Notice of M.Arch. Thesis Defence Spring 2017

Caelin Schneider

Of the thesis entitled: Embracing Or Not Enclosing

Abstract:

The simultaneously archaic and hypermodern “archetypal fact” of twenty first century architecture and urbanism will be the enclosure, the wall, the barrier, the gate, the fence, the fortress.
-Lieven De Cauter
 
I no longer know what there is behind the wall, I no longer know there is a wall, I no longer know this wall is a wall, I no longer know what a wall is. I no longer know that in my apartment there are walls, and that if there weren’t any walls, there would be no apartment.
-Georges Perec

Reflecting on the parallel between displaced towns in France during World War II and the cultural condition of an average Westerner today, Nicolas Bourriaud states: “Culture today essentially constitutes a mobile entity, unconnected to any soil.” Through the processes of ‘Modernism’ and then ‘Postmodernism,’ globalization has brought the world ‘closer’ together through an expansion of capitalism, often under the guise of democracy and equality. The ceaseless progress of neoliberal globalization and its parallel of Postmodernism promised a horizontality and a recognition of the other that had been conventionally repressed and pushed away by Modernism. Yet the shimmer of those promises has long faded away. From globalization’s subsumption of uniform interiors to contemporary society’s evolution into what Lieven De Cauter calls a “Capsular Civilization.” Here the everyday reality clearly aligns with Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s prescription of an illusion of continuous, uniform space, which is in fact densely crossed by divisions.
 
Emerging out of this context, this thesis investigates architecture’s role in the production of new inside-outsides which therefore entangles it in the processes of control, regulation, division and connection that result from the contemporary multiplication of boundaries. The partitioning of the world that is so often delegated to architects to act out is never neutral, and the regulation of the transmission between the exterior and interior of these partitioned capsules can be seen as manifestations of Hardt and Negri’s ‘New Segmentations,’ wherein architecture acts to reproduce these contiguous centers and peripheries among the interactions of daily life.
 
The work of this thesis takes the inherited site of the Waterloo School of Architecture as an area for questioning the structures that reduce our relations to what is outside. The research investigates the found technologies used to support and structure the conditions of access: the locked door, the camera, the window and the wall, and looks to provide a text and a series of artifacts which subvert these identified forces. Reflecting a desire to think something other than the division of inside/outside, self/other; to search for new stories of the interior.
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor: Adrian Blackwell, University of Waterloo
Committee Member: Anne Bordeleau, University of Waterloo
Internal Reader: Dereck Revington, University of Waterloo
External Reader: Luis Jacob, Visiting Professor - University of Toronto

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Monday, May 1, 2017                              10:30AM                             ARC Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Victoria Suen

Of the thesis entitled: Spaces of Production: From the Industrial to the Virtual City

Abstract:

In the industrial city, capitalist ownership over the means of production: land, buildings, tools, technology and knowledge, enabled the centralization, control and exploitation of the working class. Monetary exchange, property relations, and the dominance of production for the sole purpose of capital accumulation developed alienating social relations in the life of the city. In the post-industrial city, the liberation of information through digital networks has democratized the intellectual means of production creating dramatic shifts in labour, exchange, and social relations. These shifts have the potential to create the conditions for an even greater gap of inequality, a return to an economy dominated by inherited wealth[1], and where capitalism seeks to capture economic value in all aspects of work, life and the city.[2] The thesis seeks to explore how design and architectural practice can be used as a means to collectively organize and mobilize the emerging precariat class to reappropriate fixed capital and transform labour power into a cooperative space of production.
 
The thesis focuses on the city of Kitchener, drawing from its history as a city built by artisans and the recent re-emergence of a new creative working class that has propelled the maker movement. Using the city as a place for prototyping community and space, new spaces of production are emerging through grassroots communities to test the material, social and financial platforms of a post-capitalist system. Interviews with makers, artists, and creative entrepreneurs will explore the emerging spatial models in the productive economy. The thesis will use strategies of the maker-movement, the process of learning through doing, and lean thinking to prototype spatial programming, the organization of the collective and the feasibility of operating a productive workspace. Through the documentation of the process, the thesis seeks to develop a process guide for the precariat worker to collectively organize a community lab workspace, own the means of production, and develop a networked production infrastructure in the city.
 
