OPTION STUDIOS FALL 2021
ARCH Cabin as Tactic & Strategy John Bass
ARCH Vancouver Public Spaces Design Build Darryl Condon, Mari Fujita, Melissa Higgs, and Holly Schmidt
LARC Material Ecologies: Bamfield Pavilion Joe Dahmen
ARCH Experiments in Collective Form in the Age of Urgent Contextual Response: Urban Architecture at Great Northern Way Campus Joyce Drohan, Caner Oktem, and Matthew Thomson
ARCH The Missing Middle Studio: Housing and Urban Morphoses Travis Hanks and Shirley Shen
LARC Rewilding Play: Design Build Interventions Susan Herrington
ARCH Suburban James Huemoeller
ARCH Cities, Precincts, Buildings and Vignettes: Skeena Terrace Renewal Chris Macdonald
LARC [Re]Visiting Hogan’s Alley Divine Ndemeye, Sierra Tasi Baker, and JB Taylor
LARC Housing Disaster - Disaster Housing: “Una!ordable” - A!ordable Housing in Vancouver After COVID 19 Daniel Roehr
ARCH 1-Tonne of Carbon Adam Rysanek and Blair Satterfield
ARCH Blue Blankie Thena Tak Cabin as Tactic & Strategy ARCH 501/520/540 – John Bass, UBC SALA – [email protected]
Overview Schedule The Nuxalk Nation will be the stu- The studio is will be a dynam- dio’s host and collaborator. They ic process of engagement, of have asked us to work with them listening and learning, describ- to develop designs for locally ing what has been heard, and fabricated off-the-grid cabins. projecting that into an iterative design process. They have expectations and aspi- rations. The cabins should refect In the frst four weeks we’ll ex- Nuxalk culture, be inespensive plore Nuxalk ethnology as well to build, and use local skills and as present-day Nuxalk daily life, resources. Key to understanding including health and wellness, the nature of this studio is that education, food harvesting, the specifcs of these parameters culture-building, and land guard- will emerge out of the work of the ianship. We will also graphically studio, and not predetermined. analyze basic wood construction techniques, including green lum- In several Zoom-based - perhaps ber construction, post-and-beam, in-person - meetings, Nuxalk and heavy timber. knowledge holders will consult with us. In this way the com- The fnal eight-plus weeks of the munity participants will be both studio will focus on two things: advocate and critic. - Developing the cabin’s specifc Field of Inquiry technical, programmatic, and Starting small but thinking big, cultural attributes, resulting in this studio will explore the cabin both conventional design draw- from two perspectives: ings and in a visualized, detailed material inventory, and - Tactically, what are the most useful things we as designers can - Making maps, narrative draw- provide toward a successful out- ings, and diagrams describing come of building a cabin created how cabins on Nuxalk tradition- from a local supply chain? al territory tell a story about Nux- alk culture and aspirations. - Strategically, how can the pur- poseful situating of many cabins The fnal review for the studio across a vast but lived landscape will actually be two reviews: a contribute to a “tribal park” community review, followed by narration of Nuxalk traditional an academic review. territory? Engagement Ethics Site and Program Students in the studio will com- Sites and programs will be iden- plete the TCPS Core 2 tutorial on tifed in back-and-forth consul- research ethics and produce a tation with Nuxalk participants. positionality statement. Based on this back-and-forth, “The Four Carpenters who students will propose sites and Site Visit made the world were sitting programs that reconcile our mutu- A four-day trip is pencilled in (it around a fre in Nusmata, al interests. takes a day to drive there) for the when the eldest, Yulm, frst half of October, pending a grabbed a piece of charcoal Given the simplicity of the cabin, studio group discussion and the out of the fre and shook one should expect that since func- COVID situation. it in his hands. When he tionally they will be quite straight- opened his hands it was a forward - a bunkhouse, a meeting bird. The second Carpenter space, a cookhouse, etc. - the real then made the wings. The program is the reconciliation of third one made its eyes. The Nuxalk need and aspiration. youngest one gave it life. Learning Objectives “The Carpenters asked the - Develop in great detail the de- bird to say his name and sign and instructions for assembly the bird few into the sky of a cabin. and cried out, "qwaxw, - Convey ideas and facts about qwaxw, qwaxw!" The Car- building and territory using appro- penters gave the bird the priate graphic methods. name, Qwaxw, Raven.” - Develop listening and learning skills in a sustained dialogue with Four Carpenter masks at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC. -Nuxalk story Nuxalk participants. vancouver public spaces D/B / arch 501/20/40
Crowd Shyness _Germaine Koh, 2020
/ the premise
Starting in the summer of 2020, just months into the Covid-19 Pandemic, the City of Vancouver began installing pop-up-plazas to give residents a safe place to be in the city. Over 21 pop-up plazas were installed, using affordable and available off-the-shelf materials. In addition to the pop-up-plazas, the City closed many streets to non-local traffic so that residents could occupy their streets and have more space to walk and bike safely. By the Fall of 2020, the City created over 40km of slow streets.
