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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Vaughan Civic Centre Resource Library in Canada by ZAS Architects IncJanuary 15th, 2018 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: ZAS Architects Inc A catalyst for transformation in the City of Vaughan, Canada, the Civic Centre Resource Library is a visionary makerspace dedicated to community learning, gathering, creating and celebration. Resulting from an extensive visioning process exploring the role of the library in the digital age, the design successfully responds to the client’s brief: to create a destination that would inspire creativity, attract new users, provide a welcoming place to gather and interact, and enrich community life in the rapidly growing City of Vaughan.  A collection of concave semi-mirrored surfaces make up the Library’s transformative and transparent façade, Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc
 The main entrance of the library marks the highest sloping point in the building, achieved as a horizontal cantilever in contrast to City Hall’s vertical clock tower, Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc Through a highly collaborative process, the design team worked closely with the client to conceptualize a library that would distinguish itself functionally and architecturally. Capturing the attention and imagination of the residents of Vaughan and neighbouring Toronto, the library’s ethereal façade and shifting translucent form beacon the community, making a clear statement that this is a meeting place created for the future of the city. Prominently located within the city’s Civic Centre campus, the new resource library is respectful of a master plan approach based on the creation of a central and progressive community destination. Optimally positioned along a pedestrian promenade leading to the city’s main centre of government, it’s whimsical design contrasts with its surroundings with a design strategy based on the library as a place of discovery and “transformation”. Adjacent to the large and stoic City Hall, the exterior’s whimsical geometric form negotiates a shift in scale between City Hall’s clock tower, historic Sarah Noble/ Beaverbrook House and other low-rise heritage main street buildings.  The library’s open air exterior courtyard creates a narrow floor plate on all sides, with perimeter glazing on all sides to maximize access to daylight and views, Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc  The library’s program features flexible, casual reading areas with visual connectivity to the neighbourhood along with creative maker spaces for all forms of digital media, Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc Revealing layers of open interior spaces, the reflective façade of the library appears ever-changing in a constant play of light. Complex geometry forms a loop around a central interior courtyard, its pattern shifting glass panels representing the overlap of ideas and demographic user groups who gather inside. The playful form and roofline are inspired by the curved elements of a roller coaster track at nearby Canada’s Wonderland theme park. Over the course of the day, the building appears to dissolve from transparent to solid, its ethereal form shifting and changing with daylight.  The five-sided concave building bends and torques familiar forms in three dimension with windows that playfully rotate off-axis to create a building that is remarkable at 60 kilometres per hour, Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc  Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc Prominent and visible from the library’s entrance is an anchoring outdoor garden courtyard and symbolic red maple “Tree of Knowledge”. Collaboration spaces, meeting rooms, a ‘teen-only’ lounge, public-access computers, a large study hall, and an extensive children’s activity area form a circle around the courtyard, representing a circle of community. In contrast to the monochromatic exterior façade, colourful furniture and glass animate a fluid series of bright spaces, balancing open meeting areas with places for private study. Dynamic natural lighting acts as a guide throughout the space, directing visitors as they explore the collection. Engaging new users in record numbers since opening, the transformative community centrepiece is empowering all ages and demographics – inviting an exploration of learning in the library with the tools and technology of the 21st century. The result is a notably designed building being embraced by all as a new centerpiece for the community.  Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc  Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc  Image Courtesy © ZAS Architects Inc
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Categories: Civic Center, Library |
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