Nurturing Space: A Matrix Approach to Architectural Intervention

Nurturing space is derived from a series of designed neighbourhood interventions that work together, forming a matrix that supports a community as a whole. This thesis focuses on the issue of a rapidly increasing population resulting from the condominium boom of Ottawa’s Little Italy and how nurturing can play a role in sustaining and encouraging the sense of community during a period of extreme growth and development. This issue will be addressed using Oldenburg’s model of the third place, coupled with Seamon’s Five Qualities of “At-Homeness” and further supplemented by original nurturing qualities introduced in this thesis. Together these concepts have been adapted to form a series of architectural guidelines which designers can use to inform the design of nurturing environments. These guidelines will then be applied to a Transit-Grocery-Station program that demonstrates nurturing through the provision of necessity while allowing for future growth and development.