Week 6/Easter Break Design Process

We had our first feedback about project 2 and the private library in the tutorial this week. I proposed my library title to Jesse ("Library of Rivers and their Ecology in South East Queensland"). He was interested in the life system idea behind ecology, but thought that the name itself needed work, as it was a bit clumsy. I showed him my design process so far, and while he thought that the idea of the inhabitants being able to come out from inside the library and find themselves below the waterline, he felt that I had gotten away from the relationship and interaction between the user and the object of the library (in my case books). I hadn't focused on this in my project development last week as I felt a bit lost as to how to address this issue, and so started on a more logical line of thinking. We discussed how I wanted the user to relate to the objects being used, and I suggested that the number of books and the sizing of bookshelves used in each section could be varied depending on the subject that they relate to and the kind of experience that the space is intended to impart to the user.

I took the idea of using the books and the scale of information in the architecture of the library and focused on that as the central concept behind the relationship between the user and the object. I analysed what kind of scales of bookshelf there could be and what kind of information and experience those scales might relate to.

Different scales of spaces in relation to the bookshelves in the room

Original concept for scale of central learning space - scale of books is representative of the power of the scale of the river

Scale of central learning space compared to contemplation space

Location of contemplation space in relation to central learning /study space

Circulation from foyer, around outside of central learning space and into the central learning space

User is confronted by scale of books and the fact that the building is underwater

During the Easter break we also have to email Jesse with the title of our library and the scope of the objects that it relates to. I wanted to be able to have a large enough number of books that the scale of them would be impressive to the user, and I wasn't sure that the subject of South East Queensland Rivers and their Ecology would be broad enough to allow for that amount of books. After doing some research on the QUT Library website, I found that the subject of Queensland Rivers and their Ecology could feasibly provide 3500 books, and so I settled for the title of "The Private Library of Printed Works on Queensland Rivers and their Ecology".

I have also been looking at the ecology aspect of the library, and the impacts that that could have on the design of the library. I thought that possibly the different subjects of books could be located on their specific level in the river. I was also looking at the idea of having the entrance on the human occupation level, but as the subject level gets more specific, such as microbiology, it moves to the lower levels of the river.

Ecology of the river and the spaces that each section of ecology occupies

I've also been looking at the concept of using a water molecule as the basis for the layout of my library as a whole. Each of the atoms would have a separate use of space, and a nucleus of experience.