[1] Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014).

[2] Maurizio Lazzarato. “Immaterial Labour.” In Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics, edited by Paolo Virno, by Michael Hardt. (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 133.; Jeremy Rifkin, The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life Is a Paid-for Experience, New York: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2000, 100.
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor: Rick Haldenby, University of Waterloo
Committee Member: Adrian Blackwell, University of Waterloo
Internal Reader: David Correa, University of Waterloo
External Reader: Emily Robson, City of Kitchener 

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Thursday, May 11, 2017                              3:00PM                             Main Lecture Theatre

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Parisa Kohbodi

Of the thesis entitled: Library: A Social Infrastructure

Abstract:

For many centuries, the mission of the library as a civic institution has been seen as the collection and dissemination of information. Likewise, the library typology continuously responds to the dominant paradigm of information and communications technologies. Following the digital revolution of the late twentieth century, information has been transcoded into electronic signals, thus allowing its storage and distribution to take place independent of time and space. Today, with access to information so ubiquitous, is the library a redundant place?
 
In this thesis, I argue that by democratizing information, the library’s fundamental mission has been overcoming physical, social, and economic disconnectedness. The library, therefore remains to be an essential civic institution. However, despite making information more accessible, the digital revolution has produced new types of disconnectedness. Telecommunication and transportation infrastructures have accelerated suburbanization and decentralization of urban centers. In the current digital age, spaces of flow are valued more than spaces of place, resulting in a loss of civic space and suppression of diversity. Moreover, the infinite and simultaneous nature of digital information has incited feelings of inundation and disorientation.  To address these new types of disconnectedness, the library typology is compelled to recombine and calibrate its historical traditions with a new set of expectations in the digital age.
 
This thesis is sited in the suburban campus of Conestoga College, which is located on the border of Kitchener and Cambridge, adjacent to Highway 401. The specific and universal disconnectedness affecting this institution is investigated on three scales: suburban city planning, Conestoga's campus master plan and the library's design. Informed by these investigations, I have proposed an alternate design for the campus master plan and the library. The library itself is a manifesto for embodying the static character of containment and the dynamic character of flow. On a grander scale, by integrating the architecture of the library with a bridge infrastructure, we can expose the friction between the two spatial logics of flow and place, and provoke a multitude of movements and exchanges between the existing and new programmatic elements.    This speculative intervention aims to reinforce the agency of architecture to counterbalance the consternations that are prevalent in the technocratic paradigm of today. 
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor: Anne Bordeleau, University of Waterloo
Committee Member: Rick Haldenby, University of Waterloo
Internal Reader: Lola Sheppard, University of Waterloo
External Reader: Liana Bresler, SvN Architects + Planners

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Monday, May 15, 2017                              6:30PM                             ARC 2026

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Felix Cheong

Of the thesis entitled: TALES OF THE MAUNSELL SEA FORTS | A Philosophy of Making in the Anthropocene

Abstract:

The Age of the Anthropocene is marked by a shift in power between the relationship of nature and man. For the first time in human history we are actively shaping the environmental systems around us on a planetary scale, causing repercussions beyond our scope of understanding. As such the implications for how we as a species should live in this paradoxical age of scarcity and abundance are undefined. Although mention of the Anthropocene has pervaded into popular culture in recent years the study of this geological era is still in its infancy.
 
Elsewhere, in the Thames Estuary twelve miles off the nearest coast, a collection of peculiar structures can be found. They are the Maunsell Sea Forts; a series of abandoned military installations created during World War II. Primarily constructed out of steel and concrete the towers seemingly appear out of the water. These outposts had a successful career defending the United Kingdom against German air-raids throughout the war, until they were later decommissioned, stripped of their armaments, and left to the elements. Since then the towers have been sporadically appropriated for a variety of different purposes while steadily falling into ruination. With an aesthetic almost as fantastic as their history the Maunsell Sea Forts have a unique ability to capture the imagination. 
 
