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16 Jean-Claude Malépart sports Centre

Molo

ed white

vladiMir topouzanov

Contents

9

news

igrating Landscapes Organizer (MLO) M launches national competition inviting young Canadian architects to participate in the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture; 2011 Design Exchange Awards call for submissions.

suppleMenting an iMpressive portfolio of work in Montreal, saia barbarese topouzanov arChiteCtes’ Jean-Claude Malépart sports Centre provides a dynaMiC addition to a phased reCreational CoMplex. teXt odile hénault

22 Cordova street staBles vanCouver arChiteCt gair williaMson exeCutes the suCCessful adaptive reuse of the gorgeously evoCative Cordova street stables in the City’s fabled gastown distriCt into CoMMerCial retail and offiCe spaCe. teXt Courtney healey

28 neButa house Cherish rosas

after Many years atteMpting to deCipher loCal politiCs and Culture in the Japanese Coastal town of aoMori, Molo unveils an evoCative building Clad in an undulating Curtain of Metal ribbons. teXt ian Chodikoff

34 report

Trevor Boddy offers a detailed synopsis of the last and final Ghost Lab symposium held at the Nova Scotia farm of architect Brian MacKay-Lyons.

41 Calendar

Play > Nation at the Design Exchange in Toronto; 2011 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence submission deadline.

42 BaCkpage

august 2011, v.56 n.08

The NaTioNal Review of DesigN aND PRacTice/ The JouRNal of RecoRD of aRchiTecTuRe caNaDa | Raic

Pamela Young describes the formal complexity and sustainable advancements made in the façade of Sauerbruch Hutton’s KfW Westarkade in Frankfurt, Germany.

the Jean-Claude Malépart sports Centre in Montreal by saia barbarese topouzanov arChiteCtes. photo by MarC CraMer.

Cover

08/11 Canadian arChiteCt

5

toM arban

viEwpoint

­Editor Ian ChodIkoff, OAA, FRAIC AssociAtE­Editor LesLIe Jen, MRAIC EditoriAl­Advisors John MCMInn, AADIpl. MarCo PoLo, OAA, FRAIC contributing­Editors GavIn affLeCk, OAQ, MRAIC herbert enns, MAA, MRAIC douGLas MaCLeod, nCARb

the reCentLy exPanded and renovated bLoor/GLadstone LIbrary Is a PerfeCt exaMPLe of how an aCCessIbLe CoMMunIty servICe PosItIveLy IMPaCts on the CuLture of CIty LIfe.

AbovE

It appears as though Toronto City Hall is in the midst of a battle against culture that is largely fuelled by the need to close the gap on a $774million shortfall in the City of Toronto’s 2012 operating budget. Mayor Rob Ford and his city councillor brother Doug are bullying other councillors who are fearful of appearing to be wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. As a result, Toronto’s municipal government is focused on eliminating services, encouraging public-private partnerships, and selling off municipal assets.

These efforts will be detrimental to the vitality of Toronto’s culture because of the mayor’s deprioritization of services relating to arts, education, heritage, and environmental stewardship.

Armed with a recently released report undertaken by the management consultancy of KPMG, Mayor Ford has been given justification to demand why tax dollars must be spent on heritage preservation, libraries, day care and public art.

Examples of the cost-saving recommendations contained in the KPMG study include abandoning Toronto’s urban agriculture program, shuttering successful community zoos such as the Riverdale Farm, cancelling public art and public realm improvement programs, removing heritage grants and eliminating the heritage tax rebate program.

But it is the possibility of closing some of the Toronto Public Library’s (TPL) branches and reducing its level of service that has triggered the most debate. When world-renowned author and Canadian icon Margaret Atwood instigated an online petition and social media campaign against likely TPL cost-cutting measures, she encountered dismissive—and even derisive—commentary from Doug Ford, who initially suggested that he wouldn’t recognize her if she were to walk right by him, and that he’d only address her concerns if she became an elected councillor.

TPL supports early literacy skills for both children and adults while facilitating a welcoming sense of community across the city’s diverse 6 cAnAdiAn­ArchitEct 08/11

neighbourhoods. Toronto’s public library system is one of the largest in North America, with 99 branches containing over 11 million volumes. Its $183.4-million budget allowed it to circulate 31.2 million volumes and offer 27,862 programs in 2010. Over three-quarters of Torontonians use the public library.

In recent years, many of TPL’s new or renovated facilities have received architecture and urban design awards. Such projects include the Bloor/ Gladstone Library (RDH, in association with Shoalts & Zaback Architects and ERA Architects), and Hariri Pontarini Architects’ Pape/Danforth branch that won a 2009 Toronto Urban Design Award—the jury report cited the project as a “testament to the dedication of a client who clearly values the benefits of successful architecture as a way of engendering community and community space.” In 2004, the St. James Town Library, which also incorporates the Wellesley Community Centre and the Wellesley Early Learning Centre, was recognized as a benchmark project for establishing a sense of place in its high-density neighbourhood context.

Across the country, there is a lengthy list of recently built architecturally significant libraries, with several more to be completed in the near future. The impact of these projects in revitalizing and strengthening their respective communities is profound. Today’s public libraries have a much greater purpose than merely serving as a repository for books. They exist as an invaluable resource that many people rely upon for research and private study, and to participate in their many popular learning programs. The City of Toronto has the responsibility to build upon its successful public library system so that its citizens can continue to enrich their minds through the wisdom of what today’s library continues to offer, until such time that Mayor Ford succeeds with his plan to close libraries and implement other unfortunate cuts to arts and culture in Toronto.

Ian ChodIkoff

ichodikoff@cAnAdiAnArchitEct.coM

rEgionAl­corrEspondEnts halifax ChrIstIne MaCy, OAA regina bernard fLaMan, SAA montreal davId theodore calgary davId a. down, AAA Winnipeg herbert enns, MAA vancouver adeLe weder publishEr toM arkeLL 416-510-6806 AssociAtE­publishEr GreG PaLIouras 416-510-6808 circulAtion­MAnAgEr beata oLeChnowICz 416-442-5600 ext. 3543 custoMEr­sErvicE MaLkIt Chana 416-442-5600 ext. 3539 production JessICa Jubb grAphic­dEsign sue wILLIaMson vicE­prEsidEnt­of­cAnAdiAn­publishing aLex PaPanou prEsidEnt­of­businEss­inforMAtion­group bruCe CreIGhton hEAd­officE 12 ConCorde PLaCe, suIte 800, toronto, on M3C 4J2 telephone 416-510-6845 facsimile 416-510-5140 e-mail edItors@CanadIanarChIteCt.CoM Web site www.CanadIanarChIteCt.CoM Canadian architect is published monthly by bIG Magazines LP, a div. of Glacier bIG holdings Company Ltd., a leading Canadian information company with interests in daily and community newspapers and business-tobusiness information services. 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. subscription rates Canada: $53.95 plus applicable taxes for one year; $85.95 plus applicable taxes for two years (hst – #809751274rt0001).

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Postmaster: please forward forms 29b and 67b to 12 Concorde Place, suite 800, toronto, on Canada M3C 4J2. Printed in Canada. all rights reserved. the contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner. from time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: telephone 1-800-668-2374 facsimile 416-442-2191 e-mail privacyofficer@businessinformationgroup.ca mail Privacy officer, business Information Group, 12 Concorde Place, suite 800, toronto, on Canada M3C 4J2 member of the canadian business press member of the audit bureau of circulations publications mail agreement #40069240 issn 1923-3353 (online) issn 0008-2872 (print)

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news Projects jci architects to design sustainable city in Bangladesh.

