Sensory Library Design: Responding to a Pandemic's Impact on Built Environments
As libraries turn their thoughts to planning for a reopening of their buildings, the onslaught of information about how to do so safely can be overwhelming. The opportunity lies in supporting health and well-being, while allaying fears associated with returning to buildings used by many. Considered through the lens of our senses and how we interact with one another, this article offers a helpful way to organize the many issues and options.
As libraries turn their thoughts to planning for a reopening of their buildings, the onslaught of information about how to do so safely can be overwhelming. The opportunity lies in supporting health and well-being, while allaying fears associated with returning to buildings used by many. Considered through the lens of our senses and how we interact with one another, this article offers a helpful way to organize the many issues and options.
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How We Interact:
Behavior Changes
Public health experts state that COVID-19 is
mostly spread by respiratory droplets released
when people talk, cough, or sneeze. The importance
of maintaining distance between individuals
while the pandemic is ongoing has been
underscored time and again by public health
experts. New behaviors will be required to keep
the public safe as we reactivate public spaces.
Temperature scanning to detect fever before
admission to a building, implementing one-way
entry and exit doors, and limiting building
occupancy will be common tools to protect
public health.
Maintaining distance between individuals
requires reduced density in public spaces. This
measure may require physically removing furnishings
to storage or other areas of the building.
If space permits, rearranging tables, seating, and
desks to decrease density and avoid face-toface
contact between users is a viable alternative
to removing furnishings. Flexibility has been a
hallmark of library design for decades. The ability
for users to adapt furnishing layouts to suit the
size of their group while maintaining proper
distance from others will be key. Light-weight
furnishings with low-friction glides (or furniture
on casters) will aid in this ability. At the policy
level, building occupancy levels may need to be
limited, and stay-time limits instituted to provide
equitable access.
As we get used to the idea of physical distancing
(keeping 6 feet, or 2 meters, from one another),
people will need visual cues to ingrain these
behavioral changes. Floor markers can be used
to space people in a queue at 6-foot distances,
or to mark seating zones. Movable privacy
screens, markerboards, panels, drapery, storage
units, plants, and other items can be used break
down large spaces into safe increments. Interior
Hennepin County Library–Eden Prairie
Teens’ Area and Hands-On Learning Lab
this page: existing plan | following page left to right:
distancing impacts plan and physical distancing plan
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