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A breakdown & reinvention : the people and the place, housing for Chinese seniors with a community component in Strathcona, Vancouver

University of British Columbia

This is a project about a specific group of peopleand place: the Chinese elderly in Strathcona, Vancouver. The parameters are cultural, social and physical. It is about a traditional culture at a crossroad with a North American culture, the implications being a critical exchange. I have proposed a living space that combines the closeness of a private world and the openness of an active and meaningful public face. The design of the housing addresses not only the area's need for elderly housing, but social and architectural perspectives as well. The private housing component is combined with a community (public) part - a daycare - and a semi-public part - the lounge, both of which allows the participation of the residents as well as the community. The lounge is a space for small exhibitions and performances. The semi-private component consists of a dining facility with kitchen, a small reading room (family room), a laundry and a clinic (beauty parlour). This combination means a dynamic connection of the public and the private faces. Through the use of the community's own design language and ideas from Asian housing and village designs, I have linked together a world of singular intracacies to create a rich sphere - one that will begin an urban repair through a breakdown and restructuring of the integral components of a place and the idiosyncracies of a culture.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-02-10

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4417

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace