Biblioteca Vasconcelos

Opened in 2006 to a design by Alberto Kalach, the Vasconcelos Library was conceived as a "megabiblioteca" for a reading republic - and whatever the politics of its budget, the building delivers one of the great interior spaces of the century. A concrete-and-glass nave over 250 metres long holds its half-million books in steel stacks that hang from the structure in stepped tiers, so the shelves appear to float in a canyon of walkways, with readers visible through the grating like figures in a Piranesi print. Suspended in the central void hangs Gabriel Orozco's Matrix Movil - the skeleton of a grey whale overpainted with graphite rings - the library's improbable heart. Translucent marble panels filter the light, reading desks line the balconies, and the whole sits in a botanical garden of native planting that muffles the rail yards outside. It is a working public library first: free, full of students, and open to anyone who wants to walk the stacks and look down through the steel.

What you actually see

• The hanging stacks - tiers of steel shelving floating through the nave.
• The whale - Orozco's Matrix Movil, a graphite-ringed skeleton in the void.
• The marble light - translucent panels glowing along the walls.
• The garden - native greenery wrapping the concrete hull.

When to go

Any day; weekday mornings are quietest for photography, weekend afternoons fullest of city life. The interior works in all weather - a perfect rainy-day hour.

Honest expectations

It is a functioning library - silence is expected on reading floors and tripods draw staff attention. Casual photography is generally tolerated; be discreet with people in frame. The neighborhood outside is transit-busy rather than strollable.

Nearby

The Kiosco Morisco and Geology Museum are ten minutes west; the Monumento a la Revolucion fifteen south.