fempel thesis web

Ann Street GuildsC A N D A C E F E M P E L

Design Thesis2008 | 2009

University of ManitobaAdvisor: Patrick Harrop

Ann Street Guilds

Project Context

Montreal Light, Heat, and Power Company (MLHPC)

Process Model

Site Context (Photography)

Montage

Glass Guild Drawings

Urban City Block Drawings

Bibliography

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Contents

Ann Street Guilds 1

During the 1820’s the Lachine Canal was constructed in order to allow ships to bypass the treacherous Lachine Rapids and thus improve access to the Port of Montreal. The Lachine Canal was viewed as a natural corridor, which linked the Port of Montreal and lake St. Louise. It was enlarged first during the period of 1843 to 1848 and again from 1873 to 1884. The growth of the canal arose from both an increase in commercial as well as industrial development along its banks in Griffintown.

The location of the Lachine Canal can be viewed as the catalyst in allowing the area to become one of the most unique and largest industrial corridors in Canada. In the 1940s the Lachine Canal was considered the birthplace of Canadian Manufacturing and between 1846 and 1946 it was home to more than 600 different companies. Commercial shipping came in three phases; the first being coal and iron, the second grain and sugar, and the third transportation of materials. Both light and heavy industrial processes took place at the banks of the Lachine Canal and included chemical, mechanical, rolling stock, food and beverages.

This key fringe cluster of the Lachine Canal including Griffintown, “was the locus of a technically advanced, hydraulically based, energy-intensive form of production, and featured growth in the number of firms of all sizes, changes to the industrial and technological organization of work, and firms from the most important propulsive sectors of the day…” (Lewis, 24) The accessibility to a “common pool of manpower, to the same railroads and maritime routes, as well as to a common energy pool” (Gelly, 65), allowed Griffintown to flourish.

Griffintown was one of the largest suburbs besides that of old Montreal and was at one time referred to as the southwestern downtown part of Montreal. The Lachine Canal, Rue McGill to the East, Rue Guy to the West, and Rue Notre-Dame to the North define Griffintown. There was a large working population living in Griffintown, “…workers sought homes close to their suburban place of work because few of them could afford the trolley.” (Lewis, 29)

Griffintown is one of Montréal’s suburban industrial districts that can be tied to Montreal’s expansion between the 1890’s and 1929. This expansion included a development of greater metropolitan structure that pushed the urban frontier further out to form new industrial suburbs / the city’s fringe.

With the advent of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 the once heavily populated industrial district became obsolete as the industrial and shipping patterns shifted elsewhere. The shift resulted in the closure of the Lachine Canal in the 1970’s.

The neighborhoods adjacent to the Lachine Canal have been affected greatly by this shift. In particular Griffintown has now become a collection of fragmented artifacts of the industrial force it once was. It now faces heavy political controversy, as there has been a large push to gentrify the area. The area has not had a major impact on the Montreal economy since the closure of the Lachine Canal in the 1970’s and Griffintown has become an “eye soar” to the city. A solution must be met. One proposed solution by a development group – Devimco – aims to gentrify Griffintown and in doing so strip it of its historical and industrial roots. It is the intention of Devimco to convert the area into a heavily commercial and residential district.

Lachine Canal & GriffintownThe Lachine Canal

1 PROJECT CONTEXT

Ann Street Guilds 2

Devimco

Protest Against Devimco’s Development Proposal

1 PROJECT CONTEXT

Ann Street Guilds 3

Devimco

Devimco’s Proposed Renderings for the redevelopment of Griffintown

1 PROJECT CONTEXT

Ann Street Guilds 4

Griffintown is outlined by Notre-Dame street to the North, McGill and Guy streets to the East and West respectively and the Lachine Canal to the South.

Context

Griffintown & Old Montreal

1 PROJECT CONTEXT

Ann Street Guilds 5

Griffintown, which is located in southwest Montreal, Quebec, is the location for my design thesis proposal. More specifically, the city block of Rue Ottawa to the North, Dalhousie and Rue Ann to the East and West respectively, and Wellington parallel to the Lachine Canal.

The site, once home to the MLHPC, contains remnants of artifacts that point towards phases of development of an energy pool that once powered Griffintown.

