The ‘Future Library’ is humanity’s sustainable literary time capsule

A symbol of regeneration

When the concept of the Future Library was first launched, a section of the Nordmarka forest was cleared to make room for a special place that would hold the collection of 100 manuscripts.

This building, which opened for visitors in 2019, is named the Silent Room and was built out of wood from the trees that were chopped down.

Around the outside of the Silent Room, one thousand new tree saplings were planted. These too will eventually be chopped down and used to make paper for 1,000 copies of each unpublished manuscript in the year 2114.

As part of the century-long project, the Future Library Trust was formed. The organisation signed a contract that binds them to protect the forest until the trees can be used to print books in 2114.

These manuscripts are now on display inside locked boxes in the wooden Silent Room.

Books for generations of the future

The project has commissioned one author to submit an unpublished manuscript to add to its collection every year since 2014.

Each new author is chosen based on their ‘outstanding contributions to literature or poetry, and for their work’s ability to capture the imagination of this and future generations’. They present their submission at an event called the called the Handover Ceremony each spring.

The first author to submit a manuscript was the famous Margaret Atwood, with a future book called Scribbler Moon.

Speaking on the honour of contributing her work, she compared the Future Library with Sleeping Beauty, remarking ‘how strange it is to think of my own voice – silent by then for a long time – suddenly being awakened after 100 years.’

This is precisely the point of the project, which aims to highlight how short our own human lives are in comparison to the longevity and resilient nature of our planet.

Amongst the other authors that have submitted works to the Future Library are David Mitchell, Sjón, Elif Shafak, Han Kang, Ocean Vuong.

I’d say humans of 100 years from now will have some pretty amazing content to look forward to. While many of us will never get to read these books, we need to take care of our planet so that future generations can.