NEWINGTON LIBRARY PROJECT

Students from Structural engineering, Architectural Engineering, and Interior design partook in this group project. What made this project fascinating was the focus on designing for the user and also considering how the design would impact the outer community.  It was a refreshing project as it took us engineers out of the comfortable space of design calculations to creative design.

A fundamental part of design is producing and developing a concept that can then be used to drive the narrative of a project. This is what we had to do for redesigning Newington library. Newington library provides a small quiet space where people can come and read. My group went with the concept of "bringing the outside in". The idea was to attract as much of the surrounding community into the library. To do this we proposed turning the library from a quiet reading space to a more vibrant interactive space. The newly redesigned library included a social area for relaxing, areas for private meetings, and a gallery space where members of the community who felt artistic could express themselves. There were spaces for children to learn and play so that the library catered for all ages. A big feature of the new design was plants indoors and a rooftop garden. This was to emphasise that idea of "bringing the outside in" The neighborhood is surrounded by trees so we wanted to bring a sense of that nature into the library

I learned a lot from communicating with my colleagues from other disciples that I wouldn't have learned about staying in my structural discipline parameters. It was interesting to learn about the aspects related to interior design. For example the importance of colour schemes in different spaces and how they can affect the users on a psychological and physiological level. Lighting was also very important. It was key that the building was designed to maximize receiving as much natural lighting as possible to minimize the use of artificial lighting. On the Architectural engineering side, it was interesting to learn about ventilation, air conditioning, and heating systems. As the engineer in my group, I was tasked with designing the substructure of the new building. This was a very insightful project as in the industry all projects are multi disciple. This was a good project as it simulated the type of group work conditions that often occur in the industry.