In my Directed Studies I looked at how architecture can make the experience of time more immediate. This can be done by the use of light that marks the passage of time and the variability of the outside world; the unfolding of and movement through a building's spaces; the juxtaposition of permanent and changing elements; and in the choice of materials and how they wear over time. To explore these ideas, I choose as my project a Gallery of Urban Design for Vancouver. The Gallery would give students and professionals as well as the interested public the chance to learn about the complexity and richness of cities. The site is a vacant 100' x 120' lot on the SW corner of Robson and Homer, across Robson St. from the new Public Library. This area is consolidating as an arts and entertainment district, and a smaller-scale cultural venue would complement larger institutions like the Library, Ford Theatre, BC Place, etc. The site is at a strategic corner of this district, with strong connections to the rest of downtown. Right now, this district is an odd mix of empty lots and large object buildings that dominate most or all of a city block, most of which turn their backs on the sidewalk. The result is a barren and uninviting streetscape. What's missing is a finer grain to knit together these large monuments, the kind of grain seen in nearby Yaletown and on Robson St. The site of the Gallery, across from the Library, has the chance to extend Robson St.'s rhythm, and also to enclose and define Library Square. The Gallery itself is the heart of the project. There are four gallery spaces devoted to different themes: the City's Origins, the City Rises, the City in Crisis, and the City Renewed. In each there is a permanent exhibit on Vancouver around which changing exhibits about other cities are organised. The areas for permanent exhibits are marked by a change in the flooring, from polished concrete to wood. For visitors, the gallery spaces, each a variation on the same palette of materials and light, unfold piece by piece as they move through them, always with glimpses ahead of what's to come and views back to where they've been. The dimension of time is involved in understanding this sequence, and emphasised in the in-between spaces that thicken the transitions. The simple materials serve as a reference for the changing qualities of light that are used to mark a centre and to draw the visitor forward, to imply stability and movement, in a rhythm of light and dark that ends with the dramatic light and city views of the last gallery.

In my Directed Studies I looked at how architecture can make the experience of time more immediate. This can be done by the use of light that marks the passage of time and the variability of the outside world; the unfolding of and movement through a building's spaces; the juxtaposition of permanent and changing elements; and in the choice of materials and how they wear over time. To explore these ideas, I choose as my project a Gallery of Urban Design for Vancouver. The Gallery would give students and professionals as well as the interested public the chance to learn about the complexity and richness of cities. The site is a vacant 100' x 120' lot on the SW corner of Robson and Homer, across Robson St. from the new Public Library. This area is consolidating as an arts and entertainment district, and a smaller-scale cultural venue would complement larger institutions like the Library, Ford Theatre, BC Place, etc. The site is at a strategic corner of this district, with strong connections to the rest of downtown. Right now, this district is an odd mix of empty lots and large object buildings that dominate most or all of a city block, most of which turn their backs on the sidewalk. The result is a barren and uninviting streetscape. What's missing is a finer grain to knit together these large monuments, the kind of grain seen in nearby Yaletown and on Robson St. The site of the Gallery, across from the Library, has the chance to extend Robson St.'s rhythm, and also to enclose and define Library Square. The Gallery itself is the heart of the project. There are four gallery spaces devoted to different themes: the City's Origins, the City Rises, the City in Crisis, and the City Renewed. In each there is a permanent exhibit on Vancouver around which changing exhibits about other cities are organised. The areas for permanent exhibits are marked by a change in the flooring, from polished concrete to wood. For visitors, the gallery spaces, each a variation on the same palette of materials and light, unfold piece by piece as they move through them, always with glimpses ahead of what's to come and views back to where they've been. The dimension of time is involved in understanding this sequence, and emphasised in the in-between spaces that thicken the transitions. The simple materials serve as a reference for the changing qualities of light that are used to mark a centre and to draw the visitor forward, to imply stability and movement, in a rhythm of light and dark that ends with the dramatic light and city views of the last gallery. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The shift toward participatory, advocacy and social architecture and planning that occurred in the 1960's and 70's in North America was illustrated with the work of the Community Design Centers. These Community Design Centers provided architectural, planning and technical services to low income groups with an emphasis on user participation. The Community Desgin Center provided a model by which the professional, the student and the community could work together as a team on current issues within the community. This study examines the basic notions of the Community Design Centers in order to determine the principles at work in the model. The Urban Design Center of Vancouver, 1970-76 is used as a specific case study. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

