on site 6 : architecture, humanity and beauty

2001

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layout board for the Turner Gallery at Margate Snoehetta + Spence Associates see page 36

On Site review issue 6 2001 publisher Field Notes Press editor Stephanie White contributors Aumer Assaff Marc Bertrand Jim Dodson Brian Dyson Ward Eagen Murray Gallant Patrick Harrop Orianne Johnson Andrew King Myron Nebozuk Tonkao Panin John Peterson Darrel Ronald Angela Silver David Spearing Tom Strickland Christina Symons David Tsai Jennifer Uegama Andrew Vernooy Antonio Zedda design & production Black Dog Running Syntax Media Services printer Makeda Press, Calgary

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his issue, started last fall, looks in various ways at architectures of humanity and at buildings involved in political change. Although this might seem a bit contradictory, it is a response to how the world has changed recently in its descent into more war, more hatred, more disaster and tragedy.

Can architecture reinforce what is positive in the human spirit? This is our question.

There are images of great beauty here, and provoctive ideas about what buildings do in this unstable world of ours.

Stephanie White, editor from Architecture for Humanity’s newsletter—

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rchitecture for Humanity is a volunteer not for profit organization set up to promote architecture and design to seek solutions to social and humanitarian issues.

Its first venture, The Transitional Housing Competition, dealt with housing returning refugees in Kosovo after the end of the Balkan conflict in 1999.

An exhibition of the 10 finalists and 30 selected designs traveled to London, Paris, New York and Venice. Two full-size prototypes have been built and two more are currently in development.

This competition and its exhibition helped in part to raise almost $100,000.

These funds were used in housing and feeding Kosovar refugees in the spring of 2000 and to build educational and medical facilities in over 5 countries including Bosnia, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

I am pleased to announce that in the spring we will be launching a new competition. Much like our last venture it will also be an open international competition dealing with a global humanitarian disaster. An advisory board and jury is currently being formed and the design criteria almost complete.

To receive this newsletter contact Cameron Sinclair at <csinclair@architectureforhumanity.org> or www.architectureforhumanity.org

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e have recently been concentrating on building our subscription list and have been rewarded by subscriptions from architects and designers, landscape architects and engineers from places as diverse as Penticton BC and Yellowknife; Québec and Toronto. This is most gratifying and we thank you all.

If anyone you know would like to subscribe, drop a line to <editor@onsitereview.ca> and we will send on a subscription package. Rates are in the masthead, left. In Canada only add gst, for the United States these rates are in USdollars. The discrepancy in the exchange rate covers the exorbitant postage to anywhere outside Canada.

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real places: brittania beach, b c Jennife r U egama

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n 1904, mining began in Brittania Beach forming the core of a community for the next seventy years. Today, the 20-storey high concentrator mill that separated profitable ore from raw mountain rock, sits silently along one edge of a valley that still houses two hundred residents.

This monumental structure has always been more than the physical focus of the community. It was the town’s economy, it dictated the town’s schedule, it was the town’s iconic and symbolic centre. The town and the mine are inextricably linked.

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The concentrator mill steps down to a small, motley collection of buildings from a shared era, severed from the ocean by highway and railway.

Buildings at sea level are mainly deserted. The creek that gave the community its name has forced the resilient residents back up the valley walls by regularly overflowing its banks with destructive potential.

The mine left behind another, less visible legacy — a contradiction between the beauty of the site and the poison that is seeping from deep within the mountain in the form of acid mine drainage.

The busy road and rail that separate the community from the sea link Vancouver to the resrt municipality of Whistler. Tens of thousands of people race past Brittania Beach each year, but only a few are engaged enough by the ruin on the mountain to stop and visit the museum that sustains Britannia’s history.  This is an extract from Jennifer Uegama’s M. Arch thesis from Dalhousie University, entitled Mining Meaning: The Reinhabitation of the Concentrator Mill at Brittania Beach. 2001. Jennifer Uegama is currently working in Halifax.

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letters Hrdancy and other such places — Orianne Johnson.

Making a difference at gunpoint — Dave Spearing in Zamboanga, Philippines. real places Aumer Assaf finds a modernist space in Edmonton.

Jennifer Uegama visits Brittania Beach.

projects Kobayashi + Zedda’s Mayo School, Mayo, Yukon.

John Peterson visits the Sharon Temple in Gwillumbury, Ontario.

26 Tom Strickland discovers how material restrictions at Jackson Triggs changed a project for the better 36 The Turner Centre at Margate: new project from Snøhetta and Spence Associates.

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observers and thinkers Patrick Harrop and Andrew Vernooy look at morphologies, structural and digital.

Tonkao Panin looks at the surfaces of some beautiful and recent buildings by Herzog and de Meuron.

Ward Eagen finds cyberplaces in our daily rituals.

Myron Nebozuk assesses the US Embassy in Ottawa.

Stephanie White thinks about Architectura’s struggles.

Andrew King considers beauty lost and found.

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over the transom Miss Sixty in New York City, Fabriq

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jennifer uegama

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work in progress Blood Pen by David Tsai

news from the schools Darrel Ronald marches with the best of them in Montreal competitions Winnipeg: East Exchange and Red River International Ideas Competition. Deadline for submissions May 29, 2002. back page bridges Well, not a bridge, but an arch, at File Hills, in 1908 — ceremonial, ephemeral, contradictory.

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Orianne Johnson

l e t t e r f r o m t h e Ty n s k a K a v a r n a Or ia n n e Jo h ns o n Another prominent building remaining from the communist era is a television tower, approximately 216m in height, in Zizkov, a poorer, slightly less picturesque part of the city.

This building also dominates the Prague skyline from the opposite side of the river, and is visible from almost everywhere in Prague. It is not until one reaches Zizkov or the neighboring Vinohrady district that the large sculptures of faceless babies that crawl up and down the sides of the tower become visible. It was one of my English language students who informed

They seem almost nonexistent when wandering through Prague’s Old Town Square with the flocks of tourists. In this beautifully restored historic centre, sculptures speak of an older history — the religious struggles of the 15th century. At the same time they are linked to a nationalist struggle of the 20th century. From the east edge of Old Town Square, the wide, straight avenue Parizska provides a view across the river to Letna Plain, where from 1952 the huge statue of Stalin stood, joining the castle in dominating the Prague skyline. Blown up in 1961, a giant metronome now sits on the plinth.

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Orianne Johnson

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his letter describes a little about my experiences the last few months in a few former eastern bloc countries. As I board the plane to come back to Canada, the memories are varied, from learning to cook bramborak —potato pancakes— from a retired musician of the Czech Philharmonic and discussions on the EU with my English language students in Prague, to sharing Chilean fruit cake on Christmas Eve in Budapest with people from around the world. All make up this world for me. My fear is that in Canada I will not be able to find places like the Tynska Kavarna, a coffeehouse. Through winding cobblestone streets to a heavy wood door, pushing the iron ring handle reveals a dimly lit interior where the smoke is thick. It was comforting that the hum of voices held no meaning for me; I was an observer. My interest, as a North American and a design student, has been to observe the physical effects of communist rule that still exist in the cities I visited.

me that they were the work of David Cerny, a Czech artist who is best known for painting pink a green tank that stood in Smichov as a memorial to Soviet soldiers. His is a physical commentary on the former system, joining many incredible Czech writers whose work speaks of life within the former system and which was not published in their country legally until after 1989.

My students also spoke to me about some of the negative aspects of city planning that remain as a result of communist power. The most prominent in the city centre is a four lane highway that connects several outer districts to the centre. This roadway runs right along a major axis of the historical city, cutting off the National Museum and the State Opera House from the boulevards that these buildings head. Groups of people dressed in eveningwear making their way through the parking lot, just past the McDonalds (one of several that have popped up around the city), past the dumpsters and into the subway under the highway. They emerge from underground almost literally on the opera house steps just in time for the opening act of La Boheme or Tosca.

Orianne Johnson

In Bratislava, Slovakia, a raised highway also runs right through the historic district; the heavy traffic roars almost over the doorstep of a large cathedral. This highway connects the downtown commercial core with the villages of concrete housing blocks across the river, where the majority of the population lives.

These housing blocks are the most obvious remaining physical presence of former communist rule. Approximately ten stories, the apartments sometimes edge a small square of dead grass, the ‘green space’ for the buildings’ residents.

One of the strangest housing blocks that I visited was in Budapest. Setting out in search of Roman ruins that still exist in Obuda, one of the city’s oldest districts, the first we came across were located right inside the metro station. One could just make out the ruins of Roman baths under the dim fluorescent lighting and through the scratched plexiglas wall that separated the site from the station entrance walkway. Small stone reliefs were mounted on the metro walls, as if it was an art gallery, and covered in graffiti like much of the city of Budapest. Outside, we made our way to another Roman ruin that was reported to exist nearby. We found these remains of the ancient city located right in the middle of a cluster of housing blocks. In fact the ruins were overgrown and seemed to now be the park space for the inhabitants of the apartments. A man was walking his dog over the uneven stones.

It struck me as a completely different attitude toward history, or to the preservation of history. I am used to seeing such things fenced off from the outside world, and paying an entrance fee to enter. Here they exist in some peoples’ backyard, or in the metro station they use every day.

This area of east central Europe has a long history of religious and political struggles, and of people who made incredible sacrifices for their country. I asked one of my English students what the biggest difference is in everyday life since the fall of communism. He said that it is in the clothes that people are wearing and in the buildings that are now built. He said the people of the older generation still find value only in the function of things. The new generation is concerned with aesthetic value, and so it is a completely different way of thinking from before. He asked what I would tell friends in Canada about the Czech Republic, and I talked about the amazing history of the place. He replied that everyone who visits speaks of the history, and nothing of the present. And from my conversations I have found that the Czech people I met carry with them a strong understanding of their history, yet they are constantly looking toward the future, toward the possibilities and to what they hope their country will become. 

Orianne Johnson

Orianne Johnson, a recent graduate of B.E.D.S. in Architecture, Dalhousie University, is presently working for Oberto Oberti Architecture and Urban Design, Vancouver, B.C.

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making a difference at gunpoint David Sp e a r i n g The cause for me is world understanding- from which I believe flows peace.

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ix weeks in the Philippines: “Where is your companion?” demanded the woman on a busy street in Zamboanga, the capital city of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. She was asking my wife Dianne what she was doing on the street by herself. “When they kidnap you, no one will know,” she said. “You must not go on the street by yourself”.

