The final plans for Spijkenisse's—a small town in the Netherlands—stunning new library were revealed back in 2009 when construction began. But now that the Book Mountain + Library Quarter is complete and open to the public, we're finally getting our first actual glimpses of its pyramid-like facade and gorgeous mountain of books inside.
Designed by Rotterdam-based architects MVRDV, the library cost almost $39 million and has enough capacity for over 150,000 titles on its tiered shelving. The entire facade is covered in glass which floods the interior with natural lighting, and atop the mountain of literature is a small cafe with panoramic views of the surrounding town. If it doesn't get citizens excited about reading, it should at least get them excited about architecture.
[MVRDV via designboom]