Assembling a Molecular Architecture

OAA Perspectives - Fall 2008

2009-01-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

U of T Magazine - Autumn 2008

2009-01-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

Spacing Magazine - Summer/Fall 2008

2009-01-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

Canadian Architect - August 2008

2009-01-26T15:40:00.000-08:00

National Post - May 5, 2008

2009-01-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

The Launch Video

2008-05-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

The Launch

2008-05-02T16:07:00.001-07:00

The Goods

2008-04-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

The three elements of the Mobile Community Kitchen for Mount Dennis.

Setting up for the Review

2008-04-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

The Table Cart Deploys for the Studio Review

2008-04-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

The Last days

2008-04-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Construction video

2008-04-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

Time lapse video of final assembly at the Faculty of Architecture on Wednesday Ap. 23. 9am - 3 am. Enjoy.

Construction is complete!

2008-04-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

the mobile kitchen is deployed on UofT for an academic review. Tomorrow we take to Mount Dennis. Join us!

Finishing up the Kitchen Cart - bbq and rollers

2008-04-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Publish Post

Quotes from the Community Kitchen attendees

2008-04-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

“ Since visiting the community kitchen on Friday nights I really look forward to coming here. We talk about the student’s project and I contribute my time. I feel my ideas are important and welcomed. They treat me like its me …and my opinions matter. I loved putting my sewing skills to use helping to make the canopy part. When it’s ready to go up I’ll be so proud to know that I was involved in it”

Joise

Retired seamstress and Oxford Drive resident.

“What a blast. I have a great time on Fridays and look forward to the progress made by the students each week. They have really listened to the residents who will be using this mobile kitchen in the future. I have also enjoyed all the different kinds of interactions between people you would never see anywhere else. It’s been a real eye opener – highly recommended and entertaining… have enjoyed every minute of it. Looking forward to many more of these special moments this summer…”

Catherine

President of Peregrine Security Consulting Ltd.

“I had no idea this happened on Friday nights in my area. I had feelings of being so isolated over the winter months that it was depressing. I felt not much happened around here. Now that’s different since coming to this Kitchen. I feel like I belong, everyone does, to the same group. We worked together with the students from the University and we got to see how they worked on a project. Maybe they learned a little from us too.”

Richard

Resident and parent

“It has been fun to watch the process unfold naturally--- Organic and creative, and emerging with Spring time….. and well done all! “

Rick

Mount Dennis/Weston Network

Surfacing the laminated table tops for the small cart

2008-04-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

and Harry working diligently on the table for the big cart.

Assembling The Canopy

2008-04-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

Three Days, Three Carts

2008-04-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 10:16AM: Graham, Gene and I head to Punchclock for what was intended to be the final day of welding.

Wednesday, 6:45AM: This turns out to not be the case.

Wednesday, 12:20PM: A trip to Solway Metal, our generous steel supplier.

Wednesday, 1:07PM: Jamie's house in Mississauga, site of the Medium Cart's construction. We swap tall tales and drop off supplies.

Tuesday, 4:15PM: Scott and Luke join as at Punchclock. Just as things get really rolling. . .

. . . Rocky shows up and informs us that he's gotta weld, so we gotta go.

Thursday, 5:45AM: Graham, Luke, Gene and I head to Punchclock for what was intended to be the final day of welding . . . again.

Thursday, 9:12AM: Who knew Luke had such bright white teeth!

Thursday, 11:01AM: Unfortunately, the welder at Punchclock is broken, so we head to Jamie's, picking up Scott along the way. . .

Thursday, 1:55PM: The three carts loaded for final delivery to the galvanizers!

2:31PM: Arrival at the galvanizing facility. Galvanizing for our project was generously donated by Pure Metal.

Scott was kind enough to provide one of his now-infamous tours, this time of the drop-off area out back.

3:18PM: Done! Presenting the Mount Dennis Mobile Community Kitchen, ready for galvanizing. The Large Cart. . .

. . . the Small Cart. . .

. . . and the Medium Cart.

And then: disaster. Tim gently informed us that our drainage holes were inadequate. "You'll need holes here. . . and here . . . and here. . . and here. And here. And here."

After a stop for some drill bits, we proceeded to Prototype Design Lab, where we rounded up 4 drills (and the assistance of Kevin - thanks Kevin!), and proceeded to drill some 100-odd 3/8" holes.

Thursday, 9:34PM: Done . . . again.

Thursday, 10:01PM: Who knew that galvanizing happened 24 hours a day?

Thursday, 10:12PM: Dave, filling in the requisite forms with Graham . . .

. . . "16 TABLES + FRAMES + MISC." See you on Tuesday, Dave - and thank you very much from all of use here at Assembling a Molecular Architecture.

the small cart goes for its first walk

2008-04-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

building the structural frames for the big and small carts

2008-04-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

key-hole mechanism for the trash can in the small cart

2008-04-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Four easy steps to remove the trash can from the small cart.

Step 1: grab the trash can handles.

Step 2: orient trash can handles to key-hole slots in the cart frame.

Step 3: drop the trash can through the key-hole slot.

Step 4: place trash can on the ground.

and you are done!

Together At Last

2008-04-18T07:40:00.001-07:00

Kitchen Cart Progress

2008-04-18T06:30:00.001-07:00

Kitchen Cart Working Drawings

2008-04-16T10:47:00.001-07:00

Small Cart Table Process

2008-04-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Kitchen Cart 1:5 model

2008-04-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

The Sink

2008-04-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

Punchclock Workshop

2008-04-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the guys of Punchclock for letting us use their space. Below are some pics - bad ones. Better ones to follow.

All done and packed up.

Working at OCAD

2008-04-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Trailer Hitch / Tarp Pole

2008-04-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

OK, I think I've got the hitch/pole figured out. Imagine a telescoping pole with three sailboat halyards installed inside.

Of note:
-it extends from 1.5m (hitch mode) to 2.5m (max tarp mode) in 10cm increments
-it rotates on one axis at the cart end and on three axes at the bike end, eliminating the jacknife feature of the first prototype (thanks Adrian!)
-in hitch mode, the hook can be tightened down, eliminating the rattle feature of the first prototype. the new design also eliminates the pin that held the hook in place, which was both awkward and sketchy.
-the rope is 1/4" braided nylon - strong enough to hold a large sailboat sail up.
-aluminum would be ideal, and hopefully not too expensive.
-each cart would need a 100mm x 100mm x 5mm plate installed in front of the rotating wheel pivot, and on top wherever poles might go.
-in pole mode, there are three equalized ropes - one for the tarp (with a hook that can accommodate several grommets when the tarp is folded) and two to attach to the ground (a block, a fence, a stake)

Whaddya think?

