We provide research-based insight and design for organizations and communities, leveraging expertise in digital + spatial design, and strategic communication.
[VISION & OVERVIEW]
Collaborative action is needed towards building regional resilience in the face of increased climate risk. In order to prepare for extreme storm events and flooding due to rapid environmental change, our Region must take a coordinated approach across sectors and scales toward implementing a strategic and holistic framework for dealing with our most precious, yet threatening resource: water. Presented here is a conceptual framework derived from best practices across the globe, with special consideration of the unique aspects of Durham’s landscape. At the core of this approach is the development of an adaptive, research-based regional vision to help guide a collaborative effort in managing Durham’s water resources.
The goal of the Strategic Water Framework (SWF) is to help align and incentivize ongoing programs and development in the region towards a shared responsibility for the landscape’s water resources. Simply, the SWF helps to integrate water and soil into the regional spatial planning and development processes, towards ensuring a healthy and future-proof Durham. The SWF integrates leading water resource management standards with ongoing regional efforts, helps coordinate collaboration around water issues, supports the development of critical water research, and promotes flood-mitigating green infrastructure. The SWF leverages four strategic focus areas towards the production of a water-based adaptive vision (WAV) for the region.
Water-based Adaptive Vision (WAV): Research Integration & Water Resource Simulation
The SWF is guided by a water-based adaptive vision for the region, which incorporates ongoing efforts from four core focus areas: public engagement, spatial policy + research, infrastructure + development, and regional economy. The WAV relies on monitoring, analysis and reporting of critical water research collected through the aforementioned focus areas, to enable more robust modeling and simulation of water resources. This enables a better understanding of how directing soil and water movement contributes to flood prevention, and allows us to test economically and environmentally feasible mitigation policies and research-based design interventions through modeled simulations. Most importantly, an adaptive model enables the region to make better informed decisions on the complex issue of water resource and flood management, providing more and more refined simulation and insight as time goes on.
This framework enables fluid research collaboration across sectors, scales and strategic initiatives, towards collectively championing a connected spatial network that naturally mitigates flooding and restores hydrological responses within the region and its watersheds. The SWF & WAV welcomes collaboration with regional and international experts, while ensuring open public dialogue and stakeholder engagement, ongoing science-based research and analysis, and economically viable and environmentally regenerative spatial policy. The SWF works to ensure that green infrastructure is developed in synergy with gray infrastructure and existing natural landscapes to provide the most resilient and adaptive approach to water resource and flood management.
A Regional Blue Economy: Water Resource Economic Impact Analysis
Regional departments and stakeholders should work together to develop a stronger understanding of the economic impact of Durham’s local water resources and increased climate and flood risk. Building upon insights from the Valuing Water Initiative, we must work to better understand the multiple values of water and raise public awareness to enable more inclusive participation, and towards securing investment in much needed green infrastructure. The 2023 Dutch flood management strategy has placed strong emphasis on innovation, arguing that faster action is needed in the face of climate change and predicting that “ tried and tested” solutions will no longer suffice by 2050. The region must work to incorporate water resilience and climate adaptation in investment agendas and proposals.
A Community of River Valleys and Lakes: Public Research & Engagement
Urban flood management necessarily requires community involvement and education to build towards a culture where living with the water is better understood and embraced. The region should work with other municipal departments and public stakeholders to develop and disseminate critical research related to water resources, and flood prevention and preparation for vulnerable areas.
Water and Soil-based Planning: Spatial Policy & Research Repository
The idea of water and soil-based spatial planning is not a new one. It is time for Durham to take the lead on spatial planning that considers natural systems first and foremost. This is the only reasonable way to ensure a future landscape that is adaptive to environmental change. Municipal planning departments (e.g. Brock, Uxbridge, Scugog, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Clarington) and governing conservation authorities should work closely together with the region to understand, pilot, and implement water and soil-based policy that ensures and incentivizes new green infrastructure development in critical investment areas identified by WAV. Durham Region’s SWF would present an opportunity to lead in local water management across five watersheds, and thus an especially strong network should be established and maintained between the SWF and all of Durham’s conservation authorities (e.g. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority, Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority and Kawartha Conservation Authority).
