This is a 1,000 square meter library that I started designing during the second semester of my third year. The project was for a student competition in Finland commemorating 100 years since the birth of Alvar Aalto. I continued working on the project during the summer vacations. My main focus on the design was to create a comfortable and efficient place. It is superfluous to state the importance of lighting inside a library, and that's where I concentrated a lot of my efforts on, creating a big building in which the natural lighting is the norm rather than the exception. Some of the lighting elements used are; a big central atrium space illuminated by a skylight, light wells, an external diffuser on the south facade, fenestration (using "super windows" to reduce heat losses), etc. The particular spherical shape allows diffusing the light in the interior evenly. This spherical shape is also one of the most efficient ones in terms of energy saving since it has the maximum internal volume to external surface area ration. The construction technique for this building can be found in the Monolithicdome homepage. This innovative technique provides internal thermal mass, external insulation, and an incredible structural strength. This building can be seen as consisting of two independent structures, the external dome structure, acting as a protective skin against the elements, and the more typical internal floor/beam/column structure. The program includes among others, a children library, a "moving library" (where a truck is loaded with books and goes to the houses so that people need not come to the library itself), computer and audio/visual facilities, mini-cafe, reading spaces, book-storage, etc. 1