SELLO REGIONAL LIBRARY - architeria.eu

SELLO REGIONAL LIBRARY
Photographs by: Michael Perlmutter, Titta Lumio

The new Regional Library includes a city service point, a consumer advice centre as well as commercial
services - cafeteria, bank, and real estate agents.

The lobbies of the Library and the outside market place are visually connected through gigantic glass wall
zones. The tall glass walls are stiffened with net-type steel tension rod lattices, supported on the walkways
running above the lobbies. The walkways have composite constructions. The bridges in the central lobby are
supported to three-storey slender steel-frame columns. The outside surfaces of the bridges are suspended
from the steel girders of the top floor slab by means of vertical tension rods.
The interior of the library is airy and light. The railings and partition walls are made of glass and steel. The large
frame stiffening steel lattices have been utilised as architectural elements.

Functionally the building is divided into two longitudinal parts. The open public spaces, the Children’s
and Young Peoples Sections as well as commercial facilities are located towards the market place.
The Music Section with the associated studios and the Adult’s Fiction Section are located on the street side,
followed by the service point of the City of Espoo and the consumer advice centre.
The reading rooms, studies, meeting rooms and the Non-fiction Sections are located on the second floor of
the library. The high central lobby, the exhibition space and the glazed aperture of the Young Peoples Section
connect the floors. On both floors the spaces may be separated by glass partition walls or by large turning
and sliding oak veneer doors.