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20 PALAIS MONTCALM QUEBEC CITY ENJOYS THE RETURN OF A 1932 ART DECO CONCERT HALL AFTER AN EXTENSIVE RENOVATION BY THE M.:U.S.E. CONSORTIUM. TEXT TANIA MARTIN

26 CANADIAN DIPLOMATIC COMPLEX IN SEOUL AN ELEGANT AND MODEST BUILDING FOR THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT MASTERFULLY INCORPORATES KOREAN SENSIBILITIES INTO ITS DESIGN. TEXT MARIE-JOSÉE THERRIEN

AKA/ANDREW KING STUDIO

KIM YONG KWAN

BENOÎT LAFRANCE

CONTENTS

11 NEWS Winners of the 2008 National Urban Design Awards announced; John and Myrna Daniels donate $14 million to the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.

14 INSITES Thomas Strickland describes AKA/andrew king studio’s new Form and Character Guidelines for the town of Golden, British Columbia.

32 REPORT Highlights of the 2008 Banff Session are presented by Lesley Tomlinson and Erin Hampson. DAVE SOUTHWOOD

38 PRACTICE The RFP process is put on a strict diet by Sharon VanderKaay.

41 CALENDAR Will Alsop: OCAD, an Urban Manifesto at the CCA in Montreal; Selwyn Pullan: Positioning the New at the West Vancouver Museum.

42 BACKPAGE Adam Bobette describes how a mobile kitchen designed by University of Toronto architecture students in collaboration with the Mount Dennis neighbourhood offers the community much more than just food.

JULY 2008, V.53 N.07

THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE/ THE JOURNAL OF RECORD OF THE RAIC

COVER THE CANADIAN DIPLOMATIC COMPLEX IN SEOUL, KOREA BY ZEIDLER PARTNERSHIP ARCHITECTS. PHOTOGRAPH BY KIM YONG KWAN.

07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

SPMB_PROJECTS

VIEWPOINT

EDITOR IAN CHODIKOFF, OAA, MRAIC ASSOCIATE EDITOR LESLIE JEN, MRAIC EDITORIAL ADVISORS JOHN MCMINN, AADIPL. MARCO POLO, OAA, MRAIC CHARLES WALDHEIM, OALA(HON.), FAAR CONTRIBUTING EDITORS GAVIN AFFLECK, OAQ, MRAIC TREVOR BODDY HERBERT ENNS, MAA, MRAIC DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB

ABOVE BEACH, DESIGNED BY EDUARDO AQUINO AND KAREN SHANSKI, REMAINS ONE OF THE MORE POPULAR EPHEMERAL GARDENS DURING QUEBEC CITY’S 400TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS.

Commemorating its 400th anniversary, Quebec City is in full swing. With the recently renovated Palais Montcalm concert hall, several revitalized neighbourhoods and a number of upgraded promenades and public spaces adding life to the city, there is much to celebrate. As for the quatrocentennial celebrations themselves, the new Espace 400e building designed by Montreal architect Dan Hanganu is located near the old industrial port just below the Old City, and remains the focal point of the festival’s activities. But perhaps the greatest design statement relating to the auspicious celebration of Quebec City lies to the west of the festival pavilion where 11 thought-provoking temporary installations— known as the Ephemeral Gardens—are on display throughout the summer. But as this is Quebec— an exuberant political landscape par excellence— the Ephemeral Gardens contain aspects to their designs that have enabled them to become political landscapes unto themselves. Organized through the efforts of Quebec Citybased architect Pierre Thibault and inspired by the International Garden Festival at the Reford Gardens, the Ephemeral Gardens project has brought together a range of designers from Quebec and around the world to create a series of contemporary gardens under the theme of “Meetings and Encounters,” an appropriate title given that it was the French colonizers who initially encountered the Algonquin First Nations in the 16th century, eventually taking over their land and establishing Quebec City in 1608. Many of the gardens reference the agricultural origins of Quebec, drawing inspiration from such features as the seigniorial lots laid out perpendicular to the St. Lawrence River, a defining geographic feature of the Quebec landscape. For example, Toronto-based PLANT Architect Inc.’s Boustrophedon installation, so named for the alternating-strip pattern of oxen-tilled farmland, revisits the historical context of an agrarian/riparian landscape through plantings overlaid 8 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

with cloth that will be stretched and displaced as the greenery matures. The weaving of cloth and the farming of land comprise two basic components of the early Quebec settlers, les habitants. Other approaches to the gardens include innovative ways to define social interactions between cultures. The Winnipeg firm known as spmb_projects—comprised of Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski—presents the idea of a beach as a public space constructed of painted wood strips assembled into an undulating platform, forming an extended bench and chaise longue upon which visitors can sprawl beneath the sun. To complement their Beach installation, a Prairie component offers a more introspective space that provides a vast horizon for contemplation. No history of the founding of Quebec would be complete without an adequate discussion of the involvement of First Nations. While many of the gardens explore issues of environmental and cultural stewardship, only a few installations address the idea of cultural ownership with respect to First Nations. Wampum is one of them. Here, Domingo Cisnéros and Sonia Robertson interpret the garden’s theme of “meetings and encounters” with issues common to many First Nations peoples: broken treaties, colonization, and the appropriation and exploitation of land—subjects that some people believe are still occurring today. For Cisnéros and Robertson, even the idea of a garden seems contradictory to the nomadic customs of First Nations, so their design is one that symbolizes forced settlement or “reserves to which we have been exiled, the place where we are smothered, like ‘species,’ driven to extinction, and ‘weeds,’ ineradicable, always springing back up.” Indeed, the limited dimensions and temporary nature of the Ephemeral Gardens make it challenging to fully explore or experience the ideas presented, but from the gardens on display, there is much to learn about our history and culture through experimental landscape architecture. IAN CHODIKOFF

ICHODIKOFF@CANADIANARCHITECT.COM

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RAY STEINKE

GOMBEROFF BELL LYON ARCHITECTS

NEWS

PROJECTS Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architects design innovative housing project in Vancouver.

Sited on the corner of Main Street and First Avenue in East Vancouver, this nine-storey, nonmarket residential BC Housing project by Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architects will house 97 residents for the Lookout Emergency Aid Society, an organization that intends to support and assist residents in achieving and maintaining greater stability and independence through building design and staff interactions. This newly emerging neighbourhood of Southeast False Creek is a mixed commercial and residential precinct, typified by light industrial/automotive services such as auto sales, repair and maintenance shops. In accordance with the existing mixed-use buildings on Main Street, the proposed development will respond to its east frontage at grade with continuous commercial spaces, and the west frontage at grade parallels the pedestrian link with the main amenity space. The primary entry will be directly off First Avenue. Taking on a predominantly horizontal expression, the contemporary design of the building’s cubic form is appropriate for the contextual mix of buildings planned for the neighbourhood, considering notions of sustainability including solar orientation and energy-generation strategies. The expression of the individual homes has been organized into an offset interlocking of two-toone groupings of units oriented east and west. The commercial frontage on the Main Street elevation is expressed as an indented high “frameless” glass expanse with a simple minimalist canopy system connected to slender steel columns supporting the wall above, while the east-facing amenity space responds to the series of “outdoor rooms” in the pedestrian link and landscape design. The south and north elevations have slotted offset windows and panels reducing the

percentage of window openings and contribute to the horizontal expression of the body of the building. South-facing slotted windows receive sun shading, while the north-facing day-lit elevator lobbies boast a contrasting vertically expressed panel-and-glass design consistent with the character of the building. Construction is slated to begin in November 2008 and completion is anticipated for spring 2010.

AWARDS Winners of the 2008 Prairie Design Awards announced.

Fifteen winners were selected by a jury comprised of Richard Henriquez of Henriquez Partners Architects in Vancouver, Anne Cormier of Atelier Big City in Montreal, and John Tong of 3rd Uncle in Toronto. Four Awards of Excellence in Architecture were given to: Cohlmeyer Architects Limited for the Movement Disorder Clinic in Winnipeg; Manasc Isaac Architects Ltd. & Sturgess Architecture for the Water Centre in Calgary; Cohlmeyer Architects Limited for Webbsite in Winnipeg; and Dub Architects Limited for City Market Affordable Housing in Edmonton. Five Awards of Merit in Architecture were given to: Bridgman Collaborative Architecture Ltd. for the Dalnavert Museum in Winnipeg; Cohos Evamy integratedesign for the Spartan Centre for Instrumentation Technology & the Petro-Canada Centre for Millwright Technology in Edmonton; Stantec Architecture Ltd. for Manitoba Blue Cross Tenant Improvements in Winnipeg; David Penner Architect for the Penner Summer Cottage in Sandy Bay, Manitoba; and Marc Boutin Architect for the Sims Residence in Calgary. An Award of Excellence in Interior Design was given to Cohos Evamy integratedesign for Hall D, Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton. Cohos Evamy integratedesign also won an Award of Merit in Interior Design for CustomSpace in Calgary.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT GOMBEROFF BELL LYON ARCHITECTS’ NEW NON-MARKET HOUSING PROJECT FOR THE LOOKOUT EMERGENCY AID SOCIETY; COHOS EVAMY INTEGRATEDESIGN WON A 2008 PRAIRIE DESIGN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FOR “CUSTOMSPACE,” THEIR OWN CALGARY OFFICES.

