AGO

This is the second time I've visited AGO (the first was during the construction of the new extension). This time I wasn't able to see all of the galleries due to a lot of time being wasted figuring out the locations. We spent most of our time on the second floor. The flow of the place was confusing, and we had to constantly double back, or walk through the same galleries repeatedly to figure out our own location and where we should head to next. Of the artworks I had seen, I wasn't too impressed, especially the paintings. Most of them were landscapes, and many had large snowscapes with tiny people badly drawing in. The affect was the feeling of stinginess instead of grandeur, especially when the paintings themselves are the size of a small book. Some of the Group of Seven art works where wonderful, however. They featured large landscapes with simple detailings that emphasized the size and gave a feeling of awe. The European art works also were great, they were what was typically seen in their periods, but their weight and mood is no less significant.

AGO - Lawren Harris

This was my first time visiting the Art Gallery of Ontario and I was excited to see the artworks by the Group of Seven, something that I have only heard of and seen in books, but embodies so much of Canada's history and culture. I was fascinated by the works of Lawren Harris, who was dubbed as the unofficial leader of the group. His works looked so simple yet at the same time very refined and elegant. He's able to capture the breathtaking effect of seeing something so grand and astonishing.

In addition, those unique chairs made up of pressed layers of wood were quite the attraction for most of the students. It was a such a surprise that the chairs were soft and actually quite comfortable to sit on!

AGO

A trip to a re-designed AGO was an amazing experience. I especially like the spiral staircase in the main hall which is a very strong and powerful focal point and to me it seems like almost a divine structure. I can only wonder where it leads. I like the arrangement of gallery spaces because it provides flexibility of taking different paths. The use of materials i think is very strong and at the same time elegant. The wood creates this warm atmosphere that is hard to resist and that main hallway facing Dundas street is a really great space to just move around and observe.

I liked the installation gallery...the piece i was moved by was the video of a first-person view from a train in motion through the winding railway tracks. It had an almost hypnotic power over me and i spent quite a few minutes watching it.

Improve OCAD

how to improve the sidewalk and crosswalk at OCAD?

Issues:
the sidewalk is a little too much stuff, like the bike racks and sometime there will be a lots of smoker standing there to smoke.

crosswalk, is working quite well at OCAD, however the crosswalk sign is a little bit too high. Driver sometimes does not pay attention if the sign is flashing or not, it will be dangerous cause if the driver didnt see the light and pedestrian cross the road without knowing it.

Solution:
to make people interact with the sidewalk not just standing there and making a "traffic jam". maybe we can ask school to find a better place to place the bike racks, so that we may have some sidewalk art sale at OCAD. and interact with each other and the sidewalk

for the crosswalk if the crosswalk light is too high for the driver, maybe can try to put the light on the side.

improving ocad

LOCATION: Every studio/working area

ISSUE: No great place for OCAD students to relax and hang out in comfort.

PROPOSAL: Placing more sofas, rugs, coffee tables and lamps around lounges to create a “living room-esque” environment. These fixtures would alleviate the industrial and oppressive mood of the school and encourage easy socialization between students and faculty.

EXECUTION: Asking Student Union for a grant to purchase furnishings.

ago

My favorite section from the AGO would have to be the small room filled with Tom Thomsons’s paintings. The glass roof allowed tons of natural lighting to pour in and really allowed us to see the paintings as they were meant; since he painted his landscapes outdoors. The bright colours are extremely inspirational and instill in me a sense of Canadian pride.

AGO

My favorite piece in AGO is the paintings that did by Lawren Harris, that shows on the second floor. I personally love this style of painting, which is not really realistic, when I look into the painting it gives me a lot of inspiration and new ideas. I am so happy that AGO finally finish renovating even though, some parts are still not open. I am so going to AGO more often then last year! How can I not to there to get more ideas and most importantly its FREE for OCAD student!

AGO Makeover!!

Ever since being a design student at OCAD, whenever I enter any building I feel like a professional design critic and start analyzing every element in the space; whether it works or not (lighting, furniture, colours, materials, etc.). I really like the transformed AGO. Although the exterior of the building is beautifully designed, I think it is a bit much for Dundas street. It seems to overpower the area, which can be positive or negative, but more negative with that block of Dundas street feeling smaller. The interior seemed to be endless. I didn’t have a favourite exhibit, but I was attracted to the strange seating in the foyer by the striking sculptural staircase. Although I don`t think these chairs really fit in the space well or compliment it in any way, when I sat down I was intrigued because they look like such hard surfaces, yet sitting down I discovered they had a soft cushiony quality to them. I immediately had to tell people they were cushiony. No one was as intrigued as I was, that's when I realized that the chair and I had a special bond.

End of Suburbia- Response

I love documentaries, they are amazing and informative, how they are presented is key to how interesting they will be to watch.

The End of Suburbia is a well organized documentary that made me aware of the impact oil has on our world and the consequences that will occur if and when it runs out. With situations like these it is hard to rely on anyone for answers as to what may happen. This documentary is filled with predictions and scary facts that accompany the oil depletion and collapse of the American Dream. I didn’t realize how much oil affected in our world and how important it is to us as a civilization. Many may have thought that the Northeast Blackout of 2003 that affected an estimated 10 million people (according to wikipedia) was enjoyable. I agree for the simple fact that we rely too much electricity and when that was taken away for a day, wandering the streets was interesting, it forced most of us to come up with an alternative/ substitute activity. In the movie it was mentioned that “we hadn’t learnt anything from the blackout”. This is a strong statement, wrong or right I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is: a greater effort needs to be made with proper consumption of electricity and oil. The many predictions expressed in The End of Suburbia has made me extremely curious and concerned about about what the future holds for us...inform everyone you know about this documentary, make them scared of the future, make them change their ways!

