Notice of M.Arch. Thesis Defence Fall 2017

Haley Zhou

Of the thesis entitled: From Pedagogy to Agency: Learning to Act in Rural China

Abstract:

How can a school teach us to act?

From Pedagogy to Agency confronts the imbalances found between rural and urban society in China and explores the role education have to play in their ever-changing relationship.

The challenge is to ask of schools, classrooms, and education to realize its importance as a place of mediation within our society. A place where differences are made not only possible but a critical component of our shared world. As homogeneity is observed in the spaces all around us, differences are rejected. Education is now defined by the answers we receive instead of the questions we ask. Education then, must learn to ask questions again, dialogue that requires us to negotiate and cooperate with one another. 

We build as acts of mediation as well. Whether it is to define ourselves against the elements or between each other, our buildings and their making serves as a reflection of our societies and our values. During my travels in China, the built environment of cities, villages, and spaces in between, revealed a culture at odds between its past and future. The inequalities within a modern education; one rooted in competition, reflect the traits of our neoliberal and globalized society today. The nature of its classrooms and schools all comes to be relentlessly uniform, introverted and hermetic. In fostering a new agency, schools then might look to become outward looking, expanded and connected to its communities and surroundings. These interactions then allowed will be moments of learning for the children; to learn to be curious, to learn to be with each other as a community, to learn about the nature of the world around them and to learn to realize their places in them as individuals. This process is filled with risks, moments of uncertainty and it is endlessly challenging. But, perhaps that is the role education must play, for us to learn to better be with each other and for a shared world to be possible.

“Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token save it from that ruin which, except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and young, would be inevitable.” 1
-Hannah Arendt, The Crisis in Education

1 Hannah Arendt, “The Crisis of Education,” in In Between past and Future; Eight Exercises in Political Thought (New York: Viking Press, 1968), 196.

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Aidan Mitchelmore

Of the thesis entitled: The Counterpublic of Union Station: An Alternative Future of Toronto's Transit Terminal

Abstract:

Though Toronto’s public spaces were conceived as spaces of discourse engendering democratic participation, today we witness their degradation into platforms of consumption. Contemporary Capitalist forces engulf the city’s public realm, transforming its space into a mechanism of consumption and profit. Seen clearly in the glorification of such commercialized neighborhoods as Yorkville and Queen St. West, businesses have adopted invasive marketing strategies that use the promise of culture, experience, and safety to mask their profit-oriented objectives. This abandonment of the public realm by the City of Toronto is seen clearly in recent plans for Union Station, the city’s central transit hub that is currently undergoing a large-scale revitalization.

Since its creation, Union has operated as a physical and symbolic gateway to the city. Today, following decades of neglect, it is the recipient of a near billion-dollar investment to modernize its transportation infrastructure, and restore the heritage value of the building. In 2004, an extensive Master Plan outlined urban design principles for this revitalization, which privileged pedestrian use and experience. But enticed by the possibility of a self-financed revitalization, the City has since endorsed and approved the construction of over 160 thousand square feet of new retail space as part of its vision, prioritizing the Station’s profitability over the 2004 Master Plan’s public-oriented vision. To realize these plans, a Head Lessee Agreement was awarded to Osmington Inc., which granted full control over the Station’s retail spaces and the exclusive right to profit from Union’s existing space. In doing so, the City has paid a high price for Union’s revitalization, undermining its ability to continue serving as one of Canada’s most celebrated public spaces.

