GLENFOREST SECONDARY SCHOOL

(Ms. Habib and Fuoco’s Classes)

MISSISSAUGA MARKETPLACERebecca Lau, Julie Do, & Cherie Tsang

Mississauga is a growing, vibrant, and diverse city that has become the sixth largest in the nation. Mississauga hopes to become an internationally recognized urban city in the future, and attract not only businesses, but also more residents as well as tourists. However, the city is currently facing several issues that may inhibit it from obtaining such a goal. The residents of Mississauga are reassessing the ramifications of living in a suburban city that is caught in an urbanization frenzy, and they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the city’s infrastructure. Under their scrutiny is the automobile, which has been found to pollute the environment and possibly leave the planet uninhabitable for future generations. However, unless the city provides an excellent public transit system and more pedestrian-friendly streets (i.e. less strip malls and more street facing shops), the residents will continue driving in their cars.

The Mississauga Marketplace is an example of the kind of development that can change the citizens’ reliance on the car. It will be accessible by foot, or by bus, as parking spaces will be intentionally limited. A subway line to the Marketplace will also be proposed. The Market place will have curb appeal—street-facing stores will be established and will promote bicycles and feet, as opposed to cars, as means of transportation. Furthermore, the combination of an extensive green space and a very commercial area will hopefully encourage future developers to consider the importance of the outdoors. Finally, the Marketplace will be placed in the heart of the city—beside City Hall.

A town square, according to Wikipedia, “is an open area commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings,” and shops such as bakeries, clothing, and grocery stores usually surround it. Mississauga is made up of several small towns (e.g. Port Credit, Erindale, Meadowvale, etc.). Some have their own town square, but the city as a whole lacks such an area. The Marketplace is to be Mississauga’s town square.

The Marketplace will not only meet the practical needs of the residents, but it will also promote a healthy, active lifestyle. The Marketplace allows the citizens of Mississauga to enjoy both the conveniences of an urban city and the open skies of a suburban or rural area. Its shops will appeal to the various denominations that make up the city’s population, and the square will function as a gathering place for all of these cultures. In the warmer seasons (i.e. late spring to late fall), the Marketplace will also host the city’s largest farmer’s market. Furthermore, because the square is a large open area, it can also be used for concerts and holiday celebrations (e.g. Christmas parades).

The Marketplace will promote community and city-pride. The form of the marketplace is reminiscent of the rolling hills of the farmland that gave birth to the city of Mississauga, and is contrasted with the repetition of city square shop fronts. The combination of the natural with the man-made symbolizes the vision for a green future.

MISSISSAUGA ARCHITECTURAL ICONLaura McQuarrie, Jen Dzurylak,

& Tammy Phan

As the sixth largest city in Canada, Mississauga lacks several elements of a major city: an architectural icon to identify the city's skyline, an entertainment district and an urban centre. Inspired by Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry, our final design consists of two main buildings: a nightclub and theatre to be located by Square One, since it is already an established city centre. The city is set up in a way that is not always easily accessible by car, so the area the buildings are situated in encourages walking and city busses to reach this destination. This also helps Mississauga make an effort to be a greener city.

Gehry's deconstructionist style breaks down the building's form into it's essential elements. The form of a traditional building has been taken apart and put back together. The five-story entertainment centre can offer many features other than the theatre on the main floor, used for performances and concerts at night. The other four floors are also used as a day salon and spa, a recreational centre, an arcade and an old-school movie theatre. The features of this building attract a wide range of people, which is representative of Mississauga's diversity. Similarly, the nightclub can feature selections of different cultural music on certain nights of the week. During the weekend, it functions as a nightclub for those nineteen and older. The music played can then appeal to many different people by providing different genres on each floor. The potential of the space is endless. 

Maintaining a connection between the two exterior spaces, we designed a path that would allow easy access to each building. Benches and a pyramid-shaped fountain also unify the site. We decided to paint our model because it gives the viewer a better sense of what it could look like. The intertwining whimsical shapes and bold post-modernist colours add some fun to the building to make the composition more youthful. The juxtaposition of geometric and organic shapes, variety in texture and materials used in the design create interest and artistic qualities to the structure. Overall, the purpose of this space can be compared to the Living Arts Centre, but is more relaxed and playful.