My intentions, originating at the MLHPC site, are to weave a social community slowly back in the urban fabric of Griffintown. This social community would be grown through the introduction of a series of Guilds for the production of glass, textile, wood, pottery & brick, and breads.

This proposal would oppose the one that has been set forth by Devimco.

The manifestation of the guilds will be developed through a thorough process of modeling, drawing, and research. An emphasis will be placed on extracting and connecting layers of both historical and infrastructure that contain the artifacts of Griffintown.

Montreal Light, Heat, and Power Company (MLHPC) Thesis Site

2 MLHPC

Ann Street Guilds 6

Chronology of the site:The site was once home to the New City Gas Company that merged in 1901 with the Royal Electric Company to form the Montreal Light, Heat, and Power Company.

The New City Gas Company was responsible for supplying Old Montreal with coke gas to light the city streets and homes. The gas was produced through chemical and mechanical processes that took place by heating the coal in two large furnaces on site. (These processes transformed the state of the coal from solid to a gas).

The Lachine Canal was used to transport raw materials to the banks of Griffintown. Once in Griffintown the raw materials would be manufactured by chemical and/or mechanical processes into a new material state such as coal into coke gas.

Other factories in Griffintown could then utilize the by-products from these processes such as the refining of coke gas. A clothing factory in the next city block dyed clothing from one of the by-products of coal.

The two furnaces are the original energy source of the site and have generated the various systems on site and off site. An example of this can be understood in a brick making shop that was developed on the site in close proximity to the energy source (gas). The brick shop had three main functions. The first, supplied replacement bricks for the furnaces, secondly, bricks would be used for maintenance or used to build new infrastructure and thirdly, the bricks could be sold for retail. Other examples include an enameling shop, tile shop, a meter shop, armature winding shop, and foundries, etc.

The evolution of the shared energy pool of Montreal and its relationship to the world also had an impact on the infrastructure and programming of the site. As the types of energy changed from coal, to hybrid, to electricity the two furnaces were shut down. The infrastructure and programming were no longer needed to sustain the systems they had evolved into.

2 MLHPC

Ann Street Guilds 7

In order to obtain a greater understanding of the site history archival work was done to trace the development of the Montreal Light, Heat, & Power Company.

2 MLHPC

Ann Street Guilds 8

Knowledge of the past infrastructure that supported the coke manufacturing process was vital in understanding the specific types of system that were developed as a result.

2 MLHPC

Ann Street Guilds 9

Archival Documentation of the day to day activates and laws that pertained to gas lighting helped to give insight in the once existing context and infrastructure that supported the energy source of Montreal.

2 MLHPC

Ann Street Guilds 102 MLHPC

Ann Street Guilds 12

These are images of three coal burning furnaces placed together to act as a large battery. By understanding how a system like this functions it allowed for a greater insight into why the furnaces were placed where they were and how the two furnaces were utilized on site.

2 MLHPC


The next few pages show images that start to illustrate the development in the changing energy pool of Montreal and the world. The first image is illustrating a dynamo, which is an electrical generator that changes mechanical energy to electrical energy. The dynamo machine was a hybrid using both steam energy and electrical energy.

With the movement away from coal lighting was also changing and moving away from gas lighting. The first movement was towards a hybrid between gas and electricity and then towards the arch lamp which was powered by electricity.


With each new technological development the existing infrastructure would have to be manipulated to suit the newest invention. New systems would have to be developed, for example with the arch lamps vehicles would be retrofitted or produced to be able to house a ladder system that would allow someone to trim the arch lamps each night.

The image is an example of infrastructure that was needed to support the change. Further a garage and shop would be needed to maintain the vehicles.


The fire maps illustrate the changes in programming and infrastructure

Fire Maps2 MLHPC

1909 - 1940


The model involved applying research and an understanding of the site in order to create a “proof of concept”. The process began by assembling the existing architectural and infrastructural relationships of the site into one. The dynamics of the modeling process allowed me the possibility to have interaction and scalability within these systems.

The model was initially designed as a basic framework consisting of systems currently visible at the site. The model was then composed of different substrates allowing for experimentation in order to further understand the relationships at hand.

Looking at the various layers allowed me to determine past, present, and potential systems that manifested throughout the chambers of the building. The model allowed me to work between layers, extracting and connecting artifacts from one layer to the next. This afforded me the chance to develop a new energy system that extracted and attached to the old energy system.

