Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The practice of gleaning, which still occurs today in both urban and rural settings,
identifies the existence of the residual, the forgotten and the neglected, which
straddles the boundaries of personal territory and human necessity. One begins
to recognize that when property is no longer useful or viable to its owner it
must be subjected to the interrogation and resourcefulness of others, so that
it can continue to maintain a productive and meaningful relationship with a
ii greater context.
urban vacancy 1
gleaning 2
point douglas 3
informal settlements 4
visionary utopias 5
open building 6
infrastructure 7
systems 8
fleeting moments in time and space 9
participation 10
narrative 11
contingency 12
ephemerality 13
materials / scavenging 14
urban agriculture 15
synthesis 16
bibliography
list of figures
01. urban vacancy
“Cities emerge and then pass away. They give an impression of duration and
security, and yet without question they are in a constant process of being
reshaped and will one day disappear again. If nothing is permanent and
everything is only temporary, then all housing is only something provisional, its 1. Oswalt, Phillip. Shrinking Cities Vol. 2:
future absence already inherent”. 1 Interventions. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje
Cantz, 2006. p 144.
The nature of the city is intrinsically entropic, where the processes of decay and
repair are continually at work. Cracks in the urban fabric emerge where spaces
and buildings become obsolete and disenfranchised. Sometimes these spaces
find new life and emerge once again as active components of the city, but often
they do not and remain as voids in neighborhoods and districts.The phenomenon
of ‘shrinkage’, obsolescence, and abandonment is an urban condition prevalent
all over the world whereby the effects of economic downturns, political
revolutions, migration, technology, obsolescence and social disruptions, result
in the diminishment of the urban realm. Such shrinking can take the form of
2
the demolition or abandonment of buildings and lots thus plaguing many cities
with overwhelming vacancy. ‘Hardcore sites’ begin to appear; “This is the term
used by a recently published study for the English Partnerships regeneration
agency to define spaces or plots that can no longer be permanently mobilized
for the real estate market - despite the availability of infrastructure, full-scale
renovation, or careful urban repair. No further appreciation can be gained, and 2. Oswalt, p 581.
the value of the property drops”. 2 ‘Hardcore sites’ are the product of various
factors, such as a sites adjacency to major traffic arteries, the site no longer
meets the demand of society, or the site is in an area of cumulative decline,
which all render it unattractive to developers.
When the blight and decay of vacancy has consumed a site or a district for
an extended period of time it becomes more and more difficult to retrieve it
from its downward spiral. Many neighborhoods across North America have
become subjected to such a process. Sites become abandoned, are infiltrated
by transients, buildings are demolished or begin to deteriorate, grasses, weeds
and plants grow uncontrollably relinquishing the traces of the past. These places
become relics or graveyards of their former productive lives; their demise is
perpetuated by the public’s perception of their own state of decay.
3
{figure 1} Michigan Central Station, 97-98
“Interim use is one of the fundamental classical principles of the market economy.
Utilization cycles are becoming shorter and shorter and capital is proving to be
extremely flexible when it comes to changing locations. Temporariness is thus 6. Heydn, Florian & Temel, Robert. Eds.
a principle of our time and not a specific phenomenon relate to interim use Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the
alone. In this respect, interim use suits the system”.6 Use of City Spaces. Berlin: Birkhauser, 2006.
p 39.
7
{figure 4} Lützner Straße 30, Leipzig.
To glean:
1.a) to pick up after a reaper. b) to strip (as a field) of the leavings of reapers.
7.http://www.merriam-webster.com/
2.a) to pick over in search of relevant material.7
dictionary/glean
Gleaners were historically peasants who would reap harvested fields of the
vegetables and grains that were left behind. These people tended to be the
poor, homeless and indigent. The documentary “The Gleaners and I” by Agnés
Varda portrays the current practice of gleaning throughout France, and the
8
somewhat counter-culture movement of people that make use of food that is 8. Varda, Agnes.
discarded and forgotten.8 French penal code states that gleaning is permitted
on any private property post harvest. Gleaning occurs on farm fields, fruit
orchards, greenhouses, and coastlines. This phenomenon is particularly unique
as it reinterprets the nature of private and public space, wherein private space
becomes public in the event that it can be useful to others. Such a law which
enables the total utilization of agricultural land clearly exhibits the disparity
between the majority and the minority and what they each deem valuable.
During the course of an efficient harvest it becomes too time consuming and
unproductive to reap every and all of the available food stock, therefore there
is always residual product. These residuals are a necessity to those who sustain
their livelihoods on such collecting. The collectors belong to a unique sector of
society whose sustenance is based on making do with what’s available to them,
and are of the attitude that everything has a value even society’s cast off’s .
Michel de Certeau writes that individuals tend to operate within prescribed and
accepted ‘modalities of actions’ or cultural formalities.9 Some people however
9. de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of
traverse the laws defined by places and operate outside of the accepted norms Everyday Life. Berkley, CA: UCLA Press,
of operations. 1984. p 29.
“They trace ‘indeterminate trajectories’ that are apparently meaningless, since
9
Those who glean conduct their practices within a realm that is unconventional
and not typically accepted by society. Their practices are what Certeau would
describe as strategic tactics, ones that seize fleeting opportunities.
“It takes advantage of ‘opportunities’ and depends on them, being without any
10
base where it could stockpile its winnings, build up its own position, and plan
raids. What it wins it cannot keep. This nowhere gives a tactic mobility, to be
sure, but a mobility that must accept the chance offerings of the moment, and
seize on the wing the possibilities that offer themselves at any given moment.
It must vigilantly make use of the cracks that particular conjunctions open in
the surveillance of proprietary powers. It poaches in them. It creates surprises
in them. It can be where it is least expected. It is a guileful ruse”. 11. de Certeau. p 37.
The practice of gleaning is not however, restricted to those in dire need, many
[figure 8-9] Scene from “The Gleaners and I”, Agnes Varda.
glean or pick out of a certain reverence for the abundance of the land, and
the notion that food should simply not be wasted. For instance, in the film,
a respectable French chef gleans regularly; using the food he collects in his
restaurant or at home. He was taught to glean by his parents, and their parents
before them, and it has become a rather commonplace activity in his life,
something to do on his time off or a sunny weekend, like a walk in the park.
For some, gleaning is not a survival tactic, but rather a pledge to take complete
advantage of available resources regardless of ownership. The food that grows
from the Earth is a common good and it should be available to everyone and
not to be the sole right of the property owner.
11
squatting
Just as food and the air we breath can be considered a common good, the
right to land and property is a contested issue for much the same reason.
Squatting , not unlike gleaning, is an unconventional tactic of making use of
what is no longer useful for someone else. To squat is to glean space, land,
property that under the law is in the possession of someone else, regardless of
whether or not they are actually occupying it. In some way it is an act of refusal
on the fleeting nature of the modern city. The Dutch tradition of squatting is
somewhat advanced in that the government condones this practice and has
gone so far as to establish a more legitimate manifestation of it; the anti-squat.
An anti-squat or anti-kraak is a more organized and regulated response to the
12. Corr, Anders. No Trespassing: squatting, problems of squatting. In the Netherlands a building may be legally squatted
rent strikes and land struggles worldwide.
Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. p
only after it has been abandoned for a period of one year. At the height of its
14. movement in the late 80’s, a Dutch census identified 3,500 houses, 10,000
houseboats, 21,000 barracks and caravans that were occupied and inhabited by
13. Katsiaficas, George N. The Subversion squatters.12 Today the tradition is striving to become more legitimate, wherein
of Politics: European Autonomous Social
housing organizations exist that manage and register anti-squats and those
Movements. Oakland, CA: Humanities Pess
International, 1997. p 90. who live in them. The anti-squat has become the home for students, young
professionals, artists, expats, and those in need of cheap housing, which is
otherwise unavailable. 13 Building owners often appreciate squatters as they
protect their property from more illicit occupants and often make repairs and
conduct general maintenance of the building.
However, there are cultural movements which oppose the current practices
of space occupation and engage in a struggle to better their living conditions,
12
to equitably distribute land and housing, and to promote cultural sovereignty.
The ‘Movement of Landless Rural Workers’ in Brazil are a group of landless
families that occupy vacant land for the use of shelter and agriculture. They
are roughly 200,000 families strong, and face major political and governmental
opposition.
These movements also take the shape of smaller and more urban organizations
of people. Christiania also known as ‘Freetown’ was established in the 70’s by a
collective organization of anarchists, hippies, youth etc. who appropriated an
abandoned military barrack in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark. Throughout
the 70’s Christiania struggled with the political powers and government
over their right to the space, and organized themselves as a self sustaining
community paying for their water and electricity, establishing their own
garbage collection and recycling and boasting several business and community 15. http://www.christiania.org
activities.15 Christiania became accepted to some extent as an experimental city
within the broad frame of self-government. In 1989 the government decided
to implement strategies to ‘normalize’ the community in an effort to permit
its sovereignty but also to control the activities within it, which became well
known as haven for the use of drugs and junkies. The community has persisted
and become a widely appreciated and valued enclave of the city of Copenhagen.
13
[figure 10] Christiania, Copenhagen.
14
What is peculiar about both Christiania and Les Frigos is the kind of environment
that is fostered from resisting territorial boundaries and cultural norms. Both
operate with a certain disregard for regulation and bureaucracy, and yet both
become popularized due to the freedom and autonomy that is cultivated from
its unorthodoxy. One would imagine, just as it is human nature to do so, that
these places would naturally institute their own rules of operation and manners
of etiquette. One’s right to space and the claiming of space in such a place
would be done both democratically and spontaneously. People seem to take
what they need, and passively negotiate with others to manipulate their own
personal environment within a larger community. Because space is deemed
public and common one tends to manifest their occupation differently than if
they are a legitimate and legal owner. In order to claim a space as your own
one might modify and alter that space to reflect their unique and individual
character. Through such initiatives, individuals and collectives assert and
defend their space. Such a tactic is clearly evident in places like Christiania and
Les Frigos, where individual homes, buildings and interiors profess the tastes
and artfulness of the occupants in a bold and public manner.
Prior to the turn of the century Point Douglas was one of the first residential
areas of the city, home to the middle to upper class. The site’s original attraction
was its proximity to the Assiniboine River and its fertile lands which were
much sought after by early settlers. During the period of about 1830-1880 the
neighborhood consisted of some of the city’s wealthiest landowners, a variety
of shops and local businesses. However the railway which pierced the center of
the neighborhood, quickly transformed the area into a thriving industrial district.
Homes were replaced by warehouses, mills and factories. The completion of the
Canadian Pacific Railway station at the corner of Higgins and Main St. opened
the doors to an influx of migrant workers and immigrants. The quality of the
neighborhood was soon overtaken by smog, grime and smoke from industry.
16
As value began to drop and the railway brought in more and more foreigners,
17.www.winnipeg.ca/ppd/planning/pdf_
the neighborhood quickly became home to various immigrants of Ukrainian, folder/NPD_nbhd.PD
Polish, German, Jewish, and Scandinavian descent.17 North Point Douglas was
home to the poor and the working class, and it was not long that, due to the low
cost of ownership, it became home to the city’s red light district.18 The brothels 18. Gray, James. H. Red Lights on the Prairies.
Toronto: Macmillian Company, 1971. p 47.
concentrated on Annabella and McFarlane St. It has since maintained its status
as a home to minorities and sex workers, however the majority of industry has
since dried up, leaving the neighborhood littered with unused warehouses and
factories.
Today Point Douglas could be considered a ‘hardcore site”, where crime, vacancy
and proximity to major traffic corridors render it unattractive to investment.
The original industry that supported the area has since become obsolete and
either closed down or moved elsewhere, such as the Rutherford Lumber Co,
Vulcan Iron Works, Winnipeg Cold Storage, and the Olgivie Mills. Industries of
the past scar the landscape with relics of old and dilapidated buildings, chain
link fences and vacant demolished lots. Most of the lots are either abandoned,
partially occupied or have been bought by private owners for junk car lots, repair
shops and trucking warehouses. What few residents remain, are deprived of
any social or cultural amenities such as schools, grocery stores or community
17
The site changes dramatically from day to night. During the day the
neighborhood is a thoroughfare for heavy trucks and workers from the West
side of Winnipeg across the river to the East side. The streets resonate with the
19
howls and barks of the dogs that protect the junk yards and auto shop yards.
Many of the former industrial buildings are now being demolished and much
of the area is littered with the fragments of former buildings, lots strewn with
crumbled bricks and piles of scrap materials. Empty lots which have endured
vacancy for much longer are overrun by grass and weeds, and become home
to garbage, litter, and lost shopping carts. Some residents make use of the
abandoned space, like one on Annabella St. that has over the years constructed
a makeshift garden from scrap doors and other junk yard finds. Other residents
find the empty space as ideal places to park their cars, working or not. On the
weekend during the day, bikers use the trail along the river (the path carved by
a former rail line) coming from downtown and passing through the site along
Annabella St. At night the streets are empty, and a ghost land descends, but
for a few stragglers and prostitutes. Occasionally cars make their way along
Higgins, cruising for women. Patrol cars conduct their usual rounds surveying
any conspicuous transactions, and residents and transients linger in front of the
hotel pub up the street. In any given night attacks from rival gangs erupt and
the streets are filled by the sounds of sirens speeding to the aid of yet another
young boy down.
20
[figure 21] site of now demolished Winnipeg Cold Storage Building, Higgins Ave.
resisting gentrification
The waterfront to the Southwest leading towards the downtown, has in the
last 15 years, began a complete transition from what was a derelict collection
of unused factory spaces and the backend of industry, to what is now a fairly
gentrified middle class neighborhood. The neighborhood, however, is not
entirely successful, as it caters to a wealthier market of urban city dwellers of
which Winnipeg simply does not have much. Thus, a fair amount of the housing
is unsold or unrented. The waterfront land in North Point Douglas seems to
be resisting this trend of gentrification, which could conceivably seep into the
area in 30-40 years. This neighborhood is somewhat dynamic, in that many are
persistent to protect their properties along the water so that the neighborhood
can have some chance at becoming a smaller scale residential unit of mixed
income residents, like it once was. The environment of the “waterfront” and the
“exchange” districts in the downtown of Winnipeg, is one which is developing
contrary to the types of people who have been or desire to live in these areas. It
is reasonable to assume that, a more alternative, inexpensive solution to living
22
would be successful.
The Watkins building was built in 1914 as a warehouse for the J.R. Watkins Co.
America’s pioneer all natural apothecary.19 The company got its start in Winona,
19. http://www.watkinsonline.com
Minnesota in 1868 and built the warehouse in Winnipeg as part of its strategy to
expand into the Canadian market.
Today the Watkins building is owned by Richlu Manufacturing, who use a small
portion of the space (72,000 sq ft total) as a warehouse for boxes of outerwear.
