Nicole Sylvia Work Samples 2015

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NICOLE SYLVIA

work samples

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To w e r o f F i n a n c i a l i z a t i o n Parables of Dreams, Decadence, and Renewal

The New SALA

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(Re)Viewing Vancouver 1890

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Case-Shiller Home Price Index

Laneway Micro-housing

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Asset Urbanism

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The New SALA

UBC, vancouver | with fiona jones | spring 2015

featured at SALA Projects 2015 Through the design of a new building for SALA, this project investigates the ways in which architectural knowledge is produced and transferred. In every space, production and transfer of knowledge are coupled. The programs of the bottom floors – reading room, exhibition space, shop, plaza-display – focus primarily on the transfer of architectural knowledge to the varied publics with which the school interfaces, while still retaining elements of production in each space. The top floors serve as the predominantly production-focused space of studio; however, this space is overlaid with dispersed, transfer-themed nodes—pin-up, study, model-making, digi-fab, and lounge spaces—to enable fluid and informal knowledge sharing centered on student and faculty work. Conceived as a system, the new SALA building consciously and architecturally shapes the flows of knowledge within it.

INSTALLATION IN PLAZA

WORK ON DISPLAY

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DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPT MODELS

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Fourth FLOOR Floor FOURTH 1 : 100

Nicole Sylvia and Fiona Jones

Ground Floor

100 FIRST1 :FLOOR

Nicole Sylvia and Fiona Jones

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LAYERED ACTIVITIES OF STUDIO

VIEW TO EXTERIOR FROM READING ROOM AND PROFESSIONAL/ALUMNI THINK TANK STUDIO

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studio

LONG SECTION (E) Longitudinal Section 1 : 100

SHORT SECTION (N) Section Through North Wing 1 : 100

SHORT SECTION (S) Section Through South Wing 1 : 100

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(re)Viewing Vancouver

robson square, vancouver | spring 2014

featured at SALA Projects 2014 Assuming the Museum of Vancouver relocates to Robson Square, what could this institution contribute to the existing symbolism of the site as the civic and cultural heart of the City? This project seeks to create a space in which the viewer is suspended, simultaneously a part of and apart from the everyday urban life. In this space, the attitudes, awareness and criticality one has within a museum are invited, through architectural form and framing, to be used as a means for viewing the city in its present.

REALITY

INTERPRETATION

REPRESENTATION

INTERPRETATION

-the everyday -the exceptional

-select -categorize -name -amass -preserve

-represent -narrate -display

-interpret -observe -reect

-INTERNALIZE

PROCESS OF MUSEUMS

FREE EXHIBITION SPACE: EXTENTION TRADITIONAL

PROGRAM DIAGRAM

INTERSTITIAL SPACE

WASHROOMS

CAFE

SITE PLAN

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Lane-way Micro-Housing

westend, vancouver | fall 2013

featured on SALA’s website Taking advantage of lane-way airspace, the introduction of microunits is one way to address the need for affordable housing in Vancouver’s downtown core. Due to the limited space inherent to microunits, communal space, programmed to meet daily-life needs, serves as an extension of the individual units. Vertically stacked, these spaces become part of a shared domain enveloped by the primary vertical circulation instead of seemingly belonging to residents of a particular floor.

EXTERIOR FROM THE SOUTH

CONCEPT MODELS

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PATIO

LOUNGE KITCHEN

S BO RO

LAUNDRY

ON ET RE ST

C0-WORKING SPACE

FLEX SPACE

OFFICES

RETAIL

R E T A I L

OFFICES RETAIL

BIKE STORAGE + MAIL

UP

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FOURTH FLOOR N

ACCESSIBILITY:

URBAN CONTEXT

PUBLIC

COMMUNITY

PRIVATE-COMMUNITY

PRIVATE

PRIVATE-PUBLIC

PROGRAM AND OCCUPANTS

In order to make the units themselves feel more spacious, the bay window has been reinvented as a multifunctional element, storing the bed during the day to free up coveted floor space, serving as an occupiable space, and providing natural light and views.