We eventually moved from our first residence-office, a ward in a hospital, to an abandoned house in a walled compound owned by the client and where I worked with a few Zamboanga- trained young architects. For security, we had an armed guard 24 hours a day and an unfriendly Rotweiller. Also patrolling the grounds by day and night were 2 wild deer and a hairy, black wild boar. The boar was the most vicious and therefore the king of the compound. With this security, we were able to work with a peace of mind necessary to focus our tasks.

The assignment was to develop a masterplan for 15 hectares of rolling jungle and savannah for a family- owned agricultural college named ZEAC (Zamboanga Arturo Eustaquio College). This included the development of a 100-acre farm, identifying slopes, stability and development potential. Recommendations were made for other projects, including washrooms, locker rooms, handicapped requirements, seismic bracing, draining, runoff, water management and design. For five weeks we walked nearly every inch of the land accompanied by body guards trained in martial arts. The beautiful sloping property was in a suburb of Zamboanga called Pasonanca.

We and our relatively influential clients dressed casually (jeans and worn t-shirts) to remain inconspicuous. We left and returned to our office-house by various routes. We seldom travelled without bodyguards.

It is strange and almost unbelievable for an ordinary Canadian to think of bodyguards. For influential Filipinos, however, bodyguards are a way of life. We went for afternoon tea with Delfin Castro, owner of the property adjacent to ZAEC’s 15 hectares. He is also the former Supreme Commander of the Southern Command of the Philippine forces who is reputed to have determined the course of history: during the famous people’s revolt in Manilla, he refused to take his troops to then President Ferdinand Marcos’ aid.

machine guns in leather covers. We were later told that the Canadian CEO of a major company in Zamboanga had been kidnapped while leaving a Zamboanga Rotary Club meeting.

The one architectural assignment turned into five more assignments during our six week stay. Added were the redesign of exits and circulation patterns in a 14,000 seat stadium which was half way through construction; the redesign of another staduim for retraining MNLF guerrillas; revisions to designs of two low cost housing projects, of 120 units, one under construction and one on the drawing board; and the review of a new property purchased by my client in the mountains outside of Zamboanga. As well, I was flown to Cagayan d’Oro, in Mindinao to discuss and assess a preliminary and conceptual eco-tourism resort development of 2,500 hectares.

A piggyback assignment in a suburb called Cabatangan, was where former Muslim guerillas under Nur Misuari and the Muslim National Liberation Front (MNLF) were being trained to be peace officers.

Recently, 80 hostages were taken in Pasonanca and moved to Cabatangan before they were released. The exchange rate is usually one foreign hostage for about 100 local hostages.

We went in October of 1997. In March of that same year an architect from Vancouver, Lawrence G. Woolcox, was murdered on a beach on a small island near prime coral reefs. He had spoken out against the members of the military who had had no hesitation in fishing thousand year old coral reefs by blowing them up with explosives.

For this he was murdered. Larry had started a plan for underwater ecological reserves in the southern Philippines and as a dedicated architect, was making a difference in that corner of the world.

In June of the same year, Jun Trinidad, a CESO volunteer from Richmond, who we had intended to turn to for local knowledge died mysteriously in bed in Zamboanga. He was staying in the hospital bed and room we were initially given The Canadian Embassy, when asked about these incidents, provided us with almost no information.

The Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that staff didn’t feel there was a problem.

He and his wife Corey were gracious hosts. They sent two cars to pick us up. The first was driven by a machine gun toting, trained driver. The second car followed, never more than one metre behind, with four more body guards with machine guns. At all times, even while having tea in the idyllic bamboo and thatch pavilion and while inspecting the property, the five bodyguards and others in this small security force were strategically stationed, always at the ready, fingers by the trigger.

Why is there all this security? Why is there the militancy? We have come to believe that part of the reason is that for 55 years the Philippine government has pursued a plan to populate Mindanao, the Sulu Archapelago and the Southern Islands with a Catholic population thereby displacing the indigenous Muslim population. The Muslim population is desperately fighting for world attention and fighting to preserve their land and their way of life. While we can’t condone actions of terror, our eyes have been opened a little. We now question most media coverage and can put into perspective our predeparture briefing and our own cultural adjustment.

Castro was the President-Elect of the Rotary Club that co- sponsored our assignment. While I was giving my presentation to the Zamboanga Rotary Club, six armed guards surrounded the hotel meeting room,

David Spearing is an architect in Nanaimo, B.C. He is the author of Living on Mountain Slopes and has volunteered with CESO since 1994, taking him twice to Russia and once each to Poland, Peru, Guyana and the Philippines.

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top: site notes bottom: Zamboanga Stadium in construction.

david spearing

david spearing

The bottom lines in CESO assignments are: 1 Cultural exchange (both ways), appreciation and understanding. In other words, making friends for Canada.

2 Helping clients understand and define their “problems”. This is truly 90% of the solution.

3 Working at a high level of ability to meet client’s high expectations.

4 Tremendous shared appreciation for a successful outcome for the assignment.

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david spearing

guides, bodyguards and transport, Zamboanga, Phillipines

other questions here: OS: Aren’t there local architects?

DS: Yes, there are local architects, however on Mindanao there are few or no experienced firms. The Philippines, like most countries served

by CESO, are interested in new ideas and perhaps more importantly, new processes or strategies for collectively developing new ideas.

There are many highly skilled and flamboyant Philippine architects in the large cities of Cebu and Manilla.

In many countries in which we work, for example Russia, they totally lack a middle class — a proven formula for disaster, abuse and revolution, anarch and death. We and CESO work with people who can best multipy or expand our efforts.

OS: Rotary/CESO?

The way I personally develop and nurture my projects or assignments is to introduce the client to architecture and planning, demonstrate the benefits of the profession, then work with the client and local counterpart architects to build momentum, consensus and understanding in the project.

We help the clients to set a couse and put the clients in the hands of appropriate trained professionals when they are needed.

When I leave after six weeks, I measure the sucerss of the assignment by how well the client-consultant team has coalesced, how strong the collective vision is, and how much momentum or commitment is built toward achieving that vision.

I measure success by how non-essential I am to the ongoing process.

At this point, the newly constituted local team takes over. I do not leave the process until I am redundant and they take ownership.

OS: Does ‘influential’clients mean ‘affluent’?

DS: The goals of CESO, Canadian Foreign Policy and CIDA are many, highly motivated and honourable. It is my understanding that Canada believes that if we can help make each country a better country, then poco a poco we will have a better world.

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DS: Rotary International contributes financial assistance when a partnership can be established between the volunteer expert’s home club and a host club in the receiving city. As a result the volunteer work in magnified through friendshp, understanding and exchanges. The work I have seen done in these countries by Rotary International and the local Rotary Clubs would bring tears to your eyes.

While I was in Zamboanga an international team of 20 doctors held a one week clinic on an exhaustive schedule providing free operations to people who could not afford them.

OS: Why is CESO in countries that have rich people who could help their own people?

DS: This is a whole new article. Suffice it to say that there are very few very rich, almost no middle class and millions of poor. Some of the rich have not been the nicest folks, e.g. ‘New Russians’. CESO has been successful in changing that.

a b o u t th e Ca n a d ia n E xec u tive Se r vi ce Orga n isa tio n John Gibson

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david spearing

ounded in 1967, CESO is a not-for-profit enterprise working with developing nations, new free-market economies and Aboriginal communities in Canada. Over the past 34 years, CESO volunteers have completed approximately 40,000 assignments in more than 50 countries, including Canada, helping client businesses grow, local economies improve and government agencies develop -- all to improve the standard and quality of life.

CESO has two divisions, International Services and Aboriginal Services, with a shared roster of approximately 3,600 volunteer advisors — altruistic people with practical experience in a variety of professional and industrial activities.Those who go overseas find themselves in many different situations from working with indigenous people in Nicaragua to sharing agricultural techniques in Thailand.

Their roles are diverse, their skills many. Working without pay, they draw on their education and lifetime of experience to empower people through problem-solving, skills transfer and the sharing of practical information and ideas.

CESO is supported by its principal funders, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), as well as about 300 corporations and foundations and scores of individual Canadians.

This year CESO will work on more than 1,400 assignments, about half of them overseas.

For additional information about CESO, please visit the web site at www.ceso-saco.com.

david spearing

CESO in the Philippines

above: Zamboanga site. below : the small island, near the coral reefs, where Larry Woolcox was killed.

CESO’s work in the Philippines is carried out under the auspices of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which manages a bilateral assistance program involving signed agreements between the governments of Canada and the Philippines. CESO has four bilateral projects: Bolivia, Guyana, Pakistan and the Philippines. In each country, CIDA defines the goals of the project and CESO executes them.

Canada’s bilateral assistance program in the Philippines began in 1986.

Initially seen as a way to support the democratic process in the Philippines and to advocate peaceful change and equitable development, the program has accelerated over the past decade to focus on economic growth. CIDA has identified two main priorities to help support equitable and sustainable development in the Philippines: promoting responsible governance to help public-sector departments and agencies design and deliver progressive economic and social policies; and building Philippine private-sector capabilities by helping to create an environment where the private sector is encouraged to develop, and by sharing Canadian technology and skills.  John Gibson is the CESO Director of Communications in Ottawa.

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blood pen David Ts a i

I n te gr it y.

The blood pen is meant to be used in contracts where one’s integrity is of the highest importance. The process of withdrawing and writing in one’s blood signifies one’s intent and commitment to an agreement and reflects on the pain, difficulty and sacrifice one must inevitably face in fullfilling one’s word.

R e s ponsibilit y.

The ideal use of the blood pen is for a peace treaty, or in instances when a country’s leader has made decisions and statements directly resulting in blood shed. Signing a peace treaty with the blood pen, the signature signifies both the end of the conflict and that this is the final blood that is shed.

I d e nt it y.

Blood contains your genetic code. It contains you. Your signature then not only represents you, it is you.

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David Tsai is a second year graduate student in 3d Design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He previously studied architecture at the University of Texas at Austin.

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real places: edmonton Aumer A s s a f

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ften modern architecture in prairie cities is overlooked.

Little attention is given to modest projects that ultimately reflect movements in architecture that are of more than a regional interest. Suspended somewhere between an airport, a shopping mall, and a medium density community you will find the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

Ultimately the campus is a repetitious and utilitarian one of 2 story double loaded corridors that are endlessly connected to shelter students from the harsh winter. Although, what appears to be a mundane campus, is elevated at its ends. The bar buildings that go on and on are book ended with magnificent glasshouses of circulation, inspired by the intellect of the modern movement.

