“If animals did not exist, the nature of man would be even more incomprehensible.” Georges-Louis Buffon quoted in The Open: Man and Animal by Georgio Agamben trans. Kevin Attell, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004)
The final project will be a speculative design sited at the site of the current Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard. As in Project 02, the SPES mandate Connecting People with Nature will be the first guideline for the design. The fusion of the conceptual work on the act of observation from Project 01 and the analytic/speculative work from Project 02 are the foundation from which Project 03 will unfold.
The new Stanley Park Urban Wildlife + Education Centre will be a vibrant site of rehabilitation, research, education, information and overnight adventures. It is to accommodate urban wildlife specific to Stanley Park. The Centre is also to be a vibrant site of ecologically minded building. The highest regard for energy-use, water, air, light, passive systems, and conscientious material considerations are to drive the design methodology. As such, this project will develop through a carefully guided process described below.
OBJECTIVE
The main objective of the final project is to undergo the process of an integrated design proposal. Considerations of energy, air, light and water will be conflated with considerations of site and program. Intellectually, the project seeks to conscientiously explore the changing nature of … how we occupy and connect and communicate with nature.
PROCESS
Week ONE: The project begins with necessary fact-finding. Each team is take on one of following 5 tasks:
1> draw the existing condition [site plan, plans, site sections, building sections, elevations]
2> build a 3D model
3> build a 1:100 physical site model. Please extend the boundaries of the site as far as the sketch shows. (Approximately 36” x 48”)
4> research the urban wildlife indigenous to Stanley Park
5> postulate on a classification system to describe the various species. Phylogenetic trees used by biologists may be a good starting point for a system of classification. However, students are encouraged to look to other systems of classification [Dewey Decimal system; alphabetical order; S,M,L,XL; and so on] for inspiration.
> Each team will also to select one or more precedents for the Rehabilitation + Education Centre and produce a series of diagrams explaining the valuable lessons to be learned from the precedent [ie. cross-programming of facilities, special attention to animal space vs. human space].
> The last part of the assignment requires teams to reflect upon the proposals from Project 02. A series of synergy diagrams are to be created that demonstrate the successes of the speculative design proposals. When possible, I encourage you to break your diagrams apart and examine simpler flows.
Week TWO: A 1-week design charrette using the site to drive the design. Opportunities found within the site will serve as a starting point for a design proposal. Take a careful look at topography, solar conditions, wind direction, existing infrastructure, etc. Take stock of the structures that exist on site and consider their reuse.
Week THREE: A 1-week design charrette that uses the systems to drive the design. While the site-driven took inspiration from the ‘facts’ of the site, this approach is more abstract in that teams will start with a series of idealized systems diagrams and then seek to ‘land’ these diagrams on the [less abstract] site. At minimum, the systems that should be at play in this week’s work are energy flow, light, airflow, water flow, experience/visitor flow, and experience/user flow. My suggestion is that these abstracted flows are drawn as a series of parallel diagrams that are conflated in different ways.
* Without over prescribing this, there is the expectation that throughout the two 1-week design charrettes, teams are developing ideas [and drawings that express them] about the site itself, about the nature of connecting with nature, about the nature of an educational experience, about Stanley park itself and how to act on it, about….
Week FOUR: In the week leading up to the mid-term, teams are to reflect upon the successes of the two charrettes, write a thesis statement about the Centre, and develop a synthetic design proposal.
PROGRAM
Wildlife Laboratory
Pens for recovering Wildlife
Indoor / Outdoor Classroom
Accommodations for two 8-kid + 2-chaperone groups on an overnight adventure
Office space for 3 staff
Office space for 3 researchers
All necessary facilities ie. public washrooms assuming an average visitor load of 100 people/day
DELIVERABLES
Week ONE: various media, diagrams on 22” x 34” landscape boards
Week TWO: PLANNING-ENVELOPE-SYSTEMS-MATERIALS-PROGRAM ie. concept diagrams, 1:200 site-scale drawings,1:100 building-scale drawings, 1:20 wall section, 1:100 model
Week THREE: same as Week Two
Week FOUR / MIDTERM: same as week Two and Three, layed out conscientiously on 22” x 34” landscape boards.