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Book Review From The Stacks: Cotton Worldwide

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Authors: Hans Peter Jost, Christina Kleineidam (Lars Müller Publishers, 2009)

Cotton Worldwide is an eye-opening portrait of the international cotton industry. Through writing and photography, journalist Christina Kleineidam and photographer Hans Peter Jost investigate the lives of cotton farmers and their families in seven of the most influential cotton-producing nations in the world: India, China, Mali, Brazil, USA and Tanzania.

Although Kleineidam’s style of writing is somewhat casual, it is sprinkled with emotions, surprises and personal experiences. As such, she quite successfully portrays the challenges and hardships of the farmers being discussed, while also including pertinent statistics. Jost’s black and white square-format photographs are a perfect compliment to the essays, and speak for themselves in terms of the emotion, intensity, and desperation revealed in each of the chapters.

Both Kleineidam and Jost deserve praise for jumping into the subject so aggressively and trying to make the readers more aware of the complications and implications of the cotton industry. While large corporations and government organizations are engaged in subventions, subsidies, international pressures, and lawsuits, millions of farmers and their families continue to struggle day to day, desperately trying to make ends meet. Although Kleineidam and Jost touch rather lightly on the overwhelming facts and figures, the intensity and negative impact of the industry is not lost. In fact, by focusing more on the communities and farmers that rely so heavily on the cotton harvests, Kleineidam and Jost strengthen the impact of their message.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the incredible contrast between each country. Kleineidam and Jost chose seven countries with varying degrees of success in terms of cotton production, and with varying approaches to the cotton market. In Mali, for example, the increase in sustainable harvests and social impact of women’s right is closely tied to the cotton industry. In Uzbekistan, the most successful farms are making a profit of less than $700CDN per month and cotton pickers are paid less than 5 cents per pound of raw cotton.  In India, suicide rates sky rocket with a failed harvest. In the USA, farms are heavily subsidized and raw cotton prices are state-guaranteed.

Despite Kleineidam and Jost ‘s success in portraying the human element behind the mass industry, there are some conflicting fact that hamper the overall impact. These details don’t matter too much in regards to the depiction of the life and daily hardships, but it would strengthen the book if they were more consistent with the information. I also struggled with was the fact that neither of the authors wrote the introduction and that there was no conclusion to end the book with some powerful thoughts or questions. Although Pietra Rivoli’s introduction is an excellent starting point, while I was reading the book I felt like I wanted to better understand whose voice I was reading. In a book filled with so many personal stories, a strong connection to the authors seems necessary.

Despite this, the subject matter and the imagery are both influential and provocative, giving readers the strong message that in this day and age, we must take responsibility for what we buy and support, and that ignorance is not bliss as it ultimately results in the suffering of both people and our environment.

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For more information on the book, visit the Lars Müller Publishers website.

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Ellen Ziegler has a Masters in Advanced Studies of Architecture. She lives in Toronto and spends most of her time biking, exploring the city, drinking coffee, and writing book reviews.

The post Book Review From The Stacks: Cotton Worldwide appeared first on Spacing National.


Porch Parade

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Summer is the time to get outdoors, and similar to the opening of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London’s Hyde Park early last month, the City of Vancouver has once again closed Robson between Hornby and Howe Streets in front of the south steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, to examine the notion of public space in the heart of the city and giving primacy to the pedestrian over the car. As put on by Viva Vancouver, and now in its fifth year, this year’s Robson Redux features “Porch Parade”, the winning entry from young Chicago architects Stewart Hicks and Allison Newmeyer.

On the weekend before this past Canada Day, Stewart and Allison gave a brief presentation of their scheme (and at that point still under construction) at the Museum of Vancouver, at least for those willing to spend a couple hours indoors on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Put on by both the MOV and Viva Vancouver, the 80+ entries were exhibited at the MOV in early March, just prior to the jury’s announcement of the winners March 18th. The jury was made up of prominent Vancouver urban thinkers – architects, curators and landscape architects – and they had their work cut out for them, as the caliber of entries has increasingly improved over the past five years. With the competition to innovate one of the city’s most important living rooms having resulted in last year’s “Urban Reef”, the bar was high for Stewart and Allison, along with the other entrants.

As described by the architects, the rationale behind the design has very much to do with what Allison and Stewart had noticed as missing from many of Vancouver’s homes, i.e. porches. One need only think of the ubiquitous Vancouver Special or worse, the McMansion monster-homes replacing many of the city’s older heritage stock, to realize they are bereft of this semi-public space on the front of our houses. In Chicago, as well as many other mid-western cities (including Toronto and its bedroom communities), the porch is very much the public face of the house to the neighbourhood, where happenstance meetings and informal conversations are able to occur naturally.

The two also admitted they were riffing on a comic sketch from the TV sitcom Scrubs, in which one of the characters buys a piece of land in the country but can’t afford to build a house on it, opting just to build a porch and then inviting over his friends to sit on it. In doing so, Allison and Stewart are pointing out the power of the porch on a single family home that acts as a transition between the world and the front door of the home, as a frame from which to contemplate one’s environs, and providing a catalyst for the breakdown of social barriers where casual conversation can occur.

With these two ideas firmly in hand, the pair embarked on an ambitious parti to realize their scheme, one that would range in scope from the French architect Jean Jacques Lequeu to the architecture of John Hedjuk. The point of departure for their design was then the interplay of three elements: character, connection, and construction.

For character, the pair dug deep, summoning the wisdom of Lequeu, specifically looking at how he defined character as something that was either essential, distinctive, or relative, with Allison and Stewart providing examples of each.

Having authored their treatise Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration as the design manifesto for their Chicago-based practice Design with Company, much of this can also be found referenced throughout, including a bizarre phenomenon in the small town of Mitchell, South Dakota, famous for a corn palace that they celebrate with a summer festival every year. As a curious object in the landscape that represents itself as a moment of peripheral architecture, “Porch Parade” likewise falls into this same category. Such whimsy and playfulness is most characteristic of the young couple’s practice, as also seen in another of their projects, “Shaw Town”, of which they showed a short film at their Museum presentation. The same whimsy of “Shaw Town” also plays out in the porches and their connection to the public, providing a stage in the city on which people can interact.

The playful use of colour for the porches also provides a launching pad for this connection, with its almost neon cotton candy hues provocatively poking fun at the dull concrete and asphalt surroundings. The pavilions are then a shot to the arm to the otherwise business-as-usual that represents Vancouver’s adjacent commercial district.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than by the Nordstrom department store that is transforming the city’s old Eaton Centre nearby, and which may also be responsible for the hasty departure of Chapters from its corner location at Robson and Howe St., forsaking its purpose built digs as the latest victim of the area’s skyrocketing rental rates. Sadly, no one will be reading books on Allsion and Stewart’s porches, as there is now no where left downtown to buy a book.

For the third element of the couple’s design triumvirate – construction – Allsion and Stewart enlisted the help of structural engineers at Arup no less, in order to ensure the safety of the porch paraders. As a precedent, the pair tipped their hat to John Hedjuk’s wall house, a theoretical construction in which an entire house is built off of a single wall. This is clearly evident in the design of “Porch Parade”, the composition of which is essentially a two-sided boom-town store front, requiring that the wall running down the centre of the construction to be self-supporting, and as they noted at their presentation requiring Arup to pour an 18,000 lb concrete base counterweight underneath the porches to support the tall vertical cantilever that the porches are built off of.

The competition entry’s most provocative image by far, and perhaps one of the deciding factors for the jury, was most certainly its colourful streetscape elevation. Set before the south façade of the VAG with its people watching steps, the design suggests a modern spin on the ancient Greek Pan-Athenian procession that used to occur each year in Athens — winding its way from the city’s agora to the acropolis, with the Parthenon prominently overseeing the proceedings.

Honourable mentions for the competition went to Haeccity Studio Architecture for “Robson Reclaimed” and D’Arcy Jones Architecture for “Greenest Block”. The People’s choice award went to “#icu”, by Jeanie Lim, Jason Pielak, Grace Chang, Christine Chung, and Samuel McFaul.

With “Porch Parade” now open to the public as of Canada Day, Vancouver’s answer to the Serpentine is now free to peruse by curious onlookers passing through the area, having most recently provided much needed shade from our record breaking temperatures. With a fleet of food trucks also now serving the area, this colourful civic intervention is a most formidable continuation of this City of Vancouver initiative where residents and tourists alike can pause in the busy downtown atmosphere, to reflect on what it means to live in our fair city. Likewise, it provides a showcase for this young, new Chicago firm and their founders, themselves both teaching architecture at the University of Illinois. Branding themselves as Dw/Co, short for Design with Company, their future looks to be as bright as the vivid colours decorating their porches, to remain a part of Robson Square’s scenography up until the summer’s end.

