SCYTHE FELL SHEAR

SCYTHE
FELL
SHEAR
The Socio-Spatial Implications of Labour
Master of Architecture Graduation Project Part I + Part II Final Report
By Ryan Joseph Arceneaux
Committee Members:
Ray Cole
Sherry McKay (GPI chair)
Blair Satterfield (GPII chair)
Tony Osborn
Educational Background:
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Graphic Design), Colorado State University,
2005
‘Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Architecture in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, School of
Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Architecture Program’
The University of British Columbia
© Ryan Arceneaux, 2013
Abstract
As Vancouver and all cities continue to push their sustainable
agenda forward, attention must be given to alternative orderings
of spatial production and occupation. This thesis presents an exploration of one of those possibilities through the reprogramming of underutilized urban space to facilitate the seasonal deployment of community supported subsistence programs (food,
clothing and shelter). By reconnecting us to the systems necessary for the fulfillment of our most basic needs, Nature again becomes available to all members of society as a physical partner
through the process of labour. As these connections are forged
within the citizenry, a transitional process can begin to redefine
urban spatial relationships and behaviors.
ii
Thesis
I am attempting to create an alternative method of spatial production and occupation dependent upon seasonal cycles of community supported subsistence programs (food, clothing and
shelter), which utilizes labor as the primary means of exchange.
By reconnecting us to the systems necessary for the fulfillment
of our most basic needs, Nature becomes available to all classes
as a physical partner through the process of labor.
iii
Heterotopia organize a niche of the social world in a way different to that which surrounds them. That alternate ordering
marks them out as Other and allows them to be seen as an
example of an alternative way of doing things . . . Heterotopia,
therefore, reveal the process of social ordering to be just that, a
process rather than a thing.”
- Kevin Hetherington (Harvey 2000: 184)
iv
Contents
Abstract
Thesis Statement
List of Figures
Acknowledgement
Dedication
GP I
Theory.
Introduction
The Nostalgia of Craftsmanship
The Cult of Efficiency
The Urban Economy
The Rise of the Informal
Capitalism, Globalization, and Work
Work & Labor Redefined
A Problematic View of Nature
Regenerative Design
Revolution & Social Change: Architectures Role
Conclusion
GP II
Process.
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Introduction
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Regenerative Program
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Social Re-Ordering
Skilled and Unskilled Labour
Material Cycles
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Spatial Re-Ordering
Test Site - Grandview/Woodland
Spatial Availability and Spatial Needs
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Implications.
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Full Axonometric
Growing
Seeding
Felling
Sugaring
Deconstruction. Construction.
Wood Processing
Community Harvest
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Bibliography.
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Appendices.
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Appendix A: Final Boards
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v
Figures
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Tompkins square park fights gentrification in the 1970’s
Seattle protests against the WTO and globalization (1999)
The Craftsman
Striking workers in 1930’s America
Early farmers realizing the potential of efficiency
Bentham’s Panopticon, the prison model
Willow Run Factory during B-24 Bomber production
Jevon’s Paradox, the hybrid car example
Kissimmee River pre-channelization, circa 1961
Kissimmee River post-channelization, circa 1972
Kissimmee River rehabilitation. 2009
New York City
Street market in Lagos, Nigeria
South American slums; Caracas, Venezuela
Rockefeller Center, a Capitalist icon
Environmental and human exploitation (oil fields)
Environmental and human exploitation (factories)
Vancouver’s historic waterfront accumulation strategy
Vancouver’s new waterfront accumulation strategy (False
Creek)
Vancouver’s new waterfront accumulation strategy (Yaletown)
Man-the-Maker
Karl Marx
Nature externalized. Artist Thomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant, discussing the beauty of nature
LEED, a market-based solution
Constant’s New Babylon
The Narkomfin, Moscow, Russia
Martin Luther King Jr., Washington, DC
Paris barricades, 1942
Key for program diagrams [fold-out]
Program diagram I [fold-out]
Program diagram II [fold-out]
Social agenda and program matrix
Interfaces with nature and their labour cycles [fold-out]
Skilled labour needs [fold-out]
Unskilled labour needs [fold-out]
Possible share types in each interface
Labour breakdown for chicken care [fold-out]
Different methods for building soil: (from top) worm composting, bin composting, trench composting, animal manuring, and
crop rotation.
Single family housing deconstruction in Vancouver 2010 - 2012
[fold-out]
Current land- use breakdown for the City of Vancouver highlighting productive and consumptive uses
Park space in the Vancouver
Current network of bike lanes in Vancouver
Land zoned for industrial uses in Vancouver
Re-imagined land-use breakdown for Vancouver
Location of Grandview-Woodlands (GW)
Land-use of GW
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Vacant industrial buildings in GW
Isolation of northern section of GW
Exploded axonometric of networked underutilized space in GW
Spatial availability and spatial needs [fold-out]
Intervention for existing park building [fold-out]
Location of narrative axonometric on identified network
Narrative axonometric [fold-out]
Growing narrative axo
Seeding narrative axo
Felling narrative axo
Sugaring narrative axo
Deconstruction and construction narrative axo
Wood processing narrative axo
Community harvest narrative axo
Presentation panel #1
Presentation panel #2
Presentation panel #3
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Acknowledgement
A huge thank you is due to my chair Blair Satterfield and my
committee members, Ray Cole, Sherry McKay, and Tony Osborn,
for keeping me focused on what was important, challenging
what was questionable, and providing a continuous stream of
motivation.
Finally, and most importantIy I would like to thank my wife
Rosuara for her unwavering love and support, without which I
surely would not have completed this thesis.
viii
Dedication
For my parents
ix
1
Theory.
GP I
2
3
Introduction
Over the last 6 years I have been increasingly interested in the subject and causes of gentrification in the urban context. In the last 6
years I have lived in four neighborhoods which have been directly
affected by gentrification for reasons that ranged from the development of a sports complex in Denver, CO to the proliferation of
artistic cultural cachet in Brooklyn, NY. In the first three cases, I
was coming into the neighborhood after the tumultuous change
had occurred, but in the last case, I moved into an area that was
right on the cusp of a massive restructuring. In each case, the
factors and the players all seemed to be quite different, but I
felt that there must be a common thread which unified them all.
Figure 01
Tompkins square park fights gentrification in the 1970’s [http://fuckyeahanarchopunk.tumblr.com/post/2496544836/
gentrification-is-class-war-fight-backtompkins]
While doing research for a paper on gentrification in
Williamsburg last semester I came across a description of the
situation which paraphrased Saskia Sassen, declaring “that
gentrification is a visual spatial component of the shift to services and the associated transformation of the class structure,
in which manufacturing workers and their unions have lost their
wage-setting ability” (Curran: 1244). That same source revealed another point of departure saying, “[a]ny appreciation of
gentrification must begin with labour, labour market and workplace relations” (Curran: 1244). A clarion call had been issued.
This realization provoked a strong desire to understand
how our relationship to labour had changed over the past fifty
years to create such a catastrophic urban condition. The more I
began to ponder the importance of our shifting ideological stance
toward labor, the more I realized that it seemed to be the underlying factor in the majority of urban socio-spatial issues. Everything from class and race relations to environmental degradation
and globalization seemed to be a direct result of this ideological
shift. I wanted to understand how this was effecting the urban
built environment, as well as architectural practice and theory.
More importantly, I wanted to decipher an alternative; a way to
challenge this urban spatial malaise through the deployment of
an architectural project. I wanted to create a heterotopic space
that could serve as a barrier to the further Neoliberal infection of
the city; a space which would begin a process of transformation
allowing for a re-connection to material production and self-reliance, at the scale of the individual, the community, and the city.
4
The research conducted over the past 4 months has lead
me in various directions, some more productive than others.
However, at the heart of my approach I placed an emphasis on
understanding the social and spatial results of our current relationship to labor. I began with an investigation into craftsmanship, hoping to push past the romantic proclivities it provokes to
uncover a certain approach to life through labor. As that research
continued, a reoccurring theme centered around efficiency and
its often negative role in shaping ideas related to labor, architecture, urbanism, economics, and nature. I then researched the
urban economy in an attempt to understand how the recent evolution of that economy has progressed. This led me to investigate
the more inefficient aspects of the city, and here I focused on
the rise of the informal (both economically and architecturally).
This system exists precisely because of its ability to exploit the
inefficiencies within the formal system. Capitalism was the next
strain of research, which I approached from a critical perspective. I wanted to understand capitalism’s specific role in the exploitation of labor, the production of urban space, as well as the
effects of its global proliferation on our psychology.
An interesting connection was made at this point which
defined labor exploitation and environmental exploitation as the
basic elements required for capitalism’s continued survival. I
then returned to evaluate my definitions of labor and work in relation to architecture and nature. This provoked a need to investigate our basic ideology of nature, so as to better understand it’s
connection to the aforementioned newly formulated definitions.
Once these ideas were properly fleshed out, I knew that a strategy based in a regenerative design approach would best facilitate my ideas. Finally, I narrowed my focus back to architecture’s
ability to promote social change. This was due to the radical new
approach to labor, the environment, and the city that was beginning to emerge within my project.
Figure 02
Seattle protests against the WTO and
globalization (1999) [http://www.hist.umn.
edu/]
5
The Nostalgia of
Craftsmanship
Any investigation into the history of labor inevitably leads to
craftsmanship. While many of the arguments are concerned with
a nostalgic longing for the return of a pre-industrial era devoid
of technology, and an emphasis on handcrafted goods, I am uninterested in these perspectives. The more compelling argument
concerning craftsmanship centers around its psychological approach to labor and resultant sociological impact on everyday
life.
The American sociologist C. Wright Mills affirmed that,
“[t]he laborer with a sense of craft becomes engaged in the work
in and for itself; the satisfaction of working are their own reward;
the details of daily labor are connected in the worker’s mind to
the end product; the worker can control his/her own actions at
work; skill develops within the process; work is connected to the
freedom to experiment; finally, family, community, and politics
are measured by the standards of inner satisfaction, coherence,
and experiment in craft labor” (Sennett 2008: 27). While this description is easily associated with material production, it is also
applicable to any task which can invoke the “basic human impulse that desires to do a job well for its own sake.” (Sennett
2008: 27)
Figure 03
The Craftsman [http://startupblog.files.
wordpress.com/2008/09/craftsman1.jpg]
Richard Sennett underlines the unique position of the
craftsman in relation to his/her work and expands the scope of
reference to include not only professions within medicine, computer science, or the arts but also the realm of everyday experience as evidenced by an approach to parenthood or teaching.
However, these ideas of work that place emphasis on the process
are somewhat incompatible with an industrialized economic system that values results and efficiency above all else. Craftsmanship also becomes increasingly problematic in a system where
the power of labor unions to regulate the workplace is rapidly
declining.
The labor union was the central component that allowed for at least some relaxation of the dehumanizing process of industrial production. However, as union power has
slowly eroded, or production facilities are pushed to foreign
shores that aggressively quell union organization, the pos6
sibility for craftsmanship in industrially scaled production is
eviscerated. While the products might be well made, they are
constructed through the utilization of a fractured manufacturing process which narrows the worker’s interaction with
the product to one or two mind-numbingly repetitive tasks.
Figure 04
Striking workers in 1930’s America
[http://www.wsws.org/images/2009aug/
a29-1934-stri-strut-480.jpg/]
Sennett also references the loss of craftsmanship within
the architectural field. Sennett discusses the fractured skills
which have been perpetuated by the separation of hand and
head. He points to CAD as a clear example of this, and speaks
of the architectural designer’s tendency to over-design a project
because of the speed at which current technology allows you to
work. As a direct result of the need for extreme efficiency within
the construction schedule of a project, the architect is inclined to
determine every possible element of the project before construction begins.
The architect is also severely limited in his/her ability to
generate creative solutions to the design problem because of the
over-arching concern that ‘time is money’ on any project. Design,
development, and exploration of an architectural idea is a very
small part of the overall project time-line. This often provokes a
cursory site analysis and a rigidity in ideas once they are signed
off on. Due to the fact that many large projects are competition
based (demanding a tight deadline with minimal or no monetary
compensation), firms are often forced to play up the visual image
of their proposal, along with a few other attention grabbing elements which can set their project apart. This overwhelming emphasis on the final product further inhibits architectural practice
from a craft based approach to work that values process.
While there is definitely an importance placed on process in architecture school, I feel that it’s emphasis is exceedingly rare in professional practice. In either case the process
of creation still ends at some point and does not simply begin
a dialogue to be further extrapolated by the user/occupant.
This focus on results and the product, as opposed to the process and the pleasure of creation are tied closely to a theme
which has overlapped many aspects of my research: efficiency.
7
The Cult of Efficiency
The ‘Cult of Efficiency’ and it’s complete saturation of the economy following industrialization has invaded numerous aspects of
our lives. While the topic of efficiency was briefly touched upon in
the craftsmanship argument, its full impact on the space of the
city was not explored.