ACADEMY OF INTERNATIONAL CUISINEHoda Mustafa & Megan Henderson

A multicultural and working environment that is a close community full of opportunities, has many places to spend time but not a city full of inspiration to expand new ideas to build and show the true beauty of Mississauga. Adding a school for international cuisine to Mississauga is a new idea and will enhance a new look to improve the city.

With the touch of Frank Gehry's unique architect style along with the Japanese culture and the Arts and Crafts movement internationally inspire the style of the building from North America. The structure of the school is a sculptured shape and form that emphasizes how the building shows its unique shape from other buildings in the city.  The building was built to involve people in experiencing international cuisine from different cultures. There are classes held and stories told during the process of learning to cook. Courses can be taken each weekend by anyone interested. A fee is paid and chiefs are always available for help.

There are also presentations for new people or visitors that come to observe the activities that are held. The building is divided into section: cooking section, learning section, class to learn the cooking process, and there is also an auditorium that is used to present the activities and the stories of cooking.

Building this academy will inspire people and will involve them into more activities in the community. It will also bring new ideas about different cultures and beware people of the habits of cooking and food of people around the world. Since Mississauga is a multicultural city, enormous groups will like to be involved in this academy to show people living in Canada their culture and make a combination of Canadian food with other kinds of food. In the outside of the building, there will be plants everywhere since Mississauga is a green city. There is also a water fountain and benches for people to sit outside if they wanted to.

EMBRACING DIVERSITYStefano Sena

My piece is a conceptual piece about diversity within society and the ability for us to progress in a positive manner through time as a diverse community. I effectively portrayed this by creating a main steel organic structure, moving upwards, with different coloured, pop art inspired, people moving up the slope as well. Their colour depended on their background, which emphasized the diversity within the community. For instance, a person of Chinese decent would be coloured red and yellow – the colour of their flag – to represent their cultural background.

It is made up of steel rods that are welded together to form an organic shape that resembles a graph moving upwards. The steel represents the unstoppable movement and reality of time itself and the knowledge that it can never be altered. Since steel is very strong, it also represents the strength of a culturally diverse community which can never be bent or broken because ignorance and arrogance is non-existent. The movement of the shape going upward represents the progression of a diverse society through time.

The people are arranged in no particular order. They are made up different colours depending on their background and are all printed on transparencies. The transparencies give the piece more visual depth as well as a new modern twist on a plain traditional steel sculpture. No person is bigger than another to show cultural equality and to emphasis the unity of cultures in a diverse community. At the bottom of the piece the people are more spaced than the top. This is to represent the merging and acceptance of numerous cultures throughout time. They eventually merge at the top, blending all the colours together to represent coexisting cultures, peacefully within a community. This also creates even more depth and gives it a sort of surreal twist.

GOING GREEN IN THE 905Julie Do

The start to this project was vague and difficult in the sense that much of the sculpture we had to create much be conceptual-based in which it should not literally define the themes we were given. I thought a lot about this project before I actually had anything physically built. I vision a new Mississauga that functions more for its people to learn, create and explore. I often find that many of Mississauga residents travel out of our city to get to another in order to meet a sense a satisfaction due to the fact that Mississauga does not provide enough places and things for our residents to do around the neighborhoods. This causes over-use and unnecessary use of vehicles because we are traveling great distances out of the city. This causes pollution and much danger in the area of Going Green in our city.

It is seen around our city, province, country and nation that Global Warming has become a huge issue for our presence and future. Why not strike the issues at a smaller scale first? I find we are aiming to fight the situation at such a large scale that it is difficult to have a clear vision on what needs to be done. This is what sparked my inspiration for my sculpture—my realizations with our city and nation today.

I wanted to produce a piece that visually creates awareness about the issue of Going Green at a smaller scale, starting with the city of Mississauga. The semi-circle acrylic represents the world with a city growing out of it showing the power and strength of a city as a whole. This city if Mississauga represented by the Mississauga Civic Center and some of it’s newly developed buildings creating the Mississauga skyline in Central Mississauga. The grass and greenery represents the freshness and vibrancy of a new city, an important aspect of bringing a community together. I chose to use clear acrylic to illustrate that our city has potential for a clearer vision by Going Green. I used rub-on words and phrases as motivational ideas to further push the idea of Going Green. The words don’t necessarily reflect motivational words of a new city AFTER it becomes a Green city but it reflects motivational words to ENCOURAGE the Green effect. These words provide Mississauga with the positive effects of a new vision for a growing city.

