overview about the place The largest technical library in the Czech Republic with a capacity of over 1.5 million volumes opened on September 9, 2009. The new, modern nine-storey building with a rounded square floor plan offers day and night study rooms, 1300 study carrels and 500 relaxation spots, terminals to access the catalogue, a self-service lending system, and a wide spectrum of modern library services. Source: www.techlib.cz history Architectural competition for the construction of the NTL was closed in January 2001, with a winning project introducing an eight-storied building shaped as a rounded square with the dimensions 70 times 70 metres. The construction of the 21 m high library started in the autumn of 2006 and was completed on the 31st December 2008. It cost 2.25 billion Czech crowns. There are public premises and administration facilities in the six above-ground floors, connected via an atrium. There is the entrance vestibule on the ground floor, and a café, a city library, a conference hall and an exhibition hall. In the basement, there is the depository and a parking lot. The building is surrounded by terse concrete surface, and there is a small park to the North-East. The building is unique for several original technical solutions, such as a unique system of heating and cooling (using the accumulative qualities of the building constructions). There are individual and team study rooms within the library, and a night study, approximately 1,300 study places and several hundred relax places, there is Wi-Fi signal, public computers, self-service borrowing and returning of books, a café and parking lots for cars and bicycles. There is capacity for more than 1.7 million of books in the library. Approximately 1.2 million of volumes can be stored in the three underground depositories. The rest can be settled in the free selection premises on the four above-ground floors. This library stores a complete fund of the original National Technical Library and also a part of the library funds of the University of Chemistry and Technology and of the Czech Technical University. The central premises of the library were decorated by a Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi in November. It is assumed that NTL will annually be visited by up to 900,000 visitors. The building was awarded a prize for the best newly-built structure within historical surroundings from the Club for the Old Prague.