Acknowledging these qualities, both the CRH Gallery and the Koerner Gardens are rented out for events. From the Koerner Gardens, yet another open boardwalk connects you to the Young Welcome Centre on one side, and the Evergreen Garden Market and Cafe Belong on the other. Hard as it may be to leave, one takes the boardwalk to the other side and opens the door to what seems like a meeting area. Equipped with information booklets, washrooms and an ATM, the meeting area is a bustling activity space. It is flanked by Evergreen Garden Market - an artisan shop and nursery - on one side, and Cafe Belong - a rustic restaurant selling locally sourced food and drinks and overlooking the Tiffany Commons - on the other. Outside this building complex, one can take a leisurely stroll across Tiffany Commons and reach the Pavilions on the other side. The Pavilions, two large sheds which were previously locations for sand-lime brick production, now play host to temporary activities like farmer’s markets, food truck festivals and the like. On a weekday, kids who attend the outdoor school at Evergreen Brickworks are seen playing around here. A small complex of buildings that previously housed administrative activities, is now the location for the outdoor school. Between these buildings and the Pavilions lie the Mud Creek with the Water Treatment Plant at its head. In the past, they were used to provide the water critical for brick making while now
they stand witness to all that is changing around them. The northern end of the Pavilions open out onto the Frances and Tim Price Terrace that overlook the Quarry Garden and the pond, creating a zen environment of sorts. A perfect place to culminate the walk! Sitting on one of the red chairs, looking over the waterfilled quarry with the Brickworks as the backdrop, one tries to sum up the sights and experiences of the day. The built environment shouts sustainability (maybe even screams at the top of its lungs) and along with its purposes asks us to be aware of our environment. Evergreen Brickworks is one of those unique places that practices what it preaches, one of those places you will visit which has found a new lease on life - a new purpose and a new set of users. This new purpose does not overshadow the old one, rather it takes the old purpose under its wing, for only then is the story of the brick factory complete. Architecture, as it should be, plays a wonderful host to this story. Surely the spaces were present before, but by repurposing these old spaces for new activities and by using alternating open and closed spaces, each space becomes a new experience - each totally different from the other. By creating spaces that were flexible in their activities, purpose and experience, the architects have kept the element of surprise alive at Evergreen Brickworks. The controlled chaos one experiences at the Brickworks leads one to think if in fact that is how nature sees itself to be.
About the Authors Shruti Omprakash is an architect based in Chennai who runs her own practice, Drawing Hands Studio. A graduate of The Berlage at TU Delft, some of her core interests are use and design of temporary spaces, adaptive and flexible spaces, furniture design etc. This interest even led to her master thesis focusing on revitalizing vacant spaces through recurrent temporary programs. She is particularly keen to bring about a change in the current model of Work and Knowledge Environments. She can be contacted at https:// in.linkedin.com/in/shruti-omprakash-a9537918 Jiya Benni is an urbanist-architect whose major interests are water urbanism and urban regeneration. After graduating from TU Delft, where she did her master thesis on guiding urban growth along the ‘bluegreen grid’ of the city, she spent more than a year researching flood-prone slums as part of her work at Waterstudio.NL. During this time, she also co-authored a few published articles. Apart from her deep passion for cities and its workings, she also loves to read, write, paint and travel. She currently lives in Toronto and can be reached at https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jiya-benni-3996b717.
June 2016 | CITY OBSERVER109