From horse-drawn libraries in Ethiopia to seaside book sanctuaries in China, this new Lonely Planet release sheds light on the incredible lengths and stories people go to ensure access to books, even in the most remote corners of the earth.
Discover four of the libraries featured in the book here:
Future Library
Oslo, Norway
There are public libraries, and there are private libraries. But has there ever been a library where no one – not even the librarians themselves – are allowed to read the books? Perhaps not until the Future Library ‘opened’ in 2014.
In a sense, the library has two locations. One is a scrappy patch of infant evergreen trees, nestled in the heart of the Nordmarka forest outside of Oslo. The other is on the top floor of Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika Public Library, in a small room that resembles something between an Egyptian tomb and a cocoon made of pale wood.
“It’s quite small,” said Anne Beate, Chairperson of the Future Library Trust, who runs the library. “We ask everyone to take off their shoes before you enter. This is to help people get into the right mental mode, to show respect, to help you slow down. I’ve had people come in and start crying. I’ve had people not understand what they are looking at. Sometimes I meet youngsters in there hanging out doing their homework. Whoever you end up in there with, it often ends up being a shortcut to deep conversation. We call it the ‘Silent Room’ – but really it’s a room for dialogue, a place where people see them selves reflected in each other’s eyes, asking each other what 100 years means to them.”
The walls of the Silent Room are built from thousands of thin, wooden tiles, their beige simplicity punctuated by 100 searing lines of light. These contain original manuscripts of unread, unpublished stories by the likes of famous authors such as Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong and Tsitsi Dangarembga. But all you can do is stare. These books are only for future beings. Each year since its founding, the trust that runs the library has approached a high-profile author with an unusual prompt – to write a story that will be read by no one else. A modest ceremony marks the occasion of each story’s arrival at the library – held amongst the young trees in the Nordmarka forest. Then, the library locks the unread manuscript away into one of the glowing glass shelves of the Silent Room. They have never been turned down by an author.
All stories are ‘displayed’ in the Silent Room in Oslo, only to be enjoyed after the year 2114, by whoever is around to read them. “Some people are happy, some people are provoked that they cannot read the books,” Beate notes. “There is a Margaret Atwood story right there, you know? And we can’t read it.”
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The 1000 trees that were planted in the Nordmarka forest at the inception of the library will eventually grow up to be the paper that these unread stories will be printed on, together in one anthology.
The plan today is that 4000 copies of the anthology will be printed. There is no plan to print the anthology beyond the pulp that is available from the trees planted in Nordmarka. “But who knows what will happen. The trees could burn. Climate change could ruin the forest. The future trustees of the library will need to interpret the mandate we have left them, and may be asked to find solutions to a problem we can’t even see,” said Beate.
This is a bit of the point. The Future Library and Trust was created by Katie Paterson, a conceptual artist who focuses on connecting people with deep-time through such projects as a telephone line that connects users to a melting glacier and the creation of a map feauturing 27,000 dead stars. The Future Library is designed to collapse the view between our own lives, the environment, and the future. It is a face of bold optimism while honestly staring down the barrel of climate change; to Beate, it insists there will be books in the future.
“We learned a long time ago to let go of control,” Beate continued, “to embrace a willingness to invest in something that is not for me. Or even for you. I think that is something the world needs. This is why we’ve set up a trust – and it’s called a trust because our only option is to trust the coming generations that they will care and look after this work for 100 years. Although, I often like to turn it the other way around, and think about it from the other side, too. This future generation, in fact, they have to trust us – that we cared for investing and starting these kinds of projects now. So that there is something for them to take over.
HOW TO FIND IT
Public Library, Anne-Cath, Vestlys plass 1, 0150 Oslo
deichman.no and futurelibrary.no
The Silent Room is on the top floor of the stately, futuristic Deichman Bjørvika library on the Oslo waterfront. It’s small space encourages only one to two people to visit at a time.
