MY PHILOSOPHY

Learning Centre
Design Philosophy and Brief consideration

• Building to have a strong connection with its surrounding environment
• To feel nurtured and inspired within the internal spaces
• To interact with the outdoor spaces in some way
• Function to create form
• Living room in the city
• Practical hands on areas instead of purely visual displays
• A place that provides after school supervised activities for teenagers and quite possibly a environment where they can seek assistance with school homework of all types.
• A place where the basic life skills are taught (how to grow vegetable gardens, how to cook healthy meals, how to interact with others, how to budget etc).

I believe that there should be a stronger emphasis on function to create form rather than trying to fit functions withing a restricted structural arrangement.  A building should look balanced and complete without going too overboard with materials and odd shapes.

Environmental sustainability is a very important aspect of any building and this shoudl be considered right through from site preparation and material selection to building maintenence and ongoing useablity/adapdability.

In my research (through surveys) I have discovered that consistently there was a desire to interact or at least be able to see an outdoor area from the indoor spaces.  People wanted glass walls, open spaces, garden areas, natural light penetration.  There was also a need to incorporate some seating in between the book shelving, just for those moments when you need to sit down and quickly flick through a book to check that it has the information you require.

I believe the role of a Public Library is to provide:

• A building which helps to cement together a community
• A building that is a meeting place
• IT learning and support centre
• An access point to council and other services
• A life long learning centre
• A building which usually compliments an art gallery, museum or other
• A place for community group projects

Space allocation
(Consideration to be given to the following)

Collection:

• Reference collection
• Fiction colection
• Non fiction collections (Local studies, community languages and indigenous collections)
• Large print collection
• Children's collection
• Audio visual collection
• Special genre collection eg. Business, gardening etc.

Activity Areas:

• Children's activity area
• Computer games area
• Young adults area
• Family history service area
• Informal reading and browsing area
• Newspaper and periodical area
• Study areas including separate group rooms
• Theatre/lecture room/auditorium
• Outdoor area/courtyard
• Public art

Technology areas:

• OPAC's
• Public asscess computers, scanners, photocopiers
• Audiovisual areas including listening posts, computer games, telvisions for dvds, portable devices

Service Areas:

• Reference/Information desk
• Children's desk
• Circulation desk/self checking area
• Community information/display
• Community services
• Entry foyer
• Exhibition and diplay area
• Refreshment area/coffee shop/vending machines
• Banking services 

Ancillary Areas:

• Kitchen facility
• Public toilets including baby change and or parents room
• Staff work room
• Librarians offices
• Specialis work areas (eg home library service/mobile library)
• Stack areas and other storage facilities
• Storage for archival materials
• Staff room, staff toilets, shower
• Public lockers/storage
• cleaners storage
• Loading and delivery area
• Change machines and public phones

People involved with a library:

Staff

• Librarians
• Security
• Cleaners
• Admin and receptionists
• IT
• Gardeners
• Audits

General Public

• Student borrowers
• Families - mum, dad, children
• Elderly
• Professional groups

Reps

Deliveries

EXEMPLARS WEEK 6

This tute session we went through everyone's blog and each person gave a talk on some buildings which were inspirational to them.

some of my favourite exemplars were:

NYU Department of Philosophy (Steven Holl)

http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=educational&id=21&page=0





The facility includes faculty and graduate student offices, seminar rooms, a periodicals library & lounge and a ground floor 120-seat cork auditorium. Steven Holl Architects organized the 30,000 square feet of interiors around a concept of the phenomenal properties of light and materials.
This vertical connection in light is activated by the presence of faculty members and students and by a prismatic film splitting the available sunlight periodically. The light effect in the stairwell changes according to the seasons and the time of day.




This building caught my attention mainly due to the use of light which was obviously planned and considered during the design of the building.  Its deliberate and intended affect on the spaces in conjunction with the materials, textures and colour pallette works so well to create such interesting spaces.


Orestad High School Copenhagen

http://www.archinnovations.com/featured-projects/academic/orestad-college/

The college is interconnected vertically and horizontally. Four boomerang shaped floor plans are rotated to create the powerful super structure which forms the overall frame of the building – simple and highly flexible. Four study zones occupy one floor plan each. Avoiding level changes makes the organizational flexibility as high as possible, and enables the different teaching and learning spaces to overlap and interact with no distinct borders. The rotation opens a part of each floor to the vertical tall central atrium and forms a zone that provides community and expresses the college’s ambition for interdisciplinary education. The storey decks are open towards a central core, where a broad main staircase winds its way upwards to the roof terrace. The main staircase is the heart of college educational and social life; the primary connection up an down, but also a place to stay, watch and be seen. Three ‘mega columns’ form the primary load bearing system, supplemented by a number of smaller columns positioned according to structural requirement, not as part of a regular grid
The rotated decks are mirrored in the facades. Due to their rotation, the decks create openings double- and triple high while drawing lines on the façade. As a rule, the glass is smooth with the deck fronts, but on each floor, one façade is withdrawn to create an outdoor space. These outdoor spaces are connected from ground to roof. In front of the glass facades, a series of coloured semi-transparent glass louvers can open or close to protect from the sun, while adding dashes of colour to the indoor environment.

This building was of interest to me, due to the way in which relaxed study/reading/group areas were of high importance in the layout of the building.

I love the way that large areas have been dedicated to ensuring the comfort of the users.  Paticular attention has been paid to the age groups that would use these spaces.


Now may be a good time to elaborate on the exemplars that I posted last time on my blog.


Seattle Public Library (Rem Koolhaas)

http://oma.eu/search-results?searchword=seattle+library






FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Rem Koolhaas is a Dutch architect whose main approach is to let the buildings required functions dictate what the builing should look like, rather than imposing a structure and making the functions conform to it.

An early design method discussed in his book Delirious, was 'Cross-programming' whereby unexpected functions were introduced into room programmes.  An example of this was running tracks in skyscrapers.

At one stage Koolhaas proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Libary.

Seattle Public Library is one that I know a little about and has been one library that has stuck in my memory, not just for some particularly interesting design features, but also because of the story behind the design of the library.  During the time that the idea of creating a library in Seattle was occuring, so too was a shift in thinking about the way a library should be designed and built.

For many years the library has been considered a place that houses just books alone, and those that used the library for research etc were to remain as quiet as mice.

http://www.spl.org/about-the-library
Some features of the library include: 

• Creation of reading rooms which inute contemplation, reflection and information exchange across media types
• Abandonment of the sterile, silent world of the typical library
• An iconic structure.

INSPIRATION FOR LEARNING CENTRE DESIGN

Library

Seattle Public library - Rem Koolhaas
http://www.architectureweek.com/2005/0420/design_1-2.html

Brisbane Square Library - Denton Corker Marshall

State Library - Donovan Hill &?

General library articles:

People Places - A guide for public library buildings in NSW
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/services/public_libraries/library_mgt/lib_management_docs/peopleplaces_2ndedition.pdf

http://www.slate.com/slideshows/arts/borrowed-time.html

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/architecture/ep_trn2.htm