LM Architectural Group captured an Award of Merit in Interior Design for Red River College Students’ Association “The Cave” Renovation in Winnipeg. An Award of Merit for Small Projects was given to Corbett Cibinel Architects for Spiritway in Thompson, Manitoba. And finally, Catherine White scooped an Award of Excellence in Student Work for Ghost Dance Memorial Pavilion, while Celeste Brunel won an Award of Merit in Student Work for Extending the Limits: Interior Design & Disabled Spatial Identities. CCA announces winner of the 2008-2009 James Stirling Memorial Lectures on the City Competition.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), in collaboration with the Cities Programme of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), announces the winner of the third international competition for the James Stirling Memorial Lectures on the City. The jury awarded the prize to Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray, the 2008-2009 Stirling Lecturers for their proposal entitled CAOCHANGDI Urban Rural Conundrums: Off Center People’s Space in the Early 21st-Century Republic of China—A Model for the Momentous Project of the New Socialist Village. The biannual James Stirling Memorial Lectures on the City competition was launched in 2003 to inaugurate a unique forum for the advancement of new critical perspectives on the role of urban design and urban architecture in the development of cities worldwide. Mangurian and Ray’s winning proposal 07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

opens up an original discussion of issues of development in China, going beyond a concern with extreme densification, and addressing a dynamic urban context in a way that is both historically informed and clearly oriented to emerging social, political and cultural processes. Calgary Water Centre celebrates Emerald Award on Clean Air Day.

The City of Calgary celebrated the grand opening of the Water Centre on June 4th, Clean Air Day, with a newly bestowed Emerald Award for a Government Institution. Designed by Manasc Isaac Architects Ltd. in collaboration with Sturgess Architecture, the Water Centre is the first City-owned operational/administrative building constructed since Calgary adopted a Sustainable Buildings policy in 2003, requiring all new facilities to meet a minimum LEED® Silver certification.

COMPETITIONS Urban Design Competition for King’s Cross, London.

King’s Cross Square is destined to become one of the great public places in London. Set against the magnificent backdrop of the Grade I listed façade of the King’s Cross railway station, it will be used daily by thousands of commuters, visitors and residents—a unique addition to the capital’s palette of memorable street scenes. To create this new public plaza, an international two-stage design competition has been launched. The search for a worldclass exemplar design is jointly sponsored by Network Rail and the London Borough of Camden— recognizing not only the Square’s role as a major travel hub but also as a catalyst for wider urban regeneration. An amount of £6,000 will be awarded to each of six finalists. The deadline for registration is July 31, 2008, and the deadline for submissions is August 1, 2008. www.malcolmreading.co.uk/kingsxsquare Winners of the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge announced.

Architecture for Humanity and AMD are proud to announce the winners of the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge: Digital Inclusion, a global competition to develop technology facilities for communities in need, from the 50x15 Africa Partner Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. The competition received 566 registered entries from 57 countries. The winners, including one overall competition winner and two regional site winners, were determined by an international review board of jurors comprised of architects, technologists, and community members. The overall competition winner and Africa challenge site winner is the Global Studio of Seattle, Washington, for its design of a technology media lab and recording studio for SIDAREC, located in the Mukuru Kwa Njenga settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. With the construction of this media lab, Lucy Mathai and George Onyango, both founders of SIDAREC, hope their 12 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

community will become “the next Silicon Valley.” The winners of the South American challenge site are Igor Taskov of Nis, Serbia and Heather Worrell and ChunSheh Teo of Indianapolis, Indiana, for their design of a fair-trade chocolate factory and technology hub for the Kallari Association in Ecuador. The winner of the Asia challenge site is Max Fordham LLP and Nick Lawrence of London, UK, for an innovative telemedicine centre for Nyaya Health in the remote mountains of western Nepal. Architecture for Humanity also awarded its Founders Award to the third-place Asia challenge finalist, Studio Wikitecture, for embracing a truly collaborative way of working using online crowdsourcing and Second Life as a way to create a highly participatory design approach. Additionally, each of the three winning teams receives a US$5,000 travel stipend to travel on site and work with the respective community organizations to further develop and refine the design. Architecture for Humanity is currently seeking additional funds to construct the solutions for the sites in Ecuador and Nepal. www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge/ pressrelease Nordhavnen, Copenhagen: The Sustainable City of the Future.

CPH City and Port Development has launched an international ideas competition for the Northern Harbour in Copenhagen, a new urban development area with room for 40,000 residents and 40,000 staff in buildings comprising a total floor area of three to four million square metres. The vision for this unique site, which features waterfronts on three sides, is to create a dynamic, lively and sustainable city district with diverse, effervescent life and room for a broad mix of residents and enterprises. The competition is open to everyone, but is in particular aimed at urban planners, architects, landscape architects and traffic planners, who are very welcome to collaborate with experts in special fields, e.g., sustainability. Total prize money amounts to DKK 3 million. The jury can select between one and five winners of the competition. If more than one winner is selected, the winners will be invited to negotiations with CPH City and Port Development about adjustments/improvements to their entries so that the assessment panel can select the final winner. If CPH City and Port Development decides to continue work on the basis of the winning entry, such work will be carried out in collaboration with the winning entrant. The deadline for the submission of questions is August 4, 2008, and the final submission deadline is September 26, 2008. www.arkitektforeningen.dk/Home/Service/English/ Competitions/Internationals/Nordhavn.aspx

WHAT’S NEW $14-million gift launches transformation of architectural education at the University of Toronto.

The University of Toronto recently announced an

historic $14-million gift from John and Myrna Daniels to the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, the largest ever private gift to any architecture school in Canada. The gift will fund a major physical expansion and renovation of the Faculty and will also endow a scholarship fund for outstanding architecture, landscape and design students. In recognition of the powerful impact this gift will have on the University, U of T will name the Faculty the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design. John Daniels received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from U of T in 1950 and went on to become one of Canada’s most important developers of residential communities. Dean George Baird says that this gift will help the Faculty solidify its position among the top architectural schools in North America. Of the $14-million donation, $9 million is designated towards a renovation and expansion of the building the school has occupied since the 1960s. The rest of the gift will be designated towards an endowed fund named the John and Myrna Daniels Scholars that will be awarded annually, with preference given to students who are the first in their family to attend university. John Daniels says the gift has given him an opportunity to thank U of T for the education he received. “My education at U of T laid the foundation for a highly rewarding career and really is the basis for my success in real-estate development. Housing is an essential need, everyone needs a roof, and I believe everyone can benefit from an education. I hope that this gift will enable more students to pursue their dreams.” Daniels, a proud alumnus of the University of Toronto, is an entrepreneur, architect and successful businessman who played a key role in the creation of such landmarks as Toronto’s Eaton Centre and the Toronto-Dominion Centre. He was the moving force behind the “New Town” of Erin Mills, the largest planned community in North America before founding the Daniels Corporation in 1983. Today, he is the Chairman and CEO of the Daniels Corporation—a leader in the North American building industry. Myrna Daniels is a former professor of speech pathology and has worked in hospitals and universities in New York. Together with her husband John, Myrna has supported causes in health care, education and the arts. Vancouver Art Gallery to receive prime waterfront site for a new gallery.

The Vancouver Art Gallery has been offered a prime location on Vancouver’s False Creek waterfront as part of a plan to expand the city’s sport, culture and entertainment district. Following on the heels of the provincial commitment of $50 million for a new Vancouver Art Gallery announced March 6, 2008, the site represents another extremely positive development in the organization’s plans to construct a new purpose-built art museum. “The False Creek location presents an exciting opportunity to imagine a new Vancouver Art Gallery on this beautiful waterfront site, one that would serve as an anchor for this extension of

Vancouver’s thriving cultural community,” said Kathleen Bartels, director. The site will allow the gallery to construct a building of approximately 320,000 square feet—double its current size—to meet the institution’s exhibitions, collections and programming needs for the next 50 years and beyond while providing additional opportunities for outdoor gallery programming on the waterfront. After 25 years in its current location in downtown Vancouver’s Robson Square, the former provincial courthouse building no longer meets the organization’s needs across all areas of operation. The historic building, constructed in 1906 and redesigned by Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson in 1983 to accommodate the Vancouver Art Gallery, suffers from a severe lack of space for exhibitions, collections and programs, and also possesses seismic vulnerabilities and aging systems. Heritage Toronto introduces new website.

Heritagetoronto.org has been renovated and rejuvenated—a brand new website with features for the city’s heritage community and beyond. The interactive site will educate visitors on history in their neighbourhoods, and provide a forum for important heritage issues, including the preservation of Toronto’s built heritage. Some of the website features include: a heritage exploration map, a photo blog, audio walking tours, community stories and profiles, and a section entitled “Your History— The Heritage Toronto Blog,” where heritage activists—including Bill Greer, Derek Boles and Ron

Williamson—and members of the community will encourage open dialogue with readers, who will be invited to join the discussions. Heritage Toronto works with the citizens of Toronto to advocate for, preserve, and promote a greater appreciation of the city’s rich heritage. Through partnerships with local community groups and volunteers, Heritage Toronto works to heighten awareness of Toronto’s shared history by providing city-wide programs and services. Programs include free neighbourhood walking tours, the annual Heritage Toronto Awards and William Kilbourn Memorial Lecture, a heritage-plaques-and-markers program, and participation in Doors Open Toronto. www.heritagetoronto.org Explore Design ’08: The Design Education Fair for Youth.