Utilizing the Anthropocene as the backdrop, the Maunsell Sea Forts as the protagonist, and fictional tales as the vehicle, this thesis investigates what it means to be a designer and builder in the current global context. It explores concepts surrounding transformative use, material realities, and productive ruination in order to develop a philosophy of making founded on an acceptance of impermanence. Told through a mixture of essays, stories, and illustrations, this thesis creates a platform to speculate at the role of the architect for the modern age. 
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor: Andrew Levitt, University of Waterloo
Committee Members:

Rick Andrighetti, University of Waterloo

Jane Hutton, University of Waterloo

External Reader: Fred Thompson

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Monday, June 5, 2017                           6:30PM                      BRIDGE Centre for Architecture + Design

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Run Yi Emily Li

Of the thesis entitled: Journey into Caldera

Abstract:

There is a dormant volcano in the northern province of Jilin, China, called the Baekdu/Chang Bai Mountain. At the top of this 2,744 m mountain is a large caldera filled with water, named “Heaven Lake”. Geologically, this caldera straddles China and North Korea, split by the man-made border. As a sacred mountain to both people, there have always been ongoing cultural and political disputes surrounding the site. Despite the tentative agreement between the two governments, their people refute each other’s historical claims, declaring the mountain as their own. As one born not 5 hours from this caldera with both heritages, I have experienced firsthand this issue of identity.
 
Originating from China, shibori is the ancient Japanese method of dying textiles. It is the union of two elements, the indigo dye and the resistance of the fabric, swirling in a steaming bath, transforming into an entirely new character. Through hours and days of folding, knotting, and wrapping, the shibori maker works in tandem with the nature of the fabric to create a unique and beautiful piece every time. The symbiotic nature of this ancient art offers a new perspective to the ongoing territorial conflict.
 
Impacted by the trip to the mountain, and inspired by the methods of shibori, the thesis choreographs a journey into caldera. As an inspiration, Shibori is the possibility that two opposing forces, the relentless indigo dye and the resisting white fabric, can unite to emerge as a new identity. Transcribing the caldera as a physical manifestation of this unity between two cultures, the thesis proposes an intervention on this highly contested pilgrimage site. It does not offer a definitive solution to the political conflict around Baekdu/Changbai, but rather examines the lines of connections between the shibori and the caldera through architecture as a platform that promotes a harmonious existence of two forces.
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor: Dereck Revington, University of Waterloo
Committee Members:

Andrew Levitt, University of Waterloo

Donald McKay, University of Waterloo

External Reader: Jonathan Tyrrell

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Tuesday, June 6, 2017                              10:00AM                             ARC 2026

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Eveline Lam

Of the thesis entitled: One hand occupies the void

Abstract:

The interconnected nature of void and matter and form is implied in architecture, but rarely explicitly expressed. Since the void is neither form nor material, it is difficult to define, but it occupies a critical role in urban development as the counterpart to the urban mass. The narrative of the modern city can be told through the presence of urban voids: the transposition of material and built form resulting in two typologies of the void, the found and the formal. The first exploration of the found void is dedicated to the analysis of the clay pit, the companion of bricks, which is often ignored as an unwanted by-product of the construction process. This deliberate exclusion from the urban narrative is reversed once it is rehabilitated as a formal void, which is valued as an element of urban development. The second exploration analyses the condition of the formal void, using the ceramic vessel to construct a domesticated spatial model of the monumental public space. The identity of the city is therefore analysed by making visible the imperceptible void through the documentation of traces and boundaries.

The found void is a by-product of the city’s development and is not planned; it can also be described as a procedural void whose physical impact is rarely, if ever, considered as a positive influence on the growth of the city. From the economic point of view, its temporary use produces resources that transform the urban fabric, but the found void itself requires reintegration into the city either through erasure or reversal to solid. The analysis of the former, now filled-in, 19th-century clay quarry in east Toronto serves as the first investigation of the urban void, where the industrial process of clay extraction acts as a force that influences the form of the quarry and also the surrounding neighbourhood.

The formal void is a tool that transforms the city through the imposition of a hierarchical structure derived from a deliberate absence within the existing fabric. The valorization of the formal void as a solution to congestion and chaos in the built-up urban structure is based on its perception, even now, as an ideal space that promotes circulation, light, and air. The analysis of an alternative vision of Paris conceived by Pierre Patte in 1765 expresses the interjection of the void into a pre-existing urban fabric and how its form is connected to the buildings that it displaces.

