Revisiting Markham's Town Plan: an Asian Canadian Settlement
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Revisiting Markham's Town Plan: An Asian Canadian Settlement by Carmen Cheung, BAS A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2012 Carmen Cheung Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du 1+1 Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-93518-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-93518-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Acknowledgement I would like to thank everyone who helped me in realizing this thesis, especially to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Janine Debanne, for her constant support, encouragement, and guidance throughout the development of my thesis. She had provided me with detailed and constructive comments throughout the writing of this thesis. Without her valuable advice and contributions, I could not have accomplished this. To Lam Chun, my por por, you are the reason why the question posed in this thesis is so close to my heart, thanks for reinsuring me its validity. To Tim Mancini, thanks for being my rock when I needed it the most. Thank you for believing in me when I didn't. To Amen Yau and Liann Cheung, my mom and sister, thank you for absolutely everything. I am greatly indebted to you for continuously giving me strength and hope. I dedicate this thesis to them. Abstract Since the second part of the nineteenth century, waves of Chinese immigration have left a deep and transformative imprint on Canadian society. Traditional Chinatowns in every Canadian metropolitan region signal the presence of Asian communities in the commercial built environment, but the question of Chinese society's physical imprint on the residential landscape is yet to be fully considered. W hile the number of Chinese commercial developments and "ethnic malls" (the new "Chinatowns") in urban and suburban areas of major immigrant areas has increased in recent years, adjacent residential neighbourhoods tend to be designed according to conventional North American models and their English and European antecedents. This thesis examines the question of cultural hybridity in contemporary architecture, and, more specifically, the possibility of an urban planning and of an architectural language inspired by Asian built culture, noting that China is itself in the midst of a huge transformation. Focusing its research on the proposed master plan for Markham Ontario, this thesis explores traditional Asian spatial and temporal conceptions regarding built form and the garden, and the theme of "integration." The counter proposal for Markham Town Plan presented in this thesis offers a critique of the proposed master plan by the Remington Group, with a view to better serving a community who cherishes walk-ability in a dense environment and fluid relationships between generations. The proposal seeks to provide a built setting for the integration of daily domestic life with social ritual and the spaces of shared cultural memory. 1 | P a g e Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................ 1 Table of Contents ..............................................................................................................2 Introduction...................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1 Markham's Master Plan: a New Urbanist Proposal....................................7 1 .1 Markham, O ntario.................................................................................................................. ..8 1.2 The Proposed Master Plan by the Remington Group ................................................... 12 1.3 The Remington Group's "New Urbanist" Proposal for Markham's Master Plan.... 17 1.4 The Hopes and Flaws of New Urbanism: How Cornell sunk into driver culture ..... 21 1.5 Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 24 Chapter 2 Markham, Ontario: an Asian settlement ................................................. 27 2.1 The Asian Migration (Immigration and the Impact on Architecture) ......................... 29 2.2 The "Traditional Community" 1880 -1947 ...................................................................... 31 2.2.1 Architectural Translations.................................................................................... 32 2.3 The "Transitional Community" 1947 -1 9 6 7 .................................................................... 34 2.3.1 Architectural Translations.................................................................................... 37 2.3.2 Cultural and Social Issues of the Representational Form in Chinatown.... 40 2.4 The "Contemporary Community" 1967 to present ........................................................ 43 2.4.1 The Case of Pacific M a ll ........................................................................................ 47 2.4.2 Social and Cultural Issues of an Asian Theme Structure in Markham ........ 54 2.5 Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 3 Asian Patterns and Spatial Sensibilities ................................................... 57 3.1 Chinese's Philosophy.............................................................................................................. 59 3.2 City as a Cosmic Center: Spatial order in the macro- and micro- scale of the city grid.............................................................................................................................................. 61 3.3 The Intergenerational Household: Family as a social structure ................................... 64 3.4 Form and Function in Relation to the Chinese Concept of T im e ................................. 68 3.5 Density of the shophouse - locality of working and living in the same place ......... 71 3.6 Connectivity and Permeability of a City Block, Transitional Space as the Threshold - manifested in the layout of the hutong...................................................... 73 3.7 Coexistence of Human and Nature in the Traditional Chinese G arden ..................... 75 3.7.1 Site .............................................................................................................................. 76 2 | P a g e 3.7.2 Layout of Buildings........................................................................................................... 76 3.7.3 Screens and Curves ...........................................................................................................78 3.7.4 Water ................................................................................................................................... 78 3.8 Conclusion................... 80 Chater 4 Markham Town Centre Re-imagined According to Asian Ideas of Time and Space .................................................................................................. 81 4.1 Revising the Downtown Markham Development Proposal .................................................... 83 4.2 Downtown Markham's Current Status.........................................................................................85 4.3 Yuanlin Town: Living in the Garden ...............................................................................................89 4.3.1 The Initial Approach .........................................................................................................89 4.3.2 Filtering and Layering: Opening Street Edges ............................................................91