The Beach Library
Albena, Bulgaria
The Black Sea is the resting place for over 25 rivers, flowing from just as many countries. It has over 11 names, depending on which coastline you are viewing from, and its brackish waters are home to countless shipwrecks, myths and fairy tales. Some modern archaeologists argue it is the final resting place of the real Atlantis. The ancient Greeks believed it to be the entrance to the kingdom of the dead. The islands that bedeck the surface of the water are sanctuaries for unique fauna and flora that can be found hardly anywhere else on Earth. In short, it is a place of incredible stories, where cultures flow past and through each other.
Along the Bulgarian coast, Albena is a vacation town, a spritely mix of beach umbrellas, pool floaties and green forests, a stark contrast to the dark and foreboding reputation of the Black Sea along which it resides. Albena sought to capitalise on its myth-like reputation by creating a cache of international stories, resting right in the sand.
The Bulgarian name for the Albena beach library translates into English as ‘bookcrossing’, that is, a kind of crossroads where people from across the world leave their stories and pick up ones they may have never heard before. Like much of Albena’s surrounding architecture, it’s simple, arguably brutalist. It is not florid or showy, but invitingly efficient and helpful. If you forgot your beach book, don’t fret: the beach library has everything you need.
German architect Herman Kompernas was hired to design the structure – a simple set of white wooden shelves, weather treated to withstand the many moods of the Black Sea’s atmospheres. “We found a material that is very resistant to sun and water’’ said Kompernas to Euronews in 2013. “We chose a sort of pallet construction for under the library to make it very stable against the wind.”
The shelves rest right in the sand, staring out into the expanse of the ocean, awaiting whatever Albena’s transient crowd of beachcombers might bring its way. The shelves were initially loaded with a mix of thrillers, adventures, memoirs, children’s books, detective stories and romances. However, over time, the genres and languages have expanded, as visitors are encouraged to leave their own books behind as well. Currently, over 6000 books rest on the shelves in over 15 languages (maybe more, depending on who the sea has washed up that morning). Vinyl shields are dropped down over the shelves like curtains during the rainy season, to prevent damage to the books. The library is tended by a small group of beach librarians, whose job it is to keep things organised. Like any library, they do encourage you to bring back your book after you’ve finished.
HOW TO FIND IT
The library is located on the beach in front of Hotel Kaliakra (9620 Albena, Bulgaria). The library has no postal address or phone number, but it is kept alive by Albena Resort, which can be found at Albena.bg.
There are three libraries now on the beach in Albena, but the original is still in front of Hotel Kaliakra.
The Lonely Library
Qinhuangdao, China
Many libraries vie for such superlatives as ‘oldest’, ‘prettiest’ or ‘largest’. Few, however, have fought for the title of ‘loneliest’. The moniker belongs without much contest to the brutal, cloud-grey building sitting on the seashore in Beidaihe, a resort area on China’s Yellow Sea. It’s hard to miss if you’re trying to find it – from most angles, it’s the only building in sight. The bare concrete, earth tones and sloping edges of the building make it seem like something plucked out of a Star Wars planet and dropped onto Earth by mistake. The library goes by many names, including the ‘Seashore Library’, or many people’s simple favourite, the ‘Lonely Library’.
The goal of Vector Architects, the firm who spearheaded the project in 2014, was to create a structure on the beach that mimicked the serenity of the sea itself; a 465 sq-metre (5000 sq-ft) work of art, forever staring back at its inspirational mother. Dong Gong was the lead architect on the job. He thought about what kind of library should be built in the Beidaihe district of Qinhuangdao, a seaside region that many flock to as a haven – a vacation pause from daily life, an escape.
Water-skiers, luxury yachts and bungee adventurers play along the shoreline. However, this is not everyone’s idea of a holiday. One day, while Gong was brain-storming, he happened to glance at a painting by American realist Andrew Wyeth, depicting an old fisherman seated on a beach boulder, staring pensively at waves. The painting evokes profound loneliness, but also the exquisite connection with nature that can result from such depths of solitude. It was this feeling that Gong sought to infuse into the new library. Humans may not be able to survive underwater, but we can visit a terrestrial building designed to put us in sync with the ocean’s natural rhythms.