The gathering of information in an archeological method aided in the propagation of existing and new infrastructures required for new systems to form. The archeological method also provided a new sensibility in understanding material thickness within the model.

The materials used can be paralleled to the industrial chemical and mechanical processes that once took place in Griffintown – an exchange of energy through phase change. In particular paraffin wax was chosen for its ability to go through a series of phase changes and for the ability of additions and subtractions of material through continual chemical and mechanical processes. In addition the wax can become a constant energy source when coupled with the proper infrastructure(s).

In application to the model the facades of the building in the corridor have been cast in wax. The outcome are containers of light that start to play with the transparency of material when being built up by material that has been grafted onto the surface or subtracted from. This process starts to parallel the development of the infrastructure and material presence of the site.

3 MODEL PROCESS


The images are illustrating the process of material being manipulated either through chemical and/or mechanical processes.

The metal has been manipulated by machine and then MIG-welded, which is a chemical process.

3 MODEL PROCESS


The wood which was used for the model has been cut down and milled using mechanical processes in particular chop saw, joiner, and sander.

3 MODEL PROCESS

Ann Street Guilds 243 MODEL PROCESS


Both mechanical and chemical processes were used to create the paraffin wax façades of the model. Wood moulds were created to house the paraffin wax. The paraffin wax was heated up until it liquefied in a rice cooker and then poured into the moulds until the wax solidified.

3 MODEL PROCESS


The temperature that facilitates human life, metabolic processes, is present within a specific range; comfort zone. This comfort zone has been widely maintained through the use of the hearth-fireplace, oven, or furnace. In tending to the hearth a centre is created which is driven by a collection of ritualistic, bodily, and mechanistic processes. The hearth becomes the point of origin for the chambers, volumes, and material systems of the building. All systems within the building site can be traced to the hearth. The rate of flow and rhythm within the building are determined by the rate of the chemical and mechanical processes of the hearth.

3 MODEL PROCESS

Hearth / Furnaces


Initial set up of the framework with placement of the wax facades.

3 MODEL PROCESS


Paper and pins are used to mark off the openings and protrusions of the surfaces of the corridor facades-they become anchor points to build off of.

3 MODEL PROCESS


Re-construction of past and present gas lines.

3 MODEL PROCESS


Lighting experimentation in relation to the wax facades

3 MODEL PROCESS


Process shots of roof line for the Glass Guild.

3 MODEL PROCESS


Roof construction process trying to experiment with the degree of transparency entering into the corridor

3 MODEL PROCESS


Investigation into the layout of the four piped HVAC system.

3 MODEL PROCESS


MLHPC Key Plan

AB

C

D

E

4 SITE CONTEXT

The photos taken of the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company site start to illustrate the material qualities and architectural developments of each space.

Each photo starts to suggest a story of the space and its relationship to the various systems. The photos allow for another point of departure in understanding the development of the site in relationship to the phantom furnaces.


View of court yard looking out of building A towards the East.

4 SITE CONTEXT


View of collapse roof of building D looking out of building A to the North.

4 SITE CONTEXT


Interior photo of building D that once housed the equipment and furnaces for the coke manufacturing process.

4 SITE CONTEXT


Photo above illustrates a new structural system that is holding up the roof.

4 SITE CONTEXT


Interior photo of building D that once housed the equipment and furnaces for the coke manufacturing process.

4 SITE CONTEXT


Photo of the remaining roof structure of building.

4 SITE CONTEXT


North Façade of Building A.

4 SITE CONTEXT



4 SITE CONTEXT


North Façade of Building B.

4 SITE CONTEXT


B


4 SITE CONTEXT



4 SITE CONTEXT


South Façade of Building C.

4 SITE CONTEXT



4 SITE CONTEXT


View of corridor looking towards the East.

4 SITE CONTEXT


West Facades of Buildings C & B.

4 SITE CONTEXT


South Façade of Building D.

4 SITE CONTEXT


South Façade of Building D & West Façade of Building F.

4 SITE CONTEXT



4 SITE CONTEXT


South Façade of Building E.

4 SITE CONTEXT


South Façade of Building E & East Façade of Building A.

