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On Site review issue 7 2002

publisher Field Notes Press guest editor Tom Strickland editor Stephanie White contributors Lisa Der Marc Dufour Deirdre Harris Ilona Hay Sherazad Jamal Filiz Klassen Andrew King Bianca Lagueux Tracey MacTavish Tanner Merkeley Tonkao Panin Chris Roberts Sam Smith Tom Strickland Talbot Sweetapple Stephanie White Jennifer Wise translations Nathan Golden Raymond Arés

O ur guest editor for this issue is Tom Strickland, who has written before in On|Site, from the Hutterites meeting globalism in Issue 5 to the cement board siding of KPMB’s Jackson Triggs Winery in Issue 6. David Tsai whose Blood Pen we published in Issue 6 has received a top award for this project from CORE 77 in New York. See www.core77.com for details and other competition entries. Snøhetta, whose Turner Gallery in Margate was also in Issue 6 has been shortlisted for Goldsmith’s College in London. Snøhetta, located in Oslo, Norway is an international practice based on competitions, their first, famously, the Alexandria Library in Egypt. Their site is www.snoarc.no Entries for the Architecture for Humanity competition for a Mobile HIV/AIDS Health Clinic for Africa are due November 1, 2002. Details and information can be found at <admin@architectureforhumanity.org> In Issue 6, on page 26, we inadvertantly printed KPMB Architects, as KPMG, who I understand are famous accountants, not famous architects. Our apologies to Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg, architects of Jackson Triggs Winery. This building has recently received an award from Interior Design Magazine (New York: see the January 2002 issue).

cover

back: graffiti found in the Pilking - ton Glass building lifted and re- used on interior glass partitions. photographs by Jason Stang. see Jennifer Wise, p 8. front: ez house by AKA Andrew King Studio. development draw- ing of the front cantilever by Paul Stady in form z . see inter- view on p 46.

editorial consultant Linda M Cunningham design & production Black Dog Running Syntax Media Services printer Makeda Press, Calgary

published with the support of the Canada Council Publishing Program 2002

Stephanie White editor

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B oarded up buildings, crumbling warehouses and weed covered lots: this is Winnipeg’s industrial district, our city’s best-kept secret. Located just south east of Main Street and Higgins Avenue, this area is rarely acknowledged and largely avoided.Winnipeg’s ability to erase or tune out the existence of this district is what I call ‘civic stoicism’. Civic stoicism allows us to endure our urban decay, as if nothing can be done while conducting endless debates and ideas, without action, without decisions, only stagnation.To confront urban neglect with solu- tions is what I call ‘civic action’. John Ruskin wrote about it in 1851: buildings are reflections of a coun - try’s history and people; if we neglect our buildings, we neglect ourselves. When Portland, Oregon legislated an expansion limit on city developmen, initially developers protested. But construction did not stop; instead it became more creative focussing on abandoned sites within the city. This same potential exists in Winnipeg’s industrial dis- trict. If buildings are reflections of ourselves, and many of Winnipeg’s most interesting spaces are boarded up or abandoned, then what does that say about our values? Will we continue being stoic, or is it time to take civic action? 

real places: Winnipeg

Tanner Merkeley

Tanner Merkeley is a Winnipeg photog- rapher, architecture student, and activist. He presently involved in the Canada25 political movement focusing on making Canadian cities more liveable and robust centres over the next 25 years.

the abandoned Winnipeg Flour Company

Sucreries Des immeubles condamnés, des entrepôts sur le point de s’effondrer et des terrains recouverts de mauvaises herbes : il s’agit du district industriel de Winnipeg, notre secret le mieux gardé – au sud- ouest de la rue Principale, à l’angle de l’avenue Higgins. Pour la plupart des gens, cette lignée

rien. J’appelle « responsabilité civile » le fait de faire face à la négligence urbaine de notre ville et de trouver des solu- tions. Si les immeubles sont le reflet de nous-mêmes, et que plu- sieurs des espaces intéressants de Winnipeg sont condamnés, qu’en est-il de nos valeurs? Au

fur et à mesure que nous, la prochaine génération, pre- nons notre place à la table de discussion civile, continu- erons-nous d’être stoïques, ou le temps est-il venu d’assumer nos responsabilités?

de terrains n’existe pas – son existence est rarement recon- nue et surtout évitée. La capac- ité de Winnipeg d’effacer ou d’omettre l’existence de ce dis- trict est ce que j’appelle du «stoïcisme civil ». Le stoïcisme civil nous permet d’ignorer notre déchéance civile, comme si on n’y pouvait