The practice of throwing clay on a wheel depicts the reciprocity between matter, form, and void: clay is shaped into a hollow vessel through the interaction of the body. The found void, as a fragment evolving over time, is compared to the process of throwing and analysed according to the redistribution of the material around the perceptible void. For the formal void, the final pieces are used as models to express the circulation and tension that becomes evident when conceptual forms are given material bodies. This process occupies the intersection between the theory of the void and the material of the clay medium and thereby offers a critical solution to the architectural paradox that engages the nature of the profession and the approach to space itself.
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Co-Supervisors:

Anne Bordeleau, University of Waterloo

Dereck Revington, University of Waterloo

Committee Member:

Erica S. Allen-Kim

External Reader: Craig Rodmore

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Thursday, June 8, 2017                       10:00AM                   BRIDGE Centre for Architecture + Design

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Stefan Berry

Of the thesis entitled: A Present Absence

Abstract:

For the last ten years I have travelled with my camera out on the roads of the Canadian prairies, usually for a few days at a time, up and down stretches of highways, grids, and back roads, stopping to investigate whatever I could find. My interest in the landscape grew from forgotten spaces that lay dormant in the land. There is something exciting about being in unfamiliar areas and stepping into once-inhabited locations. The absence of people, and the marks they leave behind, lend to the allure of these places.

The prairies are a harsh environment, and where there is hardship and endurance between humans and nature, it is inevitable that it translates into the relationship between architecture and the landscape.  Many of the abandoned structures and forms are seen as old and useless — a hazard, an eyesore, a sad reminder — but if one looks closer, they can see that they are becoming something new. A beauty exists in the decay and ruinous state, a life found in the structures embodies history and knowledge. Buildings have seen things, the land has seen things, but they don’t confess the knowledge openly. Truths are revealed slowly — not all at once.

This thesis moves through a series of territories following the increase, and subsequent decline, of the population on the rural prairies. Forgotten rail networks, trails, domestic and utilitarian structures — as well natural landmarks — contain the presence of those who were once there. Photographic documentation and field research maps the spatial endeavours that shaped the prairie landscape as the place it is today.
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor: Donald McKay, University of Waterloo
Committee Members:

Rick Haldenby, University of Waterloo

Jane Hutton, University of Waterloo 

External Reader: Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail   

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Friday, June 9, 2017                              2:00PM                             ARC Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Marc-Antoine Pepin

Of the thesis entitled: History of failure

Abstract:

The ability to project a virtual vision on the world and give it physical form sets the human apart. By shaping his surroundings at will, the human holds considerable power not only on the environment, but ­on fellow humans and the world at large. The thesis discusses the different shapes the horror of architecture takes. Told as a loose history of civilization, it constructs a theory of horror from the primal confrontation to nature, lingers on the oppressive walls of contemporary society, and projects a future of labyrinthine sentient buildings. A chimera one part asterochronic[1] collage and four parts picaresque[2] novel, the resulting document recalls the failure of the thesis as building to dwell on the indefinable, uncontainable nature of horror, a dark internalized version of the world with an undertone of settled accounts.

[1] "[The asterochronic] establishes connections between events that are heterogeneous in time and space." Muriel Pic as quoted by Nicolas Bourriaud, The exform (Brooklyn: Verso, 2016), 156.
[2] The picaresque is often characterized by the absence of a clear plot and a rogue hero living by his wits. William Flint Thrall and Addison Hibbard, A Handbook to Literature (New York: Odyssey Press, 1961).
 

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor: Robert Jan van Pelt, University of Waterloo
Committee Members:

Anne Bordeleau, University of Waterloo

Marie-Paule Macdonald, University of Waterloo

External Reader: Scott Sorli   

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Monday, June 12, 2017                                    12:30PM                                    ARC 2026

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Safira Lakhani

Of the thesis entitled: The River is for Washing Carpets  

Abstract:

