Canadian Architect April 2022

APR/22 V.67 N.02

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Artful Perforation

An art-inspired perforated screen with lights at abstract angles serves to mask the parking area. The transparency balance is key. “We wanted to push the perforation ratio to the minimum open area allowed by code. This made each screen read more like a skin than an opening.”

-Knox Jolly, RA, Lord Aeck Sargent

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06 NEWS

EMA PETER PHOTOGRAPHY

NARRATIVE, COURTESY HEATHERWICK STUDIO

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT

APRIL 2022 03

A star-studded architecture team for Quayside in Toronto; design for Saskatoon Central Library unveiled; RAIC announces shortlist for its International Prize.

13 AIA CANADA JOURNAL Annual design awards; introducing the Small Firm Exchange.

40 REVIEW

The timely exhibition A Section of Now fills the main galleries of the CCA in Montreal.

45 INTERVIEW 19

27

We speak with Nina-Marie Lister, the ecological designer who won last year’s $50,000 Margolese National Design for Living Prize.

19 ALBERNI AT THE VANGUARD

48 BOOKS

27 PEARL BLOCK

50 BACKPAGE

New residential towers by Kengo Kuma, Thomas Heatherwick, Revery, and Ole Scheeren signal an evolving Vancouverism. TEXT Trevor Boddy

A new development by D’Arcy Jones Architects for Aryze Developments creates six affordable townhomes on a triangular lot in Victoria, BC. TEXT Paul Koopman

Leslie Van Duzer’s recent book on the magical domestic architecture of Atelier Nishikata.

Vancouver’s Unbuilders meticulously deconstructs houses and commercial buildings, saving them from the landfill.

34 GROSVENOR AMBLESIDE JAMES K.M. CHENG

A waterfront building by James K.M. Cheng Architects contributes to private and public realms on a key site in North Vancouver. TEXT Sean Ruthen

Alberni by Kengo Kuma with Merrick Architecture (Architect of Record), Vancouver, BC. Photo by Ema Peter Photography

COVER

V.67 N.02 THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE / THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE RAIC / THE OFFICIAL

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MAGAZINE OF THE AIA CANADA SOCIETY

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VIEWPOINT

EDITOR ELSA LAM, FRAIC

YOUNG HERITAGE For many, the term “heritage” applies exclusively to older buildings. Most municipalities in Canada will only consider properties that are at least 40 years old for heritage designation. But the Ontario Heritage Act sees it differently, allowing for “potential and existing properties of cultural heritage value or interest,” regardless of their age, to be identified, designated, and protected from character-damaging changes.

The City of Toronto has long, if quietly, embraced the possibilities of the province’s open definition. Recently, it gave a heritage designation to Shim-Sutcliffe’s Craven Road House and Studio, buildings completed in 1996 and 2005 respectively. In 2004, it designated Taylor Hariri Pontarini’s McKinsey & Company Headquarters—only five years after its completion. Trillium Park, designed by West 8 and LANDinc and opened in 2017, was included when Ontario Place was added to the City’s Heritage Register in 2019.

In the case of the Craven Road property, the designation was instigated by owner Robert G. Hill, an architect at KPMB and the creator of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950. The designation concludes that the house and studio hold cultural value based on the awards they have received, their association with both Robert G. Hill and Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, and their adept handling of urban context.

According to the city’s study, “the buildings are particularly remarkable for the innovation and high standards achieved on a restricted budget, demonstrating that great architecture can be cost-effective and also show leadership in addressing the needs of the ‘missing middle’ and the densification and improvement of city neighbourhoods.”

The designation allows Hill to apply for a Heritage Easement Agreement, which will protect the property’s façade and relationship to Craven Road from alterations, while maintaining the possibility for future interior renovations and for a rear expansion of the structures.

The city’s study of Ontario Place was completed under higher-stakes conditions, as the provincial government opened a call for Expressions of Interest, inviting proposals

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ART DIRECTOR ROY GAIOT

by private sector operators for the development of the property. This put the future of Eberhard Zeidler’s iconic Pods and Cinesphere—and the pioneering landscape design

by Michael Hough—at risk.

Although the property was already recognized by the Province of Ontario as a cultural heritage landscape of provincial significance, the Province had removed the property’s Statement of Cultural Value from its website, replacing it with information on the site’s proposed redevelopment. While the Ontario Heritage Act does not allow municipalities to designate provincially owned properties, by including it on the City’s Heritage Register, the City of Toronto has asserted its longstanding interest in the significance and future of Ontario Place.

Trillium Park was completed after the 2014 provincial heritage evaluation, on the site of a former staff parking lot. Including it in the City’s study affirms how contemporary design can be executed in a manner sensitive to the intentions of a cultural heritage property.

“Trillium Park has high design value as an ecological urban park based upon principles of sustainability which are evident in its design to prevent flooding contributing to Toronto’s resiliency,” reads the Statement of Significance, in part. “The design is also valued as it contributes to the original purpose of Ontario Place, which was to be a showcase of the province, through its representation of typical Ontario geological landscape features, ravines, moraine bluffs, drumlins as well cultural heritage landscape features which acknowledge the long historic presence of Indigenous people through Moccasin Identifier carvings, marker trees, sassafras and other plants which had traditional use and a floating dock for arrival by canoe.”

The cases of both Craven Road and Trillium Park show that “heritage” is more than a mere word. When applied through municipal legislation, it’s a powerful tool that can help cities identify and protect the cultural value of their built assets. It’s a tool that significant places— both old and new—deserve to benefit from.

Elsa Lam

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ANNMARIE ADAMS, FRAIC ODILE HÉNAULT DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB, FRAIC ONLINE EDITOR CHRISTIANE BEYA REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, FRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, FRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER, HON. MRAIC SUSTAINABILITY ADVISOR ANNE LISSETT, ARCHITECT AIBC, LEED BD+C VICE PRESIDENT & SENIOR PUBLISHER STEVE WILSON 416-441-2085 x3 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER FARIA AHMED 416-441-2085 x5 CUSTOMER SERVICE / PRODUCTION LAURA MOFFATT 416-441-2085 x2 CIRCULATION CIRCULATION@CANADIANARCHITECT.COM PRESIDENT OF IQ BUSINESS MEDIA INC. ALEX PAPANOU HEAD OFFICE 126 OLD SHEPPARD AVE, TORONTO, ON M2J 3L9 TELEPHONE 416-441-2085 E-MAIL info@canadianarchitect.com WEBSITE www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published 9 times per year by iQ Business Media Inc. The editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and authoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose.

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NEWS

COURTESY WATERFRONT TORONTO

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PROJECTS Waterfront Toronto names partners for Quayside development

Waterfront Toronto has announced the selection of Adjaye Associates, Alison Brooks Architects, and Henning Larsen to deliver a new waterfront neighbourhood on the Quayside site. The site was previously slated for development into a high-tech neighbourhood by Googleaffiliate Sidewalk Labs.

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Toronto’s Quayside neighbourhood will be designed by architects Adjaye Associates, Alison Brooks Architects, and Henning Larsen.

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The architects will be working with developers Dream Unlimited Corp. and Great Gulf Group, and were selected from a shortlist that included Foster + Partners, MVRDV, and Diamond Schmitt.

The development comprises five towers, along with one of Canada’s largest residential mass timber buildings. The plan also includes a multiuse arts venue, a community care hub with recreation and wellness services, new public spaces, and over 800 affordable housing units.

The designers intend to make Quayside the first all-electric, zerocarbon community of its scale. waterfront.ca

Saskatoon Public Library unveils new central library design

Concept designs of Saskatoon’s new central library have been released.

Designed by Formline Architecture, Chevalier Morales, and Architecture49, the project draws inspiration from First Nation and Métis architecture.

The library’s curved, tapered form references the traditional Plains First Nations tipi, while the interior mass timber structure references the Métis’ log cabin. An atrium meanders up through the building, creating a cascade of open spaces.

The building includes a children’s library, innovation lab, local history area, storytelling and learning circle, and spaces for a Knowledge Keeper in residence and writer in residence.

The 12,635-square-metre library will be located at 321 2nd Avenue North in downtown Saskatoon, with plans to open in 2026. www.saskatooncentrallibrary.ca

Design team for the Arts Commons Transformation announced

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KPMB , Tawaw Architecture Collective Inc., and Hindle Architects have been selected to expand and renew Calgary’s Arts Commons.

Arts Commons—currently home to five theatres and the world-class Jack Singer Concert Hall—will be transformed over two phases. The first phase is now fully funded, and will see the expansion of Arts Commons, adding new performance venues and support areas with thoughtful connections to the current building. The second phase—the modernization of the existing Arts Commons—will follow once funding is secured.

The project scope for the design team encompasses both phases.

The team expects to reveal the new design in fall 2022. The first phase of construction is scheduled to begin in 2024. www.calgarymlc.ca

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COURTESY FORMLINE ARCHITECTURE, CHEVALIER MORALES AND ARCHITECTURE49

dential school, and Mukqua Waakaa’igan will be located in proximity to it. “Mukqua Waakaa’igan will showcase the decades of truth-telling work led by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre,” said Algoma University President and Vice-Chancellor Asima Vezina. “As part of our commitments to the Calls to Action, Mukqua Waakaa’igan will provide a safe and culturally appropriate space to house and care for the archives from the residential schools’ history, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation Collection and other important historical documents.”

It is anticipated that design consultations will begin in the coming weeks, while the search for human remains on the residential school site continues.

Formline Architecture, Chevalier Morales, and Architecture49 have released renderings for their design of Saskatoon’s new central library, scheduled to open in 2026.

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www.algomau.ca

ABOVE

Smoke Architecture and Moriyama & Teshima to design Indigenous Centre of Cultural Excellence at Algoma University

Smoke Architecture and Moriyama & Teshima Architects have been selected to design Mukqua Waakaa’igan, the new Indigenous centre of cultural excellence at Algoma University.

The name Mukqua Waakaa’igan was given through ceremony and in recognition of this very significant work. According to Algoma University, in Anishinaabemowin, Mukqua, the bear, is a carrier of medicine, and as such a healer; Waakaa’igan refers to its lodge or den.

The oldest building on Algoma University’s campus is a former resi-

City of Edmonton velodrome and community centre breaks ground

The construction phase of the Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre is underway following the City of Edmonton’s approval of the $153-million budget in late 2021.

The project is an architectural partnership between HCMA Architects and Dub Architects, in association with FaulknerBrowns Architects. The facility will include an International Cycling Union-sanctioned velodrome that is expected to attract large, international sporting events, according to developers.

Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre will connect to the award-winning Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre, providing a wide range of complementary programming. The facility is expected to open in 2026. www.edmonton.ca

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NEWS

The Bentway announces Waterfront ReConnect designers

The Bentway, in partnership with the City of Toronto, Waterfront BIA, and Toronto Downtown West BIA, has announced the winners of the national Waterfront ReConnect design competition.

