The University of Aberdeen's New Library is "Like a Hollowed-Out Iceberg"

Guardian UK (January 8, 2012)- Rising like a perfectly geometric glass monolith from a clutter of university structures, but with the beautiful late-medieval King's College buildings close by, this seven-storey tower comes as something of a shock: despite its solid square shape, the library has an ethereal air, especially when lit up at night, thanks to its gleaming striated facades, boasting 720 panels in all. This gives a striking contrast to its rugged setting.

You could say the same of the Aberdeen library. The public is welcomed into the foyer. Here, alongside the eye-boggling view upwards, there is a coffee bar named the Hardback Cafe, not to mention spaces for presentations and a big cube of a gallery. I enjoyed its first show, Rebels with a Cause: Jacobites and the Global Imagination, drawn from the superb archive housed in the lower ground floor. Here, in and around the elegant Wolfson reading room, there are some 200,000 rare books, as well as material dating back to the third century BC.

Click here to read more about the University of Aberdeen academic library.