Contemporary peacebuilding, notably as it is practiced in Afghanistan, consistently fails to address local needs in favour of international priorities for global security.  Despite the significant presence of foreign agencies and aid mechanisms in the country, peace in Afghanistan remains elusive.  Any semblance of peace achieved is neither durable, nor sustainable, particularly because of international ignorance of on-the-ground environmental and social realities, with specific reference to natural resource management and gender dynamics.  These failures are localised in Bamyan, a small valley in Afghanistan’s Central Highlands, most well known for its historic Buddhist complex, circa 6th century.  An anomaly, Bamyan is a pocket of peace in an otherwise turbulent country, a direct result of global interest (and therein foreign engagement) in the preservation of eight archaeological sites in the valley.  Yet the valley’s ‘World Heritage’ designation (2003) has ultimately prescribed a development policy that emphasises heritage conservation over local socio-economic livelihoods.  In so doing, the people of Bamyan are still today incredibly vulnerable, subject to insecurity in their water resource base, which is further aggravated by a changing climate and transition to urbanity.

Critiquing present models of peacebuilding, this thesis is an advocate for the agency of design in fragile states.  Specifically, the thesis suggests that the intersection of architecture, infrastructure, and ecology creates a framework for sustainable development that is grounded in local conditions and livelihoods.  Herein, peacebuilding becomes a bottom-up, pro-active process, engaging with, and responding to, the needs of local people as a means of building a paradigm of self-sufficiency.  That is, the thesis strives for ‘positive’ peace,[1] with the intention of cultivating relationships of solidarity between and among communities.  In Bamyan, opportunity for this is found through shared spaces for water.  Water has important ecological and cultural implications.  Rehabilitation of water infrastructure is necessary to restore the valley’s denuded landscape.  Ritual importance of water additionally provides occasion for community gathering and social encounter, both for men and for women.  Women especially, are integral to the peace process as their presence, in Afghan society, enables the ‘family space,’ a safe, gender-neutral, and culturally appropriate space for informal, public community gathering.

Accordingly, the thesis proposes a network of decentralised physical, ecological, and social infrastructures throughout the local watershed of Bamyan that seek to build enduring social and environmental resilience.  Integration of vernacular and modern technologies capitalises on local knowledge and historical models of behaviour.  Participation of the community in the building process moreover strengthens social relations, producing a shared sense of ownership in the peace process.  This is explored through detailed design of one node in the network, a washing house along Bamyan River, which connects water and women as mechanisms for enduring peace, uncovering the potential of shared spaces for water to mobilise community solidarity, empower cultural identity, and build human dignity.  Coupling ecological and cultural systems draws on the existing and the essential, and the thesis thus conceives a practice of design that can appropriately engage in, and foster, sustainable peace in fragile states.

[1] In peace theory developed by Johan Galtung, ‘positive’ peace looks to prevent structural violence, as opposed to ‘negative’ peace which is regarded simply as the absence of direct violence.

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Co-Supervisors:

Anne Bordeleau, University of Waterloo

Mona El Khafif, Univeristy of Virginia

Committee Member:

Tammy Gaber,  Laurentian University

External Reader: Hadi Husani, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Friday, July 7, 2017                                    11:00AM                                    ARC Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Peter Bohdal

Of the thesis entitled: Monster

Abstract:

451 Manning Avenue, home to an architect and an artist, has generated an adverse reaction within its community. The property is maintained as a testament to the Rao family history in Canada, but most visibly, Villa Rao stands in advocacy of diversity within our built environment. The recently proposed addition is a monstrosity by one hundred and twenty accounts.

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor:

Donald McKay, University of Waterloo

Committee Members:

Rick Andrighetti,  University of Waterloo

Marie-Paule Macdonald, University of Waterloo

External Reader: Scott Sorli

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Thursday, July 13, 2017                                    6:00PM                                    ARC 2026

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Bryce Clayton

Of the thesis entitled: 53 North: Tactical Infrastructure in Edmonton  

Abstract:

Edmonton, Alberta has followed the typical North American pattern of growth, replicating the urban and architectural designs established further south.  Long, straight city streets and a proliferation of voids within the downtown urban fabric are characteristic of many American cities, but when this condition is replicated in the far north, the negative aspects of the winter season are amplified as arctic winds sweep through the streets and open spaces.  As urban design has failed to account for the winter conditions, architecture has overcompensated in its response.  Mechanical climate control is overly relied upon creating sharply delineated areas between over-protection and total exposure, creating harsh transitions for the citizens as they move through built and unbuilt environments.  The resulting effect on society is the worsening of an already negative perception of winter fostering a culture of avoidance, but as the urban design has made winter life more difficult the voids it has produced can also provide the spaces in which winter life can be embraced.  For Edmonton to become a healthy “Winter City” it must attempt new approaches in urban and architectural design to resolve both its lifeless downtown core and the societal rejection of winter.
 