Toronto-based JCI Architects Inc. (with JET Architecture, Terraplan Landscape Architects and Ecovert sustainability consultants) have been commissioned to design a new community for 10,000 people on the edge of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. Called Shabuj Pata (Bengali for green leaf), the development proposes a typology that effectively balances density and efficiency with ecological sustainability to create 4,800,000 square feet of residential, and another 1,000,000 square feet of amenity and service space. Seeking to evoke the lushness found in the natural Bengali landscape but rarely in its cities, the development engages numerous strategies to enrich the site including the planting of thousands of shade trees, green walls, and a system of bioswales and cisterns to alleviate excess rainfall during monsoon season.

Sustainable technologies and strategies are found throughout and at all scales, from the orientation of the buildings to promote air flow and provide maximum shade, a thin building profile to allow cross ventilation and light penetration through units, solar panels and rainwater cisterns on the roofs, and louvered façades and green walls to improve air quality and mitigate heat gain. An effort is also made to create a more community-oriented development than most people are offered in Dhaka. A treed central plaza with several refreshing water features is at the heart of the scheme, ringed with a school, mosque, and abundant commercial shops. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012, with occupancy by 2015. canada’s sports hall of Fame opens in calgary.

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame opened in Calgary in July, showcasing the nation’s greatest athletes in a building inspired by Canada’s sports heritage. Designed by Calgary firm Stantec, working for project manager and design builder CANA, the 4,088-square-metre (44,000-square-foot) facility is composed of three main elements—the exhibit hall, retail and office space, and ancillary spaces for storage and loading—all connected by a two-and-a-half-storey atrium. The building’s design was inspired by both the magnificence of world-class athletes and by the basic symbol of Canadian culture itself: the maple leaf. Its deep red and white façade reflects the Canadian flag, while the cantilevered, somewhat “tilted” structure echoes the successive elevated platforms athletes stand upon when receiving medals and other accolades. The main feature of the facility— the exhibit hall—is designed to convey the appearance of floating above the ground.

hamilton’s Mid-century Modern city hall restored by +VG architects.

+VG Architects is responsible for the restoration of one of the best remaining International Style civic complexes in Canada, Hamilton City Hall.

“Hamilton City Hall has undergone an extensive revitalization project that successfully blends elements of the building’s proud heritage with new and modern amenities,” says Janet Warner, project manager with the City of Hamilton. +VG Architects were appointed as heritage architecture conservation specialists for all the interior and exterior work (excluding landscaping and replacement of the cladding of the original marble exterior) of the $74-million, 180,000-squarefoot project that was completed in May 2010.

Hamilton City Hall, designed by architect Stanley Roscoe, is an eight-storey building that officially opened in 1960. The primary materials of the exterior façade include white precast concrete over upgraded insulation and air/vapour barrier; curtain wall with high-performance glazing and integral sunshades; restored mosaic tile curtainwall spandrel panels, soffits and fascia with aluminum soffit panels, and restored black marble wall panels. Materials used on the interior include new and salvaged marble, wood-slat ceilings, restored terrazzo floors, and restored wood wall panels. +VG Architects has designed over 40 city halls in Ontario, either as new projects or as adaptive reuse of heritage structures.

awards 2011 design exchange awards call for submissions.

The DXAs are Canada’s only design competition to judge design by results: balancing function, aesthetics and economic success. A jury of leading business executives, designers and com-

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aBoVe

munity leaders select winners in 14 categories including architecture, engineering, fashion, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture and urban design.

These awards are designed to: expand national understanding of design as an essential resource; demonstrate that investment in design impacts overall business success; celebrate effectiveness in all design disciplines; highlight the critical role of design in enhancing quality of life; reinforce the value of strong client/designer partnerships; and promote the critical role of design in sustainability. A Gold, Silver, Bronze and two Honourable Mentions in each of the 13 categories will be selected. The submission deadline is September 30, 2011, and the awards ceremony takes place on November 22, 2011. www.dx.org/dxa Montgomery sisam architects receives high commendation for international mental health design.

Distributed at the International Academy for Design and Health’s 7th World Congress and Exhibition recently held in Boston, the awards recognized Toronto-based Montgomery Sisam Architects for their achievement in designing environments for those with mental health and addictions issues—specifically the Sister Margaret Smith Addiction Treatment Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Centre, commissioned by St. Joseph’s Care Group, provides residential and non-residential services for the treatment of addictions including drug and alcohol, gambling and eating disorders, among others. Highlights of the design solution include ample access to daylight 08/11­­canadian architect

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2011 AwArds of ExcEllEncE Canadian Architect invites architects registered in Canada and architectural graduates to enter the magazine’s 2011 Awards of Excellence.

Eligibility

Projects must be in the design stage, scheduled for construction or under construction but not substantially complete by September 15, 2011. All projects must be commissioned by a client with the intention to build the submitted proposal. All building types and concisely presented urban design schemes are eligible.

4. Please do not submit any material in CD, DVD, or any other audio-visual format not confined to two dimensions, as it will not be considered.

Entry fee

$100.00 per entry ($88.50 + $11.50 HST). Please make cheques payable to Canadian Architect. HST registration #809751274RT0001.

Publication

Judging criteria

Awards are given for architectural design excellence. Jurors will consider the scheme’s response to the client’s program, site, and geographic and social context. They will evaluate its physical organization, form, structure, materials and environmental features.

Presentation

1. Anonymity. The designer’s name must not appear on the submission except on the entry form. The project name and location should be identified.

2. Each entry must be securely fastened in a folder or binder of dimensions no greater than 14´´ 5 17´´; oversized panels will not be accepted. One (1) copy of this entry form must be enclosed within an envelope and affixed to the front of each folder, preferably without the use of Scotch tape or adhesives. Clips are ideal.

3. Each project folder must include: a) first page—a brief description of the project (500 words or fewer) b) second page—a brief description indicating the project’s ability to address some or all of the following issues (1,000 words or fewer): i) context and/or urban design components ii) integration of sustainable design iii) innovation in addressing program and/or the client’s requirements iv) technical considerations through building materials and/or systems c) drawings/images including site plan, floor plans, sections, elevations and/or model views

Winners will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2011. Winners grant Canadian Architect first publication rights for their winning submissions.

Awards

Framed certificates will be given to each winning architect team and client.

Details to follow upon notification of winners. notification of winners

Award winners will be notified after judging takes place in October 2011. deadline

Entries will be accepted after August 11, 2011. Send all entries to arrive by 5:00 pm on Thursday, September 15, 2011 to: Awards of Excellence 2011 Canadian Architect 12 Concorde Place Suite 800 Toronto, Ontario M3C 4J2 return of Entries

Entries will not be returned.

name of Project name of firm Address Telephone

city & Province fax

Architect/Architectural Graduate submitting the project

E-mail signature

according to the conditions above client

client Telephone

Postal code

and a direct connection to the outdoors. Two courtyards, one for residential clients and one for non-residential clients, provide a safe and secure environment and are an integral part of therapy.

The Centre has been designed to support the core values of St Joseph’s Care Group which are compassionate and holistic care, dignity and respect, faith-based care, inclusiveness and truthfulness, and trust. This is most evident in the main hall of the building known as the Hall of Recovery which organizes the three main components of the program in a dignified, welcoming and comforting setting. Three large round skylights represent the Windows of Hope: one for the mind (therapy rooms), the body (gymnasium) and the soul (spiritual space). The architect of record for this project is FORM Architecture of Thunder Bay.

coMPetitions Migrating Landscapes organizer (MLo) launches competition for the 2012 Venice Biennale in architecture.

