I truly believe that to communicate your ideas effectively as an architect, you have to think like the audience you're trying to reach and understand what moves them, for example, your clients. In modern parlance, that means showing empathy for your audience's aspirations, fears, purpose and using that skill to tell stories in a compelling fashion.
I recently had the pleasure to both photograph and run a media relations campaign for The Architect Builders Collaborative, on one of their projects, designed in joint-venture with Oleson Worland Architects. Together, they have recently completed an accessible ramp for the Center for Social Innovation at their 192 Spadina location in Toronto.
The project is modest in scope and what makes it interesting isn't it's size or opulence. Rather, it's the embodiment of a deep commitment to the community and the truly multi-functional aspect of the ramp, that also serves as bleachers, a podium for events and an informal meeting space.
When TABC came to me with the project, I immediately saw the potential, because it had all the attributes of a project that could be part of a great story: an interesting and innovative design, it solved many of the clients challenges at once and it was designed with the larger community in mind. It wasn't just a piece of sexy design, but it also functions as an enabler for the larger community, looking past the obvious disability aspect by turning code constraints into design features that offered something for most, if not all users.
The stakeholders (designers, client, engineers, builders and suppliers) were all working together to make this a reality, despite the numerous challenges along way and an unwavering commitment to their common purpose, with the results that we know. It doesn't hurt that they're also all all interesting characters in their own right.
As a result of our work, the clients have been published here and here, with a few more in the works. You can also read the Globe article here.
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Special thanks to Peter Sobchak at Canadian Interiors and Dave LeBlanc at the Globe & Mail, who both saw what made this project special and helped us get the story published.
For more information, feel free to reach out to us for a copy of the media kit.