“ An agenda for me is always an ideal situation. However, when it comes to Architetcure, having an ideal to begin with is always a noble thing to do. Judging from the impact that it will have on the environment and greater public.
Ultimately, Architects are slaves to function. The site, program, and especially bodies other than the Architect’s own, build up a kind of tension which is either a positive or a negative one. A negative outcome would be that of risk and anxiety, which may result in an Architecture that is not responsive to the brief, which lacks any obvious principle of organisation or not contributing to an urban context. A positive outcome is an object of play, which leaves room for further imagination. A design concept may be crucial to a successful outcome, however, it is not always necessary. Accidental experimentation could also yield a positive outcome.
The race for a positive outcome is always an ongoing one, especially in Architecture school. Moreover, it is set against a strict time line of events. My agenda is to create a socially viable public space that will sit comfortably within the given urban context. A public library is a dramatic enclosure of knowledge dissemination, research and learning. Also, it is a community library that will host public events and proceedings due to its central location. A new generation library in a contemporary style, that its shape, although might be formulated by accident, will nevertheless represent this changing nature of Library Architecture in Australia.”
In this project, the method of using animation stills combined with program requirements was implemented as a form of experimentation with form making. A form finding exercise, which used movement date from the existing site which is a car park. The most obvious movement on this site is the movement of cars. Together with this date, networks of strands were set up as a material system and a ”bulge” strength was used to manipulate the network of strands. A total of 8 diagrams were used to generate shapes that could program a library.
Simultaneously, the library brief was being developed. The concepts of preserving existing paths were developed from this initial form experimentation. Therefore, it is fair to say that the form guided the design process. The path diagrams only instigated the initial form finding exercise. Eventually, function came into play as expected. The market library brief was an expensive one. The plans had to be carefully planned meeting functional requirements. The total library area is 50,640 square meters with 2 levels of basement car parking which houses 1030 parking spaces with 32 on the ground floor. In total there is a provision of 20 disabled parking spaces.
Library Administration and the Market Library Administration are on the ground floor to house 238 permanent library staff members. This space is directly adjacent to materials handling to increase staff efficiency at the back of house as it is a compact planning system. The is a prominent thoroughfare through the market library to emphasise that maintaining previous paths are important to the brief and this site. This thoroughfare provides an access way for forklifts that carry goods from the Queen Victoria Market to existing storage sheds to the Southern boundary of the site. During library hours, this thoroughfare is used for manual material handling such as book cart access and shopping trolleys to and from the Queen Victoria Market. There is also provision for bicycle parking along this thoroughfare. During after hours, a roller door secures this space and is managed by security on the southern end of the site.
The first floor of the market library is the main attraction due to its undulating surface, it houses community access programs together with fiction, teens, multilingual and dvd collections. This undulating space has slope ratios that range from 6 degrees to 26 degrees. Some slopes which are not trafficable will remain as left over space. The undulating form was determined mainly by the function arrangements and views that could be captured from the library. For example, toward the west, the gap becomes closer to the ceiling to minimise strong low lying Western sunlight, whereas it gap widens towards the South to capture views of the city skyline. The rest of the brief is incorporated within two flat slabs and topped off with a mirrored floor plan of the undulating form.
This action further emphasised two main entrances to the library building. One being staff entrance towards the West and the other being the main public entrance towards the East. This form emphasis is seen to be the merging of two similar forms. The result was conducive for an auditorium, which would seat up to 500 people on the East end and a community multipurpose room on the West end. The tension between two elements – the program and the form, is shown in the plans of the market library. While the form remains a three-dimensional curve, the program remains relatively rigid in plan and section. This is done to create a dramatic play of rigid and ‘fluid’ elements. It can be argued that this project has no pragmatic relevance and had a formalist approach. My counter argument would be that it however, does have an obvious principle of organisation and design process. Therefore, it is regarded to be a positive outcome rather than a negative one. It is ultimately, the balance between the ‘art project’ and the ‘programmatic project” which gives it the dramatic appeal that it needs to be the new market library.
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