The Migrating Landscapes Organizer (MLO), consisting of 5468796 Architecture Inc. and Jae-Sung Chon, has announced the launch of an open competition for young Canadian architects 45 and under. This nation-wide competition will be a key

part of generating Canada’s official entry to the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture, entitled Migrating Landscapes. Themed around migration and cultural identity, Migrating Landscapes examines how we as Canadians express our diverse cultural memories and the settling/unsettling dynamic of migration in contemporary settlements and/or dwellings. The competition invites young Canadian architects and designers to reflect on their migration experiences and cultural memories, and to design dwellings in a new landscape—an exhibition infrastructure designed by MLO. The competition is open to Canadian practitioners, academics and designers working in architecture-related fields, as well as full-time architecture students. Each entrant will be asked to submit two things: a short video in which they talk about an unsettling memory from their own history of im/migration and an original design for a dwelling that responds to, or attempts to “settle” this unsettling memory. The intention of the competition is to bring the Venice Biennale to Canada by promoting the up-and-coming generation of Canadian architects and designers to the Canadian public before showcasing them abroad; a young architectural Team Canada to represent Canada in Venice. The competition process will unfold in stages and result in regional exhibitions

and competitions in seven cities across Canada: Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. The winners of each regional competition will advance to a national exhibition and competition in Winnipeg, where the final team will be selected to represent Canada at the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture (August to November 2012). Both the regional and national winners will be selected by high-profile juries, consisting of some of Canada’s bestknown architects. This eight-month tour will be a great opportunity to identify young and diverse next-generation architects and designers across the country, to generate excitement about their work and architectural culture in general, and to build relationships between various cultural, educational, institutional, corporate, and industrial communities across Canada. The registration deadline is September 15, 2011, followed by the submission deadline of October 1, 2011. www.migratinglandscapes.ca whY stoP competition: imagining the south coast rail.

In support of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s South Coast Rail Economic Development and Land Use Corridor Plan, SHIFTboston is challenging urban planners,

08/11­­canadian architect

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architects, urban designers, designers and landscape architects—professionals and students—to explore and visualize destinations along the proposed South Coast Rail extension, which will connect Boston to Taunton, New Bedford, and Fall River, Massachusetts. This international competition and event will foster the development of valuable concepts necessary for a new and vital urban network along the railway, thereby becoming a true realization of the potential of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s South Coast Rail Economic Development and Land Use Corridor Plan. The winner will receive a cash prize and present his/her concept at the SHIFTboston WHY STOP Forum at Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts on October 20, 2011, among select members of the jury, government, community and business leaders, local developers and regional economic development groups. The winning entry will be featured in a new game for mobile devices which will be featured at the Forum and as part of the WHY STOP exhibition. All finalists and eligible entries will be promoted on the SHIFTboston blog and website and will become part of the SHIFTboston WHY STOP book in 2012. The deadline for submission is September 16, 2011. www.shiftboston.org/competitions/2011rail.php

winners of the 2011 integrative Materialities competition sponsored by FLatcUt.

The Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), in collaboration with Brooklyn-based fabrication house FLATCUT have announced the winners of this year’s ACADIA 2011 Design + Fabrication Competition. The competition challenged designers to create new forms in the categories of furniture, partition and lighting using innovative materials and digital fabrications applications. The final jury, which chose three winners from 15 finalists, included awardwinning architects Tod Williams of TWBTA, Chris Sharples of SHoP Architects, Tom Wiscombe of Emergent, Dror Benshetrit of Studio Dror, and Thomas Christoffersen from BIG. The winner in the Furniture category is RECIP, a modular furniture system designed by Alison MacLachlan, Bryan Gartner and Richard Cotter, students at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design. The Partition category was won by HYPERLAXITY: Parabolic Ligaments, a nonmodular partition system made from aluminum and silicone cut into a hexagonal and triangular pattern. The design is the result of a collaboration between Elizabeth Boone of SOM and PROJECTiONE, a design/fabrication studio comprised of Adam Buente and Kyle Perry. LUMINESCENT

LIMACON, the winner in the Lighting category, is a folded lighting design by Andrew Saunders, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

what’s new ontario association of architects technology program announced.

The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) announced that the Ontario Association for Applied Architectural Sciences (OAAAS), an association of technologists working in the architectural profession, has become the technology program of the OAA since July 1, 2011. Membership in OAAAS is open to any graduate of an Ontario community college three-year architectural technology program, or equivalent. To move through the OAAAS process, the candidate must acquire a sufficient number of hours of work experience under the supervision of an architect in defined experience categories, attend the OAA Admission Course, and pass the OAAAS examination. OAAAS was originally launched in 2002 as a partnership between the OAA and the Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT). The OAA has taken over sole responsibility effective July 1, 2011.

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inspired by shimmering patterns of light at the bottom of the pool, this expansion to an existing montreal recreational facility adds new life to the community. project Jean-Claude Malépart SportS Centre expanSion, Montreal, QuebeC architect Saia barbareSe topouzanov arChiteCteS text odile hénault photos Mark CraMer, unleSS otherwiSe noted

16 canadian architect 08/11

2007 RAIC Gold Medallist Mario Saia possesses a unique gift, that of creating long-lasting relationships with his clients. The net result is that he has been able to design for various areas of his native city over extended periods of time, thus contributing to the coherent transformation of several Montreal neighbourhoods. His most significant institutional client to date is probably the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) who, over a period of roughly 30 years, worked in close collaboration with his office, turning a major downtown block located near Place des Arts into a vibrant new science campus.

Saia’s office, established in 1968, was first called Cayouette et Saia, then Saia Barbarese, and since 2002, Saia Barbarese Topouzanov archi-

tectes (SBTA). The firm has long been known for its quiet architectural statements and its adherence to Montreal’s muted material palette. In 2002, SBTA displayed its new colours—literally— as the Palais des congrès de Montréal reopened its doors after a major makeover and addition.

Most architectural writers rejoiced at the sight of such an unabashed display of confidence, but Montrealers were rather shocked and taken aback.

However, observers of the architectural scene had begun to notice the first signs of change in the office with projects such as the Little Burgundy Sports Complex (1997). Two bold volumes, one anthracite and one red, sit on either side of a former back alley (covered over by the architects), symbolizing the area’s two black communities—Anglophone and Francophone—who were invited to settle their differences through sporting activities. The building was, and still is, a success. Architecturally, a seismic shift occurred

with the introduction of anthracite, a new colour on the Montreal scene.

In the 12-year period separating Little Burgundy from the expansion of the Jean-Claude Malépart Sports Centre, SBTA became Montreal’s most daring architectural practice, unafraid of proposing strong colour schemes and playing with volumes and elevations. The most eloquent manifestation of this is to be found on the UQÀM Science Campus where SBTA worked with landscape architect Claude Cormier; the combined exceptional talent of the design team is clear.

With the Malépart project, a new vocabulary emerged. At first sight, the Ontario Street building appears as if graffiti has been splashed on three of its walls. No colour here expect for the bluish-tinted glass panes. The graffiti is premised on a wave pattern borrowed from a David Hockney painting entitled Portrait of an Artist (1972), and is reproduced using oversized bricks in two shades of grey over a white background.

Amusingly, the white brick on the façades is reminiscent of the garish community buildings constructed in the northern areas of Montreal in the 1950s. The effect on the Malépart building is playful, bordering on kitsch. Yet it does create a giant art piece, accessible to all, a move particularly welcome in this part of the city long considered as one of its toughest.

As elsewhere in the city, SBTA has been involved in this Montreal neighbourhood since the beginning of the 1980s, when they were commissioned to design a social housing scheme at the feet of two existing rental towers of ill repute. In an effort to uplift the community, City of Montreal officials had included in their social housing scheme a public library, an auditorium and an exhibition space.