PROJECT STATEMENT

2008-04-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

Arising out of mutual interests in urban agriculture, community engagement and a belief in social value of sharing food, Mount Dennis Community Kitchen has joined forces with Masters of Architecture students at the University of Toronto to design and build a mobile community kitchen for the historic Mount Dennis neighbourhood.

This is the first collaboration of this type between the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design and a community organization. Professor Adrian Blackwell introduced the course entitled “Assembling a Molecular Architecture” in early January. Since then, 13 students have established contacts with Evergreen, and most closely with the Mount Dennis Community Kitchen, regularly attending meetings and meals with drawings and models in tow.

While it is unusual for a burgeoning community group to receive weekly architectural presentations, it is equally unusual for architectural students to have to interact with a real client in the form of a working community organization – and then deliver the project at full scale. This new dynamic has produced an architecture of mobility and variability based in the social realities of Toronto. The final design includes three mobile carts calibrated to the activities and site conditions of Mount Dennis and fabricated with emphasis on the durability of recovered materials.

Working at AL&D

2008-04-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Smokey and Dave at the Community Bicycle Network!

2008-04-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

We'd like to thank the Community Bicycle Network, especially Smokey and Dave, for their generous donations. Bicycle parts are an integral part of our mobile kitchen design, and we'd be lost without their time, their expertise, their patience and their facilities.

Thanks to Jack and Howard at Solway Metal Sales!

2008-04-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

We'd like to thank Jack and Howard Bettel, brothers and co-owners of Solway Metal Sales, for their generous donations. Jack gave us a large quantity of 1-1/4" square-section steel for free, and Howard gave us access to his salvage yard and let us take anything we could find, also for free. These materials will be employed in our kitchen cart.

Thanks to George and Theresa at Canvas Specialty Company!

2008-04-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

We'd like to thank George Dolik and Theresa from Canvas Specialty Company for their generous donations. They provided us with an enormous quantity of canvas end cuts for free. This material will be employed in our triangular tarp.

Small Cart (next generation)

2008-04-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

This is the newest version of the small collecting/distributing cart.

Cooking and Eating Arrangements

2008-04-09T07:51:00.001-07:00

The following are a series of cart arrangements for cooking and eating, influenced by different BBQ traditions - whether they are based on cultural practices, or the type of event that is taking place. Most of these arrangements were generated during a 1-hour brainstorm session, with each person in the class contributing at least one arrangement of the three carts.

table cart

2008-04-08T06:33:00.000-07:00

The table cart has been slightly altered. The new design features 'trainging wheels' on the corners of a box truss that is now the main support for the long tables (see image 2). These wheels will be on adjustable mounts that can be easily lowered to provide a stable table when deployed. The rear wheels will now be able to fully rotate to accommodate the different modes of travel. This will require that they are also equipped with a device to lock them into 'travel mode'.

Medium Cart Unveiled!

2008-04-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here comes the Medium Cart!

And here goes Jamie on his death-defying ride. . .

. . . luckily, he survived, so that he could show us the innovative tiller.

Here's Graham demonstrating either how light the cart is, or how unbelievably strong he is. I suspect the former.

Tarp Begun

2008-04-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

Wok'ing BBQ is born!

2008-04-06T14:38:00.001-07:00

Jamie's Soup 'n Sauces

2008-04-05T20:40:00.001-07:00

Birth of the Wok-ing BBQ

2008-04-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Small Cart V2

2008-04-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Ontario College of Art and Design!

2008-03-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

We'd like to thank the Ontario College of Art and Design, especially Georgia in the metal shop, for the use of their facilities during the construction of our mobile kitchen.

March 28 Meeting and Eating: 3 Videos, 19 Images

2008-03-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Lots of fun at the March 28 Mount Dennis Community Kitchen Meeting (and Eating).

Scott Keyes giving another tour of Mount Dennis. . .

. . . presenting the latest version of the mobile kitchen to the Community Kitchen group . . .

. . . the young and the young-at-heart trying out the prototype Collection/Distribution cart. . .

. . . discussion around the latest version of the mobile kitchen . . .

. . . and the Collection/Distribution prototype in action.

1837: Of Refrain

2008-03-28T08:38:00.001-07:00

Summary

Definitions

Questions

Overall, we may say that music is plugged into a machinic phylum infinitely more powerful than that of painting: a line of selective pressure. . . . Painters, at least as commonly portrayed, may be much more political, and less controlled from without and within. (348)

In the Mount Dennis mobile kitchen project, who are the painters, and who are the musicians? How can we encourage painters to become musicians, and musicians to become painters? Or is this a false duality: are musicians always painters, and vice-versa?

The refrain also has a catalytic function: not only to increase the speed of the exchanges and reactions in that which surrounds it, but also to assure indirect interactions between elements devoid of so-called natural affinity, and thereby to form organized masses. (348)

If we consider our mobile kitchen as a refrain, as a territorializing assemblage (the seed of order in chaos, organizing a limited space around an uncertain and fragile centre, open to the future and the cosmos), how does our it instrumentally organize heterogeneous masses? How do we ensure that this organization remains rhizomatic?

Your synthesis of disparate elements will be all the stronger if you proceed with a sober gesture, an act of consistency, capture or extraction that works in a material that is not meager but prodigiously simplified, creatively limited, selected. (344)

What strategies (material choice, procedural, conceptual, division of labour, or otherwise) can we employ to prodigiously simplify, creatively limit, and select our final design direction?

Incremental Approvals for March 20

2008-03-20T13:37:00.001-07:00

Dear Adrian:

We have approved the following design direction:

Structures -

Are going to program and prototype the small cart. Incorporate connections of containers to the frame.

Materials -

Test sewing of offcut materials (canopy prototype)
Source steel on Monday.
Continue to explore sources of industrial waste material(s).

Program -

Combine Harry, Graham and Pam's into a synthesized large cart.
Description of parts
- rotating joints
- triangular forms (as table tops)
- additional wheels at pivoting points to remove requirement of legs
- rounded corners
- wood (exterior material)
- steel frame
- ingenuity
- whimsy (not unanimous, +/-85%)

regards, the class

Fabricating the small cart prototype

2008-03-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the second manifestation of the small collection/distribution cart.