Champion Green Infrastructure: Infrastructure & Land Development Projects
The SWF will work to support the development of flood mitigating green infrastructure across the regional landscape, identifying opportunities for investment alongside ongoing and planned gray infrastructure development, and significant capital projects. This has proven to be an effective approach for increasing flood resilience by recreating more natural hydrological responses across regional landscapes, while providing a multitude of benefits to the environment and community. The development of green infrastructure should balance scales, applications, and feasibility, and must be a part of a larger strategic framework that integrates water resources and natural processes in order to function as effectively as possible. The SWF steering committee should work towards a spatial inventory and assessment of Green Infrastructure pilot project opportunities in vulnerable urban areas.
Green infrastructures that can be implemented at the scale of a building or site should be incentivized at the municipal level, considering pilot programs to reduce fees, provide financial incentives, and/or permitting rebates for the construction or application of new green infrastructure like rain gardens, porous driveways, storm-water ponds, detention basins, rain barrels, small bio-swales and green roofs in critical areas. Larger-scale opportunities for green infrastructure should be explored in conjunction with ongoing gray infrastructure and park development with conservation authorities and municipal planning departments. This would include exploring opportunities for storm-water ponds, roadside bio-swales, and eco-corridors that help connect green infrastructure to broader natural landscapes and processes.
[NEXT STEPS]
Develop the SWF/WAV steering committee with representation from key external partners, stakeholders and Regional departments and initiatives including: Works, Planning & Economic Development, Finance, Corporate Communications Office, Strategic Initiatives, and Emergency Management.
Establish a preliminary research mandate covering key topics including: Economic and Inventory Analysis,
Data collection and Mapping, Simulation, flood/storm event capacity and intervention scenarios
Reach out to relevant external partners to bring them on board in the early stages of the SWF including: municipal planning departments, conservation authorities, international water partnerships and local businesses and community groups
Assess resources for the development of WAV including: Regional/Municipal Planners(s), Financial Analyst(s), Data Scientist(s), Urban Designer(s), Researchers in Environment/Hydrology/Hydro-geology
Outline a five year plan and 2050 vision, including an understanding of local water resources and economy, and internal and external partner involvement, with consideration for short and long-term piloting and program opportunities
We need to re-imagine how housing is provided as we adjust to ongoing transitions in energy standards, emissions and building performance. The development industry is not prepared for this new landscape, especially as we face down a generational housing crisis.
Current planning and development approaches are linear and rigid, meaning change comes at a high cost. In a world increasingly defined by change, it is clear that rigid buildings will carry increased risk and be especially ineffective in a shifting market.
Under the old paradigm, redevelopment often necessitates demolition or substantial renovation of building stock. When we consider that renovation and demolition account for over 80% of construction waste, it is clear that buildings need to change more efficiently, and remain useful longer.
What if we imagine a building designed to adapt with ease across its life-cycle? A building that can change its unit mix simply quickly and cost-effectively, and accommodate variable densities while remaining code compliant.
This implies a building system that can shift, grow, and dis-assemble, but more importantly, a planning approach designed to address ongoing transformation.
A new paradigm defined by adaptive, circular design produces buildings with greater utility and longevity, and ultimately smarter housing that is more responsive to community needs.
Proof Housing is working to pilot adaptive housing in municipalities across Ontario through the concept of a living lab.
Three key lines of inquiry guide the research, and inform the pilot:
The Living Lab will explore circular development models and the viability of adaptive housing over an extended 25 year period. Critical topics of exploration will include impacts on energy use, emissions, material waste, building operations, affordability and social capital, imagining a district composed of buildings at a variety of scales and tenures, including both rental and new ownership models.
But, re-imagining the planning and development paradigm is not work that can be done alone. It requires a shared vision, and collaboration between a broad range of industry experts in the fields of technology, planning and development.
Please visit Proof Housing to get involved with our ongoing pilot.
On a 1.5 acre lot adjacent to the Beaver River in Cannington, Ontario is the site of the former 11,000 square foot McLachlan Foundry.
