I thought I'd do something a little different, instead of just posting my design after everything has been finished, I thought I would go through my whole design process in here, from my analysis of the brief to the final presentation boards. Hopefully having to publicly justify each decision I make will be of assistance when it comes time to crit.

The timeframe for the schematic design is seven weeks which shall be presented in front of a panel, with a further three or so weeks given to develop the design before a second submission which will not be presented.

I'll start with an overview of the brief we were given:

Newcastle City Council (The site is actually located within jurisdiction of the Lake Macquarie City Council, something my lecturer failed to recognise) is moving away from a model consisting of a central library and 8 smaller branches to a central library with a few district libraries plus several retaining a few smaller branch libraries. The Library at Speers Point will be the third district library constructed.

General

Circulation Desk: Positioned as to provide maximum supervision and control of the public areas including the entrance. Sufficient space for three staff members and their computer terminals and recept printers, shelving for reserved and inter library loans, branch transfer boxes and all the general stationary and office requirements.

Exhibition and Display Area: Located near the entrance and the circulation desk. Sufficient space for two lockable glass display cabinets for new acquisitions and for special exhibitions. Also requires ample space to be used for book launches and book signings by authors.

Community Information: Space for a community notice board to display community notices about organisations and events.

Photocopy Service: Sufficient space for a self service photocopies with attached coin box plus space for future addition of a colour photocopier. LOS with the circulation desk is required.

Public toilets: Separate men’s and women's toilets plus a unisex disabled toilet.

Baby Change Facility: Space for a baby change/feeding facility with access from the common area of the library.

Computer and Internet Facilities: Area for 'net and computer use housed within a sperate glass screened area with LOS to circulation desk. Allowances for at least 10 terminals and three printers should be made.

Meeting/Conference Rooms: Two meeting rooms provided for use for group study, seminars and business conferences. Should be approx 40sq m and 60sq m respectively. Facilities for data projection and arrangements for desk and chairs either in round table conferencing or class-room layouts. Meeting rooms must have sperate access to foyer area and may have access to an outside courtyard where morning tea/lunches etc. may be served. A small kitchen area should be provided to for preparation of food and drinks. Access to these areas and the toilet facilities shall be available at times when the library may be closed.

Meeting/Offices: Space for three office spaces each with approx 12sq m for Community Services Officer, Youth Worker and 1 for other purposes.

Coffee Shop: An area of approx 50sq m incorporated within the library for a coffee shop for sales to library users. Appropriate water supply, washing facilities and display space for cakes etc, coffee machines, several tables, chairs and lounges with low tables should be provided.

Car Parking: A landscaped car parking area with 40 spaces should be allowed for. Consideration should be given to the movement of disabled persons.

Adult Area

Catalogues: Six Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs) are required within the adult section, four at desks, two standing for express usage. Should be centrally located with access from the reference section.

Reference and Study Area: Shelving for 1000 items that will require 35 Quarto shelves. Study area containing a group study desk and individual study carrels adjacent to the reference collection. Seating for at least 40 persons is required. A reference librarian desk located within the reference section, seating for the librarian and a client plus a computer. Allowances should be made for an extra 5 computers within this area.

Local History Collection: For storage of local history materials such as books, pamphlets, photographs and newspapers (mainly on microfilm) in both conventional shelving and vertical filing cabinets plus a space for a glass cabinet for rare items. A microfiche/film reader/printer will also be required. Ideally located near the reference section.

Genealogy Section: May be combined with the local history collection, requires 2 microfiche readers, two computers and a study table large enough to fit 12 persons.

Informal Reading Area: Accommodating 15 - 20 persons in comfortable lounge chairs with several low tables. Visible from the entrance/foyer to provide a welcoming atmosphere.

Newspaper and Magazine Section: Capacity of approx 150 magazines in face-out display, plus sufficient shelving for 20 back issues per mag. Newspaper stand to hold current copies for at least 10 titles.

Audio Visual Section: Collection must include at least 2000 CD's, 2000 talking books to be displayed on zig-zag shelves and require approx 60 shelves. Easy-To-Read books and cassettes are also to be stored within this section, approx 300 titles requiring 10 shelves. 1000 DVD titles on zig-zag shelving is also required, six facilities for viewing DVD's and listening to audio media are also to be supplied.