This thesis is an examination of the early vernacular church architecture of the southern interior of British Columbia. The thesis addresses several main tasks, examining the location, form, origins, and intrinsic meaning of early rural churches. After an introductory statement discussing purpose, theoretical foundations, and methods, the study identifies the agents of organised religion in early British Columbia, examining their backgrounds, beliefs, aims, and achievements. This initial section concludes by discussing the geography of denominational strengths that emerged in British Columbia as aresult of inteer-denominational rivalries. The thesis then considers the theme of church construction. Dates and places of church construction are identified and regional and temporal patterns are explained as functions of denominational geographies of strength, as well as of the the province's history of settlement and economic development. This section illustrates the province's transmogrification in the 1890's from a realm primarily of Indian churches to one in which European churches predominated. The next section of the thesis describes and classifies the visual characteristics of the southern interior's churches; temporally and regionally and according to denomination. Subsequent chapters identify the ideological, techno logical, and stylistic forces that diffused from Europe and eastern Canada to mould the early churches of British Columbia. Concern focuses on the issue on innovation and tradi-tion in the frontier setting. The thesis concludes with a discussion of church and society in the pioneer province. The chapter includes an assessment of the role played by organised religion in the lives of early British Columbians. It discusses the image of the church (both as building and as institution) and concludes by comparing, events in British Columbia with those of the wider world. The study suggests that the early churches of the southern interior were among the province's most conservative buildings. The churches of the area were generally built according to the liturgical and artistic traditions of Europe and eastern Canada. Evangelicalism, Tractarian-ism, the Catholic Revival, and neo-Mediaevalism largely influenced their form. With few exceptions, pioneer churches responded only slightly to the altered conditions of frontier life. For the most part, early settlers longed to recreate the church architecture and religious life they had known in their homelands. In frontier British Columbia, building dimensions might be reduced, floor-plans might be simplified, superfluous embellishments might be discarded, and unessen-tial furnishings might be temporarily discarded, but builders generally strove to retain as much architectural authenticity as conditions permitted. At the same time, however, the province's builders were quick to master the technological innovations of the North American frontier. Churches were built not with the pre-industrial log and stone technologies of Europe and eastern Canada, but with industrially-produced materials and modern technologies. Although much of the southern interior long remained wilderness, it must be borne in mind that the area was settled during an industrialising age. Most of the province's lumber and other building materials were mass-produced in factories and mills (though craft was not entirely dormant). Further, though British Columbia was a distant and not altogether significant component of a far-flung empire, she was at no time severed from the influences of the wider world. Efficient transportation and communication systems facilitated the flow of goods and ideas from San Francisco, Montreal, London, and Paris. Although the role, dogmas, and stature of organised religion and the form and arrangement of churches remained traditional, the technology through which churches were built and furnished was very often fully modern. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This Thesis Project began as an attempt to explore the basic principles of Cinema: Light, Time and Movement. As the project evolved I began to explore and develop various design ideas. These included: the exploration of voyeuristic qualities within Cinema and Architec tural ideas based on illusion and rhythm; cinema as a medium; and, geometric maipulations and how different geometries might co-exist in an attempt to foster an image of diversity while defocusing the stereotypical idea of school and institution. The final product consisted of a 36,000 sq. ft. Film Centre, that housed a Film School, Indoor and Outdoor Cinemas, the Vancouver Film Festival Offices, a multi-media Restaurant and an Independant Film Studio.