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I f any of you readers out there have a project of interest, or know of something worth looking at in your region, please let us know. Most of the articles in On|Site are a response to a call put out by the editor a few months before each issue. The next issue, 8, will be edited by Deborah Asche and Robert Barnstone. Issue 9 will be edited by Tonkao Panin and Juan Manuel Heredia. Their call for articles, due November 1, 2002 is below. As well as the articles and projects that fit directly into the theme of each issue, there are a number of other venues. Real Places is about where you live and what you see there. Letters is just that, a letter about what you are thinking these days. Over the Transom is work sent to us, on spec, by readers. Details shows some very nifty bit of building and how it is done. Articles are published in the language in which they are originally written. We then do a short precis for translation into either French or English. contact: editor@onsitereview.ca On the Surface What you see is what you get: What you get is not what you see. The question at hand explores the power of architectural surface to shape and reshape the identities of both architecture and place; how architecture as it appears in direct experience —be it in its ‘imme- diacy’ as a given texture or in its remoteness as an ‘image’— gives us references and clues to the work of architecture itself and of the larger social, cultural and natural framework of its location.This two- way movement towards an inner and outer horizon endows architec- tural surface with the capacity to generate meaning — or ideology — and locates it in the crucial juncture by which it seems capable of transcending its own superficiality in many possible directions. This inquiry into the depth of architectural Surface (Skin-Cover- ing-Dressing-Cladding) touches upon its visible and non-visible manifestations, i.e. upon its practical, material, constructional, and representational aspects. Addressing various examples and innova- tive ways of thinking and building architectural surface in contempo- rary practice, the proposed subjects may include but not be limited to issue 9: call for articles

Contents

introduction T om S trickland looks at the transformative role of architecture in the increasing complexity our culture.

real places T anner M erkely decides to be less stoical about Win- nipeg.

projects J ennifer W ise tells us about Critical Mass in the Pilkington Building. S herazad J amal describes her WTC 11:09:01 memory site. S am S mith takes permaculture to the ruins of a refugee camp in Macedonia. work in progress T albot S weetapple and T om S trickland in conversation about how a small firm does a large building. A ndrew K ing talks about getting a house through the hoops. observers T onkao P anin discusses surface transformations in Herzog + de Meuron. D eirdre H arris charts the transformation of a piece of the strip. S tephanie W hite looks at stadiums, sports and war. I lona H ay looks at the curvy work of Ushida Findlay in London and Mark West in Winnipeg. L isa D er watchs as a Ger is erected in Ulan Baator

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news from the schools T racey M actavish goes undercover in Halifax. F eliz K lassen sets a studio based on tents, tables and toggles.

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the relation between: Surface and Materials

Appropriation Weathering Transformation

details M arc D ufour builds a whole new world in the attic; B ianca L agueux writes about it.

Construction Production

Form

Occupation

Space Meaning — Cultural, Social, Economic send ideas now to Tonkao Panin tpanin@dolphin.upenn.edu all submissions due November 1 2002

back page bridges S tephanie W hite finds out about the Shylock Road over - pass on the Coquihalla.

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Introduction: Architecture and Transformation Tom Strickland Guest Editor

where under a single roof one could run from shop to shop with a Chargex card, shopping until dropping, Shawnessy is not a good design for shopping. The entrances to the need-specific buildings are often a block apart and protected by a great moat of parking. In some cases one could purchase a litre of milk and then return to the car, cross four lanes of traffic, get out of the car, sidestep through hundreds of parked cars to pick up a library book, only to do it all over again to purchase a much needed bottle of wine. Now imagine doing this with the kids in tow. We all have our tolerance levels, so why build such a place? Argu- ably economies of scale and brand identity are playing their part, yet here, massed in amongst the branded boxes we also find a high school, a library, and a recreation centre. The addition of these institutions in the mix connect Shawnessy with the idealized, but failed, democratic space of diversity of the shopping malls of the 1920s to 1950s, albeit in an exploded version. If a factor other then crude capitalism is evident here, it is the tendency for culture to move towards increased complex- ity. Robert Wright argues that the seemingly pointless cycles of cultural

From the days of the Olmec and early Maya, in 1200 BC, cultural influence was subtle and profuse, and with time it got only more so, as Mesoamerica’s population grew denser, and cultural contact, via trade and war, expanded.The whole region came more and more to resemble a single brain, test- ing [ideas] and spreading the useful ones. (Robert Wright. Non Zero:The logic of human destiny . Pantheon, 2000).

A t first glance ShawnessyTowne Centre, a sprawling shopping locale at the far south edge of Calgary, appears to be a big jumble of buildings with no obvious connectedness or cohesion. It is, in fact, a net- work of roadways, randomly located off a primary four lane cruciform axis, that lead to sequences of parking lots wrapped by a ribbon of sidewalks, as per the building code. Shawnessy Centre looks exactly like what it is supposed to look like, a big box shopping centre. It would be irresponsible not to ask, ‘why does such a place exist?’ Is it a folly of the capitalist elite, organized by greed to lure the hapless public into a shopping frenzy? Not likely. Unlike the shopping mall of the 1960s

Shawnessy Towne Centre, south Calgary, Alberta. ca 1998

Robert Wright soutien que les cycles apparemment n’ayant sans rime ni raison de la crois- sance et de la dégénérescence culturelles pointent à une évo- lution culturelle plus vaste sous laquelle les arts de la rédaction, de l’agriculture, de l’artisanat, de la construction et des domaines du commerce et du gouvernement s’enlignent vers des réseaux plus complexes

d’interdépendance.

