Helsinki Central Library Oodi

Oodi is a library built as much for people as for books. The collection lives on the third floor, and specially built robots carry them up there. The rest of the building is designed for meetings and events, so you can spend a day inside without borrowing anything.

It stands in the centre of Helsinki, a short walk from the Central Station, beside the Helsinki Music Centre and the Kiasma museum of contemporary art. “Central” describes that address, not its rank. The main library of the Helsinki City Library system is in Pasila.

The city involved its residents from the start. ALA Architects won the design competition in 2012 against 543 other entries. When the building needed a name, the public sent in around 1,600 proposals. The jury chose Oodi, Finnish for “ode” (Ode in Swedish), because it is easy to remember, say and translate, and because it did not want to name the library after a person.

Oodi opened on 5 December 2018, the eve of Finnish Independence Day. The state’s contribution to the cost was tied to the centenary of independence the year before. Since 2019 the building has also housed Kino Regina, where the National Audiovisual Institute screens films from its archive. The same year, IFLA named Oodi Public Library of the Year.

Oodi is a working example of the idea we describe in the modern library: more than books. For the architecture behind it, read why modern libraries look nothing like old ones.