A Narrative: Conservatism > Architecture > Manifesting Productive Dialogue

Conservatism as a position in life, rather than a political stance, highlights the importance of incre-mental growth in the concept of striving for an ultimate goal or resolution and finding a better and more efficient way of thinking / pursuing objectives. Toronto, like many western democratic cities, has an issue of political polarization of varying ideas, and struggles to find a middle ground, leading to a furtherance of polar views as well as the stagnation of made decisions that are necessary in order to move forward. The concept of conservatism refers to looking at the world as it is, then identifying the opportunities for growth, leverages, adjustments that would propel the current state into something greater and ultimately better in a stable manner, promoting longevity and solidarity.

One of Toronto’s largest issues is its increasingly polar views which creates differing priorities within the citizens of Toronto that leads to the manifestation of contrasting positions in constance argument, stagnating the growth of the city’s socioeconomic world through elevated indecisiveness. Toronto can learn from the deriving concept of conservatism (with the absence of subjectivity in favoring current political positions) by moving forward slowly but surely, with stability and certainty through slow growth in finding agreement across the majority of the spectrums of ideologies in order to reach a social cohesion. This social cohesion would make it easier for a society to progress in many areas, in-cluding its politics, economy, and general way of thinking, which will formulate the society’s priorities and concerns.

Rally for a development for working-class independent pol-itics at Yonge and Dundas Square, Toronto. May 1, 2016.

Although this social cohesive thinking and mutual agreement seems impossible, it may be explored and sought through leveraging Toronto’s allowance of free speech as well as the utilization of civil dis-course and respectful engagement in order to find a common understanding and resolution. Although the city seems to be running decently, Toronto lacks the communicative element between the populist and establishment with a lack of spaces for dialogue, leaving the potential for improvement locked within the heads of many.

Conservatism - Toronto Speakers’ Corner

The proposal ‘Speakers’ Corner Complex’ exisits to encourage good argumentative practices with log-ical and epistemic reasoning in order to find civil discourse in Toronto’s modern democracy. Designed and programmed based on this idea of good arguments, incremental growth, and reflective problem solving, saturating across the minds of the people of the city, the new addition to Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square will slowly, but surely, push Toronto and its citizens to a better and more productive democratic ideal. Within Nathan Phillips Square, speakers will be more susceptible to act with good intentions, connected to their Torontonian identity.

Programmatic Functions and Spaces

The programmatic functions would consist of a speakers’ platform, a space for welcoming expression of one’s belief or issues that would also hold regulated discussions that encourage civil discourse and engagement, in aim to not find a winner and loser, but to find common ground and mutual agree-ment. This space would aim to rebuild the foundation for productive conversation through a common respect as well as the consciousness to make the other feel valued, beyond civil discourse. The cur-rent theatre by Plant Architect Inc. will be demolished for the purpose of the project exercise as it lacks the criteria for the project’s intent.

Aside would be an interactive program that would educate the public on Toronto’s history, politics, and optimistic future that could be reached through the architectural intent of incremental growth. This pavilion would be an important part of the architectural program as it would give the users a strong foundation of information that would aid in understanding Toronto as well as the architectural intent of the project.

Nathan Phillips Square site plan and current programs, showing general area for site in red.Source: http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2013/06/new-work-and-new-artwork-mark-nathan-phillips-square-re-do

Preliminary Sketch of intended Architectural Programs

A digital discussion board will also be included in gaining the opinions of others online in terms of debatable topics and relevant topics, as well as receiving insight on better ways to run the speakers’ corner. The architecture will also feature a public space for communal gatherings and normal pub-lic use as well as an underground monumental space that highlights the importance of incremental growth, benevolence, and truthfulness, crucial in achieving any goal, whether it be perceived as com-plex or impossible.

The square will also feature a public space for communal gatherings and normal public use, with seating complimented by other elements to make it an enjoyable place to stay whether or not an activity is taking place on the speakers’ corner. This gathering space would act as the connector of all of the intended programs, with all/most programs in adjacency. The space could also benefit with a monument that highlights the importance of incremental growth, benevolence, and truthfulness, cru-cial in achieving any goal, whether it be perceived as complex or impossible, optimistic in productive conversation as a means to finding resolve in highly debatable topics and ideas.

