The building supplemented the existing building of the Humanitarian Institute, built in 1967-1979. His project was developed by German architects in collaboration with Jean Prouvé, as a result of which the "innovative" steel-clad "Corten" façade rusted ahead of schedule.
Foster's building is 6,300 sq. m of usable area - for 650 readers and 700,000 books. The five-story building, shaped like an egg, is covered with a two-layer shell of transparent and matte plates. Inside, the tiers of the book depository and reading rooms are made in streamlined, wavy shapes. The transition to the old building also emphasizes the difference between the library and the rest of the institute complex - it is the "gateway" painted in orange.
The architect himself considers his project to be the development of his joint work with Richard Buckminster Fuller: it has flexible functionality, efficiency in terms of energy use, possibly the largest interior space with the smallest possible outer surface, the use of natural light.