Explore Design (ED) is North America’s first Education Expo dedicated to the design discipline. During the structured two-day event, students will be provided with the information required to pursue an education, and ultimately a career in the world of design in a contemporary, interactive, and experimental environment. Educational institutions, associations and professional groups will all be accessible to student attendees. ED 2007 was visited by over 4,000 focused and targeted senior secondary school students, as well as by college and university students. In 2008, 5,000 qualified students, parents and teachers are anticipated. Participation is open to educational institutions,

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associations, professional groups, practicing design professionals, design businesses, users of design, government programs—just about anyone with an interest in design education and its graduates. Through the speakers’ series, students have the chance to gain insight from internationally recognized design professionals and design celebrities. Explore Design takes place October 1 and 2, 2008 in Constitution Hall at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. www.exploredesign.ca

ERRATA With respect to the May 2008 issue of Canadian Architect devoted to the Governor General’s Awards, the following corrections must be noted. The architect team members representing Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. for the National Ballet School were omitted in the credits and are as follows: Phil Goldsmith, Chris Borgal, Paul Gagne, Allan Killin, Ida Seto, Gillian Haley, Mark Krapez, Tanya Cazzin, Darryl Fisher, Radovan Janjanin and Andrew Wallace. The architect team for the Trent University Chemical Sciences Building was an equal joint-venture partnership between Teeple Architects Inc. and Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners. And lastly, the mechanical/ electrical consultant for the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research was H.H. Angus & Associates Limited, not Stantec. Canadian Architect regrets the errors.

07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

INSITES

A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY INFLUENCED BY WALTER BENJAMIN’S SEMINAL ARCADES PROJECT, AKA/ANDREW KING STUDIO HELPS TO ESTABLISH A SET OF FLUID DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES FOR THE SCENIC TOWN OF GOLDEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA’S ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

TEXT

THOMAS STRICKLAND

Inspired by the multiple layers of its material history, the town of Golden, British Columbia, is making plans for the future. Working closely with Calgary designer AKA/andrew king studio, Golden has assembled Form and Character Guidelines (2008) that ask architects, developers and builders to respond to the pressure of tourism while respecting the working history of the community—to understand the town, according to the guidelines, as a “palimpsest, a collage of traces and layers, growing continually but retaining elements from the past.” A palimpsest is a manuscript written on a surface from which an earlier text has been partly or wholly erased. Over the course of the 20th century, the term became evocative of the urban setting and has been connected to significant texts such as Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project—an encyclopedic document on which Benjamin worked from 1927 until his death in 1940. Influenced by Benjamin’s work, AKA developed an approach to urban research that they hope will encourage Golden to grow alongside its past. The result is a set of guidelines that evoke art and architectural precedents as diverse as Arte Povera and Learning from Las Vegas. Located 262 kilometres west of Calgary and 713 kilometres east of Vancouver, the town of Golden is situated in the Rocky Mountains at the confluence of the Columbia River and Kicking Horse River. Historically, the community’s social, economic and built environments were shaped by these spectacular geological formations as well as developments in transportation, industry and new recreational activities. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) coal train marshalling yards and railcar repair facilities, for example, mark the town’s southern boundary—its strips of steel track, iron train wheels and rectilinear forms provide material traces that link Golden to the colonial period in Canada and reveal its industrial foundation. Alluding to the impact of this industry on the community, Andrew King of AKA poignantly observes that, “the town’s scale shifts when a train comes to town.” Defining a soft northern edge at the opposite end of Golden is the

14 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

ABOVE THE UBIQUITOUS RAILCAR MAKES ITS WAY ACROSS THE INTERIOR OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. BELOW SITUATED ALONG THE TRANS-CANADA HIGHWAY BETWEEN BANFF NATIONAL PARK AND REVELSTOKE, BC, GOLDEN REMAINS AN IMPORTANT REST STOP FOR TRUCKS AND AUTOMOBILES.

lumberyard and the massive steel roof of Louisiana Pacific’s engineered wood-products plant. Early construction in the area, fostered by a short-lived gold rush, generally consisted of rough-hewn log buildings and false-front-style architecture which lined the main street. Later, Victorian hotels and residences were built. Starting in 1899, the CPR began building houses for the Swiss guides in its employment that were to reflect the building style of their native country. These homes, now known collectively as Edelweiss Village, remain a testament to this part of the area’s history. Like most civic developments that formed over the course of the 20th century, land has been distributed according to function; zones were defined for specific activities, shops and businesses at the downtown centre, which itself was surrounded by areas for residential, recreational, institutional and light industry. The postwar era saw the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway in 1962, bringing the tourist class through Golden. Over the next four decades, a corridor teeming with bright signs, flat-roofed gas stations, restaurants and variously themed hotels emerged at the overlap of Golden and Canada’s coast-to-coast highway.

ABOVE A SUNSET PANORAMA WITH KICKING HORSE RIVER IN THE FOREGROUND. BELOW AN EARLIER COMMERCIAL BUILDING ON ONE OF GOLDEN’S MAIN STREETS.

While the town’s economy continues to rely heavily on logging and the CPR, the ongoing development of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort on the slope of the Dogtooth Mountain range west of the community has signalled a significant shift. Golden is becoming an international destination for skiers and backcountry adventure-seekers. Tourism is changing the built environment of cities across the globe, and communities such as Golden are feeling pressure to develop an approach to building guidelines that carefully con-

07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT ANDREW KING OVERLAID A MAP OF GOLDEN WITH SEVERAL FORM AND CHARACTER GUIDELINES—THE HIGHLIGHTED RECTANGLE ALONG KICKING HORSE RIVER INDICATES AN AREA OF STUDY ACROSS FROM GOLDEN’S DOWNTOWN REGION; THROUGH VARIOUS MASSING STUDIES, KING’S ANALYSIS LOOKED AT SETBACKS, LOT COVERAGE, BUILDING HEIGHT, PROPORTION AND SCALE; USING SIMPLE MASSING DIAGRAMS, THE STUDY ALSO INCLUDED AN EXAMINATION OF “CREATIVE RESIDENTIAL”NEIGHBOURHOODS; ONE OF THE TOWN’S MODEST, BUT LOVINGLY APPOINTED HOUSES; A CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILCAR SLOWLY RUSTS AWAY; A SKETCH PARTI OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOLDEN’S HOUSING AND THE RIVER.

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siders their impact over the long term, architecturally and otherwise. For Golden town planner Cloe Corbett, tourism is just one aspect of the community. She hopes that the built future of the growing community will continue to be industrial in nature and at the same time be a setting for tourism and recreation. Corbett believes that strict guidelines don’t allow for communities to retain their identity. Guidelines can be a double-edged sword. Planned communities such as Seaside, Florida which emphasize a specific architectural style have become a popular image for social control. Possibly this “theme-park approach” as Corbett calls it, influenced Golden to counter with the tagline for its community plan, “Keeping It Real.”

ABOVE A RE-EXAMINATION OF HERITAGE DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE RIVERFRONT HELPED PUT SOME OF GOLDEN’S HISTORIC IDENTITY INTO PERSPECTIVE. BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT STARTING IN 1899, THE CPR BUILT EDELWEISS VILLAGE TO HOUSE THE SWISS GUIDES HIRED TO TAKE TOURISTS THROUGH THE AREA; LIFE ALONG KICKING HORSE RIVER; AN EARLY PHOTO OF DOWNTOWN GOLDEN SHOWS THE FALSE FRONTAGES ON COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS THAT WERE SO POPULAR IN WESTERN FRONTIER TOWNS.

While the impact of Golden’s new Form and Character Guidelines cannot yet be assessed, Corbett is hopeful that they will ensure that new building projects adapt to their context. King hopes that the instrument allows for an architectural pluralism that will instigate unexpected juxtapositions of elements, materials and ideas, a landscape of looking and thinking. Indeed, while the built environment is only one part of the social and political realm that constitutes urban and civic settings, Golden’s new Form and Character Guidelines ensure that a discussion will occur in the face of development and change. In a broader sense, as Golden struggles to circumvent the overdetermined spatial arrangements and aesthetics of many planned communities, it provocatively searches for the indeterminate space between freedom and control. CA

GLENBOW ARCHIVES

Following a period as an architectural practitioner and exhibition curator, Thomas Strickland is pursuing a PhD in Architecture at McGill University where his research focuses on the relationship between mega-structures and medicine.

GLENBOW ARCHIVES

Following an extensive consultation with the town’s subcommittee on design, Corbett asked architects to submit proposals for developing Golden’s new guidelines. “AKA/andrew king studio,” she says, “hit it right on.” Interestingly, the studio’s focus is not rural development or heritage preservation. Their built work, for instance, includes a women’s health clinic in Calgary (2004) comprised of two monolithic rectangles on either side of an atrium, and an L-shaped infill house in Calgary—complete with a curtain wall for a side elevation (2008). While the studio seems an unlikely choice to design guidelines for a mountain resort community, Corbett was searching for a unique approach, a planning strategy that refused staged cohesion but would at the same time respond to the historic particularities of an object or a place. Like early Modern architects who scoured the industrial landscape, intrigued by storage silos and cubist shapes, King looks in unusual places to find sources in history and the built environment. In this way, his approach is also similar to that of Denise Scott-Brown and Robert Venturi who, talking back to the Modernist tradition, drew inspiration from the commercial and residential environments of the Las Vegas Strip and Levittown, from the found objects of everyday landscapes. In Golden, King’s found objects are the humble, and at times ephemeral, objects in the CPR yards, the back alleys, the gas pumps and the shops of the community. At an early stage in the project, King and student Kristofer Kelly generated a photographic essay reflecting the layered history of Golden’s materiality that was formatted as a set of “identity cards.” The 69 cards are images reflecting fragments of the town. Each picture includes part of an object; the corner of a train car, text from a painted sign, a bike pedal, or a window. The cards are included in the guidelines with the idea that the images will provide developers, architects, and individuals with contextual references for choosing building materials without imposing a building form or architectural style on new construction. It is in this essay that a link between King’s study and Benjamin’s Arcades Project is revealed. Benjamin’s project took its name from a 19th-century architectural form, the arcades that ran through blocks of buildings in Baron Eugene Haussman’s Paris. The glass-covered iron constructions were filled with chaotic juxtapositions of shop signs, window displays and other illuminations. To document the arcades, Benjamin organized thousands of index cards and developed a system of cross-referencing that, when it was eventually published as a text in 1980, echoed the layers of the city it revealed. Like Benjamin’s study, King and Kelly’s essay seeks to establish relationships between disparate objects across the whole environment. When applied to the new guidelines for Golden, rather than defining a specific location or arrangement of materials on the building, the study represents the fact that buildings, towns and cities are built up from small parts. In addition to developing the identity cards, Corbett and King developed a planning “instrument.” The instrument is central to the objectives of the guidelines. How it works is this: the instrument is arranged on a grid with four categories connected to Form and Character (massing, composition, materials and articulation) along one side, and three categories connected to determined densities for the Areas (dense, semi-dense and dispersed) are arranged along the top. Each new construction or renovation submitted to the town of Golden is scored on the instrument through a point system. Interestingly, in this way, form and style are not most important—but rather, it is familiar, iconic materials and images that matter.

