YES2020 MArch Foundation Studio 3/4 (Livesey)

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selected works EVDA 582 - Studio II in Architecture Professor: Graham Livesey School of Architecture Planning and Landscape University of Calgary Winter 2020

introduction excrescence joint trench circuit

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This studio course examines formal, contextual, material, spatial, and social aspects of urban dwelling. The question of urban living is one of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary architects as city populations grow, and climate change continues to impact environments. Architecture cannot be considered independent of the city. The urban dwelling, ranging from the micro-unit to the giant mansion, still constitutes the fabric of the city.

Urban propositions must always address quality of life issues, even as ideas about density, social/political justice, technology, and economics proliferate.

While developing skills, the studio is also a site of discovery through analysis and process. The dynamic forces that produce urban ecologies are constantly evaluated, explored, and innovated upon in order to address the heterogeneous conditions that characterize contemporary living in all its intricacies, problems, and potentials.

INTRODUCTION

Taking inspiration from Manuel Gausa’s “Open Systems” approach, as described in Housing: New Alternatives, New Systems, students in this studio developed their projects based on four terms: circuits, excrescences, trenches, and joints. These projects ranged in scale and complexity, from creating a functional furniture piece out of a single 5’x5’ sheet of plywood, a photography assignment capturing these abstractions in the physical environment, to a design for a small urban dwelling, and lastly, a mixed-use housing scheme.

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EXCRESCENCE

Excrescence refers to ideas about growths or outbreaks, often of an abnormal quality, that emerge out of a primary body. It places emphasis on volumetric fractality, on an ambiguity of scale, the intermixing of uses, and geometric complexity. It may be described as a vestige – something that is part of, and yet distinct from a larger context, that perhaps evolves separately from its environment. Hence, the excrescence may be characterized as akin to an island, a tumour, a puzzle piece that no longer fits, a parasite upon a host, as well as the manifestation of symptoms of isolation and alienation.

Fruiting Bodies explores the relationship between us and our everyday. Derived from the word “excrescence”, it takes a form inspired from the parasitic relationship between cordyceps and insects. The protrusions come through the table top, forcing users into placing their objects in peculiar ways, similar to the cordyceps control over their hosts.

Utilizing one 5’x5’ sheet of birch plywood, this table was assembled using a simple stub tenon and groove joint, along with a number of square holes cut to place the cordycep pieces in. The table was oiled to bring out the natural colour of the wood.

cindy nachareun

FRUITING BODIES

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For this project, “excrescence” describes vestigial qualities of the urban environment and evidences of use, which, when their utility is exhausted, leave behind traces that appear as abnormalities or disfigurements in a sanitezed and modernizing landscape. House 9:4 takes over a historically significant square that no longer functions well as public space, with the proposition that a possible way to become contemporary is to impose a new and unusual program.

The dwelling as an urban square is explored to create new circulation patterns, activated frontages and dynamic spatial experiences.

Living volumes under the ground erupt out of the surface. Public and private uses intermingle and become indeterminate through the “figuring of the ground,” and the activities above and below are simultaneously choreographed via large planar walls.

vivian ton

HOUSE 9:4

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AIT

cindy nachareun

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Ait is a dwelling located on a small island within Elbow River. The project is an exploration on the possibilities of inhabiting an unusual form on an unusual site. “Excrescence� presents itself, as an interplay between the natural world and what humans impose onto it.

The small island emerges and submerges over time as the water levels raise and lower.

There is the illusion that it is attaching itself into the river bank when the water is low enough. This dwelling continues this notion of emerging and submerging. As the water raises and lowers, the dwelling appears to grow out of the river and onto the island. The form found itself through experimental modeling utilizing balloons and plaster , achieving the desire for unexpected outcomes as a reinforcement of excrescence. These organic forms along with unique site elements lend themselves to new public and private organizations. The roof is entirely open to the public as an extension of the island, and to ensure the river maintains its public accessibility. For the inhabitants, an underground entrance is provided to maintain anonymity, and continues the idea of submerging and emerging as a personal interaction.

