Okay great,
So first, obviously the lighting scenarios are very different from your study and your mood references. In your references we have a single figure within an interior with an evening reddish/orange light in sunrays which causes a spotlighting effect. These are fun to compose with.
Your study has an open exterior with mid day sunshine as far as I can tell in your progress.
The second thing that I wanted to point out is that the top of building is right up against the frame. This makes the courtyard seem to be the focus and not the building. And if that is the case then there should be more things for humans to interact with, or more interesting things going on there. Examples could be tables for studying or eating, benches, or even a sunken sitting area or mosaic.
So to address the first issue I tried to do a paintover where I changed the background to an evening light. Made the shadows more purple and added cast shadows.
To address the second issue I cropped in on the frame on the left and right. The perspective is correct but the building on the right has some distracting perspective issues for the viewer. I also moved the whole piece down. This lets us see the top of the building. And I added some shape changes to the bottom and top of the red sections to add interest. Only slightly. This simple shape change could be anything you choose. Then I added some benches to show how people could interact with it. I didn't add people.
Now I'm no architecture student. But I did have to design skyscrapers for a small movie and it was really important what the skyline was going to look like. So the order of importance (what I learned from a single book that I bought for research) was first the shape, second the facade, and then the function where design is concerned.
Mood can be effected by light and shapes and camera angle of your composition. Storytelling involves the interaction of the characters with the environment so the viewer can relate to it. And softness just comes with time by rendering with the right color picking and brush work to make edges match the focus we need. Sharpest where we need it, softer where we dont.
Since its now in the evening and more towards your mood references we can play with things like outdoor lighting, ads or posters put up by workers or students, interaction between people in the space.
I hope this helps.
Once you've got it where you need it. Make adjustments. Add some interest points.