Years later, in 1996, SBTA designed and built the first phase of what is known as the JeanClaude Malépart Sports Centre. This earlier concrete building is now an integral component of

the angularity of the window CoMpoSition CoMpleMentS the pixellated wave patternS rendered in tile and briCk. aboVe blue tileS fraMe the entranCe into the pool area.

opposite top

the new project and, although the architectural vocabulary is quite distinct, the transition between the two phases is smooth. It is interesting to note that right from the outset, City officials had wanted to include a pool, but were unable to buy the much-needed corner lot. In time, they were finally able to purchase the land, which had to be decontaminated before the pool could be built.

The 1996 entrance off Ontario Street was kept intact; at the back, along Le Havre Street, the second phase was organized around a small exterior court, which helped reduce the bulk of the structures and allowed natural light to penetrate both buildings.

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Because of Vladimir Topouzanov’s direct involvement in this project, one cannot help but compare the Jean-Claude Malépart Centre with the house he and his architect wife built for themselves a few years ago in St-Henri, another low-income area of Montreal. Their residential project features immense flowers in shades of red, buff and orange, all splashed directly on to the exterior brick walls. Topouzanov’s home served as a testing ground for the application of a flat two-dimensional motif on a brick surface, an idea which was to take on much larger proportions in the Malépart building.

The building program is straightforward and provides the locals with a facility that should have been theirs 15 years ago. It was certainly worth the wait since the pool offers such a joyous experience, not just on the exterior but also on the interior, where curved lines suggesting aquatic waves are applied to the floors and walls surrounding the semi-Olympic pool before they disappear in the azure-painted corridors leading to the reception area and the change rooms.

Until recently, the competition process, which has produced so many great buildings in left, top to bottom the exterior elevationS inCorporate variouSly Coloured ConCrete MaSonry unitS in a pattern inSpired by painter david hoCkney’S Portrait of an artist (1972). opposite top and middle tileS are laid to SuggeSt rippling water, ConSiStent with the faCility’S exterior. opposite bottom, left to right vladiMir topouzanov firSt atteMpted to deSign patterned façadeS uSing different ColourS of MaSonry on hiS own flower garden-inSpired reSidenCe in St-henri.

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the angular garden deSign CoMpleMentS the geoMetry of the SportS Centre; the new faCility Seen in the gritty Context of the neighbourhood.

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Quebec—concert halls, libraries and museums—had not been applied to the field of sports. The situation is slowly changing, because SBTA and other architectural firms have proven that sports facilities are also worthy of creative design gestures.

Saia Barbarese Topouzanov architectes may not win all—or for that matter any—of the sports facilities competitions that might be launched in the future, but the Little Burgundy Sports Centre and the Jean-Claude Malépart Sports Centre addition have unequivocally contributed to a change for the better in Quebec’s perception and appreciation of sports architecture. ca

client ville de Montréal architect team dino barbareSe, Mélanie bhérer, patriCk de barroS, waSSili dudan, david griffin, virginie legaSt, anouCk leMarQuiS, donald MarQuiS, MiChel rollin, Mario Saia, yvon théoret, vladiMir topouzanov structural MlC aSSoCiéS expert ConSeilS mechanical/electrical leS ConSultantS aeCoM landscape Saia barbareSe topouzanov arChiteCteS interiors Saia barbareSe topouzanov arChiteCteS contractor ConStruCtion teQ inC. area 2,678 M2 budget $7.14 M completion May 2010

Odile Hénault is a Quebec-based architectural writer, and is currently editing a forthcoming book on the work of Dan Hanganu to be published by TUNS Press. section a

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On Stable GrOund

a dilapidated induStrial buildinG iS brOuGht back tO a ShimmerinG new life, makinG it a deSirable cOntempOrary Space in a chanGinG VancOuVer neiGhbOurhOOd. prOject The Cordova STreeT STableS, vanCouver, briTiSh Columbia architect Gair WilliamSon arChiTeCT text CourTney healey phOtOS ed WhiTe

Vancouver maintains a peculiar relationship with its architectural heritage as well as a palpable tension between socioeconomic extremes. It is both a gleaming futuristic city of glass and, behind its preserved heritage façades, a troubled city of extreme poverty. Today, the tension between old and new, high and low, can be felt most acutely in Gastown, the dozen or so blocks of industrial waterfront where Vancouver was originally founded.

Gastown’s parade of gentrification has been marching steadily eastward for years, but the 22 canadian architect 08/11

trendy restaurants and boutiques have yet to make the leap onto the 100 block of East Cordova Street, where Gair Williamson Architect Inc. (GWA) have recently completed their adaptive reuse of the Cordova Street Stables. Built in 1902, the three-storey brick, stone and heavy timber building has recently been transformed into commercial retail and office space. The building was originally designed as a stable for carriages and horses; back then, carriages passed through garage doors at both the street and rear lane.

Horses were stabled on all three floors via a central ramp system. The building passed through various forms of light industry, eventually falling into a state of extreme disrepair. A self-made local financier with a history of giving back to the community through social-housing initiatives

fell in love with the building, and purchased it several years ago with the intention of restoring its dignity within the neighbourhood.

Gair Williamson, along with lead architect Chris Woodford, assumed the challenging task of renovating and adapting this unique industrial building for contemporary use. Since its founding in 2002, GWA has gained renown for their growing portfolio of thoughtful and beautifully executed transformations of heritage buildings; nearly all of their projects are located in and around Gastown. Unlike many heritage restorations in Vancouver, where the façade literally marks a hard line between old and new, and the desire for historical accuracy reduces design decisions to choosing cornices and paint colours, it is refreshing to see a project like The Stables cre-

The reSTored 1902 CarriaGe houSe and STableS iS an eleGanT ConTribuTion To The evolvinG urban life alonG Cordova STreeT. abOVe ConCepT draWinGS indiCaTinG The exiSTinG buildinG WiTh neW inSerTionS—a ClereSTory roof WaS added and ameniTy SpaCeS are hiGhliGhTed in oranGe. OppOSite tOp

ate subtle points of cohesion between historical and contemporary elements throughout the building. It does so by stitching or adding together material fragments where past and present hold equal weight but, more importantly, where their reformulated relationship suggests that the distinction between the two need not be so apparent.

Williamson’s interest in heritage lies more broadly in the collective memory of a place and a view of the city as a repository of culture. GWA “takes unusual spaces, orphan spaces, and transforms them, breathes new life into them.” Woodford adds that the firm is not comprised of historians. By declaring this, GWA is freed from the claustrophobia of strict historical preservation.

Instead, they employ a critical subjectivity toward

the existing building to reveal its true potential while offering a hybrid experience to emerge within spaces that might feel as familiar to yesterday’s stableboy as today’s graphic designer.

The first stage of construction on The Stables began in 2007. GWA first stripped away the many previous renovations, including some dodgy living quarters thrown up by squatters, leaving only the basic structure exposed. The unique system of heavy timber trusses at the third level carries a series of steel cables to support the second floor, which eliminates the need for columns on the ground level. While this system arose from the functional need to accommodate the passage of carriages, its purpose aligns neatly with the contemporary desire for column-free spaces. As Woodford states, the real challenge in this work

is that “these buildings were originally made by craftsmen, and craftsmen hardly exist anymore.”

Since the City of Vancouver’s heritage by-laws often override building code requirements, GWA was required to provide only minimal upgrades for seismic, fire and accessibility. This allowed the load-bearing brick walls to remain intact.

And, although there was also an ambition to keep original Douglas fir floors exposed, avoiding shear walls throughout the space called for some creative seismic design. Driving a nail through each plank every six inches turned the floor into a rigid diaphragm but left it dotted with 80,000 nails, so a new wood floor was eventually added over top.

