Sky
Pockets
Featured at SID Year End Show
Studio Project 2024
Early collaboration with Sierra Rain Thexton on site research and shared groundwork
Developed in Design Studio, this project investigates how inclusive, mixed-use interiors can operate as civic third spaces within Toronto’s urban fabric.
Skypockets is a two-storey creative hub that welcomes a broad community while ensuring full usability for individuals with limited mobility, integrating this consideration as a core design intention. The program includes fabrication studios, a café, flexible gathering areas, and administration, merging making and pausing into a continuous spatial sequence. Interior “pocket parks,” inspired by Toronto’s small urban green spaces, punctuate the plan with places to rest, meet, and recharge. The design responds to site and city context through layered light, material contrast, and clear connections between production, reflection, and the surrounding urban life.
The Site
100 Ossington Avenue sits at the edge of Toronto’s vibrant west end, between quiet residential streets and lively cultural corridors: offering the perfect ground for a hybrid space that supports both focus and community interaction.
As Found
The marquee is an architectural feature and a remnant of 100 Ossington’s recent past. It once stood as an alluring glow of light, intended to draw patrons toward The Lower Ossington Theatre, which occupied the site from 2011 to 2021. Today, it remains a clear reminder of the building’s past role and service to the community.
Moving, Shared, Informal, Transitional, Flexible, Unspoken, Autonomous, Public, Layered, Observational, Accessible, Rhythmic, Responsive, Passive, Engaged
A Place That Passes
The Streetcar as a Third Space
The Toronto streetcar was observed as a moving civic space. It allows for both social interaction and solitude, offering seating, standing zones, and accessible areas without enforcing how people should engage. Riders come and go freely, and unspoken social cues shape how the space is used, whether talking with strangers, sitting alone, or simply observing. What stood out was how every feature, foldable accessible seating, stop buttons, hand grips, cushioned seats, and wide windows—was designed with intention, offering comfort and autonomy for everyone without needing explanation. These quiet but thoughtful decisions became a key reference when designing the custom upholstered seating in this project.
Accessible, Casual, Open, Natural, Sunlit, Shade, Flexible , Spontaneous, Pause, Shelter, Recharge
The Design
Sun Studies
12:00PM on September 14th, 2024
With no surrounding towers, the site receives generous natural light, which became a key asset in the design. Vertical openings and skylights were introduced between floors, allowing light to move through the building.
Intent & Program
The chosen program is a creative hub and digital fabrication lab. It offers work studios, a café, gallery/exhibition space, storage, and flexible gathering zones.
Designed For
The design considers individuals with limited mobility as a primary user group, without making the space exclusive. The goal is inclusion through a subtle layer of intention—ensuring people with disabilities can use the space fully and comfortably.
Concept
The concept responds to the building’s location and site qualities. In a fast-paced city like Toronto, pocket parks offer casual, accessible moments to pause without disconnecting. Located near Trinity Bellwoods Park—a well-used and active green space—the project brings that same rhythm indoors, creating an interior extension of the park’s atmosphere.
Custom Patterns, Moulding light
CNC-milled panels filter the light as it enters, casting shifting shadows that mimic tree canopies, dense in some areas, soft in others.
Gather, Work, Rest
A custom seating system inspired by the social dynamics of Toronto’s streetcar. Designed to support casual gathering, solitary rest, and everything in between.
In Drawings