When one drives by these structures we are reminded of a Mondrian painting — rational, minimal, and proportioned. The grid of glass and opaque panels creates views that dodge ones imagination.

The sole function of the structure is to provide circulation sophisticatedly shrouded in notions of technology, motion, and the modern age. Inspired by the experiment of mobility, mass production, and transparency we find great success and joy when engaged with this building. 

Aumer Assaf is an architect, in collaboration with Sid Assaf, in The Office of City Interviewed, an integrated planning, industrial design and architecture firm in Edmonton.

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northern energy Kob aya s h i + Ze dd a Mayo Replacement School. It was selected as one of Team Canada’s three representative projects at the Green Building Challenge to be held at the World Sustainable Buildings Conference (Oslo, September 2002). So the building will be undergoing an operational analysis to determine how green it actually in preparation for Oslo. It will be conducted by NRC AN and other green building experts from across the country.

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ayo School is a kindergarten to grade 12 school, community hall, gymnasium and satellite campus of Yukon College located in Mayo,Yukon. This 3300 m2 wood frame school serves a small isolated community of 500 residents and is located 550 km. north of Whitehorse. Home to the Naícho Nyak Dun First Nation, the Mayo Replacement School is designed to meet the needs of the entire community as well as students. As the largest structure in town it will serve many additional roles including a centre for community and first nation ceremonies, public library, disaster relief centre and recreation centre.

It replaces an aging assemblage of trailers, which were installed over 25 years ago to provide temporary accommodations after a disastrous fire. Members of the community fought for over a decade for a new school and participated in the design at every stage.

site The new school replaces a dilapidated, ad hoc arrangement of trailers and was designed around the existing school which continued operating during construction. Several factors dictated the location of the new school. Discontinuous permafrost favoured a location close to the existing school and by using open areas around the old school, adjacent woodlots were spared from clearing and grubbing operations.

The centre of gravity in the new school, the assembly area, is aligned with the centreline of Mayo’s main street.

building form and orientation The school’s orientation on the site maximizes the penetration of diffused daylight while minimizing solar gain. The building lies east west, perpendicular to southern daylight, facing the community. The view down Centre Street to the viewing platform of the Stewart River is aligned with the location of the main entry and assembly space.

Elementary and secondary classrooms are in separate wings on either side of the main entrance which includes administration and the assembly area. The elementary wing is close to the playground to the west; the secondary school wing is near the gym and community campus with which there is a functional overlap. Classrooms and administration use the southern side of the building, gym and industrial arts shop on the north, their bulk moderated by lower massing in the front.

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above: outside the assembly area under a great porch roof. right: inside the assembly area, under construction.

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A generous amount of natural light to all classrooms is achieved through the use of high clerestory windows to the north of corridor and south of service spine. All classrooms receive southern diffused light from two directions, no matter where they are located. Natural light in teaching spaces is critical in this part of the world where winter sun is so scarce.

energy conservation This project has been certified as a C2000 building through the Office of Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources Canada. The building also successfully achieved the goals and requirements of CBIP (Can Builders Incentive Program). This is the first school and only the second building north of 60 ever to achieve this benchmark.

This means it must achieve energy savings of 45% in comparison to a computer simulated benchmark building of similar size and configuration. When the Mayo School was modelled using DOE 2.E software it found energy consumption savings of 47.3% and energy cost savings of 48.5%. The core of the C2000 programme is its integrated design process in which architect and engineering consultants develop the design together from first concepts on so that all technical, functional and economic factors which impact the buildings performance will be considered before the design has progressed too far. GF Shymko & Associates, energy engineers, were retained by the Yukon Government and facilitated the integrated design process.

Energy conservation features include photocell sensors that switch off lights when natural light levels are sufficient, use of on site groundwater for ‘free’ cooling, heat recovery and motion sensors on ventilation systems and decentralised HVAC system to more efficiently serve various school zones. There are digital control systems for temperature and lighting setback operations.

materials The school is wood frame to allow the small frame-oriented labour force in the Yukon the chance of building the project without importing labour from the south. Materials were chosen for their Yukon content: locally manufactured vinyl windows, local wood species —engineered wood products (truss joists, oriented strand board, glue laminated units, pre-engineered wood trusses and LSL slabs) are used extensively throughout the school to make efficient use of a natural resource.

Interior material finishes underwent a preliminary screening process to identify acceptable products with low embodied energy and low voc’s. These include linoleum flooring, birch ply millwork, panelling, trims, locally milled pine slat finishes, low voc latex paint. above. from left: exterior of a classroom wing, classroom interior, link between wings. right: gymnasium roof structure.

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so m e q u e stions Is this a green building?

I would argue that it is not as green as it could be. It is a great sustainable leap when compared to existing facilities throughout the Yukon, however, we have a long way to go. We would have liked to introduce grey and black water recycling, explored the possibilities of including a living green roof, introduced solar hot water, solar wall and photovoltaic components, reduced or eliminated on site parking and reviewed extensively wood framing methods and details toward future dismantling and recycling of the school building. However, the short life span of elected officials and the bureaucracy surrounding the funding of public projects means little or no consideration of building life cycle costs. Thus capital budgets are limited and so too are options for implementation of green measures with a longer than average payback period.

Does it bring us closer to a sustainable architecture, society and way of living?

I struggle with this everyday I sit at my desk. We are but part of a bigger web of decisions, motives and actions. However, as architects and more importantly as individuals we are obligated to scrutinize our own decisions and actions. I may have accepted after a lengthy discussion with government officials to expand the already large school parking area by cutting down an additional 4m x 40m wide strip of mature boreal forest, but at least there was an understanding that something valuable was being lost in return. I walk and ride my bike rather than drive a car. We should lead by example whenever possible even if it means a little inconvenience and, at times, heated debate.

How is it possible to introduce playfulness and expressive community gestures in a budget tight school building?

By realizing and understanding limited opportunities to make architecture. Every project in our office, whether it be a bathroom renovation for a government office building or new correctional facility provides an opportunity for a focused effort that goes beyond simple problem solving. The Mayo Replacement School is a building of simple forms, materials and construction detailing. However, in key areas: the assembly area, gymnasium, specific classrooms and main entry/exits, arose an opportunity to explore ideas of community significance, visibility, entry, materiality, education and whimsy. We conserve and are efficient in many areas of the school building to spend what is saved in other key areas. Simple pre-engineered wood trusses throughout the school facilitate an expressive learning tree structure of logs in the main assembly area; a concealed and inexpensive roof structure throughout the classroom areas facilitates an exposed and interesting custom wood/steel truss in the gymnasium. It is a balancing act of sorts. 

Kobayashi + Zedda practice in Whitehorse,Yukon. They recently returned from a research trip to Scandinavia to see how other places build north of 60.

Why is it so difficult to convince government and private clients to implement simple yet significant ‘green features’ in buildings?

Cost (up front as opposed to long term), short term goals and returns, continued availability of cheap carbon based energy, the status quo factor.

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sharon temple John Pete r s on

The material investment of the architectural image has been devalued for the sake of expediency and performance. This dislocation of material meaning is an understandable concomitant of a media society that accepts readily devalued imagery of all types.

Here, the metaphysical implications of material and detail investment are reduced to gestures which imply, but do not denote; they express ideas which represent architecture’s customary functions — the registration of built form with its physical and cultural context-but they are phenomenally weak.

D. Andrew Vernooy, ‘Crisis of Figuration in Contemporary Architecture’ in The Final Decade: Architectural Issues for the 1990s and Beyond, vol.7.

New York: Rizzoli, 1992, pp 94-96.

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S

quare in plan and painted white with green trim, the Temple of Peace is a unique frame construction building comprising three tiers from a sixty by sixty foot base to a twelve by twelve foot lantern. Each tier has tall multi-panel windows on all four sides with a small pinnacle at each corner of the roof. Every element of the Temple was intended to symbolize some aspect of the sectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s religious beliefs: the three tiers represent the Trinity; a door on each of the four sides allowed people to enter on an equal footing from all directions; equal numbers of windows on each side allowed the light of the gospel to shine on the assembly with equal strength; the four pillars supporting the lantern were inscribed with the words denoting the cardinal virtues: faith, hope, love and charity; twelve pinnacle lanterns and twelve interior pillars represent the apostles. A central space is approached from four aisles, an aisle from each doorway, holds the altar. The continuous arcade of twelve turned columns support the second tier.

Excerpt from the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Sharon Temple and The Study, Heritage Character Assessments, 1998. http://www.sharontemple.ca

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left: Jacob’s Ladder below: window candle right: column detail

T

he vestigial content of architecture plays weak, in light of recent events, moving nearer to extinction every year. This statement may appear severe, but architecture and civic form cannot expect the world to accept its cultural significance if it begins its corporeal existence as a secondary thought within a fractured building process.

To counterpoise this situation, we must look to buildings where the level of craft is matched by the their phenomenal content. These buildings, as rich in meaning as imagery, are a rare breed. One such example exists north of Toronto in a small farming village formerly named the Village of Hope — a building as idiosyncratic as the community that constructed it.

Located in the township of East Gwillumbury, Ontario, (formerly the Village of Hope) the Sharon Temple was erected by a short-lived religious sect but stands as an enduring symbol of tectonic culture. Originally called the Temple of Peace, it was built between 1825 and 1832 by the Children of Peace, a breakaway sect of the Quakers led by an enigmatic preacher named David Willson. The building team, which was lead by Ebenezer Doan, a master builder, and his brother John, a master carpen-

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ter, carried on the traditions of Quaker construction, with an expanded formal language based on the literal and metaphorical translation of the sect’s beliefs (for expample, the column as apostle). Often referred to as the Davidites, the Children of Peace owed most of their core beliefs and ritual differences to Willson, including musical accompaniment for religious gatherings and ornamentation inspired by the Bible’s Old Testament, in particular Solomon’s Temple. This extreme shift in community focus from the reserved simplicity of the Quaker tradition to an active utopian pioneer vision typified the unique character of it membership and its civic form.