Williamson maintains a rule of using as few new elements as possible. Then, after designing 08/11 canadian architect

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everything, he always takes something away. He has often referred to the firm’s work as “grafts and insertions,” a theme that plays out neatly in The Stables where architectural interventions are limited to grafting a partial roof and inserting a service core. The original roof sloped toward the alley and made much of the upper floor uninhabitable, so GWA replaced this portion with a countersloping roof that created a strip of south-facing clerestory windows. Another major interven-

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tion is a service zone tucked along the masonry party wall. This zone encapsulates the existing wooden freight elevator and provides a new secondary staircase, washrooms, and adaptable spaces for future kitchens or server rooms. These interventions are executed with precise and invisible details that appear to hover in and among the existing building with astonishing lightness.

The service zone is made of walls and doors with no trim, and frameless slots of recessed light

The ClereSTory roof SupplieS ample amounTS of naTural dayliGhT. oriGinal STeel rodS hanG from a deep Timber TruSS To SupporT The loWer floorS, ThuS reduCinG The number of ColumnS aT The Ground level. belOw, left tO riGht The baCk lane CondiTion; a deTail of The oriGinal Timber and STeel STruCTure; a Carefully ConCeived CeilinG-and-Wall deTail alloWS The oriGinal load-bearinG maSonry WallS To remain expoSed.

abOVe

riGht, tOp tO bOttOm The open and expoSed CharaCTer of The buildinG’S reSTored inTeriorS iS apparenT ThrouGh Wide expanSeS of GlazinG; The reSTored offiCe inTerior bearS TraCeS of The buildinG’S paST life.

with no discernible source percolate the thirdfloor ceiling. Woodford, who currently works at mcfarlane | green | biggar Architecture + Design, hopes to one day move back to his native Newfoundland and start his own practice, acknowledges that heritage buildings often contain many unknown quantities, making it “hard to design at your desk. You need to be on site to work things out because many of these details are never actually drawn.”

Williamson believes that restoring buildings and making them relevant to the needs of today engenders pride and respect for a neighbourhood. He credits a visionary client, a flexible time schedule, a creative team of contractors and consultants, and the close proximity between his office and the site as elements which allowed The Stables to become the ideal project. Among its many accolades, the project has received a 2011 Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Award in Architecture. The Stables is no simple renovation or reconstruction; it strikes a refined balance between architectural reduction and addition while offering a model where the past is but one element within a continuum of lived experiences. ca Courtney Healey is the Director of Lodge Think Tank and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. client The da Group architect team Gair WilliamSon, ChriS Woodford, Shane meehan Structural STruCTural SoluTionS enGineerinG inC. (baSe buildinG), GloTman SimpSon ConSulTinG enGineerS (SeiSmiC upGrade) mechanical perez enGineerinG lTd. electrical Sml ConSulTanTS Group lTd. GeOtechnical GeopaCifiC ConSulTanTS lTd. heritaGe don luxTon & aSSoCiaTeS cOde cOnSultant GaGe babCoCk & aSSoCiaTeS lTd. buildinG enVelOpe bC buildinG SCienCe parTnerShip builder bon deSiGnWorkS area 18,000 fT2 budGet WiThheld cOmpletiOn July 2010 •

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Made in Japan a siMple building featuring a dynaMic Metal façade provides a draMatic backdrop for a Japanese lantern festival.

Nebuta House, aomori, JapaN molo witH d&dt arcH aNd FraNk la rivière arcHitects teXt iaN cHodikoFF pHotos courtesy oF molo, uNless otHerwise Noted proJect

arcHitects

Rarely does a young, emerging architecture firm win a major global design commission.

However, Dominique Perrault won the competition for the National Library of France in 1989 when he was just 36 years old. That same year, when Craig Dykers, Christoph Kapeller and Kjetil Thorsen were in their late twenties and early thirties, they entered a competition for the new Alexandria Library—and won.

Today, their firm Snøhetta is a wildly successful global practice.

Enter Vancouver-based design couple Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen. In 2002, the thirtysomething pair won an international competition for the design of what was initially meant to be a $150-million housing and community project in Aomori, Japan.

Despite the frustrations of designing for a

a youNg motHer aNd cHild peer tHrougH aN opeNiNg iN tHe seductive Façade; oNe oF maNy illumiNated Floats made oF paper tHat comprise tHe Nebuta Festival every august; varyiNg ligHt coNditioNs cHaNge tHe appearaNce oF tHe buildiNg’s all-red exterior; a view toward tHe waterFroNt plaza; a youNg womaN walks tHrougH tHe engawa, or covered walkway; tHe red metal ribboNs meet tHe grouNd plaNe by embeddiNg tHemselves iN gravel.

clockWise froM rigHt

client in a completely different culture, and watching the project being downgraded to a $35-million budget (including sitework, building and exhibitions), the result is a resounding success. However, the couple’s triumph in realizing this architectural commission has provided Forsythe and MacAllen with the confidence to capitalize on their strengths by developing small-scale design elements through the vehicle of industrial design.

Even before winning the Aomori design competition, the Dalhousie University architectural graduates were exploring new potentials of growing a practice centred on designing objects rather than buildings. By late 2003, Forsythe and MacAllen had established a design firm called molo with Robert Pasut, a long-time friend of MacAllen’s.

Today, molo is a thriving studio that designs, manufactures and distributes its own line of furniture, lighting and housewares. The company is probably best known for its glass tea sets, lighting and softwall product–a flexible modular partition system of cellular paper

iwan baan

Metal ribbons are pulled back at the corner like a curtain, inviting visitors to venture inside. above opening day at nebuta house illustrates the contrasting light qualities of the interior and exterior spaces. top

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construction. “At the time of the competition, it was pretty clear that we were going to be working for ourselves,” notes MacAllen, “We wanted to work on our own projects that we could initiate ourselves.” The couple gained a lot from their Nebuta House experience in Japan, including valuable lessons in material exploration and the nuances of creating appropriately habitable spaces through good design.

Since its completion in January 2011, Nebuta House has become a significant addition to Aomori, a waterfront city of 300,000 located on the northern tip of Honshu, the main island of Japan. Overlooking Mutsu Bay, the building is a simple two-storey box clad in over 820 12-metretall twisted red metal ribbons that, when seen in their entirety, resemble a large sweeping curtain.

The ribbons were prefabricated in a factory before being shaped and installed on site by hand using a multi-point connection system. Much of the project’s character is derived from its façade, which appears to twist and pull, opening up at key locations to reveal the corner lobby or various entrances. The exterior metal screen appears transparent from some angles, while at other times the ribbons seem more densely aligned and prominent, shielding the passerby’s view of the interior.

A secondary screen of galvanized metal further restricts light entering the black-box theatre, workshops and display spaces centred around Aomori’s Nebuta Festival—a week-long celebration held at the beginning of every August. The festival draws thousands of participants who delight in the elaborate parade of enormous hand-painted lanterns depicting samurai warriors, demons and animals.

Nebuta House presented many challenges for molo. It took several visits just to uncover the distinct culture of Japan, its local politics, and the significance of the Nebuta Festival itself.

Even after molo was initially awarded the citysponsored commission in 2002, there was no desire to establish a permanent building for the festival. But once the need to design a permanent home for the festival was established, a client group emerged along with various ad hoc committees, resulting in political infighting that only served to complicate and jeopardize the project.

Construction began in March 2007 and by early 2009, the local government’s backing of the project’s curtain-like exterior became uncertain.

A change of local government ensued and once the metal cladding was approved, molo accelerated the installation so that its dismantling would be unlikely once the public became accustomed to its presence.

