Design Approach
The interior of the ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub’ (Fab Lab) is designed as a place where ideas are developed and made. Our design remakes the interior of the existing Men’s Library while touching its structure as little as possible.
The visitor’s route starts in the Reception Hall, with custom furniture and finishes and a digitally manufactured bench. Stairs lead down to a foyer with a second bench of the same kind.
A ‘Pitch Room’ is placed at the front to welcome visitors to presentations of ideas. The room is defined by informal amphitheater-style seating around an area for a presenter. The curved sliding panels can open it up or close it off completely, and its 3D printed GRC walls are patterned for acoustics. In the basement, a hallway connects all the rooms and draws visitors in from the foyer. The hallway is lit by skylights cut in at ground level.
LED wayfinding lights branch out from the foyer along the hallway and link all the rooms. The hallway is lined with shelves, reaching up to the ceiling, to showcase projects.
The VR Meeting room looks over the ‘Ideation Lab’, an open space that spills out onto the workshop and fabrication areas.
Toward the end of the route, the Robotics and 3D Printing Room, the CNC Machine Room, the Laser Cutting Room and the wood and metal workshops are placed as areas of making and tinkering.
Cushioned built-in seats of fluted wood panels wrap around the columns, where people can meet. Green walls fitted with hydroponic systems bring plants into the space.