Project Portfolio + Resume

Project Portfolio + Resume

Christopher Lam

Project Portfolio + Resume 2024 Christopher Lam

Contact Professional Experience

chris.lam.182@gmail.com

Apt 114

8 Dean Ryle St London SW1P 4DA 0787 339 2436

Software

Rhino 3D

Grasshopper

Adobe Suite

AutoCAD

Twinmotion

Sketchup

Other proficiencies

Physical modelling

CNC

Lasercutting

3D printing

Qualifications note

The University of Toronto M.Arch is a CACB/NCARB accredited professional mutually recognised by the ARB. I am a British citizen with the right to work in the UK.

OAA Intern Architect/Architectural Assistant

Works Office of Brian O’Brian Architect

Assisted in the design of single family dwellings and additions, from strategic definition to technical design

Produced architectural drawings, renders, and models

Researched, developed, and issued zoning and planning applications

Produced tender, budget, and construction drawing sets

Liaised with clients, engineers, contractors, and trades

Architectural Intern

large[medium]designoffice

Assisted in competition research and industrial design work

Produced architectural drawings, models, and videos

Teaching Assistant

University of Toronto

Assisted in graduate and undergraduate courses, including urban planning, site ecology, and technology studios

Led tutorials, critiques, rhino and grasshopper software help, and facilitated online learning spaces through Enscape

Publication Intern

Shim-Sutcliffe, Great Urban Rooms Publication

Conducted archival research of historic Toronto buildings

Curated and arranged architectural drawings and photos

Education

Master of Architecture, M.Arch

University of Toronto

MA Philosophy

University of Bristol

Bachelor of Laws, LLB

Durham University

Facing Reality

A mobile education and climate monitoring system on Vancouver Island

Site: Vancouver Island, Canada

Facing Reality is a mobile climate education centre which attempts to subvert the existing architecture of Vancouver Island’s colonial past in order to address the current climate crisis and establish a network of climate data points. By redefining the architecture of the school in the context of Vancouver Island’s colonial past, the project confronts the colonial ideologies of division, isolation, and permanence. In response to the climate crisis, the mobile school engages with these practices and their effects on Vancouver Island to promote a community driven approach to data collection and to inform a climate education. Its curriculum confronts the reality of climate change in the environment in which we live, as well as reconnecting participants to ecological thought. It strives to create a dialogue between modern science and traditional knowledge, while engaging the public in environmental learning and consciousness.

Upon arrival, the climate monitoring balloon is launched and the structure is assembled by the team

As participants begin to gather, the pneumatic structure is inflated. It will host field courses, lectures, and evening stories and films

The climate monitoring balloon is raised above the tree line to collect data. After the event is finished, it will remain and be raised again to continue monitoring

In the evenings, the climate monitoring balloon is lowered to signal the start of the evening activities and to provide light to the inflatable below

The inflatable structure can be used as the backdrop for films, lectures, and seminars, as well as traditional storytelling

At night, the structure is deformed with straps to create private spaces for the teachers and scientists to sleep

GIS data was compiled to identify climate zones, road and waterways, and settlements on Vancouver Island. This data, combined with an analysis of current gaps in the current climate monitoring network, was then used to plot a course for the mobile education and climate monitoring system.

This data is also used to inform the Climate Curriculum, which uses bio-indicators on Vancouver Island linked to corresponding climate zones. This participatory curriculum creates new data points for climate monitoring as well as encouraging engagement from citizen scientists.

189: Blue Mountain Schoolhouse

Site: Blue Mountain, Ontario Works Office of Brian O’Brian Architect

The Blue Mountain Schoolhouse project consists of an extension to a 19th century brick schoolhouse, as well as surrounding lanscaping, including septic work and a relocated driveway.

The schematic design takes the profile of the schoolhouse as a start point to begin shaping the addition. This form is then freely manipulated to reflect its purposes: pulled to create length, raised to provide height for the upper public and lower private areas, and sliced to orient views to the mountain.

