Bryce Clayton and James Banks have won the only two student work awards at the RAIC/IRAC National Urban Design Competition. Bryce won a Medal, and James, a Certificate of Honour.
Bryce's thesis, 53 North: Tactical Infrastructure in Edmonton,proposes a new design tool whereby the intrinsic values of snow can be utilized to create winter public spaces to occupy the urban void temporarily.
The proposal is for the City of Edmonton to use existing snow removal equipment, personnel, and organizational structures to coordinate with pioneering groups of citizens to reclaim the urban voids within Edmonton’s downtown core. Interested citizen groups, individuals, businesses, schools, etc. would submit design proposals to the city for temporary outdoor winter spaces, detailing rough volumes and forms desired for the program. City snow removal equipment and personnel would collect and deposit snow on the site and quickly sculpt the mounds into basic shapes, which the public designers would then populate with uses.
Jury
Comments:
“University
of
Waterloo
student
Bryce
Clayton’s
entry
(his
master’s
thesis)
impressed
the
jury
with
imaginative
design
thinking,
a
systematic
approach,
beautiful
renderings,
and
clear
verbal
and
graphic
communication.
Clayton’s
design
premise
–
using
snow
to
sculpt
temporary
forms
and
generate
winter
activity
in
winter
city
Edmonton
–
was
systematically
tested
and
highly
convincing.”
Bryce
Clayton's Thesis Supervisor:
Rick
Andrighetti
Bryce
Clayton's Thesis Committee:
Adrian
Blackwell,
Jane
Hutton
James' thesis, Domestic Insurgency | Toward Affordable Housing in Vancouver, develops a housing framework for the private sector to build dwellings for a range of incomes and promotes ideas of respectfully transitioning low-density neighbourhoods to affordable housing. It proposes a three-pronged approach of neighbourhood improvement, flexible design for occupant control, and a focus on sharing. Ultimately, the framework aims to provoke disruption in the housing market in response to crisis conditions by making living more communal, shifting the emphasis from investment to human capital, and by reinstating affordability as a key factor in housing design.
Jury
Comments:
“A
well-researched
and
timely
thesis,
Domestic
Insurgency
offers
a
thorough
reading
of
the
issues
that
could
lead
to
a
more
equitable
and
mixed-income
housing
ecosystem
for
Vancouver.
From
zoning
through
to
efficient
and
shared
space
planning,
the
author
provides
a
blueprint
that
acknowledges
the
bottom
line,
while
justifiably
(and
pointedly)
questioning
a
system
that
allows
the
big
to
get
bigger.”
James Banks' Thesis Supervisor:
Adrian
Blackwell
James Banks' Thesis Committee:
Val
Rynnimeri,
Andrew
Levitt