I am waiting for 2017.

It’s when the new city library is supposed to be ready for the celebration of 100th anniversary of Finnish independence.

On this webpage  you can watch the offical video of the announcement of the winner and assessment of the six best entries (scroll down to the bottom of the page). The video is in English and the whole procedure is sooo Finnish, if you want to get a feel for proceedings in important matters in this country. And some insight into the role of libraries for the Finnish society. The winning team ALA  architects Oy is becoming quite famous around the world after their Kilden concert hall in Kristiansand, Norway (starting their speech at min 1:24:47). I am not sure how to interpret the ambivalent comment at min 1:29 where the speaker praises the commitee for having done a great job :-), but as Finland came in third in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index,  I assume it was just an unusual way of expressing gratitude for having been chosen :-).

Anyway, I am looking forward to including the building into my guided tours through Helsinki.