The largest library in Europe

Tomorrow, September 3, the largest library in Europe will open in the UK. The area of the temple of knowledge built in Birmingham is 31 square kilometers!

(Total 15 photos)

Source: pixanews.com

1. The construction of the new Birmingham Library was completed in April this year, but its official opening will take place on September 3rd.

2. The city spent 189 million pounds sterling on the construction of a new library, which, of course, could not but cause heated debate among the population.

3. The Birmingham Library was built over three years by architect Francine Houben from the Dutch studio Mecanoo. The library was built with an underground amphitheater, roof gardens, and an ornate façade of metal rings.

4. In total, the building has 10 floors, on the top there is the Shakespeare Memorial Hall.

5. The design of the facade of the building seems to allude to the jewelery quarter of the city: filigree metal rings form a pattern on a gold, silver and glass background.

6. The transition between the floors of the library is very gentle, which allows visitors to go down to the fiction department, then even lower, to the children's library and, finally, to the very bottom - to the music section. The last level extends under Centenary Square, on which the architects created a sunken amphitheater.

7. Inside, in the reading rooms on the middle level of the library, the metal rings of the facade create a real pattern of shadows.

8. The building consists of four rectangular components arranged in a checkerboard pattern, thanks to which various canopies and terraces are created.

9. Interior view of the new Birmingham Library. Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

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11. Sandwiched between a 1930s residential area and a 1960s theater building, Birmingham's new library overlooks one of three squares, Centenary Square.

12. The total length of the library shelves is 24 kilometers. They will store more than 1.5 million books.

13. Once opened, the library will be the largest public library in the UK and the largest public cultural space in Europe.

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15. Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai will take part in the official opening ceremony.