BID projects – OCAD University

• ARIDO Jun 21, 2023
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We are thrilled to continue our celebration of the class of 2023 from Ontario ARIDO-recognized schools this year. This is our third year of posting graduating student work on BLOG//ARIDO and we are pleased to share their accomplishments with the ARIDO community and beyond.

 ARIDO has worked with these schools to promote a selection of 4th year BID student work on BLOG//ARIDO and will be posting the work each Wednesday during May and June.

Aleighia Murphy - NEST

This project approaches the design of the tiny homes using a “housing first” approach, that is, providing independent housing to unhoused people with additional supportive services therefore becoming more attainable regardless of criteria and the idea of being (un)deserving or (un)ready for housing.

The tiny homes will be modular, uniform in design, and universally accessible, which allows for the homes to be mass-produced and flexible in their layouts across multiple sites while remaining inclusive of the diverse unhoused clientele who are of varying health support needs, ages, socioeconomic statuses, locations, and lived experiences.

Considering the constraints of the site and the overwhelming majority of representation within the subsidized housing waitlist, the homes will be designed for seniors, singles, and couples without dependents.

Shirley Li - Green Escape

The project focuses on St. James Town in Toronto, Ontario. St. James Town is densely populated with mainly large housing units and has the least park space per capita.

The thesis explores the different possibilities of connecting green spaces where both people and nature can coexist in the city site conditions, ehile addressing problems such as multi species design and lack of social space.

The three green spaces are the garden trail, community garden and the park and market. The garden trail is a passive green space that allows for the residents to walk through nature and connects back to the green corridor. It has a wide open grass field and seating around the pathways. It is also surrounded by vegetation that is very important to pollinators, birds, squirrels and more.

Patrick Gao - Pacific Mall

The aim of this project is to breathe new life into Pacific Mall by revitalizing its existing businesses and addressing its outdated business model and lack of competitiveness in the digital era through a redesign and reimagining of the space. This will involve transforming the interior into a commercial botanical garden complex, shifting towards experiential retail, and incorporating a large glass block with various entertainment functions as a centre piece.

Additionally, a redesigned exterior with multiple entrances will attract more tourists, increase foot traffic, and encourage visitors to linger. Overall, a combination of visual upgrades and strategic architectural renovations will make Pacific Mall a more vibrant, appealing, and competitive consumer destination.

Syeda Salwa Baquer - Levee

Sustenance of ideas, identity and belief is key in Interior Design, achieved through an attempt of interpretation of lives as they synthesize with their environment. On that note, this thesis endeavors to revive an important historic edifice in the slighted scene of architectural conservation in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh, and thus restore the integrity of the land and the community that inhabits it, through mission-driven hospitality.

The Ruplal House, a convex point of architecture, culture and history, lies abandoned, standing still as the world passes it by- a silent and dilapidated witness. Levee is the reconfiguration of the heritage site to a mixed-use development that offers rehabilitation, recreation and respite by banking on the local resources and exacting exorbitance- so the plenitude of the past empowers the prosperity of today.

It is where public, economic and environmental health reconciles with design interventions that have been insofar withheld to truly interweave timbre and timber. It stands with yesterday, it stands for tomorrow.

Lee Fu - WanderOff

This project is on the Canadian context, based on box car and Bombardier Bi-Level Cab Car which is used in Toronto as GO Train, and transformed into a mobile living space. The project runs as a six-month program that anyone can participate to experience temporary off-grid living with the potential for permanent living.

It utilizes data from Alberta province to calculate energy demand and production. While complete off-grid living is an ideal state, it's a known fact that humans cannot completely isolate themselves from group. Therefore, this project also takes on the form of a small-scale eco-village, aiming to create a friendly and sustainable mobile community with different individuals.

Learn more about these projects and others by OCAD 4th year BID students on this link.