MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE
Eric Cheung—The Ontario Association of Architects Guild Medal
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Eric Cheung—The Ontario Association of Architects Guild Medal
About the Award
The Ontario Association of Architects Guild Medal:
To recognize exceptional leadership through design excellence combined with innovative approaches to sustainability in an assignment or project.
A Place for Urban Food Systems.
Architecture plays a key role in connecting people to urban food systems. Beyond technical aspects, improving visibility and accessibility is a challenge.
Through literature reviews, case studies, and design research, this thesis prioritizes the concept of a scaffold to integrate urban food systems into the greater urban narrative. A potential outcome is a food hub, where the scaffold concept enables participation through material and spatial transparency and tactility, particularly within the opportunistic context of adaptive reuse.
The response hypothesizes that a localized urban agriculture system can promote tangible food systems literacy and enhance food access that is culturally and locally appropriate. Reciprocally, a localized urban agriculture system advances stronger social and civic experiences through emphasis on a pedestrian scale experience. That is, the food system of this thesis is spatially and materially visible and accessible for people.
Visibility and accessibility of a local food cycle model is explored in a design proposal in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, which converts a portion of the decommissioned TTC Line 3 public transit line and Scarborough Centre transit station into an urban farm and food hub.
Scarborough Centre is an opportune area for investigation with the acknowledgement of future residential development and transit connections that allow the design to hypothesize succinct integration within these urban narratives. The integration of a food hub allows for weekly farmers’ market and market hall environment to engage both the adjacent civic and commercial presences on site. The design demonstrates that modest and light insertions based on a scaffold concept offers visible and accessible opportunities for public participation in food systems in unexpected places.
The Ontario Association of Architects Guild Medal:
To recognize exceptional leadership through design excellence combined with innovative approaches to sustainability in an assignment or project.
A Place for Urban Food Systems.
Architecture plays a key role in connecting people to urban food systems. Beyond technical aspects, improving visibility and accessibility is a challenge.
Through literature reviews, case studies, and design research, this thesis prioritizes the concept of a scaffold to integrate urban food systems into the greater urban narrative. A potential outcome is a food hub, where the scaffold concept enables participation through material and spatial transparency and tactility, particularly within the opportunistic context of adaptive reuse.
The response hypothesizes that a localized urban agriculture system can promote tangible food systems literacy and enhance food access that is culturally and locally appropriate. Reciprocally, a localized urban agriculture system advances stronger social and civic experiences through emphasis on a pedestrian scale experience. That is, the food system of this thesis is spatially and materially visible and accessible for people.
Visibility and accessibility of a local food cycle model is explored in a design proposal in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, which converts a portion of the decommissioned TTC Line 3 public transit line and Scarborough Centre transit station into an urban farm and food hub.
Scarborough Centre is an opportune area for investigation with the acknowledgement of future residential development and transit connections that allow the design to hypothesize succinct integration within these urban narratives. The integration of a food hub allows for weekly farmers’ market and market hall environment to engage both the adjacent civic and commercial presences on site. The design demonstrates that modest and light insertions based on a scaffold concept offers visible and accessible opportunities for public participation in food systems in unexpected places.