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Sean Ruthen is currently serving his second term on the AIBC Council, in addition to being Chair of the RAIC Metro Vancouver Chapter.

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Book Review From The Stacks: Reservoir

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Photos by Bas Princen, edited by Moritz Kung (Hatje Cantz, 2011) 

There is no unexplored territory left on this earth. Our species, and has touched, developed, flown over, or altered nearly every corner of our vast planet, and as such the boundaries between our natural world and our built world have become blurred.  Dutch Photographer, Bas Princen, in his photographic series RESERVOIR, uses scale, geometry and graphic design to explore the complex relationship between natural and artificial.

Princen’s opening image, Plateau, is a photo of a moon-like mountaintop sprinkled with small pioneers – hikers exploring and conquering the large unforgiving mountainside. It is one of the only completely natural images in the book. The next image, mirrors the form of the first, but is entirely man-made, and is one of the most powerful images in the book.

Future Olympic Park, shows a spotless concrete road carving neatly through a landscape of man-made gravel piles, covered in massive blue and black sheets. It is impossible to recognize what is new, what is old and what it will look like at the end of construction. It is both perverse and beautiful, and captures the ephemeral nature of our landscapes, and the dangerous relationship we have with our world.

Princen’s use of scale strengthens his surreal imagery and furthers his ideas of natural versus artificial. In almost every photograph there is a reference to the human scale – a lone worker, a cactus, pieces of garbage or a guardrail. But often this key reference point is hidden in the geometry or the texture of the image.

As viewers, we naturally look for something to help us better understand the context of a photo. As such, Princen is playing with the audience: taking them on a hunt. We are forced to view photos in their entirety and attempt to fully understand their meaning.

In the opening of the book, Princen is interviewed by fellow artist, Stefano Graziani. Much of this conversation is focused on the layout and design of the book, which I thought was a very interesting idea. Princen explains the spatial qualities, and importance, of the book itself: “a book creates its own space instead of forcing you to relate to a particular space.”

With this in mind, it is easier to grasp the concept behind the layout of the book. One photo per spread isolates and equalizes each image, and the muted grey-tones and large, square-format matte paper simplify the book to its bare bones. Leaving the viewer with nothing but themselves, and the images.

Princen also discusses the relationship between photo and photographer: “images use photographers as their instruments they keep on returning in slightly altered formed, they are updated, something is added.” This is powerful statement, given the subject matter of each image: the altering of the natural landscape by human intervention.

The relationship between us and the earth is constantly changing. Through globalization, development, economics, and increasing population, we are reshaping the earth. Princen photographs humans at a small, nearly imperceptible scale, yet his subject is the vast and daunting impact we have had on our landscapes. Princen’s photographs are a beautiful and haunting illustration of the vanishing boundary between our natural and built world.

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For more information visit the Hatje Cantz website.

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Ellen Ziegler has a Masters in Advanced Studies of Architecture. She lives in Toronto and spends most of her time biking, exploring the city, drinking coffee, and writing book reviews.

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Visual Thoughts #57

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Last VT image: Jericho Beach on a sunny summer day, Vancouver, BC.

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Erick Villagomez is one of the founding editors at Spacing Vancouver. He is also an educator, independent researcher and designer with personal and professional interests in the urban landscapes. His private practice – Metis Design|Build – is an innovative practice dedicated to a collaborative and ecologically responsible approach to the design and construction of places. You can see more of his artwork on his Visual Thoughts Tumblr.

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Cost Effective Improvements for Better Transit Today

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Bus Rapid Transit system in Loja, Ecuador showing the bus only lane.

Canadian municipalities are confronted with an interesting predicament – our cities are growing at unprecedented rates. For municipalities, this population growth means greater strains on our transportation infrastructure, more time lost to congestion and longer commutes. As the private automobile becomes less and less convenient for the daily commute or other trips, Canadians are looking at transit as a viable alternative. What’s interesting about this predicament is that its somewhat of a chicken and egg situation – people will only use transit if its useful and reliable. Yet, in Canada our mobility systems have been underfunded for so long that it is anything but that.

Under the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) , the large cities are consistently calling for reliable and consistent funding for new transit lines, increased service hours and increased frequencies of buses (1). While this is great in the long term, our cities desperately need relief now. For example, the Broadway corridor in Vancouver is one of North America’s busiest corridors and patrons are often passed up by full 99 B-Line buses (2). The 99 B Line alone moves over 50,000 riders daily. The proposed solution is an expensive cut and cover Subway, which won’t be operational until 2021 at the earliest (assuming funding comes through).

To the East, in Calgary, the radial C-Train is often at crushing capacities once it reaches the core during peak time. With 310,700 average daily boardings, its the 3rd busiest Light Rail Line (LRT) in North America. While long term investments in high capacity transit systems are needed, we need to relieve this pressure build-up of decades of neglect today, not tomorrow. How can we do this?

Good solutions lie South, not with our American friends but with South American cities like Loja, Quito or Bogota. Faced with the inability to afford the high capital costs of brand new LRT systems, these cities got resourceful imitating the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system originally built in Curitiba, Brazil. An articulated BRT provides the same capacity and reliability as a LRT system but for a fraction of the cost. Through observing and using these systems, a few ways surface to improve the performance of hamstrung transit systems in Canada with minimal investment. The following two improvements are the low hanging fruits that transit agencies can pick. These improvements require minimal investment, but can help agency’s secure increased reliability, shorter running times, and potentially increased capacity and frequency.

Dedicated Right of Way

Bus Rapid Transit system in Loja, Ecuador showing the bus only lane

Bus Rapid Transit system in Loja, Ecuador showing the bus only lane

The most effective way to improve transit performance is to designate dedicated rights-of-way. In North America buses are typically integrated with regular traffic, reducing the efficiency of bus service as it must compete for road space with private automobiles. Buses are often carrying 6-8 times more people than the private automobiles next to them, it is only fair they are given 6-8 times the space. Designating a lane specifically for buses will ensure that they do not have to compete with private automobiles for precious space.

34th Avenue Bus Rapid Transit NYC, (Image Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/brt/html/routes/34th-street.shtml#design)

34th Avenue Bus Rapid Transit NYC, (Image Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/brt/html/routes/34th-street.shtml#design)

What’s more, as BRT systems in Quito, Loja and 34th Ave in New York City show, you don’t need elaborate and expensive barriers to provide designated bus only lanes. A simple coat of paint and some police enforcement is sometimes all that is needed. The cost of this option is disproportionately small when compared with the results – transit reliability, efficiency and performance increase, simply by carving out a chunk of road space for buses. Dedicated rights-of-way will ensure that transit runs on time more often. Increased speeds and reliability can entice more people to use transit, as indicated by a recent study (4). If there are specific problem mixing areas, barriers can be added in those specific spots.

All Door Boarding and Off Board Fare Systems

All door loading station in Quito, Ecuador

All door loading station in Quito, Ecuador

Another major source of delay occurs with the boarding procedure. When people can only board the bus via one door, and the driver has to verify the payment of every single patron, this takes up a lot of time. All door boarding and off-board fare payment systems are solutions that can mitigate these delays and improve transit efficiency. All-door boarding means that instead of permitting boarding only via the front door (as typical in most bus systems in North America), boarding and disembarking is permitted via all doors, similar to most light rail systems in North America. Since most transit systems rely on a fare box recovery system, this is usually only effective if you have an off-bus (off-board) fare collection system. Again, this is similar to what you would see in a typical North American light rail system. A recent experiment in Los Angeles demonstrates the effectiveness of all door boarding, reducing the boarding time in half (3).

Simple off-board fare zone for 34th Ave Bus Rapid Transit in New York City

Simple off-board fare zone for 34th Ave Bus Rapid Transit in New York City

No-Frill station for Loja, Ecuador Bus Rapid Transit System

No-frill station for Loja, Ecuador Bus Rapid Transit System

While some cities went with expensive upgrades to their stations, the systems in Loja and Quito suggest you do not need to do this. A simple off-board fare payment zone is enough to permit all door loading. 34th Avenue in New York City also shows how simple an off-board system can be. New York uses fare machines on the sidewalk and the honour system similar to what is already currently done with light rail systems across North America.

