All-Gender Washrooms: A Social Issue With Design Solutions
For Transgender Awareness Week, we chose to reflect on the experiences of trans and gender diverse people and consider our role as architects and designers in creating a more inclusive and barrier-free world. Architecture and design serve as valuable facets within the language of creating “safe spaces”. While safe space extends beyond the physical realm, the design of our physical spaces can play a huge role in how comfortable and included we, as individuals, feel while […]
The Function of Affect
The title of Architect is a rather ambiguous one. What exactly does an architect do? Pose this question and you may receive a response that references language branching from architectural notation; words like ‘floorplan’, ‘elevation’ and ‘axonometric’. While accurate, such language can be limiting to an architect as it only communicates physical space within the […]
Wood is Good
In Japan there is a wood temple built by Buddhist monks which has been standing since 607AD. That’s 1413 years old and still standing at five stories tall. Wood is an ancient material and looking as far back into civilization in Canada as possible wood was the material of choice. Indigenous builders observed and understood […]
Knowledge, Designed
We live in a world where information is easily accessible for many. Search engines, like Google will tell you everything you need to know, with hundreds of sources and reviews. It’s become a common reflex and response to anything you want to know or learn, just “google it”. It’s a basic tool in our day-to-day […]
Woonerf Solution
How a Woonerf Could Anchor Redevelopment of the James-John South District Good, proactive urban planning reimagines city spaces that may be overlooked but hold great potential. This is the case in the area just south of downtown Hamilton. The James-John Street South district (SouthTown) is a diverse commercial area in Hamilton, south of the downtown […]
Micro Homes: A Solution
Homeownership has long been the “American Dream”. Whether it is for financial investment or for family values, many people are putting their entire savings into real estate to achieve this dream. With housing prices skyrocketing and the threat of global warming, micro homes or tiny houses have become a suitable alternative for many. Micro homes […]
Grit and Kindness Deserve Better
When people ask me, “What’s it like living in Hamilton?” (and believe me, every time I return to Toronto, they ask me), I usually say that it’s great. Hamilton, I tell them, is a human-scale city. “But why would you leave Toronto?” they ask. “Because it’s full,” I say. When we were considering the move […]
The Gilets Jaunes: a Reaction to Progressive Urban Design?
BY NICHOLAS KEVLAHAN I spent the past year working in Grenoble, a city about the size of Hamilton (metro population: 452 000) in southeast France near the Alps. As someone interested in urban design, I was particularly looking forward to seeing how Grenoble’s new Mayor, Éric Piolle, was implementing his bold plans to make Grenoble more […]
Rethinking Social Housing
Cities around the globe have been planning and building social housing projects for decades. Focused on maximizing the number of units, the quality of dwellings is usually overlooked. Generally, certain typologies have driven the way we design social housing. For instance, a top-down planning philosophy—or a military planning philosophy—is evident in many projects. This method […]
Taking the Long View
In the investment world, short-term investments are generally associated with higher risk. If this is true, why do investors often fail to look long-term when constructing buildings? Many investors, donors, developers, institutions and purchasing departments embrace the lowest initial cost for their buildings and designers, while placing less emphasis on the life-cycle cost and the […]
