Sacred Space

With the project submitted, booklet made, poster printed, and presentations finished, I am officially done architecture school! Now that I've moved back home and started hunting for a job, it is time to post the final project.

Below is the final presentation including all 100+ slides. Its quite long, but very in-depth. The presentation starts out by introducing the context, then shows the individual evolution and studies done by myself and my partner, then our joint design evolution. Finally, the completed design is shown and explored.

Below are some of the images taken from the presentation.

On The Other End of a Critique

The critique is one of the most essential ingredients in an architectural school. It is the culmination of many sleepless nights of drawing, modelling, sketching, erasing, iteration, anger, fast food breaks, re-drawing, re-modelling, computer crashes, corrupt files, re-re-modelling, rendering, and so on. After a few weeks you become attached to your project – you’ve been through so much together. When it comes time for judgement day, you feel reluctant to let it go, afraid that what you have worked so hard on will be rejected. One thing that became clear to me after a while of studying architecture is that negative feedback is the most valuable thing a student could receive.

I found this to be incredibly true over my years at Ryerson by receiving more positive critiques then negative. When a professor says good things about your project, it becomes puzzling. Where do you take it from there? How do I improve in phase B? I find that a positive review creates the notion in a students mind – and this happened with me- that the project becomes untouchable. Unchangeable. So most of the students who got a less then friendly review in phase A would show up at the presentations for phase B with a completely fresh new design which they were able to learn from their mistakes. Architecture is, after all, an iterative process. How do you change and evolve something that was considered good?

This is why I think a positive review is bad for a student. Even worse if it happens in a student’s early years – which is what happened to me. With the advantage of sketchup modelling skills already developed, I could quickly create a passable design and receive praise from professors. But by the time phase B or C come around, I find I might fall behind in the “race”. I could be stuck still doing what I had done in the beginning.

This is why the architectural critique is very important. Negative feedback is extremely beneficial as it allows a student to learn and grow. But it takes more than the embrace of criticism to further ones design. You need to be able to let go, and allow it to be changed. Taking a good project one step further to becoming a great project requires the designer to eliminate the untouchable notion and allow it to change. It needs to grow up, and won’t be able to if it is constantly protected and held back from evolving.

Designing Sacred Space

View from Mill St and Bayview Ave

In fourth year studio I am tasked with designing a catholic church in the future West Donlands neighborhood in east downtown Toronto. My approach to designing a sacred space involved looking at sacred geometry and symbolism. The holy trinity represents the father, son, and holy spirit - the three entities which encompass God. The central area of the trinity, therefore, holds a great wealth of meaning to christians. It echoes the sacrosanctum concilium (the documents which outline the reform of the church) concept of a more communal space - the community being brought together. My design will play off of this idea to create a very intimate community experience.

The worship space is in the shape of the trinity’s middle area in plan and in section. The result is a truly
unique form. The sides will be solid and warm - making a gesture of protection, like hands being cupped around something valuable and fragile.

From this idea, the rest of the church comes together working with the form of the trinity. Sacred
geometries are used extensively for sizing and proportion including the golden section, fibonacci series, and music interval ratios.

The musical harmonies seen as uplifting and positive are used: perfect fifth, octave, major third, perfect fourth. The ratios are used to guide proportions and sizes.

Site Context in West Donlands

From Across the Street

Worship Space

Longitudinal Section

Transverse Section

West Narthex

Second Floor

Parish Hall

Manifesto - Toronto Development Reform

The development process in Toronto is in need of a reform. The ultimate goal of regulations and review is to control the cities growth in an orderly fashion, and to produce quality development that will benefit its neighbourhood. However, the development process is sluggish and does not push for high enough quality architecture. It does not promote competition nor innovation between architects, resulting in bland building design that seems repetitive throughout the city. Furthermore, the large offices receive most of the contracts without much competition. It is time for a change for the good of the city.