The additional vintage footage in this documentary also made it enjoyable!

Rainwater Collection system in OCAD

Implementing a rainwater collection system on the rooftop of OCAD. 

By using the large surface area on OCAD flat rooftop to collect and store rainwater is a great idea. Using these collected water, OCAD can flush it's toilets and may provide irrigation to vegetation nearby. By using rainwater to flush toilet, OCAD will save a lot of fresh water supply and be able to use it in other areas, or even safe more for the community around OCAD. 

AGO

This is my first time going to the AGO. I've passed by the AGO while underconstruction numerous times, so I presumed it was only and explansion on the exterior front that was renovated. Just as I was walking by the front, passing the AGO shop I saw the Frank Gehry Wiggle Chair, I already knew I was in for something. Walking in the first sight of this wiggling pathway leading to the ticket booth already impressed me. As we enter the building instantly greeted by another really aspiring staircase extruding out of the side of the interior wall was absolutely stunning. Entering the back room, I realize there was a lot of incorporation of wooden beams and wooden flooring in the new renovated areas, in fact much of the newly renovated area are incorporated with wood. The wood created a really beautiful, warmth and organic ambient. It definitely suggested the feel of Canada. 

I must admit I was more impressed by the architecture than the actual gallery itself, although the contemporary had some quite interesting things. The warhol stuff looked pretty interesting. There was a massive cube which looked like fur from afar, but until I step closer than I realize they were steel fillings and the cube was a magnet, creating these really interesting organic pattern, which resembled furlike behavior. Another really cool piece was a sculptur of a man's face stretched vertically like how you can distort images in photoshop. The amazing thign was the artist was able to replicate this with extreme detail, and three dimensionally. I could see each strand of hair and each strand of facial hair. The result was visually stunning, I definitely had my jaw dropped.

AGO is made with organic soy beans

This is one of several Drawing Stations at the AGO, one of the brainchilds of the head designer at the gallery. I wish we had 30-50 of these on every floor at OCAD!

As I sat there revelling in the cozy environment of my own private desk (I hid the second chair so I could hog the whole desk), one of the staff walked by and I hailed her. I asked her about these Drawing Stations and she told me that they were a part of the gallery's new mandate (too strong a word, maybe "philosophy" is better) of public engagement. Galleries are trying to offer a more active experience for the visitor.

There are also future plans to web-ify the gallery, to give the art itself a web presence, so people can have a place to leave comments on those pieces online, maybe even discuss them with other people in the community, including the artists themselves.

She also told me that spaces like the Drawing Stations are designed and assembled by the AGO's in-house design and construction team and the components are fabricated from a modular building system called "kit of parts" which sounds something like Lego. Which means they can erect and take down these Drawing Stations very quickly and put something else in its place, which is sad because I want them to be there permanently as my own secret study spaces. Those restaurant rails rule. I hung up my drawings there while I was brainstorming my lathe project for woodshop.

lets go to the A-G-O! YA

My favorite exhibit at the AGO was "The Urban Trailer". As I was walking around with two other classmates, we came upon this piece at the very end of our journey. It had glowing lights, and a very vibrant exterior that intrigued us to discover it. Upon entry of the trailer, they had a few instructions as to how to experience this exhibit. Inside the trailer you were encouraged to play various mini records and watch black white videos.

It was the most interesting exhibit by far, and one that the user could actually create their own experience much like in the class in year 1, experience design.

 

Improving OCAD

LOCATION: Every studio/working area

ISSUE: Waste of materials/unnecessary manufacturing of materials

PROPOSAL: A bookshelf in every studio/working area where students can put their excess materials or scrap pieces. Other students may browse these bookshelves before purchasing new materials. Similar to wood scraps in the woodshop. Teachers would encourage students to place unused material in these bookshelves as well as breaking down old projects for scraps.

EXECUTION: Asking Student Union for a grant to build these bookshelves.

AGO Transformation

My favourite part of the new AGO would have to be The Galleria Italia. Named after the 26 families of Italian descent, who each donated $500 000, the long and very tall hallway feels like a large canoe, or the inside of a whale. I thought this part was particularly impressive for its grand architecture, environmental works and dedication to Canadian identity. The hallway feels Canadian, without the cliché. The details surrounding the planks of wood are incredible.

I found this article by Sarah Milroy from the Globe and Mail, which I thought was spot on to how I felt about the new AGO.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081114.wago1511/BNStory/transformationago/feature-topic

Green Walls

For our original research area we worked on buildings. We decided to create a "green wall" on the outside of the OCAD building. This project touches upon our individual areas or research, building materials, green roofs and energy efficiency.
Green walls are beneficial in a number or ways. They provide air filtration for the outdoor environment as well as insulation in the winter and cooling in the summer which can help with the buildings energy use for heating and cooling. Green walls are also a nice alternative to the plain brick facade and can provide a more welcoming and visually appealing environment.
Any wall would serve, but we were thinking about the side wall closest to Dundas (where the loading areas is) and the one facing Butterfield Park.
We are going to do further research into materials, budget, the benefits of the "green wall", location and what kind of permission we would need as we go along.

Alexandra, Maxim and Vicenta

{Question? & Solution*} Naturalize Change

Question?
How can all sectors of a community benefit from eachother through sustainability??
translated:
What in nature benefits from each other?? What is the cycle?

