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. When open it works as an ordinary public library that anyone can walk into, and it was the first in Sweden to put its books on open shelves, an idea Asplund studied in the United States.

Highlights

• 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 public library - closed for renovation until 2028.

When to go

The building has been closed for renovation since 2024 and is planned to reopen in 2028, so for now the rotunda can only be seen from outside. An hour.

Good to know

When it is open, people are reading and working, so it is not a place to move around freely with a camera. The surrounding park is unremarkable. Until the planned reopening in 2028 the interior cannot be visited.

Nearby

Odenplan and Vasaparken are next door; Observatorielunden is behind.

Key facts