Layout and Dimensions: research and measurements

-
As I am designing a library, I have to decide on the dimensions so as to support the different interior requirements on my brief. I first decided on my site and got the measurements for it 

 

The total area of my site is 1,220,516ft2 which is also 113,390m2 after finding out how much space I am working with I did some research on dimensions for a library. As stated on my brief, the library will serve 5000 residents. An average medium sized library are between 10000ft2 (approximately 930m2) and 15000ft2 (approximately 1394m2) for a suburban area (Giuroiu, 2024). After getting this information, I searched for libraries in the USA which could fit this description and I found an organization in America called Library Journal that hosts a competition every year to crown the best small library in America. The main requirement to compete is for the library to be located in a town with less than 25,000 residents. As Cromwell's population is 14,225 as of the 2020 census (data.census.gov, n.d.). I used this as the basis of my further research on library sizes.

Page public library located in Arizona won the most recent competition in 2023. It is located in the town of Page which has a population of about 7000 residents but the library also serves people of adjacent small towns as well. The library has a general reading area, childrens reading room, computer area and meeting room. The size of the library is 14000ft2 which is also 1300m2 (Rea, 2023)

 

 Page Public Library, Arizona

 Albert Wisner Public library located in Warwick, New York won the award in 2016. It services about 23,000 residents. It has two floors which include a general reading area, children's reading room, community room, activities room, meeting room and computer area (Berry, 2016). The library has an area of 20,000ft2 which is 1858m2

               Photo ©2016 William Neumann

 Albert Wisner Public Library, New York

Copper Queen Library won the award in 2019.  It is located in the town of Bisbee, Arizona which has a residency of 5,575. It has a childrens reading area, meeting rooms, quiet study room, computer stations, event space all included in its three floors (Schwartz, 2019). The library size is about 12,000ft2 which is 1115m2

 

 Copper Queen Library, Arizona

Based on research done on library spaces and looking at and comparing the three libraries I decided on my measurements. My library's total area will be 18000ft2 which is 1719m2. The first floor will have an area of 1030m2 and the second floor 689m2. The floor to ceiling height will be 5m. 

 

References

Berry, J.N. (2016). Culture Convener | Best Small Library in America 2016. [online] Library Journal. Available at: https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/culture-convener-best-small-library-in-america-2016 [Accessed 1 Aug. 2024].

data.census.gov. (n.d.). Explore Census Data. [online] Available at: https://data.census.gov/profile/Cromwell_town [Accessed 1 Aug. 2024].

Giuroiu, A. (2024). Library: Size, Functionality, Uses, Furniture And Renovation. [online] Available at: https://www.architecturelab.net/house/room/library/#:~:text=A%20typical%20small-town%20or%20rural%20public%20library%20is [Accessed 31 Jul. 2024].

Rea, A. (2023). Page Public Library, Community Heartbeat | Best Small Library In America, 2023. [online] Library Journal. Available at: https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/page-public-library-community-heartbeat-best-small-library-in-america-2023 [Accessed 1 Aug. 2024].

Schwartz, M. (2019). Thriving Together | Best Small Library in America 2019. [online] Library Journal. Available at: https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/Thriving-Together-Best-Small-Library-in-America-2019 [Accessed 1 Aug. 2024].


 

Comments

  1. Sam DarganAugust 12, 2024 at 5:06 AM

    Interesting that you found some detail on the spaces created for American libraries - this is useful and you've found some helpful examples. In terms of style, Page Public Library is closest to your vision - follow up with a more detailed post on this as Further Research.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beginning Research: Mick Pearce

-
Image
I am choosing Mick Pearce as he is an architect who has done a lot of work in restoring and transforming buildings (mainly in Central Africa) while also minimizing damage to the environment. In recent years he has done more sustainable architecture involving biomimicry and most recently, passive cooling systems. 'An original and innovative architect, Mick Pearce is particularly renowned for his work on the bio-ecological aspects of the built environment.' (Prince Claus Fund, n.d.). The building that I will be looking at is the Eastgate Centre located in Harare, Zimbabwe because the building takes inspiration from nature which I can also relate back to my project work The Eastgate Centre by Mick Pearce (1996) The Eastgate Centre, which has a total combined floor area of 55,000 metres aquare is a shopping centre and office space located in the centre of Harare. Mick Pearce drew inspiration for the building from nature, specifically termite mounds. Termites build mounds which m...
Read more

Initial Ideas (Crazy Eights)

-
Image
After looking at the project brief of the three themes (Primitivism, pop art, industrial) we were tasked with generating ideas based on our chosen theme. I chose primitivism as my theme as I think it gives me a more creative route and the theme is a bit broader than the rest. I started with creating a mind map I wrote down all the things I associated with the theme such as nature, history, land and so on. This helped me not to think too much on the specifics and to see how many different sections of primitivism I could choose from when creating the final project. After that we did a task called 'Crazy Eights' which required us to draw our ideas and develop them within a set time frame as it was supposed to be just a quick sketch of what we were thinking about regarding the project at the time. We folded our paper to get eight different sections for our sketches       I initially thought of African huts so I drew that first then i started to develop on that idea. I thought...
Read more

Website Creation: Gallery Portfolio

-
Image
In this post I will be creating my portfolio and website gallery on my Wix website. I will also be adding my finalised Architecture Project unto the gallery The first thing I changed was the background colour of my portfolio page. I right clicked on the mouse and clicked on 'change background' and selected the colour I wanted. I did this to show consistency with all my other pages and to also make the colour more inviting for viewers.     I then added an image to the page by clicking on the 'Add' button on my left hand menu and then clicked on 'image' and on 'upload image'. I then chose an image of my project from my files. I proceeded to add the image unto my page also using the transform tools to reposition the image to the center. My next step was to create a new page. I went to the pages menu on the left hand margin and clicked on 'New Page' and clicked on it to change the name to my Project name, 'SolarHaven Home'. I then clicked on ...
Read more