THINKING ROOMJonathan Burton

This piece is an assignment from grade 12 Media Arts class. It required either a structure design or a found objects/ digital media sculpture. I chose to go with the latter. There were different themes to choose from in which to build the project from. I decided to go with “Investing in Creativity and Knowledge”. I wanted to represent the process of creativity in thought, in the mind. Since, it is important to celebrate thought and creativity itself. If Mississauga had more gatherings in celebration of creativity and thought, more ideas would be mixed up. Fill a room with creativity and you can get innovation.

I use a room in the piece itself. It not only represents the effect that creativity can have in a room, and what we should be doing to strive for innovation, but it also represents the room of thought itself. The room that each individual has in their head. The space in which one’s ideas are created and where one converses with themselves a million times over. I chose to use clouds, to fill the walls with the sky to represent thought as well as vast space within a room. In the room is a single brain, the center of all our intelligence. This is where creativity is born, cooked, and simmered. When your brain is in this room you are in the process of creation.

The brain itself is made out of coral skeleton as well as seashells. It is a common misconception that corals are plants or rocks, when in fact they are actually animals, some even have a calcium based skeletal structure. I figured it was perfect to use for this project since I have a good supply of them already and since the skeletons have different distinct and interesting textures that I have used to look like a brain. Another thing is that corals (when alive) are constantly growing, getting larger and more beautiful. This also represents the growth and development of our mind, thought, and creativity, both individually and as a whole.

In all, creativity is an important thing to acknowledge, and to realize that it is something that when shared, can go far and do great things. The perfect thing to represent in our need for change is the celebration of creativity and thought. If we give this a closer look, we can bring great change to Mississauga that benefits our society as a whole.

ANYWHERE YOUR HEART DESIRES

Larisa Rozenbergs

The purpose of this project was to create a conceptual sculpture that illustrates your vision of the City of Mississauga. It was important to incorporate digital media and found objects into this sculpture and address one out of the eight available themes. After much brainstorming I decided to choose “getting around Mississauga.” The reason why I was drawn to this theme was because of an accident that involved a crosswalk light and a careless driver. Although the overall result of my sculpture has no resemblance to that incident, I am reminded of it each time that I look at it.

The primary mediums I utilized was cardboard and paint as I had large access to these items. In addition to being easy to manipulate, I believe that they also give the best possible result if constructed with precision. Each piece in my sculpture has been measured and re-measured to ensure technical expertise. I felt that my chosen medium was working fine until I began constructing it. Originally, I had just used tape to bind all the pieces together, but then I realized I needed to re-enforce it with glue. In order to make my piece more interactive, I decided to include sound in the form of a crosswalk button. I feel this only increases the genuine nature of it (regardless of incorrect sound).

This sculpture branched off of an incident that occurred two years ago where as a crosswalk light told me to walk, but a car proceeded around the corner and hit me. It wasn’t a traumatic event in my life because it wasn’t all that serious; I simply stood up and continued walking to school. I knew I wanted to incorporate the crosswalk light because it’s something that I see on a daily basis.

I noticed how many different types and styles there were around the world when I began researching and learning about these devices. I began thinking about my childhood and how I traveled farther each time I acquired a new mode of transportation. When you learn to walk, you are bound to go to parks around Mississauga. When you learn to ride a bike, you might go to Centennial Park, which is known for its ski hill made of garbage. When you are allowed to use transit, Square One becomes the main attraction. Growing up is all about exploration and learning; as we get older our world is broadened and our quality of life is increased. As you continue to grow, you may find that you may go anywhere your heart desires.

If I had a chance to do this project over I would have probably tried to incorporate light into the design. Initially I wanted replace the images with LED patterns that resembled real crosswalk lights but I didn’t have the “found” resources to do so. Also, multiples of the same piece might look quite interesting, but due to time constraints, I was unable to complete that task. Throughout the duration of this assignment I had learned to incorporate others idea’s effectively. This was by no means my original plan, but through constructive criticism I was able to enhance the meaning of my work and push myself to achieve more.