Class review

2008-03-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

The Community Bike Network

2008-03-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Program Development

2008-03-16T17:50:00.001-07:00

All School Review

2008-03-13T17:49:00.001-07:00

Below are the "action shots" printed for the All School Review.

At the February 29 meeting, we divided into 5 student groups and 5 community member groups.The images below represent all of the student groups and all of the community member groups.

class discussions

2008-03-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Meeting 1 - Structure Lens

2008-03-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches of a uniform structural and material assembly based on a consistent formal frame.

Vehicle Programing

2008-03-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Site Programming

2008-03-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Meetings

2008-03-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

March 7th Meeting and Eating

2008-03-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

Monument Open

2008-03-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

The Tripod!

2008-03-06T09:13:00.000-08:00

Sketches from the group meeting. . .

Cara's site plan. . .

Harry's triangle madness/inspiration. . .

Pam Tung's later interpretation. . .

Jesse's later interpretation. . .

Maps of the Site

2008-03-05T13:02:00.001-08:00

(a MapArt road map, the City of Toronto Parks and Trails map, the City of Toronto Cycling Map and the TTC Ride Guide)

TURTLE

2008-03-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

Retrac-table Machine

2008-03-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Accordian Table

2008-03-05T08:58:00.000-08:00

Fire Earth Water Vehicles

2008-03-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

Urban Shell-ter

2008-03-04T05:39:00.001-08:00

Kejaste: 2nd Coming

2008-03-04T01:23:00.000-08:00

Community Kitchen Meeting, Friday February 29, 2007

2008-03-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

Attendance:
Mount Dennis Community Kitchen: Noni, Antoinette, Rebekka, Dave, Jean, Felecia, Caitlin, Dwan, Keith, Keli, Judy, Jim, Carl, Cathy, Iko, Lin, Richard.
al&d: Giampaolo, Pam T., Pam C., Cara, Harry, Larry, Jamie, Jesse, Luke, Scott, Gene
regrets: Nicko, Graham

The meeting was structured such that each of the five student groups presented to each of five resident groups for 10 minutes (5 minute presentations and 5 minutes of feedback). At the end of the 5 rounds there were 15 minutes of general comments.

Graham, Gene

In general all groups liked the idea of the one unit that serves all needs and purposes, the “kit like” entity where everything unfolds from within being spectacle as well as performative. Under each group are the points of reservations and criticisms surrounding the unit.

Round 1 Lynn. . .
-Too large for a small group to move.
- Does it dismantle?
- Can it fit in an elevator?
- Where do we store it?

Round 2 Carl. . .
- No reservations

Round 3 Youngins’. . .
- Sick
- Needs a sink, a W/C and a place to sleep

Round 4 Rebekka . . .
- Might be too imposing
- Would like too be able to see over or through it

Round 5 Noni . . .
- Too large for small group to use
- Would like to be behind a table as opposed to in front of shelves when selling food (customer/patron, farmers market scenario)
- People could steal the produce from the shelves

To all this I explained that, except for the W/C and bed, the unit could be accommodating to most of these requirements (scale, number, dismantlability, transparency, imposition, theft).

Luke, Scott, Jesse

Round 1, Cathy, Carl, Jim, Judy
- very versatile. different configurations, flexibility for each eventis very important.
- attracts your attention. eye catching. people would see it from afarand want to find out more about it.
- likes the idea that members of the community would adopt one andbring it to each event. this would bring them closer so each of thembecomes part of the gathering.
- very exciting yet simple.
- bbq should be propane.

Round 2: (Felecia, Caitlin, Dwan, Keith, Keli)
- is it too heavy?
- they cook chicken, burgers, and veggies at the events.
- maybe a resting unit would be good since sometimes people get drunkor tired at the events.- music is important. put a boom box in one.
- the ability to wash your hands on the road would be sick.
- this is a hotdog stand with everything you need!

Round 3, Jean, Dave, Rebekka
- questions materials. maybe too heavy or problematic.
- what about sinking in the mud? flat bottoms would help on the chairs.
- like the component and the versatility they offer. the possibilityof different combinations is great. that way you don't need to bringeverything to every event (only the pieces you need).- hibanchi grills are light. maybe use one of those.
- the overall size is right. especially the bbq which needs to be big.incorporate hooks for tongs etc.
- the pushing mechanism and handles need some work. they are too fiddly.
- easy installation/assembly is very important.

Round 4, Noni, Antoinette
- jesse is mr. cube
- more coverage with the canopy is needed. sections could role up toavoid going over the bbq.
- seats could attach as a larger bench which would fit more people.
- likes the idea that they could be moved as individual units or as a group.
- likes the ability to arrange however is best suited to the currentevent. versatile.
- loves the children's playing block look. kitchen lego.

Round 5, Richard, Lin, Iko
- likes the chairs. specifically how they nest and how they can beused for storage.
- likes the lego-like aspect and the connectivity.
- the ability to put it together with no tools is great.
- love how simple, open, and adaptive it is.- screw bottons are to fussy. but still useful for when there is uneven ground.

Pam T., Giampaolo

Round 1, Noni, Antoinette
- dirt on tires could be a problem around food
- fold-out legs under table don’t look stable enough
- canopy could be extended over more seats
- a useful addition to the table would be a paper-towel or condiment holder
- resemblance to an old airplane is neat

Round 2, Richard, Lin, Iko
- likes lightness, mobility, and simplicity of scheme
- can clearly see metal cans as a barbecue or corn roast
- there is concern that tires would go missing (stolen)
- what are the specifics of transporting the objects?

Round 3, Cathy, Carl, Jim, Judy
- likes lightness, mobility, and ease of storage
- tire could be a roulette, a turning surface, maybe place to put condiments… a “lazy Susan”
- likes reconfigurability

Round 4, Felecia, Caitlin, Dwan, Keith, Keli
- very interested in painting and decorating the objects (what colour is it?)
- boxes in tables to put stuff in
- interprets the folded wooden slabs between wheels during transport as seating
- needs sink, maybe there are too many wheels, there needs to be “cleanable wood”

Round 5, Jean, Dave, Rebekka
- likes the metal can containers a lot
- concerned about the instability of tables and chairs, but really likes the barbecue, –metal storage containers, could have supplies that get rolled out, or hold recycled materials
- lightness and ease of storage is a big plus’

Harry, Jamie, Larry

Group 1, Noni, Antoinette
- the way the cook serves food to the person receiving food might needto be re-thought
- Noni doesn't like the idea that serving is off toside of cook, interaction should be frontal
- facing the people you serve
- likes the modularity of the accordian structure (Noni - personalinterest in modular)
- interlocking tubes suggested for canopy structure
- is bbq large enough for the amount of hamburgers required?