Figure 05
Early farmers realizing the potential of
efficiency [http://www.understoodbackwards.net/2010/09/09/eating-medieval/]
First, it is important to briefly describe the ideology associated with ‘The Cult of Efficiency’ in general terms. ‘The Cult’
is devoted to an unwavering preoccupation with means, without a
corresponding determination of its ends; in more straightforward
terms, means without an end, rather than means to an end. This
outlook also places efficiency wrongly in the realm of absolute
value, as opposed to a tool for achieving value. This then skews
our ideas of rationality and sees it not as “the rule of reason, but
the rule of measurement” (Bell: 1).
In researching the historic trajectory of our obsession
with efficiency, one could make the argument that our first real
taste of efficiency’s power came with the realization of a degree
of efficiency within the production, and procurement of food that
enabled certain members of society to distance themselves from
lives of toil. While this was an inherently positive aspect of efficiency which ushered in the era of human civilization in it’s varied
forms, it also created the first division of labor (setting the stage
for eventual exploitation of the producer/consumer relationship),
and our abstraction of nature, something I explain in greater detail later in this paper.
Figure 06
Bentham’s Panopticon, the prison model
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon]
Fast Forward to 1750, the beginning of the industrial revolution and the obsession with efficiency begins to overwhelm the
hierarchy of priorities in the realm of material production. Architecture was also having it’s say in the efficiency argument as evidenced by Sir Samuel Bentham’s Panopticon, originally designed
at the end of the 18th century, as a tool to create the most efficient
means of surveillance over a largely unskilled workforce. Samuel’s idea was then enthusiastically appropriated by his brother
Jeremy and applied to the organization of prisons. “This identification of factory and prison was, perhaps, quite natural for [Jeremy] Bentham. Prison and factory were united in his philosophical mind dredge and by the utilitarian conceptions of tidiness and
efficiency. The root of utilitarianism – this new mode of conduct
which Bentham elaborated – is a passion for order, and the elab8
oration of a calculus of incentives which, if administered in exact
measures, would stimulate the individual to the correct degree of
rectitude and work” (Bell: 1). Here we see the influence of rationality defined by measurement which is so critical to ‘The Cult’,
and finds value only in the quantifiable results of it’s operations.
Efficiency got another jump-start in the waning years of
the 19th century through Taylorism, or scientific management.
Frederick Taylor felt that there must be a way to standardize certain methods of production so as to enable the less-skilled, or
less-talented laborers to be more productive. He conducted extensive movement studies and timed certain aspects of the labor
process in an attempt to ascertain the most efficiently synthesized workflow. Taylor would then dispatch ‘efficiency experts’ to
the shop floor to monitor and facilitate these work-flows.
Taylor believed that he was creating a sort of mental revolution that would permit management and laborers ““take their
eyes off of the division of the surplus as the important matter,
and together turn their attention toward increasing the size of
the surplus” (McLeod: 133). He felt that with a big enough surplus, all the social problems associated with scarcity would be
eliminated. Although Taylor was not an architect, many architects latched onto his ideas. Most notable among these was Le
Corbusier, who included the word “Taylorism” in almost every
one of his books published from 1918-1935 (McLeod: 133). Le
Corbusier saw this increase in surplus as a way to dramatically
reduce the cost of architecture, therefore making it available to
all. While this was a commendable goal, it didn’t seem to pay
any attention to the effects that this increase in production would
have on natural systems, or, our associations with labor.
Around this same time (early 20th century), Henry Ford
furthered the cause of ‘The Cult’ by understanding the importance of standardization, specialized machinery operated by
unskilled labor, and the ability of the continuos assembly line
to dramatically improve production output. While many people
often link Taylorism to Fordism, there is a very significant difference in their methodology and the reliance on ‘efficiency experts’
to manage production is entirely abandoned by Fordism.
The prime spatial response to Ford’s theories was made
manifest in his Willow Run factory in Belleville, Michigan. The
structure was one continuous space that ran for two-thirds of
a mile and had a quarter-mile width. At this time, the primary
reason for it’s linear organization was for an efficient usage of
steam. “Since steam dissipates quickly, the engineer tended
to crowd as many productive units as possible along the same
shaft, or within the range of steam pressure that could be carried by pipes without losses due to excessive condensation.
These considerations led, too, to the bunching of workers in
the layout of work” (Bell: 4) The primary role of the plant was
9
to produce B-24 bombers for the US Military during WWII, and
this task was accomplished at Willow Run in its entirely. There
was even a bunkhouse for 1,300 members of the flight crew to
directly board the planes once they rolled off the line. The entire production relied on three principles: “the logic of size, the
logic of ‘metric time’ and the logic of hierarchy” (Sennett: 41).
As the war came to a close and the planes were no longer needed in massive quantities, the plant was sold to General Motors
for the production of their Chevrolet line in the 1950’s. The site
is now mostly used as a cargo airport (Wikipedia: Willow Run).
Figure 07
Willow Run Factory during B-24 Bomber
production [http://www.shorpy.com/
node/4213]
Figure 08
Jevon’s Paradox, the hybrid car example
[http://greenimalist.com/2011/04/thejevons-paradox/]
As the role of the machine began to dominate the assembly line because of its ability to streamline production through
automation, a dehumanizing and deskilling of the workforce
continued unabated. Once industrialists realized that they had
hit a ceiling in western nations in terms of economic efficiency,
in the 1950’s and 1960’s, they began their migration to underdeveloped nations in search of exploitable markets for enhancing
that efficiency.
Therefore, it seems only natural that as the environmental movement has escalated in importance over the past few decades that the cult of efficiency would find a natural outlet in
energy efficiency. Seeing as the global exploitation of labor has
reached a tipping point in terms of economic efficiency in places
like China, the industrialists and corporations can market their
focus on environmental efficiency as an attempt to mend their
destructive tendencies. While this may be true to some small extent, I find their goals to be more in line with figuring out the best
way to continue their massive scale of production while decreasing the amount of capital that they expend for energy production,
something that could have a huge effect on bottom lines.
I think it is important to relate this discussion back to one
of the most outspoken critics of efficiency, the economist William
Stanley Jevons. In 1865, Jevons observed that the technological
improvements associated with the efficiency of coal use served to
increase the consumption of coal. He then argued that, contrary
to popular opinion, a technological improvement in the efficiency
with which a resource is consumed, tends to increase the rate of
consumption of that resource. This was know as Jevons Paradox.
This concept is easily transferable to the current obsession with
energy efficiency, but it also holds true that this increase in energy efficiency can also accelerate economic growth, increasing
the demand for other resources unrelated to energy production.
(Jevons)
While energy efficiency is the battle cry of much of the
current green building rhetoric, ‘the cult of efficiency’ can be
teased out of other, more hidden aspects of its agenda. The architectural theorist David Gissen goes so far as to reposition the
green building phenomena as a Neo-Victorian and/or Neo-Haus10
mannite restructuring of the urban milieu, and both of these positions speak directly to ‘The Cult’.
Gissen calls green building Neo-Victorian for it’s “utilization of nature as an instrument that cleans the world, increases productivity and efficiency, and transforms our existing natural relationship, while advancing the social sphere
as it exists” (Gissen: 23). The important addition to efficiency
rhetoric here, lying in the view of nature as the most efficient
way to clean the city, while doing little to challenge the contradictions between cleanliness and nature, that has furthered our abstraction of nature. As a result, the Neo-Victorian
mantra, “A Green City = A Clean City”, rings across the globe.
Figure 09
Kissimmee River pre-channelization,
circa 1961 [http://www.dep.state.fl.us/
secretary/news/2004/may/0507.htm]
As for the Neo-Haussmannite connection, he observes
that, “green building often enhances the power of urban wealth
in the name of mending a natural relationship” (Gissen: 23). Here
Gissen points out that the fallacy inherent to any clarion call to
rebuild our cities because of the implications it has for the improved ability or efficiency of a certain social class to maintain
and generate wealth, while creating a city in their image.
As a result of this troubling obsession with efficiency,
it is important to critically evaluate any strategy which sounds
the bell of improving efficiency. If we ascribe to Jevons theory,
maybe we should be promoting inefficient equipment as a way to
save energy.
Figure 10
Kissimmee River post-channelization,
circa 1972 [http://www.dep.state.fl.us/
secretary/news/2004/may/0507.htm]
Figure 11
Kissimmee River rehabilitation. 2009
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissimmee_River]
11
If we look to nature we see how a seemingly inefficient
process can create exponential benefits for the system. Contemplating the historic flow of the Kissimmee river in Florida,
we see its seemingly inefficient meandering as a problem to be
corrected. The regional population in the 1950’s said that it increased flood events in the area and wanted federal assistance
to channel it. Eight years after channelization of the river 90%
of waterfowl habitat was destroyed and native large-mouth bass
populations severely declined. As the efficiency of the river was
increased it killed the system. In the mid-seventies a restoration
project began to reproduce the inefficiency of the rivers flow. By
the 1990’s a dramatic improvement to the vitality of the system
had been achieved. Once we let go of the proclivity to endlessly
enhance efficiency, we see how rapidly a system can recover.
Hopefully, this lesson can inform the needed shift in
priorities not only in architecture and sustainable design but in
economics, sociology and psychology, which have such a powerful influence on the global production of space. If a process
can be valued by metrics other than efficiency, it could open vast
new territories of social, spatial and environmental interaction.
The Urban Economy
One of my earliest areas of research was centered around economic circumstances of the city and how they facilitate the production of space. I was aware of the fact that many believe the
city to be the prime territory of innovation and job creation, but I
wanted to unpack that much recited rhetoric.
Jane Jacobs, in her book The Economy of Cities, portrays
the urban economy as the basic force behind human innovation and
creativity. While her writing does not denounce the rural economy,
she does exhibit numerous examples in which rural work was first
imagined through urban innovation; her primary examples being
agriculture and animal husbandry. Jacobs attests that, “It can be
readily seen in the world today that agriculture is not even tolerably productive unless it incorporates many goods and services
produced in the cities or transplanted from cities. The most thoroughly rural countries exhibit the most unproductive agriculture.
The most thoroughly urbanized countries on the other had, are
precisely those that produce food most abundantly.” (Jacobs: 7)
Figure 12
New York City [http://www.widescreenwallpapers.in/wallpaper/Newyorkcitymadness/]
However, while cities may be a place of mass innovation, they necessitate a massive infrastructure to enable it’s
vociferous consumption. While many mayors, planners, and architects are continuing to tout the city as the most sustainable
mode of habitation, I think they are failing to include this fact
in their discussions. One of the reasons I highlight this fact is
because of the global shipping industry and the environmental impact of relying on foreign markets for production. I chose
to focus on shipping by sea because of the large container
port in North Vancouver (one of the last remaining elements
of our working waterfront), and Metro Vancouver’s decreasing
urban manufacturing potential. According to an article published in 2007 in The Guardian concerning CO2 output of shipping, they reported that 90% of the worlds goods are shipped
by sea, which results in 5% of global CO2 emissions. That 5%
is twice the total emissions of Britain and half of the total CO2
emissions of Africa. Maritime emissions were not covered in the
Kyoto Accord, and if the system continues its historic trajectory
of growth unabated, the CO2 emissions are expected to double
in 25 years. Rather then trying to simply make these practices
more efficient from an environmental and economic standpoint,
wouldn’t it be more beneficial to begin to impose urban solutions
which are less dependent on this global form of commerce?
12
According to Sharon Zukin, much of the current urban
economy of major cities is devoted to what she calls “Destination Culture”. This facet of the urban economy is tailored to the
younger generation that tends to have an “aesthetic rather than
a political view of social life” (Zukin 2010: 237) This aesthetic
proclivity is thoroughly reinforced by the grittiness of decaying
industrial neighborhoods, and is tightly bound to the economy of
cultural production in which so many creative urban types (un)
knowingly participate. Richard Lloyd even refers to these postindustrial “Neo-Bohemia’s” as an “urban finishing school for
cultural producers” (Lloyd: 33)
Zukin then describes the city’s massive restructuring and
rezoning as an attempt to facilitate that aestheticized culture.
“With media buzz and rising rents, these spaces shift the city,
one neighborhood at a time, from traditional manufacturing to
arts and crafts production, and then to cultural display, design,
and consumption, testing the market for higher rents and creating ‘new’ space for more intensive uses.” (Zukin 2010: 238) The
shift from actual production to cultural production is a hugely
profitable arena for developers seeking to inflate the value of
urban land, while increasing it’s consumptive potential. Zukin
goes on to underline the problematic nature of this economic
model during a period of prolonged economic recession. As a
result of the neighborhoods consumptive success, large chain
stores overrun the neighborhood because they are the only ones
that can afford the rents. Thus, the people who actually produce
things (manufactures and artists) are pushed out, and a reliance
on the socially distorted space of consumption is intensified.
