Bibliotheca Alexandrina retraces the project that launched Snøhetta's career — Egypt's iconic new library — through previously unseen sketches, archival photographs, and firsthand accounts from those who shaped it from conception to cultural landmark.
About This Book
When Snøhetta won the competition for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in 1989, it was a defining moment for a practice that would go on to become one of architecture's most recognised global voices. This book, created to mark the library's 20th anniversary, examines how a single architectural commission can reshape a city's intellectual life — and a firm's trajectory. Drawing on Snøhetta's own reflections alongside contributions from theologians, journalists, and UNESCO figures, it moves between origins and present-day impact, asking what the library means to Egyptian society today and what it might become. For architects and cultural historians alike, it is a study in architecture as civic infrastructure.
Key Features
- 165 pages of unpublished sketches, archival photographs, and new documentary photography by Nigel Shafran capturing daily life inside the library
- Contributors include Gunnar Stålsett (theologian, politician, and former Board of Trustees member), Odd Karsten Tveit (author and journalist, NRK), the late Jacques Tocatilian (Director, Office of Information Programs and Services, UNESCO), and journalist Hilde Sandvik, who interviewed Snøhetta co-founders Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Craig Dykers
- Essay by Snøhetta on the library's stone wall art, designed by Jorunn Sannes and sculpted by Kristian Blystad and local stonemasons
- Published by Snøhetta Books, 2022
What You'll Discover
- How the Bibliotheca Alexandrina project originated in 1989 and the design thinking that underpinned Snøhetta's winning approach
- The intersection of architecture, art, and cultural exchange as deliberate instruments of the library's identity and public role
- How the library evolved into an academic and social powerhouse drawing around one million visitors annually, shaping intellectual life across Egypt and beyond
- The collaborative process behind the library's monumental stone wall — from artist's concept through to the hands of local stonemasons
About the Author
This volume brings together voices from across the project's history rather than a single authorial perspective. Contributors include Snøhetta's co-founders Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Craig Dykers, alongside Gunnar Stålsett, Odd Karsten Tveit, the late Jacques Tocatilian, and journalist Hilde Sandvik. The book is a publication of Snøhetta Books.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 165
- Dimensions: 26 x 21 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9788269273717
- Publisher: Snøhetta Books
- Publication Date: 2022
Perfect For: Architects and students interested in Snøhetta's practice, researchers in cultural architecture and civic infrastructure, and readers drawn to the intersection of design, art, and public intellectual life in the Arab world.