4 SITE CONTEXT


“In the center stand the glass furnaces (a), smoke and flame escaping through the open vents”. -Diderot

The intense smoke and flame travel up the tower along the way lighting up the paraffin wax that emits a yellow glow over the surrounding cityscape.

“The glass in prepared inside in great pots”. -Diderot

The great pots are manufactured in a room adjacent to the glass guild. The pots are carefully placed into an annealing oven in which the clay starts to harden and dry. The great pots are then removed from the heat source and placed to cool. Once the pots are cooled they are placed into a material elevator where they are filled with glass. After they are filled with glass the pots are transported to the lower level and are carried underneath the glass guild where they are filled with scrap glass from the above guild. At this point the great pot is placed on another elevator, which opens up to the cold shop and then is transported and placed into the furnaces.

“Gatherers reach their blowing pipes (b) through the openings to pick up “gathers’ of molten glass from the pots. A master-blower reheats a bubble of glass called, because it is at an intermediate stage, a “parsion.” To the right an assistant blower shapes his parsion by blowing and rolling it on a marble slab (c), the “marver.” In this shop there is a division of labor. The gatherer passes the pipes to the assistant who does rough blowing and passes them on to the blower”. -Diderot

“Work benches (d ) are designed for the artisan to roll his pipe along the arms and preserve the round form blown in the soft glass ad he trims and shapes it with pincers and shears. Blowing pipes are cooling in a tub of water (e). The men toss scrap glass or “cullet” into receptacles (f ) from which it will be reclaimed to be melted down in a later batch. Cullet was an essential ingredient, and at the rear an apprentice cleans remnants of glass from a pipe into a big bin”. -Diderot

The receptacles are positioned next to the cooling tubs of water. The receptacles are open to the lower level in order to let light penetrate the lower level as well that is where the cullet is combined with the great pots on the path to the furnaces.

“ …the top of the furnace runs an annealing oven (g) or arch, to which small doors high up on the side give access. In it finished ware is tempered by heat soaking”. -Diderot

The walls that are adjacent to each furnace behave as a partition wall housing annealing ovens where the finished ware in tempered by heat soaking. The partition wall that opens to Building E give access to remove the finished ware into the cool shop where it is then etched and/or engraved and then placed on display/stored. The other partition wall that opens to Building C gives access to remove the finished ware and move it up to the 2nd floor once cooled where it is then placed on display/stored. The annealing ovens housed in this wall are a positioned higher up on the wall and are larger than the other annealing oven. Below these glass-annealing ovens there are clay-annealing ovens that are utilized for the great pots.

Glass Manufacturing

4 SITE CONTEXT


e e

f

a

d

b

By working with these photos I was able to develop my own architectural exploration and understanding of the spaces by manipulating them into montages. This allowed emphasis to be placed on extracting, connecting, and further producing new systems within the spaces.

The new roof structure in this portion of the glass guild was developed by anchoring into the existing roofline and attaching it to the adjacent existing structural system – a weaving together of new and old material and structural components.

The pipes in the space have been developed in the same method of extracting, re-appropriating, and adding to the existing systems to create a new system that brings water to the tubes that cool the blowing pipes.

5 MONTAGES


e f

a a

c

Exploring the existing structural and material conditions of the roof system, site-specific columns and beams were developed to add subtle rigidity to the structure.

5 MONTAGES


g

d

5 MONTAGES

Interior view of Glass Guild.


The roof system has been created through the layering of material and structure.

5 MONTAGES


Scale: 1/4” = 1’

1’5’

10’20’

74’

66’

Glass Guild Plan

A1

A1

A2A2

The choice to re-introduce and re-engineer the two furnaces into glass furnaces allows for the generation of a new type of energy system. The new energy system is created once again by the chemical and mechanical processes of a phase change material –glass which captures light.

The introduction of the glass furnaces allows for the re-appropriation of the infrastructure required to transfer/exchange energy throughout the chambers of the building site.

The development of the site and more specifically the glass guild was designed by constantly referencing back to the furnaces; the origin. The weaving and manipulation of existing and new infrastructure with material systems have resulted in a design that is site specific to the different flows within the space.

Different degrees of transparency have been applied to the space through the use of glass and paraffin wax. The placement of the glass relates to the amount lighting needed to animate the space for the production of glass making. Whereas the transparency of the paraffin wax is related to the chemical and mechanical processes flows that are generated by the presence of people within the spaces.

