Trees Standing on ice
Software
Sketchup, Photoshop, Lumion, AutoCAD, Miro
Resource
Temperature--Annual Data of Toronto, SunCale, Open Data --City of Toronto, Neighborhood Profiles, Toronto Wind& Weather Statistics,
Toronto City Planning Chapter 7, CityToronto Official Plan
The city’s appearance changed quickly, from the 20th century, increasing restaurants appeared in Chinatown that become a dominant part of the economy nowadays. Supermarket, church, school, gallery gathered here, rich resources lead to convenient and diverse lifestyles. These easily accessible bring some inspiration to the design.
Sun Path / Wind/Precipitation
Influenced by the surrounding building, most of the sunlight can not reach the site, which will be beneficial in terms of summer to avoid the direct sharp sunlight, where Toronto’s average temperature floats around 25°.
The wind came from west or southwest in summer while northwest in winter, adjacent houses act as windshields.
Unstable precipitation varies in different years, therefore, it's uncertain to predict the rainwater utilization would work. But less rainfall mitigates the environmental impact on building materials.
History of Toronto/ Land Acknowledgement
The history of Toronto started about 12,500 years ago, shortly after the last Ice Age when the ice sheet withdraw from the area as present-day Toronto. On the current map, we can clearly see that the river connects Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but they were not connected in the first place When the ice finally receded from the St. Lawrence valley, the outlet was below sea level, and for a short time, the lake became a bay of the Atlantic Ocean. Gradually the land (Toronto area) rebounded from the release of the weight of about 6,500 feet (2,000 m) of ice that had been stacked on it.
This history is closely linked with the etymology of Toronto, originally derived from the Mohawk word tkaronto meaning "where there are trees standing in the water“which corresponds to the history of the land.
Site
The site is located in an alley on D'Arcy's street in Toronto China Town. This narrow lanegives a restriction of 3.6m width and the challenge of how to guarantee the neighbourhood's access.
Inthis project, I decided to raise my house height to 3m to ensure enough spacefor people to walk through as well as not block the adjacency building’s basementswindow. The total height of my project will be around 7.5m, 6.45m in length and3.08m in width.
