The Artwork

Scottish artist Katie Paterson has created a one hundred year artwork Future Library "Framtidsbiblioteket" for the city of Oslo in Norway.

One thousand trees have been planted in Nordmarka, a forest just outside Oslo, which will supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in one hundred years time. Between now and then, one writer every year will contribute a text, with the writings held in trust, unpublished, until the year 2114. Tending the forest and ensuring its preservation for the one hundred year duration of the artwork finds a conceptual counterpoint in the invitation extended to each writer: to conceive and produce a work in the hopes of finding a receptive reader in an unknown future.

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Forest in Nordmarka ( Norway )

Future Library’s contributing author for 2016.



“Future Library is a living, breathing, organic artwork, unfolding over one hundred years. It will live and breathe through the material growth of the trees — I imagine the tree rings as chapters in a book. The unwritten words, year by year, activated, materialized. The visitor’s experience of being in the forest, changing over decades, being aware of the slow growth of the trees containing the writers’ ideas like an unseen energy.”



The manuscripts will be held in trust in a specially designed room in the The prizewinning author, poet, essayist and literary critic Margaret Atwood was the first writer to contribute to the project. The multi-award winning British novelist David Mitchell followed as 2015’s author, and celebrated Icelandic novelist Sjón iscontributing author for 2016.is a living, breathing, organic artwork, unfolding over one hundred years. It will live and breathe through the material growth of the trees — I imagine the tree rings as chapters in a book. The unwritten words, year by year, activated, materialized. The visitor’s experience of being in the forest, changing over decades, being aware of the slow growth of the trees containing the writers’ ideas like an unseen energy.”The manuscripts will be held in trust in a specially designed room in the New Deichmanske Library opening in 2020 in Bjørvika, Oslo. Intended to be a space of contemplation, this room will be lined with wood from the forest. The authors’ names and titles of their works will be on display, but none of the manuscripts will be available for reading – until their publication in one century’s time.

“Future Library has nature, the environment at its core — and involves ecology, the interconnectedness of things, those living now and still to come. It questions the present tendency to think in short bursts of time, making decisions only for us living now. The timescale is one hundred years, not vast in cosmic terms. However, in many ways the human timescale of one hundred years is more confronting. It is beyond many of our current lifespans, but close enough to come face to face with it, to comprehend and relativise.” Katie Paterson ( Artist )

Silent Room

Silent Room ( New Deichmanske Bibliotek )

New Deichmanske Bibliotek - Oslo City Library - will open its doors to the public in 2019. The one hundred unread and unpublished texts will be held here in a specially designed room, lined with wood from the forest.



The Future Library room will be situated on the top floor of the library along with the special collection of books and archives. It will face in the direction of the forest, which can be glimpsed on the horizon. It will be a small, intimate room, encouraging only one or two people at a time. The authors’ names and titles of their works will be on display, but none of the manuscripts will be available for reading – until their publication in one century’s time.



The design is in collaboration with architects Hailed by many as a ‘library of the future’, the- Oslo City Library - will open its doors to the public in 2019. The one hundred unread and unpublished texts will be held here in a specially designed room, lined with wood from the forest.Theroom will be situated on the top floor of the library along with the special collection of books and archives. It will face in the direction of the forest, which can be glimpsed on the horizon. It will be a small, intimate room, encouraging only one or two people at a time. The authors’ names and titles of their works will be on display, but none of the manuscripts will be available for reading – until their publication in one century’s time.The design is in collaboration with architects Lund Hagem and Atelier Oslo

“We are building the Silent Room using the trees we cleared from the forest, still containing their scent. The atmosphere is key in our design, aiming to create a sense of quietude, peacefulness, a contemplative space which can allow the imagination to journey to the forest, the trees, the writing, the deep time, the invisible connections, the mystery.” Katie Paterson ( Artist )

Handover Ceremony

“There is a magical, contemplative feeling in the forest. We encourage people to visit, to take this journey, and over the decades, watch the forest grow and change. Year by year, the writers' words forming invisible chapters in the trees whose narratives will be reconstituted a century later.” Katie Paterson ( Artist )