Week 8: National Library of Belarus (A picture a day)

National Library of Belarus day time view

National Library of Belarus night time view

National Library of Belarus night time view

Image of a rhombicuboctahedron

I chose these photographs because I love modern architecture. The photos above are taken from the National Library, Minsk, Belarus. In 1989 an international contest took place for the new national library building of Belarus. Architects M.K. Vinogrdov and V.V. Kramarenko and their project “Belarusian Diamond” won this contest, but it took 13 years till the project was fulfilled.4 The new library is 72 metre (236 feet) tall and has 22 floors. The building also features a 500 seat conference hall. Main architectural component has the shape of a rhombicuboctahedron. 

The National Library of Belarus, having informative resources of 8 million units on different kinds of media, is the main informative and cultural centre of the country. The library has 90 thousand users, annually serving 3.5 million documents. Every day the library is visited by more than 2.2 thousand people. Actually, the new modern building is just one of the six library buildings.

I feel that the building uses the lights to really enhance the whole structure and gives it a very futuristic view. National Library of Belarus is probably the most famous modern building in whole Belarus. The money for library was gathered from the income-tax of people. In my opinion, I think that it was better to use it for social status development. Nevertheless, it is a stunning piece of modern architecture which I would love to visit in the future when I am more financially independent.