Group 2, Jean, Dave, Rebekka
- multi-use, canopy, incorporation of bbq is good
- likes the idea that the unit is one piece
- can the greenhouse adequately be ventilated
- cost of materials?
- construction of accordian structure might be difficult

Group 3, Felecia, Caitlin, Dwan, Keith, Keli
- can use canopy/tarp to put signage
- canopy should be made of glass, would look cool
- shape of greenhouse is cool, but function is boring
- bbq is too close to the people eating

Group 4, Cathy, Carl, Jim, Judy
- greenhouse could be good to house turtles
- suggestion of fan to pressurize greenhouse double skin
- canopy can possibly adjust so to not cover bbq
- misreading that the accordian can actually swivel and createdifferent orientation from bbq
- bbq itself could be detached
- where will it be stored? inside
- City of Toronto Works has a spot that could possibly be a place of storage near EAG (Kevin Bowser is the contact)

Group 5, Richard, Lin, Iko
- what are the materials?
- is it durable enough?
- suggestion that the unit could be modified to accommodate bikes asthe vehicle for moving the unit around
- could it incorporate storage for chairs as well
- greenhouse needs electricity
- mistaken the frame of greenhouse for shelving (which was well received)
- shape of greenhouse might not be strong enough, especially in largersnow loads
- because snow can accumulate on the greenhouse, it defeats the purpose
- some problems with the shape of greenhouse, which promotes snow accumulation

Pam, Nicko, Cara - Earth, Water, Fire Vehicles Group

Round 1, Jean, Dave, Rebekka
- BBQ and open fire pit is a great idea. Concerned that contained fire pit will be allowed for usage.
- Why is it on 3 wheels?
- Emmett Ave will benefit from having big bike tires. Shopping cart tires wouldn't work there.
- Make materials such that they can be left outside for long amounts of time.
- Having 3 different carts is a great idea. All 3 are useful.
- Suggest more lawnchair storage and less folding out of benches. They like their lawnchairs and are willing to bring them.
- Weston Rd. Year End BBQ takes place in a parking lot. Canopy that provides initial height is a good idea.

Round 2, Noni and Antoinette
- Noni: Maybe need to provide 2 grills to handle all of the cooking going on during events.
Make it easy to take apart and sturdy.

Round 3, Richard, Lin, Iko
- Questions about the weight of materials.
- Materials need to be weather resistant and waterproof.
- Vertical member could collapse for easier storage.
- Coordination might be needed for storing each cart at a different location.
- Lin: Can place a hanging bookshelf (ex. IKEA) on BBQ vertical member that could put cooking utensils on etc.

Round 4, Cathy, Carl, Jim, Judy
- Concerned about finding storage room for them.
- Making materials weather resistant, placing a tarp over them and leaving them outside could work.
- Think the washing machine drum grill is a brilliant idea. (Note: Judy later said she has a contact at a scrap yard and thinks she can find us 2 washing machine drums. She was very impressed by this idea and wants to help.)
- Jim: Put some kind of safety guard around the grill. Make sure a grease fire extinguisher is located nearby.
- Provide a hook so can either pull it with a bike or push it by hand. Provide the options.

Round 5, Felecia, Caitlin, Dwan, Keith, Keli (although we only had 2 kids present: 2 girls and 1 boy)
- Especially concerned about how hot it gets during the summer. Interested in shading, ice, and fans.
- Concerned that you could knock your head on the vertical members.

Concluding Remarks - 9:15 – 9:30pm

Lin - Love the versatility
- there is a difficult tradeoff between sturdiness and versatility
- love bicycle the tires

Noni
- appreciated all the projects a lot
- likes the shape of G&G’s proposal
- appreciated the modularity of other projects
- how can these be integrated?
- market and barbeque together is great!
- is nervous about the stability of the projects and the possibility of fire (especially overhead canopies above barbeques)

Judy
- loved the washing machine barbeque

Richard
- thought the hothouse could extend the barbeque season all year round

Carl
- wouldn’t know how to choose between them

Keli
- they are all cool and useful

Jim
- really appreciated the fact that they are environmentally friendly, without engines, powered by person power

Rebekka
- Wondered how Tuesday will go
- each project has really good qualities, hopefully they all can be profitably combined.
- like Lin concerned about the tradeoffs between studiness and mobility
- the existing furniture in the park has been destroyed

Iko
- missed the small stage
- feels the stage could be used anytime
- for music or events
- a way to animate the market

Section 4: Vehicle for Food Distribution

2008-03-01T16:30:00.001-08:00

Section 4: Vehicle for Fire

2008-03-01T12:53:00.001-08:00

February 29 Meeting and Eating

2008-03-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

At the February 29th Mt. Dennis Community Kitchen Meeting, we presented five draft proposals. First we met as a big group.

Next, we split into five student groups and five community member groups, and rotated through the proposals five times. In theory, this should have resulted in five images per proposal. Alas, this mysteriously isn't the case.

Harry, Larry and Jamie:

Pam and Giampaolo:

Gene and Graham:

Pam, Cara and Nicko:

Luke, Scott and Jesse:

Scott Keyes Tour of Mount Dennis

2008-03-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

Section 4: Mobile - Biggest of the Small

2008-02-29T16:38:00.001-08:00

Trailers

2008-02-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

Phase 4: section3

2008-02-29T05:58:00.001-08:00

CAMH Food Stand Photos from Ravenna

2008-02-29T02:28:00.000-08:00

Section 4: Material Assemblies

2008-02-29T01:28:00.000-08:00

(Click here to download this handout as a PDF)

ARC3016Y Assembling a molecular architecture

Tuesdays 9am – 1pm and 2pm-6pm; Thursdays 2pm-6pm
Adrian Blackwell
Adrian.blackwell@utoronto.ca
Office Hours: By appointment

TERM PROJECT assembling a molecular architecture

SECTION 4 Material assemblies – systems

METHODOLOGY

There are no internal drives in desire, only assemblages. Desire is always assembled; it is what the assemblage determines it to be.
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari – A Thousand Plateaus 229.