The winning designs are: Boom Town at York Street by 5468796 Architecture + Office In Search Of (Winnipeg/Toronto); and Pixel Story at Simcoe Street by O2 Planning + Design + Mulvey & Banani Lighting + ENTUITIVE (Calgary/Toronto). The selected designs will be installed in fall 2022 and will remain in place until that section of the Gardiner Expressway undergoes necessary repairs in 2025.

ASIF SALMAN/URBANA

www.thebentway.ca

Martha Schwartz and LANDinc to design Ontario Place public realm

New York landscape architecture firm Martha Schwartz Partners and Toronto-based LANDinc have been awarded the commission by Infrastructure Ontario to design and construct the public realm of Ontario Place.

The soon-to-be-developed landscape concept will be a publicly accessible space that can be explored outside of programmed events and attractions. The concept also features 24/7 access to the 30-km Martin Goodman Trail and Exhibition Place.

Last summer, the Ontario government announced its plans for the revitalization of the heritage property. Under the government’s plan, Live Nation Entertainment will redevelop the amphitheatre into a year-round venue with an expanded outdoor and indoor audience capacity. Therme Group is working with architecture firm Diamond Schmitt on plans for building an all-season park with indoor and outdoor pools, waterslides, a wave pool, sports services, botanical gardens, and a publicly accessible

ABOVE The Friendship Hospital in Satkhira, Bangladesh, designed by Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA, has won the RIBA International Award for exemplifying design excellence and delivering meaningful social impact.

bridge, trails and beaches. Écorécréo Group will build an adventure park with obstacle courses, ziplines, and rentals for canoes and kayaks.

The Future of Ontario Place Project, a consortium that includes participation from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto, Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, and World Monuments Fund, has come out in opposition to the redevelopment plan, citing a lack of public consultation and a dismissal of the site’s accessibility to all. www.infrastructureontario.ca

AWARDS Bangladesh hospital wins RIBA International Prize

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The RIBA has announced that the Friendship Hospital in Bangladesh, designed by Kashef Chowdhury/ URBANA, will be awarded the RIBA International Prize, a global accolade for design excellence and social impact.

The remote community hospital was commissioned by the NGO Friendship and provides a medical lifeline for thousands of people from Satkhira, an area of the coast that was heavily affected by a major cyclone in 2007.

The prize’s grand jury described the hospital as embodying an “architecture of humanity” and as an “exemplar of innovative architecture that addresses critical global issues—unequal access to healthcare and the crushing impact of climate breakdown on vulnerable communities.”

Situated in the southern region of Bangladesh, the project faced demanding environmental conditions due to rising sea levels impacted by climate change.

“In a sublimely important moment, RIBA and the jurors have identified a project from the global periphery to bring to the centre of architectural discourse and be the subject of one of the most important global awards. I am encouraged that this may inspire more of us to commit, not in spite of, but because of, limitations of resources and means, to an architecture of care both for humanity and for nature, to rise collectively to the urgencies that we face today on a planetary scale,” says Chowdhury.

“Having worked with communities most impacted by climate change over the last 20 years, I have seen, time and again, proof of my belief

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ABOVE A mixed-use neighbourhood proposal by Vancouver designers Nicole Sylvia, Roy Cloutier, and Lörinc Vass won the top prize in the Urbanarium’s Mixing Middle competition.

that ‘The poor cannot afford poor solutions’! Friendship Hospital brings new hope of a better tomorrow to some of the most climate-impacted people on this planet,” says Runa Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Friendship. www.architecture.com

Urbanarium announces winners of Mixing Middle competition

The Vancouver Urbanarium Society has announced the winners of its Mixing Middle competition. The group launched the competition

to generate mixed-use designs for four Metro Vancouver communities: Surrey, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, and Vancouver.

The competition’s overall winners are: 1st Place ($10,000 prize)— Lots in Common (North Vancouver site) by Team Contingent (Nicole Sylvia, Roy Cloutier, Lörinc Vass of Vancouver); 2nd Place ($4,000 prize each)—shared by Co-Living Quadplex (Coquitlam site) by Altforma Architecture (Cedric Jacques Yu and River Hughes of Vancouver) and Mixed Modal (Vancouver site) by Team VIA_Re:Discover (Anne Lissett, Catherine He, Claire Schumacher, Stephanie Coleridge, Bonnie Vahabi of Vancouver); 3rd Place ($3,000 prize)—Simple Small Things First (Surrey site) by CR Design (Taylor Castañón-Rumebe and Vince Castañón-Rumebe of Burnaby).

Honourable mentions, carrying a $1,500 prize each, went to each of the following projects: Module X (Coquitlam site) by sxla (Summer Xia Liu and Jerry Kuo of Vancouver); Biophilia (Vancouver site) by AirStudio (Inge Roecker, Robyn Gray Thomson, Yang Yang, Andrea Hoff, Jessica Chen of Vancouver); Do It Yourself Together (Surrey site)

by Parley Collective (Haley Zhou, Felix Cheong, Rachel Cohen-Murison, Eveline Lam of Toronto) and Octopus Architecture (Vancouver site) by Jessica Little and Michael Knauer of Burnaby.

“The winning proposals brought together the residential with the commercial in a way that elevated the neighbourhood to a destination.

This commercial viability and livability reminds me of Melbourne or cities in Europe—where you pick up fresh bread from one shop, groceries in another, and go for a haircut across the street. It makes for an elegant and compelling solution to residential communities,” says Colette Griffiths, a member of the overall prize jury and owner of The Federal Store.

The two submissions that received second place overall also tied for the Planners’ Prize and will split its $10,000 award. “The planners’ panel

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NEWS

ABOVE Toronto-based Ja Architecture Studio, which has just been named an Architectural League of New York Emerging Voice, was shortlisted in a 2019 competition to redesign Pachacamac Park in Lima, Peru.

elected to award two very practical proposals that we could imagine shifting the nature of the conversation across the Lower Mainland,” says Michael Epp, a member of the Planners’ Prize panel and Director of Planning for the City of North Vancouver. “We saw these two submissions as part of a continuum; you could almost think of them as the transect of the mixing middle, which might vary across the Lower Mainland depending on whether you’re in the core or at the periphery.” www.themixingmiddle.ca

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Ja Architecture Studio receives Emerging Voices Award

The Architectural League of New York has selected Toronto-based Ja Architecture Studio as one of eight recipients of its annual Emerging Voices Award.

The award spotlights individuals and firms based in the United States, Canada, and Mexico with distinct design voices and the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape design, and urban-

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ism. Since 1982, the program has identified more than 300 awardees.

The work of each Emerging Voice represents the best of its kind, and addresses larger issues in architecture, landscape, and the built environment. www.archleague.org

RAIC International Prize shortlist announced

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has announced the shortlist for the 2022 RAIC International Prize for socially transformative architecture.

The shortlisted nominees are: Borden Park Natural Swimming Pool in Edmonton, Alberta, by gh3*; Stade de Soccer de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, by Saucier+Perrotte/ HCMA Architects in joint venture; and The Warming Huts in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by Sputnik Architecture Inc. and numerous collaborators.

2022 marks the fourth edition of the biennial prize, which was founded in 2013 and is open to architects from anywhere in the world.

Three students have won $5,000 RAIC International Prize scholarships for writing essays explaining how architecture can be transformative. The winners are Lewis Canning (Dalhousie University), Fabio Lima (Université de Montréal) and Jesse Martyn (University of British Columbia). Certificates of Merit in the student competition were awarded to Jerry Chow (Carleton University), Jasmine McRorie (University of Waterloo), and Saba Mirhosseini (University of Manitoba).

“The amount of compensation paid to an architect for the provision of specific services has always been a challenging and polarizing discussion,” says the RAIC. “The RAIC Fee Guide is not a salvation, but it may serve the profession well given that the offer sought by clients now extends beyond price, quality and service to include speed.”

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www.raic.org

MEMORANDA Margolese Prize

Nominations are due April 10 for the $50,000 Margolese Prize, awarded annually to a Canadian designer whose work uplifts people, places and communities. margoleseprize.com

Winnipeg Design Month

The Winnipeg Architecture Foundation, Storefront Manitoba and the Flash Photographic Festival have joined together to create a Design Month in April. As well as the annual Architecture+Design Film Festival (6-10 April) and the month-long Flash Photographic Festival, there will be a variety of tours, talks and exhibits showcasing architecture and design. designmonthwpg.com

www.internationalprize.raic.org

WHAT’S NEW

For the latest news, visit www.canadianarchitect.com/news and sign up for our weekly e-newsletter at www.canadianarchitect.com/subscribe

CALA members incorporate as ROAC

Partners Healthcare Administative Campus, Somerville MA | architect: Gensler | landscape architect: OJB Landscape Architecture | photographer: Kyle J. Caldwell

The members of the former Canadian Architectural Licensing Authorities (CALA) have incorporated as a new not-for-profit group, the Regulatory Organizations of Architecture in Canada (ROAC).

Headquartered in Vancouver, ROAC includes the 11 provincial and territorial bodies responsible for regulating the practice of architecture.

To serve the public interest, these regulators set qualifications and practice standards for entry into the profession, issuing registration and licences to those meeting them.

The national body will continue developing nationally recognized standards and programs to meet regulatory responsibilities as well as the needs of the public and the architectural profession. This includes improving professional mobility throughout Canada and internationally using tools such as Mutual Recognition Agreements to honour architectural credentials and qualifications, and provide a path for obtaining registration across participating jurisdictions.

“As more provinces and territories look to create opportunities for internationally trained professionals, having national consistency will be important to protect the health and security of the general public from illegal practice,” says John Brown, President of the RAIC. www.roac.ca

RAIC opens access to Fee Guide

The RAIC Guide to Determining Appropriate Fees for the Services of an Architect is now freely accessible to the public and professionals at no cost.

According to the RAIC, removing access restrictions “gives the architectural community the opportunity to reflect on the profession’s state of resilience, the upcoming salary challenges—felt by both employer and employee—and the rate and method by which we monetize design services for sustainability.”

CA Apr 22.indd 11

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Savings by Design | Affordable Housing

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Canada Journal A New Strategic Plan

n 2021, AIA National revised their Strategic Plan based on feedback from 18 months of surveys. They defined the following areas for immediate emphasis: Climate action: To deliver real action to help mitigate climate change.

Justice and equity: To ensure equity in the profession, in our communities, and for all who inhabit the built environment we design.

The role of the architect: To help society recognize the value of architects’ work in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges.

Research and technology: To recognize that our unique knowledge defines who we are and what we do, and that innovation allows us to create a better world.

Architectural Education: To better prepare architects for the future and to include a true cross-section of society.

