The Preliminary Studies is a preparatory assignment that focuses on investigating basic notions of the city, and learning from examples of urban infill community libraries around the world. This assignment aims to focus on urban study in order to find opportunities to promote a community library in the given context. Therefore the project firstly introduce students to the basics in urban design and its relation to architecture, and secondly, studying and determining the programmatic function, societal role and spatial layout of a community library and architectural responses for urban infills.

 

The Preliminary Studies comprises of three components: Site analysis in macro and, more focused to, micro scales and Precedent Studies of Urban Infills and Community libraries. The Site Documentation and Site Analysis will equip students with a firm understanding of the site they will be working with this semester, while the Precedent Studies will provide an insight into architectural responses for designing an urban infill contemporary community library. The students are to make a comprehensive study on urban form, activity and movement-pattern. Ian Bentley’s ‘Legibility Analysis’ (Bentley, 2013) which is a method through the exploration of Kevin Lynch’s Elements of legibility (Lynch, 1979) is employed here. The students are to establish possible opportunities (such as routes and attractions) to sustain the community library.

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Objective:

1. To have an overview of the formation of cities and introduce basic concepts of urban design in relation to architectural design

2. To introduce and implement basic methodologies of urban studies

3. To investigate the role of community libraries in traditional and contemporary urban societies

4. To examine various examples and architectural responses for urban infills

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The study has to be done in two levels of complexity, namely, the macro and, with more focus to, micro contexts. Whilst the macro study is about the role and how the location fits into the city. In micro study the students are to make a comprehensive study on urban form, activity and movement-pattern. ‘Legibility Analysis’ (Bentley, et.al. 2013) which is a method through the exploration of Kevin Lynch’s Elements of legibility (Lynch, 1979) is employed here as a study method. The students are to establish possible opportunities (such as routes and attractions) to sustain and to offer legibility by the community library.

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Each group is required to study and analyse two precedent studies; one from international context and the other from tropical cities; to cover the aspects of a) community library, b) tropical architecture and c) infill context.