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Site Strategy / Light Studies serve as the precedent analysis which has evolved into a programmatic evaluation of several libraries worldwide. This may serve as a first step in possible programmatic orientation of individual design strategies throughout the semester.

Precedent Analysis began with basic site orientation, including a number of site plans and location diagrams. As these were being developed growing interest in natural lighting within the building created a shift towards a study of the building’s orientation to natural sun patterns as they intersect programmatic elements.

Through this process certain programs valued exposure to direct and indirect light due to their orientation to the site and to natural sunlight. At this point analysis of the effectiveness of placement of these programs in relation to light became the central thrust of the investigation.

These studies, which include a number of different examples (Seattle Public Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Biblioteche National), began to look at the effects of natural sunlight on its program, and some interesting ways in which the building dealt with natural light.

Using this basic light trajectory model, we were able to set up an approximation that addressed the way the geometry of the building reacted to its natural light orientation resulting in a mapping of direct light exposure during the course of the day at both summer and winter extremes.

While these hypotheses were being made a scripting application was being developed to more accurately calculate this abstract notion of light exposure on a geometry.

This script operates to calculate the distance between an attractor point and the centroid of mesh quads, which articulate the geometry of the building.

This relationship of proximity is an abstracted process to calculate and juxtapose light intensity against programmatic layout. Final drawings of this process will evaluate the effectiveness of the library’s programmatic typology in relation to the exposure of natural light due to the site orientation. Further analysis could involve the evaluation of the site location of our library, and begin to negotiate programmatic elements within our own design.

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