Simple "armadillo" barrier keeps vehicles out of the bus lane

Simple “armadillo” barrier keeps vehicles out of the bus lane

When it comes to implementing either option, a number of thoughts come to mind. If funding is limited, then the biggest impact can be achieved by focusing on critical areas with a “low investment-high return on investment” ratios. Most transit systems run into delays and performance issues in the core, therefore, limited funding improvements should be focused in the core or at specific high demand stops. If you have specific stops with high boarding and disembarking volumes such as at Universities, malls or in the city core, then start by creating off-board fare systems at those stops which can allow all door boarding and alighting. The same can be done by dedicating bus only lanes through specific high volume corridors through the core.

In Canada, many of the conversations around transportation tend to focus on big, expensive projects. This expends considerable political and economic capital. We need to look at cheaper and simpler options that can offer high levels of service at a fraction of the cost. Focusing less on the need to improve the system all at once will allow for the incremental growth our mobility systems need now, not in the future.

Sources:
(1) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadian-cities-lobby-ottawa-for-transit-funds/article23680380/
(2) http://bc.ctvnews.ca/broadway-bus-pass-ups-unacceptable-ubc-president-1.2263923
(3) http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/06/16/52440/boarding-at-the-back-la-metro-s-experiment-to-spee/

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Slow Streets is a Vancouver-based research group providing evidence for slower & better streets.

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Book Review – The West Coast Modern House

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The West Coast Modern House chronicles the development of mid-century modern Vancouver residential architecture and its continued influence on contemporary practice. The post-war era in Vancouver defined what has become popularly known as the “West Coast Style,” as Vancouver architects won national awards and international recognition for their innovative house designs. This period is now seen as one of the most important in the city’s architectural history.

– Excerpt from the book’s introduction

This past December, B.C.’s Court of Appeal ruled that Bertram and Jessie Binning’s 1941 house in West Vancouver be transferred back to the estate of its original owners, meaning it will go on Vancouver’s red hot real estate market to be potentially sold to an international buyer, someone who may very well never even live in the house. This new owner, as is their right of ownership, may choose to tear it down to maximize the floor-to-site ratio (FSR) that the land under the house has been zoned for, as has been the fate of countless houses in the Metro Vancouver area for the past several years, due in much part to interest rates being at historic lows.

The difference with the BC Binning House, as it is otherwise known, is that this is no ordinary composition of wood and glass, concrete and plaster. This house represents the very heart and soul of Vancouver’s architectural legacy, having been the nucleus for artists, architects, and other designers since the time of its construction in the 1940’s. It was where Lawren Harris came after moving to Vancouver at that time, as well as Richard Neutra who Binning invited to speak at the then newly formed UBC School of Architecture. It is no surprise then to hear that a group known as the the West Coast Modern League, along with UBC, are seeking a covenant on the house to protect it against alteration or demolition.  Designated as a historic site by Parks Canada in 1998, the court ruling in December was an unfortunate step backwards, and now jeopardizes the fate of this important cultural landmark.

And so then it is no small coincidence that at the same time there has been a marked resurgence of interest in Vancouver’s Modern residential architecture heritage, first seen with the 2012 release of Coast Modern by local filmmakers Gavin Froome and Mike Bernard, and most recently reaffirmed with a handsome new monograph, The West Coast Modern House, edited by Greg Bellerby, former curator of the Charles H. Scott gallery at Emily Carr University. Published by Figure 1, known for their large format books on the visual and culinary arts, this new edition is a sumptuous feast for the eyes, with its 192 pages filled with numerous photographs on the subject.

With the support of the Canada Council of the Arts, Christopher MacDonald and Jana Tyner have here provided poignant essays on the subject along with Bellerby, who as well includes a 1947 essay written by none other than C.E. (Ned) Pratt. One of the undisputed master-builders of Vancouver’s Modern post-war era, his work is included in the main body of the book alongside Ron Thom, Arthur Erickson, and Barry Downs, all of whom cut their teeth working at his office of Thompson, Berwick, and Pratt.

The sepia-toned photographs of the 53 selected houses – many of which consist of modest light wood framing interspersed with poured concrete, heavy timber structure and single glazed fenestration – include many famous exemplars of the housing type, starting with BC Binning’s aforementioned house along with Arthur Erickson’s first and second Smith houses. As Christopher MacDonald points out in his essay, the architects were often also their own client, boldly exploring what at the time was uncharted territory using new building materials to construct their homes on pristine sites, many located on the lower slopes of Vancouver’s North Shore mountains. As well as BC Binning’s own home, also featured are those of Ron Thom, Zoltan Kiss, Douglas Shadbolt, Peter Oberlander, and Barry Downs, to name only a few.

In Ned Pratt’s essay on the subject, written in 1947 for the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, he observed at that time a tendency toward a more contemporary approach by the young architects of the day, but noting the general public was resistant of this new aesthetic, still wanting traditional looking houses despite their at times unsuitability for the Pacific west coast climate. “Prior to the war, domestic architecture was in a rather sorry state. The architectural styles ran from the “Cottswold Cottages” to the au moderne of the corner windows, bulls-eye windows, etc. The three popular styles were Tudor, Cape Cod, and Georgian, and the architects that championed these three styles, of course, were famous and enjoyed a lucrative business. This then was the situation that confronted the young and enthusiastic architect, aspiring to persuade an unappreciative public to build in a more logical way.”

As it turned out, Pratt’s essay was written to accompany photos of many of the same houses that Bellerby has showcased in his new book. And so it is most fitting that the last dozen pages of the book (in colour) are devoted to the next generation of West Coast house designers, including the work of David Battersby and Heather Howatt, as well as Javier Campos and Michael Leckie. Patricia and John Patkau are here as well, as certainly no book on the subject would be complete without them, being as they have been both inspiration and teacher to so many of the region’s new generation of architects. For the book, Bellerby has selected their recently completed and much lauded Tula House on Quadra Island as the present day embodiment of the Modern west coast house.

Whether as a handy reference for educators of architecture and design, or simply for those who appreciate the regional expression of this modernist legacy, The West Coast Modern House is essential reading material, and one of the most comprehensive monographs on the subject to date. As for the BC Binning house, one can only hope that the Trustees and UBC are able to identify a buyer whose own intentions honour the last wishes of Jessie Binning, who expressed in her will that the house remain in the public domain, to be celebrated and cherished for what it has meant over the years to both our local and national architectural community.

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Editor’s note: A condensed version of this review appeared in the June issue of Canadian Architect.

Sean Ruthen is currently serving his second term on AIBC Council, in addition to being Chair of the RAIC Metro Vancouver Chapter.

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Book Review – City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis

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Edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb (n+1 / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015)

When people write about their city it is frequently an opinion piece for a local newspaper and, more often than not, to complain about something. We see articles like this every day from concerned citizens, angry drivers, scared cyclists, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, if we don’t agree with the content, we tend to shy away and/or stop giving it our attention, when quite a few these pieces –  angry or not – paint an accurate snapshot of our cities and give us valuable insight into the ethos of the people who are living there.

What I loved the most about City by City was its unabashed truth. Sure, there were people who were upset about different topics, and rightly so given that the years since the Great Recession haven’t been kind to all. But that was what made this book fascinating; you could peer past the anger and look into a portrait of someones life or how a city ran. If there were traces of anger laden in the stories, the stories themselves were strong enough to keep you interested in reading more.

The book is edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb, and they set out, shortly after the recession, to collect stories from around the United States about poverty and how places were hit by loss. They ended up finding themselves within pivotal moments in America’s recent history, and in their own words, the book spans not a specific timeline with a date but, “between the day of the Lehman bankruptcy and the shooting of Michael Brown.”

The abstract nature of that sentence is a perfect lead-in to the book, where there really is no pattern to follow. I thought at first we were moving alphabetically through city’s, but then thought maybe we were moving east to west, north to south, but no. There seemed to be no underlying framework to the chaos that is City by City, and it is one of the strongest things that makes it a startlingly good read.

I won’t break down every story for you here, because the topics span far too broad a spectrum to recount and digest in a short piece. Instead, I will talk about some of the general ideas I was left with and what you can hope to get out of it.

Some of the articles are written by people who clearly trained writers, or may have put out a book. There is no script to follow, however, and indeed no one does. The book has articles that are short and only a few pages long, while others span for what seem like short novellas, because of the depth and breadth of their content. Some articles choose to look at individual cities, while others move beyond their boundaries. And each has its own emotional tone.

