Innovation Next to Books: What Modern Libraries Look Like
Modern libraries are shaping public spaces for education, culture, and community collaboration.
Libraries today serve as open cultural and educational hubs. Architects and city communities design libraries as multifunctional spaces for learning, work, leisure, and events.
What modern libraries in Ukraine and around the world look like — see this DeTalks roundup.
Oodi Central Library in Helsinki (Finland)
The Oodi Central Library is located in central Helsinki, on Kansalaistori Square, and is part of the Helsinki City Library network and the Helmet library system.
The library opened in 2018, designed by Finnish architecture firm ALA Architects, which won an international design competition. The project became the city's largest design undertaking.
Oodi operates as an open public space with no commercial functions. The library provides conditions for reading, studying, working, and relaxing. In its first year alone, the library welcomed over three million visitors.
Each floor of the building has its own function. The layout combines reading rooms, workspaces, workshops, and areas for meetings and events. Visitors can also take part in lectures, exhibitions, workshops, and film screenings.
The space is also equipped to work with a range of technology. Visitors can use computers, multimedia and learning resources, as well as tools like sewing machines, sports equipment, or musical instruments.
Stuttgart City Library (Germany)
The Stuttgart City Library is located on Mailänder Platz. The building opened to visitors in 2011, designed by Korean architect Eun Young Yi — the design competition for the library had been held back in 1999.
The building takes the shape of a large cube, 44 meters to a side. The geometric facade features a grid of square windows. The library's interior spans eleven floors organized into thematic literary zones.
The library's collection numbers over two million items, including books, multimedia, and digital resources. The space includes a music library, a children's department, and a fiction department. The library also runs modern digital systems that let visitors use automated book checkout and return.
The building provides conditions for work and study, with reading rooms, private rooms, and open spaces that support both individual and group work. The library also hosts cultural events, including exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and book presentations.
Starfield Library in Seoul (South Korea)
Starfield Library operates inside the COEX Mall in Seoul's Gangnam district. The space opened on May 31, 2017, and spans roughly 2,800 square meters. Its interior is lined with bookshelves reaching 13 meters high.
The library's collection holds roughly 50,000 books, plus magazines and e-books. The space creates an open atmosphere for reading, studying, working on laptops, and relaxing. Dedicated tables and open areas support both individual and group work.
The library regularly hosts cultural events. The program includes lectures, meetings with authors, and music concerts. Writer Bernard Werber, for instance, held a meeting with readers there during a themed event. The library operates as an open public space, and visitors can stay in the building all day without restriction.
Another distinctive feature of the project is its trust in visitors. Books in the library aren't monitored by security systems, and the public actively supports the institution by donating books. Part of the collection was built through residents' voluntary contributions.
The Library of the Ukrainian Catholic University
The Library of the Ukrainian Catholic University operates in Lviv and traces its origins to the founding of the Greek Catholic Theological Academy in 1928–1929. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky donated the school's initial collection of roughly a thousand books, and by the start of World War II, the library had grown its collection to six thousand books.
The 1939 German bombing destroyed the library building. In 2016, though, the library was relocated to the Andrey Sheptytsky Center.
The library's current collection numbers over 180,000 books and more than 2,600 periodicals. Individual collections include early printed books, rare volumes, manuscripts, and archival materials.
The Hryhorii Denysenko Library of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
The Hryhorii Denysenko Library operates in Kyiv at the National Technical University of Ukraine. The library's history began in 1898, alongside the founding of the university itself. Its first librarian was archaeologist and ethnographer Mykola Biliashivskyi.
In its early years, the library operated out of the Commercial School building, gaining scientific-technical status in 1965. The library's new building opened in 1980.
The library has also embraced digital technology. In 1987, for instance, it created an electronic catalog, and in 2010 work began on building the ELAKPI digital archive.
In 2020, the university's digital library also opened, and the library now operates as a hub supporting education and research, helping students and researchers work with information resources.
The Lesya Ukrainka Public Library
The Lesya Ukrainka Public Library of Kyiv operates as a publicly accessible library and a leading cultural and educational hub for the capital. The library serves as the city's central repository for domestic print publications, regional-studies literature, and foreign-language editions, in both print and digital formats.
The institution provides information and bibliographic services and offers specialized information on culture and the arts. The library also functions as a methodological center for Kyiv's network of public libraries.
The department of regional studies and bibliography holds publications about Kyiv from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The library's own history began after Kyiv's postwar recovery in 1943–1944. At the time, the library's collection numbered 11,000 books.
The library builds a universal collection of documents across traditional and modern formats. As of January 1, 2026, the library's collection numbers 237,000 items and includes collections of rare and valuable editions. The institution also preserves diaspora Ukrainiana and private book collections of notable Ukrainians.
For more on books, see the Bookmarks section.