À première vue, le Centre Shawnessy, un vaste centre commercial situé à la limite sud de Calgary, ne semble être qu’un méli-mélo d’immeubles n’ayant aucune connexion ou cohésion évidente de quelque sorte que ce soit. Il s’agit, en fait, d’un réseau de chemins se détachant, de façon aléatoire, d’un axe cruciforme primaire à quatre voies, qui mène à

des séquences de terrains de stationnement enveloppés d’un ruban de trottoirs, conformé- ment au code du bâtiment. Le Centre Shawnessy ressem- ble exactement à ce qu’il est sensé être: une énorme boîte de centre commercial. Il serait tout à fait irresponsable de ne pas se poser la question suiv- ante: « Pourquoi une telle place existe-t-elle? »

Une idée utile qui a surgi de cette progression culturelle est la démocratie. Étant presque un but universel, elle est dev- enue, en quelque sorte, le facili- tateur global de la prolifération du commerce et de la culture. Toutefois, à un niveau régional, la démocratie peut être incline à la décentralisation, qui semble

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growth and decay add up to a larger arrow of cultural evolution under which the arts of writing, agriculture, handicraft, construction, and trade and government advance towards more complex networks of interde- pendence. One useful idea that has a risen as a result of this cultural advancement is democracy. Nearly a universal goal, it has become the global lubricant for the proliferation of trade and culture. However, locally democracy can tend toward decentralization which appears to make an argument for fragmentation.This makes its appearance in demands for local con- trol over schools, infrastructure and building codes. This decentralized democracy also has a visual component that seems to prefer the jumble of individual buildings to singular images that represent a con- nected whole. In its less benign form this decentralized democracy can form isolated groups such as communities surrounded by gates, or need-specific buildings surrounded by barriers of parking and roadways which suppress the interaction of diversity, trade and culture. If Shaw- nessy Centre is the result of our increasingly complex culture, would it

not be best to accept the inevitable and embrace this place? No. At this centre we can see only the emerging evidence of evolving cultural needs.These will require tact and thoughtfulness from the design com- munity, among others — for right now it is far from a good solution. It is not enough to mimic the past, as has been done in the New Urbanist communities, the problem is in accepting the virtues of fragmentation while combating its tendencies to isolation. This necessitates innovation in form (see, for example, Harvard Design Review, Summer 1999, ‘Hous- ing and Community. Spaces of Democracy’ by Richard Sennet). The theme for On|Site 7 acknowledges the evolutionary environment under which design and architecture occur. Each writer, architect and student in this issue has taken a critical and ingenious view of this condi- tion. Through varied topics such as transforming skins, processes, prac- tices, perceptions and form, this issue looks at the role of architecture in transformation. 

Tom Strickland graduated from TUNS in 1997 and practices architecture from High River, Alberta. Currently he is curat- ing an architectural exhibit for Art City and is guest editor of this issue of On|Site.

tion des structures, les proces- sus, les pratiques et la forme, cette question vient révéler le rôle que l’architecture vient jouer dans la transformation.

formuler une argument en faveur de la fragmentation. On voit cette tendance apparaître sous forme de demandes visant le contrôle des écoles, des codes liés à l’infrastructure et aux bâtiments. Cette démocratie décentralisée com- prend aussi une composante visuelle qui semble accorder une préférence au méli-mélo d’immeubles individuels au lieu

des images singulières qui tentent de représenter un tout relié. Sous sa forme la moins bénigne, cette démocra- tie décentralisée peut mener à la formation de groupes isolés, telles les communautés entourées de clôtures, ou les immeubles visant à répondre à un besoin précis et entourées de barrières de stationnement et de routes qui viennent

supprimer toute interaction avec la diversité, le commerce et la culture. Le thème de On|Site 7 vient reconnaître l’environnement évolutionnaire sous lequel la conception et l’architecture se produisent. Chaque architecte qui a dû traiter de cette ques- tion a examiné cette condition de façon critique. Par le biais de sujets variés, tels la transforma

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jason stang

I n the fall of 2000, Calgary’s abandoned 1913 Pilkington Building was renovated for the headquarters of Critical Mass, a large web design company. Originally the Canadian headqarters of the British firm of Pilkington Glass, it endured several failed attempts at resurrection. While vacant, the building was occupied by squatters and street people who contributed the extravagant layer of graffiti. A team of architects, designers, engineers and craftsman proceeded to juxtapose state-of-the-art technology and design with this historical record. Chris Roberts, the project architect, addressed the building as an archeological artifact, retaining the structural and historic character of the building while establishing a clear delineation between old and new: anything new was deliberately separated from the building envelope to look as though it was simply placed within the space.

All building code and life safety issues were resolved under this mandate.The exit stairs are steel latticework with open treads and appear to be suspended in the enclosed wells. A new elevator shaft, placed outside the building and clad in corrugated steel, appears superimposed on the flat exterior wall. In contradiction to the heavy massing and permanence of the original structure, it seems as though it could be simply unglued and removed. Pilkington Glass manufactured a tangible product: Critical Mass manu- factures intellectual property. Contemporary details that accommodate the needs of a contemporary client are as pragmatic now as the expressive nature of the structure was in 1913.To convey this continu- ity, there is a clear sense of separation between the building fabric of 1913 and the building furniture of 2000.

