Stockholm Public Library

Asplund designed the library through the early 1920s and it opened in 1928, at the point where his work was turning from classicism towards functionalism, which is why the building reads as both: a plain rendered block with a drum rising out of it, almost without ornament, but proportioned by classical rules. The drum is the reading rotunda, and the effect from the entrance stair is the point of the building - you climb a dark narrow flight and come out in the middle of a circular room walled in three tiers of open books with light from a high band of windows. It is a working public library, so you can walk in and sit down.

What you actually see

• The reading rotunda - three tiers of open shelving all round.
• The entrance stair - dark and narrow, opening into the drum.
• Nordic classicism turning to functionalism - the building caught between.
• A working library - not a monument, in daily use.

When to go

Year round; check opening hours, which vary. An hour.

Honest expectations

People are reading and working, so it is not a place to move around freely with a camera. It closes earlier at weekends and in summer. The surrounding park is unremarkable. Renovation work has affected access at times.

Nearby

Odenplan and Vasaparken are next door; Observatorielunden is behind.