The Sharon Temple is a singular structure within the tumultuous political and religious history of nineteenth century North America, and study reveals a cursory insight into its community. Willson made the seldom-used meeting hall a focal point within the community through a careful manifestation of human ideals, religious ceremonial significance and formal reference to biblical history. Experiments in form and space, carried through earlier Quaker and Davidite buildings on site, culminated in this building, which was auspiciously designed to collect alms

for the poor. From its egalitarian square plan, expressing Willson’s belief in ‘dealing on the square with all people’, to the interior columns denoting the sect’s founding beliefs, the Temple symbolically reinforced the ideals present in this small farming community. But after Willson’s death in 1866, the Temple held less significance for his followers, and within a relatively short period of time it fell into disuse and disrepair. Despite Willson’s best efforts to divorce his physical presence from the centre of their secular and religious life, his death left the sect with no direction, and the Children of Peace joined the local Presbyterian congregation in 1889.

As the group’s leader, Willson created an active community that participated enthusiastically in the politics of the day while encouraging a cooperative economy of sharing, a far cry from the burgeoning market economy prevalent in Upper Canada at the time. Without capitalist methods the sect prospered, becoming one of the wealthiest in the region. But its absorption into mainstream capitalism and community life following Willson’s death ended the relevant tectonic meaning the group’s civic structures had produced. And as is de rigueur for a dynamic society where the permanence of architectural constructs outlast their initial intent, the Temple is left as an artifact of a bygone era.

In 1918, the Temple became one the earliest examples of non-military building conservation in Canada, when the York Pioneer and Historical Society bought it and turned it into a museum. The acquisition was timely, coming just after the destruction of the sect’s later meeting hall, which appeared as an ever more ornate and complex structure crafted over an eight year period following the construction of the Temple.

K

enneth Frampton states (in ‘The Owl of Minerva’, Studies in Tectonic Culture, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, p 386) ‘late capitalism displays an indifference toward tectonic culture at many different levels, from its disdain for the physical and historical continuity of civic form to its latent disregard for the wholesale entropy of the built environment as it presently exists.’ The Children of Peace obviously did not share this indifference toward their civic form, and a document of their existence is present is the Temple’s architectural form — a tectonic cultural document revered by some and merely visited by others. It is this very endeavour, to instill human relevance via built form, which our architectural community strives toward. For the present-day architect, hindered in a concern toward a tectonic culture by the techno-economy they operate within, Willson offers a glimpse of another mode of architectural practice, where the act of building represents more than the completion of a shelter and ersatz formal expression. The artifact’s main concern here is the manifestation of the human spirit in the specific manner in which the building was developed and realized. The Davidites, under the guidance of David Willson, seamlessly integrated craft, form and spirituality to constitute and articulate an experience of the community as a whole. It is this absolutely apparent exaltation of all

of the processes of building and human spirit, that prevents The Temple of Peace from becoming an architectural novelty, relegated to the historical closet. It will continue to be revered by architects and historians alike, not just as an artifact, but as an end in itself. 

John Peterson, born and rised in BC, received his MArch at Dalhousie (néeTUNS). He lives in Toronto and works for KPMB Architects.

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The need to uncover new zones of inhabitation within traditionally homogeneous compositions is in part a response to new concepts in how we construe meaning in architectural form, brought about by the evolution of the computer industry.

This architecture invests the boundary zone of the building with extra-tectonic logic beyond the simple building envelope. It reveals and exploits once-hidden layers of construction, as in the work of Herzog and de Mueron. The inhabitation of the wall section and the presentation of the buildng boundary as a zone relies on the ability of the eye to be a critical

morphological and extra-tectonic logics

I

Patrick Harrop and Andrew Vernooy n the last half of the twentieth century construction courses in architecture schools emphasized a morphological approach to understanding form. Construction of a building was understood to be the result of a set of internal physical conditions, like structure, that were read through the surface of the building envelope. Internal conditions were printed onto the envelope by modulating its surface.

The articulation of the building envelope was understood as a complex set of interactions between structure, skin and nature. The architect set these interactions and interdependent relationships into motion using rules essentially prescribed by industry. While this approach afforded formal complexity, form generation was limited to clear and self evident architectural gestures.

is to treat the building as a complete three dimensional skin: a physical and conceptual synthesis of virtually all building elements into the complex and subtle ecosystem of a living epidermis.

This re-consideration of the wall section as a zone rather than a surface, has generated an even more refined approach to the internal space and form of the building skin itself. In fact, each of the complex material layers of a building skin offers an architectural opportunity for elaboration and even inhabitation. Take for example the work by Cambridge architects Kennedy and Violich where the interstitial space between plywood veneers has been cleverly exploited to integrate network wiring, lighting and ventilation.

instrument where meaning is contrived and inferred from the depth of a building’s skin rather than the morphological imprint of its surface.

For architecture one could say that we are gradually moving away from a schematic understanding of the building which emphasizes an elemental approach to design, towards an animated approach to exploring architecture’s formal potential through a more sophisticated understanding of its boundary zone. Architecture grows into being instead of assembling itself from discrete but related relationships. Rather than oversimplifying the practice of making architecture into a free form formal exercise, the architectural persistence of vision is broadening the temporal and magnitudinal scale of our work. 

It is with the entry of digital technology into architecture that we begin to see a shift in the way the envelope of the building relates to the structural frame. Consider the two models shown here: above is a student project from the 1970s, inspired by Aalvar Aalto’s Baker 1949 skating rink at MIT in Cambridge, Massachussetts. Shape is a consequence of its structural system. On the right is a recent sectional model of the Patkaus’ Newton Library from the 1990s. Its emphasis is on the highly articulated relationship between the envelope and the frame.

In considering these two models, one could surmise that strategies of figuration have begun to move past the tectonics of morphology to issues of extra-tectonic logic associated with envelope configuration.

Recently we have become preoccupied with the notion of building as a complete biological system in and of itself, as opposed to an interplay of complex relationships that underpins a structural morphology. The growing trend

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Andrew Vernooy, AIA and Patrick Harrop who works with digital technology, are currently teaching at the University of Manitoba.

The City of Winnipeg Planning, Property and Development Department, Planning and Land Use Division invites design teams to participate in a Single-Stage Open Ideas Competition.

Ideas Winnipeg 2002 competition includes three integrally related challenges within the single submission: a. Context and Analysis Plan An urban analysis that encompasses a minimum area including the edge condition of the Exchange District on the west side of the Red River, and the edge condition of St. Boniface on the east side of the Red River from the Provencher Bridge to May Street. The Context and Analysis Plan informs the Area Plan and Site Plan design. b. Area Plan An urban design masterplan encompassing a design area noted in the Context and Analysis Plan. The purpose of this masterplan is to produce a dynamic framework or vision of the eventual development of the entire area. c. Site Plan A building design for mixed use development and housing within the Area Plan. The designated site is bounded by Bertha Street on the west, a straight extension of John Hirsch Place on the south, Elgin Avenue to the north and Waterfront Drive and the Red River to the East. (Note that the designated site is split east-west by Waterfront Drive. The area to the east of Waterfront Drive is Stephen Juba Park.)

The designated site includes the original location of the Historic William Ross House Brookbank, built in 1852 and moved from the site in 1948. For further information on the Ross House refer to Historic Context on the Web-page.

The designated site is the minimum site for development. The site may be expanded at the competitorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discretion.

Eligibility The Ideas Competition is open to architects and multi-disciplinary teams that include at least one architect. The competition is open to all architects eligible to practice, as defined by the requirements in existence in their country. Both individual and collaborative entries by multi-disciplinary teams are permitted and encouraged, provided that at least one eligible architect is a member of the team. The application for registration may be made in the name of an individual or team. Individuals, including architects, may participate in more than one submission.

In order to be eligible, registrants must include the following: a. A registration form indicating the name(s) of the individual entrant or team member, proof of eligibility of architect on team, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of both the registrant and the eligible architect. b. A registration fee by a cashiers cheque or money order in the amount of $ 100.00 (Canadian funds only), made payable to the order of the City of Winnipeg, Design Competition.

The registration form and cheque must be enclosed in an envelope and sent to the Ideas Winnipeg 2002 address at: City Re-emerging

East Exchange and Red River

International Ideas Competition

Ideas Winnipeg 2002

Attention: Professional Advisor The City of Winnipeg

Planning Property and Development Department

Planning and Land Use Division

15 - 30 Fort Street

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Canada R3C 4X5 The envelope must also display the return address of the registrant.

The registration period ends before 4:30 p.m. North American Standard Time (NAST) on May 1, 2002. Any registration received after this time and date will not be accepted and will be returned unopened to the address indicated on the envelope.

Questions about the registration procedures should be addressed to the Competition Committee through the web-site: http://www.winnipeg-ideascompetition.org or via fax (204) 488-0216.

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For Leibniz, for Nietzche, for William and Henry James, and for Whitehead as well, perspectivism amounts to relativism, but not the relativism we take for granted. It is not a variation of the truth according to the subject, but the condition in which the truth of a variation appears to the subject.

KP M B A r c h i v e s

Gilles Delueze, The Fold - Leibniz and the Baroque, translation by Tom Conley (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), p20. Reprinted by permission of University of Minnesota Press.

K P M B ’ s J a c k s o n Tr i g g s W i n e r y Tom Str ick la n d

T

he concept of the human condition — mere existence itself — is argued to be ‘a condition in which the variation of a truth appears to the subject’. From the first conveyance of modern thought, some 40 to 70 thousand years ago, manners of thinking around this human condition have, in a broad sense, been represented through aesthetic styles. It follows then that a building detail will reflect this condition and as such the identity of society at large.

The appearance of this human condition in the built environment is as follows: how a detail is designed and constructed represents the intended quality of building construction. This in turn is a representation of how a building is valued within its geo-political region by the users, the builder and the architect. Naturally each of these groups involved in the process present their own agendas and responsibilities to society at large.

This, in general, is perspectivism amounting to relativism.

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In theory then, one should find all the complexities of this condition in the processes and eventual completed wall system of a Wal-Mart, even if it does reveal an expression marked by a lack of invention. A detail need not be merely a flaccid reflection of the design process but can instead be an opportunity to express the human condition through the sophisticated assembly of construction processes. At the recently completed Jackson-Triggs Winery in the Ontario Niagara region, Kuwabara Payne Mckenna Blumberg Architects have designed a single detail that reveals how a flexible and inventive approach to building materials has produced an aesthetic that conveys the current complexities of the human condition.

G len n M acMu ll i n o f K u wa b a ra Pa y n e M c ke n n a B l u m b e r g

Clearly drawing upon the regional form and typology of Niagaraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agricultural industries this winery appropriately responds to the functional requirements of the wine agri-business. The roof of the 4200 sqm. building sits atop a continuous clerestorey, which acts as a unifying element in the building and presents, at a distance, a sophistication of building construction that distinguishes the winery from other local agricultural buildings. Below the clerestorey are the walls, clad with a simple yet unconventional material that inspires reflection â&#x20AC;&#x201D; cement board siding.