SECTION 01

SECTION 02

Feelings of outsideness are commonplace now in our growing cities and globalizing world.

The increasing chaos we experience results in our ever increasing alienation from one another, leaving us feeling strange even if we have never even left our hometowns. Perhaps we are unable to keep up with or accept the ever evolving city, we find ourselves trapped in online personas, or the people which once grounded us have since left. Maybe we are new and are having a difficult time adjusting to our environment, the gap only growing as we struggle to adapt. Whatever the reason, it is not enough to simply exist in one place, while longing for another.

We continue to see less and less distinct spaces in our cities due to the general disregard of place in favour of standardization and status quo. Increased homogenization, and focus on the masses (mass culture, mass communication) has resulted in increased anonymity, and changeability. How can you place value and meaning in “home� when community and refuge have disappeared?

Central Park addresses excrescences through it’s programmatic development. From greenspaces created on site, public to private spaces come out into an amalgamy of layered shared spaces and spaces of private refuge.

cindy nachareun

CENTRAL PARK

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ISLANDS studio 1-br 2-br

‘Islands’ is a proposal for a live/work scheme situated noth of the Repsol Centre in Lindsey Park, sited within the 1:1000 year flood plain zone. For this project, the word “excrescence” describes outgrowth, or vestige — something that is a part of, and yet distinct from a a larger context, which evolves in its own way.

It is somewhat akin to a puzzle piece that no longer fits. While we become more socially and spatially distanced, every building becomes its own city — and by that it becomes an island. In an age of increasing social fragmentation, the looming existential threat of climate change, and the pervasion of work culture into the traditional domestric sphere (especially that of digital and immaterial labour), rethinking what a neighbourhood is means to address the question of privacy as well as shared resources and spaces.

The building is defined by several conditions that deal with excrescence on several scales: a displaced ground at the urban level creating public space; a connected interior street with continuous spaces for housing multiple forms of work and leisure; and unique unit types for reprieve from the labours of daily life.

3-br shared spaces

vivian ton

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atrium/greenhouse domestic nodes

studio 1-br 2-br 3-br

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domes

BIG BOX FORT Situated on the corner of 17th Ave SW and 1st St SW, The Big Box Fort is a project which utilizes its enclosure as both defining form and means of intent. Utilizing the word excrescence, the large rectilinear form restricts organic growth, and yet in the way the form is punctured and pushed apart, growth may still occur.

EXCRESCENCES

The aim is to create a large dominant shell, reminiscent of the building typology and layout of the downtown core which could hold the apartment blocks and commercial amenities comfortably within. This shell is called the Big Box. Pushing the units to the walls of the Big Box, however, left a yawning void across the space, ready to be filled. This takes the shape of a dynamic ramp and walkway system spanning the gap on and between each floor, not in any purposeful or minimal utilitarian way, but instead meant to create long walking paths for increased circulation and leisurely enjoyment of residents and public alike.

EXCRESCENCES

The Big Box Fort is designed as a microcosm of the built environment, with an emphasis on the pushing-apart and opening-up of the form to allow natural elements to grow in, through, and out from it. It is both mixed-use residential, as well as an extension of the busy street it faces, intended to draw people up into it, to experience the freedom of movement and growth within the immovable envelope.

alex neumann

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JOINT

Conceptually, the joint describes the meeting of conditions, highlighting edges and seams, sutures or insertions that conjoin multiple entities together.

The act of joining brings things in common: introducing a relationship of shared or intersecting features. Inspiration comes from wood joinery, symbiosis in the production of urban natures, and interdependent structural arrangements where parts find unity in the whole.