While this form of the urban economy is usually more
dominant in the developed world, there is another aspect of the
modern urban economy that dominates the undeveloped world;
the informal.
13
The Rise of the
Informal
The overwhelming rise of the informal economy, and the informal architecture that it has produced in the developing world
was my next area of investigation. I wanted to understand its effect on the urban economy, as well as it’s effect on the usage,
and production of space in relation to it’s radically different approach to work. While there are large segments of the informal
economy that exist in the developed world, I was more interested
in the effects it is having on the developing world and it’s exploding cities.
In Stealth of Nations, Robert Neuwirth highlights the
startling fact that, according to the Organization for Economic
Co-Operation and Development, the informal economy employs
roughly 1.8 billion people, or half of the global workforce. The informal economy or System D as Neuwirth refers to it, is growing
faster than any other part of the economy in many countries in
the developing world, and he illustrates its critical role in providing essential services while filling employment gaps within the
formal system. These statistics show that this has to be one of
the most important areas of research in relation to the sociospatial relationship of labour and it’s implications for the city.
Figure 13
Street market in Lagos, Nigeria [http://
www.unclenaira.com/2011/09/nigeriasworst-place-to-live-imagine.html]
Although it has been proposed by economists like Hernando de Soto of Peru that the informal economy should be formalized to be included within the legal global economy, it usually makes little sense form the perspective of those involved in
System D. While de Soto and others point to deficiencies in the
bureaucratic system like a 278 day wait in Peru for a business
license or the fact that it could take months to get goods out
of the main port of Lagos legally as main factors which repel
the System D sector from becoming formal, there is still the basic fact that “many System D entrepreneurs make money precisely because they work off the books, evade registration requirements, or engage in smuggling or piracy” (Neuwirth: 210)
Theses economists are all viewing System D from the outside,
a perspective which places huge importance on incorporation,
registration, and licensing.
Martha Chen, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government believes that “We need to come
up with models that allow the street trader to coexist along
with the retail shops and along with large malls. The informal
14
economy is not the problem. It’s part of the solution. Street
traders, waste pickers, market women: these people really do
contribute to the economy of their cities. How can we manage
our cities in a way that has space for them? What we need to
do is to figure out how to help them become more productive,
more efficient, and more effective.” (Neuwirth: 212) Again, like
so many other discussion of the economy, it inevitably turns to
how to improve efficiency and productivity. While economists
are certainly acknowledging the social benefits of the informal,
they seem to be oblivious to the fact that once you try to improve efficiency and productivity, you negate those social assets.
As a direct result, System D’s success could be signaling it’s collapse. The global media’s continued exposure of this
success is beginning to collapse the market. Neuwirth pointed
out how profits are harder to come by for informal businesses in
Lagos, China, or any of the other informal marketplaces as those
markets are pried open by capitalist interests. Many large global
corporations then focus their attention on infiltrating those markets because of the demand and desire for their products which
the informal market has revealed (Neuwirth). Therefore, it seems
that this vast network of subsistence for so many impoverished
people will eventually dry up.
Another interesting aspect of the rise of the informal is
its influence on the production of urban space. I am not of the
mind that the urban slum is the proper way of creating an organic architecture in the city, and I do not want to glamorize or
romanticize its characteristics. However, I would like to understand the ways it acts as a barrier to capitalism and serves as an
alternative to the static tendency of most contemporary urban
architecture.
Figure 14
South American slums; Caracas, Venezuela [http://sustainablecities.dk/]
15
I feel that my fascination, and that of many architects,
with the informal slum is because of it’s connection to a process
of inhabitation which places such a large emphasis on building
as a response to evolving user needs. It promotes the qualities of
un-refinement, and the un-finished that set up an architecture of
continued evolution. The user is then allowed to remake, repair,
expand or redefine their space according to the biological evolution of their lives. Architectural professor and writer, Lars Lerup
identifies the power of the un-finished in the way it “refers to the
dynamic binding by the dweller to the physical setting, and to
the setting itself, always in the making” (Lerup: 120-121) This
temporal response to changing inhabitation is allowed primarily
because of the lightness of materials, the simplicity of the labor
involved in its manipulation, and the cooperation of the community to accommodate individual and communal necessities.
The aspects of the informal which reverberate through so
much of the urban economy and urban spatial production, make it
stand as the fundamental alternative to the current capitalist system.
This fact makes the entire global population think that there is no
other way out of poverty than to fully embrace the capitalist system.
This fact makes the entire global population think that
there is no other way out of poverty than to fully embrace the
capitalist system. However, once we more fully understand what
capitalism is, and what it needs to survive, we can begin to challenge its dominance.
16
Capitalism, Globalization, and Work
A central factor which defines the economic values of a city is
the political system which oversees it’s structure. The capitalist
system that predates our industrial revolution and it’s pursuit of
the truly free market have been the single most important factor in the devaluation of labor and the reorganization of urban
space. However, I think that it is important to link these striking
changes in the production of space to a few of the more dramatically effected aspects of our character that capitalism amplifies,
often with negative results.
Sennett has raised a number of examples reflecting capitalism’s tendency to negatively effect our character in his book,
The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of
Work in the New Capitalism. I have selected two specific character traits which I feel strongly connect changing ideas of labor
to negative aspects of the built environment; those traits being
commitment and risk.
Figure 15
Rockefeller Center, a Capitalist icon
[http://iso101.blogspot.ca/2009/07/statue-of-atlas-rockefeller-center.html]
One of the fundamental changes in our ideology of labour
has to do with commitment. As the unions and other methods
of labor organization have proven ineffective in the mediation
between labor and capital, the ability of a person to become a
specialist in one field has changed dramatically. As the worker’s
skills are de-valorized in the production process, his skill set becomes less singular and the ability to adapt that skill-set becomes increasingly important. However, this shift serves to undermine the worker’s commitment to the product of a company
he is working for, which further serves to detach the worker from
the work they are undertaking. The mental-spatial separation of
work and life becomes exacerbated. Sennett refers to this as “No
long term” meaning “keep moving, don’t commit yourself, and
don’t sacrifice” (Sennett 1998: 25).
“Today a young American with at least two years of college
can expect to change jobs at least 11 times in the course of working, and change his or her skill set at least three times during
those forty years of labour.” This kind of movement has drastic
effects on community and the spatiality of the city. Because the
worker is in a continual process of relocation, the neighborhood as
a locus of people who bear long-term witness to another persons
life collapses. The transitory nature of the neighborhood creates
a disaffected attitude towards any type of community which could
17
develop, and the process of gentrification is met with much less resistance than if the community had been in place for generations.
The worker is also forced to detach from his social and
professional commitment to his colleagues as a result of this
constant movement. With each new job, the worker places less
emphasis on the communal interaction with his co-workers, and
a distrust of the employer develops, for fear that at any moment
he/she will be replaced. While many neo-liberal economists tend
to value competition as the motor of the economy, the majority
of workers don’t operate well under those circumstances. However, the ones that do tend to soar up the corporate ladder until
their competitive spirit is eclipsed by the flower of youth.
Another fundamental change in the ideology of work has
to do with risk. Risk is heralded in the contemporary workplace
as a barometer of the well-lived life. People are prone to believe
that a career path which involves little to no risk is one that is
stagnant and unworthy of praise. Therefore, if you don’t take a
risk in pursuing a new career path or chosen trajectory for yourself, you are living a life of servitude. However, what is less obvious about this perceived freedom to follow your own trajectory
and risk it all, is that you are now enslaved to an ever-changing
notion of personal desire. More often than not, that desire is
merely a projection held up by the media, and popular culture.
This has a direct correlation to the commitment issue and finds
purchase in contemporary society’s obsession with individualism
and personal freedom.
While there is a common belief that workers are changing careers or jobs because of an increase in pay, this is something that is increasingly false. “Today more people lose than
gain through making company job changes; 34 percent significantly lose, 28 percent significantly gain. A generation ago the
numbers were roughly reversed; you did slightly better by moving
to a new company than through a promotion within. Even so, the
rate of inter-company job change was lower than today; factors
like job security and company commitment held people in place”
(Sennett 1998: 86).
Risk infatuation can also be connected to urban spatial production, and the tendency for developers to operate under highly speculative premises. This is seen in the practice of
speculative-housing that has proliferated in the suburbs of most
modern cities; placing little value on the built environment as
anything more than a means of capital accumulation. The classic American suburb was a bedroom community, but the current
suburb is of an entirely different nature; “. . .more economically
independent of the urban core, but not really a town or village
either; a place springs to life with the wave of a developers wand,
flourishes, and begins to decay all within a generation” (Harvey
2000: 20-21).
18
This is also evident in the city, in the construction of skyscrapers full of un-rented office space, or the luxury apartment
tower that has no tenants. Speculation and a glamorization of
high risk = high reward has allowed for a complete obsolescence
of any aspect of architecture that doesn’t speak directly to the
bottom line. While this is inherently an economic issue, it’s overarching acceptance by most developers can be traced back to
our reliance on risk as an everyday part of our working lives.
As the research continued, I began to look more to the
writings of Marxist geographer David Harvey, because of his
ability to link capitalism to a specific formula for spatial production. He helped me to see the constant remaking of the city as a
by-product of capitalism’s ever-changing accumulation strategy.
“Capitalism cannot do without its ‘spatial fixes’. Time and time
again it has turned to geographical reorganization (both expansion and intensification) as a partial solution to its crises and
impasses. Capitalism thereby builds and rebuilds a geography
in its own image. It constructs a distinctive geographical landscape, a produced space of transport and communications, of
infrastructures and territorial organizations, that facilitates capital accumulation during one phase of it’s history only to be torn
down and reconfigured to make way for further accumulation at
a later stage” (Harvey 2000: 54).
Figure 16 & 17
Environmental and human exploitation
[Edward Burtynsky]
Zooming out to look more broadly at capitalism as an
economic and political system, a passage I came across midway through Harvey’s, Spaces of Hope, served to clearly define
the position I wish to take in my project: “An unrelenting freemarket capitalism, [Marx] proves, can survive ‘only by sapping
the original sources of all wealth—the soil and the laborer,’ making despoliation and degradation of the relation to nature just
as important as the devaluation and debasement of the laborer”
(Harvey 2000: 175). I had always considered myself somewhat of
an environmentalist, so when Harvey helped me understand the
link between a previous social concern (the environment) to the
exploitation of labor, it helped to infuse some added passion to
the research. In light of this, I decided that a methodology based
on a regenerative design model would best suit the goals of my
project, something I will further expand on later in this paper.
As I pondered the powerful ideas which Harvey had related in his writings, I attempted to view Vancouver through this
lens. It seemed that, like many post-industrial cities of the developed world, the waterfront was a prime example of the evolving “spatial fix”, which survived through a continued evolution of
environmental and labor exploitation.
When the industrial apparatus overwhelmed the shores
of the Downtown Peninsula in the early 20th century, the waterfront was prized for it’s ability to facilitate movement and enable
19
Figure 18
Vancouver’s historic waterfront accumulation strategy (City of Vancouver
Archives)
the wheels of mass production. This view of nature was enveloped in an attitude of direct exploitation, one which valued the
natural world for its material capacity, rather than its ocular seduction. Obviously, this had a devastating effect on the natural
environment and the fragile ecosystem of Vancouver’s shores.
Figure 19 & 20
Vancouver’s present waterfront accumulation strategy in Coal Harbour (http://
www.vancitybuzz.com/2010/03/concordpacifics-vancouver-2020-vision/) and
Yaletown [http://www.trekearth.com/)
The exploitation of the natural world went hand-in-hand
with the exploitation and resultant devaluation of human labor as
a mechanized routine. As previously stated, both of these practices pushed industry to foreign shores in search of lax environmental standards and cheaper labor; the capitalist machine was
in need of a new “spatial-fix”.
As the City Beautiful movement took hold in cities like
Chicago in the early 20th century, the accumulation strategy was
already beginning its evolution, one which necessitated a more
indirect exploitation of human and natural resources. Daniel
Burnham epitomized this ideological transformation with statements like, “the viewing of water is a solitary act, the regard of
nothingness; in viewing water man turns his back on the conditions which support his life.” This mind-set produced an urbanism which placed parks, promenades and other leisure activities
at the interface of city and water. (Sennett: 329)
Seventy years later, that mind-set was fully embraced in
Vancouver as Expo ‘86 rolled into town following a massive phase
of de-industrialization. It was a period where city beautification
was the top priority as Vancouver sought to market itself to the
world as a global city, ripe for potential capital investment. As
vast swaths of the downtown shoreline were auctioned off to developers in the wake of the Expo (most of which the city had recently acquired in preparation for the event), waterfront property,
once inaccessibly barricaded by industry was primed for capitalism’s new “spatial-fix”.
Enter: The Podium-Tower.