This thesis proposes an alternative future for Toronto’s Union Station, imagining a Station that not only reflects the original ambitions of the 2004 Master Plan, but also challenges our expectations of urban public space. It imagines a second renovation to the Station with the ambitions of re-publicizing and re-politicizing this cultural landmark, accommodating a diverse range of architectural programs to attract a widened range of publics into the Station. As a foil to the eating and shopping amenities introduced by the current renovation, this thesis proposes the addition of public programs such as a public library, a resource centre, gathering spaces, a shelter for the homeless and generous versatile public spaces, with the aim of accommodating a range of common activities – gatherings, confrontations, performances, discussions, protests, celebrations, amongst other diverse social encounters. This design is a polemical proposal situated within existing legal, financial, and architectural frameworks; it remains self-aware of the realistic limitations put forth by the City of Toronto, the politics surrounding the revitalization project, and the logistical constraints of building in an infrastructural hub. However, engaging with the work on Athenian democratic spaces by Richard Sennett in Spaces of Democracy and Michael Warner’s Publics and Counterpublics, this thesis looks to reveal how the confrontation of difference is fundamental to democratic exchange, and the way by which a diversity of uses within the Station remains critical to its re-politicization. Specifically, though spatial and programmatic reconceptions of the Agora, Stoa, and Pnyx political typologies, the thesis suggests an architecture of proximity, adjacency, visibility, privacy, publicity, and counterpublicity.

The resulting design proposes a dense network of reinterpreted typologies that form a social landscape interwoven into the commercialized transit hub. Through a typological and topological reading of the proposal, we may explore an alternative future of Toronto’s Union Station, while questioning how architecture can foster a more diverse democratic society.

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Jennifer Yong

Of the thesis entitled: Table-Top Views

Abstract:

High resolution aerial photography has become widely available in the twenty-first century. Already accustomed to consuming data-rich bird’s-eye views, we have eagerly adapted this scale of digital imagery for pleasure even while data analytics has emerged to treat such overviews as a new domain of research. Within a digital era proliferating with these images, we are aware that looking from an aerial viewpoint is not an entirely new practice; it was popular in many times and cultures before ours. Table-Top Views examines the persistent appeal of aerial pictures — the aesthetic allure that accompanies their historical and contemporary agency in urbanism, surveillance, war, and art. Elevated viewpoint images are studied through analogies to processes in related disciplines: cinematic methods like the aerial pan and the macro-to-micro zoom, the traditions of landscape painting in China and Japan, and image appropriation in Conceptual Art and flourishing in digital image discourse. Table-Top Views curates a series of images, a selection that confronts the world through an aerial viewpoint.

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Frances Lai

Of the thesis entitled: Massive-Scale Agency

Abstract:

We are at a moment in time where technologies are developing at an accelerated pace, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have advanced to a point where each of us carry a portal to insurmountable options for information access and social exchange. Our smartphones have become a necessary tool to the formation of our online and offline identities, and will continue to be an access point to several emerging technologies that will further affect the way we inhabit our surrounding environment.

With all the excitement that these technological advances may bring, we also find ourselves in a state of great uncertainty. The relationship we once had to the inner workings of our surrounding and ecological environments has deteriorated. This gap in knowledge, and the resulting poor behaviours as it pertains to environmental sustainability, have resulted in global warming, which continues to be the most pressing issue of our times.

ICTs have increased the speed of communication to real-time, and this capability for near-instant feedback introduces the potential to re-establish a close relationship with our immediate environment. This thesis seeks to investigate how ICTs can be used to create a digital platform that facilitates new forms of information representation that bridge the gap between the individual and man-made climate change. It explores design solutions that the architect’s skillset can produce when combined with tools and methodologies from other disciplines. Using various data collection methods including surveys, interviews, and user testing, a digital platform is created with the intention that its users may be able to gather their own evidence, realize where they are situated in the supply chain, and discover where there is room for individual agency through varying interventions.

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Fotini Pitoglou

Of the thesis entitled: Cyclades Archipelago: Regenerating the Productive and Tourism Landscapes

Abstract:

Through history the shifting dynamics of urban and regional development in Greece’s Cyclades Archipelago shaped its overall identity and its islands’ social, economic and political cohesion. Nowadays the emerged tourism industry constitutes the main dynamic and has affected all the facets of the communities’ existence. In particular, tourism is inscribed by globalization processes that have resulted in a monocultural economy and a “new global cultural economy of space”1 discarding the (until recent years well-preserved) Cyclades’ identity. Each island of the Cyclades Archipelago has experienced these impacts to different degrees according to its stage of tourist resort evolution2, which in turn is highly associated with the seasonality of the island’s landscape3, and the period required for reaching that more developed stage.
 
