Monday and Thursday are studio days. On these days in particular, the third floor undergraduate studio is filled with a frenetic energy of design, research, and exploration. Students can usually be found talking excitedly with design professors and classmates in a habitat saturated with trace sketches, study models, and empty coffee cups. Every week we’ll share a completed project, churned out from this energetic studio environment.
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2A Studio | Public Plane by Nicole Ratajczak
Studio Instructors: Adrian Blackwell (coordinator), Michal Bartosik, Marie-Paule Macdonald, Delnaz Yekrangian, Clara Romero, Ryszard Sliwka, Scott Sørli
Studio Description:
Work individually to design and program a public building and outdoor public space. The emphasis of the project is on the useful spatial interactions within the building, between its programs, and between the building and the spaces that surround it. These relationships should be considered in terms of their potential to construct a new world within and in relation to the one that exists in Galt right now. In addition, they should consider carefully the constitutively paradoxical nature of public space – its states of both action and distraction.
Manifesto:
The city of Galt began as an agricultural community serving farmers in the neighbouring countryside. It was not until the late 1830’s that industrial production in Galt overtook the agricultural industry, and since then it has remained a primarily industrial town relying on supermarkets and out-of-town farming for its food supply. Public Plane is a statement against capitalist food production and an argument for a direct link between public space and agriculture, placing emphasis on food as a basic human right. The centre strives to bring awareness to the importance of fresh, locally grown produce in the city as a means of improving health and well-being and a way of strengthening community bonds and values.
Public Plane provides Galt with a community roof garden and greenhouse for all-season food production, as well as generous space for cooking, dining, and gathering. The large kitchen allows for functions such as cooking classes, education programs focusing on food preservation, and the auditorium allows for public lectures around the issues of food and urban agriculture. Accordion doors in the marketplace, community dining room, and greenhouse allow for complete permeability between interior and exterior public spaces. The plane shapes surrounding public space and is accessible from the street and from the centre, bringing agriculture and urbanity together as one entity.
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