Deviant
The Centre is a space for divergent thinkers and innovators to come together to collaborate and research in tandem with the public. This research is then exhibited to the public in spaces throughout the building. The key to the exhibition spaces is a curated gathering of world-class innovations in architecture and design. Every week, a new exhibition is shown in the main floor gallery. This rapid turnover creates a culture of change and invention. Commuters have the opportunity to see new, exciting things in the world of design, every week as they go to and from their work.
The conceptual bases driving our project is that of divergence. Architecture in North America is often normative, as architects are pressured by clients and the public to maintain the status quo. The public’s perspective of architecture school is thus skewed by the conventional architecture that is often produced as they are ignorant of the interesting ideas that are explored by students in their tenor in architecture school. These ideas are often pursued in isolation and neglected by students upon graduation never to resurface again. We believe that if the public can be exposed to the possibilities of design, they will come to expect and ask for innovation in their architecture. Deviant acts as a place for passionate students from the various built environment fields to continue their immersion in challenging the status quo through architecture and urban design in a more integrated and collaborative way that traditional architecture schools.
Secondary to that, but along the same line, is the theme of perspectives. The idea behind divergence is the exploration, understanding and discovering of new paths and perspectives. With that in mind, we curated certain views, not to enforce a certain ideology or lead observers to a certain realization, but to frame a view and allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions. By exposing the users of the building to specific views, we hope to make them confront a new perspective of what they are seeing.