6 GLASS GUILD DRAWINGS


Scale: 1/4”=1’

-6’

-5’

26.5’

3.5’

15’

40.5’

1’ 10’20’5’

Section A1

This section allows one to start to understand the spatial layout of the spaces adjacent, beneath, and above the glass furnaces. The tower that houses the exhaust for the smoke and heat of the furnaces allows light to enter into the main floor and lower level by lightwells that is penetrated through the centre of the tower. The light starts to animate the space between the two furnaces as well as act as a way to track time within the guild. At night the furnaces, which burn for a 24 hr period, emit light upwards into the tower through the use of light cannons and the tower begins to glow a golden yellow color from the paraffin wax.



Scale: 1/4”=1’

1’ 10’20’5’

-11’

43’

19’

8’

Section A2

The section illustrates the spatial relationship of the bakery oven to that of the glass furnaces. Both furnaces utilize chemical and mechanical processes as well as run for 24hrs. The glass furnaces provide heat for the bakery oven and in return the bakery oven is used to produce bread through various chemical and mechanical processes that provide fuel for the glassblowers to work.



Scale: 1/4”=1’

26’

34’

1’ 10’20’5’

South Elevation

The South Elevation was drawn in order to capture the material quality of the space as well as to demonstrate the inhabitation of the space. The windows on the wall behind the glassmakers are created from a three-pane glass system filled with paraffin wax. As the space behind that wall – the bakery – becomes socially activated with people the wax starts to become transparent. The chemical and mechanical processes that are taking place in the adjacent space are being picked up and transmitted into the wax.


Ann Street Guilds 897 URBAN CITY BLOCK DRAWINGS

It is important to examine how urban energy systems affect infrastructure and society. If one can assume that the city fabric is comprised of a relationship between both layers of history and layers of infrastructure-artifacts, the fabric can then be extracted and connected from one layer to the next. The opportunity allows for the exploration of architectural / infrastructural relationships between the differing layers that define the city at a material, systemic, and at a social level.

The situation of this site within the urban fabric can be referenced to other energy pool infrastructures that have become vacant. By reintroducing an energy source back into these sites a new organic approach to re-generating a site through the combination of existing layers of history, layers of new and old infrastructure-artifacts, and new layers of programming. This approach allows for new systems to start to weave themselves into the city as well as start extracting and reactivate systems.

The location of these sites make ideal locations to interject a new program because of there location within the urban fabric - close to the distribution and key / central points of the city.

The Material and social gatherings of Anne St. Guilds will start to utilize the adjacent train, roadway, corridor, and footpaths for a reintroduction of movement within the site. The main material flow – glass – will be collected by individuals and then transported to the site using one or all of these methods of transportation.

By re-introducing an energy source that is site specific there becomes new material, systemic, and at a social level that becomes self aware of its relationships to the surrounding environments.


Scale: 1:200

1m5m

10m20m

60 m

165 m

1B

1B

7 URBAN CITY BLOCK DRAWINGS

Plan


Wood Drying Kiln

Paraffin Wax ContainersAnnealing Oven (Glass)

Glass Blowing Furnaces

Annealing Oven (Bricks)

Oven (Bakery)

Annealing Oven (Glass)Annealing Oven (Pots)

The spatial development of the site is based around the varying degrees of heat that are being produced by the furnace within a specific proximity. The further you get away from the furnaces the cooler the spaces becomes. Therefore the program and specific activities were developed around the specific temperatures of the rooms. For example the wood guild uses the excess heat the furnaces combined with a wood kiln to dry and store wood in. The temperature is ideal for this process to take place.

The most intense concentration of heat is found within the glass guild. Here the material flow patterns, the chemical & mechanical processes, the infrastructure of the site, and all other systems are the densest - this is where they originate.

The corridor, which lies between the two vertical sections of the site, becomes the passageway in which a weaving together of the social, material, chemical and mechanical processes, structural systems, and fluid systems are gathered. The passageway starts to integrate the entirety of the site together by behaving as a main transport system of the heat.