Connecting with the core of the Pilkington Jennifer Wise

Pilkington Glass

À l’automne 2000, l’immeuble abandonné Pilkington Glass de Calgary, datant de 1913, a été rénové et transformé en siège social de Critical Mass, une entreprise de conception pour le Web. Chris Roberts, l’architecte du projet, a abordé la question de cet immeuble comme s’il s’agissait d’un arte- fact archéologique : tout ce qui

était nouveau a été délibéré- ment séparé du squelette de l’immeuble pour donner l’aspect qu’il avait été simple- ment placé dans cet espace. Le grand nombre de graffitis, datant des années où l’immeuble avait été vacant, ont été recyclés comme détails dominants et point de départ pour le traitement de l’espace

intérieur. Des sections particulièrement attrayantes des graffitis ont été sélec - tionnées, reproduites de façon numérique sur du vinyle trans- lucide et placés sur des cloisons vitrées qui viennent diviser l’espace intérieur.

Autres questions : Tom Strickland : Au sujet des graf- fitis — Chris Roberts : L’immeuble était un entrepôt de graffitis et la qualité en était remarquable. Nous ne voulions pas assainir l’immeuble. Cela se produit souvent dans le cas de plus vieux immeubles; ils deviennent une restauration parfaite de

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jason stang

Architectural restoration prioritizes the material state of the original structure, but social history is also significant.The state in which the Pilkington was found in 1999 was one of decay: its scars are part of a contextual lineage of both success and defeat.The extensive graffiti told the story of a street culture that claimed the building as home, in direct contrast to original structural elements, such as the concrete haunches, which were constructed in an era of financial optimism and urban growth. The graffiti has been recycled as a prominent detail and a jumping-off point for the treatment of the interior space. Sections were selected, digitally reproduced in translucent vinyl and placed on glass partitions This detail lent a distinct character to the new aesthetic of the space and instigated a new culture of display — the web designers use glass partitions to show their work, contributing to the visual record of ownership.

l’original. Dans la mesure du possible, nous voulions qu’il reflète, le plus près possible, ce qu’il avait l’air au moment où nous l’avons trouvé. Il y a deux raisons pour ce faire : il s’agissait de la façon la plus économique de procéder et, historiquement, nous pouvi- ons garder intactes toutes les pièces de l’immeuble.

les ascenseurs. Les escaliers de sortie sont devenus la prin- cipale façon de se déplacer dans l’immeuble. Nous voulions qu’ils soient mémorables. J’ai grandi à Montréal et, comme enfant, j’étais habitué de marcher sur le pont Jacques- Cartier où il y avait une allée piétonnière en grillage surplom- bant le fleuve Saint-Laurent.

L’eau défilait sous mes pieds — vous saviez vraiment que vous aviez marché au-dessus du cours d’eau. Nous avions pro- posé des escaliers en grillage et une passerelle à grillage ouvert, ce qui a effrayé tout le monde. Mais il s’agit, dans ce cas, d’une entreprise de rouliplanchistes âgés d’une vingtaine d’années. Ils pourraient donc le tolérer.

TS : Dans le cadre de l’esthétique de cette installation temporaire que l’on retrouve dans un arte- fact, pourriez-vous nous parler de ces escaliers? De quelle façon sont-elles fixées à l’immeuble? CR : En fait, leur montage aux murs est assez minime. Dans un immeuble de quatre étages, on y trouve 400 personnes. Celles-ci ne prendraient pas

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Tom Strickland:About the graffiti — Chris Roberts: The building was a warehouse of graffiti and the quality was very good. We didn’t want to sanitize the building. It often happens with older buildngs, they become this pristine restoration. We wanted to keep as close to the way we found it as we possibly could. Two reasons: the only way to do it economically, historically it keeps all the pieces of the building there. TS: Economically? CR: If you want to reuse these kinds of structures, the less you do the cheaper it is, and the less you do, the better it is historically. Pilkington built beautiful buildings when they built them, and they built them all over the world. All we did was re-excavate the basement.The building was a strong object, we couldn’t afford to restore it, so we did the minimum to make it habitable.

TS: In this aesthetic of the temporary installation in a found artifact, could you explain more about these stairs? How exactly do they attach to the building? CR: Well, the fastening to the walls is quite minimal.There are 400 people in a four-storey building: they weren’t going to be taking the elevators. Exit stairs became the primary way of moving through the buildng. We wanted them memorable. I grew up in Montreal and as a kid used to walk across the Jacques Cartier Bridge that had an open grate walkway over the St Lawrence. The water was rushing below — you really knew you’d walked over a bridge. We’d done open-grate stairs before, and once proposed an open-grate pedestrian bridge that scared the hell out of everybody. But this is a company of twenty-year old skateboarders. They could handle this.

marche est absolument clair. Le problème n’a jamais été d’une nature technique, il était plutôt d’une nature perceptu- elle. Avant qu’on y mette la rampe, l’escalier de service était terrifiant. Mais il s’agit là d’une bonne chose. On s’en souvient.

TS : Et puis, il n’y avait aucune problème avec les codes? CR : Il s’agit d’une enceinte à l’épreuve du feu. Les grilles ouvertes sont habituellement assez sécuritaires. Elles ont une assez bonne adhérence et puisqu’elles ont des arêtes assez solides, il vous est pos- sible de voir la profondeur de marche utile. Le nez de

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TS:And there were no problems with code? CR: It’s in a fire-rated enclosure. Open grates are actually quite safe. They’re pretty grippy and because you get a solid edge to them, you can see the tread. The nose of the stair is absolutely clear. The problem was never technical, it was perceptual. The back stair before the handrail went on was terrifying. But this is good. You remember it. The guys that built the stairs were great — it’s a beautiful welding job.The stairs don’t touch the sides of the space. In the old freight elevator shaft in the back, you can’t actually touch the walls when you’re on the stair, it’s like you’ve stepped off a four-storey building.