In keeping with AIA National’s Strategic Plan, the AIA Canada Society would like to introduce our newly appointed Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Pauline Thimm Architect BRA (Massachusetts) AIA MRAIC LEED® AP. A Senior Architect and Community Engagement Specialist, Pauline is an Associate at DIALOG, and its Chair of Post-Secondary Education Practice and Chair of Community Wellbeing and Equity Practice. She continues to build on a wide-ranging portfolio of campus and cultural projects developed over her 16-year career practicing and teaching architecture in Canada and the U.S.

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Letter from the President

elcome all to the first installment of the AIA Canada Journal for 2022— and my first as your Chapter President. I would like to welcome Dora Ng into her new role as Vice President of the Chapter; I am certain that she is already a familiar name to you, as she has been the Director of our Continuing Education Program for several years. We have three other returning board members this year: Dr. Adam Pantelimon as he moves into the role of Past-President, Stuart Howard as interim Treasurer, and Jon Fulcher as Secretary.

In November 2021, we reached a significant milestone in the advancement of our Chapter, receiving formal accreditation from AIA National. This accomplishment was only possible with the contribution of countless hours of the current and previous volunteer board members, for which we are truly grateful. This creates a solid foundation from which we can further envision what our Chapter means to us. We aim to stay aligned with the values established by our parent organization, while ensuring that the Chapter reflects our own individual character.

Our starting point for the year is acting on the fall survey results indicating the types of continuing education that most interest our members. We are also establishing direct communication conduits to the AIA Knowledge Communities and Member Groups, and will profile a new one each quarter: there is a

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wealth of information already available to members, and finding it isn’t always intuitive.

Our first profile, in these pages, is of the Small Firm Exchange (SFx), for which I was the International Representative for the 2020/2021 term. As a small firm owner, I was completely unaware of the resources available: SFx offers everything from start-up guides to guidance for HR, to software insights. I truly appreciate the connections made with other small firm owners, both in the US and abroad, who generously share their knowledge and experiences through SFx. Past-president Dr. Adam Pantelimon is the current Chair of the Public Architects Committee (PA), another knowledge community that may be of interest to members. On April 7-8, this Committee has organized the symposium “The Climate of Public Architecture” at the AIA Headquarters in Washington, DC. Hopefully 2022 will be a year with opportunities for returning to more in-person programming. Until then, we look forward to your continued virtual and hybrid engagement at Chapter-led events and at the conference in Chicago this June.

Lara Presber Architect, AAA, AIA, CPHD, WELL AP™

NEWS Open Call for Mentors and Mentees at the AIA International Mentorship Program Register for the global mentorship program matching emerging professionals with seasoned AIA members: • 10-month long program • Quarterly and monthly large and small group settings

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• Open

to students, recent graduates, those pursuing licensure and architects • Cross-continental networking opportunities • Gain professional development, learn leadership strategies, and learn how to enhance workplace culture in this global profession

Call for Volunteer Treasurer AIA Canada is seeking a treasurer to be part of the Board of Directors. The term of the position runs until December 2023.

Please contact info@aiacanadasociety.org with expressions of interest.

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AIA Canada Journal

AIA Canada Award Winners

he AIA Canada Awards program runs annually each fall to recognize best practices, innovative thinking, and design excellence in the work of AIA Canada members and future design professionals—the latter through a student category and $1,000 scholarship. The two top winners will go on to participate at no cost in the AIA International Awards Program for 2022, whose winning projects will be displayed at the AIA National Convention.

The 2021 awards cycle invited entries in the categories of Architecture, Interior Architecture, Urban Design, and Unbuilt Projects. The jury was chaired by James Wright, FAIA, 2016-2017 AIA International president and included two other distinguished architects: Tolya Stonorov, AIA, Associate Director of Norwich University’s School of Architecture + Art and Associate Professor of Architecture, and Barry Johns, Architect, AAA, FRAIC, Hon.FAIA, RCA, LEED AP, 2011-2017 Chancellor of the College of Fellows, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and 2015-2019 Director of Practice, Alberta Association of Architects.

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AIA Canada Journal

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MERIT Architecture

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Central Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, British Columbia Henriquez Partners Architects

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AIA Canada Journal

Member Group Spotlight – Small Firm Exchange (SFx) https://network.aia.org/smallfirmexchange

The Conference Committee works to evaluate content submitted to each annual AIA National Convention, and after an in-depth evaluation, submits recommendations for programs of interest to small firms. In previous years, a Small Firm Guide to the Convention was published for distribution to local chapters and their members. Architects from small firms attend the conventions in greater numbers than their large-firm counterparts, and can gain a great deal of knowledge and inspiration from these annual events. The SFx is focused on ensuring that each Convention includes numerous events and educational sessions that are of particular relevance for small firms.

SFx Special Projects

The 2020 members of the AIA’s SFx at E. Fay Jones’ Thorncrown Chapel, prior to the switch to virtual meetings.

he Small Firm Exchange (SFx) is a Member Group of the American Institute of Architects. The mission of the SFx is to advance the mutual interests of architects practicing in small firms (defined as having 10 employees or less). The objectives of the AIA SFx are threefold:

and 15% or 2,850 are firms with five to ten employees). The SFx advocates for small firms, promotes leadership development, and supports chapter roundtables and other small-firm networks.

1. Advocate the value of small firms, the national SFx, and local SFx groups, both within the AIA and to the public.

The Small Firm Exchange has two sub-committees: Outreach and Conference. The first, Outreach, focuses on communicating curated content to small firm members. This effort includes sharing content on the following social media channels:

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2. Curate and disseminate the most pertinent resources and information, from the AIA and elsewhere, that benefit small firms.

3. Inform the AIA of current issues facing small firms and areas in which current resources and/or information are lacking.

Approximately 75% of all firms within the AIA are small firms, amounting to 14,288 small firms within the organization. (Overall, around 25% or 4,750 of the AIA’s participant firms are sole practitioners, 35% or 6,650 are firms with one to five employees,

Outreach and Conference

Instagram: @aia_sfx Facebook: AIA Small Firm Exchange Twitter: @AIASFx Website: www.aia.org/sfx Flipboard: AIA SFx Magazine

There are times when the need arises for a special project directed by the Small Firm Exchange. In 2021, the SFx developed two webinars: “Ownership and Leadership Transition—Pathways to Success;” and “Financial Management Basics for Small Firms—How to Improve Profitability.” Both of these are available on-demand at the AIAU website. In 2020, a spotlight was placed on interpreting the 2030 Challenge through the small firm lens. The SFx led the production of articles along with a webinar titled “Making the 2030 Commitment Work for Your Small Firm,” also available on AIAU. In 2021, an additional SFx special project was launched: a Toolkit to help local chapters start an SFx Group of their own. This is something that we are exploring for the Canada Chapter, as our membership covers such a broad and diverse landscape. The Toolkit is available on the SFx landing page.

Small firms play a significant role in the AIA and in the profession as a whole. The Small Firm Exchange is ready to help you improve your practice by providing the resources and support you are looking for. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Lara Presber, AIA Canada Chapter President and former International Representative to the SFx. Lara can be reached via our website: aiacanadasociety.org

Small firms can share their projects to be distributed through the AIA SFx Instagram feed. If you are interested in having your work included, upload your projects to the SFx Instagram listed above.

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EMA PETER, COURTESY WESTBANK

A MODEST DOWNTOWN STREET HAS BECOME A LOCUS OF ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION THAT’S RESHAPING VANCOUVERISM.

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Trevor Boddy

For over a century, ‘architectural zoos’ have been permanent collections of architectural animals—one example each from the leading species of designers. The most famous of these is the Weissenhofsiedlung, which in 1927 collected a range of modernist housing by Le Corbusier, Mies, Gropius, Hans Scharoun, Bruno Taut and others on a Stuttgart hillside. For Fukuoka’s Nexus World Housing in 1991, Arata Isozaki served as zookeeper, contributing a housing block of his own and coordinating constructions by Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas, Mark Mack and more. Such collections are unequalled opportunities to see how differing design thinking can be realized within the same topography and building brief.

Vancouver’s Alberni Street is emerging as the continent’s leading zoological park for creative luxury high-rises. There is no single organizing mind behind choosing the designers for the various species of residen-

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tial towers rising there. Rather, the concentration results from the converging dynamics of urban design controls, land economics, a mandated 6,500-square-foot limit on residential floor sizes, view cone restrictions on building heights, and the feng shui of mountain and harbour views— all propelled by a rare-in-Canada spirit of architectural ambition.

Alberni Street seems an unlikely locale for architectural experiments, with its ten blocks capped on its eastern edge by the copper château roof of the Hotel Vancouver, and on its western end by Stanley Park.

Running parallel to it on one side is the extra-wide ceremonial axis of Georgia Street, home to office towers and hotels; on the other is Robson Street, a somewhat fading retail area that is now seeing many of its high-end boutiques migrate to Alberni.

The template for Alberni as an allée of design innovation was first set

by Peter Cardew’s 1978 Crown Life block (now 1500 West Georgia)

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This article tours these latest additions to Vancouver’s accidental architectural zoo, as Alberni Street continues to be transformed with new ideas. Like Weissenhofsiedlung and Nexus World, the wildly expressive line of towers along Alberni is sure to become a permanent pilgrimage path for architects seeking ideas for high-density housing.

Moreover, this first look at four diverse designs shows how the street is taking the forms and principles of Vancouverism in new directions.

1700 Alberni by Thomas Heatherwick Architects with IBI Group Bosa Properties is a rising presence amongst Vancouver developers and is starting to challenge North America’s largest privately held firm, Westbank, for some of the city’s most prestigious and expensive building sites. It’s currently developing two projects on Alberni. In consort Kengo Kuma’s Alberni, currently under construction, sits opposite the rounded-corner triangular tower of Peter Cardew’s classic 1500 West Georgia (formerly Crown Life Block), completed in 1978.

LEFT AND BELOW Thomas Heatherwick’s design for a pair of towers at 1700 Alberni introduces playfully bulbous forms that frame generous outdoor terraces for residents.

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Designed by Venelin Kokalov of Revery Architects, 1684 Alberni includes double-height outdoor spaces on two corners of each floorplate. The balconies alternate positions floor-by-floor, all the way up the building’s 40 storeys.

LEFT AND ABOVE

with Kingswood Properties president Lorne Segal, Bosa Properties head Colin Bosa decided to invest heavily in a search for the right architects and designs for these projects. This took the developers on a tour of residential projects in Europe and the United States, followed in 2019 by that rarest of designer selection processes for their double tower site at 1700 Alberni—a developer-funded design competition. With Kasian’s Michael MacDonald engaged as professional advisor, Bosa brought three international teams to Vancouver to prepare their designs: MAD Architects from China (best known in Canada for their Marilyn Monroe towers in Mississauga), UN Studio from Amsterdam, and Thomas Heatherwick from London, UK. Heatherwick and his colleagues ultimately won, convincing the developers that they had the most playful design ideas coupled with the deepest knowledge of the specificities of the context. (They gained the latter largely by riding rented bicycles around Coal Harbour and the West End for three days.) Their original competition scheme suggested a radical revision of the concept of anchoring podium, shifting from the Vancouverist template of a ring of townhouses to instead propose a clear-span, arch-ribbed, multi-storey community space—home to a changing range of retail, events, market, concerts and exhibitions.