The Office and the City by Nikil Saval, for example, is one of the stories that doesn’t seem to ground the reader in a specific place and changes tone sharply within. It feels like it is set in New York because it speaks about opulence and capitalism and makes reference to the stock crashes and recession in elegantly worded prose, but one is never certain. There was one section that jumped out at me specifically – when Saval seemed to turn the article on its head for a minute. His piece was very well crafted and his vocabulary is that of someone who understands urban design or architecture as well as the social structures of cities. But it was when he was discussing the emergence of Post-Modernism Architecture that I stopped and did a double take at how brazen the article had become all of a sudden:

In it’s corporate guise, whatever oppositional content postmodernism had enjoyed in the 1970s was buried under the sounds of cocaine and sushi and marble and granite. The signature architect of the era was Philip Johnson, the massing of whose AT&T Building was covered in acres-thick rose granite, its base circumambulated by a Renaissance-style loggia, and its very top capped by a silly Chippendale arch. Goofy, serenely nostalgic, and opulent all at once, the building and its descendants captured the Reagan era’s schizophrenic desire to live in a glorious, fabricated past while ensuring the desecration of the past’s actual remaining monuments.

This speaks to some of the quick turns the book takes. There is no filter and, at times, you are reading and come across something you are truly shocked by. I found the flagrant honesty exhilarating at times.

Another piece that gets to the heart of some deep issues is from Fear and Aggression in Palm Coast by Elias Rodriques. Within he talks about racism and the deep fear he constantly felt growing up. He talks about how in, “Flagler Beach and others nearby, you see the stars and bars [Confederate Flag] on bikinis. Occasionally, my mother and I would drive through a neighbourhood filled with trailers and farmhouses proudly flying the flag itself. I always glanced around to see if any cars were tailing us.” The entire article is riddled with fear, so palpable that at the end of reading it, I felt a sense of shame and nervousness.

Some of the stories begin leading one way but end up feeling quite different. Upstream in Williston by Nicky Tiso, for example, starts with a direct reference to oil and a description of fracking and how in North Dakota it has become highly prevalent. “As of 2014, over ten thousand wells produced more than one million barrels a day, and had nearly doubled North Dakota’s GDP.”

Juxtapose that with two paragraphs down where Tiso speaks of his arrival at his hotel, “As I walked to my room I saw a piece of paper taped to a door that read in loud, angry, Sharpie, ‘Do not disturb means do not f—ing disturb.” The rest of the stories bounce between these two juxtaposing styles: bare, scientific fact, and brutal, human honesty. One minute you are reading an interview with someone on an oil rig, the next you are learning about sexual things from a person in a bar.

And again, the whole running theme in the midst of all of this is that these are real people’s stories, and they are not hiding from the truth no matter how dark or dirty. This is what binds the content of the book.

I wish I could say that every story had a strong message to convey about urban design or architecture, planning or infrastructure, but they didn’t. Some seemed like diary entries to get things off of peoples chests. Others were depressing to a level that made it hard to turn the page. Instead of being factual descriptions of gentrification in New York, or other cities, the stories were about someones life in a gentrified neighbourhood with the changes only happening on the periphery of the story they were telling.

First and foremost, City by City is about the, “Me,”….. subsequently tying the content into the overall, “We.” While some of the articles did take stances on important issues, more often than not, the articles rode you through them like a passenger in a taxi-cab in a foreign place; the narrator the cab driver filling you with loads of information about the city, no matter how dark and depraved that might be.

Even so, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning about their world, and about the social structures that make up cities in general, as this book gave me the best outlook across all levels of poverty, literacy, and education, to introduce me to the many places people call home (or don’t).

City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis is a long, and at times difficult read (if only for the subject matter) but it opens your eyes and makes you understand a little bit more of what other people are going through. It is a book where you aren’t asked to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes; they are thrust upon you while you run toward a burning building, feeling a sense of exhilaration, terror, excitement, and overflowing empathy all at once.

***

Jeremy Senko is happily lost in the world of theoretical architecture and design. He is forever a student at heart, consistently reading, experiencing and learning about the world he inhabits. More specifically, he works as an Interior Designer in Vancouver and plays an active part in bettering the environments we live in.

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Oppose the building, not the people

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HALIFAX – Know what happens when too many rats live together? According to one influential study, they become violent and cannibalistic. So we should fear density. I’ve often heard this argument used to oppose developments in Halifax. I live on Duncan street in one of the densest areas of Halifax and so I can attest that it’s […]

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Book Review From The Stacks – Narrow Houses: New Directions in Efficient Design

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Author: Avi Friedman (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010)  

Avi Friedman is an architecture professor at McGill University who has been researching narrow dwellings since the 1990s, and sharing his knowledge through several well-known titles such as The Grow Home (2006) and The Adaptable House (2002). His 2010 book, Narrow Houses: New Directions in Efficient Design, builds on his past works through case studies and essays gathered from years of investigations and teachings.

In this collection Friedman looks specifically at twenty-eight narrow houses and four principle topics. The book is well laid-out with stunning photos and architectural drawings and, as such, is an excellent starting point for both students and designers interested in the architecture and culture of narrow dwellings.

Through photographs and drawings Dr. Friedman uses the first half of the book to showcase a series of detached dwellings and townhouses. Each home varies in geographic setting, size, material and client need. Examples include, The Hollybarn, in Norfolk England–a 3500 sq.ft home designed on an environmentally sensitive rural site for a wheelchair-bound client with a large family, as well as Shigeru Ban’s well-known Glass Shutter House in Japan–a dwelling that is less than a quarter of that size and accommodates a chef, his family and their family-business. A brief description accompanies the images and drawings, describing the home, it’s context, spatial and material choices, site specifications and its environmental needs. Each study is unique, well thought-out and under 25′ wide.

The second section of the book is comprised of four essays on Design Principles, Footprints and Volumes, Interiors, and Historical Chronology. Although they only occupy the last 50-pages of the book, Dr. Friedman’s writing is a key aspect to the work as a whole. The essays are concise and easy to read, yet cover a lot of ground from the spatial implication of familial relationships to the structural requirements for a suspended ceiling.

They read like a TED talk for Narrow Houses–brief but filled with useful information, and an excellent starting place for further research. Overall, Narrow Houses is a great book and I would recommend it for designers, builders and students, interested in the history of narrow dwellings as well as its modern manifestation. Although Dr. Friedman doesn’t always go into great detail about each topic, the amount of information touched upon is focused and impressive and the bibliography is an excellent resource.

***

For more information visit the Princeton Architectural Press website.

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Ellen Ziegler has a Masters in Advanced Studies of Architecture. She lives in Toronto and spends most of her time biking, exploring the city, drinking coffee, and writing book reviews.

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Funiculars of Portugal

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Funicular tracks, Porto, Portugal

Outside of Quebec City and Niagara Falls, Canada is a funicular desert. Edmonton is exploring construction of a funicular for access to the River Valley. While funicular is not a prominent word in the Canadian lexicon, they are well known in Europe and can be ridden in cities across the continent.

Funiculars originated in Austria and are used to provide rail like transit on very steep slopes. They are functionally inclined elevators and in Portugal are called “elevador”. Funicular technology is quite basic, generally, two counterbalanced cars operate in parallel with the weight of one stabilizing the other. The two cars then run in tandem, when one goes up the other comes down. A visit to Portugal facilitated rides on three very different funiculars in Porto, Lisbon and Braga.

Looking over the Douro River and starting at the Dom Louis I Bridge in Porto, the Funicular dos Guindais saves people a 61-meter vertical trip at a price of €2.50. Originally constructed in 1891 the line only operated for 2 years; it was closed after a major accident that killed eight people. The funicular lay dormant for more than 100 years until, with the help of EU money,  it was rebuilt and reopened in 2004. Both locals and tourists use the funicular to get from the historic centre of Porto to the wine district on the south side of the Douro.

The current version of the Funicular dos Guindais looks like a glass elevator riding on an accordion. The top half of the funicular is flat, the bottom steep. To keep passengers level the funicular’s cars are equipped with an inflatable base that changes the angle of the passenger car as necessary. Unlike some funiculars, the passenger car remains flat throughout the trip.