Urbanism during the pandemic was (and still is) a world created extemporarily; an adhocracy born out of benign paranoia and anxious hope. The emerging future has thus far been impulsively decided - sketched on the world by chalk-wielding drones, supermarket clerks with tape guns, and so much precariously mounted plastic sheeting. But how many more versions could there be? As the pandemic shifts to an endemic, what have we learned about ourselves, our spaces, how we want to work, and
UBC SALA . ARCH 501/20/40 . Condon, Higgs, Fujita, and Schmidt . Fall ‘21 . Tu and Fri + p1 vancouver public spaces D/B / arch 501/20/40
play, and socialize; how we want to restart? As the pop-up plazas shift from temporary to permanent, where and what form should they take?
A GPS Controlled Tractor draws social distancing circles in Trinity-Bellwoods Park_City of Toronto, 2020
We have already learned a lot since the start of the pandemic … Critically, inequities that existed prior to the pandemic have been brought to light to the degree that they have become urgent and unavoidable. These are inequities at all scales: from the global (ie.rich nations control vaccine access, women have lost more jobs than men, the K-economy), to the national (revelations about the how in-person workplace privileges extroverts and related - how the online workplace flattens inequity between POC and non-POC colleagues), to the local (stay-at-home orders were unevenly experienced by Vancouverites, from people who had the luxury of their own backyards, to ones living in SROs or the unhoused population, another spectrum was between people in supportive family units and ones left deeply isolated and lonely).
Increasingly we are hearing about care as an approach to global inequity as well as other urgent areas such as the climate. In the Care Manifesto, published by The Care Collective in 2020, the authors declare “We are in the midst of a global crisis of care. How do we get out of it?” In their manifesto, they argue that “we are in urgent need of a politics that puts care front and centre. … Care is our individual and common ability to provide the political, social, material, and emotional conditions that allow the vast majority of people and living creatures on this planet to thrive – along with the planet itself. … Above all, to put care centre stage means recognising and embracing our interdependencies. … We are all dependent on each other, and only by nurturing these interdependencies can we cultivate a world in which each and every one of us can not only live but thrive.”
In 2021, Copenhagen Architecture Festival will focus its activities on the overall theme 'Landscapes of Care'. The organizers ask “How, then, can architecture and urban planning contribute to strengthening coexistence, tolerance/solidarity, diversity and care for each other, our planet and common resources at
UBC SALA . ARCH 501/20/40 . Condon, Higgs, Fujita, and Schmidt . Fall ‘21 . Tu and Fri + p2 vancouver public spaces D/B / arch 501/20/40 a time of pandemics, terror, migration, climate crisis, increasing inequality, etc.? How does the design and management of houses and urban spaces contribute to the formation of communities and behavior in public spaces?”
In a forthcoming essay titled “The Space Between Us” Darryl Condon argues for the power of space that brings us together as an urgent priority for the future of public space design. He states, “We are better together. It is by being together that we understand each other, support each other, and build a common social fabric – the same resilient networks that have carried us through the darkest days of the pandemic.”
Through embracing notions of care, of interdependencies, of building common social fabric, this studio will work to develop proposals for a more equitable, accessible, future for public spaces within our city. what will the course achieve? Design(s) for public spaces for Vancouver, to be developed in the next semester in a seminar, and built in summer 2022 through a design-build project.
