2013 national competition project | Library Redesign #181: Recent activity

This is a great sketch and shows that you are thinking about the site and the context.

Great use of Google Maps to show the context of your project and explain the constraints. (Architectural jury member)

This is truly a people-centric approach to the problem! Your all-school survey was a great way to find out what the users want and what they find problematic with the currently library. I appreciate that you summarized the data in an accessible form (rather than "dumping" the raw data). Then you used this data to analyze the current library and determine a list of goals for the new space. Your school is particularly challenging because of the space constraints but your solution is quite elegant.
I especially like how your process discovered that there is a lack of space for backpacks in the library. While this might easily be overlooked, it makes a huge impact on the day-to-day success of a library space.
My only suggestion refers to your overview and final design narrative. These are fairly short - in these spaces, you should summarize what you've done by repeating the information listed elsewhere in a condensed form. I hope you decide to become an architect because you've got a great approach. (Architectural jury member)

Hello, I am an architect living in Madrid, Spain and I am part of the 2013 competition jury.

It is great you are using both hand drawing and computer modeling to develop your design and it is evident you are trying to address the problems you identified earlier. Do you think there will be enough separation or sound buffer between the cafe area and the quiet study area? Color coding this final plan does help its readability.

The development of the final renderings is also evident. Though it would be great to zoom in a little more and provide a variety of different perspective views of the space within your Sketchup model, and this would allow you to describe further the details that you have developed. Overall great job, nice clear progression of steps and development from identifiying the problem to the final solution.

It is clear your focus during the brainstorming phase was mostly on the location for the new library within the existing campus, which is important and this site analysis sketch was terrific (though some color might make the different elements you've included read more clearly). Though it is also good to use this phase to think about what the library would be like spatially inside, possibly including photos or sketches of other library projects you find inspiring and address similar problems that you are trying to solve.

The student survey you conducted to collect information sounds like it provided some useful new insight that complimented well the photos and plan that you gathered in this phase.