Funicular dos Guindais, Porto, Portugal

Funicular dos Guindais (to the right of the Dom Louis I Bridge), Porto, Portugal

In Lisbon, much of the public transit system is preserved from the early 20th century. Most famously, the city still runs tram cars from the 1930s as they are best suited to the local hills (and are now a big tourist attraction). Lisbon has three funiculars, opened between 1884 and 1892. The most famous of the three, the Elevador de Gloria, connects the downtown to the up and coming Principe Real neighbourhood and was declared a national monument in 2002. The elevador forms part of the public transit system in Lisbon, no charge transfers are allowed between the subway, buses, trams and funiculars. A stand alone two way trip on the Gloria cost €2.50. Originally built using a hydraulic system, Gloria was electrified in 1915 and hasn’t changed much since. The cars are covered in graffiti, creaky and look like something out of a 1950s movie.

Elevador de Gloria, Lisbon, Portugal

Elevador de Gloria, Lisbon, Portugal

Bom Jesus do Monte is a pilgrimage site in the city of Braga in northern Portugal. It is famous for its baroque stairway that consists of about 600 steps. Parallel to the stairs runs the oldest water counterbalanced funicular in the world. The funicular was constructed by blocking a small stream. At the top of the hill each funicular car fills with 5850 liters of water, weighing it down for the descent. As the heavy car descends it pulls up its lighter pair. On reaching the bottom, the heavy car dumps its water in preparation for the trip back to the top. The water is then used to irrigate nearby fields.

Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular, Braga, Portugal

Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular, Braga, Portugal (Courtesy of Hitchhikers Handbook)

Given the wait times, it was not consistently faster to use the funiculars but it was more fun and gave us a chance to slow down and look around.

Shoshanna Saxe is an engineer from Toronto. Say hello on Twitter @shoshannasaxe

 

 

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McAdam, New Brunswick and the struggle of small communities

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View of McAdam’s historic train station from  McAdam Pond.

Many small towns, communities, and rural areas face challenges with the decline of traditional industries such as forestry. Often, economic development arguments are less about “growth” than about stemming the decline. For many towns and communities a fundamental self-reinvention is in order.

These were the themes of a consultant’s report done pro bono for the town of Millinocket in Maine which had been hit by decline and mill closure. This report – actually a 9-page open letter – gained much attention in local media in Maine with the Portland Press Herald proclaiming that “All Maine is Millonocket.”

Among the recommendations in the report was a call for a greater emphasis on placemaking, beautification, and promotion of the historic town centre while also promoting its proximity to natural environments (including Baxter State Park and Mount Khatadin). Such a strategy would be aimed to attract tourism and potential new residents.

With the decline of extraction sectors such as mining and forestry “cheap land and disregard for consequences” was no longer an adequate strategy.

McAdam, a Village Facing Serious Challenges

The Village of McAdam in southwestern New Brunswick, about a one hour drive from the province’s capital city of Fredericton, is a community that has faced decline because of outside economic shifts.

McAdam was an important railway juncture, with a large railway station (pictured above) built as the village became an important servicing stop for trains. At its height in 1956 McAdam’s population was 2,803.

The 1950s saw decline as the switch from steam to diesel in trains meant fewer servicing stops. Also, the advent of highways and trucking took business away from trains in transporting goods. McAdam’s current population (as per the 2011 Canadian Census) is less than half of what it once was, at 1,284 people.

In 1995 ownership of the historic train station was transferred to the village. Fundraising campaigns have focused on restoring the train station which has become a tourist attraction and focal point for the community.

Inside the Historic Train Station.

Inside the Historic Train Station

Visiting McAdam

Rural and small town New Brunswick is scenic. The drive from Fredericton to McAdam – which goes through the village of Harvey – makes for a relaxing summer drive with farms, rolling hills and yellow wildflowers.

Along the Road From Fredericton to McAdam, near Harvey.

Along the Road From Fredericton to McAdam, near Harvey

In McAdam, the railway station is an imposing structure, a dominant feature of the village centre. It is a focal point for the community as the site of events and activities. The train station features preserved historic rooms, a restaurant, and offers a signature Railway Pie.

The train station overlooks McAdam Pond which features a nature trail, showing the proximity of natural beauty to a walkable village centre.

McAdam Railway Station viewed from the nature trail.

 

Nature Trail Near McAdam Pond.

Nature Trail Near McAdam Pond

The village’s railway heritage is evident beyond the train station in the historic downtown, for example in the street signs.

McAdam’s Railway Heritage.

McAdam’s Railway Heritage

McAdam’s walkable downtown offers a lot of potential for the village, for residents and tourists.

Historic and walkable downtown McAdam.

Historic and walkable downtown McAdam

Where the focus of economic growth and development is on larger cities, many smaller towns and communities are left behind. They face significant challenges in maintaining viability. However, there is hope in building on and promoting their natural advantages, including historic and walkable downtowns in an era where authenticity and walkability are of increasing appeal. Also, there is close proximity to nature to promote quality of life and attract tourists and new migrants (McAdam is also close to Spednic Lake Provincial Park along the border with the United States).

There are challenges, but there is potential.

Hassan Arif is a PhD candidate in urban sociology at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. You can follow him on twitter: @HassanNB and on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/arif.h9

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Book Review From the Stacks – Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post-carbon World

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These days it has become nearly impossible to open a newspaper or read a website without encountering numerous doomsday predictions of our bleak-looking future. Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities, however, is a refreshing look the problems at hand and the solutions that are needed to fix them.  Professor Patrick Condon uses his impressive knowledge of urban planning and his years of research and teaching at the University of British Columbia to create a comprehensive set of rules that may help to secure our future on this planet. His rules are simple and realistic, and are supported by extensive data. Although the rules themselves are not new ideas, Condon’s ability to simplify and apply them to current urban design situations is impressive and inspiring.

The seven rules “represent the elements of a whole” and are described as one large solution, rather than seven smaller ones. Thus, as Condon moves through each rule, they continue to reiterate and support the previous rules: “love one rule, love them all.” He cites cities, specifically buildings and transportation, as the leading producer of GHGs, and as such, it is cities that he looks to in order to create change.

Rule one: Restore the Streetcar City: “the streetcar city form of urban development was a pattern that allowed the emerging middle class to live in a single-family homes and was sustainable at the same time.” Condon looks at cities, including Vancouver, that were previously streetcar cities and makes a strong case for the revitalization of the streetcar and “streetcar arterials,” by linking it to less VMT (vehicle miles traveled), increased ease of walking, and decreased financial burden – in terms of both infrastructure and average cost per trip.

As he points out, the pattern of streetcar culture created the “streetcar arterials” that act as the bones of Vancouver’s current city fabric. In his words: “to ignore the fundamental architecture when retrofitting our urban regions for a more sustainable future will fail.”  He also looks at existing corridors, freeways and streetcars in terms of accessibility, distance traveled, and time required to get from one destination to another as well as comparing LRTs (Light Rail Transit), streetcars, trolley buses and subways/skytrains in terms of capital and operational costs, costs per trip, and average length of trip.  In all cases, the argument for the revitalization of the streetcar seems all-too clear. Condon also notes the importance of streetcar culture, not only as a means of transportation but: “for enhancing human well-being.”

The next rule, Design for an Interconnected Street System, expands on many of the points Condon raises in the first rule, mainly: interconnected street systems makes trips as short as possible. Simple. Less travel means less cars, less carbon, and less costs. Dendritic street systems, such as what we find in suburban neighbourhoods, lead to problems of long trips – often in single occupancy vehicles – congestion and the need for large freeway systems. Despite this, dendritic street systems have been the norm in city planning and new developments since the 1950’s. Furthermore, Condon investigates the characteristics of both systems including: block sizes, parcel sizes, road widths, street corners, cul-de-sacs and laneways. He cites Portland as an ideal example of a walkable city with successful street grid proportions and links street patterns directly to GHG emissions stating that it is possible to reduce GHG production by 40% by creating a five-minute city.

Rule three: Locate Commercial Services, Frequent Transit and Schools within a Five-Minute Walk, further investigates the need for a walkable city.  Given that transportation is 40% of the problem of GHG emissions, Condon posits that we will only achieve a walkable city if walking becomes easier and more appealing than driving.  In places like Vancouver, the streetcar arterial provides a linear commercial band, which provides a “five minute” walk to most homes in the city. As such, residences in Vancouver use cars 30% less than in larger, car-oriented cities such as Surrey/Langley.

Rule four: Located good jobs close. Although changes are being made to GHG production and energy usage in terms of building and industry technology, VMT per person per day is still on the rise. This means the most achievable solution is building jobs close to homes. As such, Condon looks at solutions such as systematic policy changes and initial investments in infrastructure and job-site development, that work towards these ends.