Solution*
In nature a forest ecosystem energy can only enter through plants, these plants we call the autotrophs, they range from the trees to the lettuce on our plate. These plants keep all living things alive. Animals like us eat deer that eat the plants and we all benefit. Our waste is then decompsed by bacteria, parasites, invertebrates, mushrooms . These decomposers give back to the autotrophs through the nutrients they release to the soil and the waste from the plants set off bacteria and mushrooms. Throughout this whole process this energy is giving off respiration of oxygen and carbohydrates.

'Energy in a ecosystem cannot be recycled it must constantly be renewed.'



The picture above is what I got from nature, translated. The tree like the sugar maple is my building, the programming is organized like photosynthesis. Whatever 'organic matter' the building gives: ideas, programs, classes, lectures, exhibit will influence the people, the 'heterotrphs'. Our 'waste' from being influenced will then be decomposed by the sectors of society, the elements that will drive sustainable development into the future. Throughout this whole process respiration happens this giving off to the rest of the city and world that Liberty Village or any other communtiy is aware and involved in the process of development and perhaps they will be an example.

This cycle is in the works.......to be cont'd

Rachel De Vries

The New AGO

Walking into the AGO for the first time since the renovation, I was really skeptical that the building was even finished. It seemed like just few days before that it looked like there was a whole piece missing out of the side, and scaffolding was everywhere.
I was very pleasantly surprised though by the building, sure there was a few displays and corners that were not remotely set up yet but the building as a whole seemed relatively complete. This aside from the amazing winding staircase in the center which would have been interesting to walk on, but was not finished being constructed.
My favorite part of the new AGO had to be the gallery that was the long hall following the completely windowed side of the gallery, it was the one gallery that made you really feel and see, and know what kind of a building you were in, it also contained a few very interesting pieces using these huge tree trunks.

AGO

Going to the AGO has been a very good experience. The new architecture is really stunning, with all the wood that gives it a softer and smoother look. My favourite gallery/location was the Galleria Italia for the magnificent glass/wooden beams. The structure of the whole room was well thought of. My favourite piece was by Al Anatsui, entitled Zebra Crossing and it was a patchwork of metal pieces sewn together. The intricacy of the work was seen in all the stitching, and the pattern created was visually attractive and pleasing to the eye.

AGO

My favourite artwork in AGO is the Urban Disco Trailer.
It is located on the 2nd floor, where they displayed other 3D works.
The Urban Disco Trailer is actually a car that has been decorated and looked like it is from the 70s or 80s.
Inside the car, there is a black disc player on top of a counter. And on the right hand side, there is a big mess of black discs from 70s-80s(mostly rock music).
There is also a disco ball hanging on the ceiling.
So basically, people can walk into the car, choose their favourite music and play it loud!

The reason why I like this piece is because there is a huge interaction going on, and I think it will be great if it has a dance floor inside the car.

AGO

I had never been to the AGO before but on my visits over the past year during visits have been seeing the construction that has been done. i really enjoyed the spiral stair case that overlooks OCAD in the back of the museum. I have been to the museum twice in the past week because there is just so much to see. I think my favorite collection was the Thomson collection, mostly the ship models. I really enjoyed this museum and will be going more often!

AGO

I was pleasantly surprised by the new additions, and I actually really liked the glass covered walk along Dundas. I thought it was a really nice space, especially in the evening. Though I wasn’t crazy about the exhibition, I thought it worked well in the space. I thought the winding staircase looked good too, and I’ll be interested to see what it looks like when it’s finished.

AGO 3/4

My favorite part of the AGO are the yellow Home Depot construction lighting for the main stairwell, and the restricted access to the funky stair. I would not have cared to wait for the finished thing. After all, you would not exhibit unfinished art. I hope it's finished properly, and am looking forward to the visiting when it's ready.

My Exploration of the AGO

Our class had the opportunity to visit the AGO last week and I was quite curious to see what they had done inside. As a 'newbie' to Toronto, this was my first time to see the interior and exhibitions of the AGO. From our classroom, we can see the backside of the AGO and I can't say that I was impressed with how the new building was integrated into the old structures. I kept thinking that they would be peeling off the 'blue film' and revealing some amazing finish but the final finish is the blue finish. Also as a design student, I found that the exterior staircase to be an odd shape and didn't integrate well into the building...it looked like someone just stuck it on the side of the building.

I'm a big fan of contemporary art and have visited many museums in North America and Europe to see many different exhibitions. The AGO has their collection of contemporary art on the 4th and 5th floor. I have to say that the collection was under-whelming. I found the gallery space to be quite small relative to other museums that I've been to.

My favorite piece would have to be the piece by Attila Richard Lukacs who is a Canadian artist and a graduate of Emily Carr. I'm a big fan of his work due to the provocative nature of his works. He first appeared on the art scene with his large scale images of homosexuality and skinheads. The AGO has a policy of no photography and I was unable to 'sneak' an image of the actual work...the security guy kept hovering around me. Instead I've chosen to post another piece of Lukacs work to give everyone an idea as to what his work is like.

AGO-my favorite part.......