This site analysis looks at territorial production through the comparison of land uses, various boundaries, as well as temporal limitations (in the form of business hours) to show intensity of activity within the Mission area.

davin cheng

MISSION SITE ANALYSIS

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Nest investigates the nature of the joint. It is a sidetable made up of one 5’x5’ sheet of birch plywood. The sidetable can be taken apart into two individual tables varying in height, coming back into it’s completed form once the two tables are nested back into each other.

davin cheng

NEST

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This multi-use urban building uses the green spaces inside the building to create social interactions between the users. The building becomes an extension for the community to the Elbow River. This project looks at how different users can be joined together through the shared spaces.

davin cheng

DWELLING IN THE CITY

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Assignment 3a Site Analysis

This site urban for flows Thisanalysis project looks is to at doterritorial a site analysis a specific area in Calgary.

The site analysis in the area of Mission, focusing on green spaces, should connect to your own concept and show hydrological systems, and traffic in the area. the elements that you want to represent. I focused on the green spaces, water system, and traffic in the city Calgary. For the sections, I concentrated on the specific area that I tried to insert my building and show the geographic elements in these sections.

boxu zheng

MISSION SITE ANALYSIS

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This is a multi-generational, 40-unit housing project sited at the north of Lindsay Park, south of the Elbow River, facing the Repsol Centre. The “joint� of the project combines nature and the building together in order to provide greenhouses in every single unit.

This is inspired by Singaporean and Malaysian green architecture. Considering the weather and climate in Calgary, the scale of the single greenhouses is manipulated to allow for plant growth in cold winters. The scale of the greenhouses is also decided by the orientation, Larger greenhouses are located on the south side of building to gain more natural lights for the plants.

boxu zheng

BREATHING RESIDENCE

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Assignment 3b 40 U

7KLV SURMHFW LV WR GHVLJQ D XQ ages of people in a chosen are my residence is located at th belows Elbow River, and face t of my building is "joint" that I and building together in orde in every single unit. I was insp and Malaysia green architectu about the weather and clima the scale of the single greenho growing in cold winters. The s is also decided by the orient greenhouses on the south side natural lights for the plants. Th FDOOHG %UHDWKLQJ 5HVLGHQFH WR

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TRENCH

The idea of the ‘trench’ suggests the notion of landscape and topography: the image of a deep cut in a continuous surface, a manipulated ground plane through excavation and scraping, the figuration of voids made functional or habitable. It makes evident the urban fabric through endowing upon it new contours and artificial terrains, creating conditions that blur the boundaries between exterior and interior, hinting at what might be hidden or suppressed beneath the façade.

MISSION SITE ANALYSIS Several site visits to Mission, Calgary revealed aspects of the current state of the site, as well as contemporary issues within our city. Through studying the neighbourhood, interesting conditions were noticed, such as intensity, major and minor nodes, and the relationship between them and the site. Popular channels of transportation were also noted via Google Maps and were incoporated into flow systems to reveal certain areas of exclusion.

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dania shahab

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ORE OR RE SHOPPING R SHOPP G CENTRE CE TTRE RE CALGARY GA ARY TOW TOWER W R 1

HOSPITAL

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STAMPEDE STA STAM AM AM STATION

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FLOW SYSTEMS TERRITORIAL SYSTEMS MAJOR NODES SECONDARY NODES

MAJOR NODES SECONDARY NODES TERTIARY NODES

TERTIARY NODES

NIGHT-TIME INTENSITY RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL

DAY-TIME INTENSITY WEEKLY INTENSITY

RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONAL

MOST ACTIVE CHANNELS OF TRANSPORTATION POPULAR ROUTES ON GOOGLE MAP

MAJOR GREEN SPACE SECONDARY GREEN SPACE

REGULATED BY GOVT SECURITY CAMERA CITY LIGHTS

ENCLAVES

dania shahab

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NCLAVES embedded into ground at Lindsay Park of the Mission, ge neighbourhood

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GROUND FLOOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CIRCULATION

GROUND FLOOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CIRCULATION

UNDERGROUND PUBLIC CIRCULATION

UNDERGROUND PUBLIC CIRCULATION

UNDERGROUND PRIVATE CIRCULATON

UNDERGROUND PRIVATE CIRCULATON

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TRENCH HOUSE

alex neumann

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Spanning the length of Rouleauville Square, this dwelling seeks to utilize the ‘trench’ form to create both a public accessway across the park, and provide a small yet comfortable home for its inhabitants. The unassuming structure seeks to provide an appealing avenue for pedestrians, without obstructing their views of St. Mary’s Cathedral and the rows of trees lining the park.

