Stunning libraries from around the world – in pictures

‘Without libraries we have no past and no future,’ said Ray Bradbury. A new book celebrates the most innovative library buildings. Take a whirlwind tour with our gallery

Seattle Central library, Washington, USA. The top-floor reading room offers views of Puget Sound and the surrounding mountains. Designed by OMA/LMN, completed in 2004. Photograph: Frank Elschner/Artur Images

 

Interior, Seattle Central library. Photograph: Frank Elschner/Artur Images

 

Sir Duncan Rice library, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. A building inspired by ‘the ice and light of the north’, with eight storeys housing 13km of bookshelves. Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, 2012. Photograph: Adam Mørk

 

John à Lasco library, Emden, Germany. This 16th-century church was bombed in the second world war and remained a ruin until the 1990s, when it was incorporated into a new library building. Jochen Bunse, 1995. Photograph: Tomas Riehle

 

Interior, John à Lasco library. Photograph: Tomas Riehle

Full Gallery…