National Library of Belarus
Viktor Kramarenko + Mikhail Vinogradov · Minsk, Belarus · 2006
The National Library of Belarus is dominated by a 23-story rhombicuboctahedron raised above a broad cultural and service podium. Viktor Kramarenko and Mikhail Vinogradov turned the library’s main storage volume into a crystalline geometric symbol visible across eastern Minsk, while reading rooms and public facilities occupy lower levels around it. Opened in 2006, the building represents the monumental state architecture of post-Soviet Belarus and became an immediate national landmark. At night the faceted exterior also functions as a large programmable light surface.