Our proposal includes a full renovation of the existing structures as well as a roughly 10,000 square foot addition. The Foundry will be composed of three primary components:
1. 6,500 sq.ft live-work residency,
2. 3,550 sq.ft flexible retail space;
3. 11,000 sq.ft of office/studio space
The built area of the project is coupled with a market square, and river-walk accessible to members of the public. Our intention is to repurpose much of the existing structure in order to reduce material waste, maximize the existing footprint, and maintain the historic appeal of the site.
The lands surrounding the property are designated for future development. Reimagining the Foundry as a regional cultural attractor will establish market viability for the town and encourage future investment opportunities.
Our proposal enhances the character of the community by building upon rich local resources, positioning them to strengthen the long-term viability of Cannington and Durham North.
The Cannington Foundry achieves this by:
a. empowering the local community through strategic partnerships and new amenity,
b. providing space for artists and creative professionals, and promoting local culture and,
c. supporting tourism through the development of a regional hub that draws on rich local resources.
When complete, the Cannington Foundry will be a cultural asset that expresses the potential of the region.
To read the full report, please visit Proof Housing.
The team at S—O.S were commissioned to provide a vision and concept plan for the revitalization of a post-industrial site on the periphery of Kingston's downtown core. 485 Rideau sits simultaneously at the heart of an inactive industrial strip, and the City's main trail system.
The following document aims to clarify and build upon the disparities between industrial and natural, to provide a concept that can redefine 485 Rideau, and by extension, the inactive Rideau Strip.
Our visioning report is composed of five parts. Our research-based approach begins with a thorough site and market study. From these, we derive a viable concept, a feasibility study, and finally a road-map to clarify next steps.
The following is a brief summary of our visioning report, prepared for our client and presented to the City of Kingston. This project was the catalyst for Proof Housing, and the Future Proof Home concept. For the more information on the full report, please visit Proof Housing.
______________
The project site is undefined, a long-abandoned automotive transmission shop suspended between neighbourhoods, and between industrial and natural landscapes.
Situated at the periphery of the Inner Harbour, and at the border to Rideau Heights, the Rideau Strip is lost in the planning of both neighbourhoods.
The site and surrounding land have long been overlooked due to their industrial past, and because redevelopment must mitigate any potential risks to new residents and the adjacent parks and conservation lands. We understand the City of Kingston aims to revitalize the area through the ongoing North Kingstown Secondary Plan, and we aim to do our part with a first step at 485 Rideau, keeping in mind the land’s rich natural heritage, and understanding its role and potential for the future.
No zoning changes have been passed in the immediate surroundings of 485 Rideau, although a handful of similar land use changes have been approved within a 10 minute walk of the site.
Though the North Kingstown Secondary plan is looking at how to redefine this area, the existing industrial use, adjacent environmental protection overlay, and the position of 485 Rideau at the boundary of neighbourhoods has left the site undefined for half a century.
S—O.S analyzed all zoning amendments across the Rideau Strip, as well as similar zoning and use amendments across the City of Kingston. These case studies help inform planning and design strategies for a successful proposal looking to revitalize the Rideau Strip through an exemplary plan that recognizes and reconciles the issues which have left it dormant for five decades.
The M6.97 zoning has severely limited the potential of residential redevelopment along the Rideau Strip since 1975.
Although the neighbouring building to the South of 485 Rideau is a higher density residential project with the same M6.97 zoning, the fact that it was constructed prior to 1975 allows it to conform to the zoning by-law. No new multiple-family residential developments have been undertaken since at least 1975.
The only amendment to the M6.97 zoning was done in 1976, to permit "the storage, warehousing, distribution, fabrication and otherwise processing of new steel." (8728 – 1976)
A review of official zoning and planning regulations, and preliminary meetings with city staff indicate likely support for a medium density multiple-family residential use at 485 Rideau.
Given the site area, a medium-density use would only allow for 9 units which is not economically feasible given the market and cost of construction.