Vancouver’s Pop-up Plazas _City of Vancouver, 2021
UBC SALA . ARCH 501/20/40 . Condon, Higgs, Fujita, and Schmidt . Fall ‘21 . Tu and Fri + p3 vancouver public spaces D/B / arch 501/20/40 projects There will be 3 projects... P1 Unsanctioned: Where are the next public places? _Research and Orientation P2 Design Dialogues: What else is possible? _Engagement and Design Sketches P3 The Next Chapter: The Activated City _Proposals
The work from T1 will continue into a seminar in T2 that will refine designs and prepare them for construction in S1 _the summer of 2022. teaching team Darryl Condon Darryl is interested in design that acts as a catalyst for positive social change. As Managing Principal at Vancouver based HCMA Architecture + Design, his leadership has led to highly innovative public spaces such as community centres, pools, recreation facilities, fire halls and libraries across Canada. After 30 years of practice creating these dynamic, engaging and effective spaces, Darryl is asking ‘what’s next’. The intent is to push, think and break away from preconceptions of conventional practice at every scale, to maximize the impact and potential of projects and collaborations. These efforts are focused on transforming his firm to provide creative interdisciplinary solutions to an increasingly wider range of challenges facing our communities.
Melissa Higgs Melissa is passionate about creating innovative public buildings where communities come together, and the power of architecture and design as a catalyst for positive change. As Principal at hcma, Melissa has led the design of recreation facilities and arts and culture projects, including the award-winning Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre in Surrey, BC, and the Clayton Community Centre — the first Passive House community centre in North America. She is also experienced with public space initiatives that help shape our cities, including Granville Island 2040 land use plan, OnWater, Vancouver’s non-motorized boating strategy, and the Alley-Oop laneway transformation.
Mari Fujita Mari is a faculty member at SALA, and serves as the Chair of the Bachelor of Design Program. Prior to UBC, Mari worked as a designer in New York City and Berlin. In her time at UBC, Mari has been involved in several design-build projects in Vancouver. Most recently, she has been conducting research on the changing nature of public space due to the Covid-19 Pandemic under the project name “Drawing Normal Now”.
Holly Schmidt, Guest Artist Holly Schmidt is the City of Vancouver Engineering Artist-in-Residence and the UBC Outdoor Art Program Artist-in Residence. Her work moves across disciplinary boundaries to explore human relations with the natural world. She uses methods such as walking, interviews, and photo/video documentation to immerse herself in different sites and situations where questions and ideas emerge. These explorations lead to the creation of projects that involve a diverse range of collaborators to create social spaces and events that bring people together around shared notions of care and interdependency.
UBC SALA . ARCH 501/20/40 . Condon, Higgs, Fujita, and Schmidt . Fall ‘21 . Tu and Fri + p4 University of British Columbia | School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | Fall 2021
Material Ecologies: Bamfield Pavilion
Vertical Studio LARC 504 Open to students in MLA, MArch and MARCLA
Instructor Joseph Dahmen, Associate Professor, UBC SALA e-mail: [email protected]
Meeting Times: Tuesdays and Fridays 1:30-6pm
Students enrolled in this vertical studio will explore the theme of material ecology through the design of an architectural pavilion, adjacent playground, and a network of trails for a public park in Bamfield, BC. Bamfield is small coastal community on the west coast of Vancouver Island, originally inhabited by Huu- ay-aht First Nations, who remain an integral presence in the community. Students in the studio will work collaboratively with the community through the Bamfield Parks Commission (BPC), a volunteer organiza- tion, to develop a design vision for an architectural pavilion and surrounding landscape. The BPC will participate in periodic virtual design reviews throughout the term, and the studio will work collaboratively to provide a design for the pavilion and surrounding landscapes to BPC at the end of term.
The pavilion will provide shelter from rain and prevailing westerly winds and powerful winter storms, pro- viding a gathering place for locals and visitors in the presence of striking views of the Deer Group is- lands. It will serve a variety of uses by the local community and visitors, including dance and arts events, summer programmes for children, as well as a picnic area during inclement weather. Playground ele- ments informed by principles of natural play and a network of trails through the adjacent forested areas will provide opportunities for outdoor recreation. The pavilion and landscape elements will be construct- ed of timber from trees sustainably harvested from the Bamfield Huu‐ay‐aht Community Forest, a 365 hectare preserve located adjacent to the town.
