Narrative

Narrative is an important tool in developing the design. By imagining how a person, or group, may use the building I can begin to make decisions on the design, be that through the location of a particular activity or space or on smaller details such as the placement of windows to capture views.

Below are three narratives produced as part of my booklet:

Case Study - Sharp Centre for Design, Toronto by Alsop Architects, 2004

I've previously looked at Peckham Library as a case study, Steve has suggested that I also look at this building by Alsops also. Although struggling to find something to back up what I recall Alsop saying about this building (during a lecture he gave which I attended a few years back) I recall that it is built on stilts, above the existing building, to preserve the views to the adjacent park. There may also be some issues regarding rights and space requirements which were unachievable at ground level.

Anyway, a very useful article from www.galinsky.com has this to say about the building:

The Sharp Centre for Design was built to accommodate an expansion of the Ontario College of Art & Design in downtown Toronto. The project was funded by the College, the Province of Ontario, and Rosalie and Isadore Sharp - the benefactors after whom the building is named. The building houses new art studios, lecture theaters, exhibit spaces, and faculty offices. It is the first building completed in North America by the English architect Will Alsop.

The center is a two-story, black and white rectangular volume set atop brightly colored, 26 meter tall columns, straddling existing buildings of the College. In addition to this most visible part of the building, an unbuilt space between existing buildings was filled, creating space for new functions while providing the elevator and stair core that services the upper levels. Located on a quiet side street between two main commercial streets, its immediate neighbors include midrise housing, a food court, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (temporary location), and Grange Park, a treed community park immediately south of the Art Gallery of Ontario. From Grange Park the black and white volume creates a delightful edge as it hovers on its stilts.

With the addition of the Sharp Centre for Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Will Alsop cleverly addresses the complicated notion of expansion in a dense urban setting with his soaring black and white box. The building stitches a connection between existing buildings while providing new space in the rectangular volume that proudly soars above. Organizing the rectangular block above the site allows the street level to become what promises to be a new and valuable civic space that can become an extension of the activities of the college. Still the building may be criticized for being somewhat exclusive, failing to offer a serious connection to the street. However regardless of this consideration one cannot help but believe that there is room in Toronto for this type of assertive expression.

Provocative, unconventional, hopeful, whimsical, and perhaps irreverent, the building is remarkable in the context of Toronto. As a winner of a 2004 RIBA Worldwide Award, the building was described as "courageous, bold and just a little insane." Alsop's project seems perfectly fitting for a college of art and design in a city criticized for competent, but ordinary, architecture. Interestingly, what we see is far less wild than the scheme originally envisaged by Alsop - early representations show the rectangular volume dressed in a dizzying array of day-glow colors. In this light, the simple pre-finished metal cladding seems somehow consequential, and perhaps a hint to difficulties involved in achieving such an unconventional building. Above all, the building may be considered optimistic, and hopefully sets a course for the students who will occupy it.

I also found these images of the models, which I think are really interesting. They are not immaculately made but have a real quality about them which explains the thinking behind the design as well as giving an impression of the impact it may have.


Click here to see a 3D model of the building.

Reviews

On Tuesday myself, Ed and Rick had an interim review with Bob following our usual meeting with Steve in the morning. There were some interesting points to come out of these discussions and Steve's feedback on my document so far:

• My booklet contained information and the initial development of 'A Pattern Language', as developed by Christopher Alexander, but discussions with Bob brought up some potential problems. This methodology has been around for a couple of decades (in fact Bob knows it very well as he studied it as a student!) and has never really taken off as a major method of design. I have to question whether it's entirely relevant, although my thoughts are that it is extremely interesting and is something I'd like to give a modern interpretation. There is a risk that it becomes a formulaic pattern for the components of the design; it would be down to my own creative intuition to prevent that.

• 'Well Being' has many strands of meaning, therefore it is necessary to examine what it might mean in relation to spirituality, noise and light for example.

• Bernard Tschumi, in Architecture & Disjunction, says about "... the actions and events that take place within the social and political realm of architecture." and that in "...contemporary urban society, any cause-and-effect relationship between form, use and function, and socio-economic structure has become both impossible and obsolete." He argues that architecture has become a means to stabilise and institutionalise society, meaning architecture has become "the artful building of spaces" rather than responding to events or program. I'm still getting to grips with his writings but I think he's suggesting that architecture should be about the program of events and activities. This may not necessarily mean that one building is sufficient for many activities and that it requires each to be considered and developed in the most relevant manner. Here's the trusted Wikipedia comments on Tschumi:

  [His] approach unfolded along two lines in his architectural practice: first, by exposing the conventionally defined connections between architectural sequences and the spaces, programs, and movement which produce and reiterate these sequences; and second, by inventing new associations between space and the events that 'take place' within it through processes of defamiliarization, de-structuring, superimposition, and cross programming.

  If anyone has read Tschumi or has any thoughts, I'd be delighted if you would leave some comments.

• Does the school site need something tall, a beacon? Could this be a clock tower or similar?

• Is it really relevant to develop the grassed area and hard sports surface as I am currently intending to? Would it make more sense to develop on the school forecourt, maybe over the existing area even? I should examine dual use of the existing school building. Are there facilities there that are capable of taking some of the activities of my proposal? The land to the South-East of the site may be better utilised for growing food, etc.

So, a lot to do then. We've set ourselves a target of having the feasibility stage finished by the 10th of February, so time to crack on once I've tidied up a few bits in the booklet.

Project Update

I'm currently working up a (roughly) 5000 word document investigating the context and underlining thought processes of my proposal. This will include an understanding of the social environment in which the site exists and theory which supports the decision to create a community building in this location as well as case studies and initial design development.

I've been supporting my writing through numerous books and writings, including Christopher Day's Places of the Soul, C. Richard Hatch's The Scope of Social Architecture and Jack Rostron's Sick Building Syndrome.

I'm sure I'll update the blog as the document and project evolve but there's currently too much to post without boring people to tears, so I'll offer the following which defines what 'Community Well Being' might be and at the bottom a quote which I find interesting from C. Richard Hatch's book.

well-being: n. the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy

community: n. (pl. communities) 1. a group of people living together in one place 2. (the community) society 3. a group of people with a common religion, race of profession: the scientific community 4. the holding of attitudes or interests in common 5. a group of animals or plants living or growing in the same place. Origin: Old French comunete

community care: n. long-term care for mentally-ill, elderly and disabled people within the community rather than in hospitals or institutions.

community centre: n. a place providing educational or recretational activities for a neighbourhood.

community service: n. socially useful work that an offender is required to do instead of going to prison.

The dictionary definition of ‘Well Being’ as a state of comfort, health and happiness suitably sums up the ambitions of this project, albeit expanded so as to integrate a whole community rather than being individually focused. ‘Well Being’ can refer to the activities taking place in the building as well as the building itself, well designed, considerate architecture is essential in this process.

“Society has been fragmented into “interests” that are the unavoidable effect of a competitive market in labor. Community is almost unknown; society is reduced to an aggregation of fearful and mutually suspicious individuals.”