Originally this winery was to have been a larger building with a masonry skin. As the design development proceeded the scale of the building began to over-reach the budget. Embracing this opportunity KPMB worked with the clients to reduce the scale of the building. Openly critical of their own design solutions the architects re-evaluated other aspects of the building and discovered the cement board, a material that is commonly used on industrial and agricultural buildings in Europe and could translate smoothly to Canadian building technology. This unexpected discovery of the cement board also reconciled a disjunction between the rural setting of the winery and the original masonry cladding, which the team felt had an urban presence, and set the stage for the increased refinement of the formal intentions and tectonic aspects of the project.

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25

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G le nn MacMullin of K uwab a ra Pay ne Mcke n na Bl um be r g

K P MB A rc hi v e s

KPMB Archives K PMB A rchiv e s

The definitive gesture of this cement board siding is its confirmation of the unpredictable. Not only are the complex processes of building held accountable by this detail, the artful rendering of the elevation reflects the surprise of mere existence in the everyday. The scale of the winery lends itself more to the industrial than the agricultural building, yet from a distance the building presents itself as a sensitive appreciation of local context and scale. Inventively using the flexibility of the cement board, a flexibility not available with the masonry, the architects designed oversized siding that, when viewed at a distance, visually scales the building down allowing it to be accomodated within the region’s agricultural vernacular. As one approaches the building the ‘actual’ scale of the siding is realized. At over three times the size of typical siding the subject is presented with an unexpected change in perspective. Adding the dimension of surprise to the experience of the building - ‘a condition in which the variation of the truth appears to the subject’. In the end the final appearance of the building may have been a surprise even to the architects. Yet, in an age where there are no absolutes, and solutions can only be a reconciliation of many diverse opinions and conditions, Kuwabara Payne Mckenna Blumberg Architects have embraced the unpredictable and exploited its opportunities to create a simple detail that reflects, through an aesthetic, manners of thinking and doing in the early twenty-first century.  Tom Strickland writes about and practices architecture in Alberta. He is currently developing a theatre proposal for the 2002 World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education.

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Doug from www.montreal.indymedia.or g

Doug from www.montreal.indymedia.or g

The supporters and ideas behind the squat occupation at Overdale. Food Not Bombs donated and cooked the daily meals.

The entrance to the Overdale Squat, with a list of needs; such as plumbing, electrical, paint, furniture.

The black and red communitarian anarchist flag hangs above.

arc hitect ure at the barr icades Darrel Ronald

A

Doug from www.montreal.indymedia.or g

mong a crowd of 500 marching protesters I leaned towards a doubting friend claiming that: “By the end of today they’ll have a home!” This type of architecture rarely happens.

This was Montréal, July 27, summer 2001. The city has one of the most difficult housing situations in Canada with an affordable housing vacancy rate of 1%. It is a problem recognized throughout the city and province, so much so that McGill University has a special department for social housing in its architecture department.

A shot showing the urban/highrise backdrop of the site: the Overdale Squat was right downtown. This was during the occupation before they were relocated to the Rachel Squat. The building here is covered with grafitti; and the roof is used as the watchtower for riot police.

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Amongst this crowd of the homeless, the unemployed, social activists, anarchists and supporters, I was overcome by the feeling that we need more architects involved with activism. While Montréal is in a housing crisis; it is a problem not unlike other Canadian cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. Since the federal government shifted social housing responsibilities to the provinces in 1995, the availability of affordable rental units has become increasingly scarce. Ontario developer Mitchell Cohen has argued in the Globe and Mail that the federal government has ignored its social responsibility for housing.

“Well, here we are, six years later” he writes. “Six years in which Ottawa and most provinces spent no money on new affordable housing. The result: ever increasing numbers of men, women and children living in substandard, temporary housing — or on the street.”

So here we are, 500 protesters all thinking that housing is a right, and if our government will not help, we will help ourselves. After meeting in St-Louis Square, we march through downtown towards an unannounced abandoned building. Stopping the march at a vast parking lot, a beautiful three-story heritage mansion stands tall in the middle, totally boarded up. We charge straight for it, kicking in the boarded doors while others watch the riot police. A team of about 40 squatters unboard the windows, build steps into the upper floors, and tag the building with symbols and protest slogans. Un squat pour nous, un squat pour tous.

The standoff begins.

It was a poetic sight. A bare-chested, black masked guard keeps watch from the top of the squat. A black flag blows on the roof in the hot summer heat while riot police talked amongst themselves down the street. The riot police never attack, so we begin to celebrate the establishment of the Overdale Squat--at the corner of Overdale and Lucien L’Allier streets.

Public support rises quickly as the squat action is covered in all the newspapers and on the television. Mayor Pierre Bourque has to react calmly in the context of the current mayoral race. Immediately the 150 squatters receive an eviction notice and prepare for a police raid.

It never happens. Instead they enter negotiations with mayor Bourque to find a new building. In the meantime, the squatters refuse to leave the building; and public support means that the mayor cannot force them out. Six days of occupation follow and finally the city offers the squatters an abandoned youth corrections building on Rachel Street. It is four-stories and large enough to house a library, communal kitchens, and all the squatters in separate rooms. But the squatters demand a number of other things including amnesty from criminal charges, the assumption of all costs by the City, as well as guaranteed self-management.

The city agrees, and the experiment starts. All bills are to be paid by the government for a trial period of a few months, but the squatters must update the building to suit fire codes. At this point that public opinion begins to mutter: “Why should we pay for their house?”

The situation has now ended for the squatters. On October 3, the police and fire forces arrived at the gate outside the Rachel Squat. The original city request to update the building to fire codes had never been met. While the squatters were busy inside voting whether to open the door, the authorities let themselves in. At least ten arrests were made, one squatter was hospitalized, and the rest were chased from the building. What was a unique experiment in Montréal had become a complete letdown. Public opinion had changed, favouring the squat shutdown; few Montréalers wanted their tax money being spent on a group of squatters.

It means that many of these squatters have to return to a precarious situation on the streets. What had been a safe home for two months was now gone, and to replace that security for each squatter will be very difficult. By no means has the housing crisis in Montréal been resolved. From the position of a homeless or unemployed person who does not want to be on the street, this is a harsh reality. There are many abandoned buildings that could serve as beautiful houses; the commercial housing system is entirely out of reach; and a wonderful housing opportunity has been ripped out from under them.

Why not allow the squatters a separate form of housing where their principles can be used? The Rachel Squat, like other squats, precipitates entirely unique urban conditions. A communal form of decision making is encouraged, and a richculture can develop from close interrelationships. Further, the lack of systematized economy in a squat allows for a unique form of micro-economy. Production of goods and services develops closer to a barter system, and in many cases, squat communities can develop a sustainable internal economy over time.

Squatting can be used, as it was in Montréal, for political activism. But it can also be used to protest the tearing down of buildings, to reclaim buildings in war zones, or to simply save oneself from dying in the street. It is still one of the most flexible and vital forms of habitation the world over, unfortunately not often recognized by governments. 

Doug from www.montreal.indymedia.or g

Possibly the city should only have given them the building and not offered to pay all the bills. This likely would have kept the public in support of the squatters. City officials give away or sell off property

and buildings to business ventures all the time in order to encourage so-called economic investment and development. The squat action should be considered a strategy, a form of direct action and civil disobedience. Many Montréalers acknowledge the squat action as a logical response to a public housing problem.

The new building, the Rachel Squat, on the first day of take over. This was legally given by the city, later to be taken away.

Darrel Ronald is completing a Bachelors of Environmental Design in the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Planning at the University of Manitoba.

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If architecture is only a making of space, what then has become of architectural surface?

within the body / beneath the skin Ton k a o Pa n in

U

reflections

between layers

biquitous green wall is our first impression of the Nordic

Provocative surfaces seem to subordinate architecture’s precious and

Embassy Complex in Berlin. It is a wall of apertures that

majestic notion of space making. Has architecture become a making

allows us a glimpse of its interior through occasional flips of

of beautiful surface? Has skin become the kernel for the creation of

its skin at various locations.Yet at a closer inspection, what we see

the entire body?

underneath is not the building’s interior but layer upon another layer of walls. Upon entering, it becomes clear that the green aperture

Architectural skin such as that of the Nordic Embassy Complex is far

wall is only a dressing that wraps itself around five separate buildings

from ornamental. It operates within functional, formal as well as spatial

inside. Belonging to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland,

framework of five buildings within its perimeter. It is both detached

five embassy buildings share the wrapping walls whose apertures

and attached to the buildings. It is a dressing, deviating itself from

accommodate the buildings’ voids. To heighten our curiosity even

most assumed definitions of architectural wall, neither dependent nor

further, each of the five buildings wears its own dressing on top of

independent of the body. Cases from Herzog & de Meuron Several

what is conventionally considered an architectural wall. The question

projects by Herzog & de Meuron pose similar questions concerning

of categorization becomes oblivious. It is as if we encounter a person.

the connectivity between architectural body and its surface.

But what is he wearing? Is it clothing, a mask, a covering or just his own skin?

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tonkao panin

Nordic Embassy Complex, Berlin

Exterior Surface

tonkao panin

Suva, Basel: Exterior

Between two ‘exterior’ layers

Consider the Suva Building in Basel where the old building is retained

begin to detect the different patterns that these surfaces are being

with a glass enclosure uniting both old and new parts. Glass panels

articulated at various locations in a dialogue with the programmatic

appear with diverse physical traits, either transparent, silk-screened or

interior. It gives us a glimpse of what lies underneath. Here the com-

prismatic, depending upon their locations. Either individually operated

munication between architectural surface and space inside is subtle,

or by a computer, all panels function as optical, acoustic as well as

hidden underneath the skin. Paradoxically it is neither the space

climatic insulation. What seems to be a decorative skin becomes

inside that determines how the surface appears, nor the surface that

operative. Both the space inside and the skin are relying on each

determines the space inside.

other to perform their tasks. As for the building’s interior, an organization of space varies from point to point, from offices to apartments to a café At first glance, the building presents a uniform surface which appears to be similar at all locations. Any patterns of use seem to be unreadable out of the surface.Yet at a closer look, we could

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tonkao panin

Signal Box, Basel

In the case of the Signal Box in Basel, its operative skin is made out of copper strips. The copper volume houses a railway signal box whose own concrete shell is both insulated and hidden in a way so that its geometric shape becomes undetectable. With the copper skin, the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body seems indeterminate; all traces of use and spatial pattern such as floor divisions and openings are no longer recognizable. Yet with the twist of the strips at certain points to admit light, the copper volume becomes analogous to a mask where eyes and nose are cut out, giving us a clue as to how the body operates and formed. The twist of copper strips is more than an aesthetic configuration for it allows us to detect a pattern of inhabitation.