This Thesis Project began as an attempt to explore the basic principles of Cinema: Light, Time and Movement. As the project evolved I began to explore and develop various design ideas. These included: the exploration of voyeuristic qualities within Cinema and Architec tural ideas based on illusion and rhythm; cinema as a medium; and, geometric maipulations and how different geometries might co-exist in an attempt to foster an image of diversity while defocusing the stereotypical idea of school and institution. The final product consisted of a 36,000 sq. ft. Film Centre, that housed a Film School, Indoor and Outdoor Cinemas, the Vancouver Film Festival Offices, a multi-media Restaurant and an Independant Film Studio. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The physical traces left behind by the passage of lives constitute a form of collective memory; they are the tell-tale signs that suggest to us how things have come to be the way they are, remind us of they way they used to be, and suggest how they might become in the future. The physical world selects objects for preservation according to a capricious set of rules, choosing not only the extraordinary and the notable, but also the ordinary and the seemingly insignificant. When these traces of our experience are permitted to remain, places of extraordinary richness begin to develop, where heritage is not manufactured, but is allowed to evolve. Taking this process as a starting point, this Graduation Project began as an investigation into the reciprocal relationships that can exist between new architecture and its physical and historical contexts. It explores ways in which a new building can both affect and be affected by the residual traces of circumstances and activities that have occurred in a place over time, excavating and preserving the history of place, and sustaining this history by adding a new layer of meaning and form to an existing site. In the search to determine ways in which these time scales intermesh and layer within a set of spaces, another investigation occurred, into the relationships between form, scale, light, activity and the perception and experience of time. The site chosen for this project is a building lot on Columbia Street in New Westminster, containing the ruins of a commercial building dating from 1898. The programme was for an art college, containing a gallery, a lecture theatre, a library, offices and studios. In the design of a new building for this site, a number of existing elements were identified for their potential to suggest either aspects of the site's history or the design of new spaces: an old brick retaining wall whose bricked-in doorways suggest spaces underneath the adjacent street, a stone door-step recalling an entrance, a fragment of stone from an even older building that once stood on this site. New spaces were then ordered, both in relation to these found elements, and in relation to each other, based particularly on the ways in which they suggest and respond to the passage of time. An play of affinities and contrasts was established, whereby spaces are simultaneously related to, but distinguished from one another. The design of this building was therefore determined not only as a reaction to a given set of circumstances, but as a consideration of the ways in which the passage of time, both historical and daily, might be manipulated as an architectural element.

The physical traces left behind by the passage of lives constitute a form of collective memory; they are the tell-tale signs that suggest to us how things have come to be the way they are, remind us of they way they used to be, and suggest how they might become in the future. The physical world selects objects for preservation according to a capricious set of rules, choosing not only the extraordinary and the notable, but also the ordinary and the seemingly insignificant. When these traces of our experience are permitted to remain, places of extraordinary richness begin to develop, where heritage is not manufactured, but is allowed to evolve. Taking this process as a starting point, this Graduation Project began as an investigation into the reciprocal relationships that can exist between new architecture and its physical and historical contexts. It explores ways in which a new building can both affect and be affected by the residual traces of circumstances and activities that have occurred in a place over time, excavating and preserving the history of place, and sustaining this history by adding a new layer of meaning and form to an existing site. In the search to determine ways in which these time scales intermesh and layer within a set of spaces, another investigation occurred, into the relationships between form, scale, light, activity and the perception and experience of time. The site chosen for this project is a building lot on Columbia Street in New Westminster, containing the ruins of a commercial building dating from 1898. The programme was for an art college, containing a gallery, a lecture theatre, a library, offices and studios. In the design of a new building for this site, a number of existing elements were identified for their potential to suggest either aspects of the site's history or the design of new spaces: an old brick retaining wall whose bricked-in doorways suggest spaces underneath the adjacent street, a stone door-step recalling an entrance, a fragment of stone from an even older building that once stood on this site. New spaces were then ordered, both in relation to these found elements, and in relation to each other, based particularly on the ways in which they suggest and respond to the passage of time. An play of affinities and contrasts was established, whereby spaces are simultaneously related to, but distinguished from one another. The design of this building was therefore determined not only as a reaction to a given set of circumstances, but as a consideration of the ways in which the passage of time, both historical and daily, might be manipulated as an architectural element. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

