Qatar National Library – Space for Books and People

On 16 April 2018, the Qatar National Library (QNL) held its official inauguration ceremony. It comprised a grand ceremony in the presence of multiple heads of state from the region and beyond in which His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani placed the one-millionth book on the shelves of QNL. The project of the state-of-the-art library building was developed by the famous architectural bureau OMA under the leadership of Rem Koolhaas.

Qatar National Library encompasses the National Library, the Public Library, the University Library, and the Heritage Collection, which consists of valuable texts and manuscripts related to the Arab Islamic civilization. The public library houses over a million books and space for thousands of readers over an area of 42,000 m2. 

Qatar National Library plays a central role in the Education City, a project initiated by Her Highness Shiekha Mozah and the Qatar Foundation as part of Qatar’s transition to a knowledge-based economy. 

The master plan, designed by Arata Isozaki in 1995 and inaugurated in 2003, consists of education and research facilities, including branches of internationally acclaimed universities and the headquarters of the Qatar Foundation and new division of Qatar Computing Research Institute, also designed by OMA. 

Materials provided by OMA

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