A Distributed Academic Network for Sudbury, Ontario
This project envisions a new model of architecture school, appropriate for the particular urban scale of Sudbury that thrives on the interaction between students and the larger community, using each to activate the other through a series of reciprocal urban exchanges.
The proposal should not be understood as a specific urban plan, but rather as a speculative build-out strategy that is informed by a new kind of urban and architectural logic developed around the program and vision for the school. Rather than isolating the new school's facilities in an architecturally iconic new facility, this proposal instead suggests that a distributed academic model would generate both the inter-school dynamism and larger cultural resonance that would be critical for the NOSOA institution. Such a distributed model, which ''packages'' elements of the program into discrete, but connected parcels, is capable of both creating a broader zone of influence for urban revitalization in the city as well as richer and more complex campus and community experiences.
The academic network created at the ground level constitutes the heart of the proposal, which seeks to opportunistically fill existing gaps in Sudbury's fabric by coupling the architecture school program with other programs necessary for the continued growth and densification of the city's urban core, such as new residential and office space. With the understanding that the vibrance of the architecture school community would be codependent with that of the larger downtown community, the design of this proposal seeks to intertwine the different, multilingual and cultural communities in specific and compelling ways.
A large, generous circulation space on the ground floor of each building cluster serves as a flexible zone designed to accommodate overlapping communities: it acts as a formal review space for the display and critique of architecture projects; a shared lounge space for students, live-work artists, residents, or other tenants located above the school; and an ongoing gallery of student work open to public at large. The space also connects the school both to its street frontage as well as to a new pedestrian network meant to occupy what is currently an alleyway system in the rear. By claiming this zone as a new, campus-like circulation space, related buildings and shared facilities such as the library and auditorium would be made more readily accessible to students as well as the public as they move between buildings. Future facilities such as art galleries or cafes could easily hook into this rear pedestrian network to form a cultural promenade that runs through the fabric parallel to the main vehicular street network.
(From competitor's text)
19 scanned / 12 viewable
- Presentation Panel
- Presentation Panel
- Presentation Panel
- Schema
- Schema
- Schema
- Schema
- Perspective
- Perspective
- Axonometric Drawing
- Perspective
- Presentation Panel