Instead of design continuity between this reconceived public base and the residences above, there was a sharp break in massing, with two

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round towers tapering down to touch the community halls below solely at their circulation cores. But when presented publicly, planners and media felt that this design had passed from the playful into the jocular—there were numerous references to the towers as enormous carrots or turnips.

Nonetheless, Bosa and Segal stuck behind Heatherwick, commissioning a revised second design early in the pandemic. The new version exhibits a complete rethink of the idea of balconies: they are much increased in size and wrap around both towers and podium, with an eye to post-pandemic space needs coupled with a renewed turn towards West Coast indoor-outdoor living. Colin Bosa says the design-development team analyzed the potential of the balconies from every possible perspective: “In the end, these are no longer balconies, but something more appropriate for our changed times—terraces.” Enforcing Heatherwick’s organic ethos and extending the mono-chromia of his copper Vessel at Hudson Yards, the exterior walls will all be green, though it is not yet decided if this will be realized with tiles or metallic panels.

1684 Alberni by Venelin Kokalov of Revery Architects Westbank continues its westward progress along Alberni Street with a highly efficient design by Venelin Kokalov of Bing Thom’s successor firm, Revery. 1684 Alberni’s design is a direct descendent of Thom and Revery’s other recent project for Westbank, the conjoined double tower

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of The Butterfly on Burrard. The Butterfly opens next year, and Kokalov was its primary designer, ditto for the similarly curve-celebrating Xiqu Opera Centre in West Kowloon (CA, May 2019). Its near-square point tower floors are wrapped with ceaselessly curving white panels— stacked, they look like schools of dolphins cresting in a vertical sea.

The wave motif is planned in two-storey sections, a welcome change from the single floor-by-floor elevation repetitions that make generic Vancouver condo towers so interchangeable and dull. Unusual for Vancouver, where conventional approaches to podia limit the extension of main tower design motifs right down to the ground plane, Kokalov’s winged white elevation panels continue down to wrap the main entrance.

Here, they become touchable when entering, and they frame a few flanking townhouses, set discretely away from the main design show.

Kokalov’s floorplate solution for the tower is ingenious: extra-large balconies extend out at opposite corners floor-by-floor; this repeats on alternate floors all the way up the building’s 40 storeys. This makes for double-height balconies at two corners on every second floor, then two on the other vertices one floor above, and so on. Revery’s innovation makes for highly usable, large decks with rare airy ceiling heights beneath the deck above, down-look privacy ensured by a ring of horizontal fins that also limit solar loads and shear winds. For the higher, more exclusive suites, all have the extended balconies; on lower levels where there are four units per floor, half get the extra space. This approach to tower elevations also makes for lots of variably angled sur-

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Buro Ole Scheeren’s design for 1515 Alberni includes nine multistorey glass boxes that project out from the façade, creating privileged views of water and mountains from shared amenity and private living spaces.

ABOVE

faces to reflect and temper light entering units: a means of meeting Vancouver’s 60 percent limit on envelope glazing, and a celebration of vistas to mountains and harbour through ovoid frames.

Conspicuously absent from Vancouver’s luxury residential scene are pencil towers, such as Toronto’s 85 storey The One. This is because of the City’s View Cone Policy, a set of urban design controls protecting views to the tops of North Shore mountains from a handful of obscure places south of False Creek. This awkward policy has succeeded in its deeper intent—putting a limit on building heights downtown. Not only does Kokalov’s 1684 Alberni max out its height, but shading limits on a Coal Harbour park required the notching back of its top floor.

What is especially thrilling about near-neighbours 1700 and 1684 Alberni is that both demonstrate fresh thinking about the most underachieving feature of Vancouver towers: those hibachi and bicycle storage zones of tiny, seldom-used balconies.

1515 Alberni by Buro Ole Scheeren with Francl Architecture Peter Cardew’s design for Crown Life pushed all of the insurance company’s office spaces into a triangular tower at the block’s western edge,

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Alberni by Kengo Kuma with Merrick Architecture Scheeren’s design ethos is made even more evident by the impossibleto-avoid comparison with Alberni by Kengo Kuma, just across the street. Neighbourly and deferential, the Tokyo architect’s first-ever residential tower exhibits completely different sets of attitudes towards massing and detailing—and even the valuation of views. Being new to towers, Kuma started with an easy-to-construct rectangular box (the costs and complexities of BIG’s structural heroics at Vancouver House had by then become clear to Westbank), then carved away floors to Alberni by Kengo Kuma curves towards views to Coal Harbour to the north and English Bay to the south. The resulting sculptural form is clad with shingle-like panels inspired by fish scales, set in an artfully variegated pattern that reflects the needs of the residential spaces behind.

OPPOSITE

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EMA PETER, COURTESY WESTBANK

its crisp concrete structure and curtain wall detailing forming a learned tribute to James Stirling. The rest of the block, also designed by Cardew, included a large reflecting pond, and at the corner of Alberni and Nicola Streets, a low triangular pavilion intended as a restaurant, but dogged with a spotty leasing history as a retail or office space. Because the complete block is now substantially below current density limits, Bosa Properties and Kingswood saw the potential of a new tower to inhabit that under-performing corner, so bought the entire property. Six years ago, they engaged Buro Ole Scheeren to take on the design for an ultra-luxury high-rise at the corner—no small task for a site having both the ghost of Cardew present, and the rising spectre of Kuma’s extravaganza immediately adjacent. Like BIG’s Bjarke Ingels, Scheeren is an alumnus of Rem Koolhaas’ OMA studio, and best known as his project designer for the hulking and entirely unsubtle CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, followed by similarly assertive residential towers on his own all over Asia.

The developers encouraged a new approach to balconies and view spaces here, too. Advancing this exploration is Scheeren’s key innovation at 1515 Alberni: nine extruded glassy multi-floor boxes that cantilever out from the west and north elevations, hovering over the midblock reflecting pond and park below. Searching for descriptors for this new kind of living space, Bosa calls the protruding glass volumes “observatories” in the same way Heatherwick’s dancing balconies were renamed “terraces;” both terms seem calibrated to evoke the cliff-hugging volumes of the Los Angeles Case Study Houses, one of the revelations of the developers’ study-tour. Each of the nine projecting observatory volumes has up to three levels of kitchen, living, and dining spaces set within their three entirely glazed walls, with bedrooms and bathrooms set back within the main volume of the boxy tower. One of the observatory boxes is dedicated as a triple-storey amenity space for all building residents—truly a hub for high-flyers, and doubtless a shooting location (in both senses) for future James Bond movies. Some of the most expensive condo apartments ever in an expensive city, the observatory units are clear profit centres for Bosa, with Scheeren’s firm providing handsome interior designs for them in three sets of finishes.

What of the other two elevations, and the lowest ten floors of this 42-storey building, all bereft of the Jenga blocks of strutting and attention-seeking observatories? Here, the elevations are crisp if dull by comparison, slick and taut in their tight skins, more workaday and spandexconfined than any other tower in this zone. When the design was first presented to the public, there was wide comment on the aggressiveness of Scheeren’s design, the boxes not so much perceived as connecting with harbour and North Shore mountain views, as hands extended out to possess them. Some of the best architectural criticism comes from people outside of the industry, so I asked a non-designer friend what she thought of 1515 Alberni. Her exquisitely simple reply was “Real grabby.”

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The cladding of Alberni by Kengo Kuma breaks the usual 1.5metre construction module, creating an elegant, original expression that avoids visual seams and zipper-like mid-wall patterns.

ABOVE

permit oblique views from neighbouring towers towards the harbour, adding bulges where less impactful. Scheeren’s observatories point solely to Coal Harbour and the North Shore mountains; after his first visit to a nearby tower, Kuma realized that views south to English Bay and the Gulf Islands were every bit as good. In the urban dance of building massing, Vancouver House does The Twist, 1515 The Stomp, and Kuma’s a vivacious waltz.

To underscore this gliding form, Kuma’s Tokyo team developed a different approach to elevations, using metal cladding panels inspired by shiny fish scales. Hung in overlapping rows like vertical shingles, the panels create an artfully variegated elevation on the two short endwalls, driven by the specific window needs of the spaces behind them, mainly kitchens and bedrooms. Crucial to their success, their arrangement breaks the usual 1.5-metre construction module, thus avoiding visual seams and mid-wall ‘zippers.’ The side elevation treatments also made it possible to conform to planning requirements limiting glazed areas to 60 percent of elevations. These are the most spectacular new tower elevations on the continent: a tour-de-force of texture, pattern, shadow and sparkling highlight. On the long elevations, the concave and convex modifications to the rectangular box template ensure a surprising variety of residential unit layouts, while still conforming to the efficiencies of a double-loaded corridor building.

Kengo Kuma has had a career-long interest in the notion of engawa, or the space between public and private. He explained its importance

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in an early interview at his studio: “In our overall building massing, the carving away of form yields the zone for balconies—they are a form of engawa within the tower, as the park and garden at base is one for surrounding streets. Our built form seems more complex than it really is—there is a high degree of balance.” While massive columns curve and swoop out to set their feet right along Alberni, the glass line is set back for the first five storeys, forming a sheltered semi-public engawa space which will feature a moss and bamboo garden, along with the first North American outpost of a Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant, Waketokuyama.

Kuma had planned one of his trademark mass-timber interlocking matrix structures—or kigumi—to hang from the soffit above the park, with another set above the lap pool along Cardero. But Canadian design codes did not permit this much combustible material in key occupied zones, so Kuma worked with long-time engineer Jum Saito to produce the same forms and connectors in metal with wood-like surfaces. Both architect and developer are sanguine about the change. Westbank owner Ian Gillespie says: “Authenticity is achieved in multiple ways, not just through materiality—we always sought together the most constructable solution that maintains the integrity of Kuma’s key idea of layering.”

Some of the most progressive elements of the tower are not visible.

It will help complete Vancouver’s district heating system, and the community amenity contributions and other fees from Westbank and fellow Alberni developers have generated tens of millions of dollars for affordable and public housing elsewhere in the city. Extending the lessons of 30 years of innovation, the street is developing its own virtues of walkability, with a string of small flanking public spaces. But above all, creative design that stems from respect of the city and its citizens is the finest gift that architects like Kuma can provide.

