Analysis

that is defined not so much by the division of land and water, but by the segmentation of land through usage, ownership, political designations, function, buildings, atmospheres, infrastructure and so on. The city is a conglomerate of a vast number of diverging interests and practices. This cacophony of activity keeps the urban fabric in a state of constant change and transformation. Layer upon layer of development builds to make up the evolving identity of the place. Going back to the paragraph above the city therefor is shaped ultimately to the social and cultural practices it creates. Within the city some interests often start to align in order to assert greater power. Such an alignment can be based on interest, function or location. Communities are smaller units within the city that have a number of overlapping interests to align themselves. An important factor is of course location or proximity that binds communities together. Translating these communal interests onto the land in practice means occupying this territory by creating some kind of boundary, creating an urban island. An island that is distinct and identifiable against the sea of otherness. This identity is the source of power and control. There are of course a number of other interests that support the creation of these urban islands. The same concept that leads to the creation of a territory from each community can be scaled up to the city itself. In order to control and plan internally the land is broken up into manageable chunks - communities. A perspective that leads to a range of additional questions. What is the nature of the unit we are working with, who is pulling the strings, how is power distributed and is everything as it seems? On the other hand even within the islands, social practice, everyday activities and physical structures lead to the creation of distinct places, some of which themselves wield enough power to create their own identity and form an island of their own. We want to call them Objects. Such objects mainly come to live through their capacity to map memories and project desires. They are larger than life, but often there is more small and screen - pretence. These are the drivers for the islands creating Situations. Situations are created by practices in relation to the Object. Maybe a detour or a draw pulling in passer-bys. In short the city is a set of islands stacked and enclosed on different scales like Russian dolls. Each with its own set of Objects and Situations asserting power to form a territory.

The question now is however, what happens along the boundary lines and in between the islands? Is there such a thing as the in-between and who shapes it and what qualities does this space have? There too must be ways of exchange some form of trade, traffic and overlapping interests across these borders. Just like a living cell structure there are ways and means mitigating this hierarchical structure in the no-man-land between land and water, between same and otherness, between the form and its context.

1.1.1 Location For this studio we will be working with the communities of Kingsland, Fairview, Haysbro, Acadia, Southwood and Willow Park in the south of Calgary. The area is between Glenmore Trail in the north and Anderson Road in the south as well as 14th Street in the west and Deerfoot Trail or the Bow River in the east. These communities are all sharing Macleod Trail, the main corridor leading south from the city centre. This corridor is home to businesses and trades as well as the Calgary Light Transit (LRT) with the stations Heritage, Southland and Anderson all of which have their individual transit oriented development areas (TOD). They are also sharing a whole range of topics related to economics, population and building stock that leads to the creation of a temporal super community in order to engage with the constant change of the urban fabric more effectively. Several layers of the island concept are inscribed here including, the south, the super community, the individual community and potential locations within each community.

1.1.2 Topic Of interest is what happens between and across the islands. The communities themselves have already identified a range of aspects they feel cross the boundaries and that they need to address these, in order to be effective, collectively. The communities are part of the 1960s/70s ring around Calgary. Communities that were built during that time in a wave of expansion of the city. This has

implication for the building stock, demographics and businesses. Based on the lifecycle, after 50 years a phase of transformation has started with building stock being renewed, replaced and changed, the population has become elderly which brings along a change in lifestyle and housing and young families are starting to move in and the businesses adapt to both the chaining demographics as well as technology, plus their building stock too is to be renewed to either accommodated new directions and/or refurbish. This setting creates unique challenges for the communities but at the same time presents opportunities to establish new directions and set the foundations for future development to support the needs of the community in the future.

1.1.3 Focus The island identity is of great interest as well as what shapes it and how. A second focus is the in-between space both between islands of the same scale and between different scales. Built form is the media that expresses the activity and the shaping force . It is the product of process and politics. There are very practical every day functions attached to this very abstract characterization. On the level of business there are concerns about accessibility for both logistics and customers, on the level of the population circulation and connectivity, especially east west are of special interest and on the level of the built form there are concerns regarding identity and the politics of no mans land. Put differently the focus is on permeability of the urban fabric allowing access - creating good public space and the creation of identity managing territorial claims inclusively.