20
This typology (assisted by globalization) ushered in the
era of indirect exploitation. A potentially more destructive method
than that deployed by industrialization, precisely because of it’s
ability to generate a benign image of social neutrality, and environmental connection. Vancouver’s visual propaganda is awash
with images of the built-out city overlaying a pristine natural
background, and stroller-pushing joggers beatifically rounding the seawall. However, this type of development produces a
waterfront urbanism which is still heavily reliant on the same
exploitive and environmentally damaging practices of it’s recent
past.
The shores of False Creek and Coal Harbor no longer
house the detritus of industrial production, they hoard the consumable spoils of its globally decentralized commodity chain,
while disconnecting consumers from its troublesome methods of
procurement. The water is no longer seen as a medium of commerce, but as an aesthetic resource to be privatized 27 floors up,
or publicly consumed at ground level.
While I haven’t yet decided if the waterfront is where I
will site my project, I think that because of its historical power
as an evolving “spatial fix” for capitalism, it is in critical need of
alternative design propositions that can begin to challenge the
exploitive (both natural and human) practices required for its
continued survival.
I think it is important for me to highlight the fact that I am
not saying that the people whom partake in these activities are
bad or socially unconscious (I am just as guilty as the next in my
desire to pass the day strolling around the seawall, or marvel at
a stunning view from the balcony of a high rise), what I am trying to point out is that the capitalist production of space affords
little opportunity for creation of spaces or experiences of difference; spaces which can provide a heterotopic response to the
desire to consume the city through leisure, recreation, shopping
or passive entertainment. My use of the word heterotopic here is
related to Kevin Hetherington’s definition “as spaces of alternate
ordering. Heterotopia organize a niche of the social world in a
way different to that which surrounds them. That alternate ordering marks them out as Other and allows them to be seen as
an example of an alternative way of doing things . . . Heterotopia,
therefore, reveal the process of social ordering to be just that,
a process rather than a thing” (Harvey 2000: 184). There is so
much creative energy and inspirational potential in the city, it just
seems that so much of it gets misdirected through the manipulations of capitalism. I feel that, if given the proper outlet, the city
can begin to nurture its own creative and productive potential,
while allowing for an increase in it’s self-reliance, and the sense
of empowerment that it fosters.
21
Work and Labour
Redefined
As I began to more thoroughly understand the methodological
approach and theoretical position I would take in my project, I
wanted to critically understand my definitions of work, labor, and
their relationship to architecture. While pouring over the writings
of Kenneth Frampton, I came across an essay entitled, The Status of Man and the Status of his Objects. This essay drew heavily
on the seminal text by Hannah Arendt called The Human Condition. In the opening paragraph, Frampton points to Arendt’s provocative distinction between definitions of work and labor. Her
definitions are as follows:
Work is the activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of
human existence, which is not embedded in, and whose mortality is not compensated by, the species ever-recurring life cycle.
Work provides an ‘artificial’ world of things, distinctly different
from all natural surroundings. Within its borders each individual
life is housed, while this world itself is meant to outlast and transcend them all. The human condition of work is worldliness.
Figure 21
Man-the-Maker [http://grainandgram.
com/blairsligar/]
Labor is the activity which corresponds to the biological process
of the human body, whose spontaneous growth, metabolism,
and eventual decay are bound up by the vital necessities produced and fed into the life process of labor. The human condition
of labor is life itself. . .
I had definitely understood there to be a distinction between the
two before reading this passage, but my distinction was much
less pronounced, and amounted to labor being a more physical
manifestation of the same general idea as work. I was under the
assumption that as our ideology of work had evolved, it was more
about a continuing devaluation of manual labour, mostly in monetary terms. However, Arendt’s eye-opening words have served
to realign my ideas around the basic principle that labor is something that allows for the proper realization of homo faber’s (manthe-maker) biological requirements.
As our industrial society has progressed over the past 200
years, we have perpetuated a monumental psychological shift
that has produced an increasing disconnect as to the material requirements necessary for our biological survival. While there are
many branches to the human psychological tree (man-the-player,
man-the-thinker, etc.), I would argue that homo faber (man-the22
maker) is the foundational root of that tree, and as we continue to
sever that linkage, we lose our biological connection to earth. Because of this disconnection we seek an increasing comfort in the
artificiality, and enduring life-cycle of the things we create. The
perceived permanence of those things allows us to psychologically extend our mortal existence, and architecture is the most visceral example of that desire to extend, and therefore, transcend.
Frampton then connects Arendt’s definitions with two
Oxford definitions for architecture:
1. the art or science of construction edifices for human use.
2. the action and process of building.
These have a strikingly similar feel to Arendt’s distinctions and illustrate a dichotomous comparison pitting the static and permanent against the processual and impermanent (Frampton: 26). It
speaks to the shifting of Architecture from a pursuit that implied
a “continuous act of building, forever incomplete, comparable
to the unending process of biological labor”, to the Renaissance
practice of architecture as a rational science or art form. “The
Renaissance, split between the liberal and the mechanical arts
– already anticipatory of the industrial division of labor – led to
the rise of homo faber as a man of invention and speculation; of
which the architect . . . was one of the earliest examples. . .this
rise of homo faber as architect resulted in the incipient division
between invention and fabrication and led to the degradation of
the traditional craftsman into the status of the animal laborans”
(Frampton: 26). Therefore, homo faber is still a substantial part
of our psychology, only it is now re-purposed to the realm of abstraction and the artificial landscape of the mind.
Many have made the case that the modern practice of architecture is a continuous project, however, it is not done as a process of accretion and organic reworking. As a result of the everchanging strategy of capital accumulation, construction takes on
the feast or famine pattern, usually at the expense of the middle
and lower-class segments of society. This pattern is heavily dependent on capital investment potential and market strength, two
things that place most of the power of development in the hands
the wealthy. Also, as our material knowledge and complexity has
expanded, it has allowed us to build on a more enduring timescale, diminishing the necessity to constantly rework our built
environment. Along with our increased capacity to construct, our
ability to deconstruct and destroy has also increased exponentially, creating a troubling paradox for those in the world that
look to architecture as a beacon of permanence in their mortal
worlds. However, the increased capacity to destroy our objects of
perceived permanence could provoke a needed re-connection to
the fallacy inherent to our desire for permanence.
23
Along with this separation between labor as a biological
process and the work as an economic one, Henri Lefebvre also illustrated the separation induced on sociality and familial life. Lefebvre identifies that “a distinction was made between man ‘as man’
on the one hand and the working man on the other (more clearly
among the bourgeoisie, of course, than among the proletarian).
Family life became separate from productive activity. And so did
leisure” (Lefebvre: 31). This idea was first broached in the section
on capitalism, but I think that this is important to address here because of the implications it has for our view of productive activity.
First of all, it disassociates pleasure from productive activity and devalues any activity not associated with leisure, recreation, amusement or entertainment. However, the price we pay
for this disassociation is a perpetual dissatisfaction with work.
Therefore, our jobs meet only half of their basic requirements;
they are able to feed our bodies, but not to sustain our spirit.
Secondly, by separating man the worker from man ‘as
man’, we are effectively separating ourselves from homo-faber
and all of the primal tendencies related to our innate psychology. However, this separation is unsuccessful in practice and has
led to the “multiplication of the amateur on a scale unknown in
previous history” (Bell: 38) As a direct consequence of our dissatisfaction with work, we seek other outlets to facilitate those
innate psychological yearnings. We therefore deny the unification
of our being with our biological yearning to labor.
24
A Problematic
Ideology of Nature
I have becoming increasingly aware of the need to reexamine my
relational ideology of nature. I am thoroughly aware of the problematic picturesque conception of nature, but less attuned to it’s
secondary objectification as solely a resource for the production
of material goods or food. This view of nature relies on a dualism that emphasizes the distinctly separate world of human and
nature; a primary relationship of Subject and Object. Attempting
to break through this ideology of nature in the ideas for my own
project has been an increasing source of frustration. Throughout most of the semester I have (unknowingly) sought a mere
reordering of the hierarchic valuation of one externalized view to
another; in effect, placing a utilitarian externalization atop that
of a romantic idealization. In an attempt to unpack this problematic ideology of nature, I relied heavily on Neil Smith’s 1984 book,
Uneven Development.
Figure 22
Karl Marx [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Karl_Marx.jpg]
This externalization of nature from society is primarily a
result of the objectification of nature through the process of production, making another direct link to our ideology of labor, and
its inherent connection to our abstraction and separation from
nature. “And yet, no matter how efficient this production process
and how completely it effects the externalization of nature – in
a word, no matter how effectively it emancipates human society
from nature – human beings, their society, and their artifacts
continue to be subject to ‘natural’ laws and practices” (Smith:
15). Therefore, we are still united with nature no matter how
successfully we segregate ourselves from it’s biological and geological processes; the ‘natural’ law, or universal law, to which all
species on earth are accountable, will forever thwart this desired
sovereignty.
As opposed to the bourgeois ideology of opposing natural and
human systems, Marx aspires to illustrate the unity of human
beings to nature through a connection to labor. “The unity of nature implied in Marx’s work derives from the concrete activity of
natural beings, and is produced in practice through labour. The
labor of natural beings pulls in the different facets of nature binding them in a whole. Human beings survive and develop as social
beings by working in cooperation with nature. But this unity of
nature is not undifferentiated; it is a unity, not an abstract identity, and it is necessary to understand the role played by human
productive activity in the differentiation of nature” (Smith: 37).
25
Smith then lays out Marxs’ description of the trajectory of
our perceived disconnection from, and differentiation of nature
by illustrating the eclipse of general production from a system
that saw nature as a use-value, and the principle source of economic value, to a system centered on production for exchange.
This moment, in effect, was the catalyst for the devaluation of
nature and manual labor, the bourgeois abstraction of nature,
and the eventual rise of capitalism. “One of the divisions of labour which develops alongside production specifically for exchange is the division between manual and mental labour. This
opens up profound new vistas for the human production of consciousness, since hereafter, certain aspects of nature are available to some classes only as a conceptual abstraction, not as a
physical partner or opponent in the work process. Just as the
process of exchange abstracts in practice from the use-value of
commodities being exchanged, so the human consciousness can
abstract itself from the immediate material conditions of existence” (Smith: 42).
As a direct result of the critical distance from production
allowed to certain classes in an economic relationship to nature
based on exchange-value, a nostalgic idealization of nature is
developed. Unsurprisingly, this nostalgia began in the cities because of its tendency to house those members of society that
had transcended the connection to production. It is because of
this central role that exchange-value has in the social dysfunction of contemporary society, that I must be critically aware of
any method of exchange within my own project.
Figure 23
Nature externalized. Artist Thomas Cole
and poet William Cullen Bryant, discussing the beauty of nature. Painting: Asher
Durand’s Kindred Spirits, 1849 [http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Asher_Durand_Kindred_Spirits.jpg]
Interestingly, Smith points out that capitalism sets up a
paradoxical unity between nature and humans because of it’s
ability to place a monetary value on every single aspect of the human and natural world. Due to capitalism’s fundamental need to
constantly expand the mode of production, and a dependence on
the creation of surplus value as a result of that production, nature is thus appropriated as a “universal means of production.”
Here, Smith points to an example by Milton Fisk claiming “that
it appears paradoxical to assert, that uncaught fish, for instance,
are a means of production in the fishing industry. But hitherto no
one has discovered the art of catching fish in waters that contain
none” (Smith: 49).
However, this unity is merely a materialist tendency based
on the social unity of the production process, by which I mean, the
universality of nature as an accumulation strategy. As a direct result of our ability to produce the means of our own subsistence, we
attain a quality which is reserved for nature. This then leads to our
perceived ‘domination of nature’, which as Friedrich Engles correctly understands, is not about our control over nature, since we,
“with flesh, blood and brain belong to nature”, but rather “the fact
that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able
to learn its laws and apply them correctly” (Smith: 62). This is the
26
basic dilemma that comes with that knowledge, and as industrialization has advanced that knowledge, we have continued to apply it incorrectly. A more correct application would realize that an
enhancement and consideration for those aspects of nature not
directly valued by human society, would, in the fullness of time,
benefit the entire system of which we are but one component.
It is because of this problematic ideology of nature, that
I have decided to address the environmental aspects of my project through a social agenda that attempts to challenge the overarching abstraction within the ideology. This further reinforces
my position that in order to provide solutions to our environmental problems, we must first address the social conditions which
generated the issues, which, as my research has continued to
illuminate, are often related to our ideology of labor. To begin an
approach to sustainability without first acknowledging that our
objectification of nature through the production process is our
greatest barrier to that agenda, leaves the fundamental issue
unchallenged, and its ultimate realization unattainable.
27
Regenerative Design
Before I expand on my research into regenerative design, I think
it is important to first understand the definitions of green building and sustainable design, and how they relate to regenerative
design.