A Future Legacy James Cheng’s early Alberni constructions defined his career and earned him status as the godfather of the street. He sees this legacy living on and is convinced that Kuma’s tower in particular will join the key works of Arthur Erickson, Ron Thom and Peter Cardew as icons of Vancouver city-building. “What is most amazing is that this is the most Japanese building ever built here, while in its forms, textures and ethos, it is utterly knowledgeable and sensitive to Vancouver—a much-nuanced gem for our city,” says Cheng. Former co-director of planning Larry Beasley oversaw the first of Cheng’s constructions on Alberni. Of the street’s recent projects and proposals he says they represent “a positive pivot: from generally good urbanism to also now generally good architecture.”

Certainly, the thrilling architectural zoo that will open over the next few years along Alberni Street could never have been achieved through the clumsy tools of public policy—you cannot legislate an innovative street into being, any more than you can impose a proclamation for fine paintings or novels. Other forces are at work here, including the sense of competition amongst Vancouver developers, and the personalities of the architects who design here. To Cheng, the various towers reflect the traits and ambitions of their designers: “Kuma is the wise respected gentleman; Heatherwick is the playful young experimenter; Kokalov the brilliant exponent of curves; Scheeren the advocate of solitary force.” In speaking of their own designs, architects often hide behind cloaking technical, bureaucratic or theoretical language. But while never denying their public dimension, architecture and city-building are deeply personal and human acts. Alberni Street is proving to be the perpetually renewing tribute to this dynamic legacy.

Architecture critic and urban designer Trevor Boddy FRAIC curated the exhibition

Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City, which toured London, Paris and Vancouver from 2009 to 2010.

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A MODERN ROWHOUSE DEVELOPMENT IN VICTORIA, BC, BRINGS NEW THINKING TO AN AGE-OLD TYPOLOGY. Pearl Block, Victoria, British Columbia D’Arcy Jones Architects TEXT Paul Koopman PHOTOS Ema Peter Photography PROJECT

ARCHITECT

A sawtooth configuration fits six rowhomes onto a triangular lot in an established residential neighbourhood. The development aimed to create a family-friendly, affordable alternative to detached houses.

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OPPOSITE The units share a common forecourt, with front doors and living room windows facing the street, and garage doors angled towards the side yard. ABOVE Similar to D’Arcy Jones’ single-family houses, the units are laid out with a variety of spaces, robust and cleanly executed details, and thoughtfully integrated storage—all of which help support family life.

A four-storey rowhouse sits quietly on a tree-lined collector street in Victoria, BC, enjoying the camouf lage of the foliage and a comfortable proximity to similarly sized townhouses and single-family detached homes. The building’s mass—rendered in deeply textured dark taupe stucco—presents as a series of articulated boxes that gently recede from the sidewalk and the mature London planes of Shelbourne Avenue. Confident, yet subdued, the design of Pearl Block finds balance in a modulated and family-friendly approach that builds on the typology of the rowhouse, incorporating elements that are at once new and historical.

Completed this year, Pearl Block resulted from a collaboration between D’Arcy Jones Architects and Aryze Developments. D’Arcy Jones is a Vancouver-based practice that has made a name for itself designing single-family homes in the BC mainland; Pearl Block is the studio’s first multi-family housing project. Aryze started out as a Victoria-based custom home-builder, and then branched into development out of a desire to provide affordable urban infill housing, helping to counteract the city's housing crisis.

Because of its triangular lot shape, Pearl Block’s site was considered a poor building site and had sat vacant for 65 years. Those constraints made it exactly the kind of project Aryze wanted to take on: a place

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where they could see the potential overlooked by others. They sought to create an attainable alternative to detached single family homes on the site, creating a set of high-quality, well-constructed places for families who admired modern architecture but could not afford a custom home.

To address the site’s geometric particularities, they engaged D’Arcy Jones Architects, who proposed a cluster of six rowhouse units in a sawtooth pattern, positioned around a common forecourt. Stucco was the choice of exterior finishing from the start, and was chosen to emulate the stucco of traditional Victorian homes built at the end of the 19th century.

Initially, the City of Victoria’s Planning department was not on-side with the development: they found the stucco heritage approach to be antiquated, and objected to the “form and character” of the design. But they were won over after a favorable review by the local Architectural Design Panel, and a surprising show of support from the project's neighbours.

In describing the public approvals process, D’Arcy Jones says that the general public has an understandable fear of change, yet “too often, both sides are not respectful enough of one another.” In the design of projects like Pearl Block, he aims to make his buildings appealing to modern-minded residents and neighbours alike—blending newness and craft in a way that aligns well with Aryze’s commitment to using

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ABOVE An operable skylight atop the stairs and generous living room windows bring natural light and a sense of spatial depth to the L-shaped homes.

Plywood stair stringers are expanded into sturdy wood-grained guardrails that conceal handprints.

traditional building methods paired with innovative construction techniques and intelligent design. Jones adds, “Architecture has a responsibility to be good on other people’s terms.”

The site planning of Pearl Block exhibits solid urban design principles. First, the size and massing of the building matches the neighbourhood scale, yet confidently positions itself within the language of modern architecture. The design carefully considers neighbours’ access to natural light and restricts overlook into their yards. Jones likens the projecting wing walls of the façade to horse blinders, designed to focus residents’ views toward the street, rather than peering into neighbours' lots.

Pearl Block’s front doors likewise face the street, with garage doors turned towards the side yard. Large windows from the second-floor living rooms further enhance a connection to the front, adopting the “eyes on the street” approach promoted by urbanist Jane Jacobs.

The exterior of Pearl Block is modern, yet it avoids current design preoccupations with tight, shiny facades. Instead, this architecture evokes a strain of modernism more in line with the coarse walls of Marcel Breuer or the rougher period of Le Corbusier. The rhythm of the stucco panels and recessed windows expresses bulky proportions, producing a play of deep shadows across the façades. The exposed concrete base further adds to the sense of massiveness.

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Approaching the units on foot, one is aware of the continuous cantilevered soffit above the main entrances and garage doors. According to Jones, this cantilever was necessary to accommodate vehicle turning clearances. The result is a common portico that protects the doors from rain and behaves as a threshold between the public and private realms. Near the entry, a stocky plywood guardrail guides residents up to the second f loor.

At the main living area on the second f loor, it becomes evident that the units are L-shaped in plan. The kitchen faces a large sliding glass door and enclosed balcony to the south, while the living area faces east, towards the street. Although compact, there is a subtle dynamism to this space, thanks to multiple natural light sources and the dual orientation of the room. Jones points to his interest in creating “nooks and crannies” in contrast to the linear spatial experience common in townhouse and multi-family designs. He describes space in terms of solid and void, adding that people respond to this on an emotional level. “So many apartments are a version of the glass tube,” says Jones, adding that having multiple spaces—rather than a single large one—allows more possibilities for family life.

Sleeping areas are grouped on the third f loor. Here, the designer and developer have opted for three smaller bedrooms rather than two

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larger ones, citing the benefit of an extra room for a child’s bedroom or small study. Jones describes the project as “working with minimums.” People who are accustomed to a master bedroom with room for a couch, he says, would find these bedrooms too small.

Continuing up the stairs, a large operable skylight opens to the roof. Here, the sense of compression experienced on the bedroom f loor gives way to open sky and a wood-enclosed roof garden the size of the entire f loorplate. Jones describes this space as the “yard” of the house. Cedar-lined perimeter walls extend five feet tall, designed to match typical fence heights in the city. There is a sense of spacious luxury here, paired with privacy thanks to the tall enclosing walls.

Jones describes his design process as working from the inside out.

For him, the design of bedrooms begins from the position of the bed and moves out from there; dining areas begin from the table; and so on. The scale and proportion of rooms comes first, and it’s only after the interiors are resolved that exterior design is explored. He adds that his studio is constantly drawing, that drawing is like thinking out loud. “We are only going forward,” says Jones: he encourages his studio to avoid rebuilding work in reaction to unexpected site conditions, instead choosing to adapt the design to meet new conditions.

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Deeply textured stucco side walls emulate the style of turn-of-the-century homes in Victoria, and function like blinders that frame views and enhance privacy for residents. RIGHT The building’s massing introduces protected terraces and covered courtyard spaces at the entrance of each unit.

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As in all of Jones’ projects, there is a sense of careful consideration to details and materiality in Pearl Block. “We are never too busy to let anything be,” says Jones. Indeed, there is persistence at work here: a continuity of line and simple elegance that does not rely on the use of expensive materials.

Jones speaks about his desire to introduce both newness and history into his designs as if they are two sides of a coin. Ancient forms of housing inspire his work. “How people live hasn’t changed much,” he says.

“I think the average person could go into a house in Pompeii today and would appreciate the experience of rooms and the hierarchies. They could move into them with modern details and be super comfortable—it would feel as fresh as if it was made yesterday.”

“A lot of people, if they are really honest with themselves, would like a door on the street and a relationship to the street. They’d like to have

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some kind of garden, not have someone above and below them, and not ride an elevator,” says Jones. “The rowhouse is an ancient building block and if everybody did it, everywhere, we wouldn’t need all these towers, which I think are not that appealing. I think people are sometimes looking for an overly complicated, magical design solution: but the solution is already done, and it exists in the rowhouse.”

Paul Koopman, MRAIC, is a Senior Project Architect at Cascadia Architects in Victoria.

DEVELOPER & BUILDER ARYZE DEVELOPMENTS | ARCHITECT TEAM D’ARCY JONES, JESSE

RATCLIFFE, JESSICA GU, REBECCA BOESE | STRUCTURAL RJC ENGINEERS | CIVIL WESTBROOK CONSULTING LTD. | MECHANICAL AME GROUP | ELECTRICAL AES ENGINEERING | LANDSCAPE BIOPHILIA COLLECTIVE | INTERIORS D’ARCY JONES ARCHITECTS | AREA SIX 3-BEDROOM HOMES RANGING FROM 111 TO 164 M2 | BUDGET WITHHELD | COMPLETION NOVEMBER 2020

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Dekton 8X Facade AD_Canadian Architect Feb.pdf

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This building façade features Dekton® Halo in our 12mm thickness large format, used for ventilated façade applications

8X On The Park 1111 Richards St, Vancouver,BC Architect: GBL Architects Inc Fabricator/ Installer: Keith Panel Systems

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A BLOCK-LONG WATERFRONT SITE IN WEST VANCOUVER’S AMBLESIDE VILLAGE PROVIDES A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO DESIGN A NEW HEART FOR A WELL-ESTABLISHED NEIGHBOURHOOD. Grosvenor Ambleside, West Vancouver, BC James K.M. Cheng Architects Sean Ruthen

PROJECT

ARCHITECT TEXT

Discussions of the “missing middle” often focus on densifying singlefamily lots, or sites made by consolidating a handful of lots. But occasionally, the opportunity arises to develop a larger infill parcel in an existing neighbourhood. If done right, this can result in muchneeded housing while enlivening the public realm.

