Health Priority Design Approaches in Library Buildings: The Case of Çukurova University

The declaration of a pandemic on March 11, 2020 significantly affects the space organization process, which includes health-priority design approaches such as controlled communication, social distance, and reduction of physical contact. In this study, it is aimed to reorganize the library buildings with health priority design approaches in order to organize and re-function the used areas during the pandemic process. Çukurova University Central Library building was chosen as a case study. The working areas and current situation plans of the library building were evaluated through systematic observation, taking the Covid-19 preventive measures as criteria. Consequently, it was determined that health priority design criteria in library buildings should be advanced heating, cooling and ventilation systems, window sizes and shading elements that control sunlight and air flow, placement of green plants that keep indoor relative humidity above 40%, spatial organization decisions that reduces user capacity and interaction between them. Moreover, the approaches that take into account the health of the society and the researcher and the design decisions that include the rules, suggestions and principles published by individual designers and academics as a result of feeling responsible for the subject were proposed.