Jon Ackerley - Portfolio

jon ackerley architecture portfolio

UBC SALA masters of architecture

jon ackerley

jgackerl@gmail.com masters of architecture

education

September 2019 - May 2022

September 2014 - April 2019

August 2018

employment + teaching

Masters of Architecture University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC

Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Planning, Co-op) University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

Aalto University - IFHP Urban Design Summer School Helsinki, Finland

Student Researcher - UBC SALA HiLo Lab, Vancouver BC May 2020 - Present

Designed a pavilion using innovative wood technology, generated images for HiLo’s Venice Biennale submission, and established UBC SALA’s online teaching environment during COVID

Architecture/Urban Design Intern - SvN Architects and Planners, Toronto, ON May - August 2019

Developed transit-oriented master plans for proposed transportation nodes across Toronto while assisting with representation and visualization for numerous projects

Teaching Assistant, Urban Design Studio, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON January - April 2019

Prepared lectures, provided feedback to students, and led discussions in the advanced urban design studio under Professor Karen Hammond

Architecture Co-op Student - Hilditch Architect Inc., Toronto, ON June - December 2018

Assisted with the schematic design for a neighbourhood healthcare hub, construction drawings for a women’s shelter in a historic building, and massing studies for a mid-size transitional housing development

Urban Design Co-op Student - Stantec Consulting, Toronto, ON September - December 2017/ January - April 2018

Produced drawings and physical models for wide array of transit, healthcare, and public realm projects in both the landscape and urban design departments

Planning Student - Region of Durham, Whitby, ON May - September 2016/ May - September 2015

Consulted with local business owners to develop a comprehensive economic profile of the Durham Region

Canadian Architect Student Award of Excellence May 2022

Architectural Institute of BC Medal, Vancouver, BC May 2022

ACSA 2022 Architectural Education Award (with HiLo Lab) February 2022

Venice Biennale Canadian Submission Shortlist (with HiLo Lab) January 2022

Dean’s Graduate Extra-Curricular Contributions Award, Vancouver, BC January 2022

January 2021

Fast+Epp ArchEng Design Competition, Vancouver, BC

• Third Prize

Arthur Hullah and Dorothy Cleveland Memorial Scholarship, Vancouver, BC December 2021

• Second Prize March 2019

October 2017

NCC Capital Riverfront Park Challenge, Ottawa, ON

NAIOP Under-30 Redevelopment Challenge, Toronto, ON

• Second Prize

Subindustria

Course: Graduate Project Advisor: Blair Satterfield

Awards: Canadian Architect Student Award Of Excellence

Suburbia has always been a product of industrial processes. The suburbs are made possible by sprawling systems of resource extraction, infrastructure, and shipping. The outputs of these systems are accumulated and assembled into recognizable symbols of suburban culture. But the industrial roots of suburbia are obscured by the separation between industry and other suburban typologies. Landscapes of production and landscapes of consumption are kept culturally

Programs used: Rhino, V-Ray, Illustrator, Photoshop

and physically distant. The result is a growing invisibility of industry and its role in suburban systems. This invisibility poses an existential threat; not only does it obscure the reality of suburban structures, but it also conceals the systematic devastation of the environment perpetrated by large-scale industrial activity. This is evident in Bowmavnille, Ontario, where a large industrial waterfront is separated from the from the communities it supports and impacts by an infrastructural buffer zone.

Suburbia Meets Subindustria

subindustria

st. marys cement plant

lake ontario darlington nuclear

highway 401

mycellium panels

farm facilities farm facilities

housing modules

central biomaterial processing facility

cement plant housing modules production to construction

hempcrete walls thatch roofs

subindustria

st. marys cement plant

darlington nuclear

lake ontario

Subindustria Site Plan and Extension Zones Underbelly Farming

Relaxing at the Pool

Subindustria residents live in superstructures, oriented around a central bio-material factory, located in-between the Bowmanville Cement Plant and Highway 401. This facility processes and returns the biomaterials harvested in the surrounding community. It draws in hemp, mushroom and thatch and transforms them into viable building materials, such as hempcrete and mycelium wall panels. The infrastructure and industrial systems that construct the house become a direct extension of it, resulting in one continuous system that blurs industry and domesticity.

