It would be quite hard to describe The National Public Library in Pristina, Kosovo, as pretty. In fact, the brutalist building is incredibly imposing and unsurprisingly, was extremely controversial when it was first unveiled. The library was designed by Croatian architect, Andrija Mutnjakovic, and its doors opened in 1982.

According to Architectuul, when Mutnjakovic was commissioned to design the structure, for the ex-Yugoslavian province, “the tension between Albanian and Serbian Kosovars was already palpable”. Looking for a unifying symbol, “he came up with the cube and dome, common features of the Ottoman and Byzantine architectural styles that define the appearance of the region”.

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