My project investigated the spatial concepts of Japanese architecture to see if they offer a particular insight into the design of the emerging model of live/work. The search embodied in my directed study and the subsequent design, therefore, was testing this hypothesis. Among many other concepts, Japanese spatial sensibilities include harmony in crowded environs, expansion of experiential space over limited physical distances, and tripartite physical thought. I felt that in the context of evolving models of dwelling and a desired urban densification, we could learn from nations that have already dealt with similar situations. The design addresses the complexity of the social fabric of the Downtown Eastside by taking a Japanese approach to the nature of public and private space. Like an upward spiral of Kyoto storefront houses, the units cluster around a "vertical street," meant to be an extension of Dunlevy Street. During normal business hours, the public may enter the plaza level, participate in the "vertical street" and interact with the people living and working in the units. The transition between the public and private realms is thereby multi-layered. The visitor passes through an indoor/outdoor atrium space, along the "vertical street" and into the units through forecourts and implied work zones fronting the "vertical street." This "onion-like" approach to a layering of public to private space is echoed in the outer skins of the building with a double facade concept. As the atrium space creates an inside/outside ("Ma") zone for the complex itself, the double facade creates an inside/outside zone for the units themselves. This "Ma" zone can function as an extension of the inside or as a room unto itself. The sequential layering of units as discrete "gates" along the "vertical street" is another Japanese spatial idea. The passage along this "street" becomes a series of events culminating at the rooftop gallery and sculpture garden, where the experience of the multi-layered north view is realized. The events along this route and the destination provide the impetus for movement along the route itself. The completed design integrates key Japanese spatial concepts into a western context and location, resulting in a unique model for the design of live/work: one that creates community with personal privacy, yet allows commercial interaction by actively engaging the public.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-61). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

My project investigated the spatial concepts of Japanese architecture to see if they offer a particular insight into the design of the emerging model of live/work. The search embodied in my directed study and the subsequent design, therefore, was testing this hypothesis. Among many other concepts, Japanese spatial sensibilities include harmony in crowded environs, expansion of experiential space over limited physical distances, and tripartite physical thought. I felt that in the context of evolving models of dwelling and a desired urban densification, we could learn from nations that have already dealt with similar situations. The design addresses the complexity of the social fabric of the Downtown Eastside by taking a Japanese approach to the nature of public and private space. Like an upward spiral of Kyoto storefront houses, the units cluster around a "vertical street," meant to be an extension of Dunlevy Street. During normal business hours, the public may enter the plaza level, participate in the "vertical street" and interact with the people living and working in the units. The transition between the public and private realms is thereby multi-layered. The visitor passes through an indoor/outdoor atrium space, along the "vertical street" and into the units through forecourts and implied work zones fronting the "vertical street." This "onion-like" approach to a layering of public to private space is echoed in the outer skins of the building with a double facade concept. As the atrium space creates an inside/outside ("Ma") zone for the complex itself, the double facade creates an inside/outside zone for the units themselves. This "Ma" zone can function as an extension of the inside or as a room unto itself. The sequential layering of units as discrete "gates" along the "vertical street" is another Japanese spatial idea. The passage along this "street" becomes a series of events culminating at the rooftop gallery and sculpture garden, where the experience of the multi-layered north view is realized. The events along this route and the destination provide the impetus for movement along the route itself. The completed design integrates key Japanese spatial concepts into a western context and location, resulting in a unique model for the design of live/work: one that creates community with personal privacy, yet allows commercial interaction by actively engaging the public. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

Gastown, Vancouver's birthplace, is a small historic district embedded within the broader community of the Downtown Eastside. Over the past 25 years Gastown has been slowly upgrading; refashioning itself as a loft style residential neighbourhood and central tourist destination. Over the same period the Downtown Eastside's reputation as the city's "skid road" has become firmly entrenched. The pace of this community's upgrading and downgrading has quickened over the past five years and resulted in a current geography where we find loft-style condominiums, cappuccino bars and rising affluence interspersed with needle exchanges, homeless shelters and deepening disadvantage. What we see within the Gastown/Downtown Eastside community is a convergence of the spatial processes of social polarisation and the kinds of conflicts and negotiations that result. Polarisation, most broadly defined, describes a growing socio-economic and spatial divide between the "haves" and "have-nots" of Western societies and cities. While considerable attention has been paid to polarisation's conceptual meaning and empirical definition at the national and intra-urban levels, little focus has centered on how the process can be identified and analysed at the intra-community level. In the same way that polarisation at broader scales of analysis can be viewed as the sociotemporal coincidence of pauperisation and professionalisation, this dissertation defines intracommunity polarisation as the simultaneous occurrence of socio-spatial upgrading and downgrading. Using quantitative data from the census tract level, this dissertation investigates the empirical evidence of social polarisation within Gastown/Downtown Eastside. Using qualitative data the study explores the extent to which both revitalisation and deterioration are competing for the community's future and this polarisation is being experienced and negotiated by the varied residents and stakeholders of this urban community. Ultimately this dissertation sheds light on how the characteristics and causes of community based polarisation differ and parallel those at other scales of inquiry. It also outlines the truly local factors that affect polarisation's development, entrenchment and impact and illuminates the process' inconstant character and the time lag that exists between its qualitative experience and its quantitative identification.