All of Subindustria is elevated. By raising it off the ground, it refuses to engage with zoning by-laws or land-use policy. This upward shift also opens up large swaths of land underneath to be claimed by nature, enjoyed by the community, or used as productive agricultural land. Each superstructure module sits above a hemp field. It can roll to provide sunlight as needed, with a system of mirrors drawing in light throughout the day. Mushroom farms are located underneath the module’s street. People, resources and waste are transported to and from the module along a central spine, aligning flows of materials with flows of people.

The design of each house is a subversion of a typical Bowmavnmille form. It’s unique character merges bio-materials, suburban construction, and the celebration of mechanical systems. Each house has a series of flexible indooroutdoor rooms and verandas, clad in mycellium panels. The line between where the house ends and the machine begins becomes blurred.

houses

central spine (upper level)

backyard amenities

central spine (lower level)

mirror system

mushroom farm hemp fields ground access via elevator/ stairs

houses central spine (lower level)

mushroom farm hemp fields

mirror system

Automated Lawnmower

Automated BBQ

Indoor-Outdoor Space

Transparent Facade

Approach from Bosque

Zippered Shed

Work Completed for: HiLo Lab

Supervisor: Blair Satterfield

Awards: ACSA 2022 Architectural Education Award

The classes of 2020 and 2021 at UBC spent years apart due to pandemic. As a reflection on this experience and a celebration of coming back together, the Alma Mater Society proposed the construction of an Outdoor Space and Pavilion as their class gift. The organization enlisted members of HiLo Lab to help design and construct this project. The pavilion will be built using low-impact materials and novel fabrication and assembly strategies, including Zippered Wood. The design focuses

Programs used: Rhino, V-Ray, Illustrator

on responsive form, material reuse, and carbonneutral construction techniques. It will provide seating, cover, comfort, and basic infrastructure to accommodate outdoor student/faculty/ staff gathering for years to come. The project is sited in a bosque of trees that sits between the university library and student centres. In 2020, the bosque lost a red oak to disease. The pavilion will occupy the space left when that tree was removed.

Plan - Site

South-East Axonometric

East Elevation

South Elevation

West Elevation

North Elevation

1. Standard Zippered 2x4

2a. Zippered CLT - Core Layer

2b. Zippered CLT - Outer Layers

Zippered Stick

Zippered CLT Sheet

This pavilion employs HiLo's zippered wood technique, a novel material deformation technology that transforms straight dimensional lumber members into predictably curved elements. The process includes the development of custom software scripts that allow architects to design, fabricate, and integrate curved lumber elements into their designs.

The pavilion uses new and salvaged 2x4s to generate linear and planer structural components (columns and CLT). Zippering requires a digitally generated tooth pattern be cut into boards. When two modified boards are mated (or “zipped”), the prismatic teeth force incremental bends resulting in a predictably bent member. This is done without form-work, just pure geometry producing its own expression.

Zippered Wood process photos by Derek Mavis and Blair Satterfield

Forming Zippers

Pavilion Skin

2b. Zippered CLTOuter layers

Pavilion Outer Layers

Unearthing

Course: Comprehensive Studio I

Partner: Renata Kisin

Instructor:

Peeroj Thakre

This project balances a diverse group of programs - a community hall, a bathhouse, a restaurant, and a hotel - and weaves them together along a linear site. The building's form draws from the area's mining history. The bathhouse is contained with a large concrete mass - bulky chimneys jut into the wood structure above, drawing light onto the pools below. The building plays with moments of tension and release, gradually revealing the logic of this large excavated mass and its interactions with surrounding spaces.

Programs used: Rhino, Revit, V-Ray, Illustrator, Photoshop

Practice in the Community Hall

Britannia Beach

Section A-A

Steam Room Entrance Cafe Seating Area

Bathhouse

Section B-B

Pool-Side Path

Community Hall

River-Side Lobby

Emergence

The Materials Recovery Facility

Course: Vertical Studio 1

Professor: Blair Satterfield

Featured In: CASA Student Showcase 2021

A Materials Recovery Facility hangs above the entrance to City Hall-Broadway Subway Station in Vancouver. As commuters flow down into the station, it pulls any waste materials they create up into the facility. A vertical circulation system allows visitors to observe their waste being processed. The facility’s products - rectangular bales of recycled material - are displayed proudly in the plaza, serving as monuments to consumption before being shipped off for use in the production of plastic panels. These panels

serve as the skin of the facility. The result is a building that represents its users’ behaviours and evolves with their output. It places a crucial step in the recycling process at a transit node, by showing commuters the impact of their consumption choices. The MRF thereby aligns flows of people and flows of waste.

East Elevation

East Elevation (Skinless)

Viewing Platforms

1. Manual removal of non-recyclable objects 2. Cardboard filtered through screen 3. Second round of manual removal

Paper filtered through screen

Central optic sorter

Glass filtered out and crushed

filtered out

filtered out with magnet

materials

into bales

The Body

The Skin + The Wasteland

The Stomach

1st Floor

2nd Floor

3rd Floor

4th Floor

Looking into the stomach

Sourcing paper from locations on UBC campus

Arranging the negative space

Shredding and hand compressing paper

Planning it out

MRF Appendix: The Truffle Case Study

Course: Vertical Studio 1

Partner: Jeri Szeto

Professor: Blair Satterfield

This study of the Truffle by Ensamble Studio shrinks down their approach to architecture. A hole is dug in the ground, hay (or shredded paper) is arranged within the hole, and concrete is poured on top. The concrete is buried and is dug up again. Finally, a cow is brought in to eat out all the hay (unfortunately, we failed to locate any paper-hungry miniature cows). This project was a jumping off-point for the Materials Recovery Facility - a chance to study how waste can generate form.

Resonance

Course: Vertical Studio III

Instructor: Shirley Shen and Travis Hanks

This housing development uses materiality and public space to generate unique opportunities on a challenging site. The angled building forms along West 6th respond to the noise of the busy street and create gentle community entrances. Inside, this project proposes a series of interconnected public courtyards anchored by two larger performance spaces. It mixes market-rate housing with musician teaching spaces and subsidized artist lofts. The result is a development that explores the ways sound can connect residents and form community.

West 6th Avenue Entrance Programs used: Rhino, Enscape, Illustrator

unit 1 two bedroom 85 sq.m3

elevator/circulation

unit 3

unit 1 musician loft recital/community space

musician loft one bedroom 83 sq.m3

unit 2 two bedroom 83 sq.m.

unit 2 musician loft accessible unit teaching/community space

unit 3 two bedroom 92 sq.m.

Rooftop Gardens

Courtyard Passage

Substation Studio

Course: Communicating Construction

Instructor: Greg Johnson

Substation Studio is a small architectural practice occupying a renovated electrical substation. Substation Coffee, a small cafe located on the ground floor, serves employees and the public. Large bifolding doors feed into an open atrium space, allowing for flexibility of use across both programs. This course focused on drawing conventions and details, culminating in a drawing set for the renovation. It also explored how conventions could be pushed, broken, and mutated.