Supply Cool Piping

Return Cool Piping

Supply Heat Piping

Mixing ValveMixing Valve

Terminal Device

Mixing Valve Mixing Valve

Terminal Device


Terminal Device


Terminal Device


Terminal Device

Mixing Valve

Mixing Valve

Terminal Device


Terminal Device

Return Cool Piping

Circulating Pump

Supply Cool Piping

Diverter Valve

Mixing Valve

Mixing Valve

Mixing Valve

Terminal Device

Circulating Pump

Furnace 1Supply Heat Piping

Diverter Valve

Furnace 2Circulating

Pump

Mixing Valve

Chiller

Roof Pipe Coil

Heat Collector

Wax Storage Tank

Wax SurfaceLevel

Pipe Coil Heat Exchanger

Pipe Coil Heat Exchanger

Roof Pipe Coil

Cool Collector

Wax Storage Tank

Wax SurfaceLevel

Pipe Coil Cool Exchanger

Pipe Coil Cool Exchanger

Chiller

Furnace

Mixing Valve

Circulating Pump

Diverter Valve

Pipe Coil Heat / Cool Exchanger

Terminal Device

Roof Pipe Coil

Heat /Cool Exchanger

Wax Storage Tank


Terminal Device

HVAC System 7 URBAN CITY BLOCK DRAWINGS


AB

C

D

E

A Wood & Textile GuildB Existing Paper ManufacturingC Warehouse, Glass Intake & Storage, Pottery & Brick GuildD Glass GuildE Cold Shop & Mechanical RoomF Bakery

F

Textile Guild Wood Guild

Wood Guild

Pot & Grand Pot Room

Brick Making

Elevators used for Materials Transport

Glass Collection&

Storage

Glass Cleaning

Glass Intake

Bakery

Glass Blowing Guild (Hot Room)

Engraving & EtchingGlass Storage(Cold Room)

Mechanical Room



Building A: Wood and Textile Guild

1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor are where the wood and textile guilds are located. The lower level is used for storage

In the center of the first gasholder tank – the wood guild – there is a kiln that is running off of heat energy that is being blasted through a series of pipes into the wood kiln. The heat being emitted from the kiln allows for wood to be kilned dried and then stored in the space for further drying and eventually use. The wood guild provides infrastructure for the site as well as a place to work and learn through the process of making. The machinery in the space is arranged in reference to the kiln. Another important thing to note about this space is that the heat it produces is radiated of the walls into the adjacent spaces.

The heat that is produced by the kiln provides the proper drying and working conditions for the second gasholder tank-the textile guild. The thick walls of the tanks have been removed and all that remains is a wood structure. This circular wood structure allows for wool to be hung to dry as well it acts as anchor points to create a loom. Both the inside and outside space of this tank are used for these purposes.

Building B: Existing paper manufacturing company1st and 2nd floor - Offices and Machinery3rd - Floor StorageLower Level - Storage

Building C: Warehouse, Glass Intake, and Pottery & Brick Guild1st Floor - Glass Intake, and Pottery & Brick Guilds2nd Floor - Warehouse and Storage of Finished Glass, Pots, and Bricks.Lower level - Storage and area dedicated for the transportation of glass and the great pots to the glass guild.

The used glass enters into the warehouse were it is organized and then steamed cleaned and placed in piles to be added to the great pots. The steam that cleans the glass enters into the building through a series of buried pipes from the gas refining building behind the train tracks.

The introduction of a pottery and brick guild is because of the close proximity f the energy pool as well as the need to create great pots and brick for the furnaces as well as the building site. The extra pots and bricks are moved up to the 2nd floor where people can look through and purchase.

The second floor is where they are transported once they have gone through the required phase changes. The top floor opens to the corridor and allow for social gathering to take place. The lower level is dedicated for the storage transportation of glass and the great pots to the glass guild.

Building D: Glass Guild1st floor – Glass ManufacturingLower Level - Movement and collection of glass and great pots.

The first floor is where the glass manufacturing processes take place. The lower level is where the collection the glass takes place and the movement of the great pots to the 1st level occurs.

Building E: Cold Shop and Mechanical Room1st floor - Cold Room, and Wax CollectorLower Level - Storage

The cold shop is adjacent to the glass guild and is referred to the cold shop because this is the space where the etching, engraving, and polishing of the glass takes places. The mechanical room houses the wax collectors of the site.

