Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, A Modern Marvel of Knowledge and Architecture

Quai François Mauriac, 75013 Paris

A very iconic landmark

4.4

Introduction

On August 21, 1989, French President François Mitterrand selected the design proposal of architect Dominique Perrault, who was only 35 years old at the time, as the architecture for the French National Library. The project became one of Mitterrand's top ten presidential projects, aimed at fulfilling a cultural mission. The library consists mainly of four surrounding tower buildings, each reaching a height of 79 meters, and the podiums between them. The four different towers are the Tower of Time, the Tower of Culture, the Tower of Law, and the Tower of Numbers, each of which contains eleven floors of book storage and seven floors of offices. At the center of the podiums is a spacious green forest, surrounded by two levels of reading rooms, including two main reading rooms, each the size of two football fields. The Mitterrand Library has the largest collection of books in France, with the bookshelves stretching in a straight line for 395 kilometers. Additionally, the library has two long galleries often used for various exhibitions, as well as a large auditorium in the east wing for cultural exhibitions, conferences, seminars, study days, and concerts. Perrault's design for the library consists of four towering glass buildings that stand facing each other like an open book, connected by a wooden square plaza the size of eight football fields. The library provides a rich reading atmosphere and beautiful natural landscapes, offering readers a quiet and relaxed reading experience.