Canadian Architect

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16 Capilano University Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation

Julian Abrams

Syverson Monteyne Architecture

Ema Peter

Contents

11 News

A dramatic new building for Capilano University’s film school establishes a landmark presence on a picturesque North Vancouver campus. TEXT Leslie Jen

22 La Cuisine Backstage Kitchen and Site Office Utilizing primarily recycled materials, Syverson Monteyne Architecture designs the first permanent structure for the legendary Winnipeg Folk Festival.

TEXT Brent Bellamy

32 Practice

Mark Kasumovic

JUly 2013, v.58 n.07

The National Review of Design and Practice/ The Journal of Record of Architecture Canada | RAIC

conomist Adrian Lightstone presents a E comparative analysis of architectural billings and construction trends in Canada and the United States.

37 Calendar

26 Nike Football Training Centre Vancouver-based RUFproject leads the design of a soccer training centre in Soweto, kickstarting a process of urban revitalization for this community in transition. TEXT Guy Trangosˇ

niversity of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of U Architecture, Landscape and Design to receive new home; GianPiero Moretti named the new Director of the School of Architecture at Laval University.

issections at the Canadian Centre for D Architecture; Architecture de l’Ombre at the Maison de l’Architecture du Québec.

38 Backpage

A lex Bozikovic reveals the winners of the Green Line competition in Toronto.

COVER Capilano University Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation in North Vancouver by Cannon Design.

Photograph by Ema Peter.

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RAY wong

Viewpoint

­­Editor Elsa Lam, MRAIC Associate Editor Leslie Jen, MRAIC Editorial Advisor Ian Chodikoff, OAA, FRAIC Contributing Editors Annmarie Adams, MRAIC Douglas MacLeod, ncarb, MRAIC Regional Correspondents Halifax Christine Macy, OAA Calgary David A. Down, AAA Montreal David Theodore Vancouver Adele Weder Regina Bernard Flaman, SAA Publisher Tom Arkell 416-510-6806 Associate Publisher Greg Paliouras 416-510-6808 Circulation Manager Beata Olechnowicz 416-442-5600 ext. 3543 Customer Service Malkit Chana 416-442-5600 ext. 3539 Production Jessica Jubb

Calgarians watch water levels rise from the newly opened Poppy Plaza, designed

by The Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative and Stantec Consulting.

Above

In the wake of the June floods that devastated large areas of Calgary and Southern Alberta, communities are rallying in a monumental effort to clean up muck and debris in time to host the annual Stampede and salvage the rest of the summer tourist season. The much larger challenge lies ahead: rebuilding in a way that protects against future storms.

After Superstorm Sandy triggered massive flooding in New York City last November, architects and planners came together to contribute expertise. The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects initiated a study of storm-resistant design strategies, in collaboration with regional planning, engineering and landscape organizations. The resulting report looks to national and international best practices for guidance. It explores rebuilding the city’s shoreline with a range of site-specific solutions, ranging from deployable floodwalls to artificial dunes and reinserted wetlands. The authors suggest raising buildings and electrical systems, but also consider the creation of structures that can easily flood and drain.

Architects volunteered as part of a task force set up by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Chrisine Quinn, which released its recommendations in mid-June. Rather than mandating potentially expensive retrofits, several of the task force’s proposals focus on removing barriers to improvements of existing buildings. For instance, they suggest regulatory relief for owners who may wish to elevate buildings above the 500-year floodline but are restricted by zoning height limitations, and facilitating the installation of on-site solar and 6 canadian architect 07/13

other backup power sources. Code changes, such as mandating the use of wind-resistant windows and strengthened foundations, are recommended for new buildings and renovations. The report also suggests launching a design competition for raised homes, modelled on the successful competitions for sustainable prototype houses held in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

The Post-Sandy Initiative report can be viewed at www.postsandyinitiative.org, and the Building Resiliency Task Force report can be viewed at www.urbangreencouncil.org/Building­Resiliency.

Both groups refer repeatedly to the idea of resiliency: creating infrastructures, buildings and landforms that can quickly bounce back to full functionality after a weather event. The concept of resiliency acknowledges that it’s impossible to design for full resistance to unpredictable events such as 500-year floods and superstorms, but we can make sure that built structures are better able to cope with these shocks. Resiliency is set to become an increasingly important design imperative as extreme weather events increase in frequency with climate change.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford has warned that the provincial cleanup effort from the Southern Alberta floods could take up to 10 years. While daunting for residents, that long timeline is potentially good news. It implies a rebuilding effort with breathing room to develop resilient infrastructure, smart communities, and buildings that will weather nature’s next major storm.

Elsa Lam

elam@canadianarchitect.com

Graphic Design Sue Williamson Vice President of Canadian Publishing Alex Papanou President of Business Information Group Bruce Creighton Head Office 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 Telephone 416-510-6845 Facsimile 416-510-5140 E-mail editors@canadianarchitect.com Web site www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published monthly by BIG Magazines LP, a div. of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd., a leading Cana­dian information company with interests in daily and community news­papers and business-tobusiness information services.

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12-03-13 4:33 PM

2013 Awards of Excellence Canadian Architect invites architects registered in Canada and architectural graduates to enter the magazine’s 2013 Awards of Excellence.

Eligibility

4. Please do not submit any material in CD, DVD, or any other audio-visual format not confined to two dimensions, as it will not be considered.

Projects must be in the design stage, scheduled for construction or under construction but not substantially complete by September 12, 2013. All projects must be commissioned by a client with the intention to build the submitted proposal. All building types and concisely presented urban design schemes are eligible.

Entry Fee

Judging Criteria

Publication

Awards are given for architectural design excellence. Jurors will consider the scheme’s response to the client’s program, site, and geographic and social context. They will evaluate its physical organization, form, structure, materials and environmental features.

Presentation

1. Anonymity. The designer’s name must not appear on the submission except on the entry form. The project name and location should be identified.

2. Each entry must be securely fastened in a folder or binder of dimensions no greater than 14´´ 5 17´´; oversized panels will not be accepted. One (1) copy of this entry form must be enclosed within an envelope and affixed to the front of each folder, preferably without the use of Scotch tape or adhesives. Clips are ideal.

3. Each project folder must include: a) first page—a brief description of the project (500 words or fewer) b) second page—a brief description indicating the project’s ability to address some or all of the following issues (1,000 words or fewer): i) context and/or urban design components ii) integration of sustainable design iii) innovation in addressing program and/or the client’s requirements iv) technical considerations through building materials and/or systems c) drawings/images including site plan, floor plans, sections, elevations and/or model views

$100.00 per entry ($88.50 + $11.50 HST). Please make cheques payable to Canadian Architect. HST registration #809751274RT0001.

Winners will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2013. Winners grant Canadian Architect first publication rights for their winning submissions.

Awards

Framed certificates will be given to each winning architect team and client.

Details to follow upon notification of winners.

Notification of Winners

Award winners will be notified after judging takes place in October 2013.