The task of philosophy when it creates concepts, entities, is always to extract an event from things and beings, to set up the new event from things and beings, always to give them a new event: space, time, matter, thought, the possible as events.
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari – What is Philosophy? 33.

You are in the process of deciding what to build. You need to build a machine that is driven by the desiring assemblage of the Mount Dennis Community Kitchen, built up from its member’s disparate desires, to grow healthy food, to share meals with others, to strengthen local ecosystems, to protect local wildlife, to mentor children, to share ideas and experiences with elderly residents. At the same time you want to build an architecture that inspires and supports the desires of a wider group of residents, passersby, local shop keepers, employers, renters, home owners and school children, opening up possibilities for the constitution of new and unplanned collective assemblages. This process of assembling desire is complex and delicate; it involves very real virtual and actual forces which must be channeled into a singular artifact.

At the last meeting we decided on many of the following issues, these decisions still leave a very wide margin for design thinking and further decision making.

1. Program: HEALTHY FOOD, the project should be clearly focused around three related programs: a) preparing food, b) eating food, and c) distributing food. In this sense it complements the community gardens in three ways.
a) Preparing food requires a surface at appropriate height and depth, it also may include provisions for water hook-up and waste water, a cooking surface (a barbeque or fuel electric range or oven), garbage and recycling area and storage for tools and supplies.
b) Eating food requires a surface of appropriate height for a large but indeterminate number of people and seating for the same number of people.
c) Food distribution requires a surface of appropriate height for selling food or giving it way. It could also facilitate the transportation of food within Mount Dennis.
All three of these three programs may benefit from shelter, from rain and especially sun as well and a lighting concept. These may be different in each case.

Related assemblages: Emmett Avenue community garden, Carl’s children’s gardening project, food distribution networks such as Meals on Wheels for seniors, Foodshare’s good food box, the existing harvest festival, a possible future farmer’s market.

2. Materials: RECYCLED / DURABLE / EXPRESSIVE
a) All architecture designed in the studio should be made of materials that are recycled, or even better reused. Consider the objections raised within your experiments so far regarding the signification of recycled materials and consider the way things look.
b) It is essential that the architecture you build is durable, that the materials you use can withstand vandalism, vigorous use, and weather of four seasons: extreme heat and cold, snow, rain, sun, wind and sun.
c) Materials should be chosen for their performative characteristics. What does each material express? How does it modulate different forces?

Related assemblages: ReStore, garbage pick-up nights, salvage yards, Craig’s List.

3. Actualization: EASE OF CONSTRUCTION / EASE OF DEPLOYMENT
a) Ease of Construction requires that we consider practical solutions to construction problems. Thinking about the availability of materials, the costs involved in acquiring them, the potentials that they might be donated, and the labour hours involved in putting them together.
b) Ease of Deployment means making the structure(s) easy for a small group of people of different strengths to move while walking, riding a bicycle, or in or behind an automobile. It also needs to be easy for people of different strengths to unpack and assemble any movable structures.

Related assemblages: the studio, community kitchen, gardeners at Emmett avenue, Children at the Oxford Avenue building.

4. Siting: MOVABLE / RELATED TO SPECIFIC SITES
a) Through discussion we have decided that the primary architecture that we will build will have to be mobile, movable by one or more people on foot, bicycle and or automobile. Mobility allows the structure to animate diverse sites in the community and to help to construct situations and events in relation to the assemblage of overlapping community groups in Mount Dennis.
b) Its mobility means that the architecture must be able to engage diverse urban conditions: streets, sidewalks, parking lots, apartment buildings municipal yards, abandoned sites, small parks, large parks, community gardens. Some of these sites are already used by members of the community kitchen, others could use a temporary architecture as an anchor for an event that could help to reconceptualize their function within the neighborhood. Each of these contexts offers specific conditions to respond to and inspire new uses.

Related assemblages: Mount Dennis neighborhood, Eglinton flats, Humber river, Black Creek, Oxford Avenue Apartments, Balla School, Shortcuts, abandoned sites.

5. Affectivity: PARTICIPATORY not SPECTACULAR
According to Situationist Guy Debord a spectacle presents itself for passive contemplation, while the events that this architecture supports have to be seen as participatory, as active not contemplative. The challenge is to imagine how architecture is related to events. How it can contribute to or support the production of meals, festivals, clean-ups, art events, to momentarily involve people in their neighborhood in new ways, in the process allowing for new concepts to be generated which might inspire future events.

Related assemblages: Event Schedule, existing events, community desires.

METHOD

For the past two weeks you have been testing options for this architecture. You now have to propose a buildable architecture which plugs into different assemblages and ecologies – psychic, social and environmental. Working in groups of three (or four) produce the following:

a) A site plan following up on the green space audit, showing the potential uses and interrelationships of different elements of the neighborhood. Try to think about the relationship between our architectural intervention and the machinic assemblage of the physical site, as well as the relation between the proposal and the collective assemblages of enunciation. Who are we communicating with, and who will speak through and around it?

b) The design of a greenhouse at the Stanchester building on Oxford Avenue or elsewhere in Mount Dennis. Consider the possible sites, in relation to issues of structure, security, water, electricity, convenience in cold and warm weather, plant production and distribution. Include in this section any detailed design for that might be fixed within the site plan proposed in part a).

c) A mobile structure or structures for cooking, eating, and distributing food. For the mobile structure(s) carefully consider their use in terms of their mechanical systems. How do they move? How do they lock up or close down? Consider the duration that the device occupies different sites, and the range of ways it can interact with different sites. Consider how water circulates within the structure.

Consider carefully the affects that can be produced through these architectural designs. How do you produce new qualities with this architecture, in relation to weather, sound? How does this structure frame the city? How do these three elements constitute a singular assemblage?

SCHEDULE

Monday February 25th:
15 minute meetings with each of you to discuss the term so far.

Tuesday February 26th:
9:00 – 11:00 - Tour of Foodshare premises and a meeting with Ravenna Barker who is one of Foodshare’s urban agriculture specialists. 90 Croatia Street, just off Brock Street south of Bloor (near Dufferin subway station) see the map: http://www.foodshare.net/whoweare03.htm
1:00 – 3:00 – pin up and discussion of work over the break, constructing groups of 3 or 4
3:00 – 6:00 – Discussion: Year Zero: Faciality, 167. and 1874: Three Novellas, or "What Happened?” 192

Thursday February 28th:
2:00 – 6:00 – Discussion of the work with small groups

Friday February 29th:
Presentation of diagrams and programs to the Community kitchen - 7-9pm meeting at Mount Dennis United Church. Each group is expected to have presentable materials for all three parts of your design to explain to the community kitchen.

