Central Library

The public library in Rostov is faced with Armenian tuff and consists of two rectangular blocks. One is a multistory book depository and the other contains the reading rooms. The library took twenty years to build (construction started in 1974) and ultimately digressed from the original project. … The general concept is based on the contrast between the bare and clearly readable external form (with its deceptive scale and rough decor) and the luminous “oasis,” which takes the form of a single multistory hall. Excerpt from Nikolai Vassiliev’s article in: SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey. Catalog DAM + Wüstenrot Foundation, Zurich (Park Books) 2017