Seattle Central Library

Seattle's new library was designed to be a vast "Living Room" for all Seattleites. It's twisted form was derived from both a continuous spiral of book stacks, as well as an attempt to maximize space within the strict height and setback restrictions. As Koolhaas states, "the ambition is to redefine and reinvent the Library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but as an information store, where all media 'new and old' are presented under a regime of new equalities."