Career Discovery: The Busy Library

Following Day 1, we began our first real project. This one would take us about 4 days to complete, which I learned quickly was not a lot of time to get all your ideas out.

This project consisted of human motion and how it related to the architecture of a space. We had two small exercises to prepare ourselves for the final model.

1. Human Scale Transformation - we were asked to measure literally everything we could think of related to the human body; the distance between stairs, how high stairs are, how wide an average human is, how high a human can reach, how low you must crouch to drink water from a drinking fountain, what a comfortable seating height is...you get the picture.. It seemed like a tedious waste of time, to be honest, but when we began the final construction of our model, I learned how crucial the slope of stairs was, and how it directly linked to the rise and run of each step.

2. The Body in Descriptive Space (My Play Dough Project) - this was the most fun project ever. We could pick 3 adjectives from a provided list, and we had to create spaces that represented those adjectives. This was very vague, as we were not sure if the structure itself should look 'angry,' for example, or if the space was supposed to make a person inside the structure feel angry. So I decided to combine both of those ideas, and create spaces that made a person feel that way, and incorporated that adjective into my architectural design.

My adjectives were:

Wet : I created a space shaped like a bathtub, with a large room shaped like a rain drop on top. If a person stood on the balcony in the rain, he would get very wet, for example. There was no cover. I made it blue, gray, and white, representing a rain cloud and a rainy sky. Even the trees were thought out - they were fluffy, as if they were clouds.
Sharp/Angry : This space began as 'sharp,' hence its pointy shape, but as I proceeded, I decided to change it to 'angry,' for a variety of reasons. First of all, the colors were red and yellow, two completely contrasting colors that tend to be linked to emergency vehicles (firetrucks) and vicious situations (fire-breathing dragons?), for example. Also, I decided that a person in this building would get very frustrated as he moved up the stairs to the top, because the walls would continuously be shrinking in on you. It would be kind of frustration to be climbing to the top and then run out of space to keep moving up. The spiraling cone effect of the stairs seemed to anger me, so I switched over to anger. The trees were originally 'sharp' as well, however, if you think about it, they kind of look like creepy pine trees you'd find in a scary forest.
Busy : The third and final model I made, and my favorite one to work on, was a busy house. This one had many levels stacked sporadically on top of one another, with different textures in the wall material (brick vs. concrete), and a variety of tree types in it. There were balconies, and multiple entrances, and it was raised on stilts as well. I enjoyed making this one because I could just add anything I want, and it would help me succeed in making an even busier home.

Then we began the final project - "interpretation of program and design of movement." I chose the adjective 'busy' from the previous project, because I had had the most fun with it, and then was assigned a 'library' as my program. So my job was, in whatever way I wished, to create a 'busy library.'

I couldn't decide if I wanted to think of busy as 'busy decoration' or 'busy with people,' and then when it came down to 'busy people' I had to pick between 'a space busy with people,' or 'one single busy individual.' I decided to compromise and create a gradient space, ultimately leading you from one very busy area filled with socializing people to a quiet space with one individual busy at work on something.

So my transition went from a really busy public space, with outdoor grassy stairs, a terrace with tables, and benches, to an indoor public space with a cafe and small couches for reading. Then up the stairs would be a balcony overlooking the public space, but personally removing the individual from the busiest place in the building. Then in the following room, the person began to individualize, by approaching kiosks, magazine racks, computer labs, and the information desk. Although I did not reach the lower levels of my library, I predicted the stacks would be in lower levels underneath.

Here's the exterior of the building. I wanted to add some colorful shapes because this was the public space. It needed to be aesthetically inviting, and to allow visitors to feel comfortable in the space.

Here's a very rough model of the entrance room to the public space. Notice the grand staircase and the couch space underneath and behind the stairwell. There was a chandelier and a portrait at the top of the stairs inviting people up them. A bar and cafe are located on the left side underneath the wraparound balcony.