Airports have a generic architecture, void of meaning and are often considered a non-place. These buildings are perfect to understand people since they are the funnel before departures. How can we better understand non-places from a human being’s experience? Presence is comprehension. By attending weekly visits to the airport one can begin to understand the building and themselves within it.
Time-lapse photography captures movement. Hierarchical paths of circulation where higher traffic areas are wider to create direction. One might retreat to a smaller space to treat anxiety. One can notice social interactions and social norms: tense parents, unenthused workers, excited children and watchful officers. Drawing allows one to dwell longer with a place to understand it. Moments are bittersweet when people are being dropped off, hugs are given and hands are let go.
The vast spaces create a lightness preparing travellers to fly. They are used by authoritative figures to monitor the patrons. Breathing can be difficult in airports because of the stressful timely nature necessary for flight schedules and architecture is not always the solution. Here, an installation serves as a reminder. A continuously inflating and deflating clothed lung floating above people. The exhaled air propels paper airplanes to circle it.
The paper plane means to start over or to throw oneself into the future. The airport is the final space one can call home and the first place to discover. The airport is the gate towards one’s future since it doesn’t allow stillness; it wants all to move forward. It is difficult to spend time in this space because it is not designed to be dwelled in, it is made to be moved through. Stopping in the airport allows reflection on it as well as on oneself thus we learn that emotions function as a plane–continuously ascending and descending. With time, breath and patience come realization, knowledge and progress.
Elevation
Memory bank
Data stored in protected shell. Linked to staff computers.
Full assembly axo
Computer
As the air moves towards the lung sensors pick up its characteristics. The computer dictates how much air needs to be pumped into the lungs. It senses the mood of the people and adapts its breathing pattern.
Gliding plane trajectory
Planes circle around the lung showing its importance.
Floating lung
Inflating and delfating. Air is released at the bottom creating a wheezing sound. the smell and feel of outside air can be sensed.
Air intake purifier
Tubes peirce the exterior skin on the airport to seize the wind. Capturing the smell and temperature.
Plane folding instructions to be completed after installation
Plan view
For this project we were tasked with creating a folly that encapsulates the world. To represent the world I thought it was important to relate the human beings’ connection to it. I focused on the earth. The earth is a symbol of reincarnation. I liked the idea of a surface that can be lifted revealing what is underneath. Things underground carry mystery since we cannot see them. We forget buried things and I wanted a building that would bring forth what is repressed.
The two lifting monoliths would hold space for a columbarium. In the niches people can insert urns with ashes or plants in memory of lost ones. In Buddhist tradition death is seen as the greatest teacher enlightening us about impermanence. Nothing lasts since everything is always in a state of change. All existence is a migration from what was to what will be.
The building exists to reveal the mystery of death. Removing the taboos associated with speaking of this subject and allowing spaces for people to feel safe to express their feelings. The building allows people to remember the past, by spending time in the columbarium, and to look forward to the future, by standing on the perch.
We give our bodies to the earth when we no longer need them and the earth gives us the energy we need to survive. As the ribbons project a flow of energy towards the city of Kyoto, the people who experience the space will be carried by this energy and propelled to maintain the balance.
Eddy St | Gatineau, Canada
I noticed a strong connection with the Ottawa River when examining the site. I wanted my building to invite patrons off the road and on the waterfront. Alexandre Tache Road undulates around our building, and extending its flow can direct people.
When water travels, it erodes the existing. Water creates paths, crevasses and overhangs. The building takes shape from a metaphorical river that passes through the site and the existing building. Along its journey, the river meets two large structures that it erodes to give large overhangs. The building splits towards the Ottawa River and reveals a clearing allowing water access. The metaphorical river creates a separation that allows for a public and a private building. The public building includes spaces for work, classes and events. The private section includes areas for student lodging, an art gallery and a dining hall.