For the first glance at the Tate Modern, the architects seem to create

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interior

interior light box

neither form, space nor surface. By removing the flooring which once

With such methods and outcomes, to say that architecture is nothing

stretched along the entire length of the turbine hall, a new space is

but space or architecture is all on the surface, it would be misleading

shaped. Yet it is not only the removal of the flooring that reshapes and

either way. Perhaps it is fair to say that Herzog & de Meuron’s work

emphasizes the volume of space. Dark vertical strips of columns and

is never a so-called spatial or formal creation. From these projects,

horizontal stretches of beams against light surface are accompanied by

perhaps it would be productive to ask how architectural surface, form

various light boxes along the entire length of the turbine hall. Despite

and space work together, whether there is a level in which they imply

being called boxes, each of the glowing volume functions more as a

one another. And perhaps we also inhabit not only iarchitectural

room. Once we realize the scale of these glowing volumes attached

space or form but also surfaces. Architectural space could as well be

to the walls, we also realize the vast scale of the turbine hall in its

a by-product of the creation of architectural surfaces. It could as well

entirety. In this case, vastness and imposing dimension of the turbine

be the creation of surface that leads us to understand space and its

hall may not have been similarly perceived without an accentuation of

operation.

tonkao panin

Tate Modern: interior light box



the structural elements and an addition of new glowing surfaces.

Tonkao Panin, currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania working on a dissertation concerning the notions of space and surface in late nineteenth/early twentieth century German theory.

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the turner centre, margate Snø eh etta a n d S t e p h e n S p e n c e

This text is composed of excerpts from the original competition proposal prepared

by Snøehetta and Stephen Spence for the Turner Centre, Margate, England.

Illustrations and drawings are taken from the competition boards. This competition was prepared in August of 2001, and awarded to Snøehetta and Stephen Spence on October 31, 2001.

T

he key points that configure this project — a new gallery for Turner paintings in Margate, a town that Turner spent much time painting in — are: -a distinctive new landmark building that can be seen from all parts of Margate -a reactivation of the old pier -its location on the pier that allows potential for future development of the existing site.

-an elevated, fully glazed restaurant that provides the public with excellent views both back to Margate and out to the sea.

-linkage to a continuous coastal edge development -flexible gallery space, use and ease of management THE URBAN CONTEXT BUILDING IS TO BE VIEWED AS PART OF A CONTINOUS COASTAL EDGE DEVELOPMENT . . .

The site must not be seen as a termination point, but rather only one event in a series, which run along this historic coastal edge. Only by considering the site within its overall urban context can a masterplan be developed whose influence will extend far beyond the confines of this one particular parcel of land. . . . AND PROVIDES THE ABILITY TO FREE AREAS AND RE-ORGANIZE THE FORT HILL ROAD TO EXTEND THE DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF THE TOWN With the regeneration projects underway for Margate Old Town and the Cultural Quarter the opportunity exists to re-integrate the site back into the town. This is to be primarily achieved with the removal of one of the dual carriageways that run up Fort Hill. The proposal is to remove the carriage way adjacent to the town. Currently the walk through what will be the Cultural Quarter ends abruptly with the road. If removed this would allow for the town to extend in a sympathetic way towards the site.

The site is unique in that it has both a physical connection from the land while also having a visible connection back to the land.

The view to the site, from around Margate harbour, is dominated by the Pier on which sit the Lighthouse and Droit House. They stand as distinct landmarks set against the edge of Margate town. Any option to build within the heart of the site must be carefully considered as potentially not only will it visually extend the edge of the town but also conflict with the sensitive setting of Droit House. Set against this is the brief requirement for a landmark building.

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While Turner was producing realistic work for public consumption he was also experimenting with the abstract. This fascinating duality has proved to be an inspiration and starting point for the conceptual development of the project.

With Turner’s experimental work, the effects —the lack of conventional borders between the edges and horizons, the resultant blurring of the edges, the ambiguous nature of the object and the use of bold colours — have been embraced and developed as a bold and abstract Gallery Building. This is in direct contrast to the public Pier Building, whose form is more conventional and recognisable.

The urban design concept and the developed design for the Turner Centre are firmly rooted in the principles and objectives as set out in the Kent Guide to Sustainable Development. They issues raised have formed a constant point of reference against which the proposals have been evaluated and developed.

The experience of the Turner Centre begins the moment you first catch sight of the building. The prominent location and distinct form will attract interest and drawthe visitor to the site. Once adjacent to Droit House the entry sequence both along the pier and up into the buildings is an event. While it may not be necessary for the visitors to strap themselves to the front of a boat (as Turner) to experience the power and force of the natural elements the one and a half-minute walk up the external ramp will give a good introduction. The slow gradual climb arrives at an external lobby 3.5m above Pier level.

Key functions within the Turner Centre are split into two distinct groups: The Private The Foyer/ The Galleries/ Auditorium/ Education Outreach The Public The Restaurant/ Bookshop/ Resident Artist/

Administration/ Delivery Bay To reflect this notion the building is itself split into two independent structures. The access ramp leads the visitor between the buildings to a common external lobby from which the galleries, the restaurant and the bookshop can be accessed.

from top: J M Turner, Calais Pier, 1803 Margate Station proposed Turner Centre, gallery, walk and pier

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Once across the Gallery bridge immediately ahead is the Reception/ Ticket Desk. From this point the visitor is drawn along the foyer space and up onto the stepped ramp. This gently curving ramp runs along the internal face of the foyer linking all three galleries. This route is a slow, stimulating climb preparing the visitor for the experience of the art beyond.

Moving through the galleries and back onto the ramp the circulation route itself is seen as part of the overall experience and it is intended to include works on the large wall between the ramp and the galleries.

As with the abstract Turner paintings described in the introduction the naturally lit interior of Gallery 3 attempts to create a space without defined walls and edges. As the main white painted walls curve and disappear down they blend with the light limestone flooring. Against this backdrop the paintings are set on a 3.5m high wall pulled away from the internal surface. The play between the foreground and background is deliberate. The immediate fixed plane of the foreground is off set by the soaring dynamic surroundings. The visual comfort of the distant view and space is intended as a visual rest prior to viewing the next painting.

Along the north wall of the gallery the gap between the picture wall and the internal wall creates a zone which both allows the wall to visually continue while at the same time allowing natural light to penetrate to the gallery spaces beneath.

M AT E R I A L S The reinforced concrete structure of the Gallery Building is to be clad totally in timber. The 40mm thick strips of untreated English Oak will follow the natural curves of the form accentuating the dynamic sweep. As the cladding is not forming the waterproof layer the external environment will be allowed to naturally weather the timber allowing it to develop a textured silver appearance. Examples of heavily weathered timber can already be found on the site giving a good indication as to the eventual colouring and texture.

With the exception of the skylight the only other penetrations within the Gallery Building cladding are to accommodate the access bridges.

Each of the three bridges will be treated differently according to their purpose. The main link into the foyer will be a steel structure with full height glazing allowing the visitor the visual experience of approaching over water. In contrast the link serving the delivery bay will be enclosed in a limestone panel to match the Pier Building. The third link, which is a fire escape, will be an open grill steel structure.

In contrast to the Gallery Building the external appearance of the Pier Building is in keeping with the character of the pier. With the exception of the restaurant a limestone cladding panel will be used.

Window penetrations will be limited to ensure that the overall appearance of solidity is not compromised. Set against this the full height glazing surrounding the restaurant affords dramatic views in all directions.

Throughout, the interior finishes will be kept simple and functional.

Within the Gallery Building white painted plasterboard wall surfaces and light coloured limestone flooring will enhance the re-occurring theme of the blurring of the edges.

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STRUCTURE The project consists of two buildings - one on the pier and one in the sea.

The building on the pier is designed using traditional steelwork construction, with the floors and roof constructed using metal decking with a concrete topping. Lateral stability is provided by cross-braced panels. Detailed information of the pier construction will be required to design the foundations, but since other small buildings have been built on the pier it is assumed that this will be possible, using either pad footings anchored into the pier, or, if necessary, small diameter piles that can be augured down to the bedrock level.

The building in the sea is positioned such that the adjacent beach is often exposed. It will be constructed using sheet piles that will be driven down into the bedrock to form a caisson. Using sand bags to provide temporary sealing against the water, the caisson will be filled with mass concrete up to the lowest level of accommodation, leaving voids for water tanks for cooling. This will form a plinth at the main pier level, which can be used as a working platform for the structure above.

The superstructure of the Gallery Building is constructed using reinforced concrete walls and slabs. Concrete has been chosen because of its high thermal mass, and because it can be formed into desired shape for the building. Up until the level of the top gallery, the cross walls carry large horizontal forces from both the waves and the wind.

Above this level, only the wind loads will be significant. They are resisted by ribs set into the perimeter walls that act as arches. As the slab spans are less than or equal to 9m, flat reinforced concrete slabs are used.

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The main issues with constructing the building in the water concern the necessity for a caisson type construction, and the need for robust materials both for the structure and the cladding. The gallery building has no openings at the lower levels, apart from the access to the pier, so a continuous weathertight membrane can be developed, with a rainscreen on the outside. The building position chosen is such that the wave energy is comparatively low.

Both buildings will be constructed using materials that are resistant to attack by wind, water and salt. Cladding will be attached using stainless steel fixings, and all steelwork will need to be galvanised and protected with marine quality paints.

ENERGY Successful lighting is not only dependent on achieving the required light levels in the various spaces, but is also dependent on an understanding of human physiological and psychological behaviour. For example, it is important not to locate spaces with relatively high illuminance levels adjacent to spaces requiring subdued lighting. This would otherwise lead to problems associated with eye acclimatisation.

Consequently, the proposed design follows a logic of lighting gradation, in which spaces with the highest light levels are located on the top floor of the Gallery Building, i.e. Gallery 1 with a large glazed north facing rooflight, whilst areas with the lower requirements for lighting are found on the floor below — Galleries 2 & 3.

The central plantroom is located in the Pier Building. The main electrical plant, including standby power facilities via a central battery system is incorporated in this room, as well as the boiler plant and water services, with direct access to outside for plant maintenance.