Deadline

Entries will be accepted after August 8, 2013. Send all entries to arrive by 5:00 pm on Thursday, September 12, 2013 to: Awards of Excellence 2013 c/o Leslie Jen Canadian Architect 80 Valleybrook Drive Toronto, Ontario M3B 2S9 Return of Entries

Entries will not be returned.

Name of Project Name of Firm Address City & Province Telephone E-mail Architect/Architectural Graduate submitting the project Signature according to the conditions above

Client Client Telephone

Postal Code

News Projects Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design to receive new home.

The University of Toronto recently unveiled its plans to transform one of the most iconic sites in the city: One Spadina Crescent. Designed by Nader Tehrani, principal of the internationally acclaimed firm NADAAA, and his collaborator Katie Faulkner, the building project will renew the south-facing 19th-century Gothic Revival building and build out the unrealized northern face of the circle with a stunning work of contemporary architecture. A new exterior composed of glass, stone and steel will preserve views of the heritage building’s grand turrets, while a contoured roof will harvest rainwater and bathe the building’s interior in natural light. The University selected Tehrani as the architect, along with his former firm Office dA, through an international design competition (Tehrani established his current firm NADAAA shortly after). The Toronto firm Public Work, founded by Marc Ryan (former director at West 8 Toronto) and Adam Nicklin (former principal at DTAH), is working with NADAAA on the design of the site’s landscape. Adamson Associates and ERA Architects are also part of the larger team serving as executive and preservation architects, respectively. The new building will include collaborative studio spaces, an advanced fabrication lab, a principal hall for major public events, and a public gallery. Additional program elements envisioned for the site include pavilions to be embedded in the landscape at the edge of the circle, which will house a series of research and public venues devoted to the design arts, architecture and city-building. The pavilions will house the Global Cities Institute, a new cross-disciplinary research centre, as well as the Model Cities Theatre and Laboratory, where students, researchers and the public can employ innovative technology to project alternate forms of urbanization for Toronto and other cities. The pavilions will also provide space for a new Institute for Architecture and Human Health, which will anchor planned graduate programs in this field. A state-of-theart green roof will provide an expanded site for the Faculty’s celebrated Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory.

Awards Canada Council for the Arts recently awards architecture grants.

A number of grants were recently awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts to facilitate practitioners, critics and curators of architecture.

ABOVE The proposed new home for the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design merges the iconic historic building at One Spadina Crescent with a bold new contemporary structure, courtesy of a design team led by Nader Tehrani.

Distributed in amounts up to $20,000, the grant is intended to be used to produce books, events and exhibitions on contemporary Cana­dian architecture. The awarded grants are as follows.

Ron Thom Exhibition—$20,000 for the design and production of the travelling exhibi­tion curated by Adele Weder for the Gardiner Museum, Trent University and the West Vancouver Museum. Winnipeg Design Festival—$10,000 for the curatorial oversight of the third edition of this Festival, led by Melissa McAlister and Sean Radford. Twenty + Change—$20,000 for the fourth edition of this book and exhibition on emerging architects, under the stewardship of Heather Dubbeldam. Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15—$20,000 for the Canadian segment of the 2014 Venice Biennale in architecture, curated and produced by Lateral Office.

Architecture and National Identity: the Centennial Projects Fifty Years On—$20,000 for the travelling exhibition on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation curated by Marco Polo and Colin Ripley. Exploring Ottawa: An Architectural Guidebook—$10,000 for the photography for this publication by Peter Coffman, Andrew Waldron and Hal Kalman.

Living Wood Redux: Everything Old is New Again—$16,000 for the exhibition on Williamson Chong’s research in digital fabrication techniques and new wood products at the Corkin Gallery. Audio guides of five Canadian cities— $14,000 for the expansion of the audio-guided walks offered in Montreal by Sophie Mankovski, with collaborators in Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto and Quebec. Incorporation of tradi­ tional building knowledge from the First Nation in contemporary architectural practice— $20,000 for this event by Emergency Architects of Canada, in collaboration with the Ordre des Architectes du Québec. www.canadacouncil.ca/en/council/grants-andprizes/find-grants-and-prizes/grants/assistance-topractitioners-critics-and-curators-of-architecture

5468796 Architecture wins one of five WAN 21 FOR 21 Awards.

Canadian firm 5468796 Architecture has been selected for the WAN 21 FOR 21 Award by World Architecture News in London, UK. 5468796 was one of five emerging architectural practices chosen from over 150 entries and a longlist of 50 firms from around the world. 2013 marks the third stage of the WAN 21 FOR 21 competition, which was launched in 2011. The last two years have seen 13 practices awarded, leaving three to be presented next year. The initiative “aims to highlight 21 architects who could be the leading lights of architecture in the 21st century; outstanding, forward-thinking people and organizations who have the demonstrable potential to be the next big thing in the architectural world.” According to the WAN 21 FOR 21 winners’ announcement, “The practices were selected by a specialist panel in a lively jury session in London. The panel was looking for firms who showed the potential for change and an understanding of context, and were able to communicate their ideas and work clearly.

They were searching for emerging architects, as well as more established practices who were yet to gain the attention they deserved for their designs.” 5468796 was praised by the jury for their consistency across the projects submitted. Andrew Best, Partner at Buro Happold said, “multiple-use housing is typically unglamorous, but [the firm] has done something special here.” Martha Thorne, Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize, commented, “I like these projects; they do different things but remain mindful of the context…they use the idea of surface in a proper way.” Dennis Ho of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners confirmed that 5468796 displayed a “well-considered use of elements to create rhythm and scale; not overdoing it.” www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuse­ action=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=22497 07/13­ canadian architect

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PLANT Architect wins EDRA Great Places Award.

PLANT Architect’s Ohio-based project Dublin Grounds of Remembrance is the recipient of the 2013 EDRA Great Places Award in the Place Design Award category. The Environmental Design Research Association recognized the work for its concern for human factors in the design of built environments, and for its connection between design research and practice.

The Dublin Grounds of Remembrance is a oneacre park that honours the service of veterans, and revitalizes the city’s heritage settlement.

The project eschews a traditional monument in favour of promoting the act of habitual walking and social gathering, reinforcing the journey of remembrance and creating new significance for the land. The team highlighted the existing site assets to create a unified vision and co­ herent identity, including integrating into the design the site’s preserved ravine and American revolutionary-era heritage cemetery. www.branchplant.com/landscape/Dublin.html Evergreen Brick Works design team honoured with CNU Charter Award.

The design team for Toronto’s Evergreen Brick

Works was recently honoured with a 2013 Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) Charter Award, regarded as the urban design industry’s preeminent global award for excellence. Team members include: Evergreen—a not-for-profit seeking to bring cities and nature together, DTAH, Diamond Schmitt Architects Inc., Claude Cormier + Associés, ERA Architects, Stantec Consulting, Halsall, AECOM, HFM, Turner & Townsend, Leber Rubes, Ferrucio Sardella, Trow, BA Consulting Group Ltd., and Eastern Construction.

