Reading Rooms: 10 Spectacular Libraries and Bookstores From Across the World

From modern landmarks to heritage restorations, urban to rural, the world’s best literary hubs are a bibliophile’s paradise.

Martin Guttridge-Hewitt

The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.

The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges once quipped that paradise “will be a kind of library.” Albert Einstein believed “the only thing you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.” Meanwhile, Norwegian scribe Jon Bing perhaps put it best when he said: “To ask why we need libraries at all when there is so much information available elsewhere, is about as sensible as asking if roadmaps are necessary now that there are so very many roads.”

Sites of learning and education, social assets that can be weaponized for and against forces of oppression, libraries have played a fundamental and transformative role in human history since Assyrian king Ashurbanipal completed what is believed to be the world’s first, between 668 and 631BC. Far more than collections of books, these buildings are community focal points and — in many cases — national and international treasures in their own right.

As Architizer prepares to deliver its own contribution to the world’s bookshelves, the latest edition of Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture, we’ve cast an eye across the globe to compile this collection of the planet’s most unique and spectacular libraries and grand bookstores. From intimate rural developments to landmarks in major cities, by their very nature each of these projects is made to inspire and teach, encourage and facilitate. More so, they represent one of the last remaining places where people are actively invited to gather and while away the hours without spending a penny. In a world mad for profit, that alone is something to be cherished.

Order Book Now

Xiadi Paddy Field Bookstore of Librairie Avant-Garde

By Trace Architecture Office, Fujian, China

Situated in a lush rural location, an abandoned home comprising three rammed earth walls and broken down courtyards has been spectacularly redeveloped into a truly inimitable reading haven complete with its own theatre space. Thoughtful and sympathetic, the new development is physically encased in the old dwelling, bridging the gap between past and present, private and public.

Library In The Earth

By Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP, Japan

Like something dreamt up by Tolkien, Library In The Earth is not only a beautiful ode to the written word, it’s a regenerative project that saw a valley once filled with construction debris returned to the biosphere through greening and planting. Biodiverse flora thrives at the surface while fiction and non-fiction sections hide below ground level in a truly breathtaking subterranean environment.

Library of Birmingham

By Mecanoo, Birmingham, UK

England’s disputed second city isn’t always celebrated for its architecture — a result of gross misconceptions about a place that was devastated in World War II and hastily rebuilt into a modernist hulk, but still has plenty of classical landmarks worth pouring over. Not to mention more miles of canal than Venice. In contrast to all the heritage, Library of Birmingham is ultra-modern for the most part, reinterpreting timeless British reading room aesthetics for our century.

Martin Luther King Jr. Library

By Mecanoo, Washington D.C.

First opened in 1972, Martin Luther King Jr. Library is the only library designed by 20th Century architectural titan Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Extensively redesigned by Mecanoo, with input from Jack Bowman, who worked on the original, little has changed on the outside but the removal of a ceiling in the upstairs Grand Reading Room and the addition of a new fifth floor, set in its own trapezoid, have had a transformational effect.

Montmagny Library

By Lemay, Montmagny, Canada

Recycling a heritage building in picturesque Montmagny, 60 kilometers from Quebec City, the local library not only complements the area’s traditional aesthetics and heritage style, the structure acts as a connection between downtown and a serene wooded park, while also creating a small public realm — focal point of a district that also houses the main shopping street, public market, central church and town hall.

Xinglong Lake CITIC Bookstore

By MUDA-Architects, Chengdu, China

Inspired by the shape and idea of “a book falling from the sky,” the final design for Xilong Lake CITIC Bookstore was picked from 249 competition entrants and has a number of stunning features. Like a glass curtain wall that drops a meter below the waterfront the building sits alongside, creating a stunning interior lighting effect, a tiered reading area doubling up as steps, and meditation corridor fitted with different-sized windows.

Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, Tianfu Library of Humanity & Art

By CSWADI, Chengdu, China

Connecting two priceless institutions, a new “platform for urban public culture” has been created in the form of a park and gathering point for residents. The library itself is 32,000 square meters with the centerpiece Book Montain — a reading platform integrated into a huge collection wall. The idea is that visitors have a chance to “meet books by chance” while roaming this impressive space.

Tianjin Binhai Library

By MVRDV, Tianjin, China

As divisive as it is photographed, this expansive cultural centre features a luminous spherical auditorium around which a number of floor-to-ceiling bookcases cascade. Not only a wonderful focal point, this element dictates the entire structure, framing open space, creating stairs, seating rows and internal facades. Home to 1.2 million individual books, remarkably MVRDV completed this build in just three years.

Niños Conarte

By Anagrama, Monterrey, Mexico

The only concept in our collection, if Mexico’s third biggest city ever realizes this incredible building it could be a game changer. Located in an iconic park with extensive gardens, a convention center, auditorium, cultural venues and theme park, inside the design looks to informalize the idea of a library by embracing the feeling of play and a sense of fantastical surrealism. Something this country is already renowned for.