Departing from the analysis of the tourism landscape and the globalization processes that it induces, this thesis proposes a diversified economy that takes advantage of the islands traditional production while it transmits the intangible cultural heritage to the global traveler through a slow process of experiencing culture. It suggests a network of co-dependencies in Cyclades between its productive and tourism landscapes that mutually benefits the Cycladic communities and the visitors.  In its conclusion, this thesis is about regenerating the Cyclades communities, while creating enriching experiences for global travelers via their constructive blend.
 
Endnotes:
1. Theano Terkenli, “Landscapes of tourism: towards a global cultural economy of space?”, Tourism Geographies 4, no: 3 (2002): 227-254.
2. Πάρις Τσάρτας, “Σχεδίασμα των σταδίων ανάπτυξης του τουρισμού στο νομό Κυκλάδων“, Επιθεώρηση Κοινωνικών Ερευνών: 70 (1988): 191-210.
3. Theano Terkenli, “Human Activity in Landscape Seasonality: The Case of Tourism in Crete”. Landscape Research 30, no: 2 (2007): 221-239.

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Lily Huang

Of the thesis entitled: The Poetics of Dwelling: China’s Courtyard Homes

Abstract:

Dwelling is a notion that describes the feeling of returning home to utter belonging and calmness at the end of an endeavour. It is a notion that differentiates a mere shelter versus a home because we develop intimate relationships with the spaces within. The spiritual characteristics that are associated with dwelling exceed the analytical description of space. It is an expression of how we live.

In the context of a modern metropolitan such as Shanghai, the city is extremely dense in population and functions at an accelerated pace. During the age of the technological revolution, citizens can network with others on a variety of platforms on a daily basis, causing them to be in a constant state of mobility. The main intention of recent residential developments is to build rapidly to meet the demands of the growing population, and residential architecture often becomes the by-product of modern construction methods. The current housing market consists of monolithic neighbourhood blocks featuring very rigid unit layouts. These unit do not allow the resident to appropriate the space, hence prevents them from building a personal connection to their home. In this thesis, I argue that there is a lack of concern for the spiritual aspects of dwelling in the modern housing market of China. Instead the home should play the role of a touch-down place within this accelerated environment, providing a slow space for rewind at the end of a busy day.

There is an extensive philosophy behind the idea of dwelling throughout the Chinese history. The courtyard home as the most iconic type of housing aims to create a versatile home that is appropriable in both elements of architecture and nature. Every family can easily implement their values and preferences into the home and create a personal utopia. The courtyard manages to combine all elements of the earth into one holistic space. The qualities of the traditional courtyard home can potentially fulfil what is lacking in the current housing market of China. This thesis will analyse the qualities of dwelling in its spiritual connotation and how it can be translated into dwellings of the 21st Century Shanghai and propose a contemporary housing project utilising ideologies of dwelling from Chinese courtyard homes.

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Esther Chan

Of the thesis entitled: Re:Generation – A Model For Age-Inclusive Care

Abstract:

The Canadian population is aging. Seniors are becoming the fastest growing age group as a result of the aging of the baby boom generation, and a lowered fertility rate and an increase in life expectancy in the millennial generation. Currently, the population of Canada is approximately 35 million people, of which five million are aged 65 and over. It is estimated that by 2051, about one in four Canadians will be aged 65 and over.¹

At the rate our population is aging, it is foreseeable that the cost of services for the elderly will escalate rapidly as a result of an increased demand for services but a lack of caregivers and facilities to support them. As such, there is a growing demand for new models of living and care for seniors with a shift towards a more economically sustainable, community-oriented schema, where the collaboration and mutual support between the residents could ease the economic and social burden for society. 

The author has developed a new approach with regards to designing for an aging population – a kit of parts known as the Model For Age-Inclusive Care. The thesis proposes the development of an age-inclusive multi-service and care hub to reintegrate the elderly into the social fabric of the city by using underperforming, under-utilized commercial developments as an activator. In essence, this thesis will attempt to connect between the more disparate parts of society through the incorporation of places with potential for development in an attempt to present a model of symbiotic community space aging.