Young Adult Section: Approx 2000 paperbacks suitable for teenagers displayed on 8 zig-zag stands ideally located adjacent to the magazine and AV areas.

Large Print Collection: 4000 titles of large books used by older members of the community, housed in 100 standard shelves, minimising the use of high and low level shelves. Located close to the entrance of the adult section. Several chairs should be within easy access of the collection.

Adult Fiction Collection: 300 shelves should be allowed, light romance paperbacks require 4 zig-zag display units.

Adult Non-Fiction Collection: Consists of approx 15000 items in both quarto and standard size books. Space should be allocated for 400 shelves to cater for future expansion. Shelving will generally be doubled sided units, 4 bays by 5 shelves or similar.

Legal Studies & HSC Collection: Collection of current legal studies and HSC books housed in 20 standard shelves. Also requires a study area of around 8 desks and chairs.

Children’s Area

General Space: Facilities to accommodate 40 children for story time, class visits and AV presentations. Shelving should be designed to suit the reach capabilities of clients. Generally the space should be attractive to children and located away from other quieter areas of the library.

Catalogues: Three OPAC terminals located within the jnr fiction/non fiction collections and positioned so LOS can be maintained with the circulation desk.

Jnr Fiction/Non Fiction: Space for 10 non-fiction/fiction double sized shelves should be allocated.

Picture Book Collection: Requires special purpose, low level display units with incorporate face-out displays with conventional shelving underneath. 7 units should be allowed for expansion of the collection. Comfortable seating for parents reading with children is also required.

Library Services

Stack: Low use items in the collection are stored in the stack in compactus type storage units. Should accommodate 5000 items.

Library Manager: Separate office which has views of both the entrance and the circulation desk. Space for a desk and a computer is required.

Workroom: Required to repair books, covering and processing new acquisitions, should be approx 100sq m and include storage cupboards, space for 2 staff and shelving.

Staff Work Area: General staff area to accommodate 10 staff, each with own computer and space for photocopier and printers. This area could be included within the workroom.

Staff Facilities: To be located close to the workroom, have food heating / tea making facilities including fridge and should accommodate 10 staff. Separate men’s, woman’s and a unisex toilet for disabled employees are required.

That's really cool of you axie. I did that once in ppb1 and I found it was very useful. You'll get lots of advise from professionals who are not in an academic environment wich will usually prove the most interesting help since you don't get any of that in university.
Looking forward for this!!

Thanks Cacapis, I wanted to do this for my phase submissions last year but unfortunately I didn't have the time due to illness. I did get the idea from your thread back on ppb1, from memory it was an excellent project.

I just got back from a quick look at the site, I'll draw up a rough site plan and post a few photos shortly. I also need to work through each area and estimate the approx areas required.

At the moment I'm a little overwhelmed with both the complexity of the project and all the information I need to digest, this is a huge step up from the medium density housing we did last year.

Hey Axie

I'm in third year at Newcastle and doing the same project (I didn't think anyone else from our year used this site)

I'm actually quite amazed you've typed up an entire brief considering how big the project is.Anyway if you need a hand more then happy to help.

If you get a chance go take a look at the new Swansea Library / Community centre. It opened a few weeks ago and should give you an idea of roughly where this project is heading - Cross Swansea bridge 2km down on your right

Or the new Wallsend library (though its 6 weeks from completion, but if you find the site manager, and ask politely, he should show you around). Matter of fact our brief appears to be lifted straight from the Wallsend Library ie. meeting rooms and toilets that stem from the foyer so they can be used even if the library is closed.

Any way i may post up some of my work to hear your ideas.

Revolving Door

Thanks Steve, actually paraphrasing the brief helped me understand things a little better, I found that it was certainly worth the effort. I'm planning on heading over to Swansea on Monday to have a look around, I'll also go approach the site manager at Wallsend, thanks for the tip mate.

sometimes for uni, you gotta just come up with a great concept... and forget about working out the details. the brief is the worst thing to think about in uni... you'll get plenty of that out working... eg. all the planning of room spaces like staff work area etc, you set aside as "servant" areas and those important areas galleries and library shelves computer cataloging as "master" areas.

So essentially you're down to only 2 types of areas... then you can plan great architecture from there. To get bogged down on making the circulation and connecting this to that to make sure that people will pass through here and there correctly, will take up lots of time and it may come to waste if your outcome concept is weak.

