De Krook in Ghent is among the 10 most beautiful libraries in the world
With the rise of smartphones and Wikipedia, concerns have grown that buildings full of books will become obsolete. But many of the best and biggest libraries have been built since the millennium, reports the BBC.
On Friday 10 March, De Krook in Ghent opened its doors to the public. The building was designed by the Ghent-based COUSSEE & GORIS architecten and the Spanish-Catalan firm RCR Arquitectes. It features a library, a lively café, experimentation labs, radio studios, a study room and much more.
According to the BBC, Ghent is a "medieval metropolis with a big student population" and is "just as pretty as Bruges". The library forms a contrast to its ancient monuments, which links the historic centre of the city to the art quarter. The building is made up out a stark metallic structure, in a neglected corner of the waterfront.
Promoted as an ‘open house for knowledge and innovation’, this collective of institutions including the city library is a cultural catalyst, reviving what used to be a no-go zone.
In addition to De Krook, the BBC mentions the following libraries:
- Peckham Library in London
- Philological Library of the Free University of Berlin
- National Library in Riga (Latvia)
- Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria (Egypt)
- Library of the Brandenburg University of Technology Library Cottbus (Germany)
- Sir Duncan Runcan Rice Library of the University of Aberdeen
- Library of Birmingham
- Seattle Central Library
- Library and Learning Centre, University of Vienna (Austria)