The project transforms an abandoned industrial site in Toronto’s Don Valley into an environmentally themed community landmark that bridges the gap between nature and urban life. Fourteen of the historic factory buildings were restored—a collection of early 1900s brick structures and 1950s industrial sheds—focusing on adaptive reuse for year-round activities ranging from demonstration gardens to yoga lessons. In keeping with the site’s rich industrial heritage, the design approach was to use as many of the existing structural elements as possible. Jurors praised the project for its innovative reuse of a challeng­ing—but historic—built fabric. “The project respects the enterprising spirit and built legacy of the original industrial use while re-

sponding to environmental considerations and the need for gathering space within the larger community,” according to the jury remarks.

Evergreen Brick Works was one of only nine international projects given a 2013 Charter Award. Winning projects are recognized for their excellence in fulfilling and advancing the principles of the Charter of the New Urbanism, which defines the essential qualities of walkable, sustainable places from the regional scale down to the block and building.

Competitions SHADE International Lighting Design Competition.

Organized by STUFF (Studio for Transformative Urban Forms and Fields), SHADE is an international design competition open to all ages and backgrounds. The challenge of the competition is to design and make a light-shade prototype for a pendant light that is creative and innovative in its articulation of light, material and space. The competition will involve three stages: selection by jury, public exhibition, and sale. A team of international jurors will select a set of winning entries (up to 30) based on their merits. The se-

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lected entries will then be invited for an exhi­bi­ tion during the month of September/October for public viewing and experience. This will be concurrent with Winnipeg’s Nuit Blanche Festival, the Winnipeg Design Festival, and Manitoba Culture Days. During the exhibition, the shade prototypes will become available for online purchase by the public. The objective of the competition is to encourage design through making (all entries must be constructed), to celebrate and acknowledge innovative ideas and talents (no background or experience is needed), and to disseminate design into the everyday environment (public consumption/acknowledgement is an integral part of the competition). July 31, 2013 is the registration deadline, followed by a submission deadline of August 15, 2013. http://shade.stuffgroup.net/download/SHADE-briefsm.pdf

What’s New GianPiero Moretti announced as the new Director of the School of Architecture at Laval University.

GianPiero Moretti has been named the new Director of the School of Architecture at Laval

University. A graduate of the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy (Laurea in Architettura), Moretti also holds a Master of Architecture from Laval University and a PhD in Urban Planning from McGill University. He is an associate professor at the School of Architecture at Laval University, where he has taught architecture and urban design since 2003. His area of specialization is urban morphology and commercial developments, and his teaching focuses on residential design, landscape, abandoned areas, and contemporary public spaces. Moretti is also Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Suburbs (GIRBa). In addition to his academic activities, Moretti has practiced architecture with Anne Vallières since 1995 and has developed projects in Quebec, France and Italy. Notable work includes the redevelopment of the Îlot des Palais in Quebec (recipient of a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence in 2007), the Trabaldo Togna Factory in Italy, and the Lake Aylmer Cottage (recipient of a Prix MarcelParizeau from the Ordre des architectes du Québec in 2003). Moretti’s work has been widely disseminated through publications, confer­ in Canada, the United ences and exhibitionsB:9.25” States, France, Belgium, T:9”Italy and Sweden.

Three Canadian architecture firms featured in Atlas of the Unbuilt World exhibition.

This international exhibition for the 2013 London Festival of Architecture recently opened at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and show­ cases architectural models of future projects from around the globe by some of the most by exciting practices and emerging studios working today. The show provides a snapshot of the future of architecture hosting over 60 models from 40 countries: Canadian projects on display include the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Fifth Pavilion in Montreal by atelier TAG + Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architects in consortium; the Real-Time Control Building #3, a water-treatment facility in Edmonton by gh3; and Bond Tower, a corporate condominium tower in Winnipeg by 5468796 Architecture. The projects have been nominated by international experts including architects, academics, writers and representatives from London’s embassies and cultural institutes.

A series of events and workshops will accompany the exhibition, and an exhibition publication will examine the projects in depth and analyze the function, use and meaning of architectural models. http://backoftheenvelope.britishcouncil.org

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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! The first phase of a dramatic new building for Capilano University’s film school establishes a landmark presence on a picturesque North Vancouver campus.

Capilano University Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation, North Vancouver, British Columbia ARCHITECT Cannon Design TEXT Leslie Jen PHOTOS Dylan Durst and Ema Peter PROJECT

A small undergraduate-focused institution that was until 2008 a community college, Capilano University has occupied a modestly sized campus since the early 1970s in Lynnmour, North Vancouver. An assemblage of buildings aligns along a predominantly north-south axis, and many of these structures are showing their age, surprisingly impermanent in character—save for the substantial Henriquez and Partners16 canadian architect 07/13

designed library, completed in 1996.

But now, Cap U is enjoying the arrival of a bold newcomer, big and brash in the best possible way. Under the design direction of Andrew King—currently based in Montreal—the Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation was the result of a combined effort of three of Cannon’s offices—Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.

In 2009, the firm was commissioned to address Capilano’s need for an expanded facility to house its film and animation program, not surprising given the region’s thriving film industry and its reputation as Hollywood North.

Sited at the less populous north end of the campus, the Centre’s front elevation faces south

towards a greater concentration of buildings, while its back end orients itself to the dramatic mountains, adjacent to two sizeable parking lots. The entire project can be broken down into essentially two components: a solid hulking mass that is firmly entrenched in its site, and floating above it a long, transparent horizontal bar stretching west to east. This single grand gesture forms a gateway or portal into the campus—both symbolically and literally; beneath the hovering bar, a critical transportation hub for students and faculty has been established, and buses rumble in and out of the loop, collecting and depositing their passengers on their daily route.

Dylan Durst ABOVE A striking new addition to the Capilano University campus, the graphic and elongated form of the Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation suggests most obviously a filmstrip, but the architecture employs a variety of cinematic devices.

The building’s long, low exaggerated horizontal form takes advantage of the topographical richness of the campus’s thickly forested slope and meandering pathways. Only very minimal site manipulation was required to accommodate for the core program requirement of the massive three-storey black-box sound stage, which firmly anchors the building to the site. Additionally, a highly articulated exterior stair from the lowest level leads to the generous entrance platform of the building’s main entrance—all part of the south-facing courtyard that was sculpted from

the slope, providing vital outdoor public space to students, faculty and visitors. At present, the courtyard is less defined than it will be when the project’s second phase is realized; a three-storey volume tucked beneath the glazed bar will run on a perpendicular axis, creating a roughly cruciform plan upon completion.

Curiosity is immediately piqued upon approach, as an extended band of glazing on the lowest level of the promenade reveals wardrobe functions taking place. Enticing views of students toiling away at their sewing machines,

bolts of rich fabric unfurling, and ornate costumes hanging on dressmaker’s dummies provide an insider’s view of just one aspect of how behind-the-scenes film magic is made. Though not immediately visible, the big messy work happens on this level, too: carpentry, painting, sets, storage, mechanical functions and of course, the sound stage.