Forsythe and MacAllen’s exhausting experience in Japan—much of which was beyond their control—has only strengthened the couple’s resolve to focus their efforts on intimately scaled product design. Remaining interested in Japan, their firm is currently adapting its softwall partitions to pro-

a view of nebuta house in its waterfront context; stephanie for­ sythe and todd Macallen Make refine­ Ments to one of their cardboard study Models used for the project; a cyclist drives by the nearly coMpleted building.

rigHt, top to bottoM

vide privacy—and more importantly, dignity—to those who were left homeless by the tsunami and earthquake that hit Japan last March. Understanding cultural differences while working through small-scale design challenges may prove to be the most effective way to ensure the long-term success of their firm. ca

iwan baan

client city of aoMori, japan arcHitect teaM Molo (stephanie forsythe, todd Macallen, rob­ ert pasut, kan a., atsushi n., duncan wright, kevin jaMes, adaM sharkey, takuya shikanai, Mathew­arthur bulford); d&dt arch (yasuo nakata, atsuo yano); frank la rivière architects (frank la rivière, yoko MiMa, paola itikawa otsuka) structural kanebako structural engineers MecHanical pt MoriMura & associates ltd., shikani­daiki con­ struction jv electrical pt MoriMura & associates ltd., yoden­utou con­ struction jv acoustics nittobo acoustic engineering co. ltd. construction kajiMa­fujiMoto­kurahashi construction jv (Masato shinohe, tadahiro watanabe, hajiMe Mizoe, kenji hirai, hiroMasa akaMa) area 6,710 M2 budget $35 M (site, building, and exhibits) coMpletion january 2011 B

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GivinG uP the GhOSt

This pasT summer saw The final ediTion of GhosT laB, a series of suCCessful researCh laBoraTories held on The nova sCoTia farm of Brian maCKay-lyons sinCe 1994. a seleCT Group of liKe-minded arChiTeCTs, hisTorians and CriTiCs CommiseraTed over The values of reGionalism, CrafT and desiGn.

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Trevor Boddy Cherish rosas

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A relocated and restored 19th-century octagonal barn was the unlikely venue for one of the more ambitious architectural gatherings Canada has seen in recent years. At the centre of the octagon, the inevitable focus of the Ghost 13: Ideas in Things symposium was Halifax architect Brian MacKayLyons: the event was hosted on his farmland outside Lunenburg, it featured his personal network of like-minded designers, and the talks celebrated the Ghost Lab building workshops he has conducted there. While the dozen previous Ghost Labs since 1994 brought architectural celebrities to design and build with students, this was the first one in symposium rather than construction workshop mode, and it took four days for its rich program of ideas, images and interchange to play out.

Featured speakers included some of the world’s leading historians and critics of architecture—Kenneth Frampton of New York, Juhani Pallasmaa of Helsinki, Tom Fisher of Minneap34 canadian architect 08/11

olis, and Peter Buchanan of London. They were joined by Glenn Murcutt of Sydney and a large number of American architects of MacKayLyons’s vintage and design predilections: Marlon Blackwell, Tom Kundig, Rick Joy, Wendell Burnette, Dan Rockhill and many others. Nearly all of these architects and historian critics were participants in one or more of the previous dozen Ghost Labs, and the symposium had a strong, perhaps overly strong, retrospective flavour.

MacKay-Lyons repeatedly referred to the gathered designers as “architects from the boonies.”

The best rejoinder to this came from New Yorker Deborah Berke, whose witty and welcome presentation of urban loft conversions was prefaced with “I’m from Queens—believe me, no place is as boonies as Queens!” Two of the strongest presentations of work came from Canadian women, Brigitte Shim and Patricia Patkau. Patkau, in particular, insisted that there was no linkage or singular line of thought in the work of the designers gathered there: “There is a presumption that we are a movement, but we are not—we are on many different trajectories.” With Patkau’s clear include-me-out statement of any emerging pastoral alliance, the keener lads may in future be reduced to labelling themselves the “Boonies Boys” or the “Scotia Brothers.” While some called for a concluding manifesto along the lines of a Country and Eastern CIAM declaration, MacKay-Lyons wisely resisted issuing a singular

wrap-up document. Still, the sense of an emerging club hung in the air right through to the last set of a barn dance featuring a Halifax blues band. I was deeply impressed that MacKay-Lyons personally pulled off the event independent of any institution, though this independence necessitated a very steep registration fee of nearly $3,000 per participant (including taxes, excluding lodging). Given the range and depth of programming over four days, and the generosity of spirit everywhere evident, this was good value.

The “all too much” moment occurred at the end of the last seminar, when the 20 speakers and 80 registrants gathered for a group photograph on a low wooden deck constructed by an earlier Ghost Lab (where groups of students gather with architectural “names” to design, then construct annual elements of the ever-evolving camp). As photographers snapped their final group shot, the deck groaned, cracked, and failed under all that weight of assembled ghost campers. This seemed to me the apt revenge of some ghost engineer, a departed soul who had wasted his life in this realm trying to teach structural principles to aspiring architects. “Load architects to failure!” is how one wag described the collapse, where luckily, no one was hurt. But it did bring home questions about what is to be done with the aging Ghost Lab camp, where a very unMaritimes unpainted wood aesthetic hastens a rotted return to the fields from which it sprang.

With this setting of the (unstable) stage and listing of dramatis personae, what follows is my weather-modified response to some of what I saw and heard at Ghost Lab 13 at Upper Kingsburg, Nova Scotia. night One: Sermon

While Ghost 13’s days were spent in the late spring muck of the Upper Kingsburg farm, most evenings participants were shuttled down to talks at Lunenburg’s St. John’s Anglican Church, there being extra room along its hard pews for busloads of Dalhousie architecture students. This masterpiece of Carpenter Gothic is one of Canada’s greatest buildings of the 19th century, severe in white walls and black-trimmed arches and finials outside, glowing with warm wood inside, and golden sprays of painted constellations arrayed above the altar-cum-lectern. Make that restored warm wood, as the church was nearly burned down by local miscreants in a Halloween prank a decade ago, but superbly restored since in a multi-million-dollar federal-provincial effort.

There could be no more appropriate setting than an Anglican pulpit for the opening talk by Kenneth Frampton. A tendency towards Ruskinian moralizing—that mid-19th-century fusion of Christian faith and imperative design declarations that launched the Arts and Crafts, then the Modern Movement—has long been evident in Frampton’s texts and talks. In keeping with the

retrospective tone of Ghost 13, Frampton’s lecture mainly revisited his most influential writing—the various iterations of his vision of Critical Regionalism (Frampton graciously noted the term was actually coined earlier by Greek Alexandre Tzonis and Canadian Liane Lefaivre). Frampton took the basic argument and examples of his 1983 essay “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points of an Architecture of Resistance” and updated them, dealing with key issues that have emerged since, such as sustainability.

He went on to mention his “North American Five,” a personal selection of the most important practitioners on this continent—by listing the Patkaus and Shim-Sutcliffe, his choices are 40% Canadian—who gathered for his 80th birthday celebration in New York last year, and who will be the subject of his next book. Whether six or eight points of Critical Regionalism, or a ranking of five or 15 North American faves, what is missing from Frampton’s list-making is the interrelationship of his listed points. Surely, it is more important to describe how to integrate concerns for such points as “sustainability” with “topography” or “civic form” than to merely list them separately—like the checklist at some oil-change joint. Similarly, we would all like to know more about what links—and separates—the work of Shim-Sutcliffe with the Patkaus and the others.

In this, Frampton would do justice to his own ideas to be more, not less, Ruskinian. What’s

ThrouGhouT The duraTion of GhosT laB, a reloCaTed oCTaGonal Barn was Busy laTe inTo The niGhT wiTh disCussions, drinKinG and danCe; KenneTh frampTon holds CourT; an aTTendee avidly fills his weiGhTy sKeTChBooK; The BeauTifully siTed GhosT laB enCampmenT.

