Library Forum
The new library and the central meeting place for the residents of Jordbro.
Role
Designer / Architect
Assignment
My assignment as an architecture student was to develop a proposal for the new library in Jordbro based on a given site and a program (which and how large functional areas should be included - requirements from the client).
Timeframe
11 weeks (2020)
Why an architecture project?
UX is not just something that relates to the digital world but also our physical world. In this project I worked with many similar user-centered methods and design processes as for the digital UX projects, to eventually land in a proposal.
Results
I conceptualized several ideas with the purpose of creating a natural meeting place for Jordbro's residents.
This resulted in a central library/forum for knowledge exchange where the strong association culture in the area gets to take place and be in focus rather than books. A building whose overall structure is shaped after the clearest movement patterns over the square to invite and encourage spontaneous visits.
1 - Background & Overview:
Jordbro
A new center is planned adjacent to the commuter train station in Jordbro, located in Haninge municipality. The project includes a new bus terminal, a square, approximately 270 new homes, a preschool and a library.
The goal is to preserve Jordbro's small-town character, with focus on walking distance to the commuter train station and buildings that harmonize with the existing Jordbro center. The area is characterized today by a mix of multi-family houses and small houses, mainly from the 60s and 70s.
Jordbro is home to a diversity of people from different cultures and parts of the world, which enriches society. One of the unique aspects of Jordbro is its lively association life, which plays a central role for engagement in the locality.
2 - Results:
Floor plans and visualizations
Library forum
Library Forum is an engaging meeting place for new ideas in Jordbro.
In an increasingly digital world where the physical book gets less space, the definition of what a library is changes. With internet as primary knowledge source, "filter bubbles" also arise, one way to burst them is to meet other people, get exchange and be inspired. But to be able to be inspired, you must be exposed.
Visualizations
Floor plans
Design
Library forum is designed after two main paths over the square that are translated into two orthogonal passages through the library's entrance floor where premises connected to association activities get to take place. Further up in the house, these passages become voids and bridges that give sight all the way up to the sky.
This form makes accessible and exposes the engagement and activities that exist in Jordbro.
3 - Process:
Processmodell
Research
Important paths and flows in Jordbro center
Site analysis
I made recurring visits to the site to gain an understanding of how the area is built up and structured. Questions that I worked around for data collection: How does the flow look? What are the main paths? What typology exists? What green areas are there? What are the most important nodes? What is important for the residents of Jordbro?
Insights and scope
The answers to the questions I asked in the site analysis helped me to get direction in the design process by making decisions about what I wanted to work further with. In this case I anchored the design in the paths and flows that got a decisive role for the overall design of the building, but also insights from interviews with residents that highlighted Jordbro as a place where association life and meeting between people played an important role.
Program analysis
Since it was a large program with many functions that should fit on a limited area, it needed to be sorted into the different parts to be able to make reasonable design decisions. I worked with many different diagrams in both plan and volume to among other things understand the spatial relationships, the relationship between user and function, private and public areas, which functions are used by most users etc. This helped me to make decisions about which functions should be placed where in the building.
Program study in volume
Program study in plan
Insights and overall design decisions
Since association life and meeting between people played a big role in Jordbro, I chose to connect the activities and functions that should promote these activities. Such as lecture hall, workshop room, exhibition space and café and place these in the most easily accessible and most exposed place in the building.
Concept & Design
Concept sketches
Concept sketches in 3D
Insights
The sketches illustrate tests of the concept around flows through the building, where proposal C became the variant I chose to develop further.
4 - Summary:
Insights & Learnings
The design process
Good design is anchored and built on insights. Setting up frameworks that help creativity gives direction
Dare to be critical
Redefining what a library can be helped me see new possibilities. What was the need? In this case the library was not about a place to borrow books but more about meeting between people and various activities. It was important to be able to redefine the concept to be able to solve the problem in the right way for the intended target groups.
Iteration
There is no shortcut to a good end result.
