Biophilic Principles for Energy Efficient Library Building Design: The Need for Retrofitting Existing Library Building Stocks in Nigerian (original) (raw)
A library is a facility that support the educational curriculum and research at any level of education in institutions of learning at local, state and national scale. With the growing concern about and increasing interest in sustainable built environments around the globe, the agenda of academic libraries is also changing. Library buildings and space designs in Nigeria are rigid, too formal and trivialized nature in its articulation. The study assesses the need for adopting a new design philosophy for the redesign of Nigerian library buildings using biophilic features. This is with the view to catch up with high level international standards and also to negotiate with the traditional library buildings and space designs of Nigerian learning institutions which are energy consuming and thermally uncomfortable. The study methodology employed the case study approach to compare the extent to which some foreign libraries shift from the traditional paradigm to the Green architecture paradigm and the need for our local libraries to adopt this transforming world class approach. The paper looks at the features of biophilic architecture in relation to library building envelope, its surrounding and suggest ways they can be applied in the design and retrofitting of existing library buildings with the view to achieving sustainability by reducing researchers' fatigue and improving productivity through high concentration and assimilation. A need and users satisfactory survey was conducted in some Libraries in ABTI American University of Nigeria in Yola, Covenant University in Otta and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria. It was found out that absence of passive design elements increases carbon footprints through high energy demand for cooling and lighting of the building stocks.
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