Interiors Issue 07 · Autumn 2026 1 min read
A library arranged in a ring
Shelves set in a circle under a steel roof, and what it does to the way people read.
Most libraries are corridors: shelves in rows, a desk at the end. This one is a ring. The shelves face inward around a void, and the reading tables sit at the centre where the light falls.
The librarians say people stay longer. The architect says it was the only way to fit the shelving under the roof trusses. Both can be true.
Going up
The stair to the upper ring is the most photographed thing in the building, and with reason: it is a single curve of timber and glass that seems to hold itself up.
Readers on the upper ring look down on readers at the tables, and the tables look up at the books. Nobody faces a wall.
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