This thesis explores creating a new design tool whereby the intrinsic values of snow can be utilized to create winter public spaces to temporarily occupy the urban void.  A new structure is proposed where City groups will act as coordinators sanctioning land parcels for urban interventions using the snow on each site and that cleared by the municipal workers, sculpted into basic forms.  When used in combination, the forms create protective, desirable micro-climates which inject program and activity into the formerly vacant lots, introducing positive winter activity into the realm of daily life in Edmonton.  The iterations in form serve a dual purpose by acting as a testing grounds, discovering new urban and architectural design strategies through experimentation and observation, informing future designs within the city.

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor:

Rick Andrighetti, University of Waterloo

Committee Members:

Adrian Blackwell, University of Waterloo

Jane Hutton, University of Waterloo      

External Reader: Helena Grdadolnik, WORKSHOP Architecture Inc 

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Wednesday, July 19, 2017                9:30AM                  BRIDGE Centre for Architecture + Design

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Dustin Parkes

Of the thesis entitled: Dreaming Space: Exploring the Transformative Power of Immersive Art and Architecture 

Abstract:

The role of art is to transform our experience of reality. This process often involves a quality of rupture; of breaking through the boundaries of our habitual, conditioned modes of perception in order to experience new and unexpected sensations.[1]  Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari write that architecture is the first of the arts. Art does not begin with the body but with the house; with the experience of space and light, and the constructed environments which mediate between our bodies and forces of the universe.[2]
 
This thesis follows the physical and affective journey of a group of artists over many years. This journey involves challenging forces of social and cultural conditioning; breaking through boundaries of fear and habit, as well as artistic and architectural convention. We have a need to explore aesthetics without limitation.
 
The dreaming space where this journey is taking place is a studio on a property in my hometown, Sarnia, Ontario. This is where I live and work with my uncle/mentor, and three companions. Both the studio and the experience of the participants are in a continuous state of transformation. The space has become an ever-evolving immersive collage of paintings, sculptures, architectural constructions, mirrors, video, projections, and compositions of magical objects. The expansive, dark, earthen, dream-like quality of the space is immediately affecting. It is a place for dreaming and composing; for channeling visions and exploring altered states of sensory awareness. We are exploring the possibilities of what art and architecture can do: specifically, how it can facilitate sensorial encounters which transform our experience of reality.
 
This thesis takes the form of a series of reflections on this dreaming space. It has a personal history with a cultural context. It has caves, grottos, and tunnels; ever-changing compositions and installations, surrounded by the underworld and built up over time. Within the dreaming space we are continuously exploring the incredible possibilities of the transformative power of art and architecture.

[1] O’Sullivan, Simon. Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari: Thought beyond Representation. 2006. p. 1
[2] Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. What Is Philosophy? 1994. p. 180, 182, 186

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor:

Dereck Revington, University of Waterloo

Committee Members:

John McMinn, University of Waterloo

Robert Jan van Pelt, University of Waterloo     

External Reader: Jonathan Tyrrell

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Wednesday, July 27, 2017                3:00PM                  BRIDGE Centre for Architecture + Design

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Adrienne Huang

Of the thesis entitled: Mudzi Owala, Village of Light – Lessons from Malawi  

Abstract:

This thesis explores my journey to a small corner of Africa, where I lived with and learned from the communities of rural Malawi.  In particular, it examines the architectural lessons that emerged from my involvement in a local building project called Mudzi Owala (Village of Light).

My African travels were inspired by the realization that more than ninety percent of the total number of architects in the world live and work in the wealthiest countries, cities, and neighbourhoods.  While most architectural schools focus on design studio-based education, the exemplified clients and projects account for less than ten percent of the population on a global scale.  Over time, I have realized that my interest lies in working with those without access to standard architectural services – namely, the overwhelming majority of the population.

