Site
959 Drouillard Road - Essex Linen Supply
Drouillard Road is lined mainly with commercial and mixed use buildings; the streets parallel to Drouillard house mainly single family dwellings, with a few multi-family dwellings interspersed. The neighbourhood is bounded to the North and East by heavy industrial and manufacturing sites, and to the West by three large undeveloped lots.
After much consideration, I chose to develop vertically on top of an existing commercial building along Drouillard Road; this both reduced the green space needed for development as well as tied the infill to the rich history of the area. The facade of the existing building was carved to make room for new residential units, while remaining recognizable to local residents.
The Apiary - Design Project
This project explored how infill development could economically advantage Ford City. The Apiary was created as a response to the future need for high density housing in a mixed use environment. The project is a progressive response which considers tenants of varied income levels, both residential and commercial.
Context Photos
Related Research
Affordable Housing
Since the program for this project included creating affordable housing, research was also done into contextual needs for subsidized housing, and how to responsibly incorporate it within a development. Research on the existing enumeration counts and the priority placement program in Windor helped shape the variety of suite types.
Existing Building
The existing building, originally built between 1940 and 1950, had a major addition permitted in 1955 - the two-storey brutalist portion on the northernmost side (see above). Since this building has served industrial uses for its lifetime, it was important to keep that influence within the final design. As the mass of the existing building formed a natural negative space between the two-storey areas, this was used as a starting point to define the scale of the infill units.
Bee Hives
As mentioned above, significant research was also done on the physical and social structuring of beehives. Although many buildings have been inspired by this concept, the idea as it specifically relates to “infill” was explored more in depth; since hives need a substrate to be constructed on, cues were taken on how the relationship between existing and new appeared organic. Geometric relationships between naturally tesselating shapes were also explored; particular attention was paid to the fact that only squares are able to tesselate in a third dimension.
Sketches
Working from very vague to very specific, the sketches below document a series of ideas which were built off of each other. What began as a very simple, almost cartoon depiction of “infill” development, was eventually refined into specific detailing which formed a sense of place. The idea here was that infill development on an existing building should feel organic and not forced, in order to soften potential neighbourhood concern. To achieve this, the decision was made to cascade the residential space down around the existing structure. Further development included raising and recessing the entryways to these ground-level units.
Site Plan
First
Preliminary space planning began using the existing footprint of the building. Since the existing building was primarily composed of structural masonry walls, efforts were made to preserve them where possible. Stairwells and elevators were deliberately placed within the existing two-storey footprint, and commercial storefronts remained dictated by the existing widths.
1 LIVE / WORK COMMERCIAL
2 COMMERCIAL UNIT 1 STUDIO
3 2 LEVEL, 2 BED + DEN
4 2 LEVEL, 1 BED
5 BICYCLE STORAGE
6 TENANT REFUSE / UTILITY
7 1 BED + DEN
8 STUDIO
9 2 BED
10 2 LEVEL. 1 BED
11 2 LEVEL, 2BED + DEN
12 COMMERCIAL KITCHEN
13 COMMERCIAL BAR SPACE
14 COMMERCIAL UNIT 2
15 COMMERCIAL UNIT 2 STORAGE
16 TENANT STORAGE
17 FIRST FLOOR COURTYARD
Second
As mentioned previously, the existing negative space between the two two-storey buildings was used to define the size of the modular suites. Various layouts were explored, but designing the suites around a 10-foot room was found to create the best balance between affordability, modularity, and versatility. As it exists, three such rooms fit in that particular negative space (seen in #13 & #14 to the right).
1 LIVE / WORK RESIDENTIAL
2 1 BED + DEN
3 1 BED + DEN
4 2 LEVEL, 2 BED + DEN
5 2 LEVEL, 1 BED
6 1 BED + DEN
7 STUDIO
8 1 BED + DEN
9 STUDIO
10 2 BED
11 2 LEVEL, 1 BED
12 2 LEVEL, 2 BED + DEN
13 STUDIO
14 1 BED + DEN
15 SECOND FLOOR COURTYARD
Third
The third floor provides access to the roof of the commercial space, and provides access all around to avoid dead-end corridors. The suite layouts vary slightly to incorporate the additional area between the lower front and rear suites.
1 2 BED
2 2 BED
3 STUDIO
4 STUDIO
5 1 BED + DEN
6 2 BED
7 2 BED + DEN
8 1 BED + DEN
9 2 BED
10 1 BED + DEN
11 STUDIO
12 STUDIO
Model Studies
Renderings