07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

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TEMPLE OF MUSIC

THE RENOVATION OF A 1932 ART DECO BUILDING BRINGS AN INTERNATIONAL-CALIBRE PERFORMING-ARTS VENUE TO THE GATES OF QUEBEC CITY’S HISTORIC CENTRE. PALAIS MONTCALM AND SALLE RAOUL-JOBIN, QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC M.:U.S.E. CONSORTIUM (L’ARCHITECTE JACQUES PLANTE; LES ARCHITECTES BERNARD ET CLOUTIER; ST-GELAIS MONTMINY, ARCHITECTES) TEXT TANIA MARTIN PHOTOS BENOÎT LAFRANCE PROJECT

ARCHITECT

Having once contained many dynamic performing-arts spaces, Quebec City has witnessed several well-known and highly valued performance venues close their doors over recent years. Some of these venues were religious buildings, each offering its own acoustic qualities: for instance, the Chapelle Historique Bon-Pasteur, which shut down six months ago, and the former chapel of the Mother House of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which hosted a significant number of amateur and professional musical groups before closing down. Quebec City has no shortage of religious spaces, but it also has a number of historic buildings—religious or other20 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

wise—seeking new viable functions. And so, it was with great celebration that after four years of renovations, the Palais Montcalm reopened in March 2007, giving an important concert hall back to Quebec City. Situated just outside the Old City, Palais Montcalm is the anchor of Place d’Youville, the site of the former Montcalm Market, a public market partially destroyed by fire that was originally built in 1877 outside of the historic St. John Gate. Completed in 1932, the municipally owned Palais was based on the design of Ludger Robitaille and Gabriel Desmeule who attempted to incorporate what was left of the original market structure into their design. The Art Deco building originally contained offices, a library, a swimming pool (disused since 1986) and a 1,300-seat hall decorated in a Neoclassical style. In 1940, the CBC had offices in the building and used the concert hall and its recording studio for live music broadcasts and radio programs up until the early 1990s. The building’s design is based on a tripartite façade featuring a strong base and cornice, with a large marquee identifying the main entrance. Popular among Quebec’s French-Canadian music lovers, the City-owned Palais Montcalm rivalled the YMCA across the street as a respectable venue for live concerts before falling into disuse. But in 1971, the long-anticipated Grand Théâtre de Québec opened its doors up the hill on the Grande Allée. Celebrated as a state-of-the-art facility, the Brutalist concrete building took

with it the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and a theatre troupe. Compared to the Grand Théâtre, the Palais Montcalm proved mean and crowded; its poor sightlines and outdated Neoclassical décor reduced it to a second-rate performance venue within the city. Nevertheless, rather than let developers turn the building into a casino-hotel, municipal authorities maintained that the future of the Palais Montcalm should build upon its past and uphold its tradition as a concert venue, although it ultimately took nearly 40 years to upgrade the facilities to an acceptable level. Looking at the building from Place d’Youville, little on the exterior façade indicates change, save for the colour of the window frames. The ashlarfaced building continues to present a sober front to the urban square remodelled some years prior, and acts as a backdrop to events taking place on the monumental staircase and plaza, much like a church on a square. Other elevations tell a different story. Two enormous wood screens wrap the sides of the five-storey building, hiding a hodgepodge of concrete-block accretions containing emergency stairs, mechanical rooms and a loading dock, all added over the years to extend the life of the building. The exterior screens help to restore an image of monumentality to the building, as does the apse terminating the end of the music hall along the narrow rue Dauphine. It is here that the major intervention to the building occurred: for the second time in the building’s history, it seems that new wine was

THE NEWLY REOPENED PALAIS MONTCALM CONTINUES TO ANCHOR PLACE D’YOUVILLE, A WELL-USED PLAZA SITUATED JUST OUTSIDE THE OLD CITY. ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT THE LUSH INTERIOR OF SALLE RAOULJOBIN PROVIDES FANTASTIC ACOUSTICS FOR THE NEW CONCERT HALL; FLORENT COUSINEAU’S LE FIL ROUGE IS A RED NEON LIGHT INSTALLATION THAT OSCILLATES ACCORDING TO THE MUSIC INSIDE THE CONCERT HALL. OPPOSITE

placed in old bottles. Architectural consortium M.:U.S.E. (Jacques Plante Architect, Les Architectes Bernard et Cloutier, St-Gelais Montminy Architectes) worked closely with acoustic engineer Larry S. King of the New York-based JaffeHolden, the acoustic consultants also responsible for the reputed Salle Françoys-Bernier of the Domaine Forget in Charlevoix. The consortium’s acronym stands for Mission: Urbanité Scénographie Espace—or urbanity, stage design and space. Their mandate, as set by the City of Quebec and the provincial Ministry of Culture and Communications, was to insert a new music hall within the shell of the old building. Design architect Jacques Plante drew on his award-winning theatre design experience to create multiple gathering spaces within the grand front hall rising up through the centre of the building. Inspired by Art Deco 07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

organizational principles, he turned the main ground-floor staircase around 180 degrees, rebuilt symmetrical lateral stairs leading to the landings and gangways that double as foyers on the upper levels. Here, concert attendees can see and be seen mingling in the three-storey mirrored wall mosaic Cantate by Rose-Marie E. Goulet or taking in the night-time views of the square below, the multilayered vista of St-Roch, the suburbs, and the Laurentian Mountains beyond. Eggshell-painted walls and brushed steel handrails contrast with the original chandeliers, terrazzo floors and new dark plush carpets placed outside the entrance vestibules of the main concert hall to absorb sound. In several places throughout the building, relatively minor interventions were made. In the smaller, 125-seat doubleheight multifunctional café/cabaret rehearsal and performance space, Plante removed the columns thus increasing flexibility of use. He refreshed those spaces that now contain the cloakroom and ticket counter, bistro, VIP lounge, dressing rooms, and the administrative offices of the Palais Montcalm and Les Violons du Roy, which can be found in the former concierge’s apartments on the fifth floor.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT NIGHT VIEW OF THE PALAIS MONTCALM; BY EXCAVATING BENEATH THE EXISTING CONCERT HALL, A SIXTH FLOOR DID NOT HAVE TO BE ADDED, THEREBY PRESERVING VIEWS TOWARD QUEBEC’S OLD CITY, WHICH CAN BE SEEN IN THE DISTANCE. OPPOSITE TOP INTERIOR VIEWS OF SALLE RAOUL-JOBIN. OPPOSITE BOTTOM A THOROUGH RENOVATION OF THE ART DECO BUILDING IMPROVED THE CLARITY OF THE ORIGINAL DETAILING AS WELL AS ITS VARIOUS LIGHTING CONDITIONS.

In order to obtain an optimal interior volume for superior acoustic performance, the architects had the back wall and roof of the existing building demolished rather than add a sixth storey as indicated in their competition drawings. They also decided to excavate under the main hall, thereby maintaining the height of the pre-existing building while preserving the sightlines from the ramparts of the walls enclosing the Old City. The reconfigured facility means that concert-goers can enter the parterre at ground level rather than walk up a flight of stairs as they had to do before the renovation. To enhance the building’s acoustic properties, the design-

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ers filled the spaces between the new concrete structure and existing masonry walls with volcanic sand, thereby eliminating any air pockets. High-density wood panels were then applied to the interior face of these monolithic walls. Strategically placed and finished in both glossy and matte finishes, these dark-stained mapleveneer triangular panels alternately advance and recede from the interior surface of the wall, providing just the right proportion of reverberation and sound diffusion. Other acoustic performance challenges to overcome included the enormous balcony and the proscenium stage of the original building which were replaced with multiple balconies—including ones that wrap around the back wall. Each of the padded wooden seats has clear unobstructed views onto a semi-circular red oak stage surrounded by buffers angled to redirect the sound to the rear of the hall. Even empty seats absorb and reflect sound as if occupied by human bodies. Soundabsorbing curtains can be partially or completely drawn around the hall, or stowed away in pockets within the wall. A movable stage canopy with an integrated lighting system can be lowered or raised to deflect or absorb sound. These and other features allow the hall’s technicians to “tune” the space as one would a stringed instrument, thus guaranteeing performers the right

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT THE ORIGINAL 1930S FLOORING WAS PRESERVED WHEREVER POSSIBLE; THE RECORDING STUDIO, OVERLOOKING THE CONCERT VENUE; INSPIRED BY THE ORIGINAL ART DECO DESIGN, NEW FRITTED-GLASS PARTITIONS HELP ACHIEVE GREATER ACOUSTICAL SEPARATION IN THE PUBLIC AREAS WITHOUT COMPROMISING LIGHT LEVELS; A WINTRY SCENE ON PLACE D’YOUVILLE WITH THE PALAIS MONTCALM IN THE BACKGROUND.

proportion of reverberation and sound absorption depending on the type of music, number of musicians, or use of artificial amplification. Indeed, every element in the hall contributes to the quality of the sound, which is so clear and defined that it is almost palpable. These moments of silence can be evocative. And more whimsically, Florent Cousineau’s playful red neon light installation on the exterior of the apse, Le fil rouge, appears to dance to the sounds played inside. Despite its 979-seat capacity, the main concert space, named Salle RaoulJobin, feels intimate. Musicians and audience easily find communion; their music instills awe. Perhaps designers and acoustic engineers can draw inspiration from this veritable temple of music and work toward continuing the useful life of some of Quebec’s other cultural and religious buildings so that the province’s built heritage can be appreciated by future generations. CA Tania Martin is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture at Laval University. She is also a Canada Research Chair in Built Religious Heritage.