Figure 24
LEED, a market-based solution [http://
www.greenofficeprojects.org/]
Green building has to do with a primarily anthropocentric approach to the intersection of architecture and nature that
places the needs, wants, and desires of humanity at the apex of
the approach. This method places a high degree of importance
on those points of overlay between certain natural systems (usually, sun, wind or water), and the built environment that can be
most successfully utilized for increased energy efficiency and/
or decreased environmental degradation. Green building also
generates a product-based tool set (LEED) that allows the architect and client to complete a checklist of requirements in order
to obtain a score based performance criteria for evaluating the
building. Other criteria for evaluation include, protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, or reducing waste.
Usually, the building scale is the primary area of focus in terms
of evaluation for performance, although very cursory attempts
have recently been made to expand to the neighborhood or regional scale.
Sustainable design shifts its approach to a bio-centric
focus which looks much more critically at the overlay of human
and natural systems. This approach also takes into account a
systems capacity to endure as opposed to one that looks to grade
the final product, as in green building. While sustainable design
is often cited as the middle step in an evolution to regenerative
design, this type of thinking is false. Sustainability is actually the
complete integration of regenerative design with green building
techniques. However, the deployment of those strategies are
highly specific and thoroughly understood in relation to the whole
human and natural system in which the operation is conducted.
Regenerative design is a process-based approach to
architecture which does not value the object-centric mindset of green building. While regenerative design is still in
its nascent stages as a practice, it has primarily been concerned with the production of a set of process-based tools to
be deployed in the realization of an architectural solution. It
is an approach which places equal emphasis on the entire
28
natural and human system being addressed in the proposal.
An important aspect of regenerative design is that it is
proposing an alternative to embedded social and environmental practices. While the alternative may seem simple in theory,
it often requires a radical departure from ‘business as usual’
to realize that alternative. Therefore, the proposition must address a processual approach to transformation through design;
a process that understands the critical importance of the temporal component necessary for meaningful social change. The
increased importance of the temporal requirement for change
is something that can radically redefine the practice of architecture as well. Therefore, if we want to address environmental
degradation, we need to first address the social practices and
psychological tendencies which perpetuated the destruction.
This leads me to think that a regenerative model is the
best strategy for my project because I am intensely interested in
a process based approach. Also, because I am trying to understand a problem which is rooted equally in human and natural
systems.
29
Revolution and Social
Change: Architecture’s
Role
The most enticing aspect of becoming an architect for me was
the potential to aide in and facilitate social change. Throughout
my undergraduate education in graphic design and fine arts, I
was constantly frustrated by each medium’s inability to elevate
ideas beyond the realm of provocation. In architecture, I saw the
possibility of spatializing ideas as a means to propel those provocations into everyday life.
Figure 25
Constant’s New Babylon [http://
benandjess.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/
constants-new-babylon/]
Figure 26
The Narkomfin, Moscow, Russia [http://
www.opendemocracy.net/files/original.
jpg]
Many of the revolutionary movements of the last 150
years felt that without a way to express their ideas in built form,
they would not be able to affect true social change. As a result,
a number of movements contributed a radical architecture to
match their proposals. The Situationist, Constant, spent years
developing an architectural strategy for the movement, impregnated with their new ideas concerning a world free from human
toil and reliant on fully mechanized production. His proposal,
New Babylon, allowed for homo ludens (man-the-player), homo
faber, and homo sapien (man-the-thinker) to co-exist on a megastructure which fostered a global derive lasting a life-time.
However, the actual realization of any of these revolutionary architectures was exceedingly rare; their existence appropriated to the realm of Utopia. An example of one of the few
that was actually built supported the Communist movement. The
Narkomfin (1932) building, devised by architect Moisei Ginzburg,
was an apartment block that aimed to assist in the transformation of a peasantry that lacked knowledge of the basic principles
of social communism. Therefore, tenants of the Narkomfin would
be gradually eased from units with a petit-bourgeois ordering of
space into a communally ordered unit (referred to as F units)
“which could accommodate only the most basic functions of socialist daily life: sleep in the sleeping niches, personal hygiene in
the shower cabin and private intellectual work in the spacious
5-meter tall common room. Eating, preparation of food, child
rearing and entertaining . . .were all factored out of F units into
the communal spaces of the complex” (Buchli: 71).
The failure of so many architects and planners to understand, and incorporate the temporal element required for
social transition has to be among most the glaring reasons
for architecture’s inability to facilitate true social change. “The
historical-geographical experience of revolutionary move30
ments of power (and of materialized utopianisms of any sort)
indicates the deep seriousness of unpreparedness for radical change. Many revolutionary movements did not or could
not free themselves from ways of thinking embedded in the
material circumstances of their past” (Harvey 2000: 203).
So many architects these days lament the passing of architecture as a heroic profession capable of social transformation. Too often I hear phrases that reflect a belief in the impotence of architecture to accomplish anything on its own. While
a certain amount of that rhetoric is true, those statements all
reflect the notion of architecture from a top-down approach that
seeks an authoritarian form of change, not one of democratized
participation.
In contrast to the revolutionary movements of the past,
I no longer believe that a centralized approach which seeks to
rally the masses behind a charismatic leader is the proper solution for a contemporary revolution. In the era of mass communication where information is passed rapidly and easily over
great distances, there is no longer a need for centralization. The
globalized world can be dramatically effected by decentralized,
grassroots organization.
While reading a book by Detroit based activist Grace Lee
Boggs entitled The Next American Revolution, I was struck by
a passage recounting a proposed new direction for the Black
Power movement in late 1960’s America. The proposal by Martin
Luther King Jr., “called for rethinking the meaning of work. He
pushed us to move beyond the notion of labor principally as an
exchange value, an invention of free-market capitalism that has
alienated human being from each other and from Nature while
diminishing our capacities for self-reliance. Quoting the nineteenth century political economist Henry George, King advocated
‘work which improves the conditions of mankind’—the kind of
‘work which extends knowledge and increases power and enriches literature and elevates thought.’ This kind of work ‘is not
done to secure a living,’ King continued. ‘It is not the work of
slaves, driven to their task whither by the lash of a master of by
animal necessities. It is the work of men who perform it for their
own sake and not that they may get more to eat or drink or wear
or display. In a state of society where want is abolished, work of
this sort could be enormously increased” (Boggs: 93).
Figure 27
Martin Luther King Jr., Washington, DC
[http://cce.wsu.edu/Content/Files/cce/
kingphoto.jpg]
31
I had studied MLK Jr. while growing up in Colorado,
and heard countless references to his famous speech “I have a
dream”, but I had never heard anything resembling this revolutionary rethinking of our relationship to work. A new excitement was elicited by this connection to a man of such profound
character. Also, as previously mentioned, I no longer believe that
any socially revolutionary movement will necessitate a charismatic leader to untie us, but I do think that connecting these
ideas to a historical source outside the realm of Marxism is
important. I say this because of the propensity for uninformed
Westerns to connect the Marxist tradition with negative aspects
of Soviet Russia, China, North Korea or Cuba. I also think that
the type of project that this paper sets up is less about a specific political agenda, and more about a re-evaluation of how we
choose to live in this world. With so many global issues confronting us, I feel a strong desire to critically evaluate all the things
that are held up as inevitable results of the human condition, the
free-market being one of the more fundamental of those ideas.
A recent lecture I attended by Gissen, raised a very provocative
association between movements of social revolution and their
propensity to be tied to a form of nature that is often seen as
undesirable. He defines “subnatures” as those forms of nature
deemed “primitive (mud and dankness), filthy (smoke, dust, exhaust), fearsome (gas or debris), or uncontrollable (weeds, insects, and pigeons)” (Gissen: 22). Seeing as I am critically aware
of the need for my project to address nature in an untraditional
way, and the fact that I am interested in spaces of social change,
this seemed a ripe terrain for exploration.
Gissen points to the deployment of these “subnatures”
as a “stand against the remaking of the world into a pulsing circulatory apparatus” (Gissen: 24). While this has direct reference
to the physical mobility of both humanity and material goods, it
also could be connected to the circulation of capital. I think that
this more abstract connection to capital circulation is quite interesting and full of potential. If the city is ever to stand a chance
against it’s constant reworking at the hands of capital and in the
image of the ruling class, a barrier must be erected at some
point.
Figure 28
Paris barricades, 1942 [http://www.flickr.
com/photos/kotaji/2567960718/]
The propensity of the marginalized urban population to
deploy subnatures as a form of agitation for social change was
another aspect of Gissen’s research. He tracks the utilization
of this strategy through various revolutionary moments in Paris, beginning in 1848, and continuing to 1871, he points out that
“revolutionaries erected barricades to block the use of streets
(as conduits) with the socio-natural detritus of industrial urbanization: mud, garbage, debris, and even animal carcasses.
The statement made at the barricades in 1968, 120 years after
these early Parisian riots – “under the street, the beach” – and
oft-quoted by neo-avant-garde architects in the early 1970s is
about the power of social and physical transformation and the
corresponding, strange appearance of subnature. In recent subcultural urban movements, images of mud, bones, smoke, and
exhaust are wielded as provocations within the contemporary
urban sphere. . . we might consider the possibilities of exploiting subnature as a form of agitation or intellectual provocation”
(Gissen: 24-25).
32
I was also curious as to wether the utilization of these
undesirable forms of nature, or subnatures, as Gissen refers to
them, could be a catalyst for the reparation of our ideological
abstraction from nature. “Within a capitalist economy, the nature
outside of society appears as a resource, whether we speak of
a pine tree that is transformed into building lumber or a giant
sequoia tree that people travel thousands of miles to visit in a
national park” (Gissen: 211). As the sustainable movement has
infiltrated conversations in architectural offices and urban municipalities, the tendency to incorporate only those forms of nature that are desirable, or can reap some direct or potential cash
benefit continues to miss the mark. “In contrast, the inherent
resistance of subnatures, such as mosquitoes, dust, or smoke,
to notions of usability and mass consumption positions them as
a different type of nature. Certainly, a subnature can be transformed into a spectacle or commodity, as with more naturalistic
forms of nature, but in general terms, subnatures force us to
confront our prevailing relationships to the environment” (Gissen:
211). This confrontation is the most important aspect of sustainable design, and is the goal of my regenerative design proposal.
33
Conclusions
Throughout the research, I focused on what I consider to be three
of the most important challenges facing architects and society:
labor, the environment, and the city. I began to see an overlap
between all these subjects which would require a thorough consideration of each, if I was to attempt to solve any aspect of them.
Trying to define a trajectory for the rehabilitation of these issues
is not an easy task, but all that is needed is to spark that process,
not to have the entire transformation worked out. What is needed
is an alternative to the current system that begins to “uncover
how to deliver on the promises of considerable improvement in
material well-being and democratic forms, without relying upon
egotistical calculation, raw consumerism, and capital accumulation, how to develop the collective mechanisms and cultural
forms requisite for self-realization outside of market forces and
money power, and how to bring the social order into a better
working relation with environmental and ecological conditions”
(Harvey 2000: 194-195).
The key to this alternative lies in creating a heterotopic
space in the city which can begin to show that another way of constructing, living and inhabiting the city is possible; a way which
reconnects to the pleasure of labor, and confronts our problematic relationship to nature. By offering that alternative, social
change becomes less about an authoritarian approach through
utopian ideology, and more about a gradual awaking which gathers strength through concrete actions of transformation.
34
35
Process.
GP II
36
37
Introduction
We spend the majority of our lives working indirectly to get the
things we actually need, like food, clothing and shelter, many of
which rely on natural systems for their production. This indirect
relationship shapes the space of the city, determining our
interactions with natural systems.
We bike along the seawall or hike in the nearest mountains, which
are both highly enjoyable, but recreation and leisure doesn’t
require a necessary partnership with the land for our survival. If
we are able to reconnect to natural systems directly to get some
of the things we need through our own labour, living a sustainable
lifestyle in the city becomes less about raw consumerism and $6
organic eggs. Potentials are then opened up for new, sustainable,
and mutually beneficial social and spatial possibilities within the
city, allowing for a type of social change.
The investigation into possible alternatives to the current mode
of spatial production and occupation began with the basic
premise that capitalism has forced a very specific type of urbanism based on the fundamental exploitation of nature and
labour, as evidenced by this quote from David Harvey:
“An unrelenting free-market capitalism, [Marx] proves, can
survive ‘only by sapping the original sources of all wealth—the
soil and the laborer,’ making despoliation and degradation of
nature just as important as the devaluation and debasement of
the laborer” (Harvey 2000:175).
I sought a way to use the revaluation of semi-subsistence
labour as a way to counter the current praxis, and to begin a
reparation of the basic partnership between humans and nature
in an attempt to alter behavioral patterns
38
Regenerative Program
The identification of problematic behaviors in relation to the projects objectives helped to outline programmatic considerations.
The flow charts on the following pages (figures 31 & 31) helped
to define how those problematic behaviors related to each other
and how an oppositional behavioral strategy might be addressed
as a way to begin a process of social change.