1.2 Objectives / Format / Teaching Approach

This design studio is a problem based learning environment. It means that the students tackle the problem independently, guided by the instructor. The studio is a setting and at the same time a method. The task is to independently develop a project in the given time frame over the duration of this studio course based on the brief (handout). Students are expected to bring their knowledge and expertise from theory courses and previous studios into the development of the project for this studio. It is hence no isolated task, but essentially a culmination of everything they know poured into the investigation and manifestation of a spatially formulated project. Whilst the project is a product that is to be presented at the end, of interest is the development process that leads to this product. The studio acts as an environment not just to test ideas but to develop them. In other words the students are expected to engage creatively with the topic and experiment with a variety of approaches to evolve their concepts driving their ideas and continuously develop them. As a working tool to design and record the design process we will be working with the design Matrix.

We know more than we can tell - Michael Polany, tacit knowledge - and this translates both to designing and planning. We can only now the outcome as it is observable, but are unable to specify what leads to it. Even though we “know” since we are part of it - you are the city. This applies to the peruse of a design problem not only in the form of knowledge but also in the form of practice. Urban planning often enough states to solve a problem. However Plato has discussed the self-contradiction of any problem in the Meno. He says that the search for the solution of a problem is an absurdity; for either you know what you are looking for, and then there is no problem; or you do not know what you are looking for, and then you cannot expect to find anything [REF Polany pp.22]. As practitioners we have to find other ways to deal with uncertainty and change that stating them as problems. The project is one of them and it is not based on a problem but on a process that is described though media in a narrative. It creates essentially a parallel world to express all the knowledge we are unable to tell in a comprehensive and logical or at least relatable manner. This acts as the basis of future decision making by formulating new thoughts that can be adopted. As Polany states in his introduction to The Tacit Dimension [REF Polany, pp.XI] “we cannot choose explicitly a set of new value, but must submit to them by the very act of creating or adopting them. This precisely describes the planning process which essentially is creating an narrative on an alternative vision in order to enable its adoption. Essentially it is a process of getting to know something (problem), hence

the method of exploration and enquiry.

The format for this design studio is community engagement and we are working in partnership with the community. The project is a real world setting with input from a range of stakeholders from that context. We will be engaging with the local residents, services, businesses, developers, politicians and planners in a range of different settings both to inform and reflect on the ideas and concepts that students are developing. The formats will include panel discussions, presentation, guided tours and workshops, most of which take place on site and we will travel down frequently.

The format of the design studio is a mix of individual tasks and group work. The majority of the project work will be done in groups of two. These groups are expected to develop an effective working partnership based on an open and inclusive practice.

The studio guides the student work in crit sessions. These sessions take the format of a discussion of the work undertaken by the student. There are weekly two sessions of desk reviews with the instructor. One session (Tuesday) is mostly used to reflect on the process and discuss progress and next steps and the second session (Friday) is primarily used to discuss the project. In addition there are periodical crit panel sessions which are more formal and the discussion includes a panel of invited experts and presentations to the community boards in the interest of exchange. Each phase (assignment) will conclude with a crit session. The panel is to be confirmed, but will include: community association, developer, planners and community services.

1.4 Expectations

A proposal - project - that addresses the brief and particular perspectives of all stakeholders we engage with for this studio. It is a future vision of what central south Calgary can be as an accessible community for all. This is to be communicated in media as well as in a presentation and summarized in a final report. The media ranges from drawing, plan, map, collage, rendering, illustration to physical models and text. The presentation has to both address a panel of experts in one format and the community at large in another. The report has to balance the media with text and present both the final product as well as the process including a comprehensive reflection thereof.

Design Studio

2 Assignments

The design studio is organized in a sequence of phases where each has its own assignment. The individual phases align with specific content and input but also support the development of the project by scaffolding the process. In this sense each phase contributes to the over all aim of the design studio not just linear, but by looping back and forth between them. For the assignments this means even though they are graded and the grading is finally making up the overall mark, they are mere stepping stones and not only product in themselves. Essentially they can be viewed as progress assessment [Standortbestimmung].

Design Studio

The site - a group of six communities in the south of Calgary along Macleod Trail are the perimeter for our study of urban islands. The communities are: Kingsland, Fairview, Haysbro, Acadia, Southwood and Willopark. Whilst there is a strong enphasys on north-south connections there is little to no east-west permability especially for none car based mobility.

Images both Google Maps 2018