This was the case with a project our firm, James K.M. Cheng Architects, recently completed after a decade of work. Grosvenor Ambleside occupies a 180-metre-long waterfront site in West Vancouver. For many years, the site had been home to a gas station, several single-storey retail buildings from the 1950s and 60s, and surface parking. It also housed an aging Ron Thom-designed police station that’s since been replaced with a newer facility elsewhere.

The site sloped down to the south, where built-up railway tracks created a 1.2-metre-high visual barrier to beach and ocean views.

For our team, the idea of a new development here was an opportunity to inject new life into the aging neighbourhood block, improve access and enjoyment of the waterfront, and create a much-needed heart for the neighbourhood. We were working on a number of other master plans at the same time as Ambleside, including the 14-acre former TransLink bus barns site in central Vancouver, now set to become

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The development continues Marine Drive’s commercial fabric, with wood accents nodding to the West Coast modern vernacular. OPPOSITE A centrepiece of the development is a mid-block public passage and event space, covered by a glass-and-wood canopy. OPPOSITE BOTTOM Facing the beach, the block was raised to match the level of an existing railway embankment, improving views and access to the water.

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a new community for over 2,000 people, and an eight-acre strip mall in Coquitlam, being transformed into a transit-oriented development.

Our office thinks of these projects as acts of “urban mending”—where an outdated commercial or industrial area is reworked as part of a more sustainable community.

For Ambleside, it was no small feat to see the 98-unit mixed-use development project through to reality, starting with a complex land assembly process led by Grosvenor, and followed by a robust public engagement process—perhaps the most comprehensive of the many that our team has seen in the past 40 years. A development of this density on a prime waterfront site would simply not have been possible without the support of the community—from the residents of the District of West Vancouver to the long-time locals around Ambleside Beach.

From the beginning, it was clear that the project needed to do more than provide high-end condos for its residents: it needed to create a strong public realm that would serve the entire community. Raising the ground floor to the level of the railway tracks was a first strategic move in this direction: it allowed for the commercial units (and not just the residents above) to enjoy views of Stanley Park and the Georgia Strait, while also providing flood protection against the annual King Tide and rising sea levels.

Early on during the public consultations, the team also settled on a terraced building form and a mid-block breezeway. The terraces help

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preserve views for neighbours in a small cluster of apartment blocks across the street, while the breezeway opened views to the beach for passing pedestrians and cars on Marine Drive. The upper floor condos pivot slightly from the ground floor street grid to align with the area’s overall north-south orientation, further opening up views and minimizing the building’s bulk.

The mid-block passageway quickly evolved into an all-weather living room for the community, complete with a transparent glass-and-wood canopy spanning 60 feet between the buildings. Tree Snag, a 30-foottall sculpture by Douglas Coupland, occupies the central space, complementing other works around the site by the same artist. Original paintings by the late Gordon Smith, who passed away in early 2020, adorn the residential lobbies. The developer, Grosvenor, has also forged partnerships with the Kay Meek Art Centre and other local arts organizations for Christmas performances and other special events to take place in the sheltered outdoor space.

The development also aims to contribute towards housing availability and sustainability. The 98 high-end, home-like units are the kind of places intended to appeal to aging boomers interested in opting for a lowermaintenance condo with waterfront views, and a chance to live in the ‘five-minute city.’ Such occupants could produce the knock-on effect of freeing up nearby existing houses for use by families. Currently, West Vancouver is Canada’s wealthiest municipality, with an average

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The upper floors of Grosvenor Ambleside pivot from their podium base, aligning with the residential fabric of the district.

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household net worth of over $4.45 million dollars—but much of that is tied up in the value of under-occupied homes that were purchased at much lower prices, and that owners can’t afford to relocate from without an alternative such as Ambleside.

On each floor, deep overhangs contribute to solar shading and weather protection while protecting each unit’s views; extensive planters allow for the capture and slow release of rainwater before being discharged at ground level. Nodding to the area’s West Coast Modern legacy homes, Grosvenor Ambleside sports long horizontal lines, wood parallam beams in the breezeway, generous glazing, and stunning views of the water and mountains.

Herman Hertzberger once wrote about the warp and weft of urban design. He commented that architecture and its surrounding context—the roads and infrastructure that support each building—combine and complement each other in a successful design. We see our work at Ambleside and other large sites around Metro Vancouver as part of this greater whole. These projects participate in an ongoing revitalization of the city’s infrastructure, mending city streets while introducing new building fabric.

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At Ambleside, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, both for residents and for the greater community. Through public engagement and a shared vision of how we wish to live together, we believe that beyond providing housing, we’ve forged a strong public realm in this key community site—a place from which we can stand back to look at the state of our world, and find our way back home.

Sean Ruthen, FRAIC, is the current RAIC Regional Director for BC and Yukon, and a senior architect at James K.M. Cheng Architects.

CLIENT GROSVENOR | ARCHITECT TEAM JAMES KM CHENG (FRAIC), ADELINE LAI, DON CHAN, DENNIS SELBY, INGOLF BLANKEN BARBOSA, LUC MELANSON, STANTON HUNG, SARA KASAEI, ASHLEY ORTLIEB, FANG HSU, BRUCE YUNG, CANDACE LANGE | STRUCTURAL READ JONES CHRISTOFFERSEN | MECHANICAL INTEGRAL GROUP | ELECTRICAL SMITH + ANDERSEN | LANDSCAPE DESIGN ARCHITECT SWA | LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT OF RECORD DURANTE KREUK | CIVIL BINNIE | SURVEYOR BUTLER SUNDVICK | INTERIORS MITCHELL FREEDLAND DESIGN | CODE LMDG BUILDING CODE CONSULTANTS | ENVELOPE RDH BUILDING SCIENCE | GEOTECHNICAL THURBER ENGINEERING | ACOUSTICS BKL CONSULTANTS | SUSTAINABILITY INTEGRAL GROUP | WAYFINDING BUNT & ASSOCIATES | CONTRACTOR LEDCOR GROUP | AREA 24,619 M2 | BUDGET $347 M | COMPLETION SPRING 2021

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Energy modelling helps save energy and money — What energy modelling does extremely accurately is comparative analysis, such as comparing three or four different wall assembly options and seeing how they impact energy use— which is really difficult to do well without an energy model. That kind of comparison allows you to run a financial analysis to see which wall option is going to make the most sense for you.

Energy modelling can help uncover low-cost solutions — Energy modelling is great at showing that the devil’s in the details. If you’ve been using the same wall assembly for years, for example, you’re likely also using the same details: where a wall meets a floor, there’s a thermal bridge, and when you have 30 floors, it really adds up. There’s potentially a very low-cost solution to make that more efficient.

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* This has no cash value. To qualify for the program, your project must be located in the Enbridge Gas service area. City of Toronto projects will be required to achieve higher energy performance targets. For more information regarding City of Toronto projects, contact Mary Sye, Energy Solutions Advisor, at mary.sye@enbridge.com. If a participant doesn’t complete construction of a new commercial property in the Enbridge Gas service area that exceeds 20 percent of the Ontario Building Code’s energy performance requirement within five years of completing the integrated design process workshop, they’re not eligible for performance incentives. In order to receive incentive payments, you must agree to all program terms and conditions, fully participate in all stages of the program and meet all program requirements. HST is not applicable and will not be added to incentive payments. © 2022 Enbridge Gas Inc. All rights reserved. ENB 824 03/2022

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MATTHIEU BROUILLARD © CCA

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ON NOW, ABOUT NOW ROBOTS, AVOCADOS, AND REUSABLE STRAWS FEATURE ALONGSIDE FORWARD-LOOKING HOUSING DESIGNS IN THE CCA’S PROVOCATIVE CURRENT EXHIBITION.

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Annmarie Adams Sandra Larochelle, unless otherwise noted

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A Section of Now is on now and is about now. Conceived as a cross section of contemporary life from the last four decades or so, this provocative show fills the Montreal museum’s six main galleries until May 2022 with lots of familiar and unfamiliar stuff. Family, ownership, agency, labour, obsession and life cycle are the official themes, but the hot topics of care, domesticity, addiction, the gig economy, and youth also link the exhibition spaces. An accompanying tome is available in English and French.

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The overall message of A Section of Now is that lifestyle changes show up in design. Curator and book editor Giovanna Borasi invites architects to rethink spaces, objects, landscapes, and other arrangements in light of new ways of living. In terms of design, A Section of Now is very white, bright, and perhaps slightly more congested than most CCA exhibitions. Giant framed photographs predominate and big pieces of furniture occupy several of the galleries.

At first glance A Section of Now appears playful, but it is demanding.

An online introductory video suggests that architecture and society are out of step. But I think the exhibition shows something else: that we now see architecture as consumer objects designed as antidotes

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to entrenched social problems. Buy this to help with your addiction to that.

Women and aging people are still disadvantaged? We need special and better housing. Feeling lonely? Consider hiring a professional cuddler (or move in with your sister). As for racial equity? It matters more thanks to organized activism in public spaces. In such a paradigm, architecture is reactive. But what if architects and architecture were active? That’s what A Section of Now invites.

The main gallery, “Family,” has a triangular bed and a smart bassinet beside plexiglass shelves of architectural models and images. The bed represents unconventional sleeping arrangements, trumpeting the wide range of living arrangements popular today. Four massive photos

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OPPOSITE A kid’s raincoat with four arms signals genetic engineering technology that allows for more than two parents. ABOVE A gallery on “Agency” includes oversized photos on bleacher-like steps and a yellow tent, a seeming leftover from the Occupy Wall Street movement.

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of “chaotic” living rooms—including a sidewalk—serve as something of a headboard to the empty bed. The whole first gallery has a plush, light coloured carpet, giving the experience a soft and cuddly feel, like a bedroom. The use of carpets throughout the exhibition reinforces the idea of connections among the galleries.

“Ownership,” just to the east, is more about real estate. This second gallery is dominated by a lineup of bathroom fixtures—toilet, sink and shower floor—and housing designs that blur traditional functional and familiar divisions. Sanitärblock, the plumbing wall, is from a Swiss multi-unit dwelling which minimizes interior elements, reducing the rent by half.

My favourite section is the corner gallery, “Agency.” Exhibition designer Sam Chermayeff has surrounded the small room’s walls with bleacher-like steps, which support large, leaning framed photographs.

The “furniture” in this room is a dome-shaped tent, as if left over from the Occupy Wall Street movement. Hashtags such as #blacklivesmatter remind us how we know these images.

Something I really like about the exhibition is how ordinary things are framed and displayed as precious objects. In this room dedicated to Agency, for example, it’s a gilet jaune vest, biodegradable and vegan shoes, and a trio of reusable straws. Also striking is a printed and framed partial list of BIPOC-owned design firms, as if the list itself is a work of art.