Tuesday March 4th:
9:00 – 1:00 - Review for Part one – Preliminary designs
2:00 – 4:00 - decisions on a clear direction for the project and division of labour for Part 2 – detailed design.
4:00 – 6:00 - Discussion: 1933: Micropolitics and Segmentarity, 208

Thursday March 6th
2:00 – 6:00 – interim pin-up Draft 2

Friday March 7th
Presentation of the project to the Community kitchen - 7-9pm meeting at Mount Dennis United Church. Each student will be expected to have materials describing their section of the project for discussion.

Tuesday March 10th
9:00 – 1:00 – review of part two - Material Assemblies
2:00 – 4:00 - section 5: Assembling a molecular architecture 1:1
4:00 – 6:00 - Discussion: 1730: Becoming-Intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Imperceptible..., 232.

SECTION DUE DATE

Part one is due on Tuesday March 4th at 9:00am it should be printed on 3 sheets exactly 24 x 36” (vertical format).

Part two is due on Tuesday March 11th at 9:00am and will involve every student in the class, it should be a collectively produced as an 11 x 17 design document.

Together parts one and two are worth 15% of the term mark.

Custom Kejaste

2008-02-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Phase 4 Vehicles of Assemblage: Fire, Ice, Water, Shadow

2008-02-28T08:57:00.000-08:00

Phase 4: Design Proposal - Coming Soon...

2008-02-27T09:47:00.000-08:00

Phase 4: Kejaste

2008-02-27T06:42:00.000-08:00

February 26th tour of Foodshare

2008-02-26T08:04:00.000-08:00

Three Novellas, or "What Happened?"

2008-02-26T01:44:00.000-08:00

Summary

Definitions

1874: Three Novellas, or “what happened?" Definitions: Gene Mastrangeli
The Novella: a literary genre where, in essence, everything is centered on the question, or evolves in the element of “what happened?” It has little to do with memory because it places us in relation with something unknowable and imperceptible . . . it has a fundamental relation to secrecy (not with the secret matter but with the expression which remains impenetrable) . . . to discovery (its form independent from its matter) . . . it also enacts postures of the body and mind that are like folds or envelopments (where a tale possesses attitudes and positions that unfold and develop)
What happened? (The expression or modality), Secrecy and Discovery (the form), Posture (the content)
First/ Second/ Third Novellas (three parallel concepts)

Couples/ Break Line/ Molar Perception = Line of Molar. . A rigid segmentation of the world . . . an overall survey with clear-cut elements . . . overcoded . . . populated by near-seers that use spyglasses and possess a terrible laser beam that reinforces a molar order . . . a psudobreak

Doubles/ Crack Line/ Molecular Perception = Line of Molecular . . . supple segmentation, fine and shifting compositions . . . vaguely coded . . . far-seers . . . a crack up

Lines of Flight/ Rupture Line/ Perception of Escape = Line of Drift . . . state of becoming . . . “This flight is not a running away from the world but rather the cause of a runoff in the world” . . . It does not tolerate segments . . . it is like an exploding of the two segmentary series . . . a clean break

“She has broken through a wall . . . obtained absolute deterritorialzation.”
“She ended up knowing so much that she could no longer interpret anything. “There were no longer shadows to help her see clearly, only glare.”
A “crack” has occurred at what D&G describe as the “angle of transparency” which gives way to this “line of flight”.
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
– L. Cohen (The Future)

Formless
“But on this third line there is no longer any form”
“In rupture . . . the form of what happened is volatized. . . One has become imperceptible and clandestine in a motionless voyage . . . I have lost my form; I am now no more than a line.
Florence Julien (painter) . . . interest in “lines of flight” . . . “she extracts lines from photographs that are nearly abstract and formless “
“A dictionary begins when it no longer gives the meanings of words but their functions. Thus formless is not only an adjective having a given meaning, but a term that serves to bring things down in the world, generally requiring that each thing have its form. What it designates has no rights in any sense and gets itself squashed everywhere like a spider or an earthworm. In fact, for academic men to be happy, the universe would have to take shape. All of philosophy has no other goal. On the other hand, affirming that the universe resembles nothing and is only formless amounts to saying that the universe is something like a spider or spit.” - Georges Bataille (Visions of Excess)

Questions

1) On the matter of secrets in the context of “In the Cage” by Henry James (p.196), Deleuze and Guattari state that “what counts is the form of the secret; the matter no longer even has to be discovered”. They then distinguish the difference between couples and doubles, and that the telegraphist “was literally afraid of the alternate self who might be waiting outside. He might be waiting; it was he who was her alternate self”, regarding the telegrapher with the secret she had knowledge of.

Can the “double” be considered the secret itself, then, since its “form” would be the same for the telegraphist and telegrapher? Regarding the point at which “the molecular relation between the telegraphist and the telegraph sender dissolved in the form of the secret, because nothing happened”, would this still be the case if the matter of the secret was spoken aloud? Would a linguistic articulation even be possible considering the “simultaneously present and imperceptible nature” of the “micropolitics of conversation”? Could it be said that it was due to the “molecularized, imperceptible, and unassignable” nature of micropolitics or secrets, that a line of flight can exist?

2) Deleuze and Guattari say that the far-seers are “collaborators with the most rigid and cruelest project of control”, who do not “feel a vague sympathy for the subterranean activity revealed to them” (p. 202). They describe the far-seers as those who “feel as though they foresee things and are ahead of the others because they see the smallest thing as already having happened; but they know that their warnings are to no avail because the cutting telescope will set everything straight without being warned, without the need for or possibility of prediction”, and that sometimes they feel that “what they see differs only in degree and serves no purpose”.

Would D&G be saying, then, that the far-seers, although without the terrible Ray Telescope of the near-seers, are equal contributors to the cutting of “flesh and blood” and the “misshapen figures or shaky contours” which the telescope performs? They seem to attribute this to the sentiment of: “you should not insist, you should not argue; you should flee, flee, even saying as you go ‘Okay, okay, you win’” when one operates on a line which does not conjugate with another’s. How is this situation improved upon, however, when a far-seer abandons his or her segment and starts “walking across a narrow overpass above the dark abyss, breaks his or her telescope and departs on a line of flight”? If the circumstances of the departure are unknown (“what happened”?) and unimportant once it has taken place, how does this line of flight serve to dismantle the lines of rigid segmentarity that still occur with the near-seers, the Ray Telescope, and the State?