Anything above 9 units is immediately considered high density in the City of Kingston, based on the area of the site. The proposal suggests 10 units, and otherwise conforms to medium-density design guidelines, proposing a mid-density built form. Therefore, any zoning changes for the proposed residential use must adequately justify a higher density allowance for a mid-density use and form. Any zoning policies should be designed to position the proposal as a medium density use, but must address Official Plan regulations regarding high density residential use.
In order to achieve the unit numbers required for 485 Rideau, any planning justification must consider that the proposal results in high-density land use, although only by one single unit. The planning justification should seek to justify the proposal as medium density use, and seek a site-specific amendment for density allowances.
Consolidated below is an overview of planning arguments for justifying the proposed density:
The proposal utilizes a medium density, low-rise massing which meets all dwelling requirements but achieves a high density due to our lot size. Nonetheless, there is adequate space left to accommodate all parking, amenity and open space requirements.
Future planning justification should demonstrate how the proposed medium density form and use is compatible with adjacent development, and does not constitute a high density proposal.
Future planning justification should consider how the proposed building form is designed to accommodate a flexible range of between 7 and 14 residential units. The official plan recognizes interior conversions that result in high density use as special cases, allowing lighter restrictions on development, foregoing the need for an urban design study.
This indicates support for increasing density to high density levels within more compact, medium density footprints, as the proposal for 485 Rideau also suggests.
The North Kingstown Secondary Plan will likely introduce its own land use and density amendments to 485 Rideau and the surrounding area. Although the plan will likely change, and won't be implemented for at least another couple of years, the site area is currently proposed as "Urban Village" mixed land use. Lands subject to secondary plans often receive other provisions beyond those of more typical planning areas. The NKT secondary plan therefore suggests support for establishing site-specific density requirements for 485 Rideau's zoning change.
Though the site does not meet all the requirements listed for high density use, its proximity to a major corridor, collector road and transit route, a great open space and park network, ands everal key community services within walking distance indicate 485 Rideau can viably support a higher density.
The industrial building across from 485 Rideau has an influence radius of 300m, and a set-back requirement of 70m which must be amended and justified in any zoning approval.
The deciding factor is the outcome of the Phase II ESA, which will help determine the viability of redevelopment, and the amount of remediation required.
For the full report, please visit Proof Housing.
The following was submitted as part of a competition for public space ideas in Toronto. However, the concept of the Green Link speaks to a broader pattern in urban areas across the world, where power corridors typically function as barriers, are viewed as ugly, and thereby the marker of lower-value neighbourhoods. The same was thought to be true of wetlands, when they were once marketed as swamps, until some clever rebranding brought new respect to an overlooked landscape. I hope the same will be true for power lines.
Toronto’s hydro corridors present untapped possibilities in under-used green space. By connecting our hydro corridors with existing trails, discovery walks, and public spaces, we can create a continuous network that unifies Toronto’s most under-serviced neighbourhoods through a city-wide greenscape.
Toronto is a composite of 140+ distinct, fragmented neighbourhoods. A city-wide public network would allow for more interaction and movement between these neighbourhoods. In particular, the Green Link would connect Toronto’s more isolated, suburban Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs) with urban growth centers and bridge the urban-suburban divide. The Green Link is not about making NIAs dependent on the rest of the city— it is about creating a sustainable, symbiotic relationship that will encourage movement both ways.
We do not seek to create a singular Toronto experience or identity. The Green Link maintains each neighbourhood’s unique attributes and strengths while also alleviating natural and infrastructural barriers created by the hydro corridor. By identifying major nodes, natural features, and transit connections, each neighbourhood along the Green Link will assert a distinct and different experience for the user. This is what we believe to be the true Toronto experience.
The Green Link becomes a city-wide exhibit of Toronto’s landscapes and wildlife. In Toronto’s hydro corridors, we encounter challenging landscapes, valleys, meadows, and waterways, that we will utilize to create multi-faceted experiences and networks— tobogganing in the valley, observing deer at feeding stations, canoeing down the Don River. The Green Link uncovers how Torontonians can use existing landscapes to experience their City in a new way.
