TIME-APPROPRIATION : APPLICATION OF LAYERED STRUCTURE TO THE NEW QUEENSTOWN LIBRARY

Abstract

Central to the notion of sustainability is to understand the effects of time in architecture and develop an aesthetic that recognizes time, accepts visual imperfections, and accommodates changes and growth. Modern buildings aim for perfection at finish and are considered completed products at the end of construction. In this disregard of the time-imposed forces of entropy on architecture, buildings easily become functionally obsolete due to fixed programmatic provisions, leading to premature demolition. To avoid this ‘scrap-and build’ mindset, this thesis hypothesizes that architecture must have a greater engagement with the domain of time; i.e. it must be time-appropriated. The Queenstown Community Library is predicted to undergo massive increase in its user population due to the Dawson Estate Redevelopment Scheme in the Queenstown area. As a library, digitalization and modern technical development are unpredictable factors concerning the future library building. Therefore, in order to accommodate time-imposed changes, the new Queenstown Library is conceived as a layered structure. Its primary system, the building structure, determines the architecture as a permanent frame while freeing the secondary and tertiary systems of the building to allow for time-appropriation.