QCA+E: elements
The proposed design encourages multiple programmatic and functional expressions, as a consequence the deployment of a coherent visual language is critical. A customizable unit, known as a pole, is dispersed throughout the QCA+E. Although the visual vocabulary is consistent, the simplicity of the form facilitates a bounty of applications. An initial inventory of uses has been identified that attempts to evoke function as well as to trigger speculations for other circumstances where they can be employed. The poles are able to respond to the requirements of many users while simultaneously anticipating unpredictability. They are intended to be responsive and adaptable by reconciling inclusiveness with specificity.

QCA+E elements include: Planters, Brise Soleil, Bike Racks, Drinking Fountains, and Water Features

QCA+E: technology
The use of smart devices, “apps”, and social media is increasingly saturating our daily routines and influencing how we engage with each other. Our built environment is understood now not only by experience and inhabitation, but also by its documentation and online presence. As technology gets more integrated into our lifestyle there is an increased need to provide the appropriate infrastructure to support its usage. Fully accessible WiFi is offered for wireless internet connection and a photovoltaic system is integrated as a supplementary power resource. Aspects of the QCA+E are accessible through a customer designed app that permits users to configure and customize certain spaces to facilitate a variety of activities.

QCA+E technology includes: WiFi, Wireless Speakers, Mobile Device Chargers, and Electrical Power Outlets

QCA+E: flex
Open “flex” spaces are inserted throughout the entire length of the structure. these can be booked online for a set amount of time for activities as diverse as tai chi, dance practice, yoga, community meetings, barbeques, busking, etcetera. Emedded within the platform are an assortement of poles (lighting, outlets, and speakers) that can be selected on the app. At the designated time and location, the chosen poles will activate and extend upwards from within the platform.

QCA+E: ecology
North American conceptions of parks as an aesthetic typology often implicates the active engagement of the natural; whether in situ or modestly intervened with deliberate planting. Contemporary classifications are delineated by softscapes that engage landscape and live elements, while hardscapes that address the materiality of built elements. The QCA+E is not intended to be a mitigation of these components into a singular expression, but rather is actively engaged in finding latencies when they are given possibilities that intersect autonomy and symbiosis. The design proposal embraces the issue of ecology as not solely existing within the precinct of the biological, but also as an ecosystem of communication, experience, use, and interaction.

QCA+E ecology includes: Beehives, Bird Feeders, Photovoltaic Columns, Lighting, and Sprinklers

QCA+E: circulation
There is an emphasis on both the vertical and lateral circulation for the design of the QCA+E. Universal Design is a very strong consideration so that the project is accessible to as many people as possible including parents with children in strollers, seniors with shopping trolley’s, vendors with mobile carts, etcetera. The strategy for the development of the vertical and horizontal pathways involves choreographing movement as a temporal condition and experiential construct. Motion is categorically spatialized as a series of stacked and entwined trajectories based on velocities: stop, slow, medium, and fast. The potential for eliciting a variety of programmatic elements and physical activities is intended to mobilize the diversity of the surrounding community.