The design for the pavilion and surrounding landscape will provide students an opportunity to balance design poetics with cultural practices and the urgent ecological concerns of a fragile coastal ecosystem in transition. According to the UN, the built environment today consumes 40% of all resources. The stu- dio will address the relationship of the built environment to resource consumption by finding spatial op- portunities in material ecologies. Engaging the full lifecycle of design elements has the potential to deep- en our understanding of materials that are inextricably linked to environments, geographies, and pro- cesses. Expanding the boundaries of design to include upstream ecological processes and end-of-life considerations has the potential to replace tired paradigms of scarcity with the material abundance characteristic of natural systems. In the context of the contemporary ecological crisis, these methods also have the potential to build more nuanced relationships between materials and the natural and hy- brid ecologies from which they are drawn, reducing or even reversing the ecological impacts of land- scapes and architecture.
An optional site visit to Bamfield in late September (COVID permitting) will be partly funded by the BPC. Co-faculty: Caner Oktem, Joyce Drohan, Matthew Thomson
Experiments in Collective Form in the Age of Urgent Contextual Response: Urban Architecture at Great Northern Way Campus
Collective Form... ...Urgent Contextual Response Innovation and Housing at Great Northern Way Segment 1 Four weeks Segment 2 Five weeks Segment 3 Four weeks We acknowledge we are on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. SALA UBC / ARCH 501 / 520 / 540 THE MISSING MIDDLE STUDIO Housing and Urban Morphoses Instructors / Travis Hanks + Shirley Shen Haeccity Studio Architecture
Our practice focuses on small-to-medium scale housing developments in the area known as Metro Vancouver, but we endeavour to bring to those projects a global perspective informed by the most challenging issues facing our generation. We are now extending that research through a design studio on Missing Middle housing - a typology that forms the fundamental urban fabric of many north American cities, yet is woefully and conspicuously underrepresented in Vancouver’s housing stock.
This studio will not only explore the typology and topology of urban housing, but also the myriad societal forces that exert pressure on housing forms and delivery models - including a!ordability, climate crisis, zoning, and territorial politics. In addition, the studio will attempt to harness and redirect those forces towards new models of urban habitation - enduring structures that embody the healthy integration of human and natural systems.
The studio will be organized into three modules of increasing duration and complexity. The first (3 weeks) will focus on the game of project delivery - understanding which parameters are within the control of the architect, and which are decidedly not. The second (4 weeks) will shift focus from outside to inside, examining interiority as a generator of urban form and programming. These two studies will culminate in a final project (6 weeks) that synthesizes both the systemic and the human parameters of housing design. Students will attempt to galvanize the patterns and flows of material, information, and people into an embedded intervention, unique in its engagement with its environment, community, and culture.
The site is a former industrial area with connections to waterfront and mass transit, and subsequently, is under enormous development pressure. In addition to employing the traditional tools of architecture, planning, and design, students will also investigate di!erent models of ownership, tenure, and changes in the institution of housing.
Why choose this studio? We believe that architecture can address the overwhelming and systemic challenges that our society faces. At the end of the semester you will have engaged with some of the most wicked problems of our age, and advanced the conversation through architectural inquiry. You might learn to see architectural practice as an infinite game1 where we all have a stake in continuing the play.
1 Carse, James P. (1987). Finite and Infinite Games. Image: Jim Sama / Mole Hill Missing Middle Housing, Haeccity Studio
Hip Hop, Metis Garden International Festival, Susan Herrington
Rewilding Play Design Build Interventions
Introduction Vancouver is known for its abundant green spaces and opportunities for outdoor play and recreation, yet most outdoor play areas at child care centres in the city rarely reflect this image, and many centres struggle to provide quality play experiences for their children. This is particularly detrimental to young children’s health and well-being as they develop socially, cognitively, emotionally, and physically. Preschool children, in particular are learning the very basics of what it means to be a social being and to create with intention, building objects and spaces from their own imagination.