TS:That’s interesting. It’s something that is really removed from most buildings with any height to them at all.You get into an office tower and you have no idea where you are. I used to be a roofer and riding up that exterior elevator was as frightening as any roller-coaster. So it’s nice to see that that kind of knowledge of where you are in the world is expressed, right? CR: Because the schedule here was so tight, the stairs had both a pragmatic reason and a design rationale. We built the elevator outside the building because it was the item with the longest delivery; we wanted to be able to finish the building without having to wait for the elevator to show up. The other reason is that trying to drill a 60-foot hole inside a historic building would have been incredibly disruptive and expensive. TS: So the conditions of the project really supported the disconnection between the new and the old. CR : Projects are made up of a whole series of ideas as opposed to the grand scheme, and if you’re lucky, all the ideas begin to connect. 

Architects: Simpson Roberts Architecture Interior Design Chris Roberts - Project Architect Jennifer Wise - Design Assistant Kevin Wilkins - Technical Coordinator Mark Latimer - Technical Assistant Interior Design: Domus Interior Architecture Group Sharon Raycroft, Design Director Mechanical/Electrical Engineer: LEW Engineering Structural Engineer: HMS Landscape Architect: Landplan Construction Management: SMED Construction Client: SMED International

Jennifer Wise is an interior designer with Simpson Roberts in Calgary. She stud- ied building conservation in Rome on a Peter Rice Memorial Scholarship (2000) and did a VITRA Design Museum work- shop in France (2001). Chris Roberts is a partner in Simpson Roberts, a Calgary firm that specializes in historic renovation and restoration.

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T he Eberswalde Library first appears to be a simple box, clad or dressed with printed concrete and glass panels, and photo- graphic images appearing repeatedly in con- tinuous bands along the façade. It is often represented in publications simply as walls of communicative images.The question that comes to mind is: why are these images there? What do they have to do with the building? The Eberswalde Library is a collaborative effort between the architects Herzog & de Meuron and Thomas Ruff, a Düsseldorf based artist who undertook the task of selecting the images. Drawn from Ruff’s archive of newspaper photographs, these images range from the figure of Alexander von Humboldt, Lorenzo Lotto’s Venus, a prototype aircraft known as CBY-3, and a pair of stag beetles, to name a few. Each image seems to tell its own story, especially that taken on the day the Berlin Wall went up depicting a seventy- year-old woman being lowered from a house into the western sector of the city.This also seems to hold true for the image of a flag-

waving crowd gathered in front of the Berlin Reichstag. Seen separately as photographic image, the meaning of each is undeniable. Except per- haps for the ubiquitous stag beetle, most images seem to pertain to certain contem- porary relevance. Each seems to represent the portrait of a place, time, and attitude, yet as a collective whole, any unified meaning or category becomes elusive. Being repeatedly transferred onto concrete wall panels, spe- cific meanings of these newspaper photos were inevitably transformed. Each photo- graph appears horizontally sixty-six times, presenting seventeen different bands of images enveloping the building.The boundar- ies of their effective meanings blur as each image is being repeated and each band is being framed by adjacent bands. How are we to read the portrait of von Humboldt next to a stag beetle? Are we to read them as rhetoric images at all? Perhaps it is a deliberate act to subdue the sharpness and eloquence of the photographs’ meaning by repetition and juxtaposition. It becomes

futile to decipher their collective message or theorize Ruff’s rationale for his choices of images: perhaps there is none. Yet, to conclude that aesthetic is solely the driving force behind those walls is also misleading. At a closer look, as one approaches the Eberswalde Library, one realizes what lies ahead is simply an architectural surface: no more, no less. Perhaps it is not a surface that tries to communicate nor offers itself as a vehicle of ideology. Its etched concrete panels constitute neither a wall of messages nor a platform of meanings. Consider the Eberswalde Library as what it really is: a building in its totality. Rather than a series of close-up photos, one can see that each image is no longer an individual news- paper photo or an archival picture. With their simple repetition and juxtaposition, nei- ther the individual nor the collective meaning begs to be read: each image becomes an architectural element, an integral part of the building’s cladding, as much as a skin is a part of a person’s body.

From newspapers to walls Tonkao Panin

Des journaux aux murs La bibliothèque Eberswalde est souvent présentée dans diverses publications comme étant tout simplement con- stituée de murs recouverts d’images communicatives. La multitude d’images est le résul- tat d’un travail de collaboration entre les architectes Herzog et de Meuron et l’artiste de Düs

tition de chaque image et la démarcation de chaque bande de photos par les bandes adja- centes. La surface de la bibliothèque Eberswalde est une surface articulée, mais c’est une artic- ulation qui ne demande pas nécessairement à être

Considérée séparément en tant que photo de journal, la sig- nification de chaque image est indubitable; cependant, vues dans leur ensemble, elles échappent à toute tentative de catégorisation ou de dégage- ment d’une unité de sens. Les limites de leur signification réelle s’estompent avec la répé

seldorf,Thomas Ruff. Parmi ces images, tirées des archives de photos de journaux de Ruff, fig - urent une photo d’Alexandre von Humboldt, une autre de la Vénus de Lorenzo Lotto, une photo d’un avion proto- type connu sous le nom de CBY-E et d’une paire de scar- abées cerfs-volants.

