Of
the
thesis
entitled: Embodied
Depth:
Re-interpreting
the
Park
in St.
James
Town
Abstract:
The
thesis
reflects
on
the
loss
of
slowness and
experiential
depth
in
the
age
of
acceleration.
The
“contrived depthlessness”
of
modernity
–
as
described by
Frederic Jameson–
can
be
traced
back
to
contemporary
culture’s
fixation
with appearances,
surfaces,
and
instant
impacts.
Modern
architecture
favors
enticing forms
and
transparency
at
the
price
of
tactility
and
the
slow
unfolding
of spaces.
Based
on
the
author’s
personal
experience
of
tactile
spaces
within
the city,
and
a
reflection
on
the
existing
body
of
literature
on
places
of stillness,
the
thesis
identifies
landscape
engagement
and
layered
threshold
as the
main
approaches
to
generating
embodied
depth
within
the
city.
St.
James
Town
in
Toronto,
a
cluster
of post-war
tower
block
that
serves
as
a
gateway
community
for
many
newcomers,
is marked
by
an
extreme
spatial
flatness
and
anonymity.
Harsh
delineation
of private
and
public
realm
hinders inhabitants’
connection
with
the
city
and fellow
city-dwellers.
St.
James
Town’s notable flatness
is
rooted
in
the
1920’s
urban
planning
vision
of
Towers-in-the-Park, which
is
described
by
Le
Corbusier
as
“a
city
made
for
speed”.
For this
reason, it
is
through
the
implementation
of
meaningful
social
interaction
and
landscape engagement
on
this
site
that
the
potential
for
architecture
to
generate embodied
depth
can
be
evaluated.
Based
on
the
fundamental
value
of
a
deep embodied
space
as
a
catalyst
of
memory
and
spatial
appropriation,
the
thesis proposes
a
series
of
landscape
and
spatial
layers
at
multiple
scales
including: an
urban
block,
individual
towers, and
pocket
gardens.
The
resulting
diversity of
paths
and
social
programs
encourage
the
inhabitants’
participation
and appropriation
of
the
cityscape.
The
thesis
deems
that
the
ethical
role
of architecture
in
the
age
of
acceleration
is
to restore
the
natural
slowness
of experience
and
strengthen
our
sense
of
the
real.
The
examining
committee
is
as
follows:
Supervisor:
Committee Members:
Rick Andrighetti, University of Waterloo
Anne
Bordeleau,
University
of
Waterloo
Dereck
Revington,
University of
Waterloo
External Reader:
Lisa Rapoport, PLANT
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Friday September
16,
2016
10:00AM
ARC
2026
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.