Sarah-Audrey

Sarah-Audrey Thebaud

University of Waterloo

Softened

Softened

“Softened” is an ode to a Soft City and aims to both create new life and add to the existing neighbourhood’s starting with the street. With a rather large site of around 15000 sqm, the perimeter of Halifax’s St. Patrick’s Alexandra School becomes a crucial street wall to activate, integrate, and provide safety in the community using a large diversity of at-grade commercial and community amenities. The existing L-arrangement of the school lends itself well to maximize street frontage with the addition of 7 mid-rise mixed-use new builds to frame the internal public courtyard. The project and its peripheral streets are designed to promote active transportation, accounting for a 5min walking radius to establish the interventions needed to “complete” the community. As reflected in the school’s history, existing surrounding amenities, and the mosaic model above, this location offers an opportunity to cater to the incredible diversity of stakeholders in Halifax and specifically this area. The project is divided into three phases to ensure time to raise funding and engage with the community. Phase one begins pre-construction and considers the existing inhabitants of the abandoned school, the unhoused. Following precedents across Canada, notably the model of TwoStepsHome in Toronto, phase one proposes the establishment of an intentional cabin community on the northeast side, while the existing footprint is renovated into the “podium” to begin generating funds with at-grade commercial amenities. Construction would commence with phase two on top of the “podium”, followed by the new builds in phase three alongside the relocation of the cabin community and re-housing of a maximum of its residents within the finished project itself. Adaptively reusing a maximum of the existing school, notably the heritage facade on the northeast side, the building primarily behaves as a podium to the superimposed residential “mid-rises” that begin responding to the housing crisis. The podium’s primary use is a two-story farmer’s market open daily to maintain usage and foot traffic in and around the building at all times of the day. This is complemented by a “Baugenmeinschaft” ownership model to generate a diversity of residents, businesses, and in turn a diversity of schedules. By subdividing the new builds and selling them to “Baugruppen” with the exception of some retained for public or student housing, building costs can be reduced while maintaining deep affordability. The immediate stake that residents have in their project (acting as both the developer and client) encourages investment in durability and stewardship. A (mostly) 4x4m grid maximizes flexibility as resident groups can separately (but tangentially) make design choices like unit layouts, number of storeys, and at grade uses. A mid-rise height limit, however, creates a stronger street connection, integration with the urban context, and limits shadows, specifically towards Murray Park to the north.