“There is a closed formality in a building like the Schoolhouse. What is critical is recognizing that formality in a way that allows us to respect its hierarchy as a starting point for the Work while also permitting a new piece of architecture that is equally not subservient to it.”

Clockwise, from top left: South elevation, North elevation, Assemblies, Transverse sections, Longitudinal section

The Blue Mountain Schoolhouse joins the 19th century schoolhouse to the proposed addition with a double height breezeway. The addition is clad in blackened hemlock to contrast the existing red brick of the schoolhouse. A standing seam steel roof unites the two pieces, lifting upward in stages.

Work Life Balance

Collective Housing in Kensington Market

Site: Kensington Market, Toronto, Ontario

The ‘Experimental Collectivity’ studio sought to envision new modes of collective housing in Toronto in an effort to address the ‘missing middle,’ or the housing gap between suburban, single family dwellings and high-rise apartments. The Work Life Balance collective housing imagines a new community of housing and work space, creating flexible spaces for community events. Townhouses sit above storefronts and office spaces, with large, open plans allowing community events. A pedestrian street between the townhouses creates a large public gathering space, where market events occur. The chamfered roofs of the townhouses create skylights with double height spaces, providing airy, light, living spaces. Alternating window placement provides privacy in a dense living arrangement.

Townhouse ground +1, with kitchen and double height living room

ground +2, with bedroom, bathroom, laundry, and balcony

ground +3, with studio space

Ground store space, in typical daily configuration

Ground store space, transformed into runway for show

These floor plans show the flexibility of the units. Jennifer is an aspiring fashion designer and the owner of a vintage clothing store. During regular use, her storefront on the public lane acts as a store for her clothing finds,

as well as her own designs created in her studio on the top floor of her apartment. Each season, she converts her shop into a runway to show off her newly launched line of clothes.

Townhouse

Townhouse

The units of the Work Life Balance housing collective consist of two and three story apartments, accessed from the ground floor retail space below. Each unit is lit by alternating windows and skylights, providing light and privacy.

Ground +3

The top floor of the three story apartments are faced by the angled skylights, creating brightly lit lounges and workshops.

Ground +2

Work desks sit above the spaces created by the double height ceiling, overlooking the activity below and providing a connection to the lower area. Corridors are exploited to increase the amount of usable space.

Ground +1

The first floor of the housing units contains spacious kitchens, living rooms, and bed rooms for small apartments. Angled windows on the floors above create well-lit, double height spaces.

Sudbury 2050

Re-imagining the post-industrial landscape in Northern Ontario

Site: Sudbury, Ontario large [medium] design office

The Sudbury 2050 competition challenged participants to envision the redevelopment strategy of the urban core of Sudbury, a town in Northern Ontario, in the year 2050. A historic mining town in the midst of its transition away from heavy industry, the aging centre no longer adequately serves the town’s population.

Our team began with a survey of the town’s current zoning plans, demographics, and current land use policies, compiling data in GIS to create a series of mappings. These mappings revealed the current program segregation, lack of adequate housing and program diversity within the downtown core, as well as the over-representation of parking space within the city centre. Our research also identified several key heritage and social value sites within and adjacent to the downtown core.

Our policy aims focused on creating an intensity to the city centre necessary for its rejuvination. Our proposal envisioned the city as a fine grain of program and a diverse set of users. Interwoven programmatic zones create opportunities for spontaneity and diversity within Sudbury’s city centre. Our surveys identified existing sites of historic and public interest, redeveloping them to create community hubs. These elements were connected with enhanced pedestrian and cycle infrastructure. Larger industrial elements, notably the current railway and railyard located adjacent to the city centre, were repurposed into large public parks and cycle highways, connecting planned future event centres and public institutions to Subury’s surrounding suburbs and natural reserves.

