After lengthy planning, the new public library in Oslo was completed and opened in summer 2020. Located opposite the Opera House and the Munch Museum, the imposing building fits into the ensemble in the new cultural quarter of the Norwegian capital. The project by Lund Hagem Architects and Studio Oslo emerged from an international architectural competition and is characterized by a radical interpretation of the library as a vivid place to meet and spend time with an impressive multimedia offering in an unobtrusive inviting environment. The publication documents in detail the planning and building process from the first draft to the opening. Essays by the novelist Elif Shafak and the library's long-time director Liv Saeteren explain the significance of the institution as an integrative social force. Nikolaus Hirsch pays tribute to the building from the perspective of architectural criticism. Iwan Baan and Helene Binet capture the architecture and atmosphere of the shining crystal in their photographs.

A wide-ranging and challenging exploration of design and how it engages with the self The field of design has radically expanded. As a practice, design is no longer limited to the world of material objects but rather extends from carefully crafted individual styles and online identities to the surrounding galaxies of personal devices, new materials, interfaces, networks, systems, infrastructures, data, chemicals, organisms, and genetic codes. Superhumanity seeks to explore and challenge our understanding of "design" by engaging with and departing from the concept of the "self." This volume brings together more than fifty essays by leading scientists, artists, architects, designers, philosophers, historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists, originally disseminated online via e-flux Architecture between September 2016 and February 2017 on the invitation of the Third Istanbul Design Biennial. Probing the idea that we are and always have been continuously reshaped by the artifacts we shape, this book asks: Who designed the lives we live today? What are the forms of life we inhabit, and what new forms are currently being designed? Where are the sites, and what are the techniques, to design others? This vital and far-reaching collection of essays and images seeks to explore and reflect on the ways in which both the concept and practice of design are operative well beyond tangible objects, expanding into the depths of self and forms of life. Contributors: Zeynep Celik Alexander, Lucia Allais, Shumon Basar, Ruha Benjamin, Franco "Bifo" Berardi, Daniel Birnbaum, Ina Blom, Benjamin H. Bratton, Giuliana Bruno, Tony Chakar, Mark Cousins, Simon Denny, Keller Easterling, Hu Fang, Ruben Gallo, Liam Gillick, Boris Groys, Rupali Gupte, Andrew Herscher, Tom Holert, Brooke Holmes, Francesca Hughes, Andres Jaque, Lydia Kallipoliti, Thomas Keenan, Sylvia Lavin, Yongwoo Lee, Lesley Lokko, MAP Office, Chus Martinez, Ingo Niermann, Ahmet OEgut, Trevor Paglen, Spyros Papapetros, Raqs Media Collective, Juliane Rebentisch, Sophia Roosth, Felicity D. Scott, Jack Self, Prasad Shetty, Hito Steyerl, Kali Stull, Pelin Tan, Alexander Tarakhovsky, Paulo Tavares, Stephan Truby, Etienne Turpin, Sven-Olov Wallenstein, Eyal Weizman, Mabel O. Wilson, Brian Kuan Wood, Liam Young, and Arseny Zhilyaev.