The Underground Library

There’s no place like The Netherlands for making amazing places for books. If neither this former church nor this book mountain convince you, then this underground library surely will.

The Delft Technical Library was built in 1997 to replace the former library, which was lost to a fire. The library is housed under a massive lawn, with one side exposed for the entrance.

In the lobby, vistors are greeted by a huge desk made from books reclaimed from the fire.

This is cool, but it’s just an appetizer for the jaw-dropping main space, which features a enormous descending cone that brings in light from outside (you can see the top of it in the above photo of the lawn)

This dramatic central space is surrounded by open, scalable stacks.