Building F: Bakery

1st and 2nd floor - Bakery

The bakery’s oven gets its heat from the glass furnaces through a series of pipes. The bakery is responsible for providing the chemical energy to allow for the workers to provide the required mechanical processes to keep the chemical and mechanical processes of the site moving.


Building Descriptions


Section B1

The corridor roofline was designed to be a passageway allowing for the gathering of the various flows and systems. Each of the levels in the corridor encourages movement in and out of the building – a process of weaving.

The structural system of the corridor roof was developed by the extension of the opposing building facades’ structural grids. The two opposing structural grids met at a balancing line located in the center of the roofline. This line is the point where the two structural grids become integrated into one another.

In plan view the roofline of the corridor starts 4 feet off of the facades of the building. This allows for the exterior space to penetrate into the corridor. It also allows for a visual understanding of how the structural grid/anchor points are carried throughout the corridor.

Depending on the time of year these openings house moments in which the programming of the spaces starts to become a visual phase change. An example of this would be the openings in the bakery where the heat is able to rise and escape into the cool air; steam is produced.



Resources

Bibliotheque et Archives nationals Quebec – Archives: Offers archives of documents regarding the history of Montreal including a series of Fire Insurance Maps which help to give an understanding of the evolution of the city dating back to the late 1800’s. (http://www.banq.qc.ca Path: Pistard-Archives)

Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA): The Library of the CCA is an international research collection devoted to the history of architecture and the built environment. It comprises nearly 215,000 volumes with emphasis on rare books and special collections relating to the history of architectural theory, practice, and publishing from the fifteenth century to the present. It holds, in addition, over 5,000 serial titles (ca. 760 current subscriptions) and a variety of special materials. (http://www.cca.qc.ca/ Path: Library)

Concordia University: The new Visual Arts Integrated Complex is a 12-floor building that occupies a significant portion of Ste. Catherine Street between Guy and Mackay. The Design and Computation Arts department occupies two half-floors, including three large and bright studios with a grand view of downtown Montreal. Hexagram Institute, the innovative media arts research laboratory, occupies two complete floors and has a “black box” space for performance-related research/creation in the basement of the building. Graduate students have access to Hexagram’s cutting-edge visualization, robotics, and textiles labs, including highly skilled technicians who can assist with realizing complex projects. Each department within Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts maintains advanced facilities equipped with the latest resources and technical aids. Students in the Graduate Certificate: Digital Technologies in Design Art Practice have access to Macintosh and PC labs in the Center for Digital Arts [CDA]. Both labs are equipped with software for print, 3D, visualization, animation and multi-media applications. Each lab is staffed with technical support personnel to facilitate student projects and research. In addition to the facilities in the CDA, students will have access to four satellite labs devoted to each area of the program. These labs provide access to computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided milling (CAM) facilities as well as design art workshops, video editing on an avid editing suite, a Computation Lab and Sensor Lab for exploring basic research and applications at the intersection of programming, electronics and textiles, and a multimedia and print lab with access to Epson printers up to 24” wide. (http://www.schoolsincanada.com/profile.cfm?artid=24071)

Hydro-Quebec Archives: The CMSD-Archives keeps all documents related to all Hydro-Quebec activities and also of all its branches. They also keep all data related to the history of the organization. The content of the archives literally tells the story of electricity in the province of Quebec. The rural and urban electrification, the construction of hydroelectric centrals, the exploitation and the maintenance of the jobs, the sales, the finances, and the social activities of the employees are some examples of the data saved in the archives. (http://site.rdaq.qc.ca/ArchivesHydroQuebec/home.htm)

McCord Museum: The McCord is a public research and teaching museum that preserves the collective past - over 1,375,000 objects, images and manuscripts, irreplaceable reflections of the social history and material culture of Montreal, Quebec and Canada.