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Perhaps the images are there for the same reason that the white letters are screened, the green dots are printed onto the glass surfaces of the Suva building, and the Kantonspital. While it is true that images etched onto the surface of the Eberswalde Library is not simi- lar to painted colors that clad walls, veneers and panels that dress any architectural surface for either aesthetic or technical reasons, it is also true that those images no longer hold similar rhetoric as they once did as individual photographs on the newspaper pages. At the Eberswalde Library, an articulated sur- face is made, yet it is an articulation that does not necessarily asked to be deciphered. The transformation of those newspaper pho- tographs perhaps blurs the line between the aesthetic, rhetoric, and technical reasons of architectural surface. It is a transformation of the public memory onto the building’s own identity. 

Kantonspital, Basel. Herzog & de Meuron. above Suva, Basel. Herzog & de Meuron. right Eberswalde Library, Herzog & de Meuron. top left Eberswalde Library detail. facing page

déchiffrée. La transformation de ces photos de journaux en murs semble rendre floue la frontière qui sépare les visées et considérations esthétiques, rhétoriques et techniques d’une surface architecturale. La mémoire collective se trouve à être transformée en devenant partie intégrante de l’édifice.

Tonkao Panin Born: France Registered Architect:Thailand

Currently working on a PhD. disserta- tion at the University of Pennsylvania.

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WTC. 09.09.11.2001 Plusieurs d’entre nous nous trouvons dans une position précaire en tant que citoyens de pays qui ont été créés par le biais de l’immigration : nous avons un si grand nombre d’affiliations, il existe un si grand nombre de collectivités auxquelles nous appartenons que nous ne sommes plus en

mesure d’établir une différence entre « nous » ou « les autres ». Dans nos interactions quoti- diennes, il existe d’autres prior- ités que celles des binaires du terrorisme. Nous devons trou- ver un sens de paix en nous- mêmes et comprendre ce que nous avons à perdre au fur et à mesure que les gouverne-

ments poursuivent leurs priori- tés non-humanistes. L’occasion qui m’a été offerte d’articuler ces questions me provient d’ Amir Ali Alibhai, curateur de Dust On the Road: Canadian artists in dialogue with SAHMAT. SAHMAT a été établi en 1989 par des artistes con-

temporains de l’Inde et par des producteurs culturels en réponse à l’assassinat politique de Safdar Hashimi, un artiste public du théâtre. SAHMAT est aussi le mot Hindi pour « entente ». Les artistes portent aux rues leur art, littéralement, en fusionnant art, action et intention.

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I awoke to images of two tall buildings on fire on my television. I must confess I did not feel much of anything, except perhaps that I was currently occupying surreal space in a Diego Riviera painting, a member of the sleepy middle class rubbing my eyes while symbols of capitalist power burned to their destruction before me. And then the frenzy began. Not a war on terrorism but something more insidious — doubt in things that have been centuries in the making: ideas about human rights, the right to basic freedoms, the right to voice opinion, the right to live alongside each other with simple human dignity, despite differences. Ma ny of us find ourselves in a precarious position as citizens of countries settled through immigration: we have so many affiliations, so many communities to which we belong that we are neither ‘us’ nor ’them’. In the rhythm of our daily interactions, there are other priorities than terrorism binaries. However, we now need to find a sense of peace within ourselves, and to understand what we have lost and what we stand to lose as governments continue on their non-humanist agendas. My opportunity to articulate these issues came from Amir Ali Alibhai, curator at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver, inviting me to contribute to Dust On the Road: Canadian artists in dialogue with SAHMAT .

My piece,Twin Spirits, pulls the lens back from the images of devasta- tion, grief and fear at Ground Zero to a place where transformation through healing can begin. For the spirit who leaves the Earth, death is a freeing, a return home. And for those of us who are left behind, death marks the need to mourn, to let go and find a way to continue on until our own moment of freedom comes. Twin Spirits is a site at which the process for letting-go can begin. Dance when you are perfectly free WTC 11.09.01 Sherazad Jamal

Dance when you’re broken open Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off Dance in the middle of the fighting Dance in your blood Dance when you are perfectly free Jalaluddin Rumi

The towers are twelve feet tall and are made from white cotton fabric, referencing the Muslim tradition of burial in white cotton and the Hindu tradition of signifying widowhood through the wearing of white cotton sarees. Inscribed in white paint on the towers are repeating, abstract patterns originally from Muslim art sources, and within them Celtic-looking knots. On each side are quotes from various religious, activist, scientific and poetic sources. All these voices seem to weigh in with similar messages: life and death are a circle of oneness in which details matter less than acting from love and dancing your own steps. The towers are are set above a circle inscribed on the floor. Within the circle is an octagonal star generated from two overlapping squares referring to ‘us’ and ‘them’, but fused together — humankind is an interdependent, complete whole. Flowers were left near the piece and were added by visitors to this communal remembrance. 