This studio will give SALA students an opportunity to design and build interventions in the outdoor play areas of YMCA Vancouver child care centres with approximately 200 three to five year-old children and 48 Early Childhood Educators (ECE). Students will work in groups and engage with ECE, Métis herbalist/educator Lori Snyder, local suppliers, Dr. Mariana Brussoni from UBC Faculty of Medicine and The School for Population and Public Health, and representatives from the BC Cancer Agency. Students can access the SALA wood shop and fabrication tools.
Students will rewild the children’s outdoor play spaces with interventions, installed to bring back the exuberance, mystery, and magic of children’s play. The studio will also give SALA students the opportunity to have the effects of their design work studied by Brussoni’s lab, which will be collecting and comparing data on the children pre and post installation and in intervention and non-intervention (control) sites . The studio project is based on the Nature Play Meets Risky Play pilot project for 45 children at two child care centres in the Downtown East Side. The study compared children pre and post installation. Findings indicated significant decreases in depressed affect, a decrease in antisocial behaviour, and increases in play with natural materials, independent play, and prosocial behaviours of children after the intervention.
Schedule at a glance Weeks 1-3 Introductions, field trips, research, engagement with ECE and other experts Weeks 4-7 Design Iterations, reviews, ordering, planning Weeks 8-10 Building, installing at intervention sites Weeks 11-13 Drawings for control sites and final presentations
Lead: Susan Herrington is a professor of landscape architecture at SALA, find out more here: https://sala.ubc.ca/people/faculty/susan-herrington Teaching Assistant: Jonathan Behnke
LARC 504/505 Fall 2021 SALA Option Studio UBC SALA - Option Studio - FALL 2021 SUBURBAN
The Streets of Surrey
UBC SALA – Fall 2021 Graduate Option Studio ARCH 501|20|40 Instructor: James F Huemoeller
This studio explores architecture within the parking, lawn) means architecture’s only hope for a indeterminate terrain that surrounds our increasingly transformative urban project is through spectacle, monotonous, sanitized urban cores. Currently, those Denice Scott Brown’s Vegas Strip. cores hold an outsized influence on urban thinking, but As we inevitably move beyond car-centred this will change. As architects, we must learn to endow development, we can no longer embrace the reality of those areas outside the centre with an energy that the suburbs the same way. Instead, we must find a new allows those communities to thrive as urban places. avenue for operation that rejects the “decorated shed”: To do so means accepting a different kind of urbanism. as well as the derivative New-Urbanist villages that In the centre, space is at a premium, and therefore the came later, but also acknowledge that the genie is out of focus of design. At the edges, space is in excess, and the bottle: any attempt to reform the suburbs into a landscape becomes dominant. The excess space means traditional urban fabric is impossible. buildings are free to relish in their objectless, protected In other words, we must abandon our obsession with by mid-century zoning codes. Yet this freedom renders the core and embrace the mess we have made, but with architecture in suburban contexts powerless to have any more optimism about what architecture can achieve. urban impact. A series of functionally separated zones (street, bike lane, planting strip, sidewalk, planting strip,
UBC SALA - Option Studio - FALL 2021 Methodology:
Redefining architecture's place in the city requires new approaches. This is not an urban design nor a landscape studio, but the studio's early investigations and research will focus on many of those disciplines to better understand and define architecture's place. Students will learn to see topics such as demographics and governance as operative design tools. Research into the systems that support architecture will also be key in generating the architectural idea.
The studio will also look at architecture not as a static entity but as a process where designers play an important but brief role in a building's life. Starting with a re-rendering of Surrey 50 years in the future, students will be asked to value buildings equally in all phases—from conception to destruction—and understand how each phase can influence the other. They will also learn from several stakeholders and rightsholders in Surrey who play a significant role in the planning of public buildings such as community representatives and city administration.
In addition, students will engage a theoretical study of the figure/ground relationship within architecture. While not rejecting building as landform or landscape ecology, methods that have been fruitfully important over the last twenty-five years, the studio will ask students to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the ground and the potential role of the figure. Complimenting readings and class discussions, the studio will look at works ranging from Junya Ishigami's rendering of nature as a figure to the Greek temple whose objectness only gains meaning through a complete engagement with landscape.
