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.