3 things... 4 and 5
space (height, grand or not grand? form from space)
light (windows, skylighting?)
materiality (economical or fancy? usually the way in which in the building is articulated)
environmentally friendly? look at the way the building stores and releases heat... use solar panels everything... now they have the new tech called solar paint, where you paint the building and it generates electricity.

I'm glad you don't get maintenance issues at uni

I've been pretty slack with this thread so far ... a few work related projects and a project of the female persuasion got in the way.

Anyways, after a week or two playing around with the planning side of the project and getting pretty much no where, I decided to take Spadesticks advice and work on the concept side of things. Having absolutely zero ability to sketch by hand I just played around in sketchup with some simple forms. Inspired by Lyons' (http://lyonsarch.com.au) Bacchaus Marsh Science and Technology Centre (http://www.lyonsarch.com.au/rd.asp?itemID=rd\rd08#) I came up with a simple extruded "tin shed" profile, with variations in height for each of the main spaces, (Staff work areas and meeting rooms, Entrance and circulation and the shelving and related spaces) cut-away and raised elements to allow natural light deep into the Library.

I'm still not completely convinced that this concept is worth continuing with, especially since I have little idea on how to deal with the shorter facades of the building to the east and west.

View from road - landscaping not developed

Very rough Site Plan

View of internal spaces (not developed)

Here are the two nice proposals -

melbourne 1 (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1145)

melbourne 2 (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1196)

melbourne 3 (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1132&highlight=melbourne+library)

something to learn from each discussion

I like it. It's probably not a style I would use, but it's got something.
nice and simple.

maybe you should let light in under the overhang? an eave wouldn't suit the style that much, but a long, thin window strip on that southeast side (maybe 400-500 mm high) would let a lot of light in.

my attempt at this same brief is here: http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2583
there's also a photo from a plane of the site (I also have a bunch more if you need them, about 20 of the site).

cheers
ned

Cheers Ned, that aerial photo you have is quite good, what resolution are they?

I've been thinking about how to get more natural light and ventilation through the building, I was thinking about cutting away about 900mm of the roof and using fixed louvres above glass and movable glass louvre panels below for ventilation.

I accidentally pulled the ground plane down 50mm or so before hitting render, so ignore the gaps between the structure and the ground. Also, the head clearance at the edges is a little low at the moment, so I'll need to lift the structure about 500mm vertically.

Another internal light study

Also u might want to take a look at David Adjaye's Idea store (http://www.adjaye.com/)

Also u might want to take a look at David Adjaye's Idea store (http://www.adjaye.com/)

More images of this project HERE (http://www.0lll.com/lud/pages/architecture/archgallery/adjaye_idea-store_cs/pages/adjaye-ideastore_01.htm)

I like the contrast between the "closed" feed of the exterior and the open interior

very nice

Also u might want to take a look at David Adjaye's Idea store (http://www.adjaye.com/)

Thanks for the link, I've never heard of Adjaye before, I like his work :cheers:

I like the contrast between the "closed" feed of the exterior and the open interior

very nice

Thank you, it's always good to get some positive feedback.

I had an idea on how to deal with the shorter (western / eastern) facades earlier today, here's a quick test of what I had in mind. I'm just looking at the form at the moment, haven't thought about how I'll place windows, especially on the western facade. No matter what I do on the western side I think I'll need some fixed horizontal blades / louvres to block as much of the summer evening sun as possible, while maintaining as much of the view towards the water as possible.

what's the rationale behind the site plan? the open part appears to be facing the pool.. is that right?

what's the rationale behind the site plan? the open part appears to be facing the pool.. is that right?

The open part currently seen in renders faces to the north, I haven't developed the southern (pool) side yet, but as I wish to integrate an outdoor reading space I'm guessing it will be quite similar. My idea is to have dense landscaping along the fence line to block the view directly into the pool. I have a general picture in my head of how I want the landscaping to work, hopefully I'll get that done prior to the tute tomorrow arvo so my strategy for the site should become a little more clear.

Oh yah, as someone asked before, the renders are all done in Maxwell, the exterior images have cooked for about 15 minutes and the interiors for a little longer. I'm expecting render times of about 20 - 25hrs for the final images due to the amount of glass being used at around 2500x1500 reso ... its going to be an interesting last week.