In an era dominated by global challenges such as large-scale informal settlements, unsustainable development, and resource scarcity, the traditional role and training of the “desk architect” can be increasingly questioned.  In the 21st century, the role of the architect demands the cultivation of many so-called non-architectural skills and experiences.  The contrast between my traditional architectural education and the realities I witnessed in my adopted community led me to a new understanding of architecture that fundamentally changed my mindset about what it means to work as an architect.

The thesis is a collection of architectural research, reflections, and responses shared as a series of lessons.  Represented through personal narrative and photography, the result is an account of my travels in Malawi as a means of understanding how our approach to the role of the architect may change in order to be able to meet the challenges that define our new global reality.

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor:

Val Rynnimeri, University of Waterloo

Committee Members:

Andrew Levitt,  University of Waterloo

John McMinn, University of Waterloo

External Reader: Alison Hannay, Cornerstone Architecture Incorporated

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Friday, August 11, 2017                                    9:30AM                                    ARC 2026

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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Chris Black

Of the thesis entitled: 2 Degrees Celsius: Assessing the Potential of Urban Commercial Buildings in Canada to Meet the 2°C Climate Change Target

Abstract:

To avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change, scientific consensus and international convention have determined that the mean rise in global temperatures must be limited to between 1.5°C and 2.0°C.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests the building sector possesses the most immediate mitigation potential and has proven technological and design capability at hand.  To meet this goal, a 55% reduction is required compared to a proposed Business-As-Usual Scenario forecast in emissions between 2005 and 2050.  For Canadian commercial buildings, this is equivalent to emissions dropping from 88.4 MtCO2e to 39.8 MtCO2e/yr.
 
Between 2005 and 2050, the floor area of commercial building is expected to double from 654.2 million m2 to 1,139.5 million m2 while the emissions are to be halved.  The proposed model suggests that, by 2050, new and substantially renovated buildings should emit 15.3 kgCO2e/m2/yr to achieve this. When combined with existing buildings, the blended emissions cap is expected to be 34.9 kgCO2e/m2/yr.  Given that in 2013 new, renovated, and existing buildings in Canada was 46.67 kgCO2e/m2/yr, this ambitious target implies a significant transformation of commercial buildings.
 
When consistently applied to every building, the 15.3 kgCO2e/m2/yr rate suggests an evolving approach to design. This is especially true for urban sites where passive design and renewable energy opportunities are limited. Although there are a number of built projects that meet the criteria, they remain the exception rather than the norm and deploy a maximum of energy efficient technologies and design strategies.  A full range of innovative passive and active building technologies is leveraged, and many examples are most often not situated in a dense urban environment.
 
Using an emission rate per square metre reflects a "bottom-up" approach to transforming Canadian commercial buildings. Rather than relying on sweeping policy intervention or mandating particular technologies, this metric can be used to bring the various drivers of emissions together for an individual building, thus allowing the most applicable technologies and strategies to be selected on a case-by-case basis. The thesis will demonstrate that a suite of measures focused on the combination of energy conservation and fuel choice can not only achieve this target on urban projects with limited passive means but suggest that the adoption of further passive and active technologies could push performance even further.
 
To investigate the implications of the emission cap in this context, a demonstration project is proposed and sited in three different locations on a prototypical urban block.  Located on a north-facing end-block, a mid-block, and a south-facing end-block site, each is designed to both current code requirements and the 2°C scenario emission limit. The selection of an urban context bridges the gap between the ideal conditions of rural or campus buildings, where few obstructions to leveraging passive design and implementing extensive on-site renewable energy systems exist, and urban buildings with tight sites and limited passive opportunities. With the world now predominantly urban, these sites are expected to represent the norm.  Pablo Picasso saw constraints as sources of inspiration and invention rather than limitations to creativity. Similarly, rather than being a limitation to design, this thesis will show that it has the opportunity to become a foundational design driver motivating invention and innovation within the field’s practical and conceptual foundations.

The Examining Committee is as follows:
Supervisor:

Terri Meyer Boake, University of Waterloo

Committee Members:

John Straube,  University of Waterloo

Geoffrey Lewis, University of Waterloo

External Reader: Ted Kesik, University of Toronto

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Monday August 28, 2017                                    1:00PM                                    ARC 1001

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

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