Abstract:
Tauranga is a growing city with a dying heart. A pattern of neglect over recent years has left the downtown ‘dying’ and ‘unsustainable’. The same is perceived of the institution of the public library. Public buildings are no longer the staple of life they once were and the recent significant increase to digital resources has cast doubt on the primary function of the public library. Instead of rendering the library obsolete and declaring the downtown area of Tauranga irretrievable, this research portfolio embraces the synergy of these two research issues bound by a single complex site condition. This design research portfolio embraces the ambiguity around the future of the library and of the downtown area of Tauranga as a platform on which to explore and challenge these issues in a real-world scenario.
Based on comprehensive research, this research portfolio establishes that the library is a building typology with an important future due to an ever-increasing and vital social, community and democratic role. This research portfolio begins to engage with this emerging context and the changing nature of information media architecturally. Exploring directly how this growing social role of the library can assist in redefining the urban area of downtown Tauranga and contribute a response to issues of urban activation.
This research portfolio explores through a body of pragmatic and rational design-led iteration designing for public engagement with both information and public urban space. The rational design-led methodology embraced simultaneous exploration to provide a response to two uncertain and complex disciplinary issues. Resulting from this design research process is a creative and qualitative architectural solution the demonstrates how the library can be considered as an activator of a stagnant urban centre and the ways in which library design can prepare a changing typology for the future.