Rule five: Provide a diversity of housing types:Buildings generate more GHG than any other sector” (95) and, within that, residential developments are equal to 70% – 80% of developed land. These generally fall into the categories of mid-rise, high-rise, and detached. Despite the residential capacity of high-rise buildings, Condon argues that mid-rise, med-high density structures are the most efficient with their shared walls, ability to be tree-shaded, less sun exposure and less elaborate mechanical systems. He maintains that it is possible to create the “single-family home feel” through architectural solutions. He also investigates the positive affect of illegal, or secondary suites, that have been springing up in Vancouver since the 1980s.

Rule Six: Create a linked system of natural areas and parks: “The site is to the region as the cell is to the body” (111) In this chapter, or rule, Condon looks at watershed systems in terms of urban development and how they can be a tool to inform a more unified design: “Site-scale elements… do more than just influence regional environmental systems, the constitute regional environmental systems.” (111)

Rule Seven: Invest in Lighter, Greener, Cheaper, and Smarter Infrastructure. This rule looks more extensively at the relationship between our urban fabric and our watershed systems. Our current situatio, Condon explains, fights against water management and infiltration, and in turn leads to more expensive, complex situations. However, the key to successful storm-water management and infiltration can be summed up with four sub-rules: 1) Infiltrate rather than drain; 2) Infiltrate everywhere; 3) Infiltrate one inch per day; and 4) Heavy soils are good soils. (160) As mentioned above, each of the seven rules is supported by the others and together they are an integrated comprehensive guide to ensuring a healthy and happy planet for our children.

Well-written, concise, and thorough, this should not only be a required reading for students, but should be on the shelves of every planner, developer, architect, landscape architect and engineer in the city. The layout of the book makes it easy to navigate, and the impressive references that graze the inside of each page further support the extensive research that has gone into this publication. Condon should be highly-praised for his ability to take the world’s most complex problem and outline a set of realistic, and exciting solutions. As he so rightly states: “The solutions are not complex but changing behaviours, however, will be” (160)

***

For more information visit the Island Press website.

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Ellen Ziegler, b.ends, is graphic and architectural designer and a proud co-founder of studioCAMP. She likes all things fun, particularly her custom-made leather oxfords.

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Results Driven Land-Use Planning

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Pllek is situated on industrial land in Amsterdam Noord that was reclaimed for a bar and urban beach.

In North America, cities are increasingly burdened with a growing list of required infrastructure maintenance and replacements. With few options for generating tax revenue, these obligations are stretching municipal budgets thin, leading to uncertain and lengthy conversations with higher levels of government about funding. This process delays the critical infrastructure upgrades that we need today rather than tomorrow.

Rather than seeking ways to maximize the return on existing infrastructure, North America is obsessed with building newer and bigger infrastructure, which does not match current demand. According to Strong Towns, this new-infrastructure fetish is literally bankrupting our cities. For example, in Vancouver, Canada the B.C. Liberal provincial government has replaced the Port Mann bridge with one of the world’s largest bridges, based on impractical automobile growth predictions. The bridge has consistently fallen short of the predicted traffic projections and its debt continues to grow with little or no returns on billions of public dollars. The B.C. Liberal provincial government is in the midst of repeating the same mistake again by replacing the George Massey tunnel with an overbuilt and overcapacity billion dollar bridge that will never be able to pay for itself.

This approach to development can be seen in many cities across North America and fails to deliver the results we need today. In many cases, cities opt for expensive and grand projects that take years to reach fruition. So what’s the alternative? At Slow Streets, we believe that Amsterdam provides a great development model that delivers short-term results efficiently and effectively. This article provides a quick case study of the Amsterdam approach to development. 

Lay the Bones for Complete Neighbourhoods to Achieve Results-Driven City Building

Clearly the best solution is to prevent overbuilding infrastructure from the start. This is where Amsterdam comes in. Amsterdam often plans its new neighborhoods and infrastructure requirements to match existing demand. In North America, cities often build the residential uses first and then eventually build community amenities and commercial uses. This is an absurd way to build our urban landscapes, as incomplete neighbourhoods force residents to commute elsewhere in the city. This also places an unnecessary, unpredictable strain on already overburdened public services like roads and schools. Parents often move into these new neighborhoods with the promise of playgrounds, schools, or community centres that never come.

Amsterdam's Noord Eye film museum is an example of using a public amenity to kick start neighbourhood development, it is connected with a free ferry service.

Amsterdam’s Noord Eye film museum is an example of using a public amenity to kick start neighbourhood development, it is connected with a free ferry service.

 

Amsterdam has understood this, so when the demand for more housing or public services requires them to revitalize an existing neighborhood or build a new one, they will often ensure there is transit route servicing the area first. While it may seem to make little sense to provide transit to nowhere, it ensures that the bones are in place to support a healthy and complete neighborhood right from the start. Thinking about transit right away will help ensure successful transit geometries. Reliable transit services will minimize the need for automobiles and the associated congestion, pollution, and dangers to our children and family members they bring.

Next, the city will usually then proceed to invest in a public facility such as a library, community centre, museum or school. This will serve two purposes: first it will ensure that the new public service amenity will closely match pent up demand, relieving pressure from other overcapacity public services. Secondly, it will create predictable demands in the area and spur spill-over demands such as a coffee shop, a neighborhood drinking hole or other commercial uses. Based on the demand that grows around the public amenity, the government can then more accurately gauge the need for other public services in the area and incrementally build out the appropriate mix of residential and commercial uses.

Taking the demand based public service amenity city building approach ensures that we closely match the infrastructure demands with residential requirements like schools, transportation and public services. As a result, one maximizes the return on investment from public dollars. Furthermore, one avoids overbuilding too much infrastructure that is not operating at an efficient capacity and minimize the need for more taxes. While this approach will take significant leadership and cohesive civic staff culture, Amsterdam provides several other examples for short-term urban land use corrections to meet unfulfilled demands now.

Adaptive Reuse

In terms of balancing the infrastructure deficit, the best solution is often the one that is already built. In Canada, our heritage buildings are treated with little value. For example, in Edmonton several of the historic buildings and infrastructure built in the growth boom of the early 1900’s – such as the Rossdale Power Plant, the Walterdale Bridge or the McDougall United Church – are requiring repairs. Incredulously, the conversations often results in demolition.

While these 100 year old buildings may no longer be able to serve their original purpose, they were built in a time when things were built to last (as proven by their existence still today). Modern buildings today are often only built to last twenty years. Therefore, it is in our best interest to set aside a little bit of maintenance funding and to be flexible with tolerated uses within these precious historic buildings. These buildings not only create economic value for the surrounding area, but create cultural value by connecting us to our shared past. Additionally, as community landmarks, they play a critical role in wayfinding and creating a sense of place.

 

Re-purposed crane in Amsterdam Noord houses a hot-tub with the best view.

Re-purposed crane in Amsterdam Noord houses a hot-tub with the best view.

Amsterdam has examples of this creative reuse of infrastructure in spades: whether it is a radio tower rig converted into a restaurant, a former industrial crane converted into a hot-tub, an old water tower converted into a flexible development show room, a tram storage facility converted into a shopping and food court facility, warehouses converted into bars or event centres, oil tanks or historic storage buildings are converted into community centres….the list goes on. Amsterdam understands the savings and value generation for the public that come from maintaining and repurposing historic infrastructure.

 

Amsterdam's Pakhuis de Zwijger used to be a warehouse but it now houses a community cultural centre.

Amsterdam’s Pakhuis de Zwijger used to be a warehouse but it now houses a community cultural centre.

Part of the reason for this prolific reuse of infrastructure is mixed-use zoning which establishes the tools needed right from the start, in order to ensure that a neighbourhood is complete. The Amsterdam planning department does not blindly follow rigid guidelines dictating what uses can go where. Rather they use sound, case-by-case judgment to determine whether specific land uses are appropriate in relation to their context. However, as a rule, one notices that the repurposing of structures ensures that the new buildings meet a high level of architectural standard. This is critical for ensuring that the building creates value in its context.

If the cost is prohibitive to reuse a building in a specific way, first try to change the regulations. If that fails, find a more cost effective way to use the building. Even if the municipality donates the space for free (more on this later), this can serve to generate more value from new business taxes or the public life new inhabitants create. In the end, the reuse of historic buildings serves to create an interesting, adaptable and resilient city. I mean, a hot-tub at the top of a crane, how cool is that?

