L'ÉCOLE DU CANAL | ANCHOR AND WASTE, PLAY AND GARDEN
Our proposal looks to mediate between the school and the neighbourhood; neither totally autonomous from, nor mimicking what exists. Using 'waste-spaces' and 'anchor-spaces', we sought to create a superimposition of the two; the building exists in tension between the school and the neighbourhood. We purposefully wanted the users to enter through a channel that mixes the school-users and the non-school-users; where the bridge creates the 'in-between' conditions. The crossing under the bridge creates a boundary, while at the same time it functions as a connector between the community house and the shared indoor performance space; it is both a bridge and a door. Followed by the bridge is the garden. The programmatic function of the garden remains elusive; interpretable by the users as their needs change overtime. Then, there is a dedicated entrance for the school that leads to stair-elevator cores that lead up to dedicated volumes creating a small internal village. Within it are clusters of rooms and spaces, where the classrooms (anchor spaces) are paired with 'before rooms' (waste space). Each floor, both have views to the garden and the street (rooftop play area).
Facing Murray Street, the two existing buildings are kept mostly intact with some minor adjustments to intensify the architectural qualities that they embody. We found beauty in the cheap and even ugly things like corrugated steel cladding, garage doors, the banal 90s factory buildings, and the shifting roof lines. Without preconceived notions of beauty, they are legitimate expressions of the everyday that unfolded on site that had charms of their own. We thought that the school can distinguish itself and cement its place in the neighborhood, not by self-affirmation, but by humbly using and misusing the existing.
(From competitor's text)
KLM78 - The Canal School | Anchor and Waste, Play and Garden
Summary: A proposal that explores the richness of the neighborhood's textures and is firmly rooted in the urban fabric.
The language of this proposal allows young people to become aware of their environment, of the architecture. The textures and materiality proposed are appropriate. The industrial language presented seduced the jury.
(From jury report)
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