The CEO of the company has a particular affinity for the building. While he was
in art school he and his friends used part of the space for their studios, and it has
since been home to several artist studios. However, they have recently been
evicted. The company originally bought the building from the Watkins Co. in
1986 for roughly $80,000, the building is now appraised at $600,000. Richlu
is primarily occupying the building to fend off intruders and break-in’s and to
maintain the property. They have not been able to lease any of the space as there 23
is very little interest from potential buyers for space in the neighborhood.
One could speculate on the building being taken over, or appropriated by these
space seekers, who cannot find adequate living spaces in the downtown area,
or within the greater area of the city. Let’s say for instance that each floor is
divided into 1000 sq ft parcels, given the market price of $600,000 for all 72,000
sq ft, that means a 1000 sq ft parcel would be $8,333 as a basic shell.
The site of the Watkins building is at the top of what was historically a long
river lot stretching 290 meters from the railroad to the rivers edge. A section
of the site illustrates the relationship the building has with its context; a series
of struggling houses engulfed by patches of vacant open space. The vacant
parcels infiltrate the building as well, wherein the interior space is not unlike
the exterior space, both potentially capable of becoming containers for new
occupation.
24
29
s ave.
higgin
curtis
st.
31
“The barrios are not planned settlements; they are homes built without
permission. These homes are self-initiated structures that have been upgraded
and expanded as needs dictate. In Caracas, such barrios are expanding, not
decaying, and they exude a confidence in their own body. Their’s is a rural
architecture made of tightly interwoven buildings and alleys”. 5 5. Kiendl, Anthony. p 160.
32
open city
Vacant, abandoned, desolate and remote locales tend to be desirable locations
for ad-hoc and informal modes of habitation. There is something embedded
in such spaces that elicit alternative, eccentric and experimental settlements.
Perhaps it is due to the site’s detachment from the greater social context,
whether that be via proximity and distance or abandonment.
Informal settlements, much like squatting communities, are proof that groups
of society are capable of mobilization and self-organization when a common
goal is shared by all. The Open City of Valparaiso is an example of a kind of
informal, amorphous community development, where the inhabitants are all
willing participants in an alternative artisan based lifestyle. The city manifested
as a result of a desire for a free and uninhibited community of artists, architects,
poets, engineers etc, as the founders, Alberto Cruz and Godofreddo Lommi,
became dissatisfied with their current environments of education, work and
research. The manifesto was to establish an educational community in a barren
[figure 29] Open City, Valparaiso, Chile.
33
Chilean landscape, where anyone who showed interest could be a part of a
communal and rather non-hierarchical place to experiment with the poetics of
art and architecture.
Another peculiarity to the city is the lack of order, hierarchy and direction in
8. Pendleton-Jullian, Anne M. The Road that the overall plan of the community.8 For one, the location is set amongst a
is not a Road and the Open City. Boston, MA: dunescape bordered by a grassy plateau, thus the building negotiates with that
MIT Press, 1996. p 7.
topography and follows its irregularity. Secondly, the community is intended to
embody a certain unpredictability and freedom, and also a lack of center, thus
the plan of the city is somewhat meandering, with no over arching organization.
This allows the inhabitants to build and to wander at will. Thirdly, as part of the
ideology of the community, a built project will be carried out as a collective
act, and buildings are constantly being built upon, disassembled, and reused.
Therefore both the built and the natural environment are in flux, changing in
relation to the needs of the community and the natural forces of the landscape.
”In this way the processes of the emergence of new forms alternate with
situation of gradual destruction: certain traces evolve into stable forms. The
outer shells of the buildings can be enlarged through fresh interventions; new
works can absorb former remains, material can be recycled, while some pieces
remain unscathed and finite. Deliberately lacking an overall plan, the ensemble
unravels itself on the basis of impulses guided by collectively assumed principles
9. Pérez de Arce, Rodrigo & Pérez Oyarzum,
underlying design and execution and by the circumstantial conditions of time Fernandez. p 15.
and place”.9
34
What is particularly relevant about the mannerisms of such a place is that the
notion of completeness is never known. The built space seems to mimic the
character of the dunes, whereby they are continually eroding, traveling, and
rebuilding themselves in a cyclical fashion. This bears a certain value when
thinking of how architecture interjects in a landscape, or even a population for
that matter, that is not a stable entity, and is pervious to change. Built into the
city is a capacity and desire to neither control daily life nor predict the future,
“volver a no saber”, to return to not knowing. There is also no boundary, in the
conventional sense, separating city from non-city and building from building.
The Open City, like other developments of this nature, Wright’s Taliesin, seems
to reject urbanity by remotely locating itself. There is an element of counter
culture at work here, however to counter a culture must one remove oneself
from it entirely? Something has to be said for the need to seek nothingness and
isolation in order to be completely free and improvisational. However, what then
is the repercussion of such an endeavor in a setting that is among the urban,
social and political realities of an existing city? For in order to really challenge
the conventional way of operating, wouldn’t that imply imposing and inflicting
that challenge on the environment you are challenging to begin with?
35
Cook professes that their work is fundamentally concerned with people, and
”As I see it, space is in constant metamorphosis, inside out if you wish. It is
not something that is, a being – it is a “becoming”, something on its way to
defining its own identity. As a consequence, I say forget reality. Reality doesn’t
exist because it’s ever changing. What exists is the process. Space cannot tell us
what it is because it is in the process of creating itself. If we knew itself, it would
be the end of its own investigation, of its own creation”.4
40
Frank Duffy postures that a building consists of layers which are categorized
2. Brand, Stewart. How Buildings Learn.
in terms of their lifespan, being permanent, semi-permanent or fairly
London: Penguin Books, 1995. p 13. expendable. “A building properly conceived is several layers of longevity of built
components”.2 The categories are as follows;
1. Site: geographical and urban setting, boundaries and context that is
41
eternal and will outlast all buildings.
2. Structure: foundation and load bearing elements (30-300 years)
3. Skin: exterior surfaces (20 years)
4. Services: working guts of building, communications wiring,
electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and circulation ie, elevators. (7-15 years)
5. Space Plan: interior layout, walls ceilings, floors and doors
6. Stuff: furniture, appliances, lighting,etc.
The ‘Open Building’ model is one with particular relevance to the Watkins
building in Winnipeg, which boasts a robust structure of cast in place concrete
columns and floor plates. One could imagine the complete removal of the
building façade and all its interior elements, leaving behind the base structure,
the bones of the building, which could lay the foundation for what Habraken
describes as ‘Infill’.
Not only does the ‘Open Building’ concept lend itself to a kind of spatial and
organizational freedom, it also imbues a sense of progression. As a housing
strategy Habraken suggests that the ‘Infill’ can occur at different intervals in
time, wherein the need for the whole building may not be required, therefore
space can be parceled off and developed on an as per need basis. This again
is a strategy which could inform how one might begin to inhabit the Watkins
building, noting that it may take time before all the space in the building has
been appropriated.
A key element to the ‘Open Building’ concept is the notion that control and
decision making of ones built space needs to be put back into the hands of the
individual. The removal of the dweller from the building process is problematic
and the dweller should be an active participant in his/her dwelling for it to be
more meaningful and viable in the urban setting.