INTERIOR OF LARGEST UNIT (400 SQ. FT)

PUNCH-OUT AS STORAGE, WINDOW & OCCUPIABLE SPACE

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Asset Urbanism: The Tower of Financialization

fall 2014

In recent years, shifts in the global financial and real estate markets have had dramatic effects on the built environment. Ever more deeply bound into the logics of real estate investment, architecture has come to increasingly serve as an asset for financial investment rather than for habitation – a fundamental decentering of architecture’s role that Matthew Soules has termed asset urbanism. Employing the methods of architectural representation and narrative fiction to explore and speculate upon these phenomena, this project follows one financial boom and bust cycle, tracing certain of its architectural and human effects. Rhetorically re-composed into a tower, the stories of the boom and bust illustrate the many ways in which spaces, bodies, dreams, possessions, and architecture respond to the possibilities and demands of the spatialization of capital. The following page contains excerpts of this story: the story of asset urbanism.

These days, few truly remember how the tower first came to be. Some s a y t h e p l a n s w e r e r e l e a s e d w i t h C a r n i g i e ’s w i l l , o t h e r s c l a i m t h e foundations were laid centuries earlier when the first pioneers embarked westward. I once heard a man claim an image of the tower was first penned by Sir Francis Bacon in a journal reserved for the recording of his dreams. Though we may never be certain of the circumstances that lead to its conception, one thing remains undisputed—still to t h i s d a y i t s t a n d s a n d c o n t i n u e s t o g r o w. B y n o w a g r e a t a n d e n d l e s s l y diverse monolith, the structure has been a home to residences and supermalls, soup kitchens and luxury spas, museums, markets—here in t h e t o w e r, t h e o b j e c t s o f s o c i e t y ’s d r e a m s a n d d e s i r e s f i n d p h y s i c a l form. Swelling during booms, shrinking during busts, the tower ever changes...

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To w e r o f F i n a n c i a l i z a t i o n Parables of Dreams, Decadence, and Renewal

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Lifestyles of Luxury 100%

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Serial Mortgages

...As prosperity spread further and further, an odd paradox began to emerge: on one hand, people had more money than ever to spend on luxuries and vacations, while on the other hand, they had less time than ever to take advantage of this materializing wealth. Driving toward the promised promotions and bonuses, vacations were pushed back further and further, sublimated — until, that is, the new construction picked up. Soon, all sorts of relaxation and thrill were only an e l e v a t o r ’s r i d e a w a y. E v e n t h o u g h t h e y were never more than minutes from home, and even despite the vibrations from the roller coasters rippling throughout the concrete frame, the residents took to these new luxuries with great gusto...

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Squatter Agriculture 60 50

Millions 40 of 30 People 20 10

Number of People Receiving Food Stamps

...While parts of the tower were placed on life support by charitable investing, other parts felt life drain a w a y, a s t h e y f e l l v i c t i m t o v a c a n c y ’s cumbersome emptiness. Soon, the dust and grime overwhelmed those that remained, cladding acres of rims and sills and mouldings and rails in a slowly thickening veil of d e s p o n d e n c y. P a i n t c h i p p e d a n d f l o o r s cracked under the weight of stillness.

Ye t e v e n h e r e , r e s i l i e n c e c l u n g o n i n new — and often surprising — ways. ­ Squatter agriculture was a surreptitious a ff a i r. R o v i n g b a n d s o f b l a c k - m a s k e d individuals cultivated the emerging nooks, crannies, and abandoned vessels, subtly installing edible weeds in every square inch of available space.

The planting seemed natural, though it was strategic: plants with the most disruptive root systems were planted f i r s t , a c c e l e r a t i n g t h e t o w e r ’s d e c a y and creating more growable earth...