Sudbury Community Arena

Memorial Park

Tom Davies Square

Sudbury’s Water Tower

City Centre

Conseil scolaire catholique Nouvelon

All Nations Church

Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

r a n t , s a fer s treets t hrough pedestrian a nd cycle

itaer n g biv

t he downtowncoreto community c e n tres, suburbs, andnational park s Rev italising industriallandto create cycle a n d light rail infrastructureconnecti n g th e

Heritage sites selected for restoration Urban green space

Pedestrian and cycle priority zones

Bicycle highway

Light rail

The Lantern Natatorium

Revitalising industrial land with community focused architecture

Site: The Golden Mile, Scarborough, Ontario Team members: Yvonne Fu, Chris Lam

The Lantern Natatorium creates a centrepiece for the Golden Mile Secondary Plan, an urban renewal strategy put forward by the city of Toronto to revitalise the Golden Mile, a former industrial site in Scarborough, Ontario. The natatorium’s soft glow, created by its curtain wall system shrouded by an expanded metal veil, acts as a beacon on the edge of the hydro-corridor behind it. The Lantern is subtly raised to be visible from all sides, as well as visually connecting it to the hydro-corridor. A bike path wraps up and around the edge of the natatorium, extending the access between the streetfront and the green space behind. The veil lifts at the corner to allow access to the natatorium, as well as to the covered outer space.

The Lantern utilises passive control methods to promote an environmentally responsible architecture. The south facing siting of the outdoor pool provides heat and light. Operable windows provide passive ventilation, and only necessary program is regulated, leaving the pavilion-like circulatory area passively controlled.

The Lantern Natatorium connects essential program to mechanical services, while relying on passive ventilation systems to mitigate systems load and reduce the building’s carbon footprint. Operable windows and ventilated rooms cool program spaces, including offices, gyms, and the cafe, during the summer, while warm, humid air from the insulated pool space is recycled to provide dry heat to the spaces during the winter and colder days.

Shading systems shield the glass facade, reducing heat gain while maintaining natural light throughout the building. Through material experimentation, including glass block, illuminated concrete panels with fibreglass rods, and parametric wood slats, perforated metal was chosen for its weight and porousness. The glass roof of

the natatorium acts as both a skylight and rain catchment system. The perforated facade allows water to drain through to the roof, where a system of channels directs water from the roof to rain tanks, where water is recycled for the pool and adjacent landscape.

The structural steel shed system with vierandeel trusses and HSS columns supports the ‘floating box’ program elements, ramp, floor plates, and inner atrium. By suspending the atrium, the system creates an enclosed humid zone, allowing light to enter the pool area while preventing the transfer of heat and humidity, as well as the creating the glowing heart of the natatorium.

Suspended volumes are arranged around the central atrium, which provides light and enclosure to the pool area below. The volumes surrounding the atrium overlook the pool, connecting all programs to the central focus. These programmatic volumes, including gyms, offices, and cafe, are accessed by a ramp which wraps its way around the atrium, connecting the program spaces while

providing views of both the pool area and the landscape beyond. The outer walkway ramps up to the second level, creating a separate entrance to the dry areas, as well as providing hout to the outer loggia area. This outer space, which hugs the exterior of the natatorium, provides a place to pause between the historic Golden Mile commercial area and the hydro-corridor to the North.

207: Cottage in the Shade

Site: Minden Hills, Ontario

Works Office of Brian O’Brian Architect

Status: Pre-construction

The Cottage in the Shade consists of a cottage and outbuildings on a lakefront property in Southern Ontario, commissioned to replace a 1960s cottage that no longer suits the needs of the family.

The building consists of a series of horizontal spaces beneath a singular bent roof. The central living spaces push into the roof to heighten the space, allowing for passive ventilation and light through a central skylight.

The cottage is oriented to frame views of its surroundings. The principal bedroom occupies the Southwest corner of the cottage, with clerestory windows along the south of the building to let in morning light. The kitchen, dining, and living spaces are situated to the Northwest, with views of the lake and boathouse. The secondary bedrooms are arrayed along the East, accessed by an axial corridor, and give the feeling of nestling into the Eastern slope.

