Situated in the rail lands adjacent to the downtown, the Northern Ontario School of Architecture (NOSOA) reclaims industrial land and acts as a catalyst for the densification of downtown Sudbury. The city centre can be re-established and celebrated as a diverse urban centre. With two buildings in two different environments, NOSOA will engage the community both in the urban streetscape and in the reclaimed industrial site. The main campus, west of Larch Street, connects both the commercial district to the east and the residential neighbourhood to the south with two pedestrian/cycling bridges. The bridges and promenades not only connect NOSOA to the surrounding areas, but also provide a link for residents walking to the supermarket, farmer's market, city library, and downtown commercial district. The second building, the Sudbury Centre for Architecture (SCA), between Elgin and Durham Streets, extends the NOSOA into the downtown core.
NOSOA's linear form ensures that it is not an insular campus, but one that opens towards the public. Workshops open to the south along the promenade, a stepped seating area surrounds an outdoor work area and gathering space, and an invitation is made to passersby to observe the design and construction process. This extension of the workshop acts as a place for the community to engage with students, architecture, and art. South of the promenade/plaza, an open park-like space allows students' work to be exhibited to the public. Courses in woodworking, metalwork, and structures give students the opportunity to add benches, sculptures, and other installations to the park. This continually changing landscape becomes a public place where the exchange of ideas is fostered and the transforming nature of design is experienced.
Explorations of materials and methods by students animate the plaza, the pedestrian bridges, and the spaces in between. The material palette of the buildings responds to their immediate environments in the northern landscape. Rows of brick stitch the building into the existing urban streetscape. Bands of stone wrap the volumes, gathering spaces open to the sky, and hands touch on wood when doorways are met and railings found. Downtown Sudbury and traces of industry in the rail lands are framed by openings in the studio spaces. The students continually engage with the city - as they walk through downtown, test ideas in the plaza, and imagine new possibilities at their studio desks.
(Competitor's text)
16 scanned / 10 viewable
- Presentation Panel
- Presentation Panel
- Presentation Panel
- Plan
- Perspective
- Plan
- Section
- Perspective
- Plan
- Section