CLIENT VILLE DE QUÉBEC DESIGN TEAM JACQUES PLANTE, STÉPHANE LANGEVIN, PIERRE-ANDRÉ LÉVESQUE, PATRICE HARVEY, JOCELYN PERRON, RAYMOND BOUCHER, CHRISTIAN BERNARD, DOMINIQUE ST-GELAIS PROJECT TEAM JACQUES PLANTE, CHRISTIAN BERNARD, DOMINIQUE ST-GELAIS, KARINE FOURNIER, PHILIPPE BLAIS, JACQUES BERNIER, RAYMOND BOUCHER, STÉPHANE LANGEVIN, JOCELYN PERRON, ANDRÉ PELLETIER, ANDRÉ DAGENAIS STRUCTURAL BPR, GROUPE-CONSEIL MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL ROCHE LTÉE, GROUPE-CONSEIL ACOUSTICS JAFFEHOLDEN ACOUSTICS EQUIPMENT AND THEATRE CONSULTANTS GO MULTIMÉDIA BUDGET $23 M COMPLETION MARCH 2007 SITE PLAN

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CANADA’S NEW FACE IN KOREA

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WITH AN ARCHITECTURAL EXPRESSION THAT SPEAKS TO THE SEOUL CONTEXT AS MUCH AS IT DOES TO CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE, THE NEW CHANCERY IN SEOUL IS AN IMPORTANT ADDITION TO OUR DIPLOMATIC ASSETS. CANADIAN DIPLOMATIC COMPLEX IN SEOUL ZEIDLER PARTNERSHIP ARCHITECTS; VOGEL ARCHITECT (ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS); ART INTERNATIONAL LTD. (LOCAL ARCHITECT) TEXT MARIE-JOSÉE THERRIEN PHOTOS KIM YONG KWAN PROJECT

ARCHITECT

A little more than a year ago, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) inaugurated its diplomatic complex in the historic district of Jeong-Dong in Seoul. The complex, which has not received the same attention that the Berlin Chancery attracted in the Canadian press, is the latest addition to the billion dollars worth of real estate owned by DFAIT around the world. At a cost of $25 million, this Category 2 of diplomatic buildings is a gem that not many of us will ever have a chance to visit. By comparison, the Berlin Chancery (see CA, February 2006) is a Category 1 that was built for $35 million in the early 2000s. Since the creation of its first diplomatic building bureau in the late 1940s, the teams of experts at DFAIT have acquired an expertise that, even if at times had been challenged by political interference, allows them to manage with greater ease the highly complex processes of constructing diplomatic quarters. With at least two major clients to satisfy, the architectural firm might find itself in a situation in which it has no control over the

THE CHANCERY’S TOWER AND STREET-FRIENDLY GROUND FLOOR DEMONSTRATES AN APPROPRIATE MASSING AND ASSEMBLAGE OF MATERIALS THAT ENHANCES THE HISTORIC JEONG-DONG DISTRICT IN WHICH IT IS SITUATED. ABOVE WELL-DETAILED PRIVACY WALLS AND CEDAR SLATS HELP DEFINE A HARMONIOUS AND CONTEMPLATIVE LANDSCAPE FOR THE NEW CHANCERY. OPPOSITE

project’s direction. Diplomatic projects have been indefinitely postponed or cancelled for all sorts of reasons. In Seoul, as explained by Christal Becker, a senior project manager at DFAIT, the project was originally conceived as a design-build construction on a site purchased in 1994.1 The Foundation Company of Canada was hired for the first project, but due to the Asian financial crisis and changing local zoning by-laws, the design-build approach was judged unsuitable and the contract was terminated. Following governmental regulations, a second open and competitive process was organized. The project was awarded to the Zeidler Partnership, who had been the consultant architect hired by the construction contractor. The scheme proposed by the Zeidler Partnership—with Tarek El-Khatib as the lead design architect, took its inspiration from images of the Canadian landscape. The two building blocks of the complex—the residential tower and the chancery, are supposedly reflective of Tom Thomson’s Evening Canoe Lake and Lawren S. Harris’s Mount Robinson. However, the metaphor is elusive, unless one sees these façades as super-sized pixellations of the aforementioned landscapes. That being said, the two distinct buildings do display an appropriate massing and height with varied surface treatments that harmonize with the urban fabric of the historic Jeong-Dong context. The tripartite order of the diplomatic building, an oblong volume that sits on the corner like the prow of a ship, is cleverly designed in terms of 07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

function and aesthetics. At street level, the building base is clad with a screen of Canadian Western red cedar slats that wraps the spandrel glass of the curtain wall and allows for privacy while providing natural light to the diplomatic staff. Evoking Korean wooden screens and the undulating walls of the nearby Deoksoo Palace, this wood siding is mounted on hinges that can be opened in order to facilitate window cleaning. The dynamism of the main section of this tower is achieved through a contrapuntal arrangement of granite and aluminum panels alternating with the bands of windows. At the top of the building, the steel railing brings a final touch that unifies the base with the crown and enhances the verticality of the nine-storey tower. The residential block, slightly removed from the street, is cantilevered on top of the public sections of the chancery. The cladding of subtly toned brick and grey granite harmonizes with the natural hues of the stones and bricks of the surrounding context. The plan at street level is one of the best examples of what Canadians are still free to do with their diplomatic architecture. Unlike certain other countries which are constrained by burdensome security concerns, no matter where they build, Canadians still have the opportunity to design chanceries that meet “the security requirements without sacrificing the welcoming atmosphere and feeling of openness and accessibility.”2 Despite this relative freedom, a chancery does not come without its system of surveillance and guards. In Seoul however, the presence of these security measures do not prevent passersby from admiring a 520-year-old tree, a natural monument revered by Seoul citizens. The guarantee that this “scholar” tree would receive full attention and proper care during the construction was one of the conditions dictated by the Seoul authorities. The Canadian teams outlined a protection plan that minimized the impact of construction on the roots of the tree and proposed a long-term maintenance plan that had to be approved by Korean tree experts. The ancestral tree inspired the sinuous layout of the plaza that frames this local icon. The undulating perimeter of the chancery site is paved with two-toned grey granite slate on which sits a curved dark granite bench, inviting pedestrians A REVERED NATURAL MONUMENT, THE 520-YEAR-OLD “SCHOLAR” TREE HAD TO BE PRESERVED AND PROTECTED BY THE CHANCERY’S DESIGN TEAM. LEFT CANADIAN RED WESTERN CEDAR SLATS, LARGE GLASS PANELS AND SENSITIVE HARDSCAPE ALLOWS THIS NEW CHANCERY TO ENGAGE WITH THE JEONG-DONG NEIGHBOURHOOD WHILE COMMUNICATING A DIGNIFIED DIPLOMATIC PRESENCE. OPPOSITE TOP A QUIET GARDEN TO THE NORTH OF THE CHANCERY PROVIDES A WELCOME RETREAT WHILE SERVING AS A SPACE FOR OUTDOOR DIPLOMATIC FUNCTIONS. TOP LEFT

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CLIENT NAME CHRISTAL BECKER, SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (DFAIT) ARCHITECT TEAM ZEIDLER PARTNERSHIP ARCHITECTS: TAREK EL-KHATIB, ALAN MUNN, ANDREA RICHARDSON, RICHARD JOHNSON, MIKE SMITH, SIMONE FRANKE, TOSH SAKAMOTO. VOGEL ARCHITECT: BARBARA AND JACEK VOGEL. ART INTERNATIONAL LTD: S.L. KIM, J.J. SEO LANDSCAPE A.D.REGEHR, JOUNG IL INTERIORS ZEIDLER PARTNERSHIP ARCHITECTS, VOGEL ARCHITECT, ART INTERNATIONAL STRUCTURAL HALCROW YOLLES, JOUNG IL MECHANICAL H.H. ANGUS, SUNG SHIN ELECTRICAL H.H. ANGUS, DAEWHA ENGINEERING CONTRACTOR SAMSUNG BUILDING ENVELOPE HALCROW YOLLES CODE LARDEN MUNIAK GEOTECH MCCLYMONT AND RAK ENGINEERS ARBOURISTS PROFESSORS SANG YONG NAM AND KYEONG JUN LEE AREA 8,394 M2 BUDGET $25 M COMPLETION JULY 2007