Hi Axie,
I just have a few questions about the context..... in every sense of the word. People, environment, location. Do you have any analysis work you can show us? It seems as though we have gone from brief to almost finish form in one jump other than a little inspiration from a precedent what else has contributed to the process thus far? What is your view of the library in the future... will it operate any differently to what we have now.

I am sure you have a sense of all this for your self, but it is difficult to comment in here without it.

Cheers
dk

Hi Adam

First off, its a very cool form (like a spaceship).

I'll need to see a plan of it cos it looks a little small in comparison to mine (just a little). You may have a tough time in making things fit inside.

As mentioned before it appears as though you have arrived at a resolution a little early, though you may haven't explained your reasoning for your design on here as of yet.

In our crits we will be asked to explain the process of how we resovled the brief (as you know) and you can't say you started of with a random form (trust me, i've learnt that the hard way)

I would stick with the design as it is a very elegant structure, but you will need to think of ways of relating the building to either the local environment, community, function, etc or somthing more meatphorical eg.

The structure has a very techincial, futuristic form to it similar to high tech architecture. perhaps the building could explore the relationship between the changing faces of architecture and libraries as in how technology has changed them dramatically.

So make a heavy focus on the information technology of the library and the complex construction of the structure, use cutting edge technology and bring in the millenium (Ok that reference is a little dated)


I hope this rambling is helpful

Here is an image of mine though i'm still halfway in putting it into cad - I hope it shows up as i don't know exactly how to upload pics.

Steve

Thanks for the comments steve and dkidston, you certainly gave me a lot to think about. Unfortunately, I'm far from happy with my design, while I was pleased with certain aspects, especially how light came into the building, overall there were some major issues that, in my opinion, would result in a very poor final project.

So over the weekend I made the decision to kill the project and start from scratch, normally I prefer to stick with a concept and work through the problems that arise, but I think in this case a fresh start is the best way to go. Thanks to everyone who commented on the design, your crits were greatly appreciated.

I'll create a new thread soon with that I have thus far, I guess this thread should be moved to the "back to the drawing board" section ...

Lots of times starting all over again is not the answer. The idea you have so far is very good, you just need to be less rigid with the geometry you used. Spend more time in the modelling instead of light studies. Look for inspiration in other projects where natural light is crucial. There is a lot to see. Try Eladio Dieste (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1998), Alvar Aalto, Tadao Ando, etc.
It seems like they're very basic recomendations, but they have done great things with light.

yeah, I like the section and the light of you get into the building.

I think (maybe you do to?) that the problem with the building is it's monolithic stance on the site. it would be absolutely horrible, except that you've sliced this huge chunk out of it and moved it up and back a bit. that REALLY makes the building feel more alive. why not play with that a bit more? chop the basic shape up into 5-6 bits and move them around. it could be a great way to get even more light in to the building. you could even try making them bigger or smaller, or rotating them.

maybe do some semi-rectilinear planning and come back to the shape, and slice it up then.

I definately think you're shooting yourself in the foot if you start again, especially so close to the deadline. What did john say to you in the tut? Maybe go over that. it could be good to start again, do it a completely different way (maybe start with planning instead of section?) for a day or two, and then come back to this.

good luck, anyway.

ned

Submission was today, far too tired to explain my design ... so here's some pretty* pictures.


Site Plan

Ground floor / foyer

First Floor

Section AA

Section BB

North Ele

East Elevation

West Elevation

Front Perspective

wow
quite a diference between what you shown and the final proposal.
Now rest and come back to explain your project :D

yes...rest and then explain.

Thanks for not letting this thread just up and die...makes it worth the while for all of us.

You would have been better off to stay with your first thoughts. You pulled this off just fine, but its just another modern glass box. Your other design may have been something much more special. Judging by what I see here, you are talented enough to make the other scheme work.

I will comment further once you make your comments.

The render in post #14 was the most eye catching and interesting imho. I like the slanted roof falls over and creates an in-between space between the exterior and the interior.

Its quite a huge change you made since the first one, a pity I feel that you didn't continue with the initial design. I'm not sure if the concept has stayed but the form sure hasn't.

Looking forward to seeing your concept description and more about the project in general! :)

Hmm ... I've been lazy in posting updates, haven't I?