Lighter, Quicker, Cost Effective

Finally, we need the flexibility to build critical infrastructure now, not two to three years from now. Often, our current regulations structure delay the building of the critical infrastructure that we need today. At Slow Streets, we believe that we should change them or treat them more as guidelines. Common sense should prevail before requiring lengthy and capital intensive studies or reviews. Often any solution is better than waiting years for the funding of the perfect solution. Not only can light, quick and temporary solutions be built to the high standards of permanent solutions, but they can also be adapted easier.

To demonstrate: What if more office space or student housing is required now and capital is scarce? In Amsterdam they would build temporary, but attractive housing using recycled shipping containers, until funding can be acquired to replace them with brick and mortar residences.

 

Amsterdam's NDSM demonstrates quick, light, cost effective solutions to build vibrant artist-working spaces in a reclaimed ship building warehouse.

Amsterdam’s NDSM demonstrates quick, light, cost effective solutions to build vibrant artist-working spaces in a reclaimed ship building warehouse.

Another example is the NDSM – an artist work centre inhabiting a repurposed, abandoned ship building warehouse. To quickly build working quarters, the City opted to reuse shipping containers. The result is a vibrant, multipurpose and dynamic space for people to experiment with art and other entrepreneurial endeavors.

In another case, there was an empty industrial land that the city of Amsterdam wanted to convert into an office park called De Ceuvel. The only problem is that the land is contaminated with industrial chemicals. Most municipalities are faced with the choice of expensive excavation and soil replacement or letting the chemicals naturally breakdown (which takes several years). If you live in North America, you can probably recall at least one property – such as a decommissioned gas station – which has sat empty with a cheap chain-link fence around it, serving as an eyesore and contributing little in the way of fostering new businesses or generating tax revenues. In Canada, such properties exist ironically on some of the most productive properties on popular retail streets such as Whyte Avenue in Edmonton or Denman Street in Vancouver.

 

Quick, light and cost effective reclamation of contaminated land at Amsterdam's De Ceuvel office park using recycled boats.

Quick, light and cost effective reclamation of contaminated land at Amsterdam’s De Ceuvel office park using recycled boats.

Amsterdam decided to go with the latter letting the chemicals breakdown, however they did not want the land to sit empty. As a solution, Amsterdam leased the land commercially at no cost to young entrepreneurs for a period of 10 years. There was still the sticking point of the contaminated ground, but as always, the Dutch are very practical with their solutions.

Dutch regulations require that decommissioned boats must be disposed of properly. This can come at a high cost. The City decided that several of these boats would be diverted from the waste system and be repurposed as offices. Finally, an elevated boardwalk was installed to keep people off the contaminated ground. Nearby a restaurant and bar has been built and, in the end, an interesting office park with a stunning view of Amsterdam and the IJ river is available for budding enterprises (at no cost) while adding to the tax revenues. All of this while cleaning up contaminated land and reusing materials.

Conclusion 

In these days of limited municipal budgets and growing infrastructure requirements, it is a blatant abdication of our responsibilities for our cities to not invest in results now. We do not need the perfect solution, we need something that will maximize benefits for today until a suitable replacement can be made. Ensuring that we start new neighbourhoods with the necessary tools and public amenities to create a healthy and complete community, will ensure that cities can recapture the value created from public investments.  Utilizing our existing stock of infrastructure more efficiently will save all of us money down the line, and at the same time, generate more economic and community value. Finally, changing our government structure and culture will payoff in spades down the road by better matching the infrastructure demands with the citizen requirements.

***

Slow Streets is a Vancouver based Urban Design and Planning
group providing original evidence for people oriented streets.

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Financing Halifax’s Elections Part 1: Why Worry?

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HALIFAX – Last week, Halifax Regional Council voted to ask the Province to grant the municipality the power to regulate political campaign donations in civic elections. It’s a wise move because Halifax’s elections are currently almost bereft of rules. The only requirement set by the province is for candidates to maintain a separate bank account […]

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Financing Halifax’s Elections Part 2: The Developers

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HALIFAX – Where did Halifax’s current 16 councillors get the cash for their 2012 campaigns? To find out for part two of Spacing Atlantic’s campaign finance series, I went through each councillor’s return. Adding up the contributions reveals that running for office in Halifax is expensive, with winning candidates collecting an average of $8,372 each […]

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Investing in Cycling in Scarborough

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Map Credit: Maximillian Pfertner, Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank

This post by Marvin Macaraig, Ph.D., is part of Spacing’s partnership with the Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank at the University of Toronto. Marvin is the Scarborough Cycles Project Coordinator at the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation, a project of Clean Air Partnership. Scarborough Cycles is funded by the Metcalf Foundation’s Cycle City program, which aims to build a constituency and culture in support of cycling for transportation. All maps are by Maximilliam Pfertner.

You have probably noticed that there is a federal election happening, and that usually means a steady stream of promises and plans from all parties. As witnessed in any recent election, candidates will make several announcements calling for the need for ‘infrastructure investment’.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has stated that investing in local infrastructure is critical to maintaining economic competitiveness, and in 2007 reported that Canada has fallen behind by $123 billion, which has resulted in a measurable and distinct infrastructure deficit. The Toronto Region Board of Trade has a dedicated Infrastructure Committee whose main goal is to advance, “stable, long-term financing for a massive and long-overdue expansion of pubic transit and road networks.”

Highlighting this need to address the infrastructure gap, all three major parties have made several multi-billion dollar commitments to boost infrastructure spending immediately. Each of the parties’ plans differs in the amounts and overall timeframes, but all pledge funds in the billions. For many, ‘billions’ is an abstract figure, and the reality is that building a bridge or reconfiguring a road is expensive. However, expensive does not necessarily mean safer, less congestion, or even better looking streets for that matter.

Engineer and planner, Charles Marohn, President and Co-Founder of Strong Towns, and upcoming keynote speaker at the 8th annual Complete Streets Forum organized by the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT), has spoken and written extensively about the pitfalls of simply building extra-wide roadways that are prohibitively expensive to maintain, especially for cash-strapped municipalities. Marohn argues that our current funding mechanisms for suburban development operate like a Ponzi scheme and have left North American cities drowning in debt. What is needed is a return to creating neighbourhoods of scale.

So the question is how can cities better spend their infrastructure funds and recoup their investment over the long-term? There is no doubt that metropolitan regions require highways, railroads, bridges, and public transportation systems. Simply put, transportation infrastructure is fundamental to any modern economy. But, just like your house or apartment, regular maintenance is required. The bigger the house, the more it costs to keep it in good working order. If you are looking for ways to save money, you can build a smaller house… or street.

The next question is how do we get everyone from A to B if we do not widen our roads? What is often lost in this discussion of growth and its connection to billions in infrastructure spending is a discussion on the specific needs of particular communities. Specifically, we need a more nuanced discussion of the smaller/lighter, less costly transportation infrastructure required at the neighbourhood scale that can make communities safer, prosperous, and more livable.

 

Cycling Mode Share_new

 

 

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Recent research in Scarborough by the Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank and TCAT has shown that despite the common perception that everyone living in the suburbs owns a car, the reality is that car ownership is not homogenous, and there are distinct pockets where residents are more likely to rely on other means to get around. Not surprisingly, some of these communities in Scarborough have already been identified as areas that would benefit the most from rapid transit investment. Combining this data with maps highlighting Walking and Cycling Mode Share in Scarborough reveals both noticeable infrastructure gaps and opportunities where neighbourhood-scale/targeted investments, have the potential to immediately improve the overall safety and livability of these communities.

For example, over the past few years the City of Toronto has made improvements to the Gatineau Hydro Corridor Trail, which provides cyclists with a safe and speedy east-west route to get across Scarborough. However, after riding the route on numerous trips it becomes plainly obvious that getting to the trail presents challenges as Scarborough has limited north-south cycling infrastructure. Furthermore, although it may come close, the trail does not directly connect to any of Scarborough’s key transit hubs.

In this case, additional infrastructure investment in the bikeway network would likely go a long way to encourage active transportation in Scarborough. Other small-scale infrastructure investments that would help boost cycling in suburban environs include: improvements to wayfinding, the installation of trail lighting, enhanced pavement treatments, and higher quality endpoint facilities (e.g., secure locking stations), all of which could be completed at a relatively low cost (i.e., not billions). For reference, Toronto spends only $8 million per year on maintaining or expanding its cycling infrastructure.

