Faculty of Design

Environmental Design - Interior Design Specialization

Nicole Wu

"DENG LONG" ON THE WATERFRONT

Based on the 2016 census, the Greater Toronto Area is home to over 600,000 Chinese, second only to New York City as the largest Chinese community in North America. However, the city of Toronto, with such a large Chinese community, lacks ethnic heritage and culturally oriented public spaces suitable for holding traditional Chinese festival events. My thesis project is to build a sustainable, ethnoculturally oriented public space including two temporary installations and two permanent pavilions in Harbourfront Centre of Toronto for local Chinese people to gather and celebrate traditional Chinese festivals related to the moon, which are Lunar Festival, Lantern Festival, and Mid-autumn Festival, aiming to enhance the Chinese people's sense of belonging to the city of Toronto, and increase their cultural pride.The project site of Harbourfront Centre is chosen based on the thesis word - Reflection. The starting points of the thesis project are the moon and moonlight, and the thesis project is for the traditional Chinese festivals related to the moon. The thesis word of Reflection comes from the nature of the moon, which itself is not luminous, and moonlight is actually a reflection of sunlight. Therefore, I used Reflection as my thesis word. The Harbourfront Centre is on the waterfront, and the water reflects light, echoing the thesis word of Reflection. In addition, the Harbourfront Centre operates a 10-acre campus, with plenty of available space for holding a variety of arts and cultural events. Thirdly, the Harbourfront Centre is very close to Chinatown West, one of Toronto's largest Chinese communities, and is only a half hour walk away."Deng Long" in Chinese means Lanterns. The main design concept of the thesis project is Chinese red lanterns hanging under the flying eaves, which is the most common picture during Chinese festivals and a symbol of festive celebrations back to ancient China. The facade of pavilions are made of white translucent Silk, one of the elements of Chinese culture, making the pavilions look like lanterns at nights. The shape of the roof and structure of Water Lantern Pavilion and Lantern Bridge Installation are abstracted from the Flying Eaves, which is one of the most significant characteristics of traditional Chinese classical architecture. Lantern Market Pavilion uses a bamboo scaffolding structure, which was widely used in construction for centuries in China. The Great Wall of China was also built with the bamboo scaffolding structure.

“The Chinese red lanterns hanging under the flying eaves are a symbol of festive celebrations.Moonlight is the REFLECTION of sunlight.”