A city-wide network that taps into the opportunities that exist within hydro corridors and the neighbourhoods they run through. In addition to the standard pedestrian paths and bike trails, The Green Link offers different passive and active recreational uses and proposes a new way for Torontonians to move through their city.
Our issues won’t simply be fixed through clever loan structures and interest rates, nor high-density supply, instead they penetrate our broader policy, economic, architectural, and cultural thinking. It is a hard puzzle to unpack, so we will focus in on the condo tower, the dominant architectural response to our housing shortages, to better understand the crisis at hand.
By the end of 2020, the demand pressure on the Greater Toronto Area market indicated a missing supply from the simplest perspective of traditional economics. In fact, in January 2021, Toronto and surrounding areas were missing 52 towers* of housing market supply needed in order to quell ongoing demand pressure. Of course, things are not so simple. In the face of a housing crisis, our immediate response has been to build condo towers as high-density suppliers of dwelling units. This has in fact perpetuated our housing issues to a point that has become absurd.
Typically, small condo units are understood as "transitional", meant for first-time homebuyers to get into the market. The typical Canadian will go through 5 homes in their lifetime, and the condo unit is designer as your perfect starter. It's cheap, and generally most are getting out in a short matter of time. Thus, transitional.
As we increasingly bring to market these units which are transitional in nature, we produce an affordability crisis and a false sense of supply security: transactions and market activity increases because we have a market designed for owners to continuously transition, but our long-term supply issue remains unaddressed as we increasingly support higher density, transitional units to enter the marketplace. At the same time, these high density developments eliminate the economic viability of relatively lower density projects in a speculative market with high base land costs. We need to be very careful we do not entirely eliminate the viability of producing a regional housing stock with longer term appeal for owners.
The tower is just an object that indicates a much deeper system at play. Our development process, from policy and economics, to design and construction, favour certain types of responses, which tend to only get further reinforced by increasingly layered, policy. Regardless of appropriateness, we can only respond one way to our housing crisis if our system thoroughly favours a specific response for very specific cases.
This is the curse of cumbersome, over-politicized space, hardly any decisions are left to be made, and negotiating with planning departments is a slow and expensive process. In fact, in Canada we have the second slowest permitting time of all OECD countries. This is a cost that every homeowner is carrying, with interest, on their mortgage. Everyone should deeply care about housing policy.
The issue is that the more we continue to think a certain way, and through certain responses, our understanding of space gets more reinforced and limited. It becomes impossible to produce outside the status quo: we effectively eliminate the possibility of alternative responses.
Ultimately we are exploring the questions: What is the legacy of the condo tower? How might we make other architectural responses economically and socially viable? And what is the public's role in demanding better housing and getting involved?
The name Kashmir translates to “land desiccated from water”, referring to the valleyʼs initial life as a high altitude lake. Kashmirʼs landscape is famous for containing most of the worldʼs tallest mountains and serving as a confluence of dessert and the oasis of the valleyʼs fertile ground. Due to its allure, Kashmir has long stood as a battleground, and is currently unaccounted for, remaining a territory in conflict between India, Pakistan and China.
Siachen glacier, a triangular piece of landing where thePakistan-India line of control ends, is bordered by a different country on each of its sides. It is the central zone for Kashmirʼs ongoing conflict. It is the worldʼs highest battleground and fastest melting glacier, as if marking the impending return of the land to its life previous to human settlement.
The earliest conficts in this region date back to Indiaʼs pre-hindu caste system where the warrior class hailed from one of two tribes: the Suryavanshi (Sun Worshipers) and Chandravanshi (Moon Worshipers). The project is thusly conceived of as sanctuary for worship relating across a series of timescales measured by the movement of the sun and moon, and invoking various elements of the landscape within the refuge.
The sanctuary itself is a single sheet that has been distorted to create volumes with specific alignments and varying degrees of shelter. Each volume establishes a connection to the cosmos and landscape, and each experiences a wave of light unraveling at a different speed and intensity depending on the day.
Included here are a variety of paper, plexi-glass and plaster models studying the movement of light within curved and unraveling spaces.
