Final Pinup

Final Board Pinup

Folly Models

1 : 500 Site Model

1 : 1 Tablet-Shelf Component

Revisiting the Architecture of Education

[Introduce ourselves]

How do we learn?

[Ethan] Education spaces prepare students to receive and respond to information, and set the tone for how you learn. Are you challenged to discover knowledge? Or will you be fed it? Is learning formal or informal? Do you prefer individual or group learning? Kinetic, visual, or experiential? Education is also affected by shifts in culture, technology, society and politics; by the way we work or produce.

[Noah] Our brief specifies for the re-invention of a “speculative library without books”. The emergence of E-books and digital articles, alongside societal demands for collaborative and flexible spaces challenge the necessity of a traditional book-filled environment. Yet academic libraries remain necessary - as vibrant social hubs for a cross-disciplinary population.

Flexibility and Despatialization

[Jien] Our early explorations responded towards the increased demand of flexibility before also questioning the impact which the digital mediums have on how we learn.

[Noah] Traditional spatial organizations of schools involve the division of people. Here, an open arrangement of planes and planar components within a field posited for a connected, open and flexible learning environment.

[Ethan] On the other end, digital information is immaterial, accessible anytime, radically changing the sizes and locations of information supply points. What’s the point of a library if it no longer needs to store books? We explored this despatialization through a rigid field of compressed single study units.

[Daniel] From these explorations we came to a stance that to totally despatialize is unethical - the image of the human who is able to do everything from one place is unhealthy and disconnected from the complexities of the world around them. It is human nature to desire interdependence and connection alongside moments of solitude. It is necessary for the presence of typology to make us move between places. Flexible architecture is redefined from blank canvases to the ability to cater for a variety of public needs and uses.

A LIBRARY WITHOUT BOOKS

Statement

[Jien] A library without books cedes its historically defining factor and is due for radical change.

We reestablish this as a multi-programmatic learning and research centre, seeking to address a wide spectrum of educational environments. This is a matching of different kinds of learning with different mediums and formats..

Masterplan

Urban Gestures Sector 100

[Noah] Sector 100 is a dense collection of historical buildings and green pockets. On an urban scale, we looked to harness yet redefine the transient condition. Due to the density of surrounding buildings, we submerged the main library into the landscape and treated the roofscape as part of the wider urban fabric. The roofscape acts as a sculptural park, and as a social heart at the centre of sector 100. Our footprint is decreased; opening up the street between the biology buildings as well as a new green belt where Commerce A sat.

While the existing library is characterized by its collection of books and artifacts, the new library uses a more digitally oriented program to potentially act as a precursor to the real when research/study is conducted.

Across the wider site, three follies use the transient

nature to create chance, exploration and encounters between people.

Roof - interaction

[Jien]

The roof space is designed as a sculptural garden, utilising the stereotomic forms from the follies to create shelters and seating.

*pathways breaks off from the main circulation for people to meander and congregate on the green space.

*surrounding it, stereotomic structures encourages play amongst the users: act of climbing and creating encounters

Follies

Seemingly functionless, stereotomic ornaments play with light and bring attention to selective views. These follies take up soft functions that relate to the general activities around where they sit: Delight (Food), Contemplation (Chapel), Expression (Graduation field). Through random explorations we set up the opportunity for chance encounters.

INTERIOR - MULTIPROGRAMMATIC

[Ethan] The internal reinvention sustains the library's traditional energy of learning through intentional or unintentional discovery and exploration. An exhibition hall acts as a vessel surrounded by vertically and horizontally varying ramps, streets, and steps. The surrounding functions attempt to address a wide spectrum of educational environments. Standard norms of academic learning are paired with collaborative opportunities for the spreading of knowledge through interdisciplinary workspaces

[SELF STUDY]

Provide different types of self study environments: shared, individual and quiet reading rooms.

° the shared study spaces creates a learning environment through surveillance; the atmosphere generated through other's working studiously.

° whilst the individual and silent rooms offers a greater focused zone for individuals to work.

EXHIBITION HALL

[Jien]

° If a traditional library's primary function is to archive information, an exhibition space serves to display and, through viewing, disseminate knowledge across multidisciplinary fields of the university.

GROUPWORK/GROUP LEARNING

[Noah]

At the next level we introduced a collaborative fabrication and group learning space.

The maker space facilitates learning through fabrication technologies and is segmented into three by a central storage shelf. These being; individual research, group working, and a workspace for fabrication: including Sewing machines, laser cutters, vacuum forming, 3D printers, Enclosed CNC routers, desktops and open desks for small scale testing.

LECTURE THEATRE

[Ethan]

The traditional arrangement of lecture theatres is also questioned. If it is studied that students sitting closer to the front perform better, why are there more seats at the back of fan-shaped theatres than at the front? We intentionally flip this relationship to question an alternate way which lecture halls might be arranged to benefit our learning

CAFE and MICRO CINEMA

Apart from traditional learning zones, we also attached alternative spaces where education might occur. These are modes of informal learning environments, whether some people might enjoy to work within a more casual and vibrant environment such as a cafe; or learn by watching in a comfortable and immersive space, such as a cinema.

1:1 Component

[Daniel]

Questioning the preservation and accessibility of information. The rigorous nature of research is made quicker through e-books and articles; faster access, faster slicing and analysis of texts. The book is replaced by technology to aid this shift.

Tablet shelf pays homage to the traditional library by evoking the appearance of a bookshelf and engaging the physical motion of pulling out a book

We kept this language for its beneficial ambiance - more like wallpaper, where users may achieve a comfort in familiarity

The space in between cases allows for the storage of other accessories in accordance to its location and nearby space

CONCLUSION

[Ethan] The way we learn varies across each individual. Rather than generalizing and simplifying the relationship between individuals and space, we have attempted to provide for the complexities of human learning. The library without books is retreat for focused study and dynamic collaboration, opened to a wider array of activities and forms of knowledge creation and expression.