Week 14 – The Final Design and Presentation Preparation

My progression from last week in terms of the design has not been huge, as I have only changed the layout of the exterior walls to create a more organic shape. I have still got the same spaces in the same positions, the kid’s obstacle course on the left and the social and interactive areas on the right. I have also taken the time to define some of the smaller elements of my design. Such as the learning space for the older kids, which will be learning through the shapes of the seating and the root arches, will also has free access to wifi and the Brisbane City Council eLibrary. I have also polished the entry point, which opens up to a café area with an information desk for patrons, which can be seen in the Ground Floor Plan below.

Ground Floor Plan

 I have also made some slight variations to my First Floor Plan, by incorporating a staff office and storage space upstairs as well as an open walkway which snakes between the rooms on the first floor. This represents the multilevel interaction that happens within the various ecosystems of the mangrove roots. I have also added an outdoor balcony area off the computer room, to be used as a relaxation area to sit in the sun and take in the River views. This can be seen in the First Floor Plan below.

First Floor Plan

In making my floor plans more organic, I also changed the layout and sizes of the steel arches, to make them look more natural and random. Instead of tightly hugging the building like in my previous designs, the arches span over and under, in and around each other with the building been created by the shapes of the spaces underneath. Instead of the arches following the buildings shape, the building is created by the arches shape. The roof plan, which shows this layout, can be seen below.

Roof Plan

In terms of site placement, I have also greatly improved my site plan since the last project. I have drawn the site map (which can be seen below) in which I will Photoshop the roof plan to the appropriate scale. I have placed the building on the same site as my Folie and Project 2, which is on the water front, just next to the second boat shed. The building will be along the bikeway for easy of entrance and also for safety, so people do not have to stray far from the main thru fare to access the building. With the buildings placement on the river’s edge and the library been designed for children, I ensured that all of the entry and outdoor spaces were fenced to ensure there is no issues with the children encountering the water.

Site Plan

My next step in creating my presentation documentation was to build my model. I thought with the organic form of the building, that it would be faster and more accurate if I was to construct my model and then complete the drawings using it as a reference point. I began my construction by taking a copy of my roof plan and gluing it to the base. I then cut wire to the appropriate lengths and stuck it into the correct positions. This way, I could construct all of the arches to see how the basic form resembles what I wanted before adding the exterior cladding; the photo below shows the steel arches.

 My next stage was to add the exterior cladding to the model. Because I want to use a translucent material which will allow the light and shadows of the arches to filter through, I decided to use trace paper as my material. I simple cut the trace to lengths and wrapped and weaved it around the wire to create the buildings shape. I then built the exterior balcony and the Folie poles which act as fencing around the grass play area and the front gate. The final product can be seen in the photos below.

I am very happy with how my model turned out and I think it will be very useful when continuing with my drawings. Between now and next week, I will be producing the rest of the drawings which include elevations, sections, a hero shot and perspectives. The final panel and powerpoint jpegs will be uploaded next week for my week 15 entry.