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1 Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Canada’s Aging Population: The Municipal Role in Canada’s Demographic Shift (2013), 2.
 

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Caleb Tsui

Of the thesis entitled: Cultural Assimilation and Architecture: GuanXi and the Legacy of the Chinese Canadian Church

Abstract:

Known for priding itself as a multicultural nation, Canada's multicultural attitude does not come without a cost - as immigrants establish their roots and interact with the diverse ethnic groups within their communities, the process of cultural assimilation inevitably occurs. The process of assimilation can create not only social withdrawal and isolation, but also painful divisions between generations of a single family. This often results in psychological and emotional stress, leading to the questioning and finally the abandonment of one’s home culture and origin identity. While this process can be seen as universal, this thesis focuses on Hong Kong Canadians and the tradition of GuanXi. GuanXi is an intricate relational network that is cultivated informally through social exchanges which govern Chinese attitudes towards long-term social relationships. GuanXi is an important yet disappearing element within Hong Kong identity, and the ability to recognize these bonds and utilize this network is rapidly being lost through the process of cultural assimilation.

Using the suburban Chinese church, which remains one of the few typologies that bring different generations and cultures together, this thesis proposes employing the principles of GuanXi as a way to focus design intentions. The goal of the thesis is to design a building that helps to foster and preserve the generational ties eroded by assimilation, leaving behind a cultural legacy for future generations.

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Kat Kovalcik

Of the thesis entitled: An Index of Bearings and Groundworks: Architectural lessons on foundation building in Van Tat Gwich’in Territory

Abstract:

The foundation mediates the relationship between a building and the land. It is a connection that is particularly challenging to ground in frozen soils.

Bridging the Arctic Circle in the Northern Yukon, Van Tat Gwich’in territory is situated between overlapping realities of the North and the South. The lives and knowledge of the Peoples who have inhabited this place for millennia are entangled with a shifting land, one that experiences both changing seasons and increasing warming trends. Distanced professional ‘experts’ also engage these critical issues of environmental change through research and design. Within this dynamic context, holes exist in the dominant, arborescent decision-making models for foundation systems framing design as a problem, with solutions that privilege techno-scientific knowledge. 

This thesis is a constellation of work informed by architectural research, conversations, and time spent over the course of two summer seasons in Old Crow, Yukon, and my experience out on the land with local citizens who live close to it.  Written from the position of a ‘not-knower’ – a visiting student of architecture and the land – this thesis offers a series of questions, attunements, and prompts for the designer. The work culminates in an index of annotated deep sections that detail the reciprocal relationships between what is above and below the ground’s surface. An Index of Groundworks and Bearingssuggests a deeper reading of the foundation as a site of dialogue between buildings, the hands and minds that build, and the land. These exchanges, both voiced and silent, involve multiple ways of knowing and relating to the land. The index is a non-comprehensive illustrated inventory of foundations encountered in this region that float above the shifting ground or search for stasis deep below grade. It explores a multiscalar meshwork of projected abstractions and foundational relationships with the land that architecture might build on. Ultimately, the intention of this thesis is to open the visiting architect’s awareness of different ways to touch the land, while questioning the foundations of architectural practice itself.

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Catherine Cohen

Of the thesis entitled: Minding the gap: Israel’s immigration, gastronomy, and design

Abstract:

Israel, being the Jewish emigration nation, welcomed over 3.7 million people in the last century. The vast intake of new immigrants from various ethnicities and cultures created ample strains on the Israeli government. These reflect the poor absorption and integration processes, which led to conditions of segregation and tension amongst the diverse population. Consequently, despite the country’s ideology to foster a unified Jewish identity, reoccurring moments of prejudice and discrimination deepened the socioeconomic cleavage within the Israeli society. 

In the past few decades, the Israeli government instigated various strategies to reduce this socioeconomic gap. These include, increased opportunities in low socioeconomic centers along with improved education, social services, and enhanced public transportation. 