TOP BUILT AROUND THE NATURAL MONUMENT OF A 520-YEAR-OLD TREE, A SMALL PLAZA HAS PROVEN TO BE A POPULAR PUBLIC SPACE WHILE STILL MAINTAINING SUFFICIENT DIPLOMATIC SECURITY. ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT INTERIOR VIEWS OF THE NEWLY OPENED DIPLOMATIC FACILITY MAINTAINS A STRONG VISUAL CONNECTION TO THE EXTERIOR.

to stop and take a break. The sound emanating from a vertical water screen at the edge of this oasis of tranquility also contributes to the success of this small public space that has become a refuge for young lovers and the perfect location for pictorial mementos. Designed by A. D. Regehr in collaboration with the Zeidler Partnership, the site is the recipient of two awards: the 2007 Green Award from the Korea Forestry Service, the first award of this kind to have been given to a non-Korean-designed project; and a 2008 National Honour award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. The interior plan of a chancery is as complex as its exterior organization. Over the years, DFAIT had implemented strict design policies that have been influenced by external factors such as the proliferation of terrorism. It is remarkable that the Seoul Embassy, which was planned after September 11, 2001, could provide such abundant public and semi-public areas on its ground floor. 30 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

Kudos here to DFAIT for not succumbing to the paranoia instilled by the prevalent fear of terrorism. Beyond a well-proportioned entrance lobby, the Zeidler team has designed a spacious multipurpose room that through its transparent curtain wall offers a visual expansion into a private walled garden. Consistent with the natural themes that DFAIT adopted many decades ago, we are told about this multi-purpose room where the “intricate floor pattern of granite recalls floating logs while the ceilings suggest ice fragments.”3 This time, the metaphor is more convincing and proves that the right combination of materials and shapes can successfully evoke aspects of the Canadian landscape. The immigration section of most chanceries tends to be relegated to a secondary location within the building. Accordingly, though welldesigned with high-quality materials, the immigration section in the Seoul Chancery is just a mere waiting room in the basement, accessible

from a side door. The aggressively red maple leaf wall, a design embellishment rather than a work of art, is located behind rows of chairs that display a similar bright red hue. In its attempts to symbolize Canada abroad, DFAIT has used the image of the maple leaf in the decorative components of its premises, in custom-designed carpets and wall treatments. Unfortunately, this is a rather facile approach, and is one instance where more subtlety would have been preferable. Despite this minor criticism, the Seoul Chancery is a significant contribution to our diplomatic assets. It is reassuring to know that DFAIT pays as much attention to the design of our smaller chanceries as they do to those which are located in major capitals such as Berlin or Washington. CA Marie-Josée Therrien is an architectural historian who has written a book on the history of Canadian chanceries, Au-delà des frontières, l’architecture des ambassades canadiennes, 1930-2005. 1 Phone interview, May 16, 2008. 2 Document provided by the Zeidler Partnership. 3 Ibid.

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BANFF SESSION: EXPLORING THE POSSIBILITIES

THIS YEAR’S BANFF SESSION CONVENED A VARIETY OF GLOBAL PRACTITIONERS WHO REINFORCED THE MESSAGE THAT GREAT ARCHITECTURE CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED AMIDST EXTREME SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.

TEXT

LESLEY TOMLINSON AND ERIN HAMPSON

32 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

Despite the blowing snow and frigid temperatures, a record number of people attended the Alberta Association of Architects’ Banff Session this past April. The theme of this year’s conference was Emerge—Exploring the Possibilities, Inspirations and Innovations of Design. The diverse group of architects included Steve Christer of Studio Granda from Iceland, Pieter Bannenberg

of NL Architects from The Netherlands, Heinrich Wolff of Noero Wolff Architects from South Africa and Bernard Khoury from Lebanon. These emerging leaders in design gave inspirational and thought-provoking presentations on how climate, culture, politics and war have impacted their respective design philosophies. In comparison to the other presenters, Steve Christer spoke more to the familiar aesthetic of natural materials, the use of light, and the relationship between his architecture and its natural surroundings. Projects shown certainly illustrated these points and exemplified Studio Granda’s mantra of “making a building that was not just a shelter from the weather,” but Christer failed to demonstrate any innovative examples beyond typical Western ideas on the subject. That being said, descriptions of Reykjavík City Hall and Bifröst University showed a consistent commitment to site-specific design often missing in urban Alberta architecture. Interestingly enough, much of his explanation of the Icelandic people’s connection to the natural environment echoes the way Albertans think of themselves but so often ignore. The recent boom in Alberta, as a result of oil sands development, has led to an increased demand for housing, commercial and industrial buildings—all of which have resulted in disposable architecture intended only to last as long as the oil does. In contrast to the majority of new buildings in Alberta, fundamental beliefs about the relationship between man-made and natural environments permeate new construction projects in Iceland. Is it possible for Alberta to balance the demand for more buildings with the natural environment we are so proud of, or will we continue to view stucco, metal panels and vinyl siding as acceptable building materials because they are better for the budget? Some of the more enlightening issues presented during the Banff Session was the use of metaphor in interior projects such as Studio Granda’s Supreme Court of Iceland. At its most basic, the building has organized the courtrooms on the lower levels and the judges’ chambers on top, alluding to a sense of hierarchy present in the justice system. Intermediate levels, containing the libraries and other support spaces, metaphorically serve as a filter in the quest for truth. Circulation through the space is by way of a series of ramps with receding ceiling heights, and narrowing walls convey a feeling of confinement and judgement. Columns and corners are avoided in each courtroom to symbolize that the law has no boundaries, but they are present in the public gallery to symbolize the restraints inherent in the system. However, the sobriety of the building’s function still allows for some whimsy. Artwork is integrated into the courtrooms’ gypsum walls by

DAVE SOUTHWOOD

JO NOERO

OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM IN THE CENTRE OF THE UTRECHT UNIVERSITY CAMPUS DE UITHOF, NL ARCHITECTS COMBINED A BASKETBALL COURT, A BAR AND A BOOKSHOP. CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE DESIGNED BY NOERO WOLFF (IN ASSOCIATION WITH JOHN BLAIR ARCHITECTS), THE RED LOCATION MUSEUM AND CULTURAL PRECINCT IN PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA IS A CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM LOCATED IN THE FIRST SETTLED BLACK TOWNSHIP OF PORT ELIZABETH. IT DERIVES ITS NAME FROM A SERIES OF CORRUGATED IRON BARRACK BUILDINGS WHICH ARE RUSTED A DEEP RED COLOUR AND WHICH WERE PART OF A BOER CONCENTRATION CAMP IN UITENHAGE BEFORE MOVING TO RED LOCATION.

seamlessly creating auricle-like shapes out of plaster. This, along with a skylight feature over each litigator’s table, is reminiscent of the less figurative “eyes and ears” of the courtroom. These thought-provoking details may not impact the casual observer, but they are certainly successful in communicating a greater impact than many North American judicial buildings.

Pieter Bannenburg of NL Architects presented the firm’s most innovative work on the exterior of buildings, responding to a need for recreational spaces in a dense urban context. NL Architects accomplish this objective while fulfilling the commercial and industrial requirements set out by the client. Along with several projects boasting accessible green roofs, they have explored other

options in “programming the roof” while the exterior walls are designed to utilize more elements and serve a greater number of functions. Early conceptual projects Parkhouse and Carstadt placed parking on the roofs of both stores and row houses to allow for more pedestrian-oriented streetscapes. Although they were never built, positive response to these ideas was encouraging 07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

STUDIO GRANDA

STUDIO GRANDA ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT A MODEL OF STUDIO GRANDA’S SUPREME COURT OF ICELAND IS ORGANIZED IN A VARIETY OF LAYERS WITH THE JUDGES’ CHAMBERS ON TOP. THE VARIOUS PUNCTURES IN THE ROOF ARE SKYLIGHTS WHICH TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LIMITED AMOUNTS OF NATURAL DAYLIGHT IN ICELAND, ESPECIALLY DURING THE WINTER MONTHS.

and they began to explore variations on the theme. Basketbar, on the University of Utrecht campus, integrated a basketball court on the roof of a café. One of the few spaces on campus not already occupied by a building was a small park that was well used by students. Not wanting to give up the gathering space, NL designed the café with a large exterior patio sunken into the sidewalk and built a basketball court on the roof. Mechanical piping is hidden in the fencing around the court to maintain a clean, uninterrupted aesthetic. The scheme to incorporate recreational programming was further developed with WOS8, a heat-transfer station currently located in a farmer’s field soon to be surrounded by suburban development. In an effort to avoid the temptation to vandalize the vacant building, NL transformed one exterior wall into a climbing wall and another as a backboard for a basketball net and adjacent court. Integrating a mechanical building into a community instead of fencing it off from the public makes this otherwise invasive building type a contributor to its environment. Ideas like this contradict the prevalent North American solution of building a bigger fence to keep the public away and instead provide a more sympathetic solution. In a twist on this theme, Bannenburg programmed and designed a large area under an existing highway in Koog aan de Zaan called A8ernA. Before the redevelopment, the area, at grade and below the elevated thoroughfare, was used as a parking lot and divided a neighbourhood. This unwelcoming environment was devoid of people most of the time. With the addi34 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

SECTION—REYKJAVÍK CITY HALL

SITE PLAN—REYKJAVÍK CITY HALL

tion of amenities such as a supermarket, marina, skate park and green space, the highway now serves as a link, proving that poor planning decisions made in the past do not necessarily antagonize a healthy urban environment. Alberta’s largest cities are refocusing on ur-

banism through mixed-use and 24-hour-use development, and through multi-purpose public spaces. Can the multi-use ideas introduced by NL Architects be adapted for use in the northern climate of Alberta or the rest of Canada? Another topic explored was that of critical