Gastown, Vancouver's birthplace, is a small historic district embedded within the broader community of the Downtown Eastside. Over the past 25 years Gastown has been slowly upgrading; refashioning itself as a loft style residential neighbourhood and central tourist destination. Over the same period the Downtown Eastside's reputation as the city's "skid road" has become firmly entrenched. The pace of this community's upgrading and downgrading has quickened over the past five years and resulted in a current geography where we find loft-style condominiums, cappuccino bars and rising affluence interspersed with needle exchanges, homeless shelters and deepening disadvantage. What we see within the Gastown/Downtown Eastside community is a convergence of the spatial processes of social polarisation and the kinds of conflicts and negotiations that result. Polarisation, most broadly defined, describes a growing socio-economic and spatial divide between the "haves" and "have-nots" of Western societies and cities. While considerable attention has been paid to polarisation's conceptual meaning and empirical definition at the national and intra-urban levels, little focus has centered on how the process can be identified and analysed at the intra-community level. In the same way that polarisation at broader scales of analysis can be viewed as the sociotemporal coincidence of pauperisation and professionalisation, this dissertation defines intracommunity polarisation as the simultaneous occurrence of socio-spatial upgrading and downgrading. Using quantitative data from the census tract level, this dissertation investigates the empirical evidence of social polarisation within Gastown/Downtown Eastside. Using qualitative data the study explores the extent to which both revitalisation and deterioration are competing for the community's future and this polarisation is being experienced and negotiated by the varied residents and stakeholders of this urban community. Ultimately this dissertation sheds light on how the characteristics and causes of community based polarisation differ and parallel those at other scales of inquiry. It also outlines the truly local factors that affect polarisation's development, entrenchment and impact and illuminates the process' inconstant character and the time lag that exists between its qualitative experience and its quantitative identification. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Unattached women with problem backgrounds are repeatedly using crisis related services in Vancouver's skid road. These services consist of emergency shelter accommodation, counselling, and housing referral. The women requiring these services have an urgent problem locating and maintaining stable, long-term housing. Such women are usually between the ages of 19 and 55 years and live without spouses, dependents, or other significant attachments. They are likely to be physically, mentally, or socially handicapped, and unable to support themselves. Most of them are defined by social service and health agency workers as "hard-to-house" in most private market housing. Members of this group have personal problems characterized by psychiatric difficulties, mental instability, and drug and alcohol problems. Their present residential environment and the lack of suitable residential alternatives, exacerbate their problems, causing extreme psychological and often physical hardships. Agency workers express urgent concern that, while the provision of emergency services may temporarily stabilize a client, the constant moves and the repetition of these services is not only therapeutically disruptive, but does nothing to meet the clients' long-term needs. As most of the target group is unable to cope with independent living and requires 2n>-hour living supervision, the need for residential care is perceived as a remedy. There is evidence that the occurrence of deinstitutionalization has added to the numbers of skid road residents by releasing ill-prepared patients or inmates of institutions into the community. Hotels and rooming house operators express concern over a hard-to-house population who are burdensome. Mental health professionals have expressed concern over the lack of residential alternatives available to former mental patients in Vancouver. The recent trend in the care of deinstitutionalized mental patients in North America, point to the provision of supportive housing. This is housing which provides social supports designed to assist the resident in coping with daily living while integrating into the community. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the nature of these women's housing problems in their current residential environment; to discover their dissatisfactions and requirements with regard to housing; to examine the supply of residential options; and to explore the - type of residential alternatives that would be most suited to their needs. Three data sources were used: skid road agency workers and their clients experiencing housing related difficulties; key informants in the community involved in the provision of social housing and residential care programs; and the mental health literature. Interviews with agency workers and their clients found that hotel and rooming houses are highly inappropriate living arrangements for the subject group. Several conditions related to the skid road residential environment were found to render unattached woment especially vulnerable to physical and sexual assault and other forms of harrassment. These conditions included poor security; limited supervision; discrimination; as well as the fact that women are a minority population. The interviews also found that women prefer safe, secure, self-contained suites or sex-segregated bathrooms and toilets. The inventory of residential options in Vancouver revealed that most were unsuitable, and of those considered suitable, the supply was extremely inadequate. The mental health literature suggests that residential programs encouraging independent living, have been successful for other populations with characteristics similar to those of the target group. This thesis recommends further study of the population, their capabilities, and the extent to which they can be rehabilitated, as well as/'the necessary support services required, to be followed by the initiation of a pilot project. The thesis also recommends that skid road hotels and rooming houses be improved in ways that would reduce the hardships imposed on unattached female residents. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate