PRESIDENTS

ABU DHABI LOUVRE BY JEAN NOUVEL

Photo taken by author, views of the abu dhabi louvre from the outside.

Internal Courtyard

Mashrabiya Screening

From walking through the inner galleries of the abu dhabi louvre, I found moments where the courtyards revealed green space to be quite nice. Within the Louvre and the exhibition galleries, there were multiple moments where courtyard spaces opened out to water, greens and large monuments when moving through certain thresholds of the gallery spaces. I found these spaces to be a nice breather and a visual break from exhibiting artworks. The mashrabiya screening was interesting for me because of its contemporary take of the traditional sunscreening element. It was nice to see it re-introduce in a contemporary setting, but under a different function. The screens blurred the people moving behind it and added a visual depth to the spaces.

Atmospheric Drawing of the light perforating into the louvre

The image above is an exaggerated atmospheric drawing of the Louvre's roof screening. In principal, light enters the same way as the drawing would, in reality, light is not visible to the eye, but the shadows or the light that punctures through does appear in the same way. The roof was definitely a magical moment within the Louvre design. After you walked through the exhibition galleries, you exit into a large courtyard that showers you with light rays. One of the more intriguing parts was seeing how the gallery engages with the waterfront, as moments of the open spaces dips into the sea level.

Sky lit gallery spaces

Good variation of vertical spaces to house different pieces of artworks. (there was some really tall contemporary ones, one that was quite colourful). Light that came through was filtered; although the galleries were top lit, but you couldn't really see or notice the harsh abu dhabi sun.

Different stone finishes for each galleries space

Louvre roof pattern design

Why Louvre?

From the atmospheric collage for the group work we did previously, I thought the louvre worked quite well in conjunction. Programmatically, the library typology might not link up so well with the louvre; but with the emerging contemporary designs for library spaces, moments throughout the louvre might prove effective as a precedent for designing parts of the library social spaces.

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I chose the louvre as a precedent for the group based on our earlier discussions. In my earlier illustration of the moment drawings, I included the library under the light of the pantheon because the group discussed the digital library as a contemplative space. Under the same idea, I thought the louvre roof design would hold similar interest. The way it filters the harsh sunlight through and provides a curious environment might be a good start for us.

When it came to revisiting the library under the banner of technology without the function of books, I found that the function of gallery spaces might be more suitable and relevant to what a digital library would work as. Essentially, without the function of books, technology is the medium to present learning. Technology becomes the device that exhibits learning to the users, and through a gallery typology we can use that to present the technology that supplies learning activities.

INAGAWA CEMETERY CHAPEL & VISITOR CENTRE BY DAVID CHIPPERFIELD ARCHITECTS

such a nice pink. (although it's meant to be red concrete)

In regards to choosing a precedent for stone, I went with Chipperfield's Inagawa cemetery Chapel and visitor center.

I chose this as a precedent because of its simplistic elegant design. The use of material was sophisticated, clean and created an elegant monolithic design. I believe that if we introduce a more complicated and intricate design language to our library, the language might overcrowd and become quite noisy in a space where digital device is prevalent. Instead, I argue that to complement the digital devices, a clean simple design is the way to approach creating a qualitative digital learning hub.

I enjoyed the use of colours in Chipperfield's work and sandblasting the concrete for texture.

In terms of working with a contemplative space, this material decision might be more powerful than the more noisy stacking of stones - material choice.

MORE DESIGN PRECEDENTS RELATING TO EXHIBITION STYLE TYPOLOGY - HOME-OFFICE

This precedent looks to re-iterate the digital library as an exhibition styled space. If the old library typology exhibited books rows of bookshelves, then the digital library seeks to exhibit its technology in a similar but different way. The digital medium would be run under a more immersive way hence the viewing experience might be similar to viewing installation art pieces.

Home-office offers ideas to explore under arranging these types of spaces.