I had a major rethink of the design of my building and made some major changes since I last posted an update. I'm currently doing a set of "presentation working drawings" for a segment of the library for the next submission in this project.

My problem at the moment is working out the details of my skylight and sun shading structure. The idea is that a skylight runs down the centre of my library, with a shade cloth to keep direct light off the glass at all times. At the moment I'm really unhappy with the way this is going and, unfortunately if I don't come up with a good solution quickly I'll need to drop this from my design.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with the skylight or shade cloth, in particularly how to seal it the glass panels and how to secure to structure to withstand high winds it would be a big help.

Anyways, I'll post a few images and the skp, if anyone has any comments or suggestions it would be appreciated.

I'll post some proper sections and details of the rest of the building over the next few days as I complete the drawings.

Section

Skylight

Shade cloth

Any ideas why I can't reverse normals on the piping? When I do, it automatically flips the next segment over the wrong way ...

Eastern Elevation

Just a random internal render for the hell of it ...

I like your project a lot.
For the moment, the first "critique" I could make is regarding the landscape project aproach. It seems you don't realy qualify the building surround with the same langage as the building himself.;)

I like the random pattern of the stuff in the thing. I put it like that because that is all I know at the moment. (hint, hint)

As far as the skylight goes, why does the material have to be on the outside of the building? Why not simplify this a little and bring it inside. Its on the roof, is anyone going to see it anyway? You could do many things to defuse the light coming in to the gallery spaces. I think that your time would be better spent on a better system. Just don't get to hung up on something that is not adding much to your project. I don't even like the structure in your elevations. You have this really strong delicate element (random pattern thingies) and you are creating a conflict with this delicate skylight structure thing.

I may sound kind of harsh here, but you have a really good thing going, and I just want to see you make decisions that enhance the good, not take away from it.

I like your project a lot.
For the moment, the first "critique" I could make is regarding the landscape project aproach. It seems you don't realy qualify the building surround with the same langage as the building himself.;)

Thanks for the comments Minima. The lack of landscaping is due to the fact that this is a developed design of the building and no landscaping would be shown in the presentation. Its not something I agree with, I originally intended to present a detailed landscape plan, but unfortunately due to limited real estate on the boards this was canned.

I like the random pattern of the stuff in the thing. I put it like that because that is all I know at the moment. (hint, hint)

As far as the skylight goes, why does the material have to be on the outside of the building? Why not simplify this a little and bring it inside. Its on the roof, is anyone going to see it anyway? You could do many things to defuse the light coming in to the gallery spaces. I think that your time would be better spent on a better system. Just don't get to hung up on something that is not adding much to your project. I don't even like the structure in your elevations. You have this really strong delicate element (random pattern thingies) and you are creating a conflict with this delicate skylight structure thing.

I may sound kind of harsh here, but you have a really good thing going, and I just want to see you make decisions that enhance the good, not take away from it.

Thanks imasayer, I'll try and get a plan and some details up today so it's a little easier to understand.

The sail cloth material is outside the building in an effort to keep the direct sun off the glass which will reduce the heat penetration. I certainly understand what you mean about the conflict between the delicate internal partitions and the current shade cloth structure.

An option would be to shade the glass by other means, either by panels of fixed louvres or by a system similar to Renzo Piano's Beyeler Foundation Musuem (http://194.185.232.3/works/034/index.asp) in Switzerland using fritted glass panels to diffuse the light.

I think this is a much better solution than the shade cloth ... any other opinions?

I think this is a much better solution than the shade cloth ... any other opinions?

That is what I was talking about! Much better, and much more simple. Now you can focus on more important parts of your project. (I know that gallery lighting is important, but probably not so much during school)

Maybe the "sloped screens" could be composed by thermal solar pannels (showers will be used a lot in this project I think). Then you could justify the solar protection and the hot water production in one shot.

I had a similar idea in our tutorial today a_minima, they are pretty much orientated in the right direction, I'm researching the solar panels as we speak. Unsure where you got the shower idea from though, the building is a library :)

Here is another approach, more like I was talking about. Not that what you have doesn't work. Just another option. (I robbed this from the MOMA thread)

Unsure where you got the shower idea from though, the building is a library :)
Oups ! I did it ! (again?)
I'm working on a sport hall and it confused me cause I will propose solar panels to.
Photovoltaics :
http://www.kyocerasolar.com/products/spec_module.html