Studio Contemplation

What is 'overpopulation'?
The point at which the earth's resources can no longer adequately support its population?
If so, are we already overpopulated?

Globally, a significant proportion of the world's population does not have sufficient to survive but is this indicative of a state of overpopulation or more accurately one of vast global inequality?

And, what about the question of overpopulation in Melbourne?
Indeed, a large proportion of Melbourne's citizens can boast a relatively luxurious lifestyle with large suburban homes and disposable incomes. However, as the metropolitan population continues to increase (an extra 1 million by 2030 - 'Melbourne 2020') we are and will be increasingly challenged to adjust our lifestyles to a denser and more collectively-orientated existence.

In the urban context this will play out as;
more people,
living closer together,
with less space of their own and between them,
using less,
sharing more.

What is the role of the public library in this context?



As an important civic icon and resource within the city, the library remains one of the few places where a person can go and partake in a range of recreational/intellectual/social activities without handing over a fee.

How can the public library create a new civic precinct to the Western edge of Melbourne's CBD as a complement to important "public" places such as Federation Square, City Square and Flagstaff gardens? And simultaneously how can the library offer opportunities for retreat and contemplation from these public domains?

The design seeks to explore the function of Melbourne's new public library at Queen Victoria market as an extension of the public urban realm through architecture that engages with the city as a living, breathing, fluctuating organism.

Central to the design of the library is the concept of creating a 'soft core' that spills out into the urban domain. This has potential to be explored through architecture in the way that building edge defines and interfaces with external public space and, further, how it links into the public domain of the market.




While some of these ideas are embedded within the design at mid-semester, upon reflection i am aware that the intent outlined above has been confused with a number of other (sometimes conflicting) ideas.
For example:
- The placement of 'core' centrally within the building such that it is largely isolated from the surrounding urban domain (this is more a privileged, interior space rather than an extension of the public domain.)
- It is also clear from the exploratory model that accommodating total required car parking capacity above ground has had a significant and somewhat negative impact on the scale and language of the architecture. This strategy needs to be reconsidered.
- The intentions of 1. creating a building that actively engages with the public domain, and 2. ensuring opportunities for contemplation and solitude as a fundamental part of the library function, at this stage are operating as conflicting ideas. These ideas have much greater potential to complement one another through modes of juxtaposition and transition.
- Overall, ideas need to be culled and refined and greater interrogation of the brief in relation to overall aims of the institution, as well as, individual qualities of spaces, needs to be undertaken.