Design by social media committee
Architects who design public buildings know they need to accommodate the public's opinion. Those opinions are usually gathered through a series of open access presentations.
An extremely tight schedule required Bing Thom Architects to redesign the way to collect citizens' views on their newest building project, the Surrey City Center Library. Instead of conducting the usual drawing and model displays at town hall like meetings, the architects invited the community to share their opinions in the familiar way that people share their everyday details nowadays--via comments on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
How appropriate that a new way of sharing and using information helped shape a building meant to circulate media.
The Surrey City Center Library's social media pages attracted photos and comments as well as colorful yet practical ideas. According to Linda Tischler of Fast Company, some of the younger fans' requests were for 'a place to color and write,' 'a clock to see what time it is, and if we are late,' and 'big couches for Mom to wait for me.' Visitors can confirm how much of the input was incorporated by the design team later this summer when the library opens its physical doors to the public.
Via: Fast Company Design
Images: Surrey City Centre Library project blog
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com