Everyone finishes a project and is ready to move on to the next – whether a home project, a special assignment, or something on campus. However, much can be learned from looking back to see what is working and what you would have done differently. Let’s take a look at the Library Learning Commons on the University of Iowa campus. The Commons opened its doors to students for the fall semester of 2014, after two years of intensive investigation and design. The last several years have experienced over 1 million students entering the commons per year. Chris Clark, Director of ITS Learning Spaces, was on board during the planning process to make the space the best commons in the Big 10. Here’s his input as he looks back to how it is working.
Noise.
A library commons implies a more active space than the traditional “hush hush” library space, however, students don’t seem to agree. The design placed some open, collaborative spaces in predominate quiet study areas. Clark commented, “This has not worked so well because when students use the collaborative area they get 'that look' from the students studying.” Seems students still expect a library to be quiet.
Flexibility
Flexibility was provided with movable partitions between meeting rooms and motorized telescoping doors to open classrooms to commons areas when not in use. In actuality, flexibility is not always achieved. Some staff have difficulty to move and lock into place the heavy panels. Even the motorized doors fail at times. Clarks says, “Nothing like a simple swinging door. In fact, it seems that of all the issues, doors seem to top the list.” Revisit our blog on the Inflexibility of Flexible Spaces.