I went to the AGO on the weekend of its opening. My favorite part was the Ship Collection that was situated under neath the main hall. The collection is apart of Ken Thompson rare artifact collection. I enjoy craftsmanship and models and seeing those ships just blew my mind. The detail in the pulleys, sails and connections of the fibers, ivory and exotic woods. What I gathered from reading the plaques was they were made by French prisoners of war while in captivity by the British. The casing for the ships were there own piece of art, curvilinear glass that creates a space that looks fluid with the ships elevated at different heights. The Douglas fir stairwell was interesting, it renews the classicist space with the warm wood and protrusion through the skylight. It was still under construction when I went but i"ll be back.........
Rachel De Vries

AGO

I didn't really have any expectations going into the new AGO, i think I've only been in once or twice before and i kind of forget what was in it, but i liked what i saw once i was in there and i hope i wont forget about it this time.
My favourite part of the AGO was the contemporary art. There was this one piece that had a house or a boat or some structure sinking in water, but the water frozen in place. you could see all the bubbles and splashing created by the structure hitting the water but it was frozen in time; it was like looking at a three dimensional photograph. i thought that was cool.

The New & Improved AGO

I was pretty skeptical of the AGO re-design by Frank Ghery when I saw the frames being build up to what it is now over time. But after this recent trip to the new and improved AGO I was at peace. I really like the over all re-design of the whole art gallery. I especially loved the new part where you can look over dundas street. It was a pretty amazing experience, especially at night time when the lights are turned on.

assignment 3 project idea [Jandy and Anna]

The idea of our project is removing the black garbage cans in the school and putting more recycling bins around the school. There are VERY FEW recycling bins and  A LOT of black garbage cans. So, even if people have this brief idea that they would like to recycle every time they throw out their garbage, the problem is that the black garbage cans are everywhere and the recycling bins are only at where the elevators are. 

People, including me are lazy. They would not want to walk all the way up to the elevators  to throw out their garbage to recycle. 

Also, at the Butterfield park (the circle area where people sit down and chill) there is only ONE GARBAGE CAN which just encloses recycling idea. 

Therefore, we want to talk to the student union or the OCAD people so they could remove the garbage cans and put more recycling bins inside of the school AND at outside of the school, which helps improving the image of school, so recycle bins are the only way to throw out the garbage.

favourite part of AGO

My favourite part of AGO was the Canadian painting art section.

The room was full of paintings and before you enter the room, there is a little staircase on the left side so you can go upstairs and see the room with the upper view. 

Personally, i just love paintings and that view from the small room and having upper clear view of the painting room was very peaceful because  it stopped from getting distracted from a lot of noise or the light that reflected on the paintings. 

aleks djokic favourite ago piece

My favorite piece at the AGO was the "Urban Trailer" installation. It was this trailer where you could enter inside and it had seats at the sides and a TV in the middle and a fisher price record player in the corner. It had 100's of mini records that you could put inside the record player and play. It also had a a very 60's feel to it because of the decorations in the interior which included a disco ball.

On another note, I really liked the giant tree scultpures that were located near the glass facade of the building, they were massive and very striking because they werent actual trees, they were made of some sort of material.

AGO! Ashley James

So on Wednesday we had our class trip the the AGO. After hearing that the renovation was designed by Frank Gehry I was really excited to see the finished product. After walking through all the gallery's and looking at all the the different art pieces, I found that I was more interested in the building it self as opposed to anything else. My favorite space was the 'Galleria Italia' which is located on the second floor. It was so open and spacious. It was the only part that really Incorporated natural lighting which I love. I guess that explains why I am in the Environmental Design program as opposed to art. I must admit there were some interesting pieces but I have to say the gallery, 'Galleria Italia' is a space that draws you to it. Overall I had a really great time and plan on making many more trips to look at anything that I may have missed this time.

Responce to 'End of Surburbia' Ashley James

I found many of the comments and predictions in this documentary to be quite interesting as well as eye opening. As it was stated in the documentary suburbia was created to escape the industrial life of the city. It was noisy, polluted, congested and filled with slums. Suburbia was created as a utopia, as an escape for the middle class to upper class families. What about the lower class families? Yes, as we can all guess they were (unfortunately, as always) left behind. One thing that I found interesting is that there was a train that used to connect suburbia to downtown. However, it was bought out by various car dealerships so that people would be forced to purchase cars as it was the only way to get to work, as the majority of people living in the suburbs work downtown. Now, with the oil peak and gas prices raising so high that people can no longer afford to drive a car, what will happen? How will people get to work? The documentary also opened my eyes as to how much we rely on oil, so much so that if it were to run out our lifestyles would have to change drastically. What I find scary is that hardly anyone realizes what this means or that it is even going on. People are still purchasing homes further and further north, replacing much needed farm land. When the oil runs out they stated that everyone will move back downtown as everything is in walking distance. What I find scary about this is how will everyone fit. Do the lower class families get displaced again? Left behind again? Because my bet is that is exactly what will happen. I feel that this documentary is one that is worth watching. people need to realize what is going on in the world around them so that they can start making wise decisions that will not only benefit themselves but other people and the environment as well. We need to stop relying on oil and find other ways to live.