43
diagoon houses
Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger is a follower of Habraken and employed
his concept of ‘base building’ to the Diagoon houses in Delft, The Netherlands,
built in 1970. The homes are essentially conceived as concrete structural frame,
where interior spaces remain relatively open and it is up to the occupant to
4. A +U architecture and urbanism. Herman organize and manage the arrangement of interior walls and to classify rooms
Hertzberger. April 1991. A + U Publishing Co.
p 66. with specific functions. The plan is intended to be indefinite, thus allowing it to
easily adapt to change over time.4
“The frame is not just the permanent part of the building; it also embodies the
buildings’ most important architectural and cultural values, which means that
the building can react to changes in the requirements imposed on it over time 5. van Zwole, Jasper, Leupen, Bernard, &
without damaging its essential character”.5 Heijne, René, Eds. Time-based Architecture.
Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2005. p 18.
44
[figure 41] Structural layout of typical Diagoon house
51
52
The layers of the building can be broken down as Frank Duffy had outlined as
categories of a buildings longevity.
Site
The building itself is tucked to the South edge of the site to be adjacent to the
railroad. Thus the site boasts a large front yard off Higgins Avenue. The piece
54
of land is roughly 78m long by 28m wide, giving 2,184 m Sq. During the period
when the Watkins co. occupied the building this land was used as a garden
space with a gazebo for the wife of the building manager. The amount of
land belonging to the site is significant given that there are almost no other
industrial/commercial or warehouse type buildings in the city that have any
vegetated land. Most buildings of this kind have paved any additional space
that is not occupied by the building. In this regard the Watkins building is quite
unique due to its proximity and relationship to the railroad and for its quantity
of unencumbered green space.
The original lot was divided down the center and parceled into several lots as
was the lower part of the long lot.
Structure
The structure of the building is composed of 8” thick cast in place concrete floor
slabs. The columns are cast in place concrete mushroom columns, starting at
34” in diameter on the basement level and decreasing by 2” per floor as they
ascend. The structure of the building remains perfectly intact and shows little
to no signs of degradation
C.N.R
23
22
55
20
28
41
PL
25
24
C.N.R R/W
21
41
PL
16
17
Skin
The façade is a non-load bearing 6” masonry wall. Each elevation is roughly
30% glazed with single pane windows measuring 6’x7 1/2’.
Services
The building is fitted with two large freight elevators, both are 6’6” x 12’6”, on
the south side of the building. The mechanical equipment for the elevators are
There is a large 7500 gallon cast iron water storage tank, located on the 9th 59
floor. It is used to store water for the sprinkler system running throughout the
building. The capacity of the storage tank could hold enough water for 250
people for one day, using 30 gallons each for showering, laundry and various
sink usage.
Each of the floors is also embedded with a series of 4” drain pipes, which drain
down through a series of pipes connected to four columns per floor, down to
the basement, where it deposits into the ground. Each floor also has cesspool
catchments with trap doors.
The building is heated via hot water radiators, which were originally heated by
two massive 6’x14’ coal boilers and furnace system located in the basement.
The boiler room was fitted with large coal storage compartments, which were
loaded with coal by train. The building is adjacent to one of Winnipeg’s oldest
rail lines, and they would offload the coal into pits built into the loading dock
on the south side of the building. Historically Winnipeg had an underground
subway, beneath the railway beside the building. The cavity left behind from
this system still exists next to the south wall of the basement of the building.
60
Space Plan
The interior floors have few if any partition walls. One column bay on the main
level was at one time sub-divided for administration offices, however those
walls have since been cut back.
Stuff
The interior contains no furniture, cabinetwork, shelving etc. Lighting remains
utilitarian and is still intact.
61
64
65
66
67
68
69
10. participation
Informal and ad-hoc settlements are often the product of a concerted effort
by a group of individuals or even individuals acting independently within a
larger whole. These environments are the product of the occupants becoming
active participants in the organization, implementation and construction of 1. Burdett, Ricky & Sudjic, Deyan. The Endless
their dwellings. A large portion of housing around the world are in fact built in City. London: Phaidon Press, 2007. p 348.
part by those who then inhabit them.1 This reality, while it may often appear
chaotic and disorganized, actually produces rather interesting and dynamic
environments that more accurately reflect the needs of the occupants and are
often more conducive to change.
71
72
“The development became not only a reflection of the many needs and
aspirations of the parties, but also a record of the evolving design process.
Periodically, Kroll moved staff members from one group to another, so that
they could not get too fond of a particular element and assume authorship.
The design process became a voyage of discovery whose end remained
unpredictable, and it produced a building whose anarchic and anti-hierarchical
134 97 81 47
73
151 121 97
157 121 97 79 67
201
171
157 134 66 47
scale 1:100
7
74
67
scale 1:150
11.23 m2
18.25 m2
11.06 m2
12.64 m2
13.37 m2
12.94 m2
12.4 m2
12.76 m2
75
10.51 m2
8.81 m2
13.52 m2
13.54 m2
13.07 m2
13.03 m2
13.09 m2
The nature of the structural grid and the prefabricated movable wall panels
allow the plans to be almost infinitely re-configured, given the temporary status
of student residency and constantly changing flow of occupants. The facade
grid and variety of infill panels and window sizes also produces an exterior
condition that is manipulatable and dependent on the tastes and desires of the
occupants.
With this project Kroll has proved that self-generating architecture is possible,
where the process takes precedent over the result. The building is then not a
reflection of a particular aesthetic and ideology of one person (the designer),
but rather a collage representing the needs of the inhabitants more so than an
image of architecture. The building also embodies a certain incompleteness,
76
wherein there is no finality to the façade nor the floor plan. The student residency
is temporary, therefore the building anticipates multiple users and change,
but also the fact that over time interior elements of a building become dated,
disused and no longer appropriate. Thus the space submits to the process of
time and can be constantly renewed.
77
One would imagine that a settlement on the site would begin as a relatively
temporary construction, but as the occupants form a tighter community, and
are further enabled in the development of their own dwelling and public spaces,
it might start to become more and more permanent, successfully infiltrating
the site, and perhaps in the end buying it out.
Eleanor is 61. She is a painter
who has practiced in Winnipeg
for most of her life. She lived
and worked for several years in
Rotterdam where she occupied
a large studio space near the
harbor. Eleanor lives in a modest
apartment in Osborne Village
and works from a studio that
she shares with several other
artists just North of Main St. at Markus (34) is a sculptor. He mainly deals
the edge of China Town. with works of pottery from clay, and sells
his pieces at various local markets and
fairs, and shares a stall with a jeweler at
the Forks Market, and indoor market and
craft center near downtown. Markus is
recently divorced and now lives in a studio
apartment near the golf dome. 79
Matt (27) and Kevin (32) are members of a local punk band and currently
live in the basement of Kevin’s grandparent’s place. Matt plays the drums
and Kevin is the lead singer, of the band ‘Spit’, which has 3 other members.
‘Spit’ sometimes has their practices in the basement suite or in the garage
during the summer, however they are increasingly becoming more and
more of an imposition on Kevin’s Grandparent’s as they are getting more
and more bookings and have had to step up their rehearsals.
Bobbie (27) and Candace (25) are students at the University
of Manitoba and are also roommates. Bobbie recently
moved from Toronto to Winnipeg to complete her PhD in
Aboriginal Studies, while Candace is in her final year of her
Masters of Architecture. Bobbie is planning an extensive
canoe trip up North in June in order to study several
aboriginal communities. She has invited Candace to come
along as her assistant, to photograph the trip.