I first tried to identify a list of social problems that I wanted to
address. Then I set about defining what the opposite or solution
to that problem could be. Once those were discovered, I tried to
identify specific behaviors that would begin to start the transformation of the social problem. This then lead me to define the
ways in which the problem was contributing to the abstraction
and objectification of nature, and how the solution could begin
to remedy those issues. This also gave me a chance to see if I
could begin to utilize nature as Gissen had described in the form
of an AGITATOR; as a way to confront our prevailing relationships
to nature. While this form of nature was compelling, I found it
impossible to use in the final project.
After all this information was amassed I started to make connections between problems, in order to identify how they were
related. This then set up a hierarchy of issues which placed wage
labor and efficiency at the root of the problem. As I linked all
these social issues together, I then used the behavioral transformation I had identified as a way to determine how the program of
my project could facilitate that transformation.
39
KEY
An idea that can begin the transformation from problem to
solution
Another idea that can begin the transformation from problem
to solution
PROBLEM/ISSUE
NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR
How this problem has
influenced and created the
next problem
NEG. BEHAVIOR DIAGRAM
POS. BEHAVIOR DIAGRAM
OPPOSITE/SOLUTION
POSITIVE BEHAVIOR
A specific behavior approach to start the transition from the
negative to the positive behavior.
The relationship to nature that the
problem sets up and its contribution
to the abstraction or objectification
of nature
Figure 29
Key for program diagrams
Description of what the program could be in
relation to the ideas I am trying to approach.
The relationship to nature that the
solution sets up and how it can
contribute to the DE-abstraction or
the DE-objectification of nature
RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE
Can nature can be used in a non-traditional way
so as to challenge the current social sphere?
PROGRAM IDEAS
AGITATOR
Subsistence not abstracted by money commodity. Direct
access to needs promotes empowerment and self-worth.
Creation of a community of people in which to share that
access to material needs, and the labor it requires
WAGE LABOR
EXCHANGE-VALUE
Because
wage
labor
disconnects the laborer
from their immediate needs,
labor is seen as drudgery
and nourishes little pleasure
or satisfaction.
$
NEED
NEED
SUBSISTENCE LABOR
USE-VALUE
Revaluation of the use-value of an object as opposed to the
exchange-value begins the process of increasing our material
consciousness.
Human consciousness can abstract
itself from the immediate material
conditions of existence, because it
no longer must toil in nature for
subsistence.
Nature becomes available to all
classes as a physical partner or
opponent in the work process, not just
a conceptual abstraction.
RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE
SUBSISTENCE
SUBSISTENCE: This program is thought of as
something that is mandatory for creating a
responsible relationship between city and
nature, by reconnecting humanity to the
material conditions of it’s existence.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA),
which offers a work-exchange for goods is the
organizational model I am using as a
precedent. However, I am not relating it to
agricultural needs, but material needs.
In relation to spatial production there is a recognition that the
architectural instinct is universal and therefore biological.
Labor is seen as a social activity that facilitates pleasure and
satisfaction, and doesn't rely on raw consumerism like many
forms of pleasure in contemporary urban society.
LABOR AS WORK
PRODUCT
PLEASURE
PLEASURE
Priority being placed on the process of labor as a continuous
biological act rather than focusing on the final product.
Lack of satisfaction with work finds
outlets in escapism. This escapism is
often facilitated through consumption
and travel.
This mentality values nature as a
romantic ideal rather than a source of
social development through labor.
RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE
LABOR AS BIOLOGICAL
PROCESS
By re-establishing the biological
connection between man and nature
through labor, a different kind of unity
with nature is developed. “Human
beings survive and develop as social
beings by working in cooperation
with nature” (Smith: 37)
CREATION
The CREATION aspect of this part of the
program lies primarily in the way that the
architecture is constructed and manipulated
over time. By engaging the occupant in the
construction, it facilitates a different relationship
to the architecture, a more biological one which
connects their labor to their space. The
architecture would then be adaptable as needs
of the occupants develop, continuing that
biological process of labor through construction,
and shifting focus from product to process.
Figure 30
Program diagram I
40
41
Challenging the fragmentation of labor processes in the name
of efficiency and increased production
A valuation of inefficiency can begin to bring back the much
desired qualities of complexity and heterogeneity to the city
and two our lives.
EFFICIENCY
FASTER/LESS
As a result of efficiency in
production, less human
labor is required know the
whole process. Skills are
fractured and reduced;
deskilling occurs
Only viewing nature as a resource to
enable our current social sphere,
wether it be through circulation,
production, or capital accumulation.
Maintaining the fully abstract view of
nature.
A
B
A
INEFFICIENCY
SLOWER/MORE
B
Slowing down the pulsing circulation of goods, people and
capital to allow for new perspectives of value to emerge.
RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE
Utilizing elements of nature which can slow
circulation rather than enable: mud, puddles, bogs
AGITATOR
By slowing down, we can start to
come back into nature’s rhythm's
and cycle’s instead of trying to shape
them to our needs.
Re-connection to time scales which
value biological/geological systems
rather than just human systems.
REPAIR
Need to understand the objects we use so that we can become
more self-reliant at the scale of the individual, the community,
and the city.
DEPENDENCE
As a result of efficiency in
production, the supply
FROMand
PREVIOUS
greatly increases
the
need to produce artificial
PAGE
desire to off-load that
supply is increasingly
important
The skills and knowledge that is
required to live a life in balance with
nature are no longer needed
because everything we need is
magically produced for us and
available at the local mall.
This programmatic element has the potential
to be CULTURAL because of the value system
it impinges on. Capitalism has created a
“Cult(ure) of Efficiency”, so this space will
challenge anything which touts efficiency of
production as positive metric. Slow city
movements are a possible precedent for how
this space could operate at the building scale.
KNOWLEDGE
Giving people the ability and knowledge to help themselves and
the community.
DESKILLING
CULTURAL
RESKILLING
EMPOWERMENT
Empowering people to be independent of the global commodity
chain.
Less reliance is placed on the
global commodity chain, bringing
consumptions effects on natural
systems back into the local view.
RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE
CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE: centered around the ability to
educate (not through a commodified
knowledge exchange) as a means to
empower the community to be more
self-reliant.
REPAIR: the understanding gained throgh the
production process can start to inform us
FULLabout
DIAGRAM
the things we use, and once we
understnad them, we can repair them.
CULTURAL: the exchange of knowledge
throughout the community as a way to
connect the diversity of skills that are already
inherent to the neighborhood or city. This
would then act as a cultural form of
interaction.
$
Production of surplus is carefully considered and not just
plugged back into the market
Reestablish the tension between desire and need so that the
alienation produced by the commodified experience is
understood as preventing us from interacting with the real
DESIRE AS A F(X)
OF PRODUCTION
CONTINUED
NEXT PAGE
As a result of the
production of desire in
order to move product, the
majority of the spaces of
the city are converted for
consumptive uses
CONSPICUOUS
CONSUMPTION
The need to keep the giant system of
industrial capitalism thriving creates
the production of desire divorced
from necessity, and, in turn, from
natures capacity to meet that desire.
We then take more than we need
because it’s been made available
DESIRE AS A F(X)
OF NECESSITY
CONTROLLED
CONSUMPTION
Consumption controlled by productive limits of natural
systems and by the repression of commercially produced desire.
By gaining knowledge of the
productive capacities of local
resources, one is able to reconnect
desire to a finite, local natural
system.
RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE
COMMODIFIED
Figure 31
Program diagram II
42
Exploitation of nature is indirectly
accomplished through the global
division of labor.
Romantic idealization of nature
creates commodified abstractions
like the “cult of the view”.
Making the city a more balanced space of consumption and
production
$
FUN
FUN
PRODUCTION SPACES
CREATIVE
Creating an alternative space of experience/creativity in the
city apart from raw consumerism and capital accumulation
RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE
Utilizing elements of nature which are not deemed
desirable and therefore easily commodified.
43
FUN
KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE: requires the urbanite to be
aware of the extraction of resources needed
for his/her material production. There would
be connections made to organizations that
sustainably harvest their materials, and/or
networks of reusable resources as a way to
educate producers about how materials are
procured.
CREATION
If we can scale back our consumption, we would no longer
need to have such massive sites of industrial production.
CONSUMPTION SPACES
FUN
AGITATOR
No
longer
able
to
ignore
environmental problems created by
our production and consumption
because it happens in situ.
CULTURAL
CREATION is defined not as industrial
production, but as creative experience and
communal activity.
The CULTURAL component comes into play
here because the space is demonstrating that
cultural experiences should not be
commodified. Creation then becomes a
cultural experience as the process of labor
inherent to it’s production is expressive of the
user, and the specificities of place.
SUBSISTENCE LABOR
USE-VALUE
DESIRE AS A F(X)
OF NECESSITY
CONTROLLED
CONSUMPTION
PRODUCTION SPACES
EMPOWERMENT
SUBSISTENCE
KNOWLEDGE
CREATION
RESKILLING
CREATIVE
REPAIR
LABOR AS BIOLOGICAL
PROCESS
INEFFICIENCY
SLOWER/MORE
Figure 32
Social agenda and program matrix
CULTURAL
Once all the social issues were connected and outlined, a clear
programmatic agenda was identified which could begin a process of social change.
The identification of this programmatic agenda helped to set
the project up as a heterotopic space of urban inhabitation, or a
space marked as an alternative social ordering that could begin
to materialize a process in opposition to the existing order.
“Heterotopia organize a niche of the social world in a way different to that which surrounds them. That alternate ordering
marks them out as Other and allows them to be seen as an
example of an alternative way of doing things . . . Heterotopia,
therefore, reveal the process of social ordering to be just that, a
process rather than a thing” (Kevin Hetherington paraphrased
in Harvey 2000:184).
Thus, the strategy for the project relies on a process of social
and spatial re-ordering which can then be deployed on a test site
within the city of Vancouver.
44
Social Re-Ordering
An attempt was then made to try to understand the seasonal
cycles of subsistence based production which would stand in
contrast to continuous production and consumption cycles disjointed from natural limits.
The current model of continuous production and consumption
we employ has greatly increased production to exploit vast geographically specific resources on a global level. Consumption
has intensified to the point that we no longer respect the seasonal requirements nor the labour processes associated with
the production of our subsistence needs.
Standing in contrast to that system is one which values seasonal
cycles and processes as a metric for consumption limits. This
system also respects the labour associated with the process as a
fundamental aspect of the desired social transformation.
A series of productive interfaces between human and natural
systems associated with subsistence were identified in figure 33.
The black boxes on the left of the diagram indicate the different
interfaces. Lines are then drawn from those interfaces to the colored semi-circle on the right of the diagram which identifies different labour processes that are associated with each interface.
These specific labour types are organized into three specific temporal categories which follow production from growing/raising,
to harvesting/processing, and finally to preservation/storage. In
the middle of the diagram, those lines are run through a monthly
filter that measures the frequency with which each labour type
is conducted throughout the year; the thicker the dash, the more
of that labour type is needed in that particular month. After the
final month, the line is carried through a circle which denotes
wether the labour required is skilled or unskilled.
The seasonality of the labour cycles helped me to identify how
space would be affected throughout the year, as well as to understand the division of labour between skilled and unskilled.
45
NI
OU
NG
TD
OO
R)
ING
/P
RU
NG
NI
Livestock
HO
TH
IN
EI
N
G
NT
NS
PLA
POTT
IN
G
(INDOOR
SEEDING
WEEDING
G
FEEDIN
TRA
SE
ED
IN
G(
Li
ER
WAT
G
TIN G
MA
N
HI
T
G
R
IN
BI
RS
G
NU
TIN
RA
ST
A
C
ING
)
ING
A IS
R
/
NG
WI
O
GR
M
SKILLED
UNSKILLED
ING
H
LC
MU
Garden
Fi
Field
OCESSING
NG
FTI
GRA
LING
CUL
L)
(WOO
RING
SHEA
G
IN
MILK
(EGGS)
CTING
E
L
L
O
C
)
NG (HONEY
EXTRACTI
BUTCHERING
R
ING/P
VEST
NG
HI
NC
NG
E
WI
TR
RO
G
R
FU AZIN
GR
HAR
Ga
J F M A M J J A S O N D
NG
RI
U
AN
SKINNING
PICKING
Wo
SHUC
KING
Woodland
WAS
H
ING
Or
SCH
YTI
NG
EA
VIN
G
RE
SH
IN
F
G
PE ELLI
NG
EL
IN
CO
G
PP
(B
AR
IC
TA
IN
K)
DA PPI
G
N
IR
G
YI
N
G
TH
Orchard
NN
CA
Wi
Wild
G
IN
NG
NI
N
TA
GE
G
TIN
SAL
KING
SMO
ING
SILAGE
SPINNING
BREWING
G
DRYIN
MIL
ING
SEA
SO
N
ING
SU
GA
L
R
E
I
N
AT
G
HE
RIN
JU
IC
G
IN
G
E
PR
Figure 23
Possible interfaces with nature and their
labour cycles. [Partial organizational structure
of this diagram references the “Plot Lines”
diagram created by Christian Tate
http://www.christiantate.co.uk/?p=600]
46
SH
RA
TO
S
G/
IN
V
R
SE
47
Skilled and Unskilled
Labour
In figure 34, the skilled labour was separated out to understand
the type of skilled overseers that would be required to implement
the system. These skilled overseers would preferably be members of the immediate community.
