The competition provided a comprehensive and detailed brief. The challenge was to design away the need for spaces taking into account the provisions of the immediate urban context and the chnges nature of libraries -museums and keeping places of highly valued books and sources and nodes of information, knowledge, learning and transmittal of ideas.

The climate is extraordinary. 20 hours of daylight in summer, up to 27 degrees C, and 3 hrs in winter with the sun  only rising to about 10 degrees above the horizon and temperatures down to -20 degrees C. A living and a design challenge. But, 4m below the surface, the granite stays at 10 degrees C all the year round. Something to work with.

Experientially and aesthetically its attraction and desirability is as a green, light oasis in the winter -a glowing wintergarden.

Nora Kinnunen, Deka.
Green Leaf Engineers.