A couple weeks back, Brohemus and I stopped by a Critical Media Lab gig at the Kitchener Studio Project on Gaukel driven by Professor Marcel O’Gorman. On display and on tap for discussion were student projects from two of Marcel’s very makerly courses from the Department of English at The University of Waterloo. Above, Intro To Digital Studies (ENGL293) student Mike Reitmeier locked eyes with his robot…
Arden and I are on a bit of an exploration of architect-as-career, as regular readers know. So when I saw that Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal (above) was speaking at the Kitchener Public Library on Tuesday, I signed us both up without really knowing who we were going to see. So it goes when you dive into a new domain. A little pre-outing googling told me that Cardinal had designed the Museum of Civilization (now renamed) in Ottawa that we totally loved during our visit back in 2010.
It was interesting to hear about the inspiration of Cardinal’s curvilinear designs and his grassroots engagement with people using his structures. Cardinal gently lamented our general condition of living in “meager boxes” and described some of the technical challenges that curves pose. In his first commission in 1968 for St. Mary’s Church in Red Deer, there was a computationally formidable set of equations describing the catenary curved roof of cables and concrete draped over the exterior walls. Sufficiently powerful hardware to solve that problem was eventually found in Texas and the roof was built with three inches of concrete and within budget.
Later in his career, it seems that politics, bureaucracy, money and egos proved the more daunting challenges. Cardinal described the urgency with which then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau wanted the Museum of Civilization built and ultimately created a crown corporation answerable only to the PM himself. That mechanism bypassed or at least consolidated the hurdles that would have to be surmounted to complete the site. Cardinal showed a photo of a house built into a hill and wryly observed that while it was called Cardinal Residence, it was in fact his ex-wife’s house now and noted the stresses of the museum project had cost him a 25-year marriage.
Underlying the whole evening for me was the regular delight of engaging a new crowd, a new domain, and a new place and feeling completely at home and welcome. That’s characteristic of Waterloo Region. Shout out to the folks of Grand Valley Society of Architects for putting on the event and to the sponsors for paying for it and to the KPL for hosting.
Click through for a few more pics…
This is the soundtrack of my youth. With my bedroom windows open, I could hear the waves rolling in to the beach when the water was rough. Miss this.
I shot this on Saturday night after dinner at the Boyd’s and learned, or rather re-learned a couple of things: 1. Shooting in anything more than a gentle breeze with my Z30 is going to require a much sturdier tripod mount that holds the whole phone still and 2. Even with radios and notifications off and capturing to device memory, my phone was dropping frames in the most inconvenient places. Might have to drop down to 720 for these soundscapes.
On Lake Huron near Murphy Beach, this is Sarnia.
DW
Stopped in at the Wallenstein General Store out in the county last week. It fascinates me.
At Herrgott Rd and Line 86, this is the edge of Waterloo Region.
DW
A couple of weeks ago, during March Break and after hitting the awesome UW Engineering Explorations tour, I took my kids to a UW Capstone Engineering Symposium in the Davis Centre. On display that particular day were 4th year group projects from Management Engineering, Software Engineering, and Nanotechnology Engineering.
My 7th grade son Calder has been keen on studying engineering at UW since the tour last year. This goal is a huge motivator to work hard in school and, given the competition to enter these programs only 3km from our home, I reckon it’s never too early to start developing related makerly skills. That notion was confirmed by the students with whom we spoke.
My 9th grade daughter Arden is a bit closer to post-secondary studies and equally curious to learn about opportunities. Fuelled by our recent tour of UW’s School of Architecture, we’re going to keep putting feet on the street to talk with people on the front lines who are making, learning, doing, and getting stuff done.
As we rolled into the Davis Centre that Friday, Management Engineering student Kevin Burt (above) called out to me, “Hey, you’re the guy from the makerspace, right?” Ah ha, I had been down at kwartzlab earlier in the week working on the photobooth when Kevin and his buddy showed up a few hours early for Tuesday Open Night. They were looking for help “printing some stuff for school.” Based on the game pieces on the table above, I guessed that they had found what they were looking for.
Click through for more from the Symposium…
Headphones on, medium volume. Puttin’ some less familiar flavour in yer ear.
I was packing up from a shoot in Waterloo and I had parked on Hemlock in front of this building that was under construction. The loose and flapping Tyvek sounded like a jet engine. It was bone-chilling cold but I was compelled to grab the tripod and record a bit of this soundscape. It was one of those situations where you look around to see if anyone else is taking in the experience. But it was just me on that day.
From Hemlock Street, this is Waterloo.
DW
I love this sign because it has visible spelling corrections and some work yet to be done. A work in progress. Like all of us.
On King Street, this is Downtown Kitchener.
DW
The KW Bookstore at 308 King West is delightful. Brohemus is a semi-regular there, taking in everything from books to LP records and then leaving with about as much stuff by weight. They don’t have a functioning website, but if you’ve walked the DTK sidewalk in fairer weather, you will certainly have seen their inventive and smile-inducing chalk messages on the sidewalk. The place has a wonderful smell of old books that plugs directly into my crocodile brain and triggers memories of the many many hours I spent in the Point Edward and Sarnia libraries as a kid. Regular readers know I’m not an overly-sentimental guy, but in the wake of advancing technology, I will miss books the most.
At King and Water, this is Kitchener.
DW
We don’t talk about this as much as we should: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If we don’t talk about it, there develops a potential to take it for granted, and then there’s a danger of those rights and freedoms eroding or being subverted.
On King Street in front of City Hall, the Charter’s section 2b freedom of expression in action, this is Kitchener.
DW
Well, it is Throwback-Thursday, so I’m bringing back some old stuff from the deep web after seeing a comment from my friend and hackerspace meta-maker, Seth Hardy. He worked hard helping to build hacklab.to in Kensington Market and then Site 3 at Bloor and Ossington. It’s great to see the proliferation and variations of makerspaces now and to less-frequently need to explain what they are. This is a shout out to Seth and all the meta-makers who give their time, knowledge, and resources to help other spaces get started.
This post was pre-kwartzlab, back when we (from Waterloo Region) were nomadic makers, building the community, under the temporary MakeKW banner. -DW
25May2009
We (14!)
went to
and met up with my friend, Seth
who took us to…
