With the digitalisation of content, a library is no longer confined to printed material and strictly quiet only. In line with this, I have designed a learning commons to challenge the typical educational conventions of what a library is, promoting a space for participatory learning and the exchange of knowledge.
The learning commons is for the Belle Vue Primary School and is dedicated to providing a stimulating learning environment where students can achieve their full potential. The learning commons challenges the typical library whilst also showing the potential for architecture to turn wasted resources into learning environments that are valued and protected by students and teachers.
Cylindra-stool
PVC pipe waste bolted together, an object neither subtle nor bold. Toxic plastics are given a second life, but it could easily be made from any other cylindrical material.
A room in a garden in a room
A neatly maintained garden sits between three solid walls, an extension of its abutting fully enclosed room. Walls with no roof but demarcation and enclosure through furnishing. A garden or simply a room with no roof, protected from surrounding animals and species.
A semi-enclosed room
A room or even a very wide corridor, abutted only by a mesh door and a polycarbonate roof. Tiled flooring and drainage differentiate the corridor like room from its neighbouring, fully enclosed rooms. A room without strict purpose, but material boundaries to tinker in, create mess in and collaborate in.
Project elevations
Currently in Victoria, companies such as Eco-group have an abundance of recycled bricks ready to be used, approximately 1.5 million good quality bricks a year. The learning commons will optimise this resource, using a modular brick panelling method to reduce on site waste. Innovations in brick cleaning mean that recycled bricks can be much cheaper than virgin bricks, while offering a great range of textured surfaces for architectural expressions. By using recycled bricks the project is able to save approximately 100,000 MJ/kg of embodied carbon emissions.
A semi-enclosed learning commons with detached classrooms
The learning commons is a space with differentiated, multidisciplinary approaches to learning, encouraging opportunities for growth and explorations. Book collections and furniture divide the large open floor plan into smaller flexible learning spaces. Student and staff meeting rooms, quiet study and reading spaces and acoustic rooms are dispersed around the perimeter of the building to allow for as much flexibility as possible in the general learning area.
Shira Baker , Cylindra-stool
Shira Baker , A room in a garden in a room
Shira Baker , A semi-enclosed room
Shira Baker , Project elevations
Shira Baker , A semi-enclosed learning commons with detached classrooms
In the spirit of reconciliation Monash University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