Figure 35 separates out the unskilled labour in order to provide
an understanding of where within the process, the community
could immediately engage the system without prior experience.
As a result of the fact that a majority of the labour requirements
are unskilled, the community need only be willing to contribute
their labour power to the project in order to reap the benefits.
48
49
PR
NN
IN
G/
TH
I
Li
UN
IN
G
G
T IN G
MA
N
HI
G
RT
IN
BI
RS
G
NU
TIN
A
R
ST
CA
Farmer
Livestock
Ga
J F M A M J J A S O N D
SKILLED
UNSKILLED
Garden
NG
FTI
GRA
LING
CUL
L)
(WOO
RING
SHEA
G
IN
MILK
Fi
)
NG (HONEY
EXTRACTI
ING
ER
TCH
BU
Field
SKINNING
Arborist/Forester
Wo
Woodland
Or
SCH
YTI
Orchard
FE
LL
CO
TA
P
DA
I
Wi
PP
RY
PI
IC
IN
NG
NG
IN
G
IN
G
G
Wild
NG
NI
N
TA
KING
ING
T
SAL
SMO
ING
SILAGE
SPINNING
BREWING
ING
MIL
Butcher
Figure 34
Skilled labour needs
50
51
I NG
OO
R)
NT
Livestock
N
G
HO
EI
TH
IN
SE
Li
NI
ED
NG
/P
RU
IN
G(
NI
OU
NG
TD
NS
PLA
TRA
POTT
ING
DOOR)
SEEDING
(IN
WEEDING
FEEDIN
ER
WAT
ING
G
ING
A IS
R
/
NG
WI
O
GR
G
IN
UR
AN
M
NG
HI
C
EN
SKILLED
UNSKILLED
GGS)
(E
CTING
COLLE
Field
PICKING
Wo
SHUC
KING
Woodland
WAS
H
ING
Or
SH
TH
EA
VIN
RE
Orchard
PE
EL
G
(B
IN
G
AR
K)
N
CA
Wi
IN
G
SH
NG
G
GE
DRYIN
ING
MIL
SEA
SO
NIN
SU
G
GA
LE
RIN
A
G
T
H
E
RIN
JU
IC
G
IN
G
NI
Wild
E
PR
Figure 35
Unskilled labour needs
52
53
G/
N
I
RV
SE
A
OR
T
S
OCESSING
Fi
R
ING/P
VEST
Garden
HAR
Ga
J F M A M J J A S O N D
G
IN
OW
TR
RR ING
U
F
AZ
GR
G
HIN
LC
MU
Capital Input
Li
Wool share
1 per year (april)
$$
OR
Honey share
2 times year (june & sept)
Ga
Fi
Wo
Or
$$$ (w/o paddock)
$
Milk share (goat)
weekly (year round)
$$
OR
$$$ (w/o paddock)
Egg share
weekly (year round)
$
OR
$$ (w/o paddock)
Veggie share
weekly (year round)
seasonal variation
$$
Veggie share
bi -weekly (June-October)
seasonal variation
$$
Grain share
weekly (late summer)
$
Nut share
weekly (late summer/early
fall)
$
Maple sugar share
1 per year (late winter)
$
Wood and/or bark share
when available (year round)
$
Fruit share
weekly (late summer)
Figure 36
Possible share types in each interface
Time Requirements
$$
The diagram above illustrates a breakdown of the possible share
types for each productive interface. The shares were mapped out
in relation to the amount of capital input required for their establishment as well as the amount of time that would be required
of the shareholders to participate in the process. Seeing as the
project is trying to identify an alternative economic structure,
the shares that require the least capital input are considered to
be ideal. By understanding the time requirements for each, as
well as the seasonal quality of the shares, people interested in a
certain share would have a rough idea of how much labour they
would need to be willing to contribute.
These share types dealt with shares that needed to be started
from scratch as well as those that already existed in the urban
woodland. Therefore, the organization of harvest networks for
the existing fruit and nut-bearing trees, or the tapping of Big Leaf
Maples need only be coordinated in order to create shares.
54
Chicken Share
Figure 37 explores a possible breakdown for raising chickens.
Metrics were related to the process as a way to gauge how
many people would be needed, and how many eggs could be
expected.
The example illustrated would result in roughly 6 eggs/week per
person in exchange for a minimum a labour. This also helped
to determine what type of tasks could be split up amongst
shareholders and how much food and water would be required
for a given number of chickens. The diagram also points out the
different needs for feeding which could be either fresh pasture
supplied at no cost, or commercial feed, supplied at market
value.
One possible labour division among 4 people could be devised by
creating 4 different shift types that are held for 3-month intervals. The tasks assigned would be as follows:
1. Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday (morning) - egg collection, feed and water.
2. Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday (afternoon) - egg collection
3. Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday (morning) - egg collection, feed
and water.
4. Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday (afternoon) - egg collection
It is important to point out that the project is not attempting to be
an outlet for full subsistence. The object is to allow as many people as are willing, to take back some measure of independence
in respect to their subsistence needs. Once people are exposed
to the benefits of this type of urban inhabitation, even if it’s only
once a week, a step in the processual social transformation occurs.
55
FE
ED
250 lbs/year
1/32 acre/year
OR
2,190 liters/year
2.5 years
ING
WEEDING
POTT
TER
WA
ING
FEEDIN
G
1440 eggs/year
Li
Livestock
J F M A M J J A S O N D
SKILLED
UNSKILLED
ING
MILK
GGS)
(E
CTING
COLLE
BUTCHERING
Butcher
SKINNING
PICKING
SHUC
KING
Figure 37
Labour breakdown for chicken care
56
57
Materials Cycles
Once the labour cycles were understood, the physical materials that would be most critical to the construction of the system
were identified. It is important that every step of the process in
this project’s realization explores alternative strategies that are
in line with the social agenda. Too often, socially radical architecture expects that once the constructed intervention is in place,
change can begin. Those projects are then forced to utilize the
exact system they are seeking to change in order to realize their
new agendas. However, this project aims to reconsider the material sourcing as well as the construction as integral to the social
agenda, forcing each step in the process to be re-considered.
air holes
container
worms and scraps
bedding
waterproof tray
compost
walk
plant
walk
plant
compost
plant
compost
walk
YR 1
YR 2
YR 3
For building materials research was done on the process of single family house demolition, and the cyclical nature of material
availability in concordance with the issuing of demolition permits
within the City of Vancouver (see figure 39). If even a small percentage of these homes were deconstructed as opposed to demolished, materials could then be sourced by the community for
the construction of these proposed subsistence based interventions. Typically, the cost of demolition is comparable to deconstruction. However, with the adding benefit of being able to write
off the value of any materials donated to a community building
project, deconstruction would be a far superior financial and social choice.
Of equally critical importance is the building of productive soil
within the city. Since much of the soil is covered by pavement,
composting practices at the household and community level become mandatory endeavors. This gives community members an
additional incentive to compost their waste, since it is then used
directly for the production of some of their subsistence needs.
Figure 38
Different methods for building soil: (from
top) worm composting, bin composting,
trench composting, animal manuring, and
crop rotation.
58
59
Deconstruction/Month In Vancouver
for Single Family Housing
January
2010
2011
2012
February
1. Remove roof and truss structure
March
J
April
F
D
100
2. Disassemble interior walls
on second floor
3. Remove exteror walls and structural
interior walls on second floor
A
50
O
June
M
N
May
4. Remove flooring and joists on
second floor
July
M
S
5. Repeat steps 2 - 4 for first floor
A
August
J
J
September
6. Remove concrete foundation
de
gra
October
November
December
2010-2012
Average
Process
Figure 39
Single family housing deconstruction in Vancouver
2010 - 2012 [Based on stats found at http://
vancouver.ca/home-property-development/
statistics-on-construction-activity.aspx]
60
61
Spatial Re-Ordering
Streets, Lanes, Sidewalks
29%
Single Family Housing
32%
90%
Consumptive
10%
Productive
Schools, Social & Public Sevice
4%
Industrial & Utilities
6%
Commercial
4%
Vacant Lots & Construction
3%
Figure 40
Current land- use breakdown for the City
of Vancouver highlighting discrepancy
between productive and consumptive
uses [Based on stats given by City of
Vancouver]
Multi Family Housing
9%
Parks
10%
Golf Courses
3%
Looking at Vancouvers current land use breakdown, it is similar
to the majority of large western cities in its disproportionate relationship between production and consumption. Even the 10%
marked as productive is questionable in the sense that the industrially zoned spaces are primarily for the creation of material
goods that continue to drive capital flows throughout the region
and the globe. This creates a form of industry that has little positive effect on the surrounding community.
The identification of under-utilized spatial conditions within the
current land use model, allows for a re-programming of segments of the city that can begin to create a networked heterotopic space of production. Spatial typologies are chosen that can
create complimentary relationships to accommodate all aspects
of community production. These spaces include parks, parking
spaces along bike routes, and vacant industrial buildings.
62
63
Parks
10%
Figure 41
Park space in the Vancouver highlighted
in green
10%
The park can be seen as the hub of the system because of their
relatively even distribution around the city, placing 92% of vancouverites within a 5 minute walk of a park. There are also many
parks in the city that residents find boring because of their lack of
programming beyond park benches, sports fields, or children’s
play equipment.
Parks are also underutilized for around 6 months a year and even
then they are, it is primarily only offering an interaction with nature which favors leisure and recreation. If the abstraction of nature is to be challenged, the re-programming of our park-space
is of fundamental importance.
These spaces would serve as a place of skill-building, teaching
the community to grow, raise, harvest and preserve. The parks
would also become social gathering points during large scale
seasonal harvests, or for weekly processing needs.
64
Parking along bike lanes
29%
Figure 42
Current network of bike lanes in Vancouver highlighted in red
As public transit improves and cars become smaller and less
necessary in the city, the vast territory designated for parking can
be re-programmed. However, in order to maintain some organization in the selection of these parking spaces, only those lining
the north and east side of the current network of bike lanes in the
city were considered. The north and east sides were chosen for
their favorable access to sustained sunlight.
Street-side parking spaces also have the distinction of being
managed by the city. This is important because these spaces do
not adhere to problematic property ownership laws which would
complicate their potential usage within the proposed system.
These parking spaces would expand the growing area for fiber
and food production, linking growing space around the neighborhood and connecting it to park sites for community harvest events.
There is also the added benefits of promoting the usage of bicycles
as the primary means of transport for the system, and enabling
bike commuters to participate en route to, or from work.
65
%
Industrial buildings
6%
Figure 43
Land zoned for industrial uses in Vancouver highlighted in blue
Another land use typology that is in need of a re-programming
is industrial space. The neighborhoods that possess the majority of available industrial space were built at a much finer grain,
one not intended to house the current mega-scale of globalized
industrial production. As a result, a huge amount of productive
interior space is left vacant and unused. Some of these spaces
lie vacant for years, eventually succumbing to demolition or rezoning proposals by real-estate developers.
Following a precedent set by Sole Foods (an urban farm in Vancouver that has leased unused parking lots from developers to
grow food for community needs, in exchange for deductions on
property taxes from the city), my project aims to consider vacant
buildings in an economically similar manner. Vacant industrial
space is then utilized for much needed food storage and lowtech processing of neighborhood building materials, allowing for
productive usage between paying tenant cycles. Exterior building
conditions are considered for growing, storage or livestock shelter. Building owners are then given property tax deductions in
exchange for their contribution to community infrastructure.
66
Streets, Lanes, Sidewalks
29% - 1/8
7%
Reclaimed for new
community production
Industrial & Utilities
6% - 1/8
Parks
10% - 1/4
Figure 44
Re-imagined land-use breakdown for
Vancouver
67
Looking back at the original Vancouver Land Use diagram, we
can begin to overlay the potentially reclaimed space for productive uses. Since the project is looking at the beginning of the process, a proposal that would take 1/8 of the existing streets, 1/8
of the existing industrial buildings, and 1/4 of the existing parks
could reclaim 7% of urban land for a new community production
system. This total may seem small but when compared to the
current 10% allocated for a production system that benefits a
small number of Vancouver’s population, this 7% could benefit a
dramatically larger percentage of the population.
Test Site
Grandview-Woodlands
TEST SITE
Grandview-Woodland
Figure 45 & 46
Location and land-use of GrandviewWoodlands neighborhood [Diagram at
right courtesy of Grandview-Woodland
Community Profile 2012]
The Grandview-Woodlands neighborhood of East Vancouver is the
chosen site for the project. This area was chosen for it’s unique
demographic identity, zoning adjacencies and building stock.
