An architectural design proposal for a mixed use building sited on Vancouver's Granville Island. Design a building to house a campus for our the SFU@Surrey Interactive Arts program. This will include public interfaces at street level.
The specific site is on Granville Island opposite the Keg Restaurant, and exists at this time as a parking garage. It is an old building frame remaining from the historic period of Granville Island as an Industrial center. Thus the structure is solid timber frame with corrugated steel exterior cladding as in the manner that has been adopted in the majority of the buildings on Granville Island as it exists today, as a mixed-use urban destination. The buildings on Granville Island have a common zoning which allows building up to no more than 3-4 stories in height at the end and 2 stories at the Western side nearer the market. The common infill stock is now "loft" buildings, with a serviceable walkup to private use and public uses such as galleries and shops below. The problem will be one of weighing the needs of users and allowing ourself the space to design without fettering.
The building frame must be maintained in 80% or more of the revised design. Parts can be added or substracted, but at least 80% of the existing structure (columns and beams) must be incorporated.
If you look carefully you will see that Granville Island has a "character" that has been designed into all of the buildings there, ON THE STREET LEVEL. You must maintain the feel of the street. But where the building is out of contextual view, it may be deconstructed in any way and it may pierce other languages through in tasteful, thoughtful ways.
This buildings should connect the campus to the public and let them be updated on how we are in the rush of the initial drafts of the changing world, of technology and how it is going to affect people. Use all that we know about designing for people and design a place that works for multiple audiences. The street interface, in particular must really invite people in. Once inside a careful game will be played between public, semi-public, private and semi-private spaces.
The "back lane" condition though must do something different but related. It must have a "shop" presence like the successful redevelopment of the lane one block east that was just completed. Granville Island is such an unbelievable example of mixed-use as it was argued for by the Canadian writer, Jane Jacobs in her many books including,
"The Death and Life of Great American Cities".
Look at high vibrant a place becomes when you mix the code restrictions.