Helsinki Central Library Oodi, Helsinki

The Helsinki Central Library Oodi, often simply called Oodi, officially opened its doors on December 5, 2018. This public library is located in Helsinki’s Töölönlahti area, right next to the Helsinki Music Centre and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. It's important to note that Oodi isn’t the main library of Helsinki; that title belongs to a library in the Pasila district.

Back in 2012, there was a contest to decide who would design the library, and the winner was a Finnish company named ALA Architects, with Ramboll Finland taking care of the structural design aspects. Their vision included a building with three floors, featuring unique amenities like a sauna and a movie theater on the ground floor. The library got its name, Oodi in Finnish and Ode in Swedish, which translates to ‘Ode,’ towards the end of 2016. It was strategically placed in the Töölönlahti district, and its grand opening was held on the eve of Finnish Independence Day in 2018.

Oodi is quite spacious, with about 17,200 square meters (or 185,000 square feet) of space. While one part of this space is dedicated to housing books, the rest is designed for various activities, including meetings. They’ve even introduced robots to help move books around, especially to the areas dedicated to them.

Since 2019, the Kino Regina cinema within Oodi has been the venue for regular film screenings of archival films. These events are organized by the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI), adding a cultural layer to what the library offers to the public.