The area possesses the third lowest household income in the city
of Vancouver. However, it doesn’t have the same intensity of social issues found in the Downtown Eastside, making it’s potential
as a test site more advantageous. As a result of lower incomes,
possible alternatives for subsistence production could be a welcome initiative for community members.
Grandview-Woodlands has almost double the average number
of creatives compared to the citywide average, making it a great
place for a creative social alternative.
68
Almost a quarter of the neighborhood is zoned industrial.
There is a high concentration of first nations in the neighborhood,
and many possess a vast knowledge of subsistence lifestyles.
And finally, there is a decreasing population index, which places
less developmental pressure on the area, and offers a higher
number of vacant and underutilzed spaces.
The northern portion of the neighborhood was of primary interest because of the concentration of industrial space, park space,
housing of varied densities, and connection to major bike routes.
Within that area of the neighborhood, many of the industrial
buildings were also vacant and looking for tenants.
Figure 49 identifies the networked connection of underutilized
spatial typologies near the existing Adanac and Lakewood bike
routes, as well as highlighting available square footage. The
axo also includes a proposed east/west extension of the Mosaic
bikeway which currently terminates one block north of Hastings
Street. This extension would increase connections for the proposed system, while forging stronger links to downtown.
Figure 47
A small selection of the many for sale,
rent or lease building in GrandviewWoodlnads.
Figure 48
Isolation of northern section of Grandview-Woodlands
69
COMMERCIAL
MOSAIC
(bike)
HASTINGS
ADANAC
(bike)
Parking Along Bike Routes
217 Spaces:
39, 060 sq/ft
18’
10’
Average size
Vacant Industrial Buildings
Exterior:
North Side - 17, 300 sq/ft
South Side - 15, 650 sq/ft
West Side - 44, 874 sq/ft
East Side - 21, 745 sq/ft
Roof - 172, 630 sq/ft
20’
80’
Interiors:
Around 500,000 sq/ft
125’
Average size
Parks
Medium Size Parks
(1):
196, 715 sq/ft
Small Size Parks (3):
67,787 sq/ft
Figure 49
Exploded axonometric of networked
underutilized space
300’
615’
Medium Size
Existing
70
Spatial Availability
and Spatial Needs
After the identification of sites suitable for spatial re-programming, the original diagram displaying the labour cycles associated with each interface was overlayed with spatial needs and
spatial availability (figure 50).
The amended diagram examines the spatial needs of each specific labour type. If a task requires a new constructed space, a
circle with an abbreviation for the spatial need (i.e., greenhouse,
smokehouse, etc.) is attached to the colored line. There are however, many tasks which do not need a newly constructed space
but still require a specific type of spatial condition. These needs
are then filtered through the new outer rings of the diagram
which serve as the catalogue of available spaces identified for
spatial re-programing. Each need is then paired with the best
potential available spaces.
Figure 51 isolates the interventions for an existing park building, showing which interfaces (livestock, garden, field, etc.) and
labour types could be accommodated. A diagrammatic spatial
representation is then shown in axonometric to illustrate how
and where these interventions could be placed on the existing
building.
71
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RAINWATER COLLECTION
AS
ANIMAL SHELTER
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GREENHOUSE
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H
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CP
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CP
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H
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EA
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RE
SH
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G
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NG
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PP
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TA
IN
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N
IR
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US
US
CP
US
CP
US
US
CP
CP
CP
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G
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SMO
ING
SILAGE
SPINNING
BREWING
G
N
G
12
SM
G
SI
US
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I
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RC
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SW
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US
2
SS
4
Wi
CP
CP
CP
US
SH
S
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IN
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Figure 50
Spatial availability and spatial needs
72
RI
TO
CP
COVERED PROCESSING
SD
SOLAR DRYER
SI
SILO
SM
SMOKEHOUSE
SS
SUGAR SHACK
SD
SAWMILL
RC
ROOT CELLAR
US
UNHEATED STOREROOM
73
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GH
Livestock
Ga
J F M A M J J A S O N D
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UNSKILLED
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RW
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Field
Wo
Woodland
CP
CP
WAS
H
CP
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CP
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Orchard
CP
CP
CP
CP
CP
NG
NI
Wild
CP
CP
N
CA
Wi
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SAL
Figure 51
Intervention for existing park building
74
ING
75
SH
IN
G
CP
CP
76
77
Implications.
GP II
78
The following pages explore a series of potential narratives describing a process of community engagement with the system
in axonometric. These narratives were overlayed on a portion of
the proposed site to understand the spatial implications of this
system of community-based subsistence production (see figure
52 for siting of narrative axo).
The new spaces are partially self-built by the community using natural and locally available materials (clay bricks, cedar,
fir, etc.), as well as materials sourced from deconstructed local
homes.
Figure 52
Location of narrative axo in relation to
identified network of community production
79
Figure 53
Narrative axonometric
SH
SW
SS
CP
RC
180°
AS
RB
80
81
Growing
Seeding
RB
Figure 54
Growing narrative axo
Parking spaces expand the growing surface for food and fiber
production. The spaces are them populated with arrays of raised
beds organized to accommodate specific growing needs.
Figure 55
Seeding narrative axo
A production box is deployed every few blocks to give workers access to rainwater for watering, tools for gardening, and compost
bins for organic waste disposal and soil building.
Neighborhood residents build soil from waste at home, and utilize that soil to start seeds in their windowsills or balconies. Seeing as purpose-built infrastructure for seed-starting will be at a
minimum in the early years, taking advantage of the ideal conditions which can be found in south or west facing windows is of
utmost importance.
New trees or plants nursed in the home are then transplanted
outdoors in the parking space raised beds, or in other underutilzed spaces marked for community production.
82
83
Felling
Figure 56
Felling narrative axo
Trees are removed in the neighborhood by local community
members under supervision of a skilled forester, preferably one
within the neighborhood. The trees are then transported to vacant buildings for processing and storage.
84
Sugaring
SS
RC
Figure 57
Sugaring narrative axo
Before sugaring season begins in February, local parks (using
community labour) must build the necessary infrastructure to
complete the refining of the sugar through boiling.
The building process shown above illustrates how clay removed
for the digging of parks root cellar (another infrastructural necessity) can then be used to make earthen bricks for the building
of the community chimney. This chimney then can be fitted for an
evolving set of seasonal uses including meat smoking, sugaring,
baking, and cooking. When the infrastructure is in place, local
Big Leaf Maples can be tapped for sap. Once the buckets are
filled, they are transported by bicycle back to the park for neighborhood sugaring events.
Processing and storage of all items produced for the community
should take advantage of low-tech, non energy intensive methods.
85
Deconstruction. Construction.
Figure 58
Deconstruction and construction narrative axo
As materials become available from the deconstruction of local houses, community subsistence infrastructure can be built
according to need. The above example shows the re-purposing
of windows for the park greenhouse. Once the greenhouse is in
place, community members can be educated on seed-starting
and indoor growing techniques which can be practiced at home.
86
Wood Processing
SW
Figure 59
Wood processing narrative axo
As neighborhood trees are transported to vacant industrial buildings, low-tech processing can begin. Logs are stripped of their
bark using a drawknife and bark can then be used to tan the
hides of game shot in the wild, or livestock recently butchered.
After the logs are peeled, they are cut into planks with a twoman pit saw and left to season (dry) naturally for anywhere from
4-12 months. Not only is this a more environmentally appropriate way to season logs (lumber kilns are very energy-intensive),
but it is also better for the wood’s structural fiber. Once dried,
they can be used by the community members who harvested and
prepared the lumber for personal, or community use.
87
Community Harvest
RC
CP
SS
Figure 60
Community harvest narrative axo
When the harvest season approaches, networks are created
through the bike routes to allow for neighborhood harvest by bicycle. These networks utilize a temporary tent structure set up
at the local park for intensive processing.
Certain weekends during the harvest season that require the use
of many hands for processing, such as corn-shucking or applecoring, become community events. A portion of the harvest is
then used for communal celebration.
88
89
Bibliography.
90
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Gissen, David. Subnature: Architecture’s Other Environments.
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92
93
Appendix A.
Final Presentation Panels
94
Social Re-Ordering
RW
RAINWATER COLLECTION
AS
ANIMAL SHELTER
GH
GREENHOUSE
RB
RAISED BED
)
OR
UT
DO
4
G
IN
CH
G
IN
EN
OW
TR
G
RR
FU AZIN
GR
2
G
HIN
LC
G
TIN
GRAF
ING
CULL
L)
(WOO
NG
RI
SHEA
ING
MILK
GS)
TING (EG
COLLEC
NG (HONEY)
ACTI
EXTR
BUTCHERING
MU
Garden
Fi
MS
AS
Field
AB
SKINNING
AB
PICKING
Wo
CP
SHUC
CP
Woodland
KING
CP
CP
WAS
HI
CP
Or
NG
SCH
CP
PE
US
US
CO
CP
CP
CP
G
ING
SALT
NIN
ING
12
G
SILAGEIN
SMOK
BREWING
G
SPINNING
8
SM
2
SM
4
SI
CP
6
SI
US
CP
IN
G
SD
US
CP
N
TA
SD
US
NIN
SD
US
G
N
CA
US
DRYIN
V
SEA
SO
NIN
SU
G
GA
RIN
AT
G
HE
RIN
G
IN
G
IC
JU
LE
SD
SH
LL
IN
PP
(B
AR
IC
TA
IN
K)
DA PPIN
G
IR
YIN G
G
CP
CP
US
US
SW
RE
FE
EL
YTIN
G
EA
VIN
G
IN
G
G
SH
TH
Orchard
SS
I am attempting to create an alternative method of spatial production
and occupation dependent upon seasonal cycles of community
supported subsistence programs (food, clothing and shelter), which
utilizes labor as the primary means of exchange. By reconnecting us to
the systems necessary for the fulfillment of our most basic needs,
Nature becomes available to all classes as a physical partner through
the process of labor.
Figure 61
Presentation panel #1
95
IN
G
The Socio-Spatial
Implications of Labour
Thesis
MILKING STATION
G
6
AN
SKILLED
UNSKILLED
Wild
COVERED PROCESSING
IN
G
IN
UR
AS
Wi
ANIMAL SHELTER
RU
N
G/P
NIN
GH
AS
HO
EIN
G
GH
RW
)
NS
PLA
NTI
NG
TRA
SE
ED
IN
G (O
(INDOOR
POTT
ING
WEEDING
SEEDING
G
FEEDIN
ING
RW
GH
TH
IN
|
2
|
1
ER
WAT
RW
GH
M
Ga
ABATTOIR
AS
CP
TING
VE S
HAR
AS
GH
AS
Livestock
J F M A M J J A S O N D
AB
MS
12
INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS
GH
AS
8
Li
G
TIN G
MA
IN
TH
G
BIR SIN
R
G
NU
TIN
RA
ST
CA
E
|
13
|
11
E
10
G
M
HO
E
|
AP
SC
G
IN
ND
RK
LA
g)
ld
PA
|
)
gb
m
in
12
iu
ist
l)
x
ed
al
(e
(m
m
RK
RK K (s VED
A
A
P
A
R
P
|
PA UNP VED
|
|
PA OR
9
|
8
RI
7
TE
OF
IN
RO
|
|
DE
6
SI
5
T
DE
ES
SI
W
E
ST
|
ID
4
EA H S
E
|
T
ID
3
OR H S
N
UT
SO
14
IN
ST
XI
P
G/
IN
RV
SE
RE
OR
ST
CP
COVERED PROCESSING
SD
SOLAR DRYER
SI
SILO
SM
SMOKEHOUSE
CP
SUGAR SHACK
SD
SAWMILL
RC
ROOT CELLAR
US
UNHEATED STOREROOM
Spatial Re-Ordering
Bike Lane Connection
and Available Space
Bike Lanes
Parking Along Bike Routes
10’
217 Spaces:
39, 060 sq/ft
18’
Average size
Industrial Space
Vacant Industrial Buildings
Exterior:
North Side - 17, 300 sq/ft
South Side - 15, 650 sq/ft
West Side - 44, 874 sq/ft
East Side - 21, 745 sq/ft
Roof - 172, 630 sq/ft
20’
80’
Interiors:
Around 500,000 sq/ft
125’
Average size
Parks
Parks
Medium Size Parks (1):
196, 715 sq/ft
Small Size Parks (3):
67,787 sq/ft
300’
615’
Medium Size
Existing
Figure 62
Presentation panel #2
96
Implications
CP
SW
SH
SS
180°
RC
AS
RB
Figure 63
Presentation panel #3
97
98
99
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM
READING ROOM AUTHORIZATION
In presenting this report in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the advanced degree in the
Architecture Program at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Architecture Reading
Room shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for
extensive copying of this report for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Chair of Architecture
or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for
financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.
Name of Author
Date
Signature
Title
Degree
Program
Year of Graduation Ceremony