OPPOSite tOP, LeFt tO riGht

crucial about John Ruskin’s The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), for example, is that it presents more than independent definitions of those factors the critic thought essential to good design, but also effective rhetoric—a writerly weaving of each into a complete and integrated argument. On or near the main stage of architectural ideas for nearly three decades, Critical Regionalism demands the same treatment. day two: rain

I had not been to MacKay-Lyons’s Upper Kingsburg site since 1990, when we walked this magnificent stretch of bay, spit and rolling hillock with our children, before the first Ghost workshop had started. Even seen through lashings of late-spring rain and wind, the scene had become even more astonishing, with more than a dozen buildings constructed since, making this an essential stop for Atlantic architectural pilgrims.

Dominating the scene is the octagonal barn, its structure relocated from the Annapolis Valley and re-walled and re-roofed where necessary.

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My surprise was how much the renovated structure resembles the floating Teatro del Mondo that Aldo Rossi designed for the 1979 Venice Biennale of Architecture. This proved not entirely inappropriate, as most architects presenting that day showed works exploring the rustic end of the range of new possibilities that opened up after Postmodernism’s short, sharp palace coup.

Some of the most impressive designs shown the first day were from Marlon Blackwell of Arkansas. I had last seen and reviewed Blackwell’s work at the 2006 Banff Session (see CA, May 2006), and it has evolved interestingly. One example is Biloxi’s Porchdog House Prototype, a welcome bit of post-Katrina rebuilding that does not succumb to New Urbanist nostalgia. He described Fayetteville’s L-Stack House as a stacked or double-shotgun house, one rendered with a discipline of detail and space creation, making its suburban site shine.

MacKay-Lyons’s nominal theme for the first day was “place,” but the parade of exurban houses and suburban civic buildings by Rick Joy, Ted Flato and Wendell Burnette flowed one into the other. It rained outside, and it rained inside with handsomely detailed but interchangeable second and third homes in the sunbelt, relieved solely by Deborah Berke’s Manhattan interiors, a brief urban pit stop before a return to exurbia and yet more big houses. Prolific historian Robert McCarter’s talk was erudite but empty, with boilerplate quotes and aperçus that seldom connected with place, or even the idea of place. More interesting were Juhani Pallasmaa’s evening observations, mainly devoted to how sustainability is changing the idea and practice of architecture.

Quoting Josef Brodsky that “Man is an aesthetic being before an ethical one,” and “The purpose of evolution is beauty,” Pallasmaa concluded that “Sustainability has to be transferred into a new sense of beauty.” Not quite what we hear from the Canada Green Building Council! day three: Sun

The sun was sharp and brilliant the next day, and so were many of the presentations and subsequent discussions—the high point of Ghost 13. In welcome contrast with the too-similar work shown the first day, recent buildings by Canada’s two architectural power couples—Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe plus John and Patricia Patkau—demonstrated the increasing scale and confidence of both their practices. “Craft” was the Brian maCKay-lyons Gives an inspired speeCh To ConferenCe aTTendees; KenneTh frampTon delivers his “sermon” To a CapaCiTy Crowd; orGanizers, speaKers and aTTendees ThorouGhly enjoyed The opporTuniTy To share perspeCTives over several inTense days.

LeFt, tOP tO BOttOM

36 canadian architect 08/11

riGht The “Three elders” of The ConferenCe—Glenn murCuTT, KenneTh frampTon and juhani pallasmaa—share a lauGh ToGeTher. BOttOM riGht GhosT laB’s many insiGhTful presenTaTions TriGGered muCh disCussion and deBaTe.

assigned theme of the day, and craft was the means and the sometimes obsessive end for the work of Sydney’s Peter Stutchbury and Seattle’s Tom Kundig.

The debate was energized by Toronto’s Barry Sampson, who first declared that too much of the work shown up to that point in Ghost 13 relied on the “aestheticization of nature.” Sampson then reacted to a similarly romantic privileging of the hand-drawn and home-made by declaring, “Digitally driven manufacturing can revive craft traditions. It can make complex shapes feasible once again and it can attract young people back to the construction industry who enjoy problemsolving with computers.” There was no better illustration of Sampson’s point that day than the complex digitally milled stone pieces used at crucial plan junction points in Shim-Sutcliffe Architects’ Integral House for musician/mathematician James Stewart. Craft like this as the “finely made” versus craft as solely the “hand-made” brought out impassioned spiels pro and con. Are Tom Kundig’s retro-mechanical gizmos (chainpowered moveable windows, hydraulically lifted skylights, cabins on wheels) the triumph of contemporary craft, or imagistic throwaways? Coffee arrived just as the debate devolved into a discussion about whether the computer coding of design software is itself an exemplification of craft at its finest.

Critic Peter Buchanan continued the Ruskinian line of Ghost 13 by worrying that science and modernity had created separations from nature, craft and community. His conclusion was “reconnecting is the next wave,” and strongly praised the updating of Ruskin in Richard Sennett’s sleeper-hit book The Craftsman. Some of us warned about the object lesson of the Arts and Crafts movement’s own history, which evolved from Utopian hopes for the unity of workmen and their tools, to a few decades later, the production of ultra-luxury goods for a tiny elite by Morris & Company in England and the Greene Brothers in Pasadena. With their rustic villas and elaborately wrought details in wood and cast iron, are the Scotia Brothers the “New Arts and Crafts” movement and thereby doomed to a similar fate?

Or will some reincarnation of Herman Muthesius or Peter Behrens come along to distill their essence, then spark another movement as powerful as the European Modern movement, one that takes the Arts and Crafts not as a goal but as a point of departure? That evening, Glenn Murcutt let random images of his work and Australian landscapes whirl by as he answered previously 08/11 canadian architect

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submitted questions from the audience. Murcutt’s answers were almost entirely biographical anecdotes, a warmly human means of bringing home ideas of “place” and “craft.” day Four: Fog

Alas, questions like these got lost in the fog of academe, which rolled in off the North Atlantic to obscure and cloak the arguments of the previous day. Everyone presenting on the final day held academic appointments, and most of the work presented was collaborative and communityinvolved student-professor constructions, such as the Ghost Lab encampment itself. There were lively and entertaining presentations by Steve Badanes of his University of Washington student work, and Andrew Freear of Auburn University’s Rural Studio in the years since he took over from late founder Samuel Mockbee. But a similar talk

by Kansan Dan Rockhill also belonged in a separate conference on the topic, since the vast majority of this year’s participants were neither students nor full-time professors of architecture. A glacial narrative on the design of his own house

by Dalhousie University’s Richard Kroeker made me wish for a global ban on professors publicly presenting their own residences. Former Progressive Architecture editor and now Dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design, Thomas

Fisher tantalized with a declaration that “Buildings are but one of the things architects will do in the future,” but it was too late in the proceedings for any to rise to his challenge.

Cued by appreciation of the graciousness of spirit, hard work, and entrepreneurship that had brought us all to his farm, Brian MacKay-Lyons’s concluding talk received a standing ovation not just at its end, but at its beginning. Declaring that “My projects are all about cultivating the landscape,” the talk was most interesting for its biographical themes and presentation of his recent Canadian Embassy in Dhaka (see CA, July 2011), but too many houses whipped by, and if there are emerging themes and ideas in his recent practice, they got lost in the avalanche of one boxy residence after another on the South Shore or Cape Breton coast.

Saunders, whose studio pavilions for the Fogo Island Arts Corporation in Newfoundland (see CA, September 2010) is both a continuation of and a riposte to the design line begun in Halifax 20 years ago. Saunders is but one of the innovating young Canadian architects who should have replaced the too-similar American talents on the program.