3) On page 206, following a quote from Fitzgerald describing the drunk and the madwoman, D&G associate the various aspects of their relationship to the three lines of rigid segmentarity, supple segmentation, and the line of flight. In the line of flight, each of the two people are now “the clandestine of the other, a double all the more successful now that nothing has importance any longer… nothing will enter memory, everything was on the lines, between the lines, in the AND that made one and the other imperceptible”. Supple segmentation is “the limit of what they can endure in their state with the tacit understandings serving them as internal messages”.

Do you think that in today’s society, relationships can often exist permanently in a state of supple segmentarity, for example where the male character in Fitzgerald’s novella says “she loves the alcohol on my lips and I cherish her most extravagant hallucinations”? What do you think D&G’s stance is on relationships between “drunks and madwomen”, since the stage of supple segmentarity must occur before the line of flight – and also, it is the stress during such a stage which eventually causes the line of flight?

Year Zero: Faciality

2008-02-26T01:42:00.000-08:00

Summary

Definitions

The Face : White Wall/Black Hole
Since all semiotics are mixed and strata come at least in twos, it should come as no surprise
that a very special mechanism is situated at their intersection. Oddly enough, it is a face: the white wall/black hole system. (167)
It is not exactly the face that constitutes the wall of the signifier or the hole of subjectivity. The face, at least the concrete face, vaguely begins to take shape on the white wall. It vaguely
begins to appear in the black hole. (168)

The Abstract Machine of Faciality
Concrete faces cannot be assumed to come ready-made. They are engendered by an abstract machine of faciality (visageite), which produces them at the same time as it gives the signifier its white wall and subjectivity its black hole. (168)

Fades Totius Universi : The White Face of Christ
Not a universal, but fades totius universi. Jesus Christ superstar: he invented the
facialization of the entire body and spread it everywhere (the Passion of Joan of Arc, in close-up). Thus the face is by nature an entirely specific idea, which did not preclude its acquiring and exercising the most general of functions. (176)

Limit Faces
Whether in the Christian or pre-Christian state, one element may dominate another, one may be more or less powerful than the other. We are thus led to define limit-faces, which are different from both the facial units and the degrees of facial divergence previously defined. (182)

Terrestrial Destiny
The despot or his representatives are everywhere. This is the face as seen from the front, by a subject who does not so much see as get snapped up by black holes. This is a figure of destiny, terrestrial destiny, objective signifying destiny. (183)

Maritme Subjective
Now, on the contrary, the white wall has unraveled, becoming a silver thread moving toward the black hole. One black hole "crests" all the other black holes, all of the eyes and faces, while the landscape becomes a thread whose far end coils around the hole. It is still a multiplicity but constitutes a different figure of destiny: reflexive, passional, subjective destiny. It is the maritime face or landscape. (184)

Faciality Traits
We could say that the face holds within its rectangle or circle a whole set of traits, faciality traits, which it subsumes and places at the service of signifiance and subjectification. (188)

Probe Heads
Sometimes the abstract machine, as the faciality machine, forces flows into signifiances and subjectifications, into knots of aborescence and holes of abolition; sometimes, to the extent that it performs a veritable "defacialization," it frees something like probe-heads (tetes chercheuses, guidance devices) that dismantle the strata in their wake, break through the walls of signifiance, pour out of the holes of subjectivity, fell trees in favor of veritable rhizomes, and steer the flows down lines of positive deterritorializaton or creative flight. (190)

Questions

Phase 4: Green Canopy

2008-02-25T22:32:00.000-08:00

Phase 4: mobile picnic table

2008-02-25T12:16:00.001-08:00

Phase 4_Mobile Architecture Research

2008-02-25T09:44:00.000-08:00

Vacent lot by railway accross from No Frills "short cut"

2008-02-25T07:02:00.000-08:00

Phase 3: Flatbed Trailer with Add-ons Option

2008-02-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

Phase 3: Collapsing Travel Box

2008-02-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

greenhouse, location photo A

2008-02-23T22:36:00.000-08:00

Phase 3: expandable_wagon

2008-02-23T22:20:00.000-08:00

Community Kitchen Meeting Notes - Friday February 15, 2008

2008-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Community Kitchen: Jean, Carl, Cathy, Noni, Lin, Franz, Antoinette, Iko, Iko’s Children, Felicia, X, Dave. al&d: Scott, Nicko, Jesse, Cara, Pam T., Giampaolo, Harry, Jamie, Larry, Gene. regrets: Graham, Pam C., Luke

Part 1 Presentation of the classes ideas: Introduction: Giampaolo, Jamie, Cara, Nicko, Gene, Scott

Lin - proposal for anything attached to a bike/ease of transport
- Perrin? Park brough up as a possible new site in which something might be built
- mention of an event called Neighbour's Night Out
- street closed off to accommodate outdoor activities with 400 person turn out

Noni - some sites we have identified will not be usable
- Kodak lands
- L.E.F.
- Bala School

Group 1 – CK: Lin, Noni, Franz, al&d: Scott, Nicko, Jesse (Notes: Nicko)

-Mt Dennis is composed of many little groups who are mobile

-aspire to GREENness

-mobile thing incorporates
-desire for bus/RV/greenhouse
-bicycle – things with compartments

concern around towability? Surfaces?

WATER ISSUES – mobility of water

What is lacking from how you currently do things?
-accessibility of participants
-spaces

ideas of notice boards, cinderblock gazebo,

***SEATING AND SHADING

elements that are big plus small elements are good

-receptive to the idea of procession

PROTOTYPES: IF YOU MAKE SOMETHING AND SHOW US HOW TO DO IT OURSELVES, WE WILL CONTINUE MAKING IT

Group 2 – CK: Carl, Cathy, Jean; al&d: Cara, Pam, Gene (Notes Cara)

Greenhouse for Carl’s building on Oxford St.
One larger static greenhouse, a “lean-to”, attached to building w/ some mobile units.
Possibly some adjustable shelving for the amenities room w/ florescent lighting, building would supply the lights.

Supervised under D.M.S. Management (Stanchester Charitable Foundation) who are in full support and willing to fund this project.

Plan would be to germinate and supply plants for all 4 community gardens. --Emmit Gardens (15min walk)
Oxford (Carl’s building garden)
DeNardo (next door)
Bala School(7min walk).

