Library Program Massing

The first diagram explored the idea of having a courtyard centered in the library and how movement would be facilitated around that. I feel like the courtyard is an important part in the Japanese culture as it provides users the opportunity to coexist with nature. We have seen that these courtyards are not necessarily always useable and sometimes are just placed to allow daylight and to allow for a connection so there is really a lot you can do with them in terms of placement and orientation. For this diagram, it was mainly focused on daylight and I explored how the angle of the sun could shape the courtyard and the interior part of the building

The second diagram was also focused on courtyards, but in this case the courtyards would not be usable. Instead, there would be a series of thin courtyards that would cut through the library allowing natural lighting and a relationship between indoors and outdoors. In the readings about traditional Japanese architecture, Futagawa Yukio listed a ten elements that relate to Japanese architecture and one of these was the garden as a miniature universe. This is the type of thing that would take place in these spaces.

The last diagram took a different approach and looked at views from the site and how the building could open up to them. The main view would be to the southwest in the direction of the Golden Gate Park and the building layout is based on an axis set up parallel to that view. The second view is looking down Laguna street which is lined with trees and provides really the only form of nature so this view would connect with that. Public and community spaces are located towards the ends of these view corridors so that the maximum amount of people can be connected with the outside.