It’s the kind of thing we might find on Facebook, rather than in a museum.

“Labour” and “Obsession,” in the other two galleries along the front wall of the CCA, include many ubiquitous images and things: tables of

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various shapes and styles, a laptop, desk chairs. A humorous touch is that the CCA’s own ping pong table is here, representing an activity that supposedly makes workplaces healthy and fun.

“Obsession” is a super cool room. A metal stud wall struts through the space on an unexpected angle, decorated with the small globe lights used around dressing room mirrors. It even marches over a curvy stage—like a backdrop in a photographer’s studio—that exposes a dozen or so ordinary objects. There’s a Ziplock, yoga mat, water bottle, Airpods, kettlebells, craft beer, hoodie, selfie stick, wireless speaker, supplements, healing crystals, oil diffuser, and a drawer organizer.

This stuff is so familiar. We’re complicit!

The final gallery in the circuit is futuristic and perhaps, as Chermayeff says in an interview about the exhibition design, “the most difficult on the viewer . . . because you have to form a position.” “Life cycle” features technologies that simulate or broaden bodily experience. This red-carpeted room has three parallel tables with screens and prototypes such as a chestfeeding kit, which allows men and/or non-biological parents to almost breastfeed babies. Throughout the gallery, an ominous voice recording from Dan Chen’s End of Life Care Machine plays and replays: “Hello, my friend . . . You are not alone, you have me by your side. We hope you will have a pleasant afterlife. Time of death: 11:45 Goodbye, my friend.” Drawings for a new-style crematorium in Belgium face photos that document an isolated mountain-based collective in Utah, for young wealthy entrepreneurs. A kid’s raincoat with four

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arms signals genetic engineering that allows for more than two parents.

There’s even a DIY insemination kit that doubles as a sex toy, turning a clinical process into something more pleasurable.

For architects and planners, the exhibition gathers an impressive and useful array of revolutionary housing designs that could inspire future neighourhoods and cities. Women, same-sex couples, minimalists, influencers, night owls, nomads, and individuals of all kinds are stakeholders in A Section of Now. Two Canadian housing projects are included: a nifty scheme for multi-generational housing by Toronto architects Williamson Williamson and an Edmonton duplex built by and for a divorced couple, Kent Kirkland and Monica McGrath, where the kids occupy a shared zone.

Still, contradictions abound. If the subject is truly “now,” where’s the pandemic? As of today, 5,282,807 patients have died of Covid-19. Has Covid not changed our perceptions of life and death? The exhibition catalogue, which mentions Covid-19 eight times, was delayed because of the worldwide shortage of paper related to the pandemic. Why not make a thing of it? Ditto for the section on “Labour.” Yes, electric scooters, grocery delivery, job relocation, and ring lights have proliferated, but where is the ubiquitous Zoom room that has made work for many of us much less fun? The section on “Agency” includes nods to Indigenous issues and anti-Indigenous racism. A reference to the original inhabitants and caretakers of the CCA site could have been very “now” in this gallery on activism.

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As a particularly clever exhibition, A Section of Now raises as many questions as it answers. Its wallop comes from two unsettling juxtapositions. The first is that familiar objects are shown next to unfamiliar ones. For example, a Nespresso pod is in the same exhibition as a map for people forced to live in their cars. The second is that some rather messy subjects appear in the highly dignified galleries of the CCA, reminding us that aging, inequality, divorce, sex, childbirth, illness, love and avocados can shape architecture. Even the triangular bed is a bit tousled, as if recently occupied.

Annmarie Adams, FRAIC, is jointly appointed in the Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture and Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University

OPPOSITE A triangular bed with slightly rumpled sheets occupies the centre of a gallery on “Family,” pointing to the unconventional sleeping arrangements that have increasingly become the norm. ABOVE The room on “Obsession” evokes a photographer’s studio, showcasing an array of on-trend ephemera, from succulents to sourdough bread.

CURATORIAL TEAM FRANCESCO GARUTTI, MEGAN MARIN, HANNAH STROTHMANN, USHMA THAKRAR | RESEARCH MATTHEW DE SANTIS, IRO KALARGYROU, AND LAURA APARICIO LLORENTE | PHOTOGRAPHY CONSULTANT MELISSA HARRIS, NEW YORK | TV CONSULTANT ANDREA BELLAVITA, MILAN | EDITORS-IN-CHARGE (PUBLICATION) USHMA THAKRAR WITH ALEXANDRA PEREIRA-EDWARDS

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NINA-MARIE LISTER ECOLOGICAL DESIGNER AND REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL PLANNER NINA-MARIE LISTER’S WORK SPANS BETWEEN POLICY AND PRACTICE.

Adele Weder

Nina-Marie Lister has made a career of embedding nature within the design of our daily lives. As founder of the studio Plandform and leader of the Ecological Design Lab at the soon-to-be-renamed Ryerson University, she has developed a nature-centric, interdisciplinary approach to landscape interventions. Her work spans between design and policy, from animal crossings built over highways, to the wilding of her own Toronto front garden, to supporting the development of the Meadoway park system on a 16-kilometre hydro corridor.

Lister has been recently honoured with the $50,000 Margolese National Design for Living Prize, administered by the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia.

Canadian Architect contributing editor Adele Weder interviewed her at Massey College, where Lister is a Senior Fellow. The following is excerpted from their conversation.

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LISTER: The medium of my work is landscape, and it is things that are

alive. When we design at a small scale and when we design responsibly— for example, with an ecological application or with the lens of ecology— we don’t risk the system. We engage in ways that are safe to fail. I work almost exclusively in partnership arrangements and in collaborations, where we co-create designs, particularly because I’m at work in a living system that is complicated and complex.

We’re living in a time of tremendous urgency between the climate emergency and global biodiversity collapse. Anything we do has to be done quickly and urgently, but with a lot of different approaches.

This means trying things quickly with enough information to act now, but on a scale that’s responsible and safe to fail.

CA: In your Margolese acceptance speech, you talked a lot about

projects that you didn’t get and competitions that you didn’t win. So is it fair to say that you’re more optimistic about the potential of design than the reality of current practice?

LISTER: Yes, in that we need to be brave and daring and not be afraid

to break things, including boundaries. That’s why they say that second place is often the winner. Design competitions give us the space to try new ideas. Just being in competitions is an opportunity for innovation.

Even if we don’t win, we still learn something from that, and we carry that forward into the next project. And we can put forth an idea that is compelling, engaging and different.

So much of design work—particularly in the private sector, or even by private sector suppliers in the public sector—when the project is completed, the designers walk away. A lot of my work is about monitoring, evaluation and resetting of goals. We consider design an engaged process of learning.

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MARTA BROCKI

CANADIAN ARCHITECT: Tell me more about how you work.

Lister’s own natural garden is a case study in her contestation of Toronto’s long grass and weeds bylaw, which she and her lawyer argue is unconstitutional and outdated. BOTTOM Lister and her CoLab colleagues at work on ReConnecting Landscapes: Green Infrastructure for People and Wildlife in 2018.

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CA: Your practice involves complex biological systems. The market

economy is also a very complex system, in a different way. How do you reconcile those two systems?

LISTER: I come from a very privileged position, working in a univer-

sity where I’m paid to do research. But on the other hand, I’m highly motivated by the urgency of our times. And frankly, the corporate market system that created a lot of the problems we’re trying to deal with right now will not get us out. We need to find different ways of working. And while “partnership” sounds like an escape clause for both the private and public sector, it actually allows us some interesting space to innovate.

A lot of the work that I do right now is around landscape connectivity through wildlife crossing infrastructures. How do we allow humans and wildlife to get where they’re going to safely? These are not the same as the highway bridges we use for truck traffic, military vehicles, or rescue vehicles. For example, they have to support landscape overburden, and you can’t allow the edges of these bridges to settle differently for wildlife.

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INTERVIEW

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Currently under construction, the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing will allow for the safe migration of endangered bobcats, grey foxes, mountain lions, and other animals across a 10-lane US highway.

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This means the way we think about design has to not only include the structure and the landscape for different clients—one of whom can speak and the other one who can’t—but also the system of governance and the system of maintenance, implementation and decision-making about them.

What we can do is issue procurement processes differently. We can partner with the private sector, which has more risk capital available, particularly if there is a new category of infrastructure that has very different requirements. The public sector can issue a requirement for this infrastructure on a widespread basis with the private sector.

We can also establish different standards of success for infrastructure like bridges intended for wildlife.

CA: You’ve described animals as “clients.” How do you engage in

that kind of relationship with a species that doesn’t speak?

LISTER: Oh, they do speak—just not to us. And let me clarify: nature

owes us nothing, but we owe nature a pretty big debt right now, since we’re the one species that takes over the space of multi-millions of them. So it’s imperative that I work with a group of scientists and particularly people who cross the disciplines to interpret how we’re going to make sense of a world that allows for connectivity and interaction.

It’s common to talk about ecosystem services, for example, which rankles me. The living world does not provide only a service to us.

It’s important for us to be able to change the way we design with, and for, the natural world, beyond simply thinking of it in utilitarian terms. That’s something that our Indigenous communities have taught and shared with us.

As a planner, I will never use the term “land use” again, even if it means relinquishing my licence. I’m a land-based practitioner. That wording is critical, because it means that I am looking at what can I do with this landscape that provides for others socially, ecologically, and economically.

CA: How do you establish performance metrics for your projects?

For instance, in your wildlife-crossing: how did they measure the attempted crossings with and without the intervention?

LISTER: It is amazing how the ecological data world uses all kinds

of creative observational tools. My colleagues in conservation ecology, biology, and zoology will use everything from camera trap evidence, to hair traps, to tracking evidence from footpads. Graduate students

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spend a lot of time measuring footprints. A purpose-designed wildlife crossing is tracked and sampled using at least three different methods. We know for sure that these projects are overwhelmingly successful. Long-term data has been gathered from different lenses, using different types of knowledge bases, for multiple species.

That analogy could be used in urban settings to look at how we understand not only green roofs, but, say, biofuels, green streets or parks. How quickly is water absorbed after a storm event in our parks, versus in hard surface areas? Our parks can be seen as so-called nature-based solutions or green infrastructure during f lood events, not just for public recreation. That’s great. That’s a win. We know they’re supposed to be used for that. But what if they are also seen as cooling the urban heat island? What about as carbon sinks, for the soil sequestration of carbon?

CA: You’ve described the magic that you feel when you put your arms

around a tree that’s hundreds of years old. A person can also feel that way about buildings that have been around and inhabited for centuries. The feeling is really of immortality–the sense that both the built and natural landscape can carry on and provide joy to others long after we ourselves are dead and gone.

