Finding invisible themes of place in the suburbs...

In conversations with Vince today we were discussing successful adaptive reuse projects and how the new content draws on the existing context to inform the design. See RDH's Gladstone Library and Galt Post Office.

And I was asked how we can respond to context without having a physical artifact to draw on. An adaptive reuse of place, not of building.

So when you do an addition to a heritage building, you draw on visible or implied themes.

So in keeping with this, a resolved first strategy would be to identify and respond to common themes of place (past, present, and future).

So for the area of Bayview Village we have these two very distinct waves of development

1. 1950s: initial development in response to highway 401 (primarily North of Sheppard)
2. Last 15 years: high rise development in response to the Sheppard Subway line. (South of Sheppard)
   
   
   
   Concord Place Condo development directly South-East of my site. 
   
   

Both are a sort of rapid “sprawl” – one horizontal and one vertical.

And both waves have common themes

• optimism
• enthusiasm
• luxury/affluence
• promise
• park-like setting
• open and airy
• response to infrastructure

In terms of demographics, there doesn't seem to be a huge disconnect between the residents of the older established neighbourhood North of Sheppard, and the new high rise community South of Sheppard. Many of the residents of the houses could be long-time owners, but not necessarily.

The new condos and townhouses are certainly not cheap, but still cheaper than the large houses. The new condo owners are generally younger. If anything the high-rises have diversified the neighbourhood in terms of age, income, and culture. A lot the new residents of this area (for both land-use conditions) are recent immigrants, but immigrants with money. They are attracted to the promise of this area, and feel that it is a good investment.

So these seemingly disimilar neighbourhood conditions can be brought together through a shared meaning of place, defined by this new library.

I've been thinking a lot about what is positive about suburban conditions. And I think the thing that gets me most is the sheer optismism that inspired them. This idea that this was the way of the future and that everyone deserved their own home, with lots of space and nature around them. I see a similar sort of blind optimism with the new condo developments. We have this huge residential boom where more people can own property and have all these amenities at their feet. It actually is marketed very similarly; “you too can own your own home!”

There is a song by Arcade Fire on their album the Suburbs (which is all relevent and amazing by the way), but the one I'm talking about is called Sprawl II. It captures that unbridled optimism of the mid century suburbs, and then a search for identity after it's prime. “Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains. And there's no end in sight”

This spirit of optimism has cultural merit, and ought to be celebrated. If we just discount mid century suburbia as bad planning, and elimate it's traces completely, we essentually erasing a unique cultural landscape.

So are there architectural strategies to excude optimism and enthusism?

Mid-century modern architecture was very optimistic. It embraced new forms, fluidity, new structural systems, new technologies, supergraphics, bright colours, etc. An overall embrace of newness. I might be able to take some nods from that.

Does anybody have any examples of projects which exude optimism?

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I'm mainly focused on working out my first strategy right now but the 2^nd and 3^rd are currently as follows:

2^nd strategy

Provide spatial opportunities for public engagement and shared experience of place

- the design will create public space, but outside of and inside the building.

3^rd strategy

Provide further public engagement through the stimulation of the senses

• interesting shape of the building
• facade system
• textures and colours
• allow for sitting and walking on the site