Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- About the Authors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Libraries after 2020
- 2 Project Management
- 3 Project and Design Teams
- 4 Partnership and Community Engagement
- 5 The Design Brief
- 6 Design Quality
- 7 Space Planning and Access
- 8 Occupancy and Post-occupancy Evaluation
- 9 Building Libraries for the Future: a Summary
- Bibliography and Further Reading
- Appendices
- Index
6 - Design Quality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- About the Authors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Libraries after 2020
- 2 Project Management
- 3 Project and Design Teams
- 4 Partnership and Community Engagement
- 5 The Design Brief
- 6 Design Quality
- 7 Space Planning and Access
- 8 Occupancy and Post-occupancy Evaluation
- 9 Building Libraries for the Future: a Summary
- Bibliography and Further Reading
- Appendices
- Index
Summary
This chapter explores the different elements of design quality inlibraries, addressing building structure, interior design, and digitalinnovation and connectivity. Each has specific requirements whichinvolve dialogue with user and interest groups, and each level has itsown exacting demands which cannot be overlooked.
When we refer to design in the built environment, we are not referring toa separate entity or theory of design. ‘Design’ in thebuilt environment means exactly what ‘design’ in any otherrealm means. In its broadest sense then, design refers not only toaesthetics, style or engineering, but to a process, a mindset and askillset. It starts with an understanding of user needs and makes a linkbetween creativity and innovation to transform new ideas into scalableand usable products, services and places.
(Milton, 2018)This chapter has three distinct sections, as follows:
1 Building structure
2 Interior design
3 Digital innovation and connectivity.
Each of these concentrates on a different aspect of a new library build,reflecting the increased importance of digital infrastructure in recentyears, and, in the first section, allowing for updating of information onnew environmental considerations.
Building structure
Urban design
Good design is crucial to all types of library in being part of urbanlandscapes and where, increasingly, library spaces are part of hubs ofshared facilities. Rob Cowan's new text on Essential UrbanDesign (Cowan, 2021) will be a useful update on currentthinking in the UK, including chapters on ‘politics, collaborationand the role of local authorities’ and offering handy checklists.
In the UK, ten characteristics of good design are set out as in Figure6.1.
This document is a valuable post-pandemic resource which will support allproject team members in a build in the UK, especially in the public librarysector. These broad tenets of design are also transferable to othercountries.
Those who are planning and designing a new public library need to bear inmind its place as a civic building, while academic libraries need to be atthe hub of college or university activity. In addition to supporting theireverdeveloping collections and needs, it is essential that libraries areclose to pedestrian traffic and public transport
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Better by DesignAn Introduction to Planning, Designing and Developing Library Buildings, pp. 71 - 94Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2022