Julianna Di Padova
Bluffer's Cove: Waterfront Living
Environmental Design
Bluffer's Cove is a floating neighbourhood located in the Scarborough Bluffs and was designed as a new approach to living in the current conditions of our world. In Toronto and the GTA, we are running out of available building land, and land values for new single-family homes have tripled since 2006 because of the lack of available building land and communities not wanting to expand their boundaries. My thesis aims to address the housing crisis and lack of available building land in Toronto and the GTA by exploring how to build on water. In order to address these issues, the design intent is to create a new typology of a water neighbourhood by building sustainable, single family housing units on Lake Ontario. My concept is focusing on the connection between the land and the water and my metaphor is water. To visually emphasize my concept and my metaphor, the overall design of the water neighbourhood will resemble the flowing properties of water and the rhythmic patterns of waves.
“Bluffer’s Cove is divided into two parts, a public area that anyone can access, and a private area for the residents of Bluffer’s Cove that is only accessible by a passcode at the entrance gate. The boardwalks closest to the Bluff’s are for public access with bridges at each end of the cove connected to three different paths for walking and biking. There are three places to stop with playgrounds, firepits, and landscaping. These boardwalks have a flowing, wavy design to resemble the properties of water.The private resident area is divided up into four clusters that resemble a curling wave, each with four houses attached to the clusters by stairs. All the boardwalks in this cove are sitting on piles that are embedded into the lake bed so that water can flow in and out of the cove without getting trapped. The float homes are sitting on the water and steel vertical guide posts attached to each dock to lift the house in the event the water rises. The space in between these boardwalks is designated for water activities.Sustainability is also a key factor in my design. Exterior materials such as red western cedar for decking, limestone cladding, EPS foundation, and zinc roofing materials are all sustainable, recyclable materials with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, I wanted to create a fun, new atmosphere that can be a model for building on water which can be applied to any other areas with access to a large body of water.”
