The National Library of Serbia, the largest scientific library in the country, has been insufficiently treated in the literature, given its importance as an institution and building, the location it occupies, and also the vast range of potentials and requirements for and from approaching this topic. Through an overview of the development of major world libraries, as well as certain other public buildings, this paper aims to provide a framework for understanding the important determinants of the development of library architecture: the choice of an important location, symbolic and conceptual elements, and the meanings of the architecture itself. The goal is also to point out certain parallels and identify possible sources and models for the architecture of the National Library of Serbia. The greatest part of the work is devoted to the implemented project of Ivo Kurtović, but contemporary interventions within the building, as well as throughout the surrounding environs that impact the National Library building are also discussed.
Valentina Vuković (Wed,) studied this question.