Digital / Interactive Discussion

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EducationalInstallation

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Incremental Growth

Monument

Storage

Program Adjacency Diagram

Program Intents and Details

Speakers’ Platform• To induce productive dialogue and rational

thinking between speakers and listeners• Voice of the public’s concerns• Should have mediation between oppositions

to establish common ground• Minimal hostility to make opposing sides feel

valued, beyond civil discourse• Gathering Space• Welcoming, multifunctional• Seats and planters• Space for audience to spectate the platform• Acoustical connection to speakers’ platform

Educational/Information Pavilion• Interactive learning• Detailed well because users are close to it• Atmospheric affects surrounding the user –

material choice very important• Encourages leadership and truthfulness• Induce open-mindedness and epistemic vice

Digital Discussion Board• To connect the populist to important discus-

sions• To receive criticism inputs into current events• To receive criticism on programmatic function

of debates• To get suggestions on future topics• Possibility of scheduled video debates• All filtered content to prevent vulgarity and

arrogance

Monument• Works through semiotics to portray the values

of conservatism• Incremental growth, stability and longevity,

seeing the world as it is• Civil discourse and truth, needs to be easy to

read by the ubiquitous person

Site Model Study - Generating Form and Program Layout

Site Model of Nathan Phillips Square at Scale 1:500

Program Adjacency Tool

Utilizing the physical program adjacency tool I started to devel-op models and forms, analysing and adjusting the location of each program to fit the site; keeping in mind that it not only needs to lift up the intended design, but to also compliment the site as well.

A site model at a scale of 1:500 was put to-gether that portrays Nathan Phillips Square and its immediate context, including Viljo Revell’s Toronto City Hall, podium and fol-ly/elevated perimeter walkway, as well as the reflecting pool/skating rink, and the skate/info building. Smaller sites in which the programs would be situated for design/iteration pro-cess purposes were also created as well as a physical tool for playing around with the program location and situation by simply using cardboard and string, based on pro-gram adjacency.

Site Model Study - Generating Form and Program Layout

Design Process and Iterations 1-3

Iteration 1

Placing the speakers’ platform on the west side of the site with the monument and digital discussion board on either side, hugging the elevated walkway. The gathering space is placed in the centre with the education/information pavilion on the east side of site, used as a welcoming entrance to the site.

• Functional, but not quite effective; too static and uninteresting.

• Pavilion seems to be lonely and disconnected

Iteration 2

Straying away from the uniform and introducing angles, situating the speakers’ platform to be more dominant on the site to show its power/dominance. Spaces of gathering and filler programs of mini par-kettes to make the site more dynamic.

• Too formal in program to spatial function. Will not be able to have informal gatherings for other public events.

• Too intrusive and does not work. Speaker’s plat-form has too much focus.

Iteration 3

Moving back to the original layout but bringing the monument on the east side to compliment the pa-vilion. Works functionally, but there is still a discon-nect from the west and east programs due to the large gathering space. Introducing more form to the speakers’ platform that starts to manifest incremen-tal growth and acoustical connection to the gather-ing space/audience

• Still a disconnect from east and west programs. How can I connect the east programs to the west while still giving allowance for informal gathering?

Site Model Study - Generating Form and Program Layout

Design Process and Iterations 4-6

Iteration 4

In order to connect the education/info pavilion (or the east programs for that matter) to the main focus of the site (the speakers’ platform), the pavilion is designed for direction and insinuates a path towards the platform, showing more connection.

• Better spatial arrangement, however, the speak-ers’ platform blocks the northwest side of the site, which is a potential entrance.

• Moving in the right direction … how can I en-hance this design?

Iteration 5

Seeking for another potential layout that could work just as good as iteration 4 or even better, placing the speakers’ platform on the southwest side of the site and closer to the current public space. Using a more fluid form for the pavilion and monument, bringing the form of the City Hall into the speakers’ platform.

• Speaker’s platform and audience seating discon-nect the gathering space to the already estab-lished south public space.

• The platform is a little too close for comfort and may render the north side of the site as unus-able and far from reach.

• Not better than the previous iteration.

Iteration 6

Moving back to iteration 4 and evolving it by bring-ing the platform a little more south to create clear-ance for the northwest entrance to Nathan Phillips Square. Playing around with the form of the monu-ment, clearly showing its derivative from an incre-mental growth bar graph. Same principle of insinu-ated direction from the ‘entrance’ pavilion but with a change in form.

• Slightly better than iteration 4 but could still need work.

• Speakers’ platform faces the general public but not intrusively.

• What would happen if I were to introduce exca-vation?

Site Model Study - Generating Form and Program Layout

Design Process and Iterations 7-8

Iteration 7

An introduction of designing into the ground, sinking the gathering space/audience into the ground. This design decision strengthens the concept of populist vs establishment, with the people in power above the grade and on a raised podium and with the pop-ulist below grade, into the ground.Strengthens concept, but is too intrusive.

• Too formal in a sense that it strips the possibility for informal gathering that is still connected to the south public space.

• There is a lot of potential with digging into the ground; I could see this design decision having large impact in consolidating the concept of the overall design.

Iteration 8

Furthering the design use of excavating into the ground in a less intrusive manner, giving way to informal gathering and events. The form of the audience/gathering space is derived from the idea of speaking to the public, with a less drastic tran-sition into the space below grade. A water feature surrounds the speakers’ platform that informs a transition as merely a number within society into an individual. The principles of the monument and the pavilion still remains the same but with different form for the monument.