One floor up on the main level, the entrance foyer/lounge opens up to one of the project’s key spaces—a big, dramatic theatre, whose plush red seats evoke the tradition and glamour of the 07/13­ canadian architect

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Ema Peter

Ema Peter

Ema Peter

Ema Peter

ABOVE Hovering ominously, the dark zinc-clad cantilevered bar is a powerful formal gesture and an undeniable landmark on the university campus. BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT In contrast to a fairly monochromatic material palette, red walls in the stairwell deliver cine­ matic punch; a view of the south elevation reveals the verdant slope in which the building is nestled; dressmaker’s dummies on the polished concrete floor of the lowest-level corridor offer a clue about the costuming functions taking place.

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cinematic world. The space enables students to study film as precedent, and also provides a suitably grand environment for them to screen their own work. Studios for sound mixing and effects are housed on this floor, as are rooms for hair and makeup. A film library, faculty offices and administrative functions comprise the majority of the third level.

And then, the Film Centre’s soaring moment: the defining formal gesture of the project—the elongated cantilevered bar measuring 120 metres in length that is comprised of classrooms, labs and other student-focused spaces. Essentially a massive glazed truss, the bar’s ends and underbelly are smoothly and elegantly wrapped in black zinc panels. Conversely, its long elevations are completely transparent to allow daylight to illuminate every space on the entire floor while capturing expansive views of the campus and city to the south and mountainous terrain to the north. Visible through the seemingly endless walls of glazing, the diagonal steel structural elements form a rhythmic façade. A great deal of time and effort was dedicated to detailing the curtain wall to ensure a clean and untainted elevation, free of any spandrel panels. Because, according to King, the scheme is all about privileging the truss: “Transparency is key because it is important to get the reading of the truss, so the glazing is pushed right to the very edge of the curtain wall.”

Not to be overlooked are the two concrete vertical shafts that support the eastern end of the bar. One contains mechanical and electrical functions, and the other a stairwell as a means of egress from the topmost floor. The stair tower itself is an enticing and iconic feature, and is fully glazed on one side to reveal movement within and interior walls that are painted a vibrant red. At night, with the benefit of illumination, the stair provides cinematic punch with its arresting vermilion glow.

As one might expect, more dramatic episodes are rife in the Film Centre. Driven by King’s fascination with the interface between film and architecture, a variety of cinematic devices have been employed that explore concepts of framing, voyeurism and movement. Most obviously, the cantilevered bar resembles at macro scale a filmstrip, a sequential frame by frame of various scenes taking place. The open transparency show­ cases the students and faculty inhabiting the classrooms and labs on this floor—whose activities provide a filmic event to be enjoyed by passersby.

The open gateway to the campus created by the building’s unusual form operates as a metaphor for frame and aperture on a large scale, while this notion is further explored in a series of smaller gestures throughout the Film Centre. Windows overlook the sound stage from the third-floor offices, promoting viewing of and engagement with sets being prepped and scenes being shot, while a blind-controlled opening is cut into the wall of the linear stair running alongside the double-height theatre to permit surreptitious and voyeuristic glimpses of the screen and audience. The theatre

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Ema Peter

Dylan Durst ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT A poetic moment is achieved with stainless steel signage applied to translucent glass panels, contrasting beauti­ fully with the textured concrete wall behind; the theatre/auditorium provides a starkly minimal yet luxurious space for students to screen their films. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT A glimpse from the corridor into the massive triple-height sound stage which anchors the building to the site; the main-floor entry and lounge reveals the presence of Douglas fir, a familiar West Coast material choice.

and interwoven spaces encourage the perception of cinematic scenes.

While the Film Centre is unquestionably a dynamic and inspiring addition to the Capilano campus, there is something not quite articulated in the finished building that was present in the seductive renderings which helped net the project a 2010 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence. Perhaps it’s not possible to achieve in real life the sublime monochromatic purity of form and line inherent in an exquisitely crafted rendering, or maybe it’s just the perpetual challenge of increasingly constrained budgets that begin to erode the integrity of these tough institutional projects. But hope remains that its promise may yet be fulfilled when Phase 2 is undertaken, where the assertive geometries of

intersecting and overlapping axes become apparent and the entirety of the scheme is finally realized. CA

CLIENT Bill Thumm, Director, Film Centre, Capilano University ARCHITECT TEAM Andrew King, James Wu, Jorge Remolina, Marion LaRue, Larry Podhora, Winston Chong, Dave Reeves, Vincent Yen, Jon-Scott Kohli, Orest Klufas, Jennifer Beagan, Wil Wiens, Greg Fenske, Paul Hunter, David Hewko, Zsofi Schvan-Ritecz STRUCTURAL Equilibrium Consulting (Eric Karsh) MECHANICAL Aerius Engineering (Geoff McDonell) ELECTRICAL MMM Group (Andrew Tashiro) CIVIL Delcan (Colin Kristiansen) LANDSCAPE PWL Partnership (Chris Sterry) INTERIORS Cannon Design BUILDING ENVELOPE CONSULTANT Morrison Hershfield Ltd. GEOTECHNICAL Horizon (Troy Issigonis) CODE CONSULTANT BTY (Toby Mallinder, Ellis Pang) Acoustic CONSULTANT BKL Consultants Ltd. A/V EQUIPMENT CONSULTANT McSquared System Design Group, Inc. CONTRACTOR Ledcor AREA 97,000 ft2 BUDGET $35 M COMPLETION January 2012

Ema Peter

Ema Peter

was deliberately designed not to be a sealed black box, and aperture is further evident in the full wall of doors—which, when flung open, provide a significant degree of porosity. The flickering projected images on the screen are visible not only to those loitering about in the Film Centre’s fully glazed front lounge space, but to those beyond the limits of the building itself.

Appropriating the language of film and the camera’s panning shots of sweeping vistas and action scenes, the design strategy manifests a sense of movement and temporal sequence.

Long and protracted looping circulatory paths in the form of corridors, bridges, promenades and stairs emphasize the linearity of sequential movement and provide near and distant perspectives at all times. Additionally, overlapping

20 canadian architect 07/13

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2013-02-08 4:47 PM

Cuisin-Art

An outdoor music festival’s first permanent building treads lightly by employing reclaimed materials and an open, tent-like plan.

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Project La Cuisine backstage kitchen & Site office, Bird’s Hill Provincial Park, Manitoba Architect Syverson Monteyne Architecture Text Brent Bellamy Photos Syverson Monteyne Architecture unless otherwise noted

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Just outside Winnipeg, a tranquil prairie meadow stretches along the eastern edge of Bird’s Hill Provincial Park. Enclosed by the ragged silhouette of a bur oak forest, small springtime flowers pepper its landscape. Its yellow grasses sway in the wind while nervous groundhogs cause the only sporadic bursts of activity.

Every July for the past 40 years, this pastoral scene explodes into a fiveday kaleidoscope of colour and sound, becoming the site of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, one of North America’s largest outdoor music celebrations.

As the festival gates open, thousands rush to claim their favourite piece of real estate near the main stage. Squatter’s rights are established by laying out colourful polyethylene tarps which soon create a patchwork of blue, red and orange stretching across the forest clearing like a giant woven tapestry. Depending on the weather, people spend the day with sunburnt faces or covered to their knees in mud, or sometimes both. They dance, they sing, or they just sit and listen as music fills the summer air.

When the sun sets along that razor-sharp Prairie horizon, the 180-degree sky transforms into a dome of brilliant colour and the festival takes on a renewed intensity.

For many, the Winnipeg Folk Festival is a rite of the fleeting Manitoba summer. Its sprawling meadow has become a sacred place. Year after year people sit beneath the same tree or on the same patch of grass, beside the same friends. They bring their newborn children who return each year a little taller and a little older.

In 2008, the festival organizers approached Syverson Monteyne Architecture with the challenge of designing the first permanent structure to

Above Clad with a colourful patchwork of corrugated metal and translucent polycarbonate panels, La Cuisine backstage kitchen and a companion site office were created mainly from reclaimed materials. BOTTOM During the week-long folk festival, the backstage kitchen serves 10,000 meals a day. The structure provides festival-goers with welcome respite from sun and rain.

inhabit this hallowed ground. Known as La Cuisine, the building was envisioned as an anonymous storage shed for 360 days a year, that during the festival would blossom into a social hub and kitchen facility capable of preparing 10,000 meals a day, feeding what becomes Manitoba’s thirdlargest city for the week.

The festival owns several large and valuable tents that for many years have been unceremoniously packed away in old shipping containers after

the event. With its high, unobstructed space, La Cuisine would at long last provide the opportunity to properly hang-dry, clean and securely store the tents throughout the year.

Six weeks before the crowds rush in, La Cuisine starts its transformation into the festival nucleus as volunteers descend upon the building to begin unpacking tents and supplies, using it as a base and staging area during the set-up period. As the event draws near, the kitchen crew

07/13­ canadian architect

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Above The high open space allows for passive lighting and ventilation. The roof is sloped to encourage air movement, with perfor­ ations in the top of the porch-facing wall. Opposite left Decommissioned cedar hydro poles were sourced for the porch support structure. Opposite right For the Verandah’s floor, the designers milled and dried local oak trees that would have otherwise been landfilled. The tall volume provides space for hang-drying tents after the festival.

arrives and installs a collection of cylindrical steel homemade ovens in preparation for the invasion to come.

To ease the cultural transition from cooking beneath open tents to a permanent facility, La Cuisine emulates the feel and function of the earlier temporary structures. Panels are removed and the walls of the building slide open to allow full natural cross-ventilation and filtered light through a large, open floor area. The overall spatial experience is similar to that of the tents that had been used for so many years previous.

In introducing the festival’s first permanent building, Syverson Monteyne took the opportunity to organize the backstage area of the grounds.

The designers reconfigured the site to optimize vehicular circulation, improve site drainage, and create a clear distinction between back-ofhouse and performance zones.

During the festival, La Cuisine is surrounded by a series of temporary tents that form a pedestrian piazza. The building engages this gathering zone with a long, narrow open space that runs the length of its front

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façade. Initially designed in response to the programmatic requirement for high open areas to hang-dry festival tents, the colonnade quickly evolved into a social focal point. Known as the Verandah, in reference to the residential front porches that characterize Winnipeg’s many treelined neighbourhoods, it serves as a key arrival point and meeting spot, a backstage hangout, an impromptu music platform and a place to find shelter when the inevitable rains come.

The Verandah’s thoughtful external expression has become a symbol of the festival itself. Clad in a mosaic of corrugated metal and translucent polycarbonate panels, the main façade mimics the familiar colours and patchwork expression of the tarps laid in front of the main stage. The translucent panels filter light into the building, furthering its tent-like experience. At night, the building transforms into a lantern, allowing festival-goers to safely navigate the grounds.

In keeping with its sustainability agenda, the festival organization challenged the architects to make La Cuisine as environmentally responsible as possible. To achieve this, upon completion of the schematic design phase, with building massing, functional relationships and overall expression defined, the design team set out to source recycled materials for construction.

A pre-engineered steel frame was thought appropriate to create a longspan, high-volume structure. The designers located a partially demolished building, and with a short window of opportunity, measured and modelled each structural component. They then laid out the kit of parts and rearranged the building blocks to establish the general volume that they envisioned during schematic design. After deeming the solution appropriate, the building was purchased, disassembled and moved to its new location. All modifications to the reconfigured superstructure were done on site with little added steel and no wasted material.

From the ground up, the building treads lightly. All columns, including

the reclaimed hydro poles that support the Verandah, bolt directly to helical ground anchors. No concrete is used and the entire structure may be disassembled and relocated if required.

Each reclaimed material used to create La Cuisine is imbibed with a spirit of place that reflects the essence of the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Wood flooring milled from local oak trees, weathered hydro poles that once stood defiantly on the harsh Prairie landscape, the rust and peeling paint of the steel frame: each tells its own narrative, each has its own history. Composed together, these materials saturate the building with a depth of character that is much like the music so many thousands of people make the annual pilgrimage to hear.

When Syverson Monteyne Architecture began the La Cuisine project, they were faced with an apprehension towards change from those who cared deeply about the traditions and character of their place. Through a sensitive use of materials, a familiar spatial experience and well-considered functional planning, the final result resonates with the festival community. Today, they embrace La Cuisine as a beloved addition to the Winnipeg Folk Festival family, and as a central platform on which to construct new traditions and memories. CA Brent Bellamy is an architect with Number Ten Architectural Group and is a regularly featured architecture and urban design columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Client Winnipeg Folk Festival Architect Team Tom Monteyne, Fletcher Noonan Structural Wolfrom Engineering Mechanical/electrical/civil KGS Group Landscape Hilderman Thomas Frank & Cram Landscape Architecture and Planning Contractor Milestone Project Management Area 6,000 ft2 Budget $400,000 Completion 2012

07/13­ canadian architect

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Soweto Striker

Extending the legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a contemporary soccer training centre acts as a catalyst for urban revitalization.

Nike Football Training Centre, Soweto, South Africa RUFproject with DesignSpaceAfrica ˇ Text Guy Trangos Photos Julian Abrams unless otherwise noted Project

DESIGNERs

In late 2009, the global sportswear brand Nike embarked on an ambitious six-month project to rebuild a functional but dilapidated iconic football club in Soweto, Johannesburg. In order to complete the project with a very tight deadline—the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup—Nike employed the design skill of Canada-based RUFproject and its principal Sean Pearson, who had worked previously for Nike as a brand design director. A local professional team led by project management company SIP, supported by South African architecture firm DesignSpaceAfrica, was instrumental in implementing the project.

The Nike Football Training Centre was realized at a landmark moment for South Africa. The nation was on the cusp of hosting one of the world’s biggest sporting events. In the lead-up to the World Cup, South Africans rallied together in an unusual show of unity. Buildings were wrapped in South African flags and almost every car on the road was adorned with some form of national insignia. Enormous public transport infrastructure projects were being completed, tickets sold and vuvuzela-blowing skills sharpened. Football—soccer to North Americans—is South Africa’s leading sport in terms of supporter numbers and players, and nowhere heaved with more activity than Soweto, the country’s football capital 26 canadian architect 07/13

and the site of the Soccer City Stadium that would form the nucleus of the Cup. The World Cup was much more than a festival of sport for South Africa.