.jpg)
This is the story of a special city, whose two hearts beat between ribbons of green and blue. Two histories, two lives. One rebuilt upon the old town center, another born of the airport. A past, a future; inward and outward, local and global. A place of coming, a place of going. Each has its own identity, and the one they share: Siauliai.
This project departs from the considerations of dual experience, both of the city, and of the restaurant as an embodiment of it. Two separated volumes linked by intersecting corridors of blue and green.
The competition site lies at the edge of the airport lands, between the runway and the historic city center. Located within the city's Free Economic Zone, the site has a strong relationship with the industries and businesses nearby. At the same time, the adjacent football field presents an opportunity for the proposed restaurant to become a community hub for the disconnected residential areas North of the airport. A place for business, and a place for play.
The restaurant has a potential to serve as a gateway between the two centers of Siauliai. The site serves the neighbourhood families and businesses, but also the city's tourists and travellers. Some arrive on their way to the Hill of Crosses, while others are on their way out through the city's airport. A place of pilgrimage, a point of departure.
A cross, a runway.
Everything here grapples with pluralities. The site is local, but global. Isolated, yet in the middle of so much. The design of the building is modular, replicable, but the complexity of the site demands something specific. The initial exercise therefore begins with a kit of parts: a modular language that can be deployed in countless ways.
The proposed systems makes use of local expertise in steel and wood construction. A robust steel frame holds four distinct wall systems, which may be layered. Planar walls to frame and direct movement, glass corridors to provide an axis and trap heat, sliding walls to connect or isolate spaces, and chime walls incorporating a series of moveable wooden louvers to direct views and sunlight.
On top of this (pun intended), we have 3 roof variations: the clerestory to direct rainwater and ventilation; the green roof to store water and grow vegetation; and the skylight.
With these we can play around to design something meaningful for the site.
The Nomad Food Cart was developed for the The Stop’s annual Night Market in Toronto. Bringing together over 50 restaurants and 50 design teams, the competition calls for the design of a transportable food cart derived from precedents across international markets. As an event and organization The Stop’s mission is to increase access to food worldwide with their annual Night Market serving as a means to spread awareness and raise money for the cause. The design brief emphasizes the creation of a mobile and flexible design incorporating recycled/salvaged materials. Our response was to develop a grid structure which houses shelving and storage that can become extra serving/ preparation surfaces, seating, tables, signage, etc. As a main feature, our cart is composed of modular storage units made from reused milk crates, nested inside this structure. The slotted vertical members allow the tabletop placement and heights to be adjusted per section or as a whole, allowing for countless arrangement possibilities.
These crates can be arranged to form a continuous counter top, display signage, store food items or tools, be raised to varying heights, used to serve food directly (i.e. ice cream, buffet, etc.), be used as seating or tables when placed on the ground, or even store living plants as a kind of “mobile farm”. The counter tops and modular crate units are completely separate from each other, so when the crates are used as tables or seats the counter top remains totally intact. The entire frame is also composed of wood from shipping crates, completing the material economy theme of our design. Additionally, our design incorporates a collapsible canopy of stretched and painted canvas created by Toronto designers Mark Francis and Josimar Dominguez. When stationary, four collapsible legs are engaged to keep the cart in place. Our design incorporates 100% salvaged materials which would otherwise be thrown away.
As we saw the world transition to a majority urban population, the city became one of the most important spaces to study. I embarked on a simple research exercise to get a sense of the patterns that exist in different forms of urban settlement. I wanted to get a sense of shape, not of the macro, but the micro. I had a goal to study ten thousand cities, zooming into a single square kilometre in different areas of significance. World capitals, areas of conflict, informal settlements, fortresses, castles, markets, islands, and more. It was amazing to see the incredible ways in which we build and live. The shapes tell a story, as do the colours. Each square gives a sense of the block structure of city centers, while also cataloguing water resources, parks, roads and railways. The following is a collection of some of the most interesting studies I encountered.
Let's clarify the complexity.
scroll + click inside the window to explore Proof
Our first streamable LP 'Inbetween Existence' will be available in October 2023.