"European pagans had gods in rivers and in trees, or disporting themselves on mountain tops, but no god of theirs lived in the sky. Just as in Europe men try to make their homes one with the landscape and its vegetation, either through gardens or through plate glass walls, so in desert countries, men try to bring down the serenity and holiness of the sky into the house, and at the same to shut out the desert with its blinding, suffocating sand and inhospitable demons." - Hassan Fathy, 'Architecture for the Poor'

For this project, I started thinking about the climate in its broadest sense; about how geographical surroundings (in other words, landscapes) and climatic conditions (particularly, at their extremes) come to influence cultures and lifestyles. I thought about the Western tradition of opening a building up to the landscape on the horizontal plane, and how this idealization of the surrounding landscape might shift as temperatures rise, surroundings change, or if we simply find ourselves out on the Toronto Islands during a snowstorm in the winter.

View from Entry

View into Cafe

View into Changing Rooms

View down Diving Tower