Joey Giaimo is a recent graduate of the Masters program from the School of Architecture and Landscape Archi- tecture at the University of British Columbia. He is currently practicing in Vancouver and is a member of Space- Agency, a local group of artists, architects and writers making space for knowledge and discus- sion of architecture in the public realm.
The impact of the GlowSticks is unknown. Will they be used for violent means? Will they be taken away? Will the area’s club and bar patrons use them as a means to continue their festivities on the streets? Will they be ignored? Paradoxically, their success will rely on bureaucratic support to create the serendipitous moments which the city craves and architects have been indicted of not supplying. The architectural response is that often the strictures imposed by bureaucracy are so prescrip- tive that there is little room for spontaneity. This GlowStick proposal presents the municipality with the opportunity to plan the unplanned, to insert this ‘serendipity’ on a slot of land that they both own and control. The sticks glow brightly in daylight and warm temperatures. Evening temperatures cool the sticks, slow down the reaction and emit a softer glow. This night mode regenerates the GlowSticks and prepares them for the following day where, in daylit warmth they will resume their brightness. Even simply placing the sticks upon the block’s cleared surface allows them to perpetually metamorphise on their own. Although large sticks glow much longer than the small ones, their light will eventually diminish and be replaced with replenished sticks, producing different intensities throughout their duration on site. Observation and speculative intervention questions how public space is understood, perceived and presented, and reveals how the structure of the city rigorously dictates the use of its spaces. The disruption of construction procedures and subsequent GlowStick intervention present opportunities for new and different adaptive spatial practices in a city in dire need of difference. c
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