Core Connections

How can a building create an identity that brings together the two visions of unity and plurality – “one Canada” vs. a nation of “many” Canadas?

The City of Cambridge has recently experienced a population boom, with immigrants now representing 23.2% of the city’s residents. Core Connections aims to address the cultural, lingual, and societal challenges of immigrants by prioritizing flexibility, community, and entrepreneurship/agency both between residents and between the residents and the public. An informal market, public and private patios and courtyards, and movable walls all work to alleviate housing alienation, while publicly accessible support services such as language/ skills training classrooms, immigration settlement services, and several unprogrammed spaces help ease users’ transition to a new environment.

Carving out the core to create an inner courtyard that serves both the residents and the public

Forming a passageway between the inner courtyard and the adjacent Trinity Park across the street, enhancing the visual and social engagement with the space

Generating green spaces in all the courtyards and a non-accessible green roof to further enhance the connection with the environment.

Offsetting the street-facing sides of the upper residential floors to help distinguish between public and private

Maximizing sunlight and ventilation through North and East-facing balconies in the units and communal spaces

A movable wall on the second floor creates programmatic flexibility for the unprogrammed space, now able to function as two separate spaces or one larger space second floor plan third, fourth, fifth floor plan

Unit Types By Number Of Bedrooms

Each unit features 1 or 2 “movable walls” that can create a new room or expand an existing one sixth floor plan

Creating An Informal City Within A Building

The presence of an informal marketplace on the ground floor (selling a variety of goods and products) provides opportunities for entrepreneurship and collaboration, as well as enhancing the social connection between the general public and the building’s residents - who may not have employment, work, or social security when first immigrating to Canada/Cambridge.