                What Toronto needs is a system that promotes a more competitive atmosphere for architects – which will undoubtedly get architects thinking more creatively and always bringing fresh ideas to the table. A required design competition for large projects should be enforced to give an even playing field between smaller and larger firms. It will give the developer numerous options which will all be designed with more thought, creativity and passion because their business depends on it. This will raise the bar for everyone – even the cheapest and quickest solution is likely to have received greater depth of thought than currently seen.

                The competition would be quick and streamlined. A developer would be able to immediately post a competition that would be open to any firm anywhere. Larger developments would attract more attention – especially internationally. Toronto could become a centre of great architecture should this come into fruition. A design review panel would be established consisting of the city’s finest urban planners, architects, professionals, local councillors, etc. to critique the designs and guide the competition process. The review panel will streamline the development process – the ultimate goal is to allow developers to award contracts and begin construction as soon as possible.

                The design review panel will also act as a voice for the community. Community meetings are currently a mess. These meetings exist only to give the community the feeling of getting involved, however it is mostly people complaining that they do not want development in their area. The review panel will host meetings with the community and act as a voice for the people’s concerns.

                This will be beneficial as the panel will be on the ‘same side’ as local residents. With this important fact in mind, the meeting can be a more of a brainstorm type discussion on what the community wants. The design review panel then brings legitimate concerns to the developers and requires that certain concerns be dealt with to allow for approval and construction. This means what is decided at community meetings by the review panel becomes a requirement for the developer.

                Lastly, the development process will be streamlined furthermore if a development achieves LEED certification. LEED platinum and gold buildings will quickly gain approval and permits – like jumping to the start of a line-up. In addition, LEED certified buildings would be automatically granted approval for additional height above its previous approval. 

Home Brew: Pruitt-Igoe Design Competition (update 2)

Yesterday was the phase 3 submission for the Pruitt-Igoe project, and I have been without sleep for 2 nights in a row, so there could be no better time to write a post then right now!

I last left you with a quick design rationale: the idea of artists gentrifying less dersirable neighbourhoods. To kickstart the gentrification and development process, the large empty site in St. Louis, MO will see the construction of an arts focused college to be called the Pruitt-Igoe College of Art and Design. Artists will flock to the currently deserted neighbourhood and bring waves of new life and creativity. Furthermore, the creation of quality public spaces including parks, squares, streets, and public buildings will bring value to the site.

The above plan was from the previous update, and the planned layout remains very much the same. What I am now doing is taking a much more focused approach by only designing the very southern end of the site - where PICAD is located, as well as a pedestrian mall (large linear path + public spaces) and the main square.

(left) Art installation in the pedestrian mall, (right) open lawn 

After presenting phase 2 I have entered the final stretch of the project - the next couple of weeks are going to be really hectic! Once the project is all  done, I'll be sure to upload plenty of renderings, diagrams, cad drawings, and presentation slides to one large post. Sit tight!

Home Brew: Pruitt-Igoe Design Competition (update)

For the fourth year studio project, we are to come up with an idea for the revitalization of the Pruitt-Igoe site in St. Louis, MO. This is a design competition open to anybody, and we are to submit our ideas at the end of the term.

The real challenge of the site is that it is enormous and completely empty and surrounding it is a dying neighbourhood littered with abandoned lots. Furthermore, the site was previously home to a massive social housing project which had many complex political, social and economic issues to name a few.

(left) Old social housing buildings being torn down. (right) Pruit Igoe site as it sits today.

My idea so far is simple. Artists are the juggernauts of change - they move into derelict inner city neighbourhoods taking advantage of cheap rent and proximity to downtown districts. Over time, the artists find creative ways to bring interest into the area - and other artists follow. Eventually, the area becomes hip and popular with cafes, boutiques and shops opening up. Artists then pack up and leave because it becomes an expensive neighbourhood and continue with their gentrifying ways elsewhere. It's really quite a fantastic thing for a city to have this happen, so it is my hope that this will be the case with St. Louis.

However I cant just expect artists to suddenly appear. My plan is to conceptualize the development of a new college devoted to arts, design, fashion, film, architecture, and all mediums in between. For now we shall call this the Pruitt-Igoe College of Art and Design (PICAD). The development of this institution over time will bring artists from all across the area into the site and its surroundings, essentially kick starting the gentrification process I previously described.

