

Oodi is not very good as a library. I do not understand what are criterias for this choice. There is only one quite small, noisy and restless floor for books. If I should visit in a library, Oodi would be the last option.