The building’s entire eastern wall is made of windows and doors, framing the full splendour of the sea. The goal was that everyone who enters the library can have an unobstructed view of the force of the ocean from wherever they are sitting. According to Gong, the main reading room is “an auditorium and the sea is the ongoing play”. Sunlight filters in through the skylights and windows, and salty air weaves and wafts through the carefully placed vents.
Shelves upon shelves of books line the interior of the library, over 10,000 titles in total. But the massive, lonely building offers even more to those who make the journey to see it. There is a reading area, a meditation space, an auditorium, a cafe and a lounge. “According to each space, we establish a distinctive relationship between space and the ocean; define how light and wind enters into each room,” said Gong. Although designed for introspection, the library regularly hosts poetry readings, dance recitals, plays, and chamber music concerts. When it was first built, it was the only building in sight for miles. Since then, Beidaihe has evolved into the beach town it was designed to be. Apartments and restaurants can now be seen in the background of the library if you stand at the right angle. Inside, however, nothing has changed. If you happen to visit, the architects hope you will feel what they intended: “When walking into the space, one starts to feel the light, breezes, and sound of the ocean. What comes after the perception is the unique spiritual linkage between each individual and the sea. In here, everyone can slow down the usual pace, and unfold the feeling of distance and loneliness different from the city life.”
HOW TO FIND IT
From Qinhuangdao City, head south to the Ananya area of Beidaihe District. It’s hard to miss if you look towards the sea.
The library has no website, but to make an appointment, download the Anaya area app and search for ‘lonely library,’ or contact “The Lonely Library” on WeChat and request an appointment directly.
Getting to the library requires a 30m (98ft) walk through the sand. There is a reservation system in place and no photography is allowed in the reading room. You simply have to experience it with your senses, in the moment.
Heydar Aliyev International Airport Library
Baku, Azerbaijan
If you look up a list of libraries in the city of Baku, Azerbaijan – many of them ancient, prestigious, architectural gems – you will not find The Heydar Aliyev International Airport Library. Perhaps that’s because it’s hard to pin down: it exists between ‘where you are’ and ‘where you’re going’, in a way station of time, otherwise known as an airport terminal.
Turkish design group Autoban conceived the entire terminal for comfort, and the library is one of several ‘cocoons’ – wooden droplets the size of houses – that break the place into cosy compartments. By using wood, stone and textiles as the primary materials, along with carefully composed soft lighting, Autoban sought to create a tactile and soothing environment for travellers – people who are so often weary, anxious, and running on an insufficient amount of sleep. Creature comforts found inside the wooden cocoons include airport standards like cafes, newsagents and gift shops. However, one is, to the frequent surprise of those who stumble into it, a library – a place most of us associate with calm, imagination, distraction, and perhaps the happiest parts of our childhood.
The library takes up two storeys, with a spiral staircase resembling a swirling white ribbon connecting the levels. The airport stocks the books with titles, but patrons travelling through may also unload a title or two from their luggage. The result is a library whose books come from cultures you may have never encountered, languages you may have never seen, and perhaps, the occasional flash of a bestseller from your own home turf. The books sit in open-plan shelves, easy to peruse from two sides, with nearby plush chairs and tables welcoming you to stay a while (notably, the cafe right across the way sells ice cream).
The design fits nicely with Baku’s reputation as an architectural wonderland. The capital and largest city in Azerbaijan, Baku has spent the first part of the 21st century positioning itself as the country that changes it skyline every few years, producing skyscrapers that look like giant metallic petals and sparkling concert arenas that resemble crystal palaces. The library is 100% free, a silent agreement between people amid great transition, returning from or heading towards a new world, swapping stories inside the way station of reality.
HOW TO FIND IT
Heydar Aliyev International Airport, Airport Highway AZ1044 Baku, Azerbaijan
+994 12 497 27 27
The library accepts donations if you need to unload a book or two from your suitcase.
Reproduced with permission from Lonely Planet © 2024
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