SAHMAT was formed in 1989 by contemporary Indian artists and cultural producers in response to the politically motivated killing of Safdar Hashimi, a street-theatre performer. SAHMAT (the Safdar Hashimi Memorial Trust) is also the Hindi word for agreement.The artists of SAHMAT take their art, literally, to the streets, fusing art, action, and intent, and addressing issues of freedom of expression, growing fundamentalism, sexuality, women’s rights and the inequities of the Hindu caste system. Dust On The Road was an exhibition of their work alongside Canadian work addressing political issues germane to this country — aboriginal rights, race politics, environmental concerns, women’s issues and the growing threat of war.

Sherazad Jamal (TUNS 1990) is a designer, home school teacher, gardener, artist. She left architecture to co-design, edit and publish Rungh Magazine, a South Asian quarterly.

Mon article,Twin Spirits, offre une vue d’ensemble des images de la dévastation et de la peur qui régnaient à Ground Zero, et permet de nous placer de façon à permettre le début d’une transformation qui vien- dra nous guérir. Dans le cas des esprits qui quittent la Terre, la mort est libératrice. Il s’agit

d’un retour chez-soi.Toutefois, pour ceux d’entre nous qui restent, la mort démarque le besoin de faire son deuil, de lâcher prise. Les tours ont 12 pieds de hau- teur et sont faites de coton blanc, faisait ainsi allusion à la tradition de sépulture musul- mane dans du coton blanc et à

la tradition hindou de signaler son veuvage par le port de saris de coton blanc. Inscrits à l’aide de peinture blanche sur les tours, on trouve des motifs répétitifs et abstraits tirés de l’art musulman, mêlés de nœuds celtes. De chaque côté on peut lire des citations religieuses, tirées de sources

religieuses, activistes, scienti- fiques et poétiques.Toutes ces voix vibrent au son du même message : la vie et la mort ne forment qu’un seul cycle au sein duquel les détails sont moins importants que les actes posés par amour.

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D epuis le début du 20e siècle, la technologie et le rythme de vie de la population ont changés. La maison québécoise d’antan ne répond plus aux besoins énergétiques et programmatiques des familles contemporaines. Située dans les Cantons de l’Est, la résidence Billiard est habitée par un jeune couple de Lyonnais et leurs deux enfants. Le nouveau programme pour la grenier demande l’implantation d’un bureau, d’une salle d’eau et d’une chambre à coucher. Tout qu’un mandat étant donné que seule- ment 73% de la surface de plancher du grenier possède une hauteur de plafond suffisante pour les espaces de vies. Structure La forme en T du plan et la structure semblent diriger l’organisation du programme de façon naturelle. Il place le bureau, la salle d’eau et la chambre à coucher directement sous les faîtes de toit et profitent d’une hauteur de plafond maximale. Quant aux espaces de services (la douche, le vestiaire et les rangements) ceux-ci occupent les bas de pentes de toit. Le plan se divisent maintenant en deux différents types d’espaces: espace servi et espace de service. Situés dans l’axe transversal du plan, les espaces de service isolent le bureau et la chambre à coucher. L’intersection de tous ces types d’espaces est indiquée par l’installation de partitions courbes. La douche ainsi que le corridor joingnant le bureau et la salle a coucher se distinguent de la configuration rigide du bâtiment par leur forme organique et soulignent la transformation qu’a subi l’espace. Du passé et du présent Le mandat était de composer avec le passé autant qu’avec le présent. Charmé par la robuste charpente bois et les volumes du toit, c’était décide de les laisser s’exprimer autant que possible. Et afin d’en faciliter leur lecture, les nouvelles partitions intérieures, non structurales, sont interrompues verticalement et latéralement. Le contraste de ces parti- tions avec la structure souligne le changement flagrand entre les tech - niques de construction éphémères d’aujourd’hui et celle d’autrefois. Les partitions de forme organique (tels que les partitions du corridor et de la douches) et de fenêtres circulaires (hublots), de même que la balustrade rectiligne en acier rappellent l’idée des paquebots et du voyage. Les murs blancs, à l’exception des tuiles de douches bleues, rehausent la richesse de la structure de bois et de la brique, et aident à la définition des volumes faite par la pénétration de la lumière naturelle dans l’espace. Le blanc fait référence aux anciennes techniques de fini des murs, consistant en l’application de la chaux. Construction Les complications qu’occasionnent les rénovations d’une telle bâtisse sont nombreuses puisque les rendements énergétiques demandés de nos jours étaient inexistants autrefois. Cependant, ces changements per- mettent a l’architecte d’utiliser ses connaissances techniques et de les appliquer de façons innovatrices.