Assignment # 3 - Research Ashley James

Hello Class,

For assignment #3 I was part of group 1 which was responsible for buildings. My group consisted of Veronica who was responsible for building materials, Amy who focused on coverings and roofs and lastly David who researched energy saving and footprints. As a group our objective was to obtain as much information as we could pertaining to sustainable buildings and the general techniques and practices used by them. I took it upon my self to research exactly what defines a building as sustainable as well as what types of lighting and windows can be found in such architecture and lastly I researched examples of sustainable buildings that can be found all over the world. Whilst gathering information from books, the Internet, magazines and newspaper articles I was surprised to learn exactly what sustainable building is. Before this assignment I thought the use of a solar panel made a building sustainable and in fact this is not so. Sustainable building is the practice of increasing a buildings overall efficiency. Not only does it take into account how the building uses resources such as energy water and materials, but it also strives to reduce the buildings impact on the environment as well as on our human health. In regards to lighting I found that the number one choice for lighting is natural lighting. Not only is natural light a free renewal source but it also generates no waste or pollution and has well documented health benefits. I discovered a new technology used for natural lighting called Sunlight Transportation Systems. This is where the sun is collected on roof solar panels and transported in to a building using fiber optic cables. In regards to electric lighting the best choice is either compact fluorescent lighting or LED's. In regards to windows, Generally larger windows are used and placed on the south side of the building to obtain as much heat and light as possible. They are also double or triple glazed insulated windows which are better insulators as opposed to single pain glass windows. Above is an image the the Restoration Services Centre which is an example of a sustainable building located in Vaughn Ontario. It puts into practice many of the techniques used to make a building sustainable.

A Greener Environment at OCAD

the LOCATION: 5th floor common area where students spend many hours working from dawn till dusk

the ISSUE: poor indoor air quality, no fresh air entering, windows do no open

the PROPOSAL: the addition of green plants that recycle and purify the air= a better work environment for us

what needs to be DONE: a committee of students is formed to take care of the plants. and perhaps do annual plant trades, herbs, etc. community building

the possibilities to making it REAL: student union offers grants to those who submit viable proposals.

Interior Environments

Coming into class today our original idea was to create a campaign of posters to display around the school on keeping your workspace clean, and maintaining an overall adequate indoor atmosphere to feel clean, safe, and comfortable to work in.

After a major re-thinking and assessing our original idea, we have come up with a re-design proposal idea. As students, particularly in the 2-D streams of design, we spend a lot of time in the large workspace on the 6th floor of the O.C.A.D. Sharp building, working on our computer, eating, gluing, cutting, mounting, sketching, and often doing all these things at the same time, in the same area.

We plan on coming up with a new overall organization for the layout of this workspace. Possibly creating sectioned areas to complete specific tasks such as mounting and glueing, and other areas where students are working on their computers and sketching.

Also we hope to incorporate the idea of the "plant wall", seen here implemented at the University of Guelph, possibly to section of the different "areas" on a little bit off a smaller scale than the wall at Guelph.

We plan on taking even more in depth observations and research once we further work on this new idea.

Mariz, Alex, Daren, & Joe

Assignment 3: Community Amenities- Urban Agriculture

My group consisted of Kaidy, Yigi, Brett and myself. We focused on community amenities and I specifically focused on urban agriculture. Urban Agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in, or around a village, town or city. Urban agriculture is often
described as bringing the farm into the city.

There are multiple options when deciding to practise urban agriculture. A community garden is one example of urban agriculture. Community gardens provide access to fresh produce and plants as well as access to satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, sense of community and connection to the environment.

Setting up a small garden in the front or back yard is another option that can provide you daily with healthy vegetable and herbs.

Another option to urban agriculture is a green roof. Though it is a more elaborate and expensive option, a green roof can provide a healthy bed of soil to grow all sorts of food on. Green roofs also act as an insulator and thus will reduce your energy consumption. Intensive green roofs can be a great place to relax on a lunch break allowing people to escape the busyness of the city for an hour

An example of a community garden in Vancouver

An interesting intensive green roof in NYC

The benefits of urban farming are numerous. Locally grown food have less environmental impacts then food shipped from other parts of the wordl. Urban Agriculture allows us to get a better understanding of our food and gives us a sense of control over its safety and security. Also Urban Agriculture gives us the opportunity to teach today`s youth about food and the earth. There are also health benefits, as urban farms are usually free of the harmful pesticides and fertilizers that most large commercial farms use. Finally, urban agriculture such as a community gardenening provides a space for leisure and socializing. Many believe home grown food tastes better, and those who practice urban farming say it gives them a feeling of personal satisfaction.

An example of a city that recognizes the importance of urban agriculture is Vancouver. In 2006, Vancouver City Councillors issued a challenge to individuals, families, community groups and neighbourhood organizations to establish more food-producing gardens in Vancouver.
Their goal was to have 2010 new garden plots by 2010.

an example of a backyard garden plot

Access of subways over the world - Stephanie

Our group did the research on transit.
My part of the research was mostly about access and traffic.

Here are some examples of best practicing:

London Underground
Travelcard
- can be used on Tube, Docklands Light Railway(DLR), London Overground and some National Rail services









Oyster Card
- valid on a number of different travel syste,s including London Underground, DLR, Overground, etc
- stored-value: pay as you go
- aim for the card: charges the lowest fare; if it doesn't, refund the difference is possible









The Paris Métro /Métropolitai, Métro de Paris
Navigo pass
- a smart card with he Calypso system
- enable authenticated access at turnstiles by waving card near an electronic reader
can be reloaded monthly or weekly









Tokyo Metro
PASMO card
- a prepaid transportation card that contains an integrated-circuit(IC) chip
- allowing the user to enter the subway by simply swiping the card over a PASMO reader located on the ticket gates
- the card is recgargeable and can be used over and over
- can be also used interchangeably with the East Japan Railway Co.'s (JR) Suica card









Seoul Metropolitan Subway
Seoul City Pass and Seoul City Pass Plus (For Tourists Only)
- a card that allows tourists to use the buses and subways up to 20 times a day
- can be used for the Seoul City Tour Buses, which run past all the major palaces, tourist sights and shopping areas in the city
- (Seoul City Pass Plus Only)can pay for taxis, buy products from vending machines, access the internet and even buy products from some well known stores in Seoul




















