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2007 "UP!" - a steel tower
Award of Merit

Christopher Mosiadz / Leon Lai / Graham Brindle
University of Waterloo

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Project Description

For the students in the first year program at the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, the Annual Steel Structures Architectural Student Design Competition has been used to provide the requirements for their final design and technical project in their Building Construction course. This year, it also facilitated a joining of forces with the required computing course. Students used FormZ software to create the final renderings of their projects, thereby presenting both courses with more highly developed and detailed final term projects. The use of the competition was an excellent vehicle to raise the standards of design and the communication of ideas in both courses.

"UP!" - a steel tower

University of Waterloo

Faculty Advisor:
Terri Meyer Boake and John Cirka

Amount: $2,000.00

From time immemorial, towers have been intertwined with the desire of the human race to escape the limitations of our earthly bonds. Through the construction of vertical structures we have sought to extend our reach towards the heavens, while at the same time, enabling ourselves to expand our visual mastery of the landscape to which we are so firmly rooted. Our earliest source of inspiration to gain an advantage over our surroundings is undoubtedly linked to the simple principle of a vertical cantilever as it is expressed in the functional form of a tree. The ability to move Up is intrinsically linked to structure, and therefore, to material.

Students are challenged to design a tower on a site of the designers’ choosing. While the purpose, scope and scale of the tower are left to the discretion of the designer, it is important to focus on what it means for us to engage and experience structure as ‘Up.’ The structure must be primarily steel, but otherwise, the material palette is open.

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