© Ema Peter Photography

Architects: DGBK Architects

Location: University of British Columbia Farm, Vancouver, BC V6T 1W5, Canada

Design Team: Robert Lange, Amy Cheung,Peter Sickert

Project Year: 2016

Photographs: Ema Peter Photography

Structural Consultant: Axis Engineering Ltd.

Civil Consultant: Core Group Consultants

Mechanical Consultant: Integral Group

Electrical Consultant: MMM Group

Code Consultant: GHL Consultants Ltd.

Constructor: Wales McLelland Construction

© Ema Peter Photography

From the architect. DGBK Architects joins the University of British Columbia in celebrating the official opening of the Library Preservation and Archives (Library PARC) facility. The new Library PARC facility is an outstanding demonstration of a highly specialized library environment based on a model developed at Harvard University that extends the life of printed library collections from 30 years (in a typical library environment) to 300 years.

© Ema Peter Photography

By using a system where the Library’s collections are stored within high-density shelving units in a thermal and humidity controlled environment, Library PARC is one of North America’s most efficient and cost effective storage facilities.“Library PARC is key in terms of helping us house our ever-growing collections and providing innovative spaces worthy of a 21st-century research library,” says Ingrid Parent, University Librarian at UBC. “The facility’s carefully controlled environment will extend the life of the Library’s collections, ensuring their availability to current and future generations of students, scholars and lifelong learners.”

© Ema Peter Photography

Designed to provide more than 2,200 square metres of high-density collection storage, capable of holding about 1.6 million volumes, the facility is the first of 6 possible storage modules. The facility will also house a campus-wide records management service, in addition to a small digitization area, a contained freezer area for decontamination, a staff work area and a publicly accessible reading room.

Plan

To achieve an identity for Library PARC, DGBK started to advance concepts for an architectural language while exploring the siting options. “This exploration started with the location of the facility within the Forest District of UBC and the play of light in the vertical forest,” says Robert Lange, Partner, DGBK.

© Ema Peter Photography

The storage of materials in this facility does not follow the traditional approach of grouping books by topic but rather by book size, permitting the use of barcodes to store and retrieve them. The barcoded book is stored in a tray, which also contains a barcode and the trays are placed on the shelves, which are again barcoded. “The conceptual idea of the trees in the forest in tandem with the operational requirements of the facility – the barcode – led to the building’s design language.”

© Ema Peter Photography

The facility consists of two main parts – a processing/administrative area and a long rectangular storage module for a combined area of 2,045 square metres. For the latter, the cladding visually references the forest and the barcode through its use of colour and depth using stained cedar on concrete. The blockwork and glazing of the processing and loading areas employs a playful solid void composition with the glazing mullions replicating a varied vertical rhythm of spacing again referencing the barcode. The void areas are used for infiltration of natural light, permitting views to the forest from various orientations. Wood elements at the entry and the sunshades on the west glazing enliven the expression of the processing area. To diminish the large volume, the facility’s massing is divided into three parts and united through the use of similar cladding materials and colours. The folded roof and wood soffit wraps over the processing area, providing a connection of the parts. Wales McClelland Construction built the Library PARC facility with project management by UBC Properties Trust.

© Ema Peter Photography

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Courtesy of OMA, Photograph by Iwan Baan

OMA’s Pierre Lassonde Pavilion of the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (MNBAQ) will open to the public on June 24, 2016. Increasing the museum’s space by 90 percent, the 14,900 square-meter pavilion faces Québec City’s Grande Alléee and seeks to fuse the energy of street life with the idyllic landscapes of the adjacent Parc des Champs-de-Bataille.

Courtesy of OMA, Photograph by Iwan Baan

Discussing the project, MNBAQ’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, Line Ouellet proclaime, “The world heritage site of Québec City now has a new landmark. Lucid and ingenious, the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion simultaneously stands out on its site and weaves itself into its surroundings, bringing out the potential of the urban situation with a logic that is as impeccable as it is unexpected.”

Courtesy of OMA, Photograph by Iwan Baan

The new structure, a lopsided ziggurat, has three rectangular volumes that shrink as the building ascends and shift from center into more pronounced cantilevers. The building connects to the 83-year-old institution’s three existing pavilions (from 1867, 1933, and 1991) through a 130 meter underground passageway. The facilities of Pierre Lassonde Pavilion include: column-free galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, cafe, museum shop, and roof terraces for outdoor displays. The project was realized as a collaboration between OMA and Montréal’s Provencher_Roy architectes.

Courtesy of OMA, Photograph by Iwan Baan

“Our design stacked three gallery volumes in a cascade that continues the topography of the park.” says lead designer Shohei Shigematsu. “The activity of the city extends below, providing a new point of interface between the city and the park. Art becomes a catalyst that allows the visitor to experience all three core assets – park, city, and museum – at the same time.”

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via Locating London’s History

It’s no secret that architects are often fascinated by maps, and in the age of Google – where access to accurate maps of almost anywhere in the world has become universal – maps have become one of the most powerful ways to understand our cities. Interestingly, Google has in a way enabled a new way to interrogate maps from the past, as historic maps can be more easily overlaid with the Google interface to make comparisons to the present day. That’s just what the website Locating London’s Past has done, creating a tool to compare three maps: the current version of Google Maps, the first Ordnance Survey map from 1863-80, and John Rocque’s 1746 Survey of London, allowing web users to see the growth of the UK capital over the past 270 years.

A selection of results from a 1774 directory showing the locations of London’s addresses. Image via Locating London’s History

Besides the visceral fascination of finding out what used to happen at your home or favorite bar, historical maps can be an invaluable resource for studying urban history, and Locating London’s Past does not disappoint in this regard. The website’s database includes a wide variety of historical records, from census data to crime records to a record of plague deaths – and many of these events can be mapped to the historical fabric of the city. In the map above, for example, addresses taken from a 1774 directory reveal how the South Bank became occupied much more gradually than the City of London in the north, initially growing from what is now the A3 on the west and Tooley and Bermondsey Streets on the east.

Check out the website here and start investigating London’s built history for yourself.

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