Present the idea to Bala School as a garden program for kids

Pros: Youth oriented
Outreach program for “shut-ins” w/ youth involvement.
Composting program w/ worms to make soil
Permission from building management
Funding from Stanchester Charitable Foundation
Close proximity to electricity

Cons: Accessibility limited to in habitants of the building.
Program is limited to gardening

Cathy and Carl expressed that if this was not going to be our “main project” they would at least be very grateful for greenhouse drawings which they explained would be the “largest hump” in the execution of this project. They could probably get others to build it.

Cathy took a copy of Luke’s schematic greenhouse drawing to see about a building permit for such an addition.

Precedents for the project: Horticulture Society at Riverlea Greenhouse (Lawrence and Scarlett) hours 8-5 (7 days)

Group 3 - CK: Antoinette, Iko, X; al&d: Giampaolo, Harry, Jamie, Larry (notes: Larry)

- spent initial moments familiarizing with the aerial map, identifying key intersections:
- Black Creek and Eglinton
- Weston and Eglinton
- Jane and Lawrence
- Jane and Black Creek

Antoinette - began identifying other possible sites of interest:
- Municipal parking lot at Weston and Eglinton
- 14 spot parking lot
- possible location for farmer's market and/or 300 person bbq

- Humber Vocational School
- adjacent to park and couple towers (new community)
- park ties into trails

- prefers smaller mobile units possibly for: (rickshaws)
- community clean-ups
- barbecue equipment
- storage trays
- best if they can be flexible to accommodate different types of functions

- thoughts on unfolding platform:
- wishes it could accommodate storage for bbq, tables, chairs, etc.
- the larger unit could be good because it can accommodate more

- mentioned program previously unmentioned
- there is a community talent show/concert event about dancing
- revisit idea of performance?

Part #3 (Notes Pam T.)

Lin (Group 1)
- concern for “cubes” being trashed, covered in grafitti, wheels being damaged
- loves portability and multi-use – however, it would be a good idea for the structure to reside in a part of the community for a while
- there seems to be an issue with communication within the neighbourhood – suggests an L-shaped metal piece with a triangular drum that can be rotated for the display of information
- suggestion of gazebo constructed of 2 cinder blocks with an old futon bed for canopy, cinder blocks and board for table, seat made of concrete with hinge creating flip-down seat, “mushroom” tables to hang out, play chess, and eat on

Carl (Group 2)
- spoke a lot about having a greenhouse like Riverlea, at Oxford
- using Oxford as a site would include year-round security and the building’s support
- cutting and preservation of vegetables could be done in the current garden room
- Noni: this could be done at Emmett, too, which is government-owned
- Adrian: But how do you control security and other things at the Emmett site?
- Noni: How about a moveable or collapseable greenhouse?Carl: Heating, water sources, and security are all available at Oxford
- Cathy: Regarding the greenhouse, the management at DMS would be completely supportive because it has a charitable function, it is for kids, and does not vandalize the property – DMS is a property management company (residential and commercial maintenance) that has been in and out of the building for the past 20 years, they are noted for doing charitable foundations – will check with city about building permits

Larry (Group 3)
- focused largely on identifying sites where things could go, on the map, based on identification of current hubs where people congregate or hang out
- Antoinette mentioned a municipal parking lot of 14 spaces, and a 300-person barbeque being planned for the future there – Humber High School @ 100 Emmett Avenue across from tall apartments, celebration of Black History Month – school is a vocational “technical” trades school attended by kids outside of the neighbourhood
- Mobile units are favoured (rickshaws?), should be flexible and be able to carry trays, maybe platforms and seating for a community talent show

General Discussion

Adrian: Need to focus for the next two weeks on – greenhouse, something mobile, performance program, food making and distribution.
- Jean and Noni: It might be possible to have a “farmer’s market” at the parking lot, with food from the gardens – this is definitely a neighbourhood goal, and would be good for the community kitchen as well.
- the idea of “green” in the summer could be communicated through wind instruments (wind chimes?), which could provide a symbol for the neighbourhood, for “green”, and the community.

- Adrian: There’s a challenge of making something with presence, and providing opportunities for performance.
- Noni questions the size of a moveable stage, such as a large flatbed trailer, and its storage – Carl says that storage at Oxford might be possible.

Comments following presentation of the “white limo”:

- Noni: How would you get the vehicle down the street and around corners? Disassembly would be important, but likes the idea of a moving party.
- Adrian: It could have bike wheels instead of car wheels, with lighter use.
- Lynn: Maybe it’s better off to use a flatbed instead of a “stage”.
- Adrian: Suggests that the stage could essentially be a flatbed.
- Noni: Doesn’t like the stage model, because she doesn’t think it’ll get used as much. There are a lot of other performance venues, and other groups working on that as well.
- Jean: Thinks the focus should be on food and gardens.
- Noni: Wonders where a stage could be stored, and its size relative to widths of paths when it’s be moved.
- Jean: The group needs to think about priorities at the moment – performance structure might be the last point in a 5-year plan.

- Adrian: Summary of ideas include the need for a greenhouse, focusing on food instead of performance, having smaller structures instead of a larger one – the obstacle is getting things designed – symbolic objects are necessary, hence the idea of a large stage.

Other comments:

- Nicko: What about a space for people who just happen to be by ie. A place to sit – there is a question of what the group is looking for, versus what other people might use if something is simply there.

- Lynn: If units can be disassembled, they could have removable wheels with bolts to connect more permanently when they are assembled as a single unit.

February 15th Meeting: Sharing the Concepts

2008-02-17T18:31:00.001-08:00

On February 15, we met with the Mount Dennis Community Kitchen group to share the concepts we'd come up with to date.

The movie below shows the action around the table.

Click here to download the movie as a high-resolution playable PDF file.

Below are some close-ups shots of the night's activities.

Weston Road at Night

2008-02-17T17:25:00.001-08:00

I got off at the wrong bus stop on Friday, so snapped some shots of the neighbourhood while I walked. Enjoy.

Midterm Review

2008-02-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

Phase 3: bouncey castles

2008-02-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

Phase 3: Thing As Wheel

2008-02-14T06:57:00.000-08:00

Phase 3: Preliminary Site Plan

2008-02-13T04:03:00.000-08:00

My preliminary site plan panels are shown below. I've devised a graphic strategy that can accomodate additional sites and photos.