A second plantroom is located in the private/gallery complex. This room houses the air handling plant, water cooled chillers and associated pumps, plus connections to two seawater tanks, located beneath the plantroom. The two seawater tanks, embedded into the concrete plinth supporting the main building, are used as sources of heat rejection. At high tide, one of the tanks is filled with seawater and is gradually pumped into the second tank, after having circulated through the condensers of the chillers. This eliminates the need for any cooling towers or air cooled chillers and offers a highly energy efficient means of heat rejection. The second tank is then emptied at the next high tide. 

Jim Dodson, who sent On Site the competition drawings and text, is an architect with Snøhetta in Oslo, Norway. More work, including the Alexandria Museum, is on their website at www.snoarc.no

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cyberplace Ward E g a n

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t is clear that as physically manifest beings, we occupy, and live in space, but as human beings, we know particular, significant places.

Space and place are different, space being a physical condition of extension in a multidimensional world while place is a human construction. Place is a manifestation of our umwelt, our experiential environment, and as such has all the psychological and subjective characteristics of a phenomenological analysis of perception and a subjectivity incapable of trans-subjective validation.

In philosophical realism we believe space to be characteristic of the world, while place exists only in the phenomenological experience of our world. Space and place are not only different, they are ontologically independent. The significance of this is that we can build place independent of space.

The art of making place for ritual is the essence of architecture. Ritual is always metaphysical: underlying the act is the search for something beyond the explanation. Most of what we do is simply habit, but to do because it has a clarity that transcends description is the essence of ritual. Sometimes, some of the things that we do, have this clarity and in this experience, ourselves, the place, the things in the place, are no longer separate and distinct but have a unified purpose. A Japanese teahouse is designed fundamentally to support the ritual of the tea ceremony. The architecture of the teahouse, the building as building, is a device to manifest that ritual. And it is clear that when one experiences a teahouse, even causally, that something sunspoken is going on.

ward eagen

Art is a process of integrating our world and our environment. It is a catharsis for the artist in creation, and a catharsis for the user in recreation and culture grows. By using personal images to create our story, we explore meaning in our world. By pushing the convention of language in the telling of our story others can appropriate the tale.The

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narrative arch, with its beginning, middle, and end, grabber, climax, and kicker, invite, through universal and archetypal form, our participation.

Cinematic conventions such as montage, close-up, establishing shot, speak to us in a language we all know. Expectation generates immersion. Movement causes transformation. And as always we point to the horizon through metaphor and metonymy.

Poetics is the study of how meaning is manifest in texts. In New Media, meaning comes from the inter-play of many voices. Sometimes there is a lead with backup singers, but often there is a struggle for ‘voice’, a battle between Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Great works come from this cycle of friction, and cautious harmony. In New Media, this intertextuality of voices produces a terra incognita that we are only beginning to explore. The dominant features of this landscape are interactivity, a networked community, and the intertextuality of voices, and there is no conventional language adequate to its mapping.

Modernity celebrates the value of innovation as supreme: Post Modernity is driven by difference, and both inscribe an arc of isolation. The exploration of our personal places requires a boldness and an invention to go where no one has gone. To become manifest as art in a communal sense, we need to communicate that journey. We require a language by definition, a system of convention, to become enhanced, extended, pushed, into a new language. In order for new media to be this new language, we need to define its limits so that we can go beyond its limits. This is the paradox: We need enough convention to communicate our individual explorations beyond convention, and we need to do this collectively in order to make sense of our world(s). 

ward eagen

Ward M. Eagen is an Assistant Professor at the School of Fine Art, University of Lethbridge.

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murray gallant

Embassy of the United States of America, Ottawa. Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Washington, DC. above:: official ‘front’. below: Sussex Drive, the ‘back’.

losing my religion

Myron Nebo z uk

E

very couple of weeks I get together for sushi with a good friend who is both a newly minted grandfather and practicing Muslim.

Our conversations run the gamut from little kids through to geopolitical events. At one of our lunch dates last fall, as we were quietly marvelling at the miniature cumulus formations in our miso soups, he announced that he was giving up religion. ‘Why?’ I asked, trying to mask my surprise. ‘The religious values that shaped me as a child are now strangely at odds with the values of those who profess to belong to the same religion’.

This vignette serves as a springboard to illustrate a much larger scale dichotomy between the American government and its citizenry. This dichotomy also exists, perhaps at an unintentional level, in the current United States Embassy in Ottawa. Several critiques have thoroughly analyzed the embassy’s uneasy relationship to its immediate physical context, typically concluding that the embassy’s two face-edness is a measured response to two physically different contextual conditions.

Rather than covering old ground, I will instead speculate about the forces that shaped this building from a larger cultural and political perspective.

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I propose that the American Embassy is not so much a response to its physical environment but rather an embodiment of two diametrically opposed belief systems, operating independently from each other.

Both are intrinsic to America’s identity.

Is this building Fort Knox with a happy face? Like the unexpected announcement during miso, this query illustrates a fundamental divide between governing bodies and their followers, be they religious or political. The collective shock that we all felt on September 11th, becomes something more complicated when we re-consider the Embassy in the context of September 11th. It’s as if the events of that day were presaged in the defensive gestures implemented by the embassy’s architects.

murray gallant

The ironies of proximities in Ottawa: the memorial to Canadian Peacekeepers, the US Embassy behind.

A troubling aspect of this dichotomy is its portability. By this I mean the ability, beyond American borders, of the embassy’s proponents to weather sustained criticism by Canadian architects, local citizens and the media as the proposed design proceeded through the various permit-granting stages. Despite the opposition to this embassy on a number of highly articulated counts, the project proceeded into construction largely unscathed. This suggests that the values of the granting agencies and by extension, the Canadian government were closely aligned to their American cousins. Even before the embassy was completed, opposition, however annoying it may have been at the time was inconsequential in affecting any meaningful dialogue or adjustments to the project.

An observer of the American political system in the late 1950s commented, in William Burroughs fashion, that the United States’ singular most important achievement was its ‘complete and utter sense of corruption’ (this at a moment in time when Leave It To Beaver was being beamed into every American and most Canadian households). A few

short years later, President John F. Kennedy was killed and Lee Harvey Oswald declared that he was a patsy just before he too was silenced.

The notion that two fundamentally opposed belief systems exist within one body is hardly new; Noam Chomsky and other cultural commentators have been bringing to light examples of this dichotomy for several decades. What is unsettling is that the architects of this project must have wrestled with this dichotomy before deciding on the comparatively benign expression of opposites expressed as differing physical influences. Pity that. Given the embassy’s physical proximity to the National Gallery’s engaging transparency, the Parliamentary Library’s deliberate vulnerability and the Byward Market’s intimate charms, the architects of this project chose not to present even a veneer of engagement, representative of democratic dialogue. Instead, we got a sulking, introverted hulk that is only nominally a response to its immediate neighbours. To borrow a phrase from Ron Keenberg, describing Mies Van Der Rohe’s application of steel to a concrete structure, it may be more appropriate to conclude that the architects of the American Embassy lied to tell a deeper truth. 

Myron Nebozuk is an architect who turned down a job offer at Morphosis to work with the curious people at Manasc Isaac Architects in Edmonton. Likes his martinis with a lime twist. Greatest accomplishments: his two daughters,Veronika and Aniko.

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over the transom: miss sixty Atelier FABRIQ what is your work about?

We try to provide functional and pleasurable spaces, drawing upon the existing qualities of each particular project site and by using simple and intelligent gestures. We attempt to mine past and contemporary styling to develop spaces with lasting appeal. why Miss Sixty?

We did the Sixty-Canada showroom/office in Montreal in 1999. SixtyCanada and the office in Italy were pleased with the Montreal showroom, and Sixty was redefining its North American expansion. They needed a New York showroom and head office. That project was completed in Spring 2001 and was followed by the Nolita boutique, their first North American store experiment. It wasn’t to be their flagship store, but rather as ‘lab store’ for future retail experiences NewYork was our first step into the United States. There was a great deal of trial by fire’, but we emerged relatively unscathed and a great deal more knowledgeable about practicing architecture in the US. We are now working in joint venture with Italian architects on the design of a new Sixty Showroom/office/retail complex in Los Angeles planned for Summer 2002 completion. how did September 11 change the project, the economy of working in NY? The attacks directly impacted the retail project in that it was close enough to Ground Zero that the construction site was inaccessible for at least one week and was logistically affected for a few weeks following. As outsiders however, we did observe a heightened resolve by all involved to complete the project in spite (or perhaps, in defiance) of the tragic events. how would you describe the store?

The design of the store is a collision between contemporary and 1950s design. The tactile quality of mid-century design with its bent and sculpted wood, its use of chrome and steel, its abstract patterns and its Modern flavour are assimilated and reinterpreted to create a clean, yet rich, engaging and dynamic space. why are the 1950s so very interesting these days?

We ‘blame’ IKEA and their ilk for raising the appreciation of natural materials as well as for functional, playful and emotive designs.

louis rivera

Atelier FABRIQ. Jean-Christian Koch, project architect Michael Hall, assistant designer Miss Sixty-Nolita Boutique 244 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 180 m2

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Atelier FABRIQ is a young architecture and design firm based in Montreal, with projects currently in New York and Los Angeles.

gerr y kopelow

Contemporar y Art Galler y interior

apologizing for culture Step h a n ie W h i t e

O

ne of the pieces submitted to On Site recently was two arts buildings by Architectura, one of Vancouver’s largest firms. The gist of the proposed article was how cleverly the Contemporary Art Gallery and the Scotia Bank Dance Centre (both 2001) were built on their shoestring budgets. This entailed donated sites, heritage bonuses, FAR bonuses, free design fees resulting in ‘spare, serviceable buildings with some real architectural elegance’ (Noel Best of Architectura). The shoestring approach to putting projects in place is validated by the questionable claim that the dancers and artists wanted ‘straightforward, working facilities, not extravagant public architecture … [their] unstated message — don’t spend more than necessary, this is for our art form, not yours’.

Several opposing questions occur here. Must the arts succumb to global-scale attention-getting mechanisms in order to survive? Is a parochial pride in the struggle to do dance and art in renovated old buildings on seedy streets still valid in the twenty-first century?

When funds are scraped together to get a firm of the size of Architectura involved must it be to renovate a redundant old bank on Granville into a dance centre? The Contemporary Art Gallery, after 30 years in an SRO on Hamilton building a significant reputation, is only able to put together a budget of two million, which includes its operating endowment. Design fees are waived by the architects, Noel Best, a member of the CAG board, and Martin Lewis of nlm Architect and a lecturer at UBC.