Organizers and residents saw the event as marking South Africa’s achievements 16 years into democracy. Johannesburg identified an opportunity to spark investment in Soweto and better unite it to the city’s urban centre. This would begin to correct entrenched socio-spatial inequalities that resulted from decades of segregation-based urban policy.

A key component of apartheid planning, inspired by rapid global suburbanization in the 1950s, was the creation of white suburbs and black townships. Both low-density models were easy to roll out across Johan­nes­ burg’s peripheral grassy plains, instilling an anti-urban culture of onehouse-one-plot that still permeates today. The growth of these two typologies eased control and segregation. Freeways, mine dumps, industrial belts and railway lines were designed to form significant physical barriers between the largely white suburbs with their commercial centres, and the black townships, enforcing damaging social, cultural and linguistic divides.

The apartheid planning of Soweto, South Africa’s largest township to the southwest of downtown Johannesburg, was guided by policies of underdevelopment. Soweto was deliberately established without any true economic centres, few public and social amenities, and very limited transportation connectivity to urban zones. Apartheid segregation took its toll on generations of black South Africans, entrenching communities in decades of poverty and dependency. The area became well-known as a site of uprising and protest against the nationalist government. Religion, sport and traditional culture became outlets for residents to in turn live, reflect on, escape and challenge their circumstances.

Soweto today feels remarkably different than the depressed, pre-

democracy township. An improved Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, a new minibus taxi interchange, the iconic Soccer City Stadium, a new theatre, and a gleaming university campus contrast with the compressed social-housing units and informal fabric of old. Despite essential public and private investment, however, parts of Soweto remain impoverished and without access to opportunity.

Most of the latest development has centred around Soweto’s main thoroughfare, Old Potchefstroom Road. Here, the discreet yet iconic Nike Football Training Centre stands within a few hundred metres of a new glass-domed shopping mall. Nike chose Soweto for its game-changing facility because it identified an opportunity to empower the township through football and social development. A run-down administration building, change room and public washroom previously occupied the site, while two dust patches with significant drainage issues served as playing fields. Nike took their brief much further than simply improving these facilities. During conceptual development, the architect and Nike’s local and international offices imagined a multi-faceted community sports centre premised on innovation and motivation, equal to or better than developed-world counterparts. The final built project remains true to this vision.

Initial concepts for the building were centred on the user experience.

The journey a young footballer would take from the street through the centre and onto the field became the primary organizational device, with clear spatial thresholds marked by inspirational quotes and imagery. The building’s users—currently some 20,000 young club members and social footballers from the surrounding community—are clearly the focus of the building, and their sporting and personal development directly informed the design of the centre. “We determined early on that the facility should have at its heart the spirit, passion and vibrancy of Soweto,” notes lead

Opposite The architecturally polished Nike Football Training Centre is a world-class athletic facility and community hub for an underprivileged area of Johannesburg. Top left The north stairway leads to a rooftop viewing terrace. Generous landings accommodate spectator surges, while a wrap-around screen mediates between indoors and outdoors. Above, top to bottom Soccer players enter the complex through a woven chain-link fence, designed by local artist Kronk and produced

by Dutch firm Lace Fence; The courtyard between the changeroom block and the main building, with the tunnel entrance adjacent; a triumphal entry through the stadium-like tunnel onto the playing field.

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Wieland Gleich

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Opposite, TOP TO BOTTOM A wood-and-aluminum screen unites the building façade and produces a strong graphic identity; the training centre introduces a relatively dense urban volume into a low-rise fabric. Clockwise from top left The vibrant interior includes football memorabilia and internet-connected computers; lockers interspersed with plaster casts of famous players’ feet; The counter for borrowing athletic shoes; each change room is themed after a different football club, and this one pays homage to Turin-based Juventus.

designer Pearson. “Most importantly, it should be a modern, in­spirational facility that contributes to current and future footballers in Soweto.”

The notion of inspiration was central to Nike’s approach, and is front and centre in the building. Upon entering the timber-screened clubhouse, visitors are immediately confronted with carefully curated football icons and memorabilia: signed jerseys and balls, plaster casts of famous footballers’ feet, photomontages, and posters describing top techniques.

A large room for team strategy discussions sits next to a football jerseyprinting facility, and a series of computers has been set up to advance players’ skills through simulation and technique-improving software.

The north, east and west façades of the steel-framed clubhouse are clad in a uniform timber screen, which dramatically breaks step towards the northwest corner, slanting at 45 degrees. This graphically strong shift provides the framework to support a series of aluminum angle segments, arranged to spell SOWETO. The screen shields the interior from harsh sunlight while defending its large glass windows from misdirected balls.

A rectilinear opening in the wood screen, protected by a graphic filigree of woven chain-link fencing, provides a clear view of the facility’s two FIFA-accredited artificial turfs, as well as training fields packed with young footballers stretching, running laps, dribbling through cones and shooting at the goals.

For the local young footballer, the facility allows for an effortless flow between entrance, change rooms and the fields. Most athletes bypass the main clubhouse building, which is reserved mainly for event days, and head straight to the green change-room block, passing through an intricately crafted security fence. Designed by Johannesburg-based artist Kronk, the fence’s live-action frieze of a footballer flying through the air creates an atmosphere of anticipation. Inside, small change rooms are each themed after a different Nike-sponsored club. Here, halftime tactics and fulltime festivities (or frustrations) take place in the presence of insignia from some of the best teams in South Africa and the world.

Leaving the change rooms, young players descend an outdoor ramp that carves its way under the main clubhouse and angles directly at the field.

The successful re-creation of a stadium tunnel complete with the words ”No Excuses” at the threshold of the exit ensures a high-energy sprint onto the field, as footballers launch into the full view of spectators— cheering from the clubhouse, the stands, and from the other side of the see-through boundary fence.

Along with the tunnel, an array of field-side services are positioned under the main clubhouse. These include a gym, a medical suite and a bowling-alley-style shoe exchange for those without suitable footwear.

The centre also hosts not-for-profit organization Grassroots Soccer, 07/13­ canadian architect

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Client Nike Inc. Design Team Sean Pearson (RUF), Luyanda Mpahlwa (DesignSpaceAfrica), Andy Walker (Nike) Project Management Lynette Mollet (Nike South Africa) and SIP Project Managers Ltd. Structural AKI Consulting Engineers Mechanical/Electrical Spoormaker & Partners Interiors RUFproject and Nike Global Football Brand Design Contractor Rainbow Construction Interior Contractor Umdasch Shop-Concept Ltd. Graphics Grid Worldwide Branding & Design Area 1,300 m2 (main building); 54,000 m2 (site) Budget $10 M Completion June 2010

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whose programs include access to voluntary HIV/AIDS testing in conjunction with health and education support functions. Such services hint at the vital social role the centre plays within the community.