Roger (47) and Doug (52) are brothers who moved out to the Red River
Valley back in 1981, they are what you might call ‘back to the landers’,
and sought the reprieve of the country. Both Roger and Doug operate
their own mill, and barter their skills locally for food and supplies. Doug
also maintains a ski and hiking trail in the valley while Roger busies
himself with local handy work for extra money. Recently Doug has
started supplying a small Winnipeg floor manufacturing company with
wood and is often in the city helping them with installation projects.
Margo (55) and John (56),
were elementary school
Alan is 46 and recently emigrated from the Czech sweethearts, who were
Republic to look after his mother who has been recently reunited. Margo
hospitalized due to an extreme case of dementia. Alan runs a private Healing Touch
has moved with his wife Sophia and his daughter Elishka practice from her home
(3). Alan is a writer and previously worked at a Newspaper while John teaches electrical
back home writing obituaries. He is currently working on engineering at a local
a book of compiled unusual obits and anecdotes with a college. Every week they
local Winnipeg Publisher. collect their scrap fruits and
vegetables and on Saturdays
bring them to Fort Whyte, a
community center at the
outskirts of town dedicated
to promoting wildlife and
habitat conservation, to feed
to the prairie dogs.
81
Julia and Russ are a young family of 4. Julia (28) and Russ
(30) have two sons Isaac (6) and an adopted son Oliver
(1). Russ is a youth pastor at a church and Julia works part
time at a greenhouse and tends to the church’s community
garden. Julia and Russ have just moved from Tofield,
Alberta to Winnipeg, where they rent space in the Church’s
communal house, shared by 3 other couples and 4 chickens
that lived in a coup in their backyard.
82
“The struggle for order is not a fight of one definition against another, of
one way of articulating reality against a competitive proposal. It is a fight of
determination against ambiguity, of semantic precision against ambivalence,
of transparency against obscurity, clarity against fuzziness. The other of order
is not another order: chaos is its only alternative. The other of order is the 3. Till, Jeremy. Architecture and Contingency.
September 2007. Field: a free journal for
miasma of the indeterminate and unpredictable. The other is the uncertainty, architecture, Vol 1, Issue 1. October, 2009.
that source and archetype of all fear”.3 http://www.field-journal.org/uploads/
file/2007_Volume_1/j%20till.pdf. p 6.
Everything we build is entirely contingent on the people that inhabit it. Projects
that anticipate contingency or at least aren’t self-referential, rely on something
outside of themselves to give them more meaning. For instance the ‘Lightning
Field’ in Western New Mexico by Walter de maria, in an installation of 400 highly
polished stainless steel poles arranged in a grid throughout the landscape.4 The
project relies to a large extent on the atmospheric qualities of the environment. 4. Baker, Kenneth. The Lightning Field. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. p ??
The presence or absence of sunlight transforms how one perceives the project
and the relationship the installation has with space. At dusk when the sun is
rising and lighting the sky with colour the rods appear to glow, other times
when the sun is bright and relentless the rods almost disappear into the desert.
The project is not absolute and isolated in its environment, but is responsive
and interacts with something greater than itself.
83
[figure 93] Lightning Field, New Mexico.
“Chance may mean an event proceeding from an unknown cause and thus
the equivalent of ignorance in which we find ourselves in relation to the true
5. Manolopoulou, Yeoryia. The Active Voice of
causes of events. But it may also mean the unforeseen effect of a known cause. Architecture. September, 2007. Field: a free
Although we go about our everyday lives and to a certain extent produce space, journal for architecture, Vol 1, Issue 1. July,
with a view to fending off the unknown aspect of existence, we often note a 2009. http://www.field-journal.org/uploads/
furtive enjoyment related to the unpredictability of chance”.5 file/2007_Volume_1/y%20manolopoulou.
84 pdf. p 2.
mobile / transportable
“Needs for temporality can result from culture (nomads), constraints (squatting,
homelessness), fluctuation (age-related mobility, social climbing, growing
households, displacement), lifestyle (career changers, climbers, dropouts)
or in the context of desires for security (temporary use of public space with
protection from certain uses, privatization of public space)”.1 1. Heydn, Florian & Temel, Robert. Eds.
Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the
Use of City Spaces. Berlin: Birkhauser, 2006.
Los Angeles has utilized a politicized strategy of semi-permanence to house the p 12.
homeless. Dome Village is a microcosm of society where the homeless can find
stability in a communal setting. The domes overtake a parking lot near the busy
Harbor Freeway, and are intended to draw the attention of passing motorists
to the issues of homelessness. The domes are made of durable fiberglass and
measure 21’ in diameter and 12’ tall. They are composed of 21 panels which bolt
together and can be easily constructed in under 4 hours with two people, a step
ladder, screwdriver and wrench. Each dome is inhabited by either 2 individuals
or a family, with some of them occupied by washrooms, laundry and kitchen
facilities and communal rooms.
87
city and in architecture. Use is, in any case, not a quality that is inscribed in
things, buildings or spaces but rather a social relationship in the triangle of
property, possession and right of use. In that sense, use is a more or less flexible
3. Heydn, Florian & Temel, Robert. Eds. relationship within which people can make various uses of one and the same 89
Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the thing or, expressed more generally, can relate to this thing in different ways
Use of City Spaces. Berlin: Birkhauser, 2006. - and thus pursue different interests”.3
p 27.
transitional
Transitional works can function in various ways, they can be an interim and
temporary use of a site, they can provide the foundation for a future installation
or development, or they can be somewhat indeterminate, subjected to changes
throughout time.
The RDM docklands of Rotterdam were once home to a vibrant shipyard that
employed thousands of people. Like many docklands throughout Europe they
have been subjected to the post-industrial era where information industries no
longer required such immense physical space. The city of Rotterdam is currently
devising plans for regeneration of the site and in the meantime has allowed the
abandoned site to be used for art installations that both promote the space and
4 http://www.ndsm.nl/ generate interest.4 Now termed ‘Follydock’ the site offers yearly competitions
for artists, architects, and landscape designers etc. to design an architectural
folly and install it on the site. The folly is a conceptual tool intended to produce
works that act as icons for the site to re-engage it with the fabric of the city.
[figure 100] Follydock installation, Rotterdam
90
The follies are temporary installations, inhabiting the site for a year, and are
eventually dismantled. The significance of the project is that with a series of
small scale interventions a vacant industrial site is given new life, however
temporary, utilizing the pocket of time from its total disuse to it eventual re-
inhabitation.
Rottenrow Gardens in Glasgow, designed by landscape architect Max Gross
was originally intended to be a temporary use of a future campus building. The
site was to be vacant for about 5-6 years, and the university felt that the space
5.http://www.grossmax.com/projects.
could be used in the meantime as well as set up the site for the future building.5
asp?n=Gardens&x=5&y=39. Once the garden was constructed and put to use it was so well liked by students
and faculty that they decided to allow it to become a permanent space. The
potential for an interim use of a site to lay the foundation or make formal and
spatial gestures that would later serve a future construction is a particularly
interesting concept. A semi-permanent construction of a site that is subject to
change at any given moment is given additional legitimacy if it can become
adaptable and valuable to future users. A certain degree of open-endedness is
assumed with such a spatial move, whereby such a construction would need to
satisfy the needs of the current users while either being flexible to change or an
integral component for future development.
91
Not unlike the ‘Spiral Jetty’, the presence of ice fishing villages are subject to
the behaviors of the natural environment. The ice fishing village is a unique
cultural phenomenon whereby the conventions of property and territory are
challenged. The river or lake undergoes a critical transformation with the onset
of winter, changing from water to solid, essentially becoming temporary land.
