Final cad drawings of my library / multimedia centre design

Ground Plan & First floor Plan




















North elevation & East Elevation




















East-West Section & North-South Section





















Physical Site Model

Project 3

DESIGNING A SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL

..."create a sustainable school for the surfcoast community that provides an optimum learning environment for students"

During our design deveopment of the masterplan, our group decided to have 6 building spaces for the different areas of the school. The buildings spaces are: the administration, gymnasium,library/multimedia centre, classrooms, technology centre and visual & performing arts centre.

Im designing the library, Multimedia centre & student recreational room.

Some sketches of my design...





























what is in a "Multimedia centre"??

Special multimedia lab
Recording studio
Computer labs for desktops
IT office
Storage space for housing Laptops


what is required in a Student Recreation room?

-kitchenette
-couches
-tables and chairs
-internet access "wireless"
-North facing,
-Large enough space to have one year level of about 150 students for year level assemblies.

what does a Library need to house?

-small group study rooms
-lounge
-catalogue search computer areas
-photocopiers, scanners, printers
-small computer lab to hold small informal classes or for students to use in their frees.
-shelved books areas
- including outdoor chill out space for reading & relaxing, holding small focus learning groups

what is a library space??

- gathering and meeting together
- read quietly
- study space
- social space
- research

Improving Indoor air quality

Placing specific types of indoor plants can improve indoor air quality

Plants remove carbon dioxide & dangerous airborne chemicals

VOC's (Volitile organic compounds) eg. Benzene & formaldehyde

These 3 plants are great non-toxic indoor air cleaning plants:

1. Bamboo palm

2. Lady palm

3. parlour palm

Other helpful benefits of indoor plants

-make area more welcoming

-reduce light reflection

-help in noise absorption

Below is a diagram of the Circulation of the Ground floor spaces
The large glass fascade on the north side is the main entry to the building.
there are two other entries to the building on the east and west as well.

Circulation diagram of the first floor spaces

Project 2.
A master plan for a school.

In our groups we have to develop a brief and create a masterplan for torquay college senior school on the site of the surfcoast shire council offices.

Our group went to the site to work on a our site analysis.

Here are some photos from our trip...

Our final master plan

Redesigning our master plan again...

Week 5… Site visit to Torquay College

Today we caught the bus to Torquay College. In order to understand our client group better, we participated in an interview activity between us, deakin uni students and torquay college students…

Q1. What are some good things about the buildings in Torquay College?

The gym or hall, there is basketball games at lunchtime
Library- it’s a nice warm inviting space
Computer room – play games
I like it that its colourful
Is open and has lots of space
I love the chicken house and all the class pets

Q2. What are some not so good things about the buildings in Torquay College?

Needs to be more shelter form classrooms outside while waiting in the rain
There is mud everywhere, used to be grassed area
The soccer pitch is really bumpy,
The soccer field has no nets which is annoying

Q3. What facilities would you like to see in a senior school?

Dance studio
Trampoline/ Gymnastics centre
Science- lab room
Pool
Tennis courts
Photography dark room
Specialist art things, kiln etc

Q4. Can you think of some ideas on how to make the school more environmental?

Collect & recycle rainwater
Environmental room where we could have classes and learn about global climate etc…

Week 4 … Building our 1:20 Model

After finalising our design, we put the drawings into CAD. We then went to the workshop to get our portal frames cut out on the laser cutter.

Below are some pictures of our model getting built.

We decided to construct our roof out of white foam board. Here is our finished model.

Final sketches of our design...

Rainwater is collected and it is stored in the sub floor unit in a water tank.

Natural lighting is enhanced by skylights in the roof, metal screening reflects sunlight into the space resulting in reduced artificial lighting.

Our building incorporates hydronic floor heating and Passive solar heating through glazing in the roof

Our building implements Natural ventilation for cooling.
The diagram illustrates how fresh air will be drawn into the grill and then the internal air will be filtered through the eco fan to extract the heat in summer

The zoning of spaces within our building are segmented into 6 zones. Study Area, Role Play space, Open learning space, computer area, library corner and office / wet area.

Final Cad drawings of our design...

Week 2…Initial design development

Defining the client…

Our group decided that our relocatable classroom will be designed for teaching children 4-7 years old. This is pre-school, prep and grade 1.

The spaces we need to include into our design are study area, role play space, open learning space, computer area, library corner, office / wet area and school bag area.

Natural daylight is important in the study area as it is a working space. As children will be drawing or writing, reading etc…

The role play space has to be flexible space where different types of role play scenario can be set up for the children, such as a postoffice, supermarket, shop etc…

Opening learning space would be used for things such as small group activities for art and craft space, music and singing time and class story telling time.

The library corner will hold all books and readers for the children and be a cosy spot.

Here are some initial developmental sketches …

Project 1: RARE Architecture

For project 1 our group has to redefine the design of a ‘Mod-5’ relocatable classroom and incorporate the integration of RARE Architecture.

When designing within the philosophy of RARE architecture it is important to research and explore:

Flexible & adaptive structural systems

Renewable & environmental building materials

Modular building systems

Adaptive building envelopes

Renewable & non-conventional Energy systems

Innovative heating, ventilation cooling systems

Water collection and storage systems

To gain a better understanding of the existing Mod-5 relocatable classroom, I went on a site visit to South Geelong Primary school. The classroom I explored was a Prep room.

The unsightly exterior is very apparent in this first photo. It looks like a tin shed, very unappealing…

This exterior elevation below shows how the school has tried to make the portable classroom look more appealing by surrounding it with some batten screening.

This exterior view shows how the school has attempted to integrate a small creek for the class frogs.

South Geelong Primary school is currently under construction. Some of the buildings were demolished. The old heritage blackboards were salvaged and the Principal said that are planning to fix them to the outside of portable classroom, so the preps can explore their artisty talents in the playground… I think this idea is great, reusing, recycling, making the outside of the building functional, educational and fun…

As the image shows integration with the existing school buildings is poorly done…

The entrance to the classroom…not particularly exciting for young children

A shared ‘Wet Area’ which is basically a sink in the office space

The shared Office for 2 teachers…

The Storage Room which is full to the brim with teaching material

The interior view below is the computer area for IT activities. Notice how the windows are covered up with displays…

This interior view shows the black board and whiteboard, the ceiling also being used as space to display children’s art work.

The classroom has fluorescent lighting and fans on the ceiling

It also has a split system to heat the space in winter and cool the space in the summer months.

I interviewed the prep teacher about teaching in a relocatable classroom.

Q1. How can the design of the classroom be improved?

More display areas is desperately needed

More storage space is required, for example not enough room for the kids schoolbags.

More flexibility with the space, maybe being able to create smaller spaces and larger ones.

Q2. What heating / cooling services are provided in the relocatable? Does it effect the quality of teaching or learning?

There is fans on the ceiling and a split system which provides both heating & cooling. The split system is quite noisy and can distract the students sometimes. When it is question time we have to turn it off as it is hard to hear.