A shell is a vital protective armour, but conversely, maturing, overcoming shyness, forming beliefs and ideas and gaining confidence to express them is often referred to as “coming out of one’s shell”. The erosion leaves the shell of the existing building. People could walk through it to enter a sheltered exterior corridor. Circulation speed varies, it slows in pockets as a river creates eddies. Circulation flows through the existing and gives it new life. I want to create an honest contrast between the existing and the new. Hence, the angled shapes help demonstrate the alterations by breaking out of the original stone wall.
Every building has a story, and by preserving elements, people are reminded of our progress. Like a message in a bottle floating in the water, the building reuses its container to pass a message of confidence towards the future.
CARVING A RIVER
ADDING MASSES ERODING UNDERNEATH ORIENTING VIEWS
Lebreton Flats has great historical value tied with fire. Fire can teach about destruction like the 1900s lumber mill burning but it’s also an element that brings people together. First nations would use fire for warmth, and to tell stories. Fire is not only destruction it is life. A community centre succeeds in its function when it brings people together like a fire.
Fire holds a verticality. It burns upwards and is hottest at its peak. To represent this, I created a tall structure with a celebrated top level. The structure can be a beacon for the community to discover. As a fire takes fuel from below it and uses its energy upward, people would enter beneath, fueling the building with life.
In plan, the building is split between the performance spaces and the public spaces with a ‘social street’. The theatre is surrounded by thick concrete walls so that when passing through the walls people get a sense of stepping into an enclosed, quiet, important space. The stacked boxes consist of rentable rooms for practicing parts of a performance. Each box is oriented towards a landmark pertinent to the story of Ottawa. At the top level is a permanent art gallery. The art from the gallery juxtaposed with glassed panoramic views of Ottawa removes the boundaries of art and life. The superimposed boxes is inspired by lumber stacked to dry in the lumber mill. It is a metaphor to remind people that a community is made from the coming together of many pieces.
I believe a performance center is missing in this area of the city and could be beneficial to the surrounding residents. The function creates a contrast with the adjacent library. A quiet building and a loud one. Like a dancing flame, my vision for this community centre is for people to have a place to be able to express themselves freely and burn brightly.
A TOWER AND A BASE ROTATING AND CONNECTING GROUND DEPRESSION AND TIP LIGHTNESS CREATING EXTERIOR SPACES
Section 1 through theatre and exterior park
Section 2 through vertical circulation and practice rooms
Iridescence is a lustrous rainbow-like play of colour caused by the differential refraction of light waves. Similar to iridescence, I developed a proposal that reflects its surrounding. As different colours come together in a rainbow, various lifestyles would come together in this community. In Greek mythology, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow and a messenger for Zeus. She carried messages from heaven to earth on the arc of the rainbow. Inspired by Iris’ travels, a path with arced bridges runs along the side of the site reaching public transit.
Human irises can witness the iris flowers’ beauty. Visibility for safety was carefully considered for this proposal. A private park with a pond is located at the center of the site, embraced by surrounding buildings. The park creates an intimacy that dwellers would not have in Pinecrest Park. The pond would be large enough to make a hockey rink when it freezes in the winter, which adds to the existing recreational theme of Pinecrest and allows water retention.
The proposal blends with the surrounding urban fabric by including single-family homes and gradually increasing building density and height towards the tower. The proposal is conscious of its proximity to elementary schools, the Algonquin College and downtown Ottawa, offering accommodations for different ages.
The key building is the protruding tower. I want the community to revolve around this magnet of social interaction. Like a tree swaying in the wind, the tower attracts attention by its capture of movement. The undulating shape creates a dynamic form that blends with the organic shape of nature but stands out in the fabric of the urban landscape.
Although the shape of such a tower might increase its price, its purpose would be positive because it would diverge from rectilinear capital-oriented designs towards inciting designs based on innovation and well-being.
We were tasked with creating a coach house to densify the downtown of Sudbury. My client is a wealthy businessman from Toronto who often travels to Sudbury. My client believes that balance and stability are key to success. My proposition is a modern house that reflects my client’s values.