No one owns this ice land, as technically it is not really land, thus one is able to
possess it simply by being there.
92
“In a culture whose myths regard as sacred the ownership and possession of
land, ideas, technology, and material goods, it is extraordinary to encounter a
[figure 106] Ice shack typologies constructed of; salvaged wood and aluminum doors, plywood sheets, osb sheets, painted wooden siding, stretched
vinyl fabric, various dimensional lumber, corrugated metal roofing, extruded fiberglass roofing, reflectors, car wheels, scrap aluminum and steel, tar
shingles, plexiglass, salvaged windows, vinyl siding, plywood door.
96
Mike Govitz a resident ice fisher of Beaverton, Michigan, takes great pride in
the building of his ice shacks, and has constructed quite a few of them which his
friends and fellow fisherman often inherit. “He started with a basic floor plan
– the size of the freezer lid – then dissected doors, using pieces of frame and
panel to flesh in the sides. He used no specific pattern – just tacked on material
where it was needed. He used sheet metal screws to secure everything, then
applied silicone caulk to each seam to make the whole arrangement windproof.
He took the tin box to a vanconversion shop and had the interior spray-foam
insulated. In all but the coldest weather only a gas lantern was needed to heat 10. Griffin, Steven. p 114.
it”.10
The ice shacks, at the very least, meet the most basic requirements of shelter,
they protect from the wind, provide warmth via insulation and wood stoves, are
often connected to electricity or small generators for light, and are equipped
with provisions to cook, read, watch t.v, wash your hands, play cards, etc. The
97
The ice shack has become increasingly popularized and has become a rather
clever medium for personal and artistic expression. The culture and community
that such an activity has fostered further illustrates the free and uninhibited
nature of the ice fishing population. Art shanty projects is an annual competition
held on Medicine Lake, Minnesota that invites artists, musicians, architects,
poets, scientists, craftspeople, actors, etc, to participate in the design and
construction of ice shanty structures that will engage the public and the arts.
Shanties vary from being a place to view the stars, to a puppet house, or a giant
dice in which to play cards and games, or a dance shanty, which plays music
and inspires spontaneous dancing.
99
100
101
Many cities contain areas that are a gleaner’s goldmine, creating a subculture
of scavengers, that plunder and salvage all they can for vacant and abandoned
buildings. “Caught within a bizarre cycle for survival, scrappers depend almost
entirely on the abandonment and neglect of Detroit’s landscape. They have
found ways to enter and remove metal from the majority of vacant homes and
industries, often using only orphaned shopping carts to transport their spoils. 1. Oswalt, Phillip. Shrinking Cities Vol. 1:
They work constantly, barehanded with makeshift tool, pushing their loaded International Research. Ostfildern, Germany:
carts for miles to the nearest buyer”.1 Hatje Cantz, 2005. p 470.
Metal is the most valuable material to the scrappers, good quality copper (after
burning) can sell for up to $0.75 per pound, while aluminum sells for roughly 2. Oswalt, Phillip. p 473.
$0.45 per pound.2 Hidden and informal economies and marketplaces emerge,
with buyers and sellers going about their daily routines, each respectfully trying
102
to make the most of their modest enterprises.
104
“The most important conceptual basis for starting a temporary project is a do-
it-yourself mentality of the city’s residents”.3
105
One could imagine that any salvaged or traditional building material could be
re-purposed like the doors, developing a material language, or catalogue of
various building systems from which potential occupants could choose.
106
Guidelines of operation:
1 If a block exhibits greater than 60% vacancy, whether abandoned buildings
or empty lots, then the block shall be converted into
farmland. Farmland may consist of pasture, livestock grazing, cash crops,
orchards, or wind farms
2 Owners of occupied structures within the converted farmland block shall
have the option of remaining on the farmland and taking
ownership of adjacent fields or relocating to nearby rehabilitated structures.
Owners remaining within the converted farmland block
will be provided with financial incentive in exchange for accepting some
responsibility for farming the adjacent land.
3 Abandoned buildings within the converted farmland block shall be re-
imagined as ancillary farming support structures. Some
109
[figure 121] Farmadelphia.
Potential city blocks are categorized into parcels of green space depending on
their percentage of vacancy and its appropriateness for farmland. According
to their guidelines, land, falls into 1 of 4 categories; 1-farmland (pasture, field,
crop), 2- block owners public garden, 3-private yard (side lot), and 4- existing
structure. Existing structures can either remain as is or become renovated
and transformed into a component of the agricultural network as an indoor
greenhouse, or livestock facility, or it can be renovated as housing.
An assessment of the Watkins site with a similar logic illustrates that the majority
of the land is at least 60% vacant and potentially available for farmland. There
are few existing structures, where the inhabitants could be encouraged to
participate in such a transformation, and there is already a public green space
on the site, which in some ways has already begun the remediation of a vacant
lot.
structure
existing
private yard -
side lot
public garden
block owners
farmland - crop
111
The site is now protected land and is owned by the South End/Lower Roxbury
Open Space Land Trust, a non-profit who keeps the land in trust to prevent
any future development. The space is maintained by donations and financial
support from the city, which allowed the garden to be completely refurbished
in the 1980’s, which re-divided the plots into the 160 garden plots that exist
112
today. Plots are equipped with an infrastructural system for water and irrigation
embedded beneath the ground. Artist Christina Bechstein and landscape
architect Klaus Loenhart received a grant for their “Growing Fence” project
to create a cohesive face to the garden space, provide a sound barrier from
the busy nearby traffic and become an artful installation for art, plantings and
other garden amenities.
The garden plot sizes are approximately 2.5 x 4 m and cost $40 per plot per
year with an additional $30 per year membership fee, which goes towards
maintenance costs and communal services such as garbage collection, water
use, and insurance.
If one were to superimpose the Berkeley garden allotment onto the farmland
space, as assessed previously, there would be 260 plots available.
[figure 124-125] Berkeley Community Garden. 113
16. synthesis
When considering the site of the Watkins building in Point Douglas,
certain issues regarding its intervention take precedent over others. Given
the relative vacancy of the space and of the neighborhood, one must come to
terms with the fact that such a site is in some ways rather fragile as it exists
on the precipice of either extinction or reintegration. It is on an unstable
middle ground, positioning it within a kind of neutrality, in limbo, where the
slightest push could send it either way. An intervention on a site with this
predisposition must then consider its permanence first and foremost. Informal
settlements often operate within the realm of a certain degree of autonomy
and temporariness, but often as time goes on, they become more and more
embedded in a social and urban network. This site could be treated in such a
way. One must ask if an intervention should assume a level of temporariness, or
rather should it become a strategy to foster permanence over time? The reality
remains that informal architecture is somewhat contingent on economy,
flows of people, culture, and changing urban conditions, therefore to deny
114
any flexibility would oppose the natural tendencies and inclinations of such
environments. In that case the introduction of infrastructure becomes explicitly
relevant, as infrastructure can be thought of as a flexible yet organizational
gesture that can be both subjective and determined. What is critical, when
thinking of how architecture might intervene is how it can synchronize two
seemingly disparate intentions, indeterminacy and stability, in such a way as
to engender architectural moves that can operate independently and perhaps
radically while remaining accountable to a larger operational frame. The
opportunities of an infrastructural approach to the site may resolve the desire
for change, fluctuation, and growth while embedding it with definition and
limitations, so that control and stability remain. What is critical when looking
to successful precedents of informal settlement is its degree of consistency.
