Design Studio Delta

An Escape from the City

In general, the city can be viewed largely as a concrete jungle, with only very small and often tokenistic connections to nature. Unless they travel beyond the city grid, those who frequent Melbourne’s CBD rarely get the chance to relax and unwind within nature. This library aims to bring a natural look and feel to a traditional rectilinear form through biophilic design, bringing vegetation into reading, study and relaxation spaces and allowing an escape from the hustle and bustle of daily city life. It will also, through it’s facade, aim to have a positive effect on the surrounding street-scape.

From a spatial organisation perspective, this library explores the gradient between social and individual experiences, curating the aforementioned vegetation to either open a space up or enclose it. Along with utilising vegatation as a spatial element, I conducted object studies and designed both social and individual seating and study spaces to furnish the libarary with. These communal and study spaces are arranged from the most socially focused on the lower floors, to the predominately individual experiences higher up.

For the documentation of this project, I used my skills in Rhino and Illustrator for the isometrics, sections and plans, and brought the project to life using real time rending software Twinmotion, with Adobe Photoshop interventions helping to convey the soft, natural feel I was aiming for.