4ESPY Library

How do we adapt the design approach of libraries to reflect contemporary programs and public uses?

Project Type: Community, Library

Completed: Winter 2019, 1st Year Design Studio

Location: Toronto, ON

Programs Used: Rhino 6, Lumion, Adobe Suite

Located alongside the Toronto rail path and Wallace Pedestrian Bridge, the children’s library integrates fun and learning into a self-changing climbing wall that runs through the center of the building. As the slopes in the climbing wall change, different programs reveal themselves to the climber, including bookshelves and reading pods that allow kids to discover new books and genres as they play.

The library also features many areas for quiet study, relaxing and reading that circulate around the climbing wall in the form of walkways on each level in an open atrium, providing easy surveillance of the children as parents enjoy their own quiet time. At points in the walkway, the series of bookshelves lining the walls breaks and reveals scenic views outside the building through the corten steel fin façade, as occupants enjoy a coffee or book, and other sections protrude into the atrium forming a secluded reading area.

As the circulation of the walkway intersects with the climbing wall and heads behind it, the wall separates the active and playful atmosphere of the atrium and private, quiet programs such as study spaces, book stacks, and a small theater.

Building Plans

The corten fin façade complements the tones of the surrounding neighborhood, and serves to screen east and west light in the active atrium areas while maintaining a series of selected external views. The resulting image viewed by passersby on the street is the glimpses of silhouetted movements as people pass between the bookshelves or children making their way up the climbing wall. The storefront glazing at the ground level reveals the dynamic structure of the library within.

As occupants climb, they will discover different genres of books in the nooks, as well as reading pods hidden in the wall that give them a little more privacy to read on their own. Where the slope becomes too steep to climb, it is sectioned off by a green wall, with glazing on either side to allow sunlight into the quiet programs behind the wall.

Design Guidelines

Promote additional activities and programs for all ages in the community

Maintain visual connections through open atrium spaces and play areas

Create selective views and different amounts of visibility in the facade

Create semi-private nooks for reading and relaxing

Establish multi-use spaces for lectures, readings, events

Create clear divisions between active and quiet areas

Design Strategies

How might artificial landscapes act as a way to acknowledge the contamination history on a site while pursuing its remediation?

Project Type: Landscape, Community

Completed: Spring 2020, 2nd Year Design Studio

Location: Arlington, VA

Programs: Rhino 6, AutoCAD, Lumion, Adobe Suite

UWSA Energy + Design Award Nomination + Honourable Mention

On the site of an urban waterfront and former industrial brown-field, a recreational re-use park is established across the Potomac River from Washington DC. An addition project within the park aims to reveal the complex history of the landscape while simultaneously healing the soil below using its integrated bio-venting technology. Analysis of the site’s industrial use and contamination history reveals lingering lead and PCB remnants in the soil, and though although most of the soil in the park has been remediated through layering and treatment, an asphalt cap has been used to contain the toxic contaminants within one particular area.

A system of wind turbines and bio-venting is developed and creates a “line of action” on the boundary of the asphalt cap, connecting human programs to the remediation of the soil. This formulates the structure of the community library, and frames the expanse of the resulting playground situated above the remediation process.

Due to the recent urban developments around the area, the adjacent neighbourhoods are becoming increasingly inhabited by a more diverse demographic of people, including many young professionals and families, in addition to the more senior current residents. There is currently a lack of gathering and social spaces beyond mini parkettes and underground malls. The project aims to curate specific spaces that can be enjoyed by all, whether it be a birdwatch tower, playgrounds, or a place to study.

The man-made surface of the sculpted terrain is a reminder that a natural looking landscape may not be truly sustainable, whereas a constructed landscape specific to the needs and requirements of natural processes will maintain a healthier and more sustainable landscape over time.

Educate and acknowledge the history of the site

Remediation of the soil on-site using non-intrusive methods

Create open public gathering spaces for the community

Establish different programs for the wide age group moving to the area

Improve access to the water and nature across the tracks

How can we address the way contamination and the asphalt cap affects botanical design on site?

The soil mounds in the sculpted play-scape allow native trees to be brought back into the landscape without risk of their roots seeping into the contaminated soil. The height of each mound is determined by the amount of root space that is needed for each specific native species. The sides of the mounds are lined with corten metal, and acts as wayfinding and educational signage about the site and the plants.

The permeable material at the apex of the mounds allow for easy water delivery to the plants, and the sculpted design assists the drainage of water through the plaza and eventually into the nearby rain garden.

Phytoremediation is used in areas of the site outside the asphalt cap. The chosen plants are both hypperaccumulators and high biomass plants, which will take in and accumulate the heavy metals left in the soil.

What strategies can we use to create a usable landscape while remediating the site?

The wind turbine and bioventing apparatus creates a line of action on the boundary of the asphalt cap, connecting the programs above ground to the remediation of the soil below. Vertical axis wind turbines were chosen as a clean energy source of a small scale that is less intrusive to birds and human activity. Kinetic energy is collected from the wind turbine and is converted into electric energy that powers the blower, integrated into the structure of the building, which sends 02 into the soil for bioventing, encouraging native bacteria to break down hydrocarbons from PCBs and petroleum-based contaminants.

These apparatus line the edge of the asphalt cap, and also act as the structure of the new building - a community library and research center that monitors the remediation process.

The green roof is a transitional space between the esplanade and the park, and overlooks the sculpted play-space within the asphalt capped area.

The railings following the tectonic movements of the landscape mounds become structure for climbing nets.

Mini trampolines are weaved through a series of plantings that are embedded in the rise and dips of the landscape.

A community library is developed in the space created by the peeling back of the artificial landscape. The structure of the building, along with the strips of landscape, follow the grid created by the turbine system. An open reading space continues the wave system of the play plaza in the interior flooring, blurring the lines as you enter the building. A line of machinery managing the turbine and bio-venting system separates two major areas of the building - public community space and quiet reading.

D’AMBROSIO architecture + urbanism

Montrose Wintergarden

Location: Victoria, BC

Programs: Vectorworks, SketchUp, V-ray, Adobe Suite

Supervised by Erica Sangster AIBC, MRAIC

The project is a 20-storey mixed-use hotel in Victoria’s downtown that honours the preservation and heritage designation of the Montrose Apartments, while contributing to the Victoria skyline and enhancing the public spaces of downtown with an urban wintergarden.

Responsibilities include: updating the 3D model, construction drawings, rendered views and rendered elevations, shadow study diagrams, and various drawings for external presentations and advirsory board reviews.

Models and renders produced in collaboration with Matthew Jarvis.