Achieving this degree of iconic simplicity and contextual responsiveness is not an easy task for an international team with a very tight deadline. A flexible approach to working on the project allowed fluid collaboration between the architects in Western Canada, Nike’s global brand design team in the Netherlands and the on-site team in South Africa. Pearson describes how the time differences offered a 24-hour working day. “We would brief in at night, and wake up in the morning to see the response from the local teams in South Africa—and then comment at night,” he recalls. “As such, the project could move at a pace that would normally not be possible.”

It is perhaps the multiple authors, influences and outcomes of this fast-track project that produced a nuanced building as connected to its surrounding community as it is to Nike’s global network. Soweto could have easily been saddled with a slick acontextual form, an overtly selfreferential and bland historic pastiche, or a brashly branded Nike palace.

Instead, the building negotiates these influences, and in so doing is calmly iconic, plugged into the surrounding sprawling residential fabric of Soweto, and rooted in society.

Possibilities for a single building to correct the wrongs of an almost halfcentury of apartheid planning are limited. However, well-intentioned, considered and critical design has the ability to realign both cities and communities. Through designing a building that aims to uplift society in addition to training footballers, the centre becomes a community icon.

Through designing a high-tech structure in an underdeveloped neighbourhood, the centre is seen as a community asset. Finally, through designing a partnership between the building’s users, Nike and the Johannesburg City Council and football associations, the facility’s future is secured.

Here, small-scale architecture produces maximum impact by building on key relationships and socially minded decisions. The accretion of similar—if not necessarily sports-based—projects in Soweto may catalyze a far greater revitalization of the entire area. International architects, organizations and governments might take note of this success story, seeking to collaborate more with their South African counterparts and thus take part in positively and sensitively shaping the slowly changing post-apartheid landscape. CA Guy Trangosˇ is a researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, a partnership of the University of Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand, Gauteng provincial government, and organized local government. As a professional architect with a degree in City Design and Social Sciences from the LSE, he writes and researches on both architecture and urbanism.

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Practice

Tom Arban

Unequal Shares Toronto’s $1.2-billion Bridgepoint Hospital is an example of recent insti­ tutional construction, the largest sector for architectural billings. The building design team includes Stantec Architecture/KPMB Architects as Planning, Design and Compliance Architects, and HDR Architecture/Diamond Schmitt Architects as Design, Build, Finance and Maintain Architects.

LEFT

In the United States, architecture has gone through a boom-and-bust cycle in the past decade, while Canada has seen steady stable growth. Examining billings by construction sector reveals why.

Text

Adrian Lightstone

Over the past decade, growth trends in the Cana­dian and US markets for architectural services have differed significantly. This has well-known effects in the day-to-day operations of Canadian firms—one observes, for instance, an influx of CVs from American architects seeking employment, and the avid acquisition of Cana­dian firms by US-based entities. Examining architectural billing and construction figures allows us to better understand the bigger picture.

According to Statistics Canada, Canadian architectural revenues nearly doubled from $1.8 billion in 2002 to $3.1 billion in 2011. Billings grew sharply from 2006 through 2008, while only a modest contraction of 2.5% occurred with the financial crisis in 2009, driven by a drop in residential construction. Over the entire period, the compound annual growth rate was a respectable 6.2%.

By contrast, billings in the US over the same decade grew from $25.2 billion to $26.0 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 0.3%—far less than inflation. What’s more, these numbers conceal the volatile market for architectural services south of the border during this period. In 2008, US architectural billings peaked at $44.0 billion. Since the economic downturn, architecture firms in the

2002-2011 Total Change in Architectural Billings by Sector 100%

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US have seen billings dramatically decline.1 What has allowed the architecture industry in one country to sustainably expand over a decade while the other country has experienced a boom-and-bust cycle? It has to do with what each country is building and the strength of the component construction sectors.

Architectural billings in Canada in 2011 were split 23% residential, 32% commercial, 41% institutional and 4% other.2 Over the last 10 years, the breakdown between sectors has remained more or less stable at these levels. South of the border, the individual sectors show greater variability. At the peak of US housing construction in 2005, architectural billings divided up 18% residential, 33% commercial and 49% institutional. By comparison, in 2011 they were split 14% residential, 28% commercial and 58% institutional.3 This shift reflects a steep decline in demand for new homes and businesses as the US reeled from mortgage defaults: from 20022011, total US residential and commercial construction spending decreased by 38% and 8% respectively. The US became more reliant on government-funded institutional projects—the 2009 stimulus package included $4.2 billion to repair and modernize Defense Department facilities, $890 million to improve housing for service members, and $750 million for federal buildings and courthouses—resulting in an increased share of institutional construction spending and a related rise of architectural billings in that sector.

Despite the mid-2000s boom in residential construction stateside, Canada’s share of residential construction has consistently outpaced that of the US. At its peak, residential construction in the US represented 63% of total construction spending, declining to a low of 38% in 2009. In Canada, single- and multi-family homes represent some 70% of current construction, and roughly a quarter of Canadian architectural billings are derived from the residential market. Canadian architectural firms have benefited from continued growth in the resi-

Cassandra Pollack

Construction Spending by Sector, 2011 100,000

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17%

44% 70%

$ Millions (CAD)

Canada

Canada Construction Spending by Sector

23%

50,000

10,000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Architectural Billings by Sector, 2011

US Construction Spending by Sector 700,000

58%

28%

32% 4%

350,000

100,000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Residential

Commercial

Institutional

dential sector as hundreds of new condos reshape skylines in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Firms should, however, be conscious of the heavy reliance on this sector, particularly as market observers including the Bank of Canada show concern that high-rise construction may be outstripping demand.

Commercial construction in both Canada and the US has been in decline since the pre-financial crisis peak. In Canada, total commercial construction has dropped 12% from $26.8 billion in 2008 to $23.6 billion in 2011.4 In the US, total commercial construction has dropped 47% from $243.8 billion in 2008 to $129.3 billion in 2011.5 This indicates developers have been shifting away from commercial construction since the financial crisis.

By far the largest sector in both countries in terms of architectural billings is institutional work—including health care, entertainment, recreational, cultural, educational and transportation facilities. Roughly 40% of architec-

Other

Residential

tural billings in Canada are institutional. In the US, the institutional share is currently even larger, at almost 60% of total architectural billings in 2011—a marked increase from 49% during the residential construction boom in 2005.

Spending on institutional buildings is largely driven by government, particularly in Canada where health care represents roughly a quarter of institutional construction spending. Visible examples in this sector include two megahospitals in Montreal, Bridgepoint Health and Humber River Regional Hospital in Toronto, and the massive Calgary South Health Campus.

On both sides of the border, owners and developers have attempted to reduce design and construction costs by tightening design fees and construction bid prices. This has hit exceptionally hard in the US, where, combined with the construction downturn, architecture billings have dropped by 40% since 2008.6 As a result, US architecture firms have cut payroll employment by over a third. In order to mitigate the

Commercial

Institutional

decline in billings, US architecture firms are increasingly looking to increase market share through growth into international markets such as Canada. The continued steady growth of architectural work in Canada will be contingent on the long-term stability of Canada’s construction sector. CA Adrian Lightstone is a Toronto-based economist with HDR Decision Economics. HDR Inc. also includes HDR Architecture, a global firm with offices in both the US and Canada.