Post-Event Atrium

Section 1

West Elevation South Elevation

Late Friday at the Office

Entrance

The Lantern

Competition: Fast + Epp Outdoor Theatre

Collaborators: Patrick Mella, Massimo Pecoraro

Result: Second Runner-Up

Our entry to Fast+Epp’s Structural Design

Competition proposes a legible structure that leans into its simplicity. Rhythm, light, and programmatic flexibility are central to the Lantern’s design. This floating structure serves as an outdoor cinema, a gathering place, and a space to explore the ecology of Jericho Beach Park. It takes full advantage of its site, framing Jericho Park’s marshy pond as a backdrop for events. The interior’s polycarbonate panels paint the walls with the colours and movement

of Jericho Beach Park. A retractable screen offers a variety of programmatic options. When the screen is retracted, the dense marsh on the opposite shoreline becomes the focus of the space. When the screen is down, the space becomes an intimate theatre. From the outside, the polycarbonate panels pick up the glow of the movie’s lights, turning the structure into a floating lantern.

Programs used: Rhino, Enscape, Illustrator

In the Marsh

CLT lumber post

Detail

Welded stainless steel AISI 304 frame w/ flotation devices

Axos by Patrick Mella

Bottom plate w/ L angles welded to frame

Knife plate stainless steel connection

Morning at the Research Farm

Ontario Place: A Counterproposal

Course: Vertical Studio II

Partner: James Letkeman

Professor: James Huemoller

Our proposal for Ontario Place brings together the province's diverse landscapes and emphasize the systems that are so often pushed to Toronto’s periphery. By nestling concert venues and restaurants between biomass energy facilities and agricultural operations, we aimed to create something that blurs the line between rural and urban, infrastructure and recreation. In our counterproposal, Ontario Place blends these dichotomies into something singular.

We propose a series of interconnected systems that draw from and feed into the city. Water filtration, biomass energy, urban farming, and recreational activities intertwine. User experiences bounce from wilderness to education to culture. Programs used: Rhino, Enscape, Illustrator, Photoshop

cottage country

biomass energy

research farm

culture and recreation water filtration

Rentable cabins are scattered within the dense man-made forest of the West Islands. Cabin lots are organized around small dirt access roads. The large folding and sliding cabin doors create a dynamic relationship between indoor and outdoor while allowing for year-round inhabitation.

Their modular forms allow for them to be organized in multiple arrangements, permitting larger family and group visits.

Cabin Model I Cabin Model II

Cabin Exterior

Cabin Grouping

Summer at the Cabin

Farm-to-Table Restaurant

Center Island Cabin Island

Farmer's Market

Systems and Topography

Exterior

The Ontario Place Research Farm will look at innovative growing methods, explore Indigenous agricultural practices, and host community learning events. Modular greenhouses can be constructed on farm plots to allow for year-round agricultural production.

On the centre island, the Biomass Energy Facility uses plant material extracted the northern buffer forest to power the site.

Interior Structure

Visit to the Greenhouse

A Library In Flux

Course:

Intro Studio Instructor: Laura Killam

Libraries can’t be static. When changes in government result in the defunding of welfare programs, homeless shelters, or counselling services, libraries have to transform themselves. As the last bastion of public space, they’re forced to pick up the displaced programs. The new Robson Street Library proposes a large armature where programs can be installed and removed as needed. A large atrium space mediates between the armature and the traditional library uses.

Attaching

Armature

Lobby

1st Floor 2nd Floor

Concept

Physcial Model - Massing

Physical Model - Armature

The Fallen Tower

Competition: Site Mirador - ARKxSITE

Patrick Mella, Massimo Pecoraro

On the rugged shores of Faro, Portugal, the Zavial Fortress once stood tall. Its imposing form dominated the surrounding landscape. As time passed, nature reclaimed the site, leaving only traces of what once was. To visit the renewed site at The Fallen Tower is to experience a reversed excavation; a meandering labyrinth buried below the Algarve’s rocky cliffs. This project brings the user on a journey through strategically curated views of the striking context, playing with ideas of tension and release. Programs used: Rhino, V-ray, Illustrator, Photoshop

Demi-Bastion

Revetment

Barracks Trench

Chamber Mirador

Brattice

Mirador

Chamber

Trench

jon ackerley architecture portfolio

UBC SALA masters of architecture