OMA has completed work on the highly anticipated Qatar National Library (QNL) in Doha. Totaling more than 450,000 square feet, the new educational and cultural venue houses the National Library, Public Library, University Library, and Heritage Collection, which comprises valuable texts and manuscripts related to Arab-Islamic civilization. The structure has more than one million books and can accommodate thousands of visitors at one time.
The building’s edges are elevated from the ground to create three aisles that display books and enclose a central triangular space. Aisles are arranged as a topography of shelves interspersed with enclaves for reading and socializing. The Heritage Collection is situated at the heart of the library in a sunken, 20-foot-deep travertine space.
“Classically, libraries were vibrant spaces for the exchange of knowledge. With the immediate accessibility of information in the current era, the library’s role as public meeting space is more significant than ever,” says OMA architect Ellen van Loon. “We pay tribute to the region’s rich culture with the Heritage Library, excavated from the ground like an archeological site, holding historical and priceless Islamic texts for visitors to study and contemplate.”
“We designed the space so you can see all the books in a panorama. You emerge immediately surrounded by literally every book—all physically present, visible, and accessible, without any particular effort,” Rem Koolhaas adds. “The interior is so large it’s on an almost urban scale: it could contain an entire population, and also an entire population of books.”
Conceived as a single room, the library debuts as part of the region’s new Education City, an academic campus that is home to the satellite campuses of several international universities. The campus features other OMA-designed structures, including the Qatar Foundation Headquarters and a new branch of the Research Institute.