In the end, whichever party wins this federal election they will inevitably begin spending billions on infrastructure. It is true that announcements for new subways and bridges make for flashy headlines, but we need to take a closer look at how small neighbourhood-scale infrastructure investments can alleviate the spiralling debt cycle of unsustainable suburban development while making timely and tangible improvements to communities.

 

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Financing Halifax’s Elections Part 3: Options

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In Part One of Financing Halifax’s Elections, I explored how political campaign contributions can be problematic due to the potential for corruption, loss of public confidence and a skewed legislature. Part Two examined where the money came from in 2012 and found that developers provided a significant portion of campaign funding. Now, in Part Three, […]

The post Financing Halifax’s Elections Part 3: Options appeared first on Spacing Atlantic.

Book Review – Timber in the City: Design and Construction in Mass Timber

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Author: Andrew Bernheimer (Oro Editions, 2015)

About two and a half years ago I had the opportunity in my last year of University to do an internship with Michael Green Architecture (MGA). This was right around the time that Michael was getting ready to give his TED Talk on the future of “Tall Wood” – a talk that formed the basis of Timber in the City: Design and Construction in Mass Timber.

Michael has been on the forefront of implementing CLT (cross-laminated timber) in our local architectural lexicon and, based on the work showcased in Timber in the City, the results are beautiful, intriguing, and inspiring. It is clear throughout the book that others have heard the message MGA put forward and have taken the technology in several different directions with stunning results. Andrew Bernheimer does a masterful job at editing this book, which beautifully and artfully illustrate the importance of Mass Timber Construction in our future work in the design and architectural spectrum.

The book begins with a preface by Andrew and then moves into two essays which highlight the technology behind Mass Timber and the shockingly positive impact it can have on our environment. For instance, in the first essay by Alan Organschi titled “Timber City: Architectural Speculations in a Black Market, readers are introduced to a material by its components and capabilities: “a complex carbohydrate, synthesized biologically using solar energy and carbon dioxide, with an exceptional high strength-to-weight ratio.”

Reading the above would likely elicit thinking of a new technological breakthrough with some composite material, but knowing the context of the book, we realize he is talking about timber. And what is fascinating about this, is just how unreal the whole prospect is. “A single capsule, costing nothing to produce or to distribute, is usually a little less than a centimetre in length and, depending on atmospheric, hydrologic, and soil conditions, can generate more than a metric ton of structural material in a little over 50 years. The supply is potentially infinite…”

Hearing a pitch like this without the context, one would be chomping at the bit to invest. The problem lies in our standards and codes, and in simple familiarity. In the North American context, steel and concrete have been the “go to” building materials of the several decades and changing peoples perspective seems to be the biggest hurdle that Tall Wood faces.

Is your first thought when you think of a skyscraper built out of wood seeing it engulfed in flames? It certainly was mine. But Andrew Waugh addresses this in the second essay, Twenty-First-Century Timber, succinctly stating that solid timber “meets and generally exceeds fire requirements. A steel frame might buckle after an hour; a solid timber structure forms a protective char layer on the surface and retains its structural integrity over greater lengths of time.”

Waugh also goes through different projects that his firm has worked on using Mass Timber and discusses the properties and elements behind each project and its amazing benefits. To put things in perspective, the Co2 emissions from a steel beam at 20’ are 1811.9 pounds. The emissions from an 8”x16”x20’ beam of concrete are 3066.7 lbs. Compare that with an 8”x24”x20’ CLT beam having emissions of only 501.6—almost six times less than the equivalent beam of concrete—and one truly starts to see what an amazing material it can be for our built environment.

The next section of the book focuses on the design competition which ultimately gave the book its name—Timber in the City. It was a way to see how students and emerging professionals would engage a troublesome area in Red Hook, Brooklyn—chosen because it is an area that faced immense challenges after Hurricane Sandy and can large fluctuations in water rise—through the use of timber.

The winning project came out of the University of Oregon, and combined private living, with industrial and commercial zoning. The concept revolved around using the manufacturing use at the bottom of the structure to create the pieces needed to put together the rest of the tower, keeping most of the construction prefabrication on-site. The buildings would then just rise as they were built within their own little context.

One of the things Timber in the City does best as a book is give readers the requisite information about the projects and then let imagery, floor plans, schematic diagrams, and renderings tell the story. The book began with the facts, but throughout one isn’t inundated with a heavy dose of propaganda. We are allowed to see for ourselves the impact that Mass Timber could have on a local community, a city, and the world over. That being said, prefabrication was a running theme throughout all the contestants that were shown, as CLT is easily configurable and can allow for many creative applications.

Interesting projects created by different firms across the globe who are currently working on our have completed Mass Timber buildings, close the book. Although we still see standard concrete and steel materials being implemented in a few instances, it feels more like this is a required stepping stone to making a shift to Mass Timber. The works feature a multi-family building in Germany, an office building in Switzerland, a high school in Connecticut, MGA’s Wood Innovation Design Centre here in BC, and the Bullitt Centre in Seattle, which is “the first urban mid-rise commercial structure in the United States to target the goals of the Living Building Challenge…”

Over and above the beautiful imagery that highlights the usage of Mass Timber both inside and out, the book also features a strong technical side, with cross-sections and details shown of ceilings, walls, even the creation of structural columns which in some applications have a truly unique design. With this technical information on hand, it was easier to appreciate the projects as a whole—seeing beyond its superficial beauty to understand its function.

I was very lucky to have had my internship when I did, and to get the chance to befriend with Michael Green. Naturally, while I was there, I learned a lot about the future of Mass Timber in our urban environments. This being the case, it was and still is difficult to hear about the politics behind what is holding back something that could drive such positive change in our world.

Timber in the City: Design and Construction in Mass Timber was inspiring from the minute I looked at the cover. Every aspect of the book is meticulously edited by Andrew Bernheimer and the intelligent people who contributed to it offer fascinating arguments regarding Mass Timber that I wish more people had access to.

This book, and the contest that spurred its creation, may very well be the turning point in a rapidly increasing conversation about the implementation of Tall Wood. It is another step laid for those in the industry to take notice, and continue in the footsteps of these great innovators who are pushing the ways of thinking about our built environments.

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For more information on Timber in the City, visit the ORO Editions website.

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Jeremy Senko is happily lost in the world of theoretical architecture and design. He is forever a student at heart, consistently reading, experiencing and learning about the world he inhabits. More specifically, he works as an Interior Designer in Vancouver and plays an active part in bettering the environments we live in.

The post Book Review – Timber in the City: Design and Construction in Mass Timber appeared first on Spacing National.

Call for submissions: MAQ ‘Young Critic in Architecture’ competition

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The Maison de l’architecture du Québec is pleased to announce the fourth edition of the MAQ Young Critic in Architecture Competition (Concours Jeune Critique MAQ en architecture). The MAQ created this annual bilingual competition in 2011 in order to support and stimulate a new generation of high-calibre writing about architecture in Quebec.

Through an exciting association with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), this year the competition has expanded to include all of Canada and offers each of the two winners a $1,000 prize. In addition, the winning English-language text will be published in Canadian Architect, while the French-language text will be featured in Nouveau Projet.

This year’s theme is A Library for the Twenty-First Century. The task is to visit and to write a critical analysis of one or more libraries built in the last five years.

Jury members include: Nicolas Langelier, publisher and editor of Montreal’s Nouveau Projet magazine, Adele Weder, Vancouver-based writer, curator, and critic, Roland Yves Carignan, former managing editor and artistic director of Le Devoir, Sophie Gironnay, architectural columnist and founding director of Montreal’s MAQ, Elsa Lam, editor of Canadian Architect, and David Theodore, professor at McGill University and regular contributor to Azure and Canadian Architect.

Registration deadline: November 1st, 2015

Entry deadline: November 15th, 2015

For complete details and guidelines: visit the MAQ website in the competition (concours) section.

The post Call for submissions: MAQ ‘Young Critic in Architecture’ competition appeared first on Spacing National.

Fredericton Junction and New Brunswick’s Route 101

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Why am I writing an article on nature and rural environments for an urban affairs website? For one, urbanism is not confined to large cities. The appeal of walkable downtowns and attractive neighbourhoods applies to smaller towns and communities. These were highlighted in my earlier article on McAdam, New Brunswick and in a consulting firm’s […]

The post Fredericton Junction and New Brunswick’s Route 101 appeared first on Spacing Atlantic.

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