DARIA SCAGLIOLA

DARIA SCAGLIOLA ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT WOS8 IS A HEAT DISTRIBUTION RELAY STATION WHICH SUPPLIES LEIDSCHE RIJN, AN EXTENSION OF UTRECHT. DESIGNED BY NL ARCHITECTS, THIS FACILITY RECYCLES ENERGY WASTED FROM A NEARBY POWER STATION AND A THICK, OPAQUE SKIN OF BLACK POLYURETHANE WRAPS THE OPTIMIZED VOLUME OF THE MACHINE ROOMS. COVERED WITH ARTIFICIAL CLIMBING HOLDS, IT ALSO BOASTS A BASKETBALL HOOP, WHICH COINCIDES WITH THE ONLY WINDOW.

regionalism. Heinrich Wolff of Noero Wolff Architects, an award-winning South African firm, gave an inspiring and provocative presentation entitled “Strangeness and Familiarity” about the moral obligation of architects to create relevant and familiar, yet imaginative architecture for its users. According to Wolff, “buildings must intellectually belong in the context of where they physically exist.” In general, Noero Wolff is conscious about not conforming to the latest architectural trends emanating from Western Europe. These trends do nothing for the predominantly black population of South Africa who consider architecture an elitist art. Wolff described his firm’s design philosophy as instead focusing on transcultural phenomena, such as climate and landscape—that do not discriminate according to ethnicity or social class. This idea of regional and ethical architecture is best exemplified by the Red Location Museum in Port Elizabeth, a memorial to the conflicts and injustices of South Africa. The post-apartheid government wanted a building that conveyed their progressive values of equality and reform to its users. The museum references the city’s industrial vernacular by emulating the forms and materials commonly found in the surrounding landscape of shacks and factory buildings. These gestures speak a familiar language to both the black and white populations of Port Elizabeth, transcending the dichotomy between the two opposing cultures. Within our unique context of multiculturalism, the concept of transcultural design can perhaps define a Canadian vernacular that goes beyond the Victorian gingerbread

appliqués of our residential neighbourhoods to one that speaks to our common experiences of climate and landscape. In contrast to the public architecture of Noero Wolff, Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury presented architecture for the wealthy. Working within the context of postwar Lebanon, Khoury was commissioned to design, among other things, financial institutions, a sushi bar and an exclusive nightclub. Although he presented some interesting design concepts, his ideas on urban renewal were the most intriguing. After the civil war, the city of Beirut had developed a restructuring plan known as Solidaire, one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken in the Middle East. Under this plan, damaged structures were earmarked for demolition and any salvageable buildings had to be returned to their original state. Strict architectural guidelines were put in place to ensure that all future construction replicated historical building forms. Khoury was concerned that Solidaire’s rigid parameters would stifle the organic growth of the city and eliminate any memory of the recent civil war. He stressed the importance of preserving the city’s present condition because it was a physical manifestation of the population’s collective memory. This philosophy of designing for the present was most evident in his concept for Centrale, a high-end restaurant and bar on the outskirts of central Beirut. The building site contained an existing wardamaged house that, under Solidaire, would have been demolished. Instead, Khoury decided to keep the existing façade, removing only the maze

of interior rooms that did not serve the building’s proposed functions. What makes Khoury’s architecture relevant to our environment is its emphasis on adaptive reuse. Whether we realize it or not, most of the development in Canada is based on the same fundamental principle as Solidaire; that new must equal improved. One need only look to the bigbox landscape of suburbia to know this isn’t true. Even most urban renewal projects promote demolition over the refurbishment and reuse of existing buildings. Within the context of our consumer culture, it is easy for architecture to be considered another disposable product. The construction industry’s understanding of sustainability must expand beyond LEED certification to include the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle. The underlying message from each presentation was that great architecture can still exist in places with extreme economic, social and climatic conditions. We are fortunate enough to live in one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in the world, whose government values equality, peace and freedom. The positive outlook the speakers imparted about the future of their own countries and the influence of architecture in that future was inspiring. Will we be inspired to capture the potential of our own surroundings and emerge as world leaders in design? CA Lesley Tomlinson and Erin Hampson work at Stantec Architecture in Edmonton and are board members of Media Art & Design Exposed (M.A.D.E.) in Edmonton. 07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

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Photos-top to bottom: River Rock Casino, Richmond, BC, Randy Knill Architect, Sardo Foods, Bolton, Ontario, Noor Architects, Techtown University of Waterloo, Research & Tech Park, Waterloo, Ontario, SRM Architects, Waterloo, Heffner Toyota, Cambridge, Ontario, Jamesway Design Build, Elmira Stove Works, Elmira, Ontario, Architecture Incorporated

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PRACTICE

RESULTS-DRIVEN RFPS THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES HOW CLIENTS AND ARCHITECTS CAN BENEFIT FROM A “LEAN-THINKING” APPROACH TO THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL PROCESS.

TEXT

SHARON VANDERKAAY

Request for Proposal (RFP) documents seem to be adding more fat than muscle as each year passes. Tradition—rather than strategic intent— appears to drive the common list of requirements. It’s time to step back and evaluate what a focused, fat-free set of selection criteria might encompass. Clients regularly report that they find it difficult to decide between architectural firms even after sorting through stacks of exhaustive proposal documents. When asked what really made the difference in their ultimate decision, evaluators frequently cite criteria beyond the focus of standard RFPs. Some evaluators talk about the team that projected confidence and contagious enthusiasm rather than arrogance; others mention the team that demonstrated a process for bringing hidden project opportunities to light, rather than merely claiming a deep commitment to innovation. Still others may cite a revealing conversation with the architect’s previous clients as the determining factor. For their part in this ritual, architects say it’s understandable that vastly different firms appear similar to the evaluator’s eye: boilerplate RFP questions restrict proponents to variations of their standard marketing text. Architects also regard conventional interviews as unnatural events that make it difficult for clients to judge the presence or absence of chemistry—the intangible foundation for successful working relationships. Clearly, the RFP and interview process require a fresh strategic approach to ensure better use of everyone’s time, and to help clients choose the right architect for their project. It’s no wonder the task of selecting an architect makes clients nervous. The wrong choice can lead to clashes of expectations and costly regrets. Throughout the evaluation process, clients justifiably fear being taken in by seductive photographs and slick marketing pitches. They also fear they will be blamed for neglecting to ask the one magic question that will expose a fatal flaw in proponent teams. And the savviest clients seek to avoid putting their faith in a team that can’t engage them in the level of collaborative thinking needed to identify and leverage their project’s hidden opportunities. Transactional or Transformational Needs?

Prior to composing an RFP document, clients benefit by assessing what level of consultation 38 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

they require to achieve their desired outcome. Essentially, this question can be seen as a choice between transactional and transformational consulting needs. If the architect is expected to listen carefully and implement pre-determined requirements, then the client is looking for a transactional experience. A transactional RFP would say, in essence, “Tell us about the nearly identical projects you have completed and why you are the best firm to execute our prescribed scope of work.” However, if the architect is expected to join the client in examining project prospects such as competitive business challenges and aspirations, operational opportunities and brand image, then the client is looking for a transformational design experience. Accordingly, the transformational RFP would ask: “How will your firm turn our aspirations into reality?” and “Give us contact information for three clients who can attest to your success in turning their aspirations into reality.” This would be in place of requesting, for example, a work plan for a pre-determined scope of work. The Kitchen-Sink Approach

With little to guide them except the contents of past RFPs, clients tend to include every requirement they suspect might be deemed important by someone, someday. It follows that this unfocused “kitchen-sink approach” elicits responses that obscure truly salient differences between firms. The kitchen-sink approach emphasizes generic claims and out-of-context inputs (see “The Test” below) rather than strategic outcomes (e.g., insight about a firm’s performance as judged by a previous client). Simply put, if a firm has three enthusiastic clients (outcome), that firm will probably do a fine job of creating a work plan

THE TEST

(input). In addition to imposing a costly burden on architects, loads of non-salient inputs tend to distract the selection committee from what matters most. Responses to kitchen-sink RFPs have become remarkably homogeneous as architectural marketing staff move from firm to firm. Sameness can also be traced to joint-venture arrangements that give rise to a shared pool of “greatest hits” proposal-writing. As a result, clients are overwhelmed with information that appears to represent due diligence, but in reality delivers scant insight to support the strategic decision they seek. The Lean-Thinking Approach

An alternative to the kitchen-sink methodology is a results-based RFP produced through a process of “lean thinking.” Over the past decade or so, lean-thinking and lean-process approaches have gained credence as a strategy for cost reduction and process improvement. “Lean” is a concept that organizations apply to removing unnecessary, wasteful steps from traditional ways of working. Lean thinking has a track record of applications that range from improving auto production lines, to hotel check-out and airline check-in procedures, to reducing patient waiting times. The lean approach aims to streamline pointless or low-value work so that time and energy can be redirected to what really matters. Architects and clients are overdue in promoting the application of lean thinking to the RFP and interview process. Rather than automatically apply long-accepted assumptions, a lean-process consultant would ask the following fundamental questions regarding traditional RFP requirements:

Which approach will lead to a better decision? How should proponents and evaluators spend their time?

Information-Based RFP

Results-Based RFP

— Long list of generic questions that the proponent’s marketing department can respond to by rearranging standard text and by borrowing phrases from the RFP.

➜

— Select questions that require thoughtful responses by senior members of proponent firm. EXAMPLE: “How will your firm turn our aspirations into reality?”