The Design Process
The development of the enormous site will be phased - beginning with the first college buildings, residences, and eventually seeing the college's expansion, the creation of public spaces, and finally mixed used private and public developments. For this project I will be creating a master plan that envisions the area in the distant future of what I imagine it to look like when complete.

Site Plan showing the introduction of a street grid, public spaces and buildings

The site is broken up into small lots similar to those throughout the area. Buildings will be predominantly low rise town-houses on the quiet streets (Dutch style woonerfs - which I'll explain in detail in a later post), and mid rise mixed use buildings on the more busy streets. The mixed use buildings will see retail on the ground floor, and above that will be either office, subsidized housing, market rate housing, or a mix. The PICAD buildings will follow a similar programming strategy: Classrooms, studios, offices and such on the lower floors, with student housing on the upper floors. There will also be buildings that are entirely student residences, and those that are entirely for classes.


I realised that designing the entire site in detail is a ridiculous amount of work, so I need to downsize. What I'm thinking is designing the southernmost part of the site which has the most interesting features. To the west end is a major public square with a preforming arts theatre at its end. Perpendicular to the square is a linear park that has the PICAD buildings along its edges. The central north-south corridor that cuts through the middle of the site is a market street. I call it that because it will be pedestrian only on certain days when street vendors can bring out their displays to the sidewalk. It will be similar to Kensington Market's pedestrian sundays here in Toronto.

Since this project is in the very early stages, I'll just plop a few work in progress images here. Much more to come later!

The Development Front: One Bloor East

Project: One Bloor East
Location: 1 Bloor St East, Toronto
Developer: Great Gulf Homes
Architect: Hariri Pontarini Architects
Status: Under Construction (Excavation)

This is Canada's most important intersection. The corner of Yonge and Bloor streets in downtown Toronto is a bustling hub of activity for pedestrians, drivers, and commuters. It is the intersection of two subway lines, on the longest street in the world, and home to the cities second pedestrian scramble crossing. The corner is the northern bookend to downtown Toronto's skyline and probably the most appropriate site in the city for an iconic tower.

The Original Proposal

The large plot of land sitting at the south-east corner has a storied history. It had seen numerous proposals and redesigns that have fallen flat until Great Gulf's most recent proposal. The original proposal from the 1990s envisions a tower with an oval shaped plan that narrows towards the top. It's crown is a sort of shark fin shaped thing reminiscent of early condo designs in Vancouver.

Original 1990s Proposal for 1 Bloor.

The proposal rezoned the site for a large mixed use tower but nothing came of it. A few years ago in a lecture I recall a professor discussing how the proposal was only intended to drastically increase the value of land with the intent of selling for huge gains - the developer had not intended to build the building at all. 

Second & Third Designs

A development company from Kazakhstan called Bazis purchased the site and proposed a mixed use tower with large scale retail, residential and hotel space. The design was released in the early days of Toronto's massive building boom that continues to this day. Of course, the proposal sat stale for a while before Bazis released their third design.

Second and third designs for 1 Bloor by Bazis.

Fourth Design: It Hits the Market

In 2007 this development became the talk of the town when Bazis officially released their 3rd design (4th overall for the site) and the project hit the market. It became the biggest development in town and people lined up overnight for the opening of the sales office. Needless to say it seemed this was the most successful condo project in the city.

Fourth design for 1 Bloor

Fifth Design: Great Gulf Takes Over

Despite Bazis' great success with sales, the Lehman Brothers who financed the project went bankrupt and the project was no more. Great Gulf bought the site from Bazis and came up with the site's fifth design which is slightly scaled back, but features a much more elegant design by Hariri Pontarini Architects.

The architects use balconies to their advantage to create a sleek curvy façade along the tower, as well as a series of terraces on the podium. 

Fifth (and final) Design by Great Gulf + Hariri Pontarini Architects

Construction photo posted by Androiduk on urbantoronto.ca