Kroll’s seemingly random facade, Cruz’s structural scaffolding, the open city’s
spaciousness and materiality, and Allen’s continuous surface, provide an over
arching frame, aesthetic or organizational strategy that allow the projects to
be both recognizable yet random and manipulatable. What becomes critical is
that the two be reconciled rather than become counter-productive. One must
work with the other, simultaneously.
What is interesting to consider is the infrastructure that already exists
on the site as a way to inspire a strategy for further investigation. By identifying
the utilitarian attributes of the site one might be able to engage with the space
in a manner that continues the tradition of the site in some way. In many ways
the bones and guts, which some might argue are rather trivial, may actually
disclose a way to interject on the site in a poetic way. Henri Lefebvre believes
that it is in fact the banalities of life, and as an extension of that - the space of
the city, that offer the most insightful explanations of human life and the urban
condition.
The position of the research thus far has treated the site as a space
which embodies the potential to be treated as a unique landscape within a
neighborhood, and within a city. As such that site can be conceptualized and
distinguished as a space where unconventional liberties can be taken. The
space is dying, dwindling, and slowly slipping away, thus drastic measures can
be legitimized and ad hoc and alternative solutions become the opportunity for
such a space to be given a fresh chance. What makes this particular condition
exciting is that it demands solutions that are radical and perhaps fantastic, as
the site is almost so neutral that it can accept almost anything. In many ways
what is needed is a radical disturbance, rather than a simple elegant series of
alterations. If one considers the capacity of the site, given the robustness of
the existing building and the spaciousness of the landscape, it is absolutely a
container. It is simple and in many ways generic, wherein those characteristics
result in its ability to accommodate a range of programmes, building types
and people. When one examines the precedents of alternative communities,
Christiania, the Open City, Les Frigos, one is able to identify that they exist on
the premise of opposition. Their manifesto, if you will, is to counter the norms
of contemporary society, and how that society treats property, individuality,
community, privacy, social amenities etc. Thus, what would such a community
in Winnipeg be counter to? Gentrification, commercialization, demolition
perhaps, vacancy? This question is imperative when questioning the character
and identity of the potential community, and will continue to be investigated.
116
117
works cited
Books
Allen, Stan. Points and Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.
Bagnasco, Arnaldo & Le Galès, Ed. Patrick. Cities in Contemporary Europe. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Burdett, Ricky & Sudjic, Deyan. The Endless City. London: Phaidon Press, 2007
118 de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkley, CA: UCLA Press,
1984.
de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life, Vol 2: Living and Cooking.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
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1962.
Corr, Anders. NoTrespassing: squatting, rent strikes and land struggles worldwide.
Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999.
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Use of City Spaces. Berlin: Birkhauser, 2006.
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119
Katsiaficas, George N. The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social
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Kennedy, Layne & Breining, Greg. A Hard-Water World: Ice Fishing and Why We
Do It. St. Paul, Minnesota: The Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008.
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Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2007
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Mathews, Stanley. From agit-prop to free space : the architecture of Cedric Price.
London: Black Dog Pub. Ltd, 2007
Mitnick, Keith. Artificial Light: A narrative Inquiry into the Nature of Abstraction,
Immediacy, and other Architectural Fictions. New York: Princeton Architectural
Press, 2008.
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Boston, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
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Websites
Gewertz, Ken. “GSD Prize awarded for transforming Rio Slums “. Harvard
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gazette/2000/12.14/08-gsdprize.html>. (08. Oct, 2009).
Peterson, Gary. “Teddy Cruz - What adaptive architecture can learn from
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123
Film
The Gleaners and I. Dir. Agnés Varda. Perf. Bodan Litnanski, Agnés Varda,
François Wertheimer. 2000. DVD. Zeitgeist Video, 2002.
list of figures
1. Michigan Central Station, Detroit 1997/1998.
Photographed by Stan Douglas, Image source: Published in
Shrinking Cities Vol 1. Hatje Cantz, p 133.
2. Downtown, Ddetroit 1997/1998.
Photographed by Stan Douglas, Image source: Published in
Shrinking Cities Vol 1. Hatje Cantz, p 130.
3. Gordon Matta Clark’s “Fake Estates”, Queens, New York 1973.
Image source: http://architettura.supereva.com/
artland/20030425/index.htm
4. Hausehalten project, Lützner Straße 30, Leipzig 2005.
Image source: http://www.haushalten.org/de/english_
summary.asphttp://www.haushalten.org/de/english_summary.asp
5. Hausehalten project, Lützner Straße 30, Leipzig 2005.
Image source: http://www.haushalten.org/de/english_
summary.asphttp://www.haushalten.org/de/english_summary.asp
124
6. Jean Francoise Millet, “The Gleaners”, 1857.
Image source: bookofshortstories.com/stories/the-gleaners.
htm
7. People gleaning, France 2002.
Image source: Film by Agnes Varda, “The Gleaners and I”.
8. People gleaning, France 2002.
Image source: Film by Agnes Varda, “The Gleaners and I”.
9. People gleaning, France 2002.
Image source: Film by Agnes Varda, “The Gleaners and I”.
10. Christiania, Copenhagen 2007.
Image source: flickr.com/photos/35034345972@
N01/390773754
11. Christiania, Copenhagen 2007.
Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Christiania_Street.JPG
13 Les Frigos, Paris 2003.
Photographer Pierre Laugier, Image source: commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les-Frigos.jpg
14. Hallway inside Les Frigos, Paris
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7944143@
N08/498543941/in/photostream/
15. Restaurant inside Les Frigos, Paris
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7944143@
N08/498543941/in/photostream/
16. Artist studio inside Les Frigos, Paris
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7944143@
N08/498506332/in/photostream/
17. Point Douglas, Winnipeg 1881.
Image source: http://www.pointdouglas.net/Winnipeg_Map_
histr300px.jpg
18. Vacant Olgivie Flour Mill, Higgins Ave, Winnipeg Oct 2009.
Photographed by Margo Reimer.
19. Junk car lot, Higgins Ave, Winnipeg Oct 2009.
Photographed by Margo Reimer.
20. Demolition site of Able Warehouse, Higgins Ave, Winnipeg Oct 2009.
125
Photographed by Margo Reimer.
21. Former site of Winnipeg Cold Storage, Higgins Ave, Winnipeg July
2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning.
22. Waterfront Drive, Winnipeg, 2008.
Image source: http://wigglezpictures.wordpress.com/
category/downtown-winnipeg/
23. 90 Annabella St, Winnipeg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
24. 90 Annabella St, Winnipeg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
25. Section of site
Drawn by Larraine Henning
26. Plan of Site
Drawn by Larraine Henning
27. Favelas of Caracas
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryb_
ka/2232726109/
28. Hybrid House Exhibit, Marjetica Potrč
Image source: Published in Shrinking Cities Vol 2. Hatje Cantz,
p 473.
29. Open City, Valparaiso, Chile.
Image source: Published in Valparaiso School, open city group.
Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, p 64.
30. Open City, Valparaiso, Chile.
Image source: Published in Valparaiso School, open city group.
Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, p 81.
31. Open City, Valparaiso, Chile.
Image source: Published in Valparaiso School, open city group.
Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, p 59.
32. Open City, Valparaiso, Chile.
Image source: Published in Valparaiso School, open city group.
Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, p 60.
33. ‘Plug in City’, Archigram, 1973.
Image source: Archigram. New York: Praeger Publishers, p 39.
126
34. ‘Blow out Village’, Archigram, 1973.
Image source: Archigram. New York: Praeger Publishers, p 61.