Secrets in the Attic Technology and daily rhythms have changed since the beginning of the twentieth century when this house was built. The old Quebec house no longer responds to the energetic needs and programs of contemporary families. The programme for this house was to have an office, a bathroom and a bedroom in the unused attic. The roof allowed only 73% of the floor area to be suitable as living space. Structure The T-form attic plan and the structure organised the pro- gramme. The office, bath and the

possibilities and the perma- nence wanted in other times. Like a little submarine with round rooms, portholes, steel railings, the attic implies travel, other spaces. The white walls define the volumes and reflect natural light; they refer to the particular plaster technique that uses chalk, as well as the white of the modernists. Construction Renovations are characterized by the unexpected.This allows the architect to use technical understanding and applications in innovative ways. One of

bedroom are directly under the ridges to profit from this extra height. The service spaces — the shower, closets and storage, occupy the low corners. Thus the plan is divided into two dif- ferent types of space: servant and served. On the transverse axis the service spaces insulate the office from the bedroom. At the intersection of all these spaces is a set of curved parti- tions defining the shower and the corridor that connects the office to the bedroom. Their organic form counters the rigid building configuration, under-

lining the transformation of the attic space. Past & Present Transformation of space is also the adaptation of space. The mandate was to work as much with the past as with the pres- ent. Charmed by the robust wood carpentry in the roof space, it was decided to leave it exposed wherever possible. To facilitate this reading, the new interior partitions are not structural and are interrupted both vertically and horizontally. It is the difference between today’s ephemeral construction

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Details: Marc Dufour La Maison Billiard Bianca Lagueux

L’un des imprévus du projet consiste au changement du système d’isolation du toit. Il était tout d’abord prévu que le type d’isolation consiste en un système de laine minérale, d’un isolant-pare-vapeur et d’un espace d’air pour la ventilation. Il fut ensuite décidé que la laine serait remplacée par de l’uréthane giclée pour son bon rendement d’étanchéite pare-vapeur et permettait ainsi d’en mettre moins épais (soit 4” au lieu de 5.5”). Afin que le système installé vieillisse bien, un espace air-ventilation entre les planches de toit existantes et l’isolant giclé était nécessaire. Pour ce faire, des panneaux de masonite installés sur des pièces de bois on du être installés sur les planches de toit pour créer l’espace d’air approprié. L’application de ce système d’isolation a créé un bénéfice esthétique; en étant plus mince, certaines pièces de la structure de bois, telles que les chevrons de noues, ont été laissées apparantes. Pour ce projet, des descriptions précises sur les plans ont été requises afin determiner la courbe des cloisons du corridors et de la douche. Les lisses des cloisons sont faites planches de contreplaqué découpées selon un rayon indiqué sur les plans et clouées au plancher. Les 2x4 ont ensuite été cloués perpendiculairement sur les lisses et ont été installés de manière à ce que l’axe longitudinale des 2x4 passe par le centre du foyer de l’arc créé par le mur. Afin de conserver la courbe, les 2x4 doivent être plus raprochés qu’à la normale, soit entre 12” (minimum) et 6” lorsque la courbe était plus accentuée. Ensuite une sablière de contreplaqué, identique à la lisse, est clouée au sommet des 2x4. Les planches de gypse sont ensuite vissées de chaque côté des parois. Pour permettre une courbe de gypse constante, les planches ont dues être mouillées avant d’être installées. Les hauteurs exactes des cloisons varient quelque peu de celles indîquées des plans, elles ont été déterminées sur le chantier. Les formes créées pas ces partitions courbes ne sont pas réellement définies par le désir d’efficacité et de fonctionnalité, mais bel et bien pour exprimer un style de vie contemporain émancipé, mobile et versatile. Ces formes sont fortes et occupent le coeur de l’espace du grenier, tout en contre-balançant bien les lignent droites de la charpente. Le grenier est désormais à l’image de ses résidents: jeune et moderne, dans un câdre solide et enrichi par les ans. 

normal, between 12” maximum and 6” when the curve is tight. A plywood plate matching the base is nailed to the top of the 2 x 4s. Drywall is then screwed to each side of the wall. For a smooth curve the sheets are dampened before installing them. The exact heights of the partitions vary sometimes from the plans; they were generally determined on site. The glass mosaic tiles in the shower was a complex adven- ture and took more time than had been scheduled, for the curves demanded lots of cut- ting. The result though is Marc Dufour étude d’architecture a l’université de montréal et a l’école d’architecture de Rennes en Bretagne (France); travail dans le milieu de l’architecture depuis 1990; architecte associé dans Cimaise de Sherbrooke depuis 1999.

Bianca Lagueux is working at Graham Edmunds in Calgary on her year out from the McGill Architecture program.

impressive. The curved par- titions are not really defined by the need for efficacy or functionality, but work well in expressing a style of contem- porary life, emancipated, mobile and versatile. These shapes are strong and occupy the heart of the attic space, in counterpoint to the right angles of the origi- nal house.

the unforeseens of this project was the roof insulation. To gain important head height, the standard application of Fiberglas batts, vapour barrier and air space wouldn’t work. It was decided to used sprayed-on polyurethane to make an imper- meable vapour barrier and to take up less space (4” instead of 5 1/2”). Ventilation is still nec- essary. Here, masonite panels where sprayed with the insula- tion and then attached to the structure. The application of this system gives a certain aes- thetic: very thin, revealing pieces of the timber structure such as

the chevrons of the roof valleys and the ties under the ridges. For this project precise descriptions on the plans were required to determine the curve of the partitions and the shower. The curve of the parti- tions are made of plywood cut along a radius indicated on the plans and nailed to the floor. 2 x 4s are then nailed perpen- dicularly on the curves and are installed in such a manner that the longitudinal axis of each 2 x 4 passes through the centre of the arc creating the wall. To keep the curve, the 2 x 4s are more closely spaced than

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