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Oodi Helsinki Central Library

when

2018

where

Helsinki, Finland

architecture

ALA_Architects

interior design

ALA_Architects

products

Libreria CF

Oodi, the new Central Library of Helsinki, has been defined as “the nation’s birthday present to its citizens.” Designed by the firm ALA_Architects, it was inaugurated on December 5, 2018, the day before Finland’s 101st independence day.

The top floor of the library, dubbed “the paradise of books,” is furnished entirely with more than 350
CF bookcase modules, manufactured by UniFor and personalized to the designs of the architects to meet special functional and compositional requirements.
The interior environment of the top floor is completely open and flooded with natural light from the rooftop skylights and the glazed facades around the perimeter of the building. An orderly arrangement of bookcase modules provided by UniFor delineate the layout and organization of the various functional areas of the library. Enhanced by clean, minimalist forms and assembly solutions aimed at simplification and high performance in terms of safety and durability, the CF bookcase system (designed by Dante Bonuccelli) consists of aluminum shelving and vertical support panels fixed to each other and to a base in sheet steel.
A total of 351 double-sided modular bookcase modules, all of them painted white, were fabricated in various versions and personalized with special equipment and accessories to meet specific project requirements.