35. ‘Continuous Monument’, Superstudio,
Image source: http://iforevans.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/
must-see/
36. ‘Continuous Monument’, Superstudio
Image source: Superstudio. Rome: Centro Di, 1978 , p 7.
37. Arcosanti, Paolo Solari
Image source: http://www.econsciousmarket.com/eco-times/
wp-content/uploads/2009/06/arcosanti.jpg
38. Stadium conversion, Osaka, Japan. 1998.
Image source: http://umpbump.com/press/wp-content/
uploads/2008/08/osakastadium11.jpg
39. Lifespan of building layers
Image source: Published in, How Buildings Learn. London:
Penguin Books, 1995, p 13.
40. Diagram of ownership control, Habraken
Image source: The Structure of the Ordinary: Form and Control
in the Built Environment. Boston, MA: MIT Press, 1998, p 84.
41. Base structure axonometric, Diagoon house
Image source: Published in A&U, April extra edition, (1991), p
68.
42. Diagoon houses, Herman Hertzberger, 1970.
Image source: Published in A&U, April extra edition, (1991), p
68.
43. Plan variations, Diagoon house, Herman Hertzberger
Image source: Published in A&U, April extra edition, (1991), p
70.
44. Model of Beirut Souks project, Stan Allen,
Image source: Published in, Points and Lines: Diagrams and
Projects for the City. Princeton Architectural Press, p 71.
45. Plans of Beirut Souks project, Stan Allen,
Image source: Published in, Points and Lines: Diagrams and
Projects for the City. Princeton Architectural Press, p 764-65.
46. ‘Manufactured Sites’ project, Teddy Cruz,
127
Image source: http://www.archinect.com/features/article.
php?id=79984_0_23_0_C
47. ‘Manufactured Sites’ project, Teddy Cruz,
Image source: http://htca.us.es/blogs/perezdelama/2009/02/
48. Favela Bairro Project, Jorge Mario Jáuregui,
Image source: http://www.jauregui.arq.br/favelas_before_
after.html
49. Favela Bairro Project, Jorge Mario Jáuregui,
Image source: http://www.jauregui.arq.br/favelas_before_
after.html
50. Plan of site utilities & services, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
51. Interior of Watkins building, silver gelatin print, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
52. Interior of Watkins building, silver gelatin print, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
53. Interior of Watkins building, silver gelatin print, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
54. Freight elevators, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
55. Freight elevators, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
56. Fire sprinkler system, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
57. Fire sprinkler system, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
58. Floor drain, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
59. Floor drain pipes, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
60. Exterior loading dock, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
61. Exterior loading dock, Watkins bldg, 2009.
Photographed by Larraine Henning
62. Sprinkler system axonometric, Ink on vellum, 2009
128
Drawn by Larraine henning
63. Septic system axonometric, Ink on vellum, 2009
Drawn by Larraine henning
64. Floor drain system axonometric, Ink on vellum, 2009
Drawn by Larraine henning
65-73 Interior of Watkins building, 2009
Photographed by Larraine Henning
74. la MéMé - Faculté de médecine, Lucien Kroll, 1970.
Image source: http://homeusers.brutele.be/kroll/auai-project-
ZS.htm
75. la MéMé - Faculté de médecine, Lucien Kroll, 1970.
Image source: http://homeusers.brutele.be/kroll/auai-project-
ZS.htm
76. Facade panel modules, la MéMé, Lucien Kroll, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
77. Elevation, la MéMé, Lucien Kroll, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
78. Typical floor plan, la MéMé, Lucien Kroll, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
79. Possible unit plan, la MéMé, Lucien Kroll, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
80-92 Portraits of characters, various dates
Photographed by Larraine Henning
93. Lightning Field, Walter de Maria, New Mexico
Image source: http://gracefulspoon.com/blog/2009/08/03/
lightning-field-and-tourism/
94. Lightning Field, Walter de Maria, New Mexico
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/
jlocke/3756896336/
95. Dome Village, Los Angeles, 2006.
Photographed by Joel Sternfeld, published in http://www.
metropolismag.com/story/20060515/from-here-to-utopia
96. Dome Village, Los Angeles.
Image source: http://domevillage.tedhayes.us/About_The_
Domes.html
129
97. Add on, Vienna-Brigittenau, 2005.
Image source: http://www.mobilejugendarbeit.
at/?b=20&show=fotos&id=136
98. Add on, Vienna-Brigittenau, 2005.
Published in Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the Use of
City Spaces, Birkhauser, p 209.
99. Add on, Vienna-Brigittenau, 2005.
Published in Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the Use of
City Spaces, Birkhauser, p 209.
100. Folly dock, Rotterdam, 2007.
Image source: http://www.follydock.com/ENG/
101. Folly dock, Rotterdam, 2007.
Image source: http://www.follydock.com/ENG/
102. Rottenrow gardens, Max Gross, Glasgow.
Image source: http://www.grossmax.com/projects.
asp?n=Gardens&x=5&y=39
103. Ice shack
Image source: http://madhava.com/photo/cottage_feb2005/
104. Ice shack community, Quebec
Image source: http://www.bonjourquebec.com/fileadmin/
Image/decouvrez/activites/sports_plein_air/chasse_peche/tq_003004_g.jpg
105: Ice shack community, Lockport, Manitoba.
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/
plinton/2177774892/
106. Ice shack elevations, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
107. Govitz’s ice shack, Minnesota.
Published in A Hard-Water World: Ice Fishing and Why We Do
It. The Minnesota Historical Society Press. p 53.
108. Interior axonometric of ice shack, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
109. Dance shack, 2009.
Image source: http://www.artshantyprojects.org/
110. Dance shack, 2009.
Image source: http://www.artshantyprojects.org/
130
111. Art Shanty Project at night, Medicine Lake, Minnesota, 2009.
Image source: http://www.artshantyprojects.org/
112. Art Shanty Project at night, Medicine Lake, Minnesota, 2009.
Image source: http://www.artshantyprojects.org/
113. Hypothetical ice shack structure, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine henning
114. Scavenged building, Detroit.
Published in Shrinking Cities Vol 1. Hatje Cantz, p 471.
115. Scavengers at Bidston Moss Landfill, Birkenhead, 1991
Published in Shrinking Cities Vol 1. Hatje Cantz, p 480.
116. Scavengers at Bidston Moss Landfill, Birkenhead, 1991
Published in Shrinking Cities Vol 1. Hatje Cantz, p 483.
117. Partially demolished Able Wholesale building, Winnipeg, 2008.
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/200056441/
118. Partially demolished Able Wholesale building, Winnipeg, 2008.
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/200056441/
119. Possible reuses of interior doors. Halle-Neustadt, Germany, 2003
Published in Shrinking Cities Vol 2. Hatje Cantz, p 456.
120. Skate park made of recycled doors, Halle-Neustadt, Germany, 2003.
Published in Shrinking Cities Vol 2. Hatje Cantz, p 457.
121. Farmadelphia proposal, Front Studio, Philedelphia, 2003.
Image source: http://www.frontstudio.com/
122. Farmadelphia proposal, Front Studio, Philedelphia, 2003.
Image source: http://www.frontstudio.com/
123. Agricultural capacity of Point Douglas site, Winnipeg, 2009.
Drawn by Larraine Henning
124. Berkeley Community Garden, Boston.
Image source: http://berkeleygardens.tripod.com/
125. Berkeley Community Garden, Boston.
Image source: http://berkeleygardens.tripod.com/
131