LISTER: Yes, they connect us to each other through history. When we alter

the landscape, we remediate and sometimes reaffirm the value of a landscape that has to last through time. We should treat our buildings with that long-term perspective.

CA: That ethos you’re describing applies to Massey College, the

building where we are sitting right now. It’s almost 60 years old, a low-rise in the centre of Toronto, and is in no danger of demolition.

But this building has caregivers—or, I guess a better word for that is stakeholders.

LISTER: Actually, I think that “caregivers” is exactly the right word.

They’ve made sure that it’s updated for the times and maintained beautifully. It could have been designed and built a thousand years ago, or five years ago, and could still be here 50 years from now. Cultural heritage is deeply and profoundly tied to natural heritage.

CA: Has the pandemic changed your approach to your work?

LISTER: Yes, it has. it’s one thing to appeal to people on behalf of other

species, and another to speak to them about their new self-interest in green space. How is their health being affected by access to nature, or the lack thereof? That’s changing the way we ask research questions.

CA: Now that you’ve won the Margolese Prize, what is your ambition

for the next ten years?

LISTER: Well, my goal is to be out of a job because our society will

have no more need for what I do. That’s probably a longer-term plan than 10 years. In the meantime, I’ve returning to Harvard this January to co-create and teach a course called Wild Ways, which looks at landscape connectivity.

CA: And what is your hope for the future?

LISTER: I hope for more meaningful and robust connections to nature

every day in our cities for everyone. I want to see those connections manifest in the material world and in public policy. Most of all, I want every person to feel that they have innate human power.

2022-03-29 3:12 PM

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BOOKS

TAKUMI OTA

TAKUMI OTA

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ALMOST, NOT: THE ARCHITECTURE OF ATELIER NISHIKATA

By Leslie Van Duzer (ORO Editions, 2021) REVIEW Mira Locher

What sleight of hand is required to create a richly comprehensive book, when the subject is just four small projects? Meticulous writing, excellent documentation, and a magician’s mindset. In Almost, Not: The Architecture of Atelier Nishikata, author Leslie Van Duzer is as adroit with the written word as a magician is with deceptive banter.

The Vancouver-based architecture professor (and former director of UBC ’s SALA) draws on her background as an educator and onetime magician’s assistant to conjure up a book aptly described as “a hybrid between an architectural monograph and a magic instruction book.” Starting from the evocative cover, Van Duzer’s precise yet poetic text and book designer Pablo Mandel’s rhythmical graphic layout draw us in and lead us through each project.

Almost, Not. The title itself sets the scene with a bit of mystery— almost, not what? It invokes images of thwarted expectations and upended suppositions. But it also summons visions of surprise and astonishment as assumptions are turned upside-down. In the context of the book, Van Duzer defines “almost” as “a delightfully destabilizing oscillation between certainty and uncertainty, curiosity and astonishment, past and present experience, delaying any automated consumption.” In Almost, Not, the author delivers this delight not only through the precision of the text and the thoroughness

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of the documentation: she also reveals the designers’ techniques for developing their architectural tricks—like turning a column into a closet, or a cupboard into a door.

The book introduces the work of Atelier Nishikata, an architecture firm little known outside of Japan. Since 2000, partners Reiko Nishio and Hirohito Ono have crafted their practice with care, rigor, and intention. Their goal is not to deceive but rather to create architecture that “transcends its physical boundaries and its visual image when it fully engages the body and its spatial imagination.” Despite the limited number of built projects, the ideas, methods, and designs of Atelier Nishikata offer plenty for us to contemplate.

Almost, Not is composed of three parts. First, we are introduced to the firm’s approach to design and the processes and techniques they employ to create the desired “experiential complexity” of their projects.

The author compares the architects’ methods to those of magicians and lets us in on various techniques that both use to create the desired effects of their constructions. For example, repetition-variation is used to produce the effect of déjà vu, or category-jumping creates the effect of detour. Van Duzer also reminds us of other artists and architects who also have employed similar techniques.

Descriptions and documentation of the four projects comprise the body of the book. All are small private residential buildings or renovations, and all involve the trickery of transformation, whether it is converting four rooms into five, or using a material typically found on the roof as an exterior wall finish. Each “almost-ordinary” project tests our assumptions about familiar elements and spatial configurations.

Is a cabinet really a cabinet when it opens to reveal a window? Yes, but

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OPPOSITE For the House in Awanji, Atelier Nishikata used plywood vaults to create subtle relationships between interior spaces. The exterior includes two windows that slide open to the right, and a door that slides left in counterpoint; the façade is clad in asphalt roofing.

ABOVE A renovation called Four Episodes in Bunkyo, Tokyo, is full of surprises. In the refurbished basement, a closet unexpectedly opens to reveal a glass door that leads to the garden.

no. Is a framed opening of an adjacent building’s vent cap truly an appealing view? Well, yes, almost. With careful observation and a few hints from the author, the initial visual simplicity of Atelier Nishikata’s designs gives way to surprising spatial and experiential complexity.

The final component of the book is a conversation between the author and the architects. Nishio and Ono discuss the impetus for their partnership arising from the dissatisfaction they felt with projects earlier in their careers. Nishio was disappointed that “a transcendence of the physical realm” never materialized in the final construction, and Ono had moved from architecture into the realm of contemporary art, thinking that it would allow him to gain insight by considering architecture “from a distance.” Both designers felt “something was missing” and recognized that “thinking deeply in the design process was essential.” That recognition led them to a decades-long quest to observe rigorously, study ferociously, and design precisely.

The ending conversation includes discussion of the architects’ major influences and also broaches subjects of long-standing architectural debate, which play important roles in Atelier Nishikata’s thinking and design. On the topic of four-dimensional space (a concept akin to Henri Bergson’s “duration”), Nishio states, “You cannot exceed physical limits without physical things.” And regarding honesty in architectural expression, author Van Duzer notes, “There is often a gap between what one sees, what is expressed and what is required.” Ono responds, “We think the disclosure of tricks like this presents an honest attitude to the distance between structure and expression.” The magic of Atelier Nishikata’s designs is in the gaps between perception and reality in the physical expression of their ideas.

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While Van Duzer lets us in on the magician’s process but not their actual tricks, she does reveal both the underlying strategies and the resulting effects of Atelier Nishikata’s projects—the architectural tricks that cause us to suspend belief and allow a transcendence of the physical realm, the architectural equivalent of levitation.

Is it all illusion? No, there is no real trickery in Almost, Not. The book completes what it sets out to accomplish. And like any good magic show, it leaves us asking a few questions. Are words and images truly able to present the full spatial experience intended by the architects, or are such cerebrally and spatially complex projects impossible to understand without physically being in the spaces? How does this practice fit within other architectural practices in Japan? How have other Asian architects employed similar tricks and techniques in their work? The helpful comparisons in the book primarily rely on examples from North America and Europe; understandable given the author’s expertise in the work of Adolf Loos, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Rudolph Arnheim and the architects’ stated interest in Loos, Mies, and Louis Kahn.

With lingering questions and intriguing images, Almost, Not: The Architecture of Atelier Nishikata inspires us to search for the magic in other designs—the possibility for hidden windows, surprising spatial configurations, and dislodged components—and reminds us that such enigmatic architecture can be profoundly revelatory.

Mira Locher is the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba and has worked as a professional architect in the U.S. and Japan. She is the author of four books on Japanese architecture, gardens, and design: Super Potato Design,

Traditional Japanese Architecture, Zen Gardens, and Zen Garden Design.

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BACKPAGE

COURTESY UNBUILDERS

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DECONSTRUCTIVISM

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Elsa Lam

VANCOUVER-BASED COMPANY UNBUILDERS METICULOUSLY DISASSEMBLES BUILDINGS, SAVING THEM FROM LANDFILL.

ABOVE De-constructing buildings allows materials to be salvaged for recycling and re-use, feeding into a circular economy.

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Architects are usually focused on the beginning of buildings, paying little attention to their end. But as climate impacts worsen, it’s a reckoning they’ll need to face: the four million tonnes of construction waste that Canada landfills annually comprises 40% of its total landfill content. That material leaches chemicals and releases CO2—and a lot of it could have been recycled, lessening the demand for new materials.

Adam Corneil, a Vancouver area certified Passive House Builder, saw this waste up close: he was constantly witnessing older buildings being torn down to make way for new ones.

“I saw a lot of value in the old lumber that built our cities, which was being landfilled,” he says.

So he started Unbuilders. Instead of demolishing homes, his crews meticulously deconstruct them. Materials such as drywall, concrete, and asphalt shingles are recycled, while reusable hardware and fixtures are donated to Habitat for Humanity. Structural wood in good condition—which in older West Coast buildings is often tight-grained, highly valuable oldgrowth lumber—is appraised by an outside party and purchased by Unbuilders’ sister company, Heritage Lumber, for repurpose and resale.

CA Apr 22.indd 50

The process is more time-consuming than a regular demolition, says Corneil, but the building owner recoups much of the cost difference—either through a donation receipt from Habitat for Humanity, or through a payment credit for the recouped lumber.

The business model works in part because of Vancouver’s Green Demolition bylaw, which requires companies to recycle three quarters of materials from homes built before 1950. This means that demolition companies are already stripping out the entirely recyclable drywall and plaster from buildings, leaving a bare structure. Unbuilders salvages that structure, instead of taking the more expedient approach of chipping it for use as fuel, landscape mulch, or in paper—uses that eventually release the carbon stored in the wood.

The company has scaled up quickly since it was founded four years ago. Unbuilders came away from Dragon’s Den with a $600K investment, and this year, its crews are planning takedowns of over 50 houses and a half-dozen commercial buildings. Corneil says that overall, his approach achieves 90 to 95% waste diversion.

Still, he’d like to see Unbuilders do more.

He’s planning to expand to other cities in the eco-conscious Pacific Northwest, where several cities already require the diversion of construction waste. Then, onwards to the east. “It’s inevitable that deconstruction is going to replace demolition in the next 10 years,” says Corneil.

He’s also exploring ways to further upcycle wood from de-constructed homes: from creating wide-plank flooring to engineered wood products like reclaimed plywood, and even OSB from salvaged wood scraps. While wood is an eco-friendly building material, reclaimed wood has even less embodied carbon, beating new lumber by a factor of 12, says Corneil.

Architects also need to be thinking about adapting their work for the circular economy.

Corneil notes how older buildings used highquality wood and nails that allow for relatively easy de-construction, while since the 1990s, construction has relied more heavily on glues, screws, and adhesives. “That’s problematic, because we’re ensuring that at the end of the building’s life, it has to be landfilled,” he says.

“How can you build to the degree of detail that you want, but so that it came come apart?

It’s a great challenge for architects.”

2022-03-29 3:14 PM

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Installer: Keith Panel Systems

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2022-03-18 2:39 PM

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