Zara Lane

This perspective looks out north, through the café and towards Lonsdale St. This is the site of the first spacial bid – a crossover space between users of the library and café. Library users queue to borrow books and new arrivals ask questions at the information desk, while Café users congregate to order food and pay. This large area invites people to gather, chat and mingle whilst using the space.
Rhino/Photoshop Internal Render

This illustration showcases the two levels of the building, with the primary lower-level housing most of the student facilities. Sweeping bookshelves hug the core of the building, surrounded by a variety of study areas which have intermittent water tap/fountain hybrids. The café overhangs the north-west edge of the building, offering spectacular views out. The secondary level houses three apartments alongside an internal garden, fitted with platforms for picnics. The design draws on elements of connection and community fostered in suburban neighbourhood design, such as neighbouring houses, front gardens, local meetings spots and community activities.
Rhino/Illustrator/Photoshop

The lower-level houses two key areas of interaction. The first is the entryway space, fitted with an information/library desk and café kitchen, allowing users of the library and café to intersect, mingle and connect in this space. The second is the central lounge space, whose inner bookshelf walls can swivel to completely enclose the space. Here, inhabitants and students are encouraged to bond over a weekly book club in a private nook of the school.
Rhino/Illustrator/Photoshop

Upstairs, three generous apartments – completely compliant with accessibility requirements – offer a breathtaking view of the city. They are designed to foster communal connections present in a more suburban neighbourhood design, but in the format of an inner-city urban apartment. This is achieved through an internal glass façade, allowing students an awareness of the inhabitant’s inside, whilst inviting them to share the internal courtyard picnic space as a kind of mock front yard/nature strip community connection.
Rhino/Illustrator/Photoshop

This isometric showcases the project which became the inspiration for the final outcome. In this design, the initial architectural system of Spacial Bid is expressed through an interactive installation, where the existing column multiplies out into the building, coated in layers of fabric. Users are encouraged to walk up a ladder to a suspended level and tear off pieces of fabric, revealing the layers underneath to eventually expose the bare column. Users walking below are showered in a confetti of fabric scraps, which they can then sort into colour-based bins, recycle, and reuse.
Rhino/Illustrator/Photoshop