The article summarizes the functional parts so well. What is very hard to communicate is the feeling of space, especially in the top floor with the books. It's sort of unique, and recommend a visit anyone traveling nearby.

I worked at the company that developed the software used to design the construction of Oodi (Trimble/ Tekla Structures). It's so awesome to walk through a building you know the tool you helped to build, helped to build :D

It's beautiful, though, but that's about it.

t. a Finn

Very cheap, relatively benign, with light educational and recreational value.

Decent.

> and a built-in cinema, which shows classic movies for little money.

Some of it can have benign cultural value, some of it can have malign cultural value. A bit expensive. Could have limited it to more boring but educational movies and films, perhaps with a focus on edutainment friendly to young children. Why spend taxpayer money on enabling people to watch braindead, mindrotting zombie movies for free or cheap?

Bad and soulless, fire whoever was involved with this.

> professional digital working stations, with high-quality screens!

Expensive. Some educational potential, some startup potential, but will that be realized?

Serves some fields but not others. Did they take a look at demand and supply regarding society?

Vulnerable to theft, grift and corruption?

Too expensive, cheaper hardware would probably have made more sense, unless they can make a strong case for the expensive hardware.

> There’s a big number of recording studios and sound production studios, all of which you can rent!

Is there really a dearth of professional musicians in Finnish society? This seems focused on startups and budding professionals, but a much cheaper space with much cheaper instruments that could be given to children both young and old, where instruments can be cheaply replaced once the children breaks them, would have much higher educational and creative value.

Bad and soulless, fire everyone involved with this.

> Oh, and while we’re at it, why don’t we rent some instruments, as well? There’s full-time staff maintaining them.

Grift and corruption, fire everyone involved with this, go straight to prison, do not collect $200.

> There’s many small and big group rooms which you can rent, many of them in active use! I see group meetings, students working, and podcast interviews being recorded!

Genuinely great for students, not that expensive. Good.

> Wanna rent a kitchen and cook with your friends? Sure, you can do that here!

A bit expensive. For homeless people and grift. The library staff might end up discriminating against homeless people, or have extra grift. Could have been good if limited to educational usage for children and teenagers, with adult supervision.

Have fun with homeless people committing theft in the library.

Bad.

> You can also rent game rooms with modern video game consoles and VR gear, along with the games to play in them!

Bad, corrupt and expensive. Could have been used for some more meaningful purposes like education and startups. Like letting children and teenagers try VR gear and program software for it, and possibly get inspired for non-entertainment usage of VR such as remote healthcare.

If really insisting on mindrotting entertainment that people can do at home, then it could have been done much more cheaply.

Fire everyone involved with it.

> There’s a makerspace: It has several 3D printers, multiple laser cutters, and engravers. And staff which can help you learn how to use them.

> Sewing machines! Shirt presses! Cutting plotters!

Expensive. Could be great regarding startups and education. Did they analyze needs for society, or did they do it due to it being trendy? Probably still good.

Previously:

> So many environments nowadays, even the ones that are ostensibly created to fulfill this sort of thing, are just total failures at actually providing them. I'm thinking of things like public libraries. I live in Austin and have a major axe to grind about the public libraries here, which are nothing like what you'd get if you were actually interested in the pro-social goals that you'd think a public library would have in its charter. A teenager looking to escape their high-risk environment or an adult who's had their feet knocked out from beneath them basically stands no chance at getting out of their predicament if their only option were to use the public libraries here, which would unfortunately act more like a vortex to ensure they stay in the suck. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42323264>

The photos and breathless wonderment showcase it all, as well as this choice line from the slide at the top of this post: "Oodi is our common living room". These are not quiet places to study or get (back) on your feet.

These are non-commercial substitutes for the shopping malls of yestercentury first, egoistic art pieces and boondoggle for administrative make-work second, and well-intentioned but poorly thought out and executed public resources at a very, very, very, very, very distant third.