1 T he American Institute of Architects, 2012 AIA Firm

Survey; US Census Bureau EC0700CCOMP1.

2 Statistics Canada, Service Bulletin: Architectural Ser-

vices, Catalogue no. 63-245-X.

3 T he American Institute of Architects, 2012 AIA Firm

Survey.

4 Statistics Canada, Capital Expenditures on Construc-

tion, Table 029-0040.

5 United States Census Bureau, 2012.

6 T he American Institute of Architects, 2012 AIA Firm

Survey.

07/13­ canadian architect

33

Cassandra Pollack

41%

$ Millions (USD)

14%

23%

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Calendar Dissections

June 6-August 11, 2013 This exhi­bi­tion at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal brings together several works by Vancouver-based artist Geoffrey Smedley and reflects on many disciplines such as the history of science, geometry, philosophy and architecture. www.cca.qc.ca The Playground Project

June 10-August 11, 2013 The Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh presents some of the most outstanding and influential playgrounds from Europe, the US and Japan from the mid-to-late 20th century in order to prompt a reconsideration of our own time and the way we approach childhood, risk, public space and education. http://ci13.cmoa.org/playground Architecture de l’Ombre

June 15-November 15, 2013 The recent work of established architectural

photographer Alain Laforest will be on show at the Maison de l’Archi­ tecture du Québec in Montreal. www.maisondelarchitecture.ca New Views: The Rendered Image in Architecture

June 15, 2013-January 5, 2014 The Art Institute of Chicago features 60 images from an international group of architects and design studios that serve as case studies for the issues that arise from the thriving practice of digital rendering. www.artic.edu/exhibition/new-viewsrendered-image-architecture Touch Wood

June 20-September 30, 2013 This exhibition at the Van­D usen Botanical Garden in Vancouver features more than two dozen wood sculptures and installations by prominent BC artists such as Brent Comber, Martha Varcoe Sturdy, Michael Dennis and Alastair Heseltine. www.duthiegallery.com/touch-woodat-vandusen-garden/

Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art

June 22-September 3, 2013 This exhi­bi­ tion at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto features the work of over 50 Cana­dian and international artists and writers, exploring the place of language with­in contemporary art and broadly examining its relationship to history. www.thepowerplant.org

AIBC Walking Tours

July 2-August 31, 2013 This summer, the Architectural Institute of British Columbia offers an extensive program of six distinct walking tours in both Vancouver and Victoria. Tours begin at 10:00am and 1:00pm, and they run 1.5 to 2 hours in length.

The cost for each tour is $10 per person. www.aibc.ca/pub_resources/aibc_outreach/architectural_walking_tour.html

AUTOnomous

June 22-September 8, 2013 This exhibition at Toronto’s York Quay Centre at Harbourfront features the work of Gauge, who have imagined three crises unfolding along the route of the Trans-Canada Highway: environmental disaster in Vancouver, civic conflict in Montreal, and economic downturn in Halifax. Through a series of scenarios, AUTOnomous explores the potential of our national supply of ready-made shelters. www.harbourfrontcentre.com/visualarts/2013/autonomous/

Street Meet: Saskatoon’s 1st Annual Street, Public and Graffiti Art Festival

July 5-7 2013 AKA artist-run centre presents this three-day summer festival celebrating new, contemporary public art through a series of artworks, workshops and discussions. www.akagallery.org For more information about these, and additional listings of Canadian and international events, please visit www.canadianarchitect.com

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BACKPAGE

Walking the Line

An ideas competition brings big-picture thinking to the redevelopment of a Toronto hydro corridor.

Text

Alex Bozikovic

Every so often a single project captures the zeitgeist of the design world, and for the past few years that role has belonged to the High Line.

That rail line-turned-park in New York, designed by James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Piet Oudolf, shows a concern for old infrastructure; it brings together nature and urbanism in an irregular semiplanned manner; and through its preservation and its plantings, it digs for ecological sensitivity. And it is now one of the most popular places in New York.

But it’s a one-off: it springs from a unique urban condition and the presence of enlightened billionaire neighbours. What does landscape urbanism look like in a regular ungentrified cityscape? One provocative answer comes with the Green Line, an ideas competition for a strip of leftover land in Toronto—a five-kilometre corridor under a set of electricity transmission lines on the edge of downtown. It runs alongside a rail line and near light industry, unpretty artists’ lofts, and 1980s infill housing that seems dropped in from the suburbs. It is a remnant. It needs help.

And local firm Workshop Architecture, whose office is a block away from the line, sees opportunity here. Principals Helena Grdadolnik and David Colussi identified the corridor as a contiguous area, and conducted the competition to 38 canadian architect 07/13

Above Swiss student Gabriel Wulf’s winning design envisions the Green Line as a cycling and pedestrian artery threading together different Toronto neighbourhoods.

solicit new ideas for it—not to be built, but purely as prods for new discussion. Given the current, unsuccessful mishmash of uses here (small parks, community gardens, parking lots), they believe that a big idea would be valuable. It would also form a prototype for a few other corridors across Toronto.

There are two winning proposals: one for a road crossing, won by Toronto’s Brown and Storey, and one for the area as a whole, designed by a student at ETH in Zurich, Gabriel Wulf. The Brown and Storey proposal addresses an awkward point where the Green Line and the gradelevel railroad tracks cross a road underpass; they’ve solved this with an elevated platform, linked to adjacent plazas with a café and sandwiched between two bold, super-scaled façades.

It is part infrastructure, part icon, part public space. The larger plan by Wulf is much more modest in its aspirations. It reimagines the corridor with a loosely organized array of community gardens and a few simple public spaces, artfully composed around a continuous cycle and pedestrian path. It is well conceived and would be relatively inexpensive to build.

And yet even Wulf’s modest proposal is unlikely to happen. The corridor is owned by the Ontario power utility, with leases to the city and other parties. To address it as a whole would take political resolve and some funds. These are in short supply here, since Toronto—the post1990s “megacity,” prosperous, huge, but short

on public spending—does a minimal job of maintaining its parks. A few good new parks have been built in the past decade, including Claude Cormier’s Sugar Beach and the new Corktown Common led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. But those two are the products of government-led waterfront regeneration, funded by the proceeds of new development.

In neighbourhoods where condos are not being built, including the largely working-class precincts near the Green Line, such projects begin at a disadvantage.

In this context, the Green Line competition— which identifies a need and solicits realistic but bold solutions—offers a crucial ingredient: vision. This is what the current fashion for “tactical urbanism” is often missing. Activists can make quick impact by turning a parking space into a park. But permanent city-shifting change—like the kind delivered by the High Line—requires foresight and forethought. This is where enterprising designers can, like Grdadolnik and Colussi, make themselves invaluable, by asking the questions that nobody else is asking. CA Alex Bozikovic is an editor at The Globe and Mail and a journalist and critic on design. He writes the blog nomeancity.net.

All of the competition entries may be viewed at www.greenlinetoronto.ca.

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