The ultimate goals of this methodology will be to instill in students confidence in working in the world of excess space. As any designer knows, constraints make design easier. The challenge of design in suburban contexts is that the lack of constraints gives architects little to push against. Yet, no site is empty, and the task we have as architects is to understand and articulate its fullness so that meaningful, grounded design can begin.
See the video for additional information on the work plan for the semester.
Site:
The studio's focus will be on Surrey, soon to be the largest city in the area. Despite the façade of single-family homes in Surrey, the community boasts one of the most diverse, growing populations in the Lower Mainland. The homes themselves are dense multigenerational living quarters creating far more density than many Vancouver neighbourhoods. Yet the current urban fabric fails to fully support that demographic vitality, a fact not lost on the city administration as Surrey works towards creating more "urban" amenities to support the growing communities with major projects for new community centres and libraries. Unfortunately, despite many of these projects being some of the more innovative in the metro area, they have failed to shape any coherent structure for the city, becoming oases in the urban desert.
Cities, Precincts, Buildings and Vignettes Skeena Terrace Renewal
Option Studio MArch and MLA: Fall Term 2021 Instructor Professor Chris Macdonald: [email protected]
Studio Introduction
While it is our habit to think of buildings as singular objects, they in fact negotiate a place within innumerable expansive systems. While at times buildings provide a vivid expression of intent within a continuum of more remote concerns, architecture can also at times inherit a decidedly subservient role. This studio will observe the manner in which the architectural design project per se is situated in complex social, political and geographic logics..
While perhaps buildings’ engagement with natural systems seems pre-eminent and urgent, other systems also argue their case for consideration. These vary according to intended use, concerns related to ownership and patronage, site conditions and – of course – the vicissitudes of politics. These ‘back stories’ live in the material fabric that surrounds our lives.
To capture something of the complex and at times conflicting aspects of these systems we will be centering our attention on the redevelopment of the Skeena Terrace social housing project located on the eastern fringe of the city of Vancouver. It consists of 20 structures on a site of 10.8 acres, built in the 1960’s and bearing witness to a very different historical moment in our collective concern for providing affordable housing.
The project is one of the largest of its kind in British Columbia – accommodating approximately 600 renters – and was provided in a partnership between BC, the City of Vancouver and the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The federal government has in the meantime essentially withdrawn from active participation in providing housing and the current proposal for reconfiguring the site has begun with BC Housing – the site’s owner – in collaboration with existing tenants and the City of Vancouver. We will be working directly with BC Housing, the architects Perkins and Will and landscape architects PWL throughout the teerm It should be exciting to see your own proposals measured against the emerging designs for redevelopment! Process
Given the intended focus of the studio it is natural that we will work at varied scales and with an array of specific intents. Exporations will be lodged in a series of four exercises. Each exercise will be complemented by pertinent readings that will contribute to studio tutorial discussions.
Exercise I: Precinct Precedents This is a short research project, working in assigned groups of 3, that essentially serves as an ‘Urban Social Housing 101’. The collective knowledge gained here should serve to underpin our contemporary imagination. In each case there are compelling insights to help instigate the Studio’s design exercises.
Projects for study include: Weissenhof Estate, Stuttgart, Various Architects (1927) Halen Estates, Bern, Atelier 5 (1955-62) Lafayette Park, Detroit, Mies van der Rohe (1956) Social housing SAAL Bouca, Porto, Alvaro Siza (1973-1978) Cite du Grand Parc, Bordeaux, Lacaton and Vassal Architects (2016)
Exercise II: The Potential for Renewal In this project we will be working individually. The inheritance that an existing landscape, buildings and urban structure provide deserves a direct and immediate consideration in any formulation of the future potential of a site.
Exercise III: New Precinct Logics In this project we will be working in self-organized groups of 4-5. At the root of this exercise is the contested and at times tense relationship between the inherited traditions of a discreet enclave and the open-ended structure of gridiron urbanism.
Exercise IV: Prototype Building Design This major project of the term again finds us working individually. This final exercise invites consideration of the various systemic contexts in which an individual building finds itself and to make design proposals accordingly. LARC 504 - WINTER 2021 [re] Divine Ndemeye | Sierra Tasi Baker | JB Taylor VISITING HOGAN’S ALLEY
OVERVIEW