Location
Toronto, ON, Canada
Typology
Education
Status
Conceptual Design
Date
2012
About
Graduate Studies / Judson University
Educational Restructuring
Stemming from a critique on current high school public education systems modeled after industrialized methods of learning that promote standardization and disconnection of subject matters, this revised education system intends to revitalize education with a focus on creative exploration of varying methods.
Relational Overlapping
Focused on creating and fostering relationships of differing forms on many levels, the programmatic pieces of this design were interrelated and overlapped with the overarching goal of embedding creative inspirations within the architectural design. Cultivated relationships include students to the urban community, people to nature, and the interplay of multi-sensory experience.
Design & Thought Process
Context: Toronto Wellness Community
Site Selection
As available fresh water diminishes as a precious commodity, maintaining the purity of its sources becomes imperative. Many cities along the Great Lakes’ coasts pollute this global resource [Great Lakes Basin contains 20% of the world’s fresh water supply], including the city of Toronto. In an effort to assist in counteracting the current detriment, this urban proposal is sited where it can help cleanse Lake Ontario’s largest tributary at its point of impact: the mouth of the Don River.
Currently a nearly-barren industrial zone, the chosen site provides ample space for redirecting the mouth of the river to flow more naturally into Lake Ontario, eliminating the debris build-up that currently occurs while also minimizing the extent of demolition required to construct the new community.
Selected by the city as one of the potential sites for future redevelopment, access to the downtown core is readily available by public and personal transit: an amenity reinforced by views of the core from the site’s waterfront.
Design Approach
Focused on the broad concept of wellness, this urban proposal addresses more than just ecological wellness in water filtration. Personal wellness is advocated on the individual and community levels through utilizing the river as an amenity that functions as an interstitial area between a dense urban fabric and a rural, pastoral landscape. Individual building proposals help define and unify this dichotomy both functionally and aesthetically.
Studio Compilation: Preliminary Research, Urban Analysis & Proposal, Building Proposals