Bigotry often results from ignorance and the inability to accept differences. It is dependent on shared values, experiences, interests, and beliefs. Thus, to achieve effective reconciliation, a common interest is essential. In addition, collaboration towards a shared and pleasing goal has the potential to alter cognitive preconceptions, reduce bias, and increase constructive communications. Following this, food, being a fundamental commonality and an essential component amongst every culture, offers opportunities for social change. Through a series of studies, architecture and gastronomy are investigated for their potential to decrease bias and motivate interpersonal connections among people of diverse backgrounds.

This thesis does not attempt to solve the complex socioeconomic conditions in the country, but rather to alleviate interpersonal conflicts between the divided communities and advocate for social change. Architecture is explored for its capacity to bridge social gaps by creating shared gastronomic experiences through the implementation of mobile cooking and dining stations within the urban fabric of Tel Aviv. The proposed design operates as a network of modular units, easily assembled and transferred via bicycle, morphing any public space into an agent of social activism. 

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Montgomery de Luna

Of the thesis entitled: The N^th Dimensional City: Establishing a Vitality Driven Framework for Volumetric Building Networks Through Parametric Design

Abstract:

The architectural concept of a city within a city, or a three-dimensional urban realm, aims to engage the public and bring the vitality of the city into the building. This concept often manifests in the form of grade-separated pedestrian networks, promenades through buildings, roof terraces, connections between towers, and towers that morph together—creating the urban realm throughout volumetric space. The N^th Dimensional City investigates a recurring theme of this “volumetric architecture” typology throughout architectural history from a critical perspective. While the type originated from the Soviet era social condenser as a means of creating social equity, volumetric architecture grew to the height of its popularity in capitalist North America with the construction of building networks throughout the Modernist period. Often initiated by the private sector and constructed piecemeal without integration into the city’s master plan or regulations, many of these volumetric cities experienced a desolated ground plane and the amplification of existing social and economic problems. Rather than producing the social equity envisioned by the building type’s progenitors, the resultant profit-driven spatial organization reinforced segregation, inequality, and commercialism in these urban centres.

With a contemporary resurgence of interest in volumetric architecture, signaled by the World Trade Center redevelopment competition in which almost all finalists produced a variation of the type, the thesis aims to resolve the apparent shortcomings volumetric architecture has in achieving its goal of vitality and equity throughout the entirety of a three-dimensional public realm. The thesis adopts the values instilled into Jane Jacobs’ work as its goal for volumetric architecture, including universal access to the city and its movement, inclusive communities, equitable economic opportunities, and a holistic increase to the city’s land value. The City of Toronto is taken as an ideal site to test the building type, as a city with both a history of quasi-public volumetric architecture including the PATH and the Eaton Centre, as well as a recent resurgence of the type in private developments such as City Place and Pier 21. Undergoing a rapid period of construction, the unrestricted powers of the Ontario Municipal Board have undermined the municipality’s ability to direct development in accordance with the Ontario Growth Plan—instead ruling a majority of cases in favour of the development industry against the advisement of the city’s planners. This regulatory vacuum produces a volatile environment for volumetric architecture, in which existing precedents have demonstrated the ability for a profit-driven building network to buttress the city’s existing socio-economic problems through what effectively became a spatial oligopoly and the privatization of the commons.

In response to volumetric architecture’s ambition to create an extension of the public realm throughout three-dimensional space, the work of Jane Jacobs is used to form an understanding of how physical qualities of the built environment, designated as “urban resources”, produce vitality by catalyzing informal uses of public space. Adapting her work from the planar public realm of the “old city”, Jacobs’ sociological study is codified into a system of discrete actors and processes that can be replicated throughout the three-dimensional field, thus formulating a vitality-driven framework for the volumetric city. The thesis work takes a parametric approach, creating a custom tool written in Processing that simulates the development of the city over time and under a variety of regulatory and stylistic conditions by abstracting the city into a field of voxels with assignable properties.

Negotiating the territory between architectural design, urban regulations, and economic forces of the development industry, the parametric tool projects an image of how a vitality-driven model of the volumetric city compares to its profit-driven counterpart, and to the traditional planar city. The N^th Dimensional City reveals a not too distant future, prompting a reflection on the qualities of the city that we value as a society, and how these can be developed by the architecture we build today.

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