Now, this is a fairly depressing thing to consider. Where does this sort of attitude to architecture sit while Libeskind’s ROM addition is being debated, and where (in this issue) Margate, a small English seaside town, runs an international competition for an arts building and chooses a project that will undoubtedly bring attention and fame to both the town and the Turner collection. Of course Margate could have said ‘don’t do more than necessary — just give us a box for our art, that’s what is important, not the building’, but Margate, the ROM, the Berlin Museum, the Tate, the Guggenheim appear to understand that big architecture exposes more people to the arts than constrained borderline budget buildings.

The buildings here are fine — that is not at issue — lots of spare concrete, shadows and light. What is at issue here is the apologetic humility with which arts buildings are approached in this country.

Although they are the centres of their own small communities, they are wedged into the renovated interstices of transitional zones in the city, still following that now forty year old cliché that artists are the front wedge of gentrification.

What many Canadian cities don’t seem to exploit is the public relations potential of cultural production. Or, to take a sports example, because of the 1988 Olympics, Calgary has an excellent collection of facilities which attract great coaches who attract athletes and we get a gold medal speed skating team. Build the facilities and they return their investment with interest. But why does this thinking not apply to the arts? Montreal does rather better in this respect. It is not coincidental that Quebecois cultural production, supported and cherished, is a rich, exportable commodity.

gerr y kopelow

It is good that the CAG and CDC have new buildings, clean facilities, good lighting, but it seems that for both projects there has been an inordinately long struggle to get these buildings in place — twenty years for the CDC with four different sites and much controversy.

Architectura gallantly credits the city for extending the bonus arrangements and the artistic communities for their flexibility, all parties being cooperative and inventive. But so they should be — after all what is there to obstruct in a dance centre and an art gallery? 

C ont e mporar y Ar t Ga lle r y l o bby

Stephanie White is editor of On Site.

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B

eauty found, unexpectedly, as a surprise as one comes to know a new place is beauty at its most satisfying. This phenomenon allows new treasures to be discovered and rediscovered, as cities, perhaps ancient, are continually re-engaged by newcomers, new citizens.

In Berlin, Mies’ New National Gallery, Scharoun’s Philharmonie, Libeskind’s Extension to the Berlin Museum produce pleasure not only through their beauty and spatial resonance, but also through the knowledge one is in the presence of a recognized greatness, a part of the highest point of the culture of our discipline.

There is a more furtive, personal pleasure in recognizing qualities in the work not so iconic. The buildings and spaces found, enjoyed, appreciated and perhaps later discovered in expansive architectural histories of a particular place. Eric Mendelsohn’s Deutscher Metallarbeiter-Verband in Berlin-Kreutzberg or Emil Fahrenkamp’s Shellhaus in Berlin-Tiergarten were hidden pleasures, slightly out of the limelight of a rediscovered Berlin of the 1990’s.

beauty

found

lost

discovered

beauty

Andrew King and Angela Silver

calgary 1996 Much has been said of the re-discovery of the North American city that is necessary for its survival. Reengagement of the urban condition is also about isolating the fragmentary beauty that may exist. Calgary, the archetypal North American city, continues to reveal itself through fragments of this furtive, undisclosed beauty that are as much as much a part of finding this ‘place’ as driving to Drumheller and witnessing the prairie landscape shift.

The brutalist spectacle of Jack Long’s Planetarium, the elegant facade of the Fording Building and the discrete Deco of the Barron Building are punctuation marks in the benignly banal cityscape that is Calgary. Less overt, more discrete discoveries were the beautiful piloti held courtyard office space on 17th avenue that housed the Forbidden Flavours ice cream parlour (now unrecognizable as an italian hilltownish clock tower stucco-covered mundanity) and the relentlessly modern, delicate south balcony facade of the Highlander Motel on 16th ave north west (now rendered as an absurdity with a green metal chalet roof perched like a timid lemming).

North Hill Shopping Centre, anchored with an original Simpsons Sears store, was a project that had everything to do with Calgary in the mid twentieth century, an architectural expression about the burgeoning North American city, a typical but expansively optimistic condition.

Its a small thing, a 1960’s shopping centre on what was then the periphery. It is solid: a clear and honest material strategy, a subtle composition along its facades, a building that through its language is about a young modern city. A piece of architecture driven by architectural culture, but one that reflects commerce, exchange, the ability to build in on a vast topographic, economic and political expanse.

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above: life as it was lived at the 1958 opening of North Hill Shopping Centre. below: the original store (drawing courtesy of Sears Canada, North Hill).

lost Not any more. North Hill Shopping Centre has been ‘re-vitalized’. A 30’ drywall sun, extruded from the ceiling enhances the dining experience in the food court. Petcetera and Liquor Warehouse enjoy their own facade identity, a 6” deep barrel vault and a skeletal pitched roof form—house? The designer has created a pastiche of recent architectural history to create a cacophony of colour and vague formal reference. It is pastiche without irony, without intellectual content, without rigour. The hints, nods and winks to Venturi, Graves, Eisenman seem accidental, certainly without the awareness that these architects were responding with an idea to a culture. The new North Hill Centre is responding to the market, and is devoid of — even negates— the culture of contemporary architecture.

A building that was something (and beautiful in that specific something) has become everything and nothing.

As beauty it is lost.

In ‘Undisclosed: Architecture in the New Public Landscape’, Chris MacDonald’s recent essay for the upcoming publication Discrete City, he discusses the ‘tyranny of legibility’. In essence this refers to the ‘ inclination of the commercial domain...to establish — first, foremost and forever — a regard for its clientele as that of the urban novice’.

This architecture is about recognition, recognition for a novice of a place to engage in a commercial transaction.

But it is only this. It is not about a place to make a commercial transaction. It is certainly not about the political context in which we are free to make any and all commercial transactions. It is not an architecture about anything, it is a building to buy something in. It is empty.

This emptiness of course, exists everywhere in the vastly expanding cities of George W’s North America.

The warehouse stores and mega-centres. Emptiness here is expected, answered with another empty engagement.

To leave Berlin, New York, Montreal, and be able to re-assemble a fractured memory of the ever present architectural culture of those places is a wonder of our time. To see what we have of an architectural culture disappear to thoughtless, vague commercial gestures, to the lowest common denominator of architectural communication is not.

To destroy richness, a considered, layered richness that in a small degree reflects the potentials of a culture, and replace it with this emptiness that can only reflect the instantaneously superseded habits of a population is a reflection of how eviscerated the power of architecture has become.  Andrew King is currently editing Discrete City (about the North American urban condition), teaches at the University of Calgary and works in the Andrew King Studio.

Angela Silver is a photographer and artist working in Calgary who has recently exhibited 2 Months: Budapest and Berlin in Berlin, Halifax and Calgary.

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back page bridges.

Stephanie White

and arches

W

hen looking through the Glenbow picture archives for an example of a celebratory arch, I found this one in File Hills, built in 1906 for the visit of the Governor-General of Canada at the time, Earl Grey. Arches were in their heyday in late nineteenth century England, erected usually for royal visits: in High Wycombe, a furniture manufacturing town, a huge arch was made eintirely of chairs for Queen Victoria’s carriage to pass through. In Canada many arches were built for troops returning from the First World War. Saskatoon had four placed at intervals down its main street. They were temporary constructions out in the public realm that focussed feelings of pride, celebration, commemoration, occasion.

This arch in File Hills, when I chose it, seemed typical —bannered, flagged, garlanded and beribboned — and that it was on a reserve seemed to say something about the relationship between natives and the King of England that today is understood through the nation to nation treaties made between Briatian and each of our First Nations.

This, however, is a case of a misleading contemporary interpretation of an historic event. File Hills was, in fact, an experiment in the ongoing war of assimilation conducted by Canada’s Department of Indian Affairs against native peoples.

The File HIlls Colony in southeastern Saskatchewan was set up for ex-residential school students: each colonist was given an 80 acre lot (promoting an individual property model rather than community land stewardship) and a loan of $125 (thus engaging them in economic structures). It was reserve land already, but the group occupying it, the Peepeekisis, were not invited to participate. Colonists were individuals from other reserves, disengaged from their people. File Hillls became a model colony, a show piece of how completely natives could be alienated from traditional life. It was intensely patriotic: 28 farmers enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, a higher proportion of the community than any non-native settlement in Saskatchewan.

This was an era of utopian experiments in protective communities across the prairies, including Mennonites, Jews, aristocratic French and gentleman English. Sarah Carter points out that File Hillls, exceptionally, ‘was established to indoctrinate a group of people to majoritarian values’ (‘Demonstrating Success: the File Hills Farm Colony’, The Prairie Forum, p 167)

Welcoming arch erected at File Hills Colony, near Balcarres, Saskatchewan in 1905, on the occasion of the visit of Earl Grey, Governor-General of Canada.

Glenbow Museum Archives NA-3454-12.

If so, it was only partly successful. Fine farmers until the Dominion government disallowed modern farming practices on reserves, File Hills colonists were well-apprised of the rights and possibilities of mainstream Canadian culture, insisting on their right to dance and maintain traditional practices. The settlement had a cottage hospital, petitioned for 50 years for a school —protesting the ongoing institution of the residential school, employed white farm labourers and was, in some areas, self-governing. It started to crumble under an overly dictatorial Indian Agent in the 1930s plus the agricultural failure during the Depression.

This ceremonial arch in the light of all of this is at once triumphal and deceptive, optimistic and doomed, symbol of King and Country and First Nations survival of endless experiments dedicated to their erasure.

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Stephanie White is editor of On Site review.

GERMANY / LIGHT WEIGHT / NO BREAKAGE / NAILED ON / FIRE BEHAVIOR: DIN 4102 (PART 7) / EQUIVALENT TO ASTM E 108-95

COMPETITTIVE WITH ASPHALT SHINGLES / TESTED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED MATERIAL RESEARCH IN KAISERSLAUTEN

92% RECYCLED TIRES AND PLASTICS / COMPUTER CONTROLLED MOULDING MACHINES

issue 6:

a r c h i t e c t u re , h u m a nit y, po l i t i c a l c h a n ge and beauty

antonio zedda

angela silver

S e a r s , N or t h H i l l , C a l g a r y.

M a y o R ep l a cem ent S chool , Yuk on. K obayash i + Ze dda.