This thesis project, a Museum of Contemporary Architecture in Vancouver, offers solu tions to architectural design problems resulting from the placement of an institutional use, the museum, within the social and physical framework of the city. The emphasis of this project is to integrate two polar opposites. On one hand resides the bureaucratic elite of a cultural institution: the curatorial machinery of contemporary architecture. On the other hand are the contradictory forces of the city: the wandering of the diverse population through the site, the intrusion of other uses within the body of the building, and the shifting of museum uses onto adjacent noninstitutional structures. The method of research has been through a three month iterative process of reading, draw ing and modelling, following consultation with the thesis committee. Represented here is the third version of the project, in it’s most resolved form. For a record of the thesis preparation, please see the design study, directed by Professor Sherry McKay, held in the Architecture Read ing Room. The conclusions of this thesis project resulted from aggressive reworkings. First, the uses of the building were interrogated and then condensed into their simplest form. This involved deleting most of the traditional museum functions. Libraries and bookstores, meeting rooms and cafes and staff offices were transplanted offsite or given away to other businesses. This allowed a new underground film room and night club to intrude in the basement, and an estranged office and residence to hover over the small exhibition spaces. Second, the massing of these uses needed separate identities. Finally, out of a desire for an open urban expression, the building mass was reduced further to introduce empty floors between uses, and a two meter setback between the building and the next structure on the block. Light and air, infiltrating these intersti tial spaces of the design, emanated towards the street. A concrete structure holds this composi tion together, with steel struts bracing against earthquake forces. A double row of street trees filter the resultant vision, layering the building in the urban context. The subject of this thesis was prompted by a comment by Thom Mayne’s during his visit to UBC in 1993. Mr. Mayne felt that the traditional scope of contemporary architecture could be improved, especially when contrasted to the breadth of issues in the fine arts. This project helped me to investigate the architectural possibilities of institutional expres sion in the urban core.

In the pursuit of originality, some interventions consciously stand in opposition to the existing. The approach I've taken is more holistic; rather than pursue the novelty of the moment, I've taken the stance that creativity in art and architecture is part of a continuum. With that in mind, I've attempted in this project to make this evolution apparent by bridging the existing to the new without reverting to historical mimicking. My design is not a heritage preservation project. I wanted to take what exists, re-think it, and build upon it. My proposal is for a downtown student residence for both individuals and families. It would take advantage of new developments in the area such as the new S.F.U. conference center, the new B.C.IT. complex, and other institutions already in place such as the S.F.U. at Harbor Center, and the Vancouver Community College. This student residence would be an inter-university residence, accepting students from all of these educational institutions as well as U.B.C. and Emily Carr. Its aim would be to establish greater social and academic links between the city's post-secondary educational institutes. This project feeds on what has already started to happen in the area and can re-introduce a residential population to the city core, generating new life and new activity which in turn will contribute significantly to the wealth of the urban fabric. In short, one can imagine the formation of a lively downtown university quarter. My proposed residence would be one seed sown in this larger vision. Besides feeling that I felt the project should be a dense urban scheme, it appeared imperative to me that my design foster a real sense of belonging, permitting the development of a small community within a community. In addition to public commercial space, the new program demanded realms of privacy, and more importantly a core, or center, around which a community could begin to form. From this organizational idea of a core the design started to take shape. The existing building opened up in the rear toward a court. A lane intersected it providing access and making it a space that could be both place and pathway for activity. The program turned towards this space marking it as the center, and animating it with the activity of daily life. The existing urban aesthetic informed my design language. Urban context is characterized by wall as a dominant element, tall vertical spaces, steel stairs and railing, hanging wires, and a strong demarcation between front, sides and rear accentuated by a change of brick at the corners. All these elements were to some degree absorbed, assimilated and reinterpreted in the work. The relationship of 'part to whole' became an important part of the process. Likewise, terminology in how I started to speak and think about the project. Words like old vs. new stopped being used as they aggravate the dichotomy between the parts. An effort was made not to mimic the existing building which would have produce a neo-historic building, this was not my goal. An effort was made not to objectify the existing building, rendering it a precious object. Nor did I deliberately attempt to contrast it, this would be counter-productive to the concept of the whole. Contrast aggravates the gap between then and now, disavowing integration and synthesis. My approach was rather one of complementing and complicity. Complicity is an interesting concept because it implies that two or more parties or parts come together toward a common goal, It also implies a dialogue. This is very different from contrast, for example, that is unidirectional. A dialogue receives and gives, and both parts form and are informed.