My concept began as a set of three boxes stacked on each other to offer elevated views. I created a cantilever on the second floor. The overhang helps limit the impact on the site and allows the existing owner access to Ghandi Lane. The highest box helps create a sense of balance by adding a weight holding the cantilever in place. The triangle is used in the structure to break the linear grid of the building and give a sense of stability.
Considering the material palette, the first level is concrete to demonstrate a heavy base. The other levels are built lighter with metal cladding. The first level is the work area and entrance; the second is social, and the third is private. As the client moved higher up in the house, I wanted to create a sense of lightness. One can sense this in the staircase. The bottom steps have filled concrete risers, and I removed the risers higher up to create the illusion that they are floating.
Openings are primarily the front and back of the house. The openings allow for natural ventilation and a sense of transparency. I extended the walls around the openings to give the owner privacy from the neighbours. By reflecting on my client’s values, I offer a proposition that will provide him with comfort in stability.
This housing project is inspired by northern Ontarios rocky environment. Dowling has a strong connection with minerals. The area, created by a meteor strike, left the land with a unique topography populated by many exposed rocks. Between these rocks nature has flourished.
To maximise the amount of houses I could include on the lot I based my tessellation on a series of layers similar to the layering of sediments. The courtyards are created by a fracture forming across the massing. The ondulation of the fissure creates privacy between units but also allows interaction.
The unit plans are based on the geode. A stone with a beautifully gemed interior. The houses seem to be entities that have been cut and split apart. To vehiculate this image I designed the exterior with solid walls and the walls facing onto the courtyard are fully glassed. Some houses include bridges or extrusion to give the impression that the two pieces could have been connected before. In the single unit home the master bedroom is separated by a bridge. The separation creates an intimate cocoon space. The glassed courtyards positioned in the middle of the house create a strong connection with nature. The nature creates a natural filter to allow the two sides of the house to hold different functions.
My proposition succeeds by connecting people with nature, reflecting its surroundings, and maximising land use. The people of Dowling are conscious of their past with the mining industry and the destructive effect it caused their land. The population works hard to repopulate the surrounding forests. This courtyard housing proposition follows their mentality and offers a solution helping reduce the impact on their land .
The city of Subury is built around Ramsey Lake. During winter this lake is turned into a skating path for the residents of the city. Every year the architecture students are asked to design skating huts for people to rest along the skating path. These sculptures need to consider human interactions and be built accordingly.
The theme for this year was winter. Thus, we designed our structure around the shape of the snowflake. A series of hexagonal wood arcs are rotated and repeated in order to create a tunnel. Between the arcs, wooden washers held by dowels create openings which let snow and light pass through. Benches are placed on each side to encourage face to face conversations. To be mindful of our environmental impact no screws or glue were used. The structure was constructed using only wooden joints.
Ojibwe words and a poem from a local poet are carved into the structure to connect the structure to the people that are using it. The poem (in french) reads :
Si nos maisons avaient une voix
Si nos maisons pouvaient chanter
Elles chanteraient nos vies et le pays, le notre, malgré tout
Mais les racines demeurent et temoignent de la génération des batisseurs de pays
Jean-Marc Dalpé, 1983SECTION SCALE 1:20
PLAN SCALE 1:20
BENCH DETAIL
SCALE 1:5
Donna Haraway defines our current condition as; ‘A thick present where we endure the troubles of today by staying exactly there; responding within its troubling mechanisms.’ She defines string figures as a way of interpreting this thick present; as an adventurous pursuit in the interstices of the troubled times, as threading connections to articulate knowledge just to erupt them to create new connections and companions. Through symbolic interpretation, my project aims to investigate the current condition of homelessness in Ottawa. The project reflects on methods of representation when documenting. It critiques modern ways of thinking and raises awareness by sharing research.
