Library Buildings around the World

McBride Charles Ryan, Melbourne-Prahran, VIC – Australia
http://www.mcbridecharlesryan.com.au
Libraries:
Monash University, Law, Business and Economics Complex (LBEC) (Central Library), Melbourne, VIC
- Australia 2015
Monash LBEC is a new and prestigious complex housing the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Business and Economics - including
its MBA program - together with a mix of retail in the Western Precinct of Monash University's Caulfield campus. The complex
aspires to nurture brilliance in the academic community and to make this aspiration tangible to all those who experience the
campus.
Central to this aspiration is the manifestation of a scholarly community through a building typology where teaching spaces are
flanked by the faculties on each floor, increasing proximity and connectivity between academics, professional staff, students and the
professions, and enhancing collaboration, accessibility and the quality of the campus urban experience. Faculty offices welcome
informal spaces for meeting and small group learning, breaking down barriers between the disciplines and the research hierarchy.
The complex mediates the interface with Dandenong road with a highly formed and articulated concrete panel cladding, protecting
the northern aspect from acoustic and thermal considerations in a play of lightness and solidity. Facing the pedestrianised public
realm of the Western Plaza, the wall exhibits a 3-dimensional complexity: it is permeable and fragmentary. At the western interface,
the meshing of these two conditions integrates the heritage facades along Derby Road, providing Monash Caulfield with a street
front address, as well as signifying a memorable' gateway' to the precinct - a sentinel in the suburbs - acknowledging passing traffic
and facing the Melbourne CBD. (McBride)
Brownless Biomedical Library, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC – Australia 2010
This project involves a major refurbishment to the Melbourne University Bio-Medical Library to provide a 24 hr student learning
hub and a one stop shop student service area. The project involves the architects working intensely with a diverse stakeholder group
comprising over 20 participants and collaboratively with Melbourne University in the design and tailoring of a wide variety of new
learning spaces. (McBride)
Project Brief
Our role was to enliven the space – to take the Original 1960’s John Scarborough and Partners building and bring it into line with
the requirements of a modern library. In the case of the Brownless Biomedical Library, this meant integrating the traditional library
with an IT hub, comprising all the computers and services necessary to work and research in today’s university setting. The new
library also required a whole spate of rich and varied learning spaces to accommodate the numerous, flexible learning modes.
McBride Charles Ryan worked closely alongside both stakeholder groups and Dr. Peter Jamieson, a specialist in this field, to develop
the form of these spaces. The result is sequence of outcomes ranging from more private places to read or study alone, workstations
for small teams, right through to meeting rooms for large groups. A kind of reading ‘lounge room’ for students with tight living
conditions was considered.
Project Innovation / Need
The existing rectangular plan was disrupted solely by an off-centre expressive spiral stair which ran through the three levels of the
library. In response to this circular element, McBride Charles Ryan developed a family of forms to counter-act the rigidity of the
original floor plates. As part of the University of Melbourne’s scheme, each library was to have its own personality, representative of
its parent faculty. The curvaceous response therefore, reflects the organic qualities of bio-medical science.
Similarly the library’s palette borrows from the medical faculty. The cardinal red from the robes of its graduates, as well as the
white and pinks of the human body. The use of strong contrast and vivid colours helps enliven the space creating a 24-hour dynamic
environment; while the blush pink cladding enhances the drum of the spiral staircase, the original design generator.
Design Challenge
The largest challenge for the Brownless Biomedical Library was designing into the existing envelope, as this aspect of the building
was unable to be modified. Therefore an economical solution needed to be provided to deal with the problems of a deficient ceiling
height and deep floor plate. The radial tiling pattern which emanates from the staircase helps to counter-act these issues, by
providing both light reflectance and acoustic dampening. The tessellated ceiling also further reinforces the circular geometry of the
scheme while integrating services such as lighting and air conditioning into its pattern.
Sustainability
The Brownless Biomedical library extends the lifespan of the building it occupies. By recycling the entire envelope, and updating the
student hub to meet current needs, this project preserves the existing fabric, saving on both the economic and environmental costs of
demolition. Furthermore by creating a series of flexible learning spaces, the library is set up to cater for the continuously changing
requirements of the future university curriculum.
(http://melbournedesignawards.com.au/mda2011/entry_details.asp?ID=10210&Category_ID=4654)
Paul Morgan Architects, Melbourne, VIC - Australia
http://www.paulmorganarchitects.com
Libraries:
RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) – Computer Science Flexible Learning Centres,
Swanston Library, Melbourne, VIC – Australia 2000 / 2003
This project involved the provision of a Flexible Learning Centre to RMIT University's School of Computer Science and
Information Technology. The Learning Centre provides three Syndicate Rooms (each with 37 workstations), an Oasis (7
workstations), Help Desk, Hot Desk Area, Research Room, Offices, Staff and Student Lounges, Thermal Zone and miscellaneous
administrative office.
Here the directional 'chalk and talk' relationship between teacher and student - students as audience - gives way to self-learning
from a computer terminal at a workstation. Students sit around large geometric tables of four to eight places, forming cells of
activity that allow for an interactive learning context where flexibility and accessibility are important and information technology is
maximised. The appended Oasis room is an elliptical space for seven students who wish to work in either a more interactive or silent,
environment than their colleagues in the Syndicate Rooms.
In the competitive world of attracting students to computer science, this project recognizes that design innovation reflects the
School's self image. (Morgan)
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