Qatar National Library
OMA / Rem Koolhaas · Al Rayyan, Qatar · 2017
Qatar National Library is conceived as a single enormous room whose floor plates fold upward at the edges to create terraces of books around a central open space. OMA places the heritage collection in a sunken travertine-lined area at the center while reading, study and collection zones remain visually connected across the building. The white roof and glazed façades create an unusually bright interior for a library of this scale. The new building opened to the public in late 2017 and was formally inaugurated in 2018, establishing a major civic and research institution within Education City.