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

A house for place-making

Some Plans and some basic massing.

 

This house is a microcosm for a community.

Basically, each function of the house is represented by a separate volume with it's own distinct identity. 

But the volumes are united with a collective identity by the water and the orientation and views to the central gathering place. They will also be united through material but I haven't got that far yet.

The site is in a subdivision in Markham, which has a large demographic of Chinese individuals. So I took some elements from Fung Shui as a starting point. Mainly the significance of water, and the diagram of all the functions of a home revolving around a central space which represents the earth. It is basically all about achieving harmony. It's become more abstracted as time goes by, but it was an initial inspiration. 

The house is designed to be welcoming from the street and the neighbours, offering sightline through to the gathering place. The water element is used to visually pull one towards and through the space.

It's a work in progress... don't judge too harshly. 

Revision: Creation of Authentic Character

Ok slightly revised. I'm a lot happier with this. 

Problem: 

Suburban planning is often criticized for its low density, car-centered organization, and lack of third places. This has spawned urban planning strategies to increase density and encourage social interaction. While this is well-intentioned, if the actual architecture continues to be repetitive and generic, we are still failing to create distinctive places. “New Urbanist” and “Smart Growth” developments might indeed function better, but in many cases the overall quality is still anonymous. The current strategies for the creation of character are generally in two camps; one where the architecture attempts to create a faux-historic character, and one based on current contemporary trends of residential architecture which are potentially just as generic. The generation of authentic character is noticeably missing in the discussion.

Purpose:

Architecture should respond to the human desire for personal and community identity. Rather than designing with preconceived notions about aesthetic style, authentic architectural character should be derived from the distinct quality of a place, the identity of the users, and the innovation of the architect. 

The strategies and precedents are so far the same as I posted before though. 

Some issues to deal with:

- is it economically feasible to care about character? Is this only possible for custom homes, or can it be a strategy to differentiate multiple houses within a single development. Is is possible to design for customization and variety without it being horribly expensive? - there are historic precedents to how that might be done. 

- is it a question of creating new communities or retrofitting existing ones?

A 'placeless places' toolkit...

Problem 

The current problem facing the Canadian built landscape is the existence of numerous residential communities which lack a palpaple sense of identity. Current strategies for improving the quality of life in suburban areas relies on the principle that increased density will facilitate a greater sense of community. While there is certainly value to walkability, I would argue that increased density alone will not create more distinctive, identifiable, or ultimately desirable places. Toronto's inner suburbs are benefiting from improved infrastructure and transit. They are prime for growth. However, the current development strategies are commonly just as generic as the mid century model before it. 

example: Emerald City Don Mills and Sheppard

Example: townhouse development in Don Mills

Purpose

Architecture should respond to the human desire for personal and community identity. Architectural objects have the capacity to act as identifiable physical markers which embody positive associations to place, through contextual yet innovative design. 

Strategies

Strategy 1. Identify positive associations to the place in question

A ‘place’ can be at the scale of a city, a community, or a specific plot of land. The positive associations are entirely place based, being anything for historical or cultural significance, unique natural features, or personal or collective memory. 

Tactics:

- conduct historic and demographic research on a specific place

- consult the community for stories and examples

Strategy 2. Attribute local meaning to designed physical objects

Make visible the invisible meanings of a place. Everything designed must have a reason connected to the identity of the place and it’s users. 

Tactics (site specific):

- use the local materials of the site and surroundings

- interpret significant vernacular architecture

- interpret themes associated with the former history of the place

- uncover or reestablish lost natural features

- tell stories about significant events

Strategy 3. Provide ‘delight’

Architecture should provide the ‘delight’ in otherwise banal environments. 

Some tactics for visual stimulation could include: 

- use of colour

- use of texture

- use of depth

- use of rhythm 

- use of lighting

- use of graphics and/or typography

- use of new technologies and materials. 

Precedent Reviews

City Scale: Renewal Project for the Town of Hoogvliet - WiMBY!

Beginning in 2001, a team consisting of Crimson Architectural Historians and Felix Rottenberg were asked to look at solutions for reviving the town of Hoogvliet, a modernist suburb or Rotterdam. The team began to call the themselves WiMBY, which stands for Welcome into My Backyard; a direct response to the term NIMBY (Not in My Backyard). The group has adopted a contextual approach which values the identification of existing place-qualities, that are hidden or unnoticed, and amplify the visibility of those qualities through a series of architectural projects. WiMBY believes that we need to stop trying to come up with archetypal models for what makes good cities and towns, and develop unique approaches based on the place itself. This project is incredibly inspiring to me. I feel like this is exactly what I have been trying to say this whole time. For one, it is an architecturally focused strategy for renewing suburban communities, and does not dwell on issues of sustainability, density, or the popular planning models of the time. It is an acupuncture method involving numerous projects of various natures, sizes, and durations which together energize the whole. I would like to apply a similar approach towards a Canadian suburban context. 

Neighbourhood Scale: Borneo Sporenburg, Amsterdam - West 8 and others

There are a lot of inspirational aspects to this project, but within this discussion it is a prime example of the identification of place through physical architectural elements. Not only is the architecture dynamic and varied from house to house, but the iconic red bridges serve as landmarks which imprint on one’s memory. The architecture has provided clear visual associations with that neighbourhood. Residents are proud to live there because they have a sense of personal and community identity tied to physical objects and spaces. I hold up this example as proof that significant and visually compelling architecture can and should contribute to a sense of place and belonging. This project is also distinctly contemporary, it flies in the face of faux-historicism.  

Building Scale: Integral House - Shim Sutcliffe Architects

This building was built for James Stewart a mathematician with a lifelong passion for music. The design was influenced by three driving factors. 1. The interests of the resident. 2. The unique natural context. and 3. the design intent and personal vision of the architects. The curving walls of the architecture reference integrals, a primary element of calculus. Besides functioning as a private home, the building contains a double height space which is occasionally used for small concerts. The house is located in the neighbourhood of Rosedale, Toronto, and backs on to a dramatic Ravine. The 5 levels of space respond to the steep topography, providing views out to the tree canopy at each level. The verticality and materiality of the mullions parallel the trees beyond, and make it feel as though there is little mediator between the inside and out. Many of the details of the building are curved and plantlike, further reflecting the organic nature of the the building and context. In this way, the project embodies and celebrates the unique characteristics of place, while directly drawing on the identity of the individual. Thus the building manifests both the genius loci of place and person. The scale of one building is less likely to imprint a sense of community identity, but perhaps within the music community in Toronto, it has become a special place to which they associate positive memories. This project is an excellent case study for Project 1, because it is a demonstrates place-making theory within a single structure. 

I imagine my thesis to be a sort of 'placeless places' toolkit summarizing a series of place-specific strategies to make better (more distinct, more identifiable, more appealing) places for communities. Though my our design explorations regarding one specific community (right now I'm thinking about Mount Dennis in Northwest Toronto), I would like to show that distinctive place-based architecture can attract investment and provide opportunities for future incremental growth of a community. 

For this project I will be fabricating a client (based on demographics) and choosing a site in Mount Dennis. Trying to follow the strategies I have outlined I will design something that manifests a dialogue between spirit of the place and the identity of the individual. 

More on why I am keen on Mount Dennis another time...