Ground floor plan

1/16” = 1”

Roof plan

1/16” = 1”

Basement plan

1/16” = 1”

The plan of the Cottage in the Shade makes use of two main axes: a North-South axis dividing the lakeside program and the hill program, and a diagonal axis which directs users from the Southeastern property entrance, through the residence, and towards the Northwestern boathouse and lake.

The program is reflected in the ceiling above. Bedrooms, bathrooms, and other private spaces sit beneath the lowered areas. Moving into the public spaces through the corridors, the ceiling begins to lift. These corridors are separated by screen walls, yet retain their connection to the public space through the ceiling. The ceiling reaches its apex beneath the hearth.

The structure is inteded to be clad in horizontal hemlock board, and capped with a unified corrugated steel roof. Dry-laid stone walls frame the exterior cedar decks and outdoor kitchen, referencing the stone retaining wall laid by the owner, as does the central hearth. Warm white oak floors, wall panels, and millwork tie the interior spaces together.

Top: West elevation

Bottom, from left to right: Views from entrance, living room, kitchen

194: Acropolis Grey

Site: Ravenna, Ontario

Works Office of Brian O’Brian Architect

This 32’-0” by 32’-0” wood cabin was built by a shipwright. The current owners approached the firm to improve the interior layout of the cabin as well as to replace an existing Northwestfacing sunroom and the East front porch.

The existing interior space was divided into two halves, with the Eastern side consisting of a cramped mudroom entryway, powder room, enclosed office space, and kitchen. The Western half of the cabin included an open living room, central hearth, and a small dining area. The proposed interior plan reorganised the Eastern program into a more functional and open layout which made use of a series of distinct yet interconnected millwork pieces to intensify the depth of program.

The sunroom is shifted to Southwest corner. Its butterfly roof lifts upwards, inspired by a ship’s prow, as well as allowing more light to enter from the Southwest. Glazing wraps the exterior of the sunroom, with operable windows set into framed glass panels to create airflow and reduce the cost from a full window system, and opens the sunroom onto the rural surroundings.

Bottom: Sunroom and porch plans

Top: Framing plan

Left: Sunroom render

Sunken Kindergarten

Site: Glen Morris Street and Huron Street, Toronto

The project brief called for a kindergarten of four classrooms, capable of holding twenty students each. Due to the scale and complexity of the adjacent buildings, a low, geometric structure was chosen to contrast the surrounding buildings. The low pyramid, with classrooms sunk into the earth, was designed to provide safety and privacy without relying on fencing. Further, the central courtyard allows ease of access to the outside to all four classrooms, while providing covered and uncovered play areas.

175: Laneway Suite

Site: Toronto, Ontario

Works Office of Brian O’Brian Architect

The client, in anticipation of their two children leaving for university, requested a proposal for a rear laneway suite. This proposed laneway suite consists of a ground floor garage, storage, and mechanical space and second floor single bedroom residence.

The City of Toronto imposes several constraints on the size and form of laneway structures, including height, length, width, dormer width, an angled facade, and an offset from the main residence. In designing the form of the laneway, these constraints were used to inform, but not dictate, in order to create an original building.

The residence space consists of a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen. Millwork holding appliances, storage spaces, and closets divide these spaces to ensure that none of the limited space is wasted.

Bottom: Zoning diagram, render and model

Left: Model

Top: Ground and first floor plans 1/16” = 1’0”

Erosion Machines

Team members: Niko Delic, Simba Mai, Chris Lam

The erosion machines team created a series of sculptural pieces using a mixture of digital and hand modelling. Through experimentation, the team combined concrete, plaster, balloons, plastic bags, lasercut forms, burnt cedar, and CLT to create objects which combined hand craft and digital fabrication.

We experimented with how concrete would react being injected in balloons, around water filled balloons, and squeezed into plastic bags, how plaster, cedar, and CLT withstood CNC milling, and the combination of these experiments resulted in a final model contained within a glass dome.