Metro Pass
- is valid for 60 times within the 30 days from the day of recharge
- can only be used on subways (applies to all sections of wide area and metropolitan subways)











New York City Transit
MetroCard: Unlimited Ride MetroCard & Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard Unlimited Ride MetroCard:
- the more you ride, the less each ride costs
- all free transfers included
- no refills, you have to get a new card every time you buy one
- can only be used by one person at a time
- cannot be used again at the same station or same bus route for 18 minutes









Mass Transit Railway – MTR (Hong Kong) Octopus Card
- a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong
- also used for payment at convenience stores, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, on-street parking meters, car parks, and other point-of-sale applications such as service stations and vending machines
- has been internationally recognized, winning the Chairman’s Award of the World information Technology and Services Alliance’s 2006 Global IT Excellence Award for being the world’s leading complex automatic fare collection and contactless smartcard payment system
- some school use octopus card to do attendance at the school entrance









All these examples have been introduced and used widely in the countries for at least 4-5 years.
By the time I was doing research on TTC, I saw they have a promise to introduce a contactless card for access in winter 2007. But I do not see it anywhere in the site now, I think they have taken it off because they broke the promise.

Katherine Chu- Exterior: Garden & Ambience

The area that my group is doing is the exterior environments. The area that I am going to discuss are the gardens and ambiance.

Due to the reality of climate change people want to have a greener environment and cities to live in, as well as slow down global warming. One of the world's greenest cities is Chicago. Fifteen years ago, Chicago had started transforming themselves into a environmentally friendly city. In order to achieve the goal, Chicago has created a Green Building Agenda that carries out a new direction to the design, construction, and operation of public buildings that help to create healthy, high quality structures, which is environmentally responsible. This action will help improve occupants' health and lower the number of resources being used to build and maintain the building. In order to build up an ambience of‘green’ in the city, they have moved the garden from the ground to the roof. A green roof is a veneer landscape over the traditional roof, it contains plants and soil and other medium to helps insulate, reduce heat and retain storm water.

Here is the link that show how the Chicago green roof look likes.

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=u4i4woSrYIY

Other than the green roof used create the atmosphere of ‘green’, the café also helps to create a greener city. Most of cafés in Chicago have open eating areas that are called sidewalk cafes, it makes the street have a more cordial ambience. People on the street can see people having wonderful meals and carrying casual conversations, while on the flip side the people who are eating are not embarrass to let people see them having meals. This creates a feeling of being at home while you are on the street, it is because you wouldn't mind your family seeing the way you eat or sit, since you have a special relationship with them. So neither the people on the street or in the café, will mind seeing each other, this is because the open area creates a borderless ambience where every person on the street is treated as family. In addition, many of the sidewalk cafés have no parking spaces beside them, since the cars are off the street it forces people to walk and drive less.

I am doing the research on exterior environments, and the parts that I have to research are paving, sidewalk and cross walk. I do the research on the city of chicago, the greenest city in North America. In Chicago, the government provide a very nice environment for people to get out and use the public space. Such as they will have a program called sidewalk cafe, which is to let the restaurant to extend their place outside to the sidewalk, to let costumer sit outside the restaurant and enjoy the weather. Therefore it will make a great use of the sidewalk. And for the cross walk, I find in Japan there is a very smart way to save up people time. I found a video on youtube that shows how smart the cross walk works for people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGKnGthGK4M

SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS- V.A.D.A

hey everyone,
my group and i (Ashley, Amy & David) did our research assignment on sustainable buildings. Each focusing on a different topic: Ashley did lighting and ventilation, Amy did coverings and roofs, David did energy saving and the overall footprint of a building....which you will find astonishing!! And i did building materials and paint.

I fell in love with a website that has an endless amount of pretty interesting stuff from architecture, furniture, fashion and more. The green buildings from this website are amazing: www.inhabitat.com. ----check it out

I also found another site that was more catered to my topic. It was a sustainable materials website by a company called Ecolect, their company name is actually two words that are merged into one: ecology and intellect, cool eh? What they do is provide architects and designers with only materials that have sustainable attributes, helping designers to discover, locate and use green materials more easily. Its really helpful because they have images for each material. This site also has a blog for green discussions and posted articles about recent environmental and sustainability issues. One such article discusses an eco- materials nutrition label, that inform the purchaser the sustainable qualitative and quantatative data in that particular product.

Getting back to materials...

historically buildings were inspired by natural elements and therefore nature's materials were used. A lot was taken into consideration when selecting materials for construction like the orientation of a building or the region it will be located in, as the climate is a large factor when making the right decision about materials. Many other factors play a huge role on the materials of a building....I'll leave that for a discussion in class.

It was hard choosing what picture to post because there are so many amazing green buildings out there and newer proposals that offer even better solutions to our building problems.


Anyways, I chose to post a picture of the Gherkin Building located in London designed by Norman Foster. It has recently begun testing an innovative vegetated facade panel. Now I know in class we've briefly disscussed green walls and whether we think they're going to be successful or not and this building clearly demonstrates a success. This new “Green wall” product, known as the Core Hydraulic Integrated Arboury panel, promises to bring the benefits of green roofs to any exterior surface of skyscraper. As we've mentioned in class skyscrapers get the most sunlight of any building and we've deemed that wasted sunlight....unless they're made of green!!!

