Yours, Mine & Ours

Rhinoceros 3D

Adobe Illustrator

Physical Modeling

Course: Design Studio Semester 1

Date: September - December 2022

Format: Team based project with classmates Akari Esaka, Colette

Bartschat and Ghazal Torkaman

Responsibilities: 3D Modeling, Drawing & Physical Modeling

"Yours, Mine & Ours" is an urban block proposal which aims to remediate the severed relationship between food production and community consumption. As a result, this proposal incorporates sustainable and regenerative urban farming with middle density housing. With growing concerns of climate change, "Yours, Mine & Ours" seeks to encourage its resident to care for the land which provides for them.

This design is located in the Sunset Neighbourhood of Vancouver with the goal of replacing single-family units with middle density urban blocks. As sustainable farming, community building and lane way activation are the three guiding design principles, each block consists of mixed use housing, commercial space, as well as specified landscape and roofing types dedicated to various kinds of production. As the urban blocks grow outwards, the lane way will transform into a community gathering space while inviting the broader community to experience the on-site food production system. View corridors for both tenants and community members are aimed to create community engagement with the farms, while creating a sense of ownerships for tenants. As such, farms are located facing the lane way and the street for visual access from both the exterior and interior.

Fruit trees create habitat for local bird and pollinator species while providing a low maintenance food source

Diverse assortment of crops provides significant variety for the community and the diet of local pollinator species

Tall grass creates habitat for insects which naturally combat crop pests blooming pollinator

Perennial plantings with varied blooming seasons sustain pollinator populations throughout all seasons in a year

Greenhouses continue food production during off seasons and cultivate culturally significant produce not native to BC

Rain gardens cleanse polluted storm-water and provide habitat for native plants

Laneway Activation

Back lane features design elements which pedestrianize the neighborhood and converts a commonly underutilized urban space into a place community gathering. Commercial elements inclusion of a community learning cenoriented towards the lane to promote use of the walkway. The lane is lined with pergola’s which feature low maintenance plantings, allowing for the uninitiated broader community to join in food harvest while providing protection from rain. Rain-gardens border the lane to manage storm-water from frequent Vancouver rainfall.

The revitalized lane way aims to pedestrianize the neighbourhood while creating gathering opportunities in an otherwise underutilized space. A community farming learning center along with commercial units are oriented towards the lane way to promote the use of the corridor. The walkway is lined with pergola's which hold low-maintenance plantings, while providing rainfall protection, and the rain gardens which border the lane aid in storm-water management

Rhinoceros 3D

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Course: Design Studio Semester 1

Date: January - February 2022

Format: Team based project with classmate Ewen Hall

Responsibilities: 3D Modeling & Drawing

Elevations 1:75

1 Year

5 Years

Tasked with developing a proposal which provides access to one of Wreck Beach’s old growth trees, this design consists of three wooden parallel paths, emulating the materiality of the tree, which travel from the water, traversing the threshold, and into the forest. It employs an adaptive design using changes such as time, sea level rise, decomposition, and growth, where at any given period up to a millennium, segments of the path remain useful to living organisms. Based on current scientific projections, the path acts as a benchmark, providing visual access to its users of the processes which will impact the old growth tree.

The embodied perspective depicts 25 years in the future where sea levels have risen approximately 0.6 meters. While the lower points of the path become submerged, allowing for aquatic plants to grow, the higher points of the paths are still accessible as small islands. Plants in the threshold and forest accumulate quickly covering the forest bed.

The disembodied perspective depicts 50 years in the future, where sea levels have risen approximately 1.5 meters, submerging most of the path along the beach and threshold. The remaining islands, adapted to be used as swimming docks, are a signal of what used to be before natural processes took over. In the forested region, the path is being gradually integrated into nature as organisms begin incorporating it into their ecosystem.

To demonstrate the projected changes, a GIF comprised of three segments depicts the subsequent environments in exponential chronological order.