McGill University’s Blackader-Lauterman Library of Architecture and Art: The Library’s holdings comprise 110,000 volumes, including 2,500 rare books and close to 320 current periodical subscriptions. (http://www.mcgill.ca/blackader)

Topological Media Lab: The Topological Media Lab provides a locus for studying subjectivation, agency and materiality from phenomenological, social and computational perspectives. Investigating such questions, the atelier-studio-laboratory creates material poetry, and speculative, live events in responsive environments. The TML invents novel forms of gestural media, expressive instruments and compositional systems that support these speculative performances and installations.The products of the laboratory include scholarly presentations, media artifacts and performances as cultural experiment, opportunities for students and affiliates to refine critical faculties in collective projects.Current application domains include: real-time video and sound synthesis, embedded sensors, gesture tracking, physical computing, media choreography, active fabric, and wearable or soft architecture.The TML draws insights from and informs the studies of embodiment, performance and music, as well as the poietic uses of dynamical systems, differential geometry and topology in philosophies of process. Its projects also serve as case studies in the construction of fresh modes of cultural knowledge and the critical studies of media arts and techno-science.Topological media are physical and computational matter, image or sound fashioned as substances evolving under continuous action. (http://www.topologicalmedialab.net)

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Bibliography

Books:

Barbieri, Olivo, et al. The 6os: montréal thinks big. Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2004.

Beltramini, Gudio, et al. Carlo Scarpa: Architecture and Design. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2007.

Brogan, James, et al. Light in Architecture. London: Academy Group Ltd, 1997.

Brouwer, Joke, and Mulder, Arjen, et al. Interact or die. V2_Publishing/NAI Publishers, 2007.

Carlson, Sylvia E., and Carlson, Verne. Second Edition: Professional Lighting Handbook. Newton: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.

Dourish, Paul. “A History of Interaction,” Where the Action Is: The Foundation of Embodied Interaction. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001, 1-24.

Dourish. “Being in the World,” Dourish. 2001, 99-126.

Guattari, Felix. “The Object of Ecosophy,” Eco-Tech: Architectures of the In Between. Ed. Amerigo Marras. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999, 11-20.

Hewitt, H. Lamps and Lighting. London: Edward Arnold, 1966.

James, Ellen S. Architecte, Arpenteur John Ostell. Montreal: McCord Museum, McGill University, 1985.

Laurel, Brenda. “The Sixth Elements and the Casual Relations Among Them,” Computers as Theater. Reading, Pa: Addison-Wesley, 1993, 49-65.

Millenson, Susan Feinberg. Sir John Soane’s Museum. Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1987.

Murphy, Richard. Carlo Scarpa and the Castelvecchio. London: Butterworth Architecture, 1990.

Olsberg, Nicholas, et al. Carlo Scarpa Architect: Intervening with History. Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architects and The Monacelli Press, 1999.

Sharr, Adam. Heidegger for Architects. London and New York: Routledge, 2007

Silverberg, Robert. Light for the World: Edison and the Power Industry. Canada: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1967.

Suchman, Lucy. “Introduction and Interactive Artifacts,” Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human Machine Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 1-26.

Varela, Francisco. “The Re-enchantment of the Concrete,” Incorporations-Zone #6.ED. Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter. New York: Zone Book, 1992, 320-338.

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Maps

Fire Insurance Map. Montreal, QC: Bibliotheque et Archives Nationales Quebec, 1879. Fire Insurance Map. Montreal, QC: Bibliotheque et Archives Nationales Quebec, 1907. Fire Insurance Map. Montreal, QC: Bibliotheque et Archives Nationales Quebec, 1909.Fire Insurance Map. Montreal, QC: Bibliotheque et Archives Nationales Quebec, 1914. Fire Insurance Map. Montreal, QC: Bibliotheque et Archives Nationales Quebec, 1940. Train Plan du reseau. Montreal, QC: Agence metropolitaine de transport, 2008.

Newspaper

Aubin, Henry. “Let’s Tread Carefully on Griffintown.” The Gazette. 17, January 2008.

Aubin, Henry. “Private hospital would change the face of downtown.” The Gazette. March 20, 2008.Aubin, Henry. “The Griffintown project: Better, but still no cigar.” The Gazette. April 26, 2008.

Gyulai, Linda. “City building discontent.” The Gazette. 19, May 2008.

Periodicals

Desloges, Yvon. “Behind the Scene of the Lachine Canal Landscape.” Industrial Archeology. 29.1 (2003): 7-21

Gelly, Alain. “A Preciptous Decline, Steam as Motive Power in Montreal: A Case Study of the Lachine Canal Industries.” Industrial Archeology. 29.1 (2003): 65-85

Lewis. Robert D. “A city transformed: manufacturing districts and suburban growth in Montreal, 1850-1929.” Journal of Historical Geography. 27.1 (2001): 20-35.

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fempel thesis web

Documents