Words stolen from the site: The panel works by obtaining moisture through the air and funneling through its specialized membrane properties allowing it to provide for enough water to allow for plant growth. The plants, mostly a mixture of lichens and grasses are expected to grow out of the panel and envelope the facade. Needless to say the benefits of the panels are many: Shading, increased internal daylighting, thermal insulation, reduced water consumption, energy generation for the entire building, recycling of materials, reduction of toxicity in the interior spaces, acceptance of the Kyoto treaty by the countries which have yet to sign, world peace, and a rise in property rental income.

....just in case you guys were REALLY curious how it worked. There is just too much information about sustainability because it is just the hottest topic today....if my eyes weren't closing right now I'd write you all a beautiful story of the materials I've discovered along with all the interesting buildings.

P.S. look forward to our presentation because theres some strange paint that you must know about

VERONICA

....just a couple more

1. Bahrain World Trade Centre
2. Orquiderorama: sustainable botanical garden
3. Schwimmhaus

Problems

too many flowers---bee and bug
too much pollen---hay fever
trees---poor condition

Biking in Toronto

Bike sharing: Free or low cost bicycles that can be rented for a set amount of time from various stations in or around a city or area.

Increased biking would help Toronto by reducing traffic congestion, reducing smog, and making Toronto a friendlier place to be! yay!
Bike problems in Toronto:
Theft: 7000 bikes are stolen in Toronto each year, making it the city with the highest bike theft per capita in the world.
http://community.livejournal.com/dirtydawgs/28898.html <- here is a good article about bike theft in our city
We propose the re-instigation of the Bikeshare program, but with a few changes. We think the Call a Bike system, which is in operation in Germany and also parts of England would be the most appropriate for Toronto
Here is a short video explaining how it works.
http://nextbike.de/en#video
This way the bike share will not rely on funding from the city, which was its downfall last time. Money could be raised through advertising, or local businesses would sponsor bikes in exchange for advertising and the chance to show their green-ness.

Indoor enviornments- sustainable furniture, paints/finishes, indoor plants, and efficient lighting

FURNITURE

What makes furniture environmentally responsible?
• single material
• abundant materials
• recyclable
• renewable materials
• native materials
• design for easy maintenance
• low-engergy production
• avoidance of toxic substances
• reduced engergy during transport
• designed for disassembly
• multifunctional
• universal design

Here are some examples of works done today:


Garden bench by Jurgen Bay for Droog, Netherlands. Taking waste from the garden indoors to create furniture. This is more of a conceptual piece, one offs are made.
Designed by architect Shirgeru Ban, Japan. All his structures are made of cardboard, simple, recyclable and beautiful.
Stokke Tripp Trapp by Peter Opsvik, Norway. Adjustable to suit baby to youth.


PAINTS AND FINISHES

What makes paints/ finishes eco friendly?
• non toxic ingredients (solvents, VOCs, biocides, preservatives)
• clean production
• use of natural materials (such as beeswax, orange peel, pine tree resin, seed oil, earth pigments)
• renewable materials
• reduce pollution manufacturing
• recyclable packaging
• reduction in embodied energy
• recycled paint



INDOOR PLANTS

What are the benefits of indoor plants?
• reduce indoor air pollution
• natural air purfier
• absorbs carbon dioxide, releases oxygen
• creates a relaxing indoor space

Here are two examples of indoor green space in Toronto

Bio-wall, Robertson Building- 215 Spadina Avenue. Installed 250 square foot bio wall in March 2004


Cellular and Biomolecular building at , University of Toronto



LIGHTING

What defines energy efficient lighting?
• reduce wattage
• proper disposal available to consumer
• ease of recycling materials
• longer lasting bulbs
• suitable luminance for type of activity

2 Most popular and up coming choices of today are :
CFL-operate on 9 to 25 watts of energy while emitting the same amount of light as an incandescent bulb . Its life span is more than 10 times longer that the traditional bulb. CFLs produce ultraviolet light, made visible through phosphor coating on the glass.
LEDs- convert electric energy directly into light of a single color. Because they employ “cold” light generation technology, in which most of the energy is delivered in the visible spectrum, LEDs don't waste energy in the form of non-light producing heat.

Recycle & Waste - Jandy & Anna

Recycle means obtaining new products after dismantling and reprocessing old ones. This includes composting, in which organic discards are decomposed into soil conditioner.
Recycling is attractive because it can conserve materials, possibly consume less energy, and be less costly than production from virgin materials. Recycling conserves materials by using discarded products as feedstock for manufacturing. If the discarded products can be collected, transported, and reprocessed with less energy and at lower cost than it takes to extract, preprocess, transport, and manufacture from virgin materials, then recycling can save energy and be efficient.

Interior Environments: Indoor Air Pollution (Alex, Daren, Joe, Mariz)

As Canadians, we spent 90% of your time inside, whether it be at home, at work or in recreational facilities, so keeping the inside clean of potential air pollutants is very important. Indoor air pollution can come from things such as solid fuel, cleaning products and paint, a large part of the problem is due to V.O.C. or Volatile Organic Compounds, which are particles that are released from products like paint and cleaners. These particles can pollute the air both inside and outside your homes. The link below shows a chart that measures the indoor air quality of countries from all over the world; 0.0 being the best indoor air quality and 100.0 being the poorest. We've noticed that the third world countries such as Haiti and Sudan have very good indoor air quality whereas countries such as Canada, The U.S. and Taiwan have among the poorest of indoor air quality. We believe this is so due to the difference in materials available between the third and first world countries.