➜

— Client references: “Would you work with this architect again? Why?” (covers issues related to budget, schedule, other project targets, aspirations, teamwork).

— Information that is not salient to the final decision and requires additional client input (e.g., current work load, work plan, full consultant team). — Pre-programmed interviews that cover similar material from all shortlisted firms. Minimum opportunity for unscripted insight into team’s attitudes and qualities.

➜

— Require a fee and work plan prior to refining the scope and jointly agreeing to full list of sub-consultants.

➜

— Commit 90 minutes or more to assess proponent team’s true priorities and capacity to connect with client representatives. — Negotiate fees using Quality-Based Selection method (required by law for US federal work since 1972; now in use by 47 states).

Lean Thinker: Is it a good idea to bring client and architect representatives together so they can jointly refine the scope of work?

A: Yes, it is wasteful to develop a full list of sub-

LT: Then the RFP requirement for a work plan

consultants in isolation from the client, and to spend time writing about these sub-consultants, then consume stacks of paper to print their resumés. These are the kinds of results-based questions that clients and architects should be asking themselves in order to focus on salient issues, reduce wasted effort and save paper.

based on an unrefined scope is both wasteful and misleading?

Reinventing the Interview

Answer: Yes, because the architect team can pro-

pose options that may benefit the project, then evaluate these options in concert with the client.

A: Yes, the work plan should be done in close

collaboration with the client after the project is awarded. LT: It follows, then, that a fee should not be pro-

vided without an agreed, refined scope? A: Yes, fees should be negotiated after the archi-

tect is selected within a pre-determined range as described in the Qualification-Based Selection (QBS) process cited in a previous article entitled “The High Cost of Fee Bidding,” (CA, May 2007). QBS has been required by law for US federal projects since 1972 and has been adopted by 47 of 50 states. LT: Is it a good idea to have the client’s input when

selecting sub-consultants?

“How would you propose to spend 90 minutes with us?” Answers to this question will speak volumes to client evaluators about whether the shortlisted team is client-focused or architectfocused, whether they actually value collaboration and integration—or simply draw on these terms for marketing purposes. Will they engage in focused dialogue or lecture the client about their work? Will they attempt to discover hidden concerns or make their own assumptions? How will they build the client’s confidence that they are the right team for their project? What does each team plan to do with this valuable 90-minute period? Human-centric interviews may appear to be a radical warm and fuzzy concept. However, through the lens of the lean thinker, they make sense. Lean thinkers have seen enough rehearsed presentations; they want to probe beyond prom-

ises and good intentions to witness actual behaviour prior to choosing their architect. Create a Demand for Lean RFPs

Clearly, the typical architectural RFP does not serve the needs of architects and clients. Given the enormous amount of time and energy expended during the selection process—and all that is at stake in choosing the right architect—it makes sense for everyone involved to rethink long-accepted proposal norms. Our best and brightest architects make valuable contributions to society each day when they are allowed to do productive work. The right architect for a given project will guide clients through a rewarding creative experience that ultimately represents a sound investment of their fee and construction dollars. Producing a small forest worth of documents in response to unexamined criteria is a poor use of human and natural resources. Lean, results-driven RFPs give both the client and the architect more time to focus on creating great projects together. CA Sharon VanderKaay, Associate AIA, is director of knowledge development at Farrow Partnership Architects Inc. She looks forward to the day when fat-free RFPs and human-centric interviews become the norm.

Will Alsop: OCAD an urban manifesto The exhibition explores the creative design process behind the Ontario College of Art and Design’s startling new building in Toronto. 13 June –– 5 October 2008

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CALENDAR Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future

May 3-August 23, 2008 This exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC is the first full retrospective of Eero Saarinen’s (1910-1961) career, and includes drawings and documents, large-scale models, photographs, a full-scale façade mock-up, original furniture samples, and a short film featuring interviews with some of Saarinen’s prominent colleagues and collaborators. www.nbm.org The Street Belongs to All of Us!

June 12-October 2, 2008 This exhibition takes place at the Eric Arthur Gallery and Larry Wayne Richards Gallery at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design, University of Toronto. Exploring cities on five continents, the exhibition acknowledges that the streets are places of encounter and conflict, but asks a number of important questions. How are streets planned and designed? For

what and for whom? How are the multiple occupancies and speeds of pedestrians, cyclists, cars, service vehicles, and public transportation systems reconciled, and how do we share the street? www.ald.utoronto.ca Will Alsop: OCAD, an Urban Manifesto at the CCA

June 12-October 5, 2008 This exhibition features British architect Will Alsop’s preparatory work for the Sharp Centre for Design at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) in Toronto and reveals specifically the role of painting in his design process. OCAD’s colourful exterior and surprising floating form lend it a vibrant intensity that stands in stark contrast to the surrounding environment. Since completion, Alsop’s OCAD has become not only a popular icon but a catalyst inspiring the transformation and revitalization of Toronto’s urban spaces. Featuring more than 50 objects, the exhibition includes paintings, preparatory draw-

PRODUCT & LITERATURE SHOWCASE

ings, early conceptual models, archival documents, and presentation material. www.cca.qc.ca Selwyn Pullan: Positioning the New

June 24-September 20, 2008 The West Vancouver Museum presents this comprehensive survey of the work of Canadian photographer Selwyn Pullan. In a career spanning over 50 years, he played a critical role in advancing West Coast modern architecture, documenting numerous residences and institutional projects for British Columbia’s leading architects in an intense and innovative period in the three decades following WWII. Pullan was sought out specifically for his inventive composition and ability to contextualize new buildings, capturing the spare aesthetics and spiritual essence of the work of architects such as Ron Thom, Fred Hollingsworth, Arthur Erickson and Barry Downs. This retrospective demonstrates the photographer’s

intimate connection to the development of Modernism on the West Coast of Canada and highlights the social, economic and cultural forces that changed the face of Vancouver and the region during the postwar boom. www.westvanmuseum.blogspot.com The Planning and Design of Public Libraries

July 21-23, 2008 This executive education program offered by Harvard University Graduate School of Design is geared to both architects and librarians, and explores library programming, design issues and the rapidly evolving demands for library services and technology. Tuition is $1,075, and there is a nominal site fee of $25. http://execed.gsd.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/ exec_ed/details.cgi?offering_id=101437 FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE, AND ADDITIONAL LISTINGS OF CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL EVENTS, PLEASE VISIT www.canadianarchitect.com

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07/08 CANADIAN ARCHITECT

BACKPAGE

COLLABORATIVE KITCHEN

A GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY ENDEAVOUR PROVIDES A COLLABORATIVELY BASED EDUCATION FOR UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS.

TEXT

ADAM BOBETTE JESSE JACKSON

PHOTOS

We are well aware that architecture is a thoroughly collaborative practice that includes everyone from clients and specialists, to city officials and office partners. We even find ourselves collaborating with materials. Unfortunately, it is less common for architecture students to experience a collaborative design process while in school. Encouraging students to develop their own voices, unique identities and signature styles, architecture schools do not spend enough time on collaborative projects. When they do, the process often reverts to hierarchical distributions of power and knowledge—and in worstcase scenarios, a kind of disciplinary myopia. Can our schools offer an alternative pedagogy of collaboration? An effective precedent for collaborative design education occurred last fall in a graduate design

42 CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/08

studio offered at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Entitled “Assembling a Molecular Architecture” and directed by faculty member Adrian Blackwell, the studio linked up with members of a community kitchen located in Mount Dennis, a west-end Toronto neighbourhood. They met for a number of months before deciding upon on a design. Through mapping exercises, group meetings, charrettes and intense brainstorming sessions, the studio decided to build a mobile community kitchen that would achieve the utmost variability and modularity so that it could be transported to various locations within the community. The design of the kitchen would be capable of handling a wide variety of seating and cooking arrangements, community cooking events, and hosting the greatest number

of interactions amongst a wide range of community members. There was a continual discussion between the students and community members where design concepts, concerns and skills were exchanged. Accomplishing the task with a minimum of funds and in a limited amount of time, an emphasis was made on maintaining a collaborative dynamic where considerable skills were shared amongst community members and students. The studio was not intended to be a charity exercise, but instead sought to engage in a grassroots community organization. The Mount Dennis Mobile Kitchen Unit is flourishing. It continues to roll along to different events and locations in Mount Dennis, feeding upwards of 400 people at one sitting and drawing lines of continuity, connection and participation within the neighbourhood. As for the architecture students who participated in the project, the mobile kitchen provides a successful case study that emphasizes how architectural education should continue to stress the spirit of collaboration. CA In the spirit of the collaboration, the names of the participating students are: Pamela Choo, Nicholas Elliott, Jessse Jackson, Scott Keyes, James Lennox, Larry Mac, Giampaolo C. Mancuso, Eugene Mastrangeli, Cara McKibbin, Graham McNally, Luke Stern, Hui Teng and Pamela Tung. Adam Bobette is an artist and researcher based in Montreal. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS TAKE THEIR MOBILE COMMUNITY KITCHEN ON THE ROAD IN TORONTO’S MOUNT DENNIS NEIGHBOURHOOD. BELOW THE MOBILE KITCHEN CAN BE CONFIGURED IN A PLETHORA OF WAYS, SEEN FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: COMPONENTS HOUSED IN THEIR STEEL CAGE READY FOR TRANSPORT; ONE MODULE ON WHEELS THAT ACCOMMODATES TRASH CONTAINERS; A NUMBER OF JOINTED HORIZONTAL PLANES INFOLD TO FORM A FLEXIBLE ARRANGEMENT OF PICNIC TABLES. TOP LEFT

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