• Getting closer to how I want to formulate the design with the affect of going below grade.

• Speakers’ platform is too similar to the form of the City Hall.

• Maybe I can fuse the layout of iteration 8 with the forms of iteration 6 and 7 (speakers’ plat-form)

Conclusion

After a couple of iterations, it occcured to me that the project was becoming a complex of shapes, forms, and objects that would sit on the square, and ultimately reading as rather intrusive and not cohesive. Pulling back with that thought I started to implement the idea of pushing the program into the ground, using Nathan Phillip’s Square’s already implemented architectural layering. This would solve the problem of incohesion while furthermore imple-menting the program into the site.

Defining Program and Usage

Architecture Below-Grade

• As Nathan Phillips Square currently works as a large open/free space it seems necessary to respect the site’s visual appearance, while still maintaining or increasing the project’s archi-tectural potential. By integrating the programs accordingly into the site, capitalizing on space below grade and using some area from the park-ing lot, the project will be amalgamated with the site’s context, creating the potential for working with different grade levels and planes to make the project more interesting and effective.

After exploring the spatial characteristics of the speaker’s platform and gathering space, it occurred to me that the monument and pavilion does not necessarily have to be on the site’s current grade and could even be connected to the lowest grade in which the gathering space/audience would be.

After looking at the ‘Topography of Terror’ a museum done by Peter Zumthor that replaced the former Gestapo headquar-ters by the Berlin wall, where many artefacts and information boards were sheltered both indoor and outdoor, I started looking at the square differently.

The project utilized the site’s terrain and pushed one of its permanent exhibitions into the ground to create a low and humbling topography, creating an intimacy with the dead that now lie underground. This idea of having a public space within the ground does not only clear the sites above grade built context, but also opens up a lot of opportunity for my project.

I started to develop different ideas of adjacency between the pavilion, monument, and gathering space through sketching.

Defining Program and Space - Sketches

Defining Program and Usage

Larger Study Model

Having a better idea on how to approach the site in regard to the build world and con-text I moved back into phys-ical models, but at a larger scale (1:250). At this scale I can take advantage of more critical details and conditions, while being able to gauge the spaces better in contrast to smaller massing models. An endoscope was used to have an even better idea of the spaces created.

An endoscope was utilized to take the photo (left), giving the first actual visualization of how the monumental space would look like, using card-board massings for the rods and merely acrylic to repre-sent the water above.

This endoscope tool made it easier for me to picture spaces, allowing me to have a better understanding of the spaces for when I sketch out new ideas.

Details and Production

Sketching and Finalizing the Design

With a more defined plan and set ideas, I started to focus on the details of furnishing and how assemblies might come together.

As the reflecting pool was an idea that was to stay, I started to look at how the plexi-glass would sit within the surounding walls/floor.

I also began to look at how the elevated glass bridge under the pavilion would be supported. These sketches were the final structural composition to be used for the final digital model.

Details and Production

Sketching and Finalizing the Design

On the west side of the pavilion will be the spaces in which each information station would be held, continuing the procession from the entrance/monumental space and toward the gathering space (exiting the pavilion space in the north-west corner).

This west side will be gaining light from the above glass walk-way, elevated over the pavilion space. The rest of the space will be alloted for seating and lounge, as well as a white board for prac-ticing free speech.

A storage room for the programs will be located in the hall/transi-tion from the monument to the pavilion space.

On the left are iterations of in-formation stations, with display boards and tables, as well as a digital board to encourage inter-action with the public visitors.

The first iteration was chosen for the final design.

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Site Plan

Queen Street West

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Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

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South-West Axonometric

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Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

South-East Axonometric

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Form Finding

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

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Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Elevations

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Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Sections

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Renders / Perspectives

Toronto Speakers’ Corner Complex looking north-west within Nathan Phillips Square

View within the complex’s monumental space, underneath the reflecting pool

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Models

Physical Models Setup at final presentations including 1:500 site plan and iterations, and final 1:200 model

Previous 1:500 study models included in the final presentations

Close-up of 1:200 final model showcasing the connection of the pavilion, gathering space, and reflecting pool/monument

Close-up of 1:200 final model showcasing view from south-east corner

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Models

Live example of using the VR, using Yulio and a VR Spherical Panorama render from rhino

QR Code for VR scenes on YulioMonument and Pavilion

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Virtual Reality (VR)

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Virtual Reality (VR)

VR Spherical Panorama for Yulio / VR experience - Monumental Space Under Reflecting Pool

VR Spherical Panorama for Yulio / VR experience - Pavilion Space looking from North-East corner

Final Design and Production (All drawings are NTS)

Presentation photos