Some of the most beautiful libraries

[LONDONER]

Which is your favourite? I don't really like the OTT Rococo ones very much but I love the number 2 in Hungary and at the far end, number 21 in Norway.

Some of them look as if the architect was more inteested in the building than the books. As much as I love Cambridge as a city, St. John's Library number 23, looks too austere and cold.

I hope that they all have some sort of anti-fire protection installed, I would hate to see books go up in flames. Number 4 from Ireland, with all that timber, would be a prime candidate.

http://www.boredpanda.com/extraordinary-...cid=358262

[Lexington]

I like all of them. How they have different approaches to the same idea. Some would make me feel like an old-time scholar in them, and others like I was in a sci-fi movie. They'd both be cool in their way.

I always thought the Denver Public Library (on the outside) looks like they couldn't decide on which design to use, so they used them all.



Lex

[MikeW]

The main UC Berkeley library system is very complex. Each department has their own in-house library. The Bancroft / Doe Library (Doe being the Greco-Roman building below) complex is quite lovely.

About a decade ago, the system underwent a major renovation, and much of the university's holdings were moved below ground. Those pyramid shapes to the left of the main building are actually skylights. The underground portion is beneath the grassy field to the left (and much more of it than shown) and connects with the contemporary styled Undergraduate Library in the distance.



The Doe reference room:



The Heyns Reading Room:



The ceiling of the Heyns:



The Morrison Library (a smaller library within Doe):



Another view of Morrison:



The Bancroft / Doe complex:



The main library is open to the public. When I first moved here in the 1970s, any Berkeley resident with a municipal library card could go into the stacks and get books on loan from the UC Library system. That changed in the 1980s. Now one has to have special privileges to get into the actual stacks and book lending is limited to the public.

[LJay]

Nothing like a little magnificence to inspire thought.

[meridannight]

i need to start putting some serious design into my private library.

[mrex]

1. Norway
2. Germany

but above all of them "main library of the university of helsinki"
http://www.archdaily.com/459135/helsinki...architects