Architecture Design Studio 5 focuses on the theme of place-making for the urban street. It aims to explore and provide appropriate architectural solutions in designing a community library for the city’s inhabitants. Students will begin by conducting preliminary studies in that introduces them to the studies and context of urbanity through the analysis and documentation of the current urban condition of a selected inner-city site. This will be done in concurrence with the research of urban infill and community library precedents, and their architectural responses. By the end of the module, students will have developed an appropriate scheme for an urban contemporary community library within a dense inner-city street environment that takes into consideration an understanding of applicable current legislations, building technologies and cultural imperatives of the site and its surroundings.

 

The Preliminary Studies is a preparatory assignment that focuses on investigating basic notions of the city, and learning from examples of community libraries around the world. This assignment aims to firstly introduce students to the basics in urban design and its relation to architecture, and secondly, studying and determining the programmatic function, societal role and spatial layout of a community library and architectural responses for urban infills.

 

Learning Outcomes of this Project

1. Conduct case studies and site analysis to generate an understanding of the physical and cultural context and development of urban environments

2. Determine and describe the role of a community library in a contemporary urban setting

3. Examine and establish appropriate architectural responses and strategies for designing within an urban infill site

4. Produce necessary documentation (diagrams, mappings, photographic images, orthographic drawings and models) to record and communicate site analysis findings, and for further use in the coming design stages

 

The purpose of the Site Analysis is to observe and record the site’s current condition, and to collect additional information to be used in the initial design conceptualization and strategy phase. Key concepts and themes to be discussed in relation to the analysis include: Way-finding (5 Lynchian Principles), Typology and Morphology, Figure/Ground Mapping, Patterns of Movement and Use, Human Behaviour, Street Culture