Link: http://epi.yale.edu/IndoorAirPollution

TTC Buses

For my portion of the Transit topic, I took a look at TTC buses and the efforts being made to reduce emissions in recent years. Using my research, I made a point-form timeline of notable events in this process:

April 2005
• TTC orders 330 transit busses from Orion Bus Industries, 150 of which are diesel-electric 40-foot hybrid buses, to be delivered in 2006.
• These hybrid busses are to offer better performance, significant emissions reductions and fuel savings.
• The HybriDrive propulsion system by BAE Systems propels the bus with a single electric motor, powered by a diesel-driven generator and an energy storage unit.
• The HybriDrive system uses a smaller engine than conventional buses.
• Quicker acceleration.
• Eliminates the transmission, which is typically high maintenance in stop-and-go traffic. A regenerative braking system uses the drive motor to slow down the bus, effectively turning the motor into a generator to recharge the energy storage system.
• These busses had already been tested out in New York, and more are coming.
• The long-term effects should end up saving money, due to cheaper maintenance, fuel efficiency, and quietness.

More Benefits From the New Hybrid Buses:
• 37% less greenhouse emissions.
• 36.3 tonnes less carbon dioxide per bus each year
• 30-50% less nitrous oxide emissions
• 30-50% less soot particulates
• 20-30% less fuel consumption

April 2006
• The first of the new hybrid TTC buses by Orion arrive.
• The buses cost about 50% more than regular diesel buses, totaling $112 million for 150 buses, covered by the City of Toronto, the province and Ottawa.

March 2008
• Ottawa gives the TTC $303.5 million to buy nearly 694 hybrid buses, 270 of which are already up and running.

Despite these efforts, within recent weeks it was uncovered that this hybrid technology is not working nearly as well as projected. After ordering 130 new hybrid buses for next year, the TTC realized the batteries in the current buses on the streets only have been lasting 18 months – short of the five-year projected expectancy. The TTC also found the fuel savings on the current hybrid buses are only 1/3 of what was projected. Regrets about the decision to go hybrid have prompted the TTC to return to buying "clean" diesel buses in 2010. Nobody is sure yet what is causing the problems with the hybrid buses, but the TTC is considering ordering diesels from New Flyer instead. However, it’s unclear what the switch back would cost because the federal government funding for the current buses stipulates hybrids only, not diesels.

Transit -Pod Car

i did my research on transit. however, found a really interesting new transportting system that i wanted to focus on talking about. According to the CNN article that i've found "The thought of a driverless, computer-guided car transporting people where they want to go on demand is a futuristic notion to some" is the idea of a pod car.

Each pod car carries 2-10 passengers at a time, but also giving the freedom and privacy to their car is something that unlikely alike to any other public transportations out there. The creator of the car described it as " an elevator but only its moving horizontally."

In terms of the concept, it may sounds as fascinating as it should be. But It's actually yet another great design for life product. Because it not only reduces the use of fossil fuels, the traffic congestion but it's also safer than automobile travel.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/13/podcar.city.ap/

Marissa Chiesa-Garbage

Recycling is a process of taking used materials and creating new products, to reduce the amount of garbage and waste. Recycling reduces the use of fresh raw materials and reduces the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills.  In the 1980's  Toronto produced 3.2 million tones of garbage annually. That amount has lowered considerably since then, considering our population has grown considerably." It  is expected that Toronto will send a million tones of garbage to michigan this year" (Terri Coles).  According to Moira Welsh, 75  trucks  full of garbage are transported each day to michigan landfill Toronto , Durham and York region have reached an agreement to end shipping in 2o10. They are afraid that this will cause even more pollution, due to the fact that 65 garbage trucks per day will travel down the 401. This will happen unless Toronto reachers its goals of 70 % recycling by the year 2021, if not the landfill will be full in 16 years.  Germany has been doing very well when it comes to their garbage.  They have set up a program called the Green Dot. It is not a recycling symbol but a symbol for the contribution to a national packaging recovery company. The Green Dot Program costs over 2.5 billion a year. Unlike Toronto Germany and the green dot have a special sorting system. Paper products go into the blue bins for recycling, Aluminum cans, plastics and other products go in the yellow bin. Kitchen scraps such as banana peels, and scraps go in the brown bins. This can turn into energy form the fermenting gases. Finally household products that will not decompose go into the grey bins to get incinerated. 

Recycling Water

I did my research on recycling water. As our population grows, there are more pressure on the fresh water supply. One of the solution to solve this challenge is to recycle and reuse our grey water. Countries like Australia is currently the leader of this movement. Australia suffers drought and will continue do so for the next 7 - 10 years, thus they implemented a 2.5 billion dollar project to build some of the world most advance water treatment plant. These water treatment plant will draw existing treated water from water filtration plant and resupply to the local region. Other places like California are recycling their water, treating it through filtration and disinfectant to use for irrigating publick parks, and using it for flushing water in public areas. 

Although there are many advantages in recycling water, there are still many issue concerning the safety of using these water. Many cities, consider reclaimed water undrinkable, many chemicals, parasites and bacteria are unable to be removed from the filtration and chlorination processes. 

Another way of recycling water is harvesting and collecting rain water. This method is very useful in urban areas, where water is collected to be used in everyday household activities. At the same time, contaminates might contaminate the water, bird feces, urban pollution particles and mosses may contaminate the water.

Recycling water is a great solution as our population and city continue to grow, our fresh water supply will always be in strain, therefore reusing our water is very important.