National Library of Belarus, National library in Minsk, Belarus

The National Library of Belarus occupies a 73.6-metre rhombicuboctahedron of 23 floors, its upper mass clad in blue-grey glass panels and its lower section dark and mirrored, with two horizontal wings along the base. The building weighs 115,000 tonnes excluding books and covers 113,700 m², of which 54,900 m² is book storage. A dark bronze-toned statue on a stepped plinth stands before the lawn.

The archive was founded in 1922 under university administration with an initial modest collection. World War II caused severe damage to its holdings, but the institution was later rebuilt and continued to grow.

The library's name honours Francisk Skaryna, the 16th-century printer of the first Belarusian book; in 2018 its staff received the Presidential prize "For Spiritual Revival" for facsimile reprints of his editions. The building also holds an art gallery, a music and art salon and a museum complex, opened with the second construction phase in December 2005.

The building is straightforward to access with spacious reading areas and a café for breaks. There is also an observation point on the upper levels where you can look out over the city.

The faceted glass upper volume is a media facade of 1,985 m² of LED clusters that switches on at sunset and runs until midnight, its patterns changing nightly. Inside, an automated "Telelift" system of monorails and 5–10 kg containers carries requested books to the reading rooms.