Designed by world famous Spanish designer – Santiago Calatrava, the Zurich Central Library is the library of Zurich canton, Zurich city and the University of Zurich which is the largest university in Switzerland. Switzerland has four official languages German, French, Italian and Romansh and the library offers numerous digital documents (e-journals and e-books) and databases that can be accessed through the networks of the university. Its substantial collection caters for the needs of the general public and of teaching and research in all faculties.

The library building was integrated in the courtyard of an existing building. It opened in 2004 and houses around 200’000 books and 500 study places. The whole intervention is more of a giant piece of wooden furniture placed in the atrium of the existing building. The library has 5000 meters space for books and 500 working places. The oval skylight has an integrated mechanical sun shade.

The desks and book stacks ringing the atrium here are a sight to behold, though we’re not sure they are particularly conducive to getting work done – it is too tempting to people watch and to admire the architecture. As if freely suspended in air, the six reading galleries, enclosing a lens-shaped light funnel, rise up to the dome roof. Glass, white stone, white steel girders, light maple wood and bountiful daylight are all combined to create a daring shape, while generating an easy elegance. Tourists visiting the library should take one of the glass elevators to the top floor to get the full feel for this fabulous building.