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weiV tsaehtuoS - cirtemonoxA

05:1 weiV tseW - BB noitceS Section AA - North View 1:50

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This project examines how architecture can be organized vertically to utilize narrow strips of land otherwise unsuitable for more conventional housing. The project expands in width above the entrance floor to allow for a perimeter circulation path to wrap a functional core. The whole space is predominantly illuminated by a long skylight on both edges which allows light from above to filter through the stories via grated stairs and light tunnels.

brendan webb

HOW TO LIVE IN NARROW SPACES

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Lightwells

A MULTIDIMENSIONAL FUTURE

brendan webb

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This project integrates the food systems that we rely on for survival with urban dwellings.

While many of its more peculiar features are sensitivities to the site and issues with the typology, its concept involves the organization of the dwelling units around a centralized food-production and economic machine. Here, highly sought-after greens are produced on a commercial scale via vertical aeroponics using water collected on site, which is then sold in the restaurant thus taking numerous steps out of the agriculture supply chain, and ensuring employment for the able-bodied residents of the building. Embrace the complex realities of the world.

Central Cistern Amphitheatre

Shop Kitchen

Dining Area

Community Space

Propogation Room Greenhouse

SUSTAINABLE//VOID

dania shahab

Vertical dwellings lack a sense of community where individuals are isolated from their neighours, creating separation in their living environments. Sustainable//Void re-imagines the typical highrise and its social collective qualities. The word trench influenced the form and concept of social interaction. The relationship between solid/void and negative/ positive is explored in the form to produce a relationship between private and public spaces. The neative space acts as a channel, for communal gatherings. This highrise is separated into neighbourhoods with shared spaces such as a greenhouse for collective urban farming as well as an atrium. These neighbourhoods include mixes of students, families, and seniors who play a role in contributing to the culture, and sustainability of this building.

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TRENCH ATRIUM COMMUNAL NEGATIVE SPACE

PUBLIC SPACE AND PRIVATE SPACE

CIRCULATION PATHS TERRACE

GARDEN PUBLIC SPACE URBAN AGRICULTURE ECOLOGY

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CIRCUIT

The notion of a circuit derives from the emphasis on an idea of a flexible web: schemes based on ‘evolutive matrices’ that present guidelines that are simple but give rise to complex and varied configurations in their optimization. The circuit may be defined as a path between two or more points, often repetitive and cyclical, with movements that seek a return to their origin points. From the observation of quotidian events and ecological cycles, to the systematic paths and nodal connections of transit networks and electronic circuits, the circuit embraces rhythm and regularity. Yet, its formal determination may be interspersed with irregularities, with the elementary circuit as an invisible, latent system open to the possibility of structuring events of itself.

marshall evens

MISSION SITE ANALYSIS

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The word circuits was further explored and defined in the district of Mission through onsite explorations. Circuits were photographed as electrical circuits, circulation within the community, connections through cellphone towers and phone poles, as well as circuits in currents and the natural flow of the river.

judy liu

PHOTO GRAPHY: CIRCUITS

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An exploration of personal routine takes place.

How we interact with a particular object in the morning may differ from the evening. Personal curation is the key to alllowing one piece of furniture turn into many.

adam majer

CIRCUIT

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Circuit Table is a system of paths which are interconnected and branching. The pattern takes inspiration from subway systems and train tracks. The circuit paths create the skeleton of a table. The pattern was developed using a grid which provides a path wide enough for a mug, along with gaps small enough for a book to span.