More architects like Burkino Faso’s Francis Kéré (whose contribution was limited to a phone-in due to a sudden family death abroad) would enliven things, and future collaborative constructions might be better located in places like Burkina Faso, rather than further cluttering the magnificent slopes of Upper Kingsburg. Intellectually, the time of the Anglo-American axis of Frampton and friends has passed, but there is a lively new generation writing about landscape, craft, vernacular, and architectural making in all its varied glory. Having indulged his generosity, my challenge to Brian MacKay-Lyons—now that you have had your needed Ghost retrospective—is to mount a reconceived event in a couple of years, packing that barn with the best and brightest.

That, or give up the ghost. ca

Giving up the Ghost?

The Ghost Lab and spinoff events like this symposium (to be documented in a book and video) may well prove to be Brian MacKay-Lyons’s great legacy. If they are to be that, the backward glances and self-congratulation evident at Upper Kingsburg need to be replaced by wider frames of reference and an architectural gene pool more diverse than the Scotia Brothers. Conspicuous by his absence at Ghost 13 was Gander native Todd

Vancouver-based critic Trevor Boddy was coorganizer of the “TownShift: Suburb Into City” ideas competition for the City of Surrey, with the final publications now downloadable at www.townshift.ca.

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calendar Out of Sorts: Print Culture & Book Design

June 4-August 21, 2011 This exhibi­ tion at the Design Exchange in To­ ronto explores the various elements of book design, from typography to cover art, and features recognized Canadian book designs. The exhibit traces the history of the book and considers the future of the printed page in the wake of digitization and shifting paradigms. www.dx.org Gary taxali installations

June 22-August 29, 2011 The Drake Hotel in Toronto presents two site­ specific installations by award­ winning illustrator and fine artist Gary Taxali, combining his classic characters drawn on found materi­ als that are complete with original doodles, reminders and notes that enrich the whole piece, blurring the lines between fact and fiction, past and present. www.thedrakehotel.ca/culture/exhibit/11434/site-specific-installationsgary-taxali Façade: Textile Works by Kerry Croghan

June 30-November 1, 2011 Taking place at the Gladstone Hotel Café in Toronto, this exhibition explores and documents compelling patterns and compositions seen within the contemporary structures and urban architecture in the city of Toronto.

Through the lens of a polychromatic colour palette, Kerry Croghan re­ interprets the glass, metal and con­ crete details of buildings as abstract textile prints. info@madedesign.ca Play > Nation

July 1-October 10, 2011 This exhibi­ tion at Toronto’s Design Exchange explores the ways in which Canada’s unique landmass has contributed to a national love of the outdoors, out­ door sport and exploration. The ex­ hibition sections will focus on water, winter, forest and urban en­ vironments, and will present con­ temporary Canadian outdoor and sporting equipment, contextualized by historical examples of earlier

Professional directory models and archival material. http://playnation.tumblr.com Haystack’s Architecture: Vision & Legacy

July 3, 2011-September 11, 2011 Hay­ stack’s summer exhibition at its Center for Community Programs in Deer Isle Village, Maine commem­ orates the 50th anniversary of Hay­ stack’s campus while examining the impact—through drawings, models, and writings by leading architects in the US—of Haystack’s architecture and its architect, Edward Larrabee Barnes (1915­2004). www.haystack-mtn.org

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September 15, 2011 Registered Cana­ dian architects and architectural graduates are encouraged to submit to this annual national awards pro­ gram. Projects must be in the design stage, scheduled for construction or under construction but not substan­ tially complete. The jury consists of Walter Francl, Principal of Walter Francl Architecture Inc. in Vancou­ ver; Diarmuid Nash, Partner in Moriyama & Teshima Architects in Toronto; and Peter Sampson, Prin­ cipal of Peter Sampson Architecture Studio in Winnipeg. www.canadianarchitect.com/awards/ pdfs/2011_canadian_architect_ awards_of_excellence_entry_form.pdf

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editor­in­chief of Air Canada’s enRoute magazine. Highlighting the best Canadian­designed hotels around the world, the enRoute Hotel Design Awards reflect a new focus on the hospitality sector this year, and a Best Buildings roundtable luncheon examines how design and operational strategies can create sustainable and high­performance buildings. Back by popular demand is THINK:Material. Curated by IIDEX and international consultant Jim Salazar, this valuable resource

enables design professionals to source creative new and sustainable materials. The CHAIR Hockey Tournament features industry play­ ers facing off in ergonomic task chairs to raise money for Ronald McDonald House Toronto. www.iidexneocon.com For­more­inFormation­about­ these,­and­additional­listings­oF­Canadian­and­international­events,­please­visit www.canadianarchitect.com

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Seeing in colour

The recenTly compleTed KfW WesTarKade in franKfurT by sauerbruch huTTon is clad in a Technically remarKable and colourfully sophisTicaTed façade. teXt

pamela young Jan biTTer

photo

Ideally, the skin of a building would be a work of art that slashes energy consumption while keeping everyone within it exceptionally comfortable.

If the Kf W Westarkade in Frankfurt succeeds in becoming the world’s first high-rise with a maximum annual primary energy demand of a mere 100 kWh/m2, the built environment will have edged a little closer to perfection.

Recently named 2011’s Best Tall Building (Europe) by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and also shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture/Mies van der Rohe Award, the 39,000-square-metre expansion of Kf W Bank’s headquarters was designed by Sauerbruch Hutton. Westarkade’s 10-storey tower rests on a sweeping four-storey podium that connects it to existing KfW buildings. Although the new building’s sustainable features include a geothermal system and stateof-the-art heat recovery technology, its most innovative aspect is the tower’s polychromatic, double-walled “pressure-ring” façade, developed 42 canadian architect 08/11

by Germany’s Transsolar KlimaEngineering in collaboration with Sauerbruch Hutton.

The outer wall of the cavity surrounding the tower is sawtoothed. Vertical, coloured glass vents forming the narrow side of the sawtooth pattern alternate with the fixed, tempered-glass panels that form the longer edge. The inner wall has operable windows, interspersed with fixed, argon-filled insulated glazing units. Automated blinds within the cavity aid in controlling solar heat gain and glare. In response to data collected by a rooftop weather station and various sensors, the building automation system adjusts the angle of individual vents to introduce fresh air and maintain a ring of consistent positive pressure around the building. This shelters the tower from high winds, and it allows occupants to open windows on the inner wall year round without causing drafts or heat loss. Oriented and shaped to take advantage of prevailing winds, the tower benefits from natural ventilation most of the year.

Monitoring to determine how well actual energy performance measures up to the modelling is still ongoing, but the building is expected to be twice as efficient as a conventional European office building, and three times more so than the North American norm.

Sauerbruch Hutton defines itself as a firm intent on exploring how sustainable design can be

already a remarKable building WiTh respecT To iTs performance, The KfW WesTarKade in franKfurT Transfixes WiTh seducTively rhyThmic bands of colour and glazing.

aBoVe

“translated into sensual and stimulating spaces.”

Its founding directors, Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton, are known in particular for their striking use of colour. Westarkade’s façade incorporates varying shades of red, blue and green vents, with a different colour range dominating each elevation. Reds along the main frontage harmonize with historic sandstone buildings; blues complement an existing Kf W building; greens form a backdrop to a botanical garden. Best Tall Building juror Peter Murray noted that colour is often used to mask otherwise unremarkable architecture. But in Westarkade’s case, he said that “it contributes an additional rich layer to what is already a remarkable building.” ca Pamela Young is the editor of Canadian Facility Management & Design. Matthias Sauerbruch will deliver the architectural keynote address entitled “The Practice of Sustainability” at IIDEX/NeoCon Canada in Toronto on Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:00am. For more information, please visit www.iidexneocon.com.

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