I began by reflecting on myself, loneliness and cities during the pandemic. An exploded axonometric represents the feeling of being lost in built space. The model blends elements from buildings on the housing continuum and demonstrates them without a sense of gravity, time or sunlight. Stairs allow ascending and descending through the spaces, but penrose stairs allude to the illusion of a cycle. The image depicts transition but obscures linearity. By breaking apart the volumes, one can understand the complexities and uncertainty of the condition and that the path to a permanent residence is not the same for everyone.
To represent the threatening conditions of the streets, I created string figures as mechanical creatures formed from elements of the city’s urban fabric. Light posts, sirens or ventilation units disturb calmness. The figures instill fear through authoritative presence and lack of human qualities.
Donna Harraway explains in her book ‘Staying with the Trouble’ the importance of sym-poesis. That nothing makes itself. She says; ‘Staying with the trouble requires learning to be truly present, not as a vanishing pivot between awful or edenic pasts and apocalyptic or salvific futures, but as mortal critters entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of places, times, matters and meanings.’
The historical connection of Ottawa’s Byward Market to diverse, dense urban living and social amenities lends itself well to fostering a strong sense of community. Building on the notion that presence prompts awareness, this thesis argues that an architecture that promotes social interaction between community members and those experiencing homelessness benefits all. Through on-site documentation and interviews with both shelter clients and staff, the thesis first demonstrates the importance of design knowledge being acquired through designer presence. A design proposal then examines the opportunities for a multibuilding inclusive site—one providing residential, social support, and community spaces while being conscious of its historical, environmental, psychological, and economic impacts. Overall, the work aims to raise awareness on homelessness in Ottawa and to provide innovative design strategies that invite discussion on the importance of architecture in providing spaces better acknowledging housing as a basic human right.
Homelessness is not the reflection of an individual’s inadequacies, but rather an indicator of the health of our cities. It occurs because of embedded inequities, unjust resource management, flawed or absent legislations, poor social awareness, chronic mental health issues, and uninformed design. It is an issue in the discourse of architecture not only because of our profession’s connections to the economy but also because built spaces hold a psychological and sociological influence.
Through my research, the evidence indicates that Canada’s shelter-based approach to homelessness serves only as a temporary solution. It ignores the issues facing our population and, rather than eradicating the demand for shelters, risks leading to its growth. Ottawa, and Canada more broadly, need to move toward more affordable housing solutions that give residents a sense of independence, privacy, safety, and self-reflection. The social obstacles facing many in society for being unhoused, such as marginalization and stigmatized prejudice, need to be made aware to the public in order to bring a better understanding of society’s devastating effect on homelessness. The minimum quality of living conditions for all residents needs to be understood as a human right.
Homelessness will continue to exist, changing forms as the people and urbanity of Ottawa exist and evolve. The goal is for architects to continually remain aware of the topic, offering solutions adapted to however the situation takes form in the present moment: conditions and solutions temporally balancing each other as a symbol of responsibility towards progress.
Refrigerator, range oven, sink, counter, pantry, food, spices, cooking utensils, pots and pans, baking sheet, dishcloth, cutlery, plates, bowls, glasses, trash can.
Cleaning supplies, broom, dustpan, bucket, toolbox, hammer, measuring tape, batteries, flashlight.
Outerwear, jacket, shoes, boots, umbrella, sports equipment, tennis racket, hooks.
Garments for different occasions, dresswear, lounging, sleeping, hangers, drawers, socks, underwear, laundry hamper, ironing board.
Accessible shower, toilet, vanity, mirror, extra storage, drying rack, handrails, towels, bathmat, soap, toothbrush, razor, comb, deodorant, toilet paper, first-aid supplies, plunger.
Television, vase and plants, wall art, clock, laptop, notebook, pens, sketchbook, radio, board games.
Bed, sheets, pillows, covers, extra storage, books, light for reading, blinds, table and chairs for eating, working or conversing.