Each path is connected to an adjacent path with only one connection to create a visually delicate structure. The corners were a combination of a miter and butt joint, allowing for a continuous grain around the edge.

heather moore

CIRCUIT TABLE

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THE LOOP The concept for this urban dwelling aims to create a connection between natural and built systems of movement in the city. The form embraces the natural flow of the river and the built infrastructure of the bridge. The building creates a loop around and under the existing pedestrian bride. It attaches itself to the bridge, minimizing the disturbance of the riverbed. The program is located below the bridge deck to preserve views of the river and to create a public patio space at the bridge deck level. The access is only from the top of the bridge deck level to allow the structure to embrace flooding. Walls are rotated and tilted to reduce obstruction of the river flow. The more public spaces of the house rest on top of the bridge piers and the more private spaces are hung from the underside. Windows in the house capture views down the river and as the water rises, views are engulfed by the river.

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heather moore

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The Accessible House is primarily focused on circulation, where the circulation within a home is defined on the periphery of dwelling and is completely exposed to the public. The home allows for accessibility to a wider range of occupants as it is composed of ramps to the upper levels. This allows for people with disabilities to live in a multi-level home without being restricted to just one level. The Accessible Home is a built in a convenient location in the community of Mission by the major intersection at 17th Avenue SE and Macleod Trail SE on a parking lot beside the Victoria Park/Stampede Station. Beneath the ramps of The Accessible House are bike racks available for public use.

judy liu

THE ACCESSIBLE HOUSE

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Challenging a conventional habitation, the form looked to bridge the realms of the public and private while encouraging the community to use the new bridge, which also accommodated a living quarters.

The program was born from the word “joint�, however, through iterations and thought process a discovery of what is mis-jointed, and the importance of architecture is made. This process was utilized in form, site, and circulation to think about critical issues and the use of architecture as a solution for these problems.

marshall evens

PLEASE PROCEED

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Nestled in the middle of the Elbow River and just beyond the city park, this dwelling inserts itself and simultaneously acknowledges a private space as well as public access to the river The bladed reeds create a privacy screen as well as a unique connection between the public and the private owner as you descend further down to the water.

adam majer

THE REEDS

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Edens Block is a multi-use building with a central courtyard which adds more public space into the area. It consists of public rooftop greenhouses which add more greenery and encourages a sense of community. The greenhouse rooftops are interconnected on every level with stairway platforms integrated with seating for the residents and public to utilize or circulate through. The building includes units such as the student, senior, and family units. Additionally, amenities such as the grab-and-go cafe, rooftop restaurant, and a local retail store are available for the convenience of the residence and surrounding community.

judy liu

EDENS BLOCK

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The concept of “Network Village� is to create a mixed network of interconnected elements, including housing units, public, communal amenity, and green spaces for cultivation. The clusters of housing units create a small-scale integration and mixing of residents, with 5 units per cluster. Shared entrances, living space, and rooftop patios bring a communal aspect to each cluster, and reduce anonymity of residents.

Housing clusters create a village community with varied scales of interaction within the site.

The small-scale buildings, pathways, garden plots, and open space created a human-scaled pedestrian-focused urban landscape.

heather moore

NETWORK VILLAGE

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Phuture Park focuses on connecting and joining the public and private as it occupies a domant park. This activation continues all the way through to the units, all of which are given agency of a greenhouse, allowing for communal and personal food production. The insertion of these greenhouses within the units and program allows light to pass through to create a vibrant courtyard.

marshall evens

PHUTURE PARK

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The Sky Garden project explores and connects the people of our city with the roots that it was built on. It is an offering to a city that struggles to keep its course. Sky Garden offers a more sustainable option to housing and holds a home where a community can more easily form and strengthen itself.

adam majer

SKY GARDEN

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thank you.