Sydney’s Yellamundie library among the world’s most beautiful as finalists for annual award revealed

A public building in the heart of Sydney’s south-west is one of the most beautiful new libraries in the world, according to the international arbiters of temples to literature.

Liverpool council’s new library, which opened in December last year as part of the Yellamundie Civic Place Library and Art Gallery, is one of four finalists in the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions annual Public Library of the Year award.

Liverpool is in the running for the prize alongside two new libraries in China – the Beijing library and the public library of Shenzhen in Guangdong – and one in Lithuania, in the central city of Kaunas.

The IFLA, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, will announce the winner in Barcelona next month.

Multi-award winning Australian architecture practice FJC Studio designed Yellamundie, which means “the storyteller” in the local Dharug language.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

The 5,000 sq metre library, part of a $600m revitalisation of Liverpool’s civic centre, includes public art gallery spaces, more than 2km of shelving and a Stem educational centre called Create Space.

A statement by FJC Studio said the curvilinear design was inspired by the flow of the nearby Georges River (also known as Tucoerah River).

“As its sustaining arc creates eddies both calm and dynamic, so too the layers and flow of the new library create diverse spaces for everyone,” the statement said.

“The rippling surfaces of the new building invite movement and flow around it.”

It is the second time FJC Studio has been a finalist in the award, winning in 2014 for its design of Craigieburn library in Melbourne’s north.

Public libraries in Spain, the US, Norway and Finland have been the most recent recipients of the award.

The chair of the IFLA judging panel, Jakob Lærkes, said the Liverpool library stood out as one of four libraries of the future.

“It is impressive to see the different take on how to respond to the changing needs of the user, sustainability as a more and more important factor, when we build new libraries as well as different takes on how to create welcoming reading and learning spaces for the local communities,” he said in a statement.