Jan '11 - Jan '12
So it begins! I’m Shannon – welcome to the final semester of my Master of Architecture thesis at the University of Manitoba.
As there hasn’t been a blogger from our school in a couple of years, I’ll give a short synopsis of how the faculty is currently structured. The M.Arch program is completed over two years, with the thesis being pursued in the second. The studio environment has been arranged to allow students more freedom to work with a professor of their choosing, instead of being assigned to a group. At the beginning of the first semester, professors present the research focus of their studio, which extends through both terms. Students make a list of their top three choices, and are able to meet with each of them for an interview. Professors then make their own selections and by the end of the week, most students end up with one of the critics on their list. The studios are also vertical, which means masters and undergraduate students work alongside each other.
Although it’s a bit unusual for our school – maybe for most schools? – my thesis is a collaborative effort with a fellow student named Jordy, who also happens to be my boyfriend. There is a good explanation behind our decision to work together, so here’s the back-story:
A few years ago, my parents expanded their farm, and in the process acquired an old farmhouse that had been vacant for over ten years. The house has an interesting history, as it was one of the original Eaton’s Catalogue mail-order packages that were popular among western Canadian farmers in the early 1900s. Since efforts to sell the house were unsuccessful, and my dad had already begun clearing the surrounding land to make it viable for farming, the building’s fate seemed inevitable.
Exterior photograph of the house.
After a short visit to the property last summer, Jordy and I became excited both by the possibility of doing full-scale work, and that we could somehow give a home with such a rich history a deserving end. My previous studio work focused on domestic space and the everyday, while Jordy spent his last semester of M1 constructing a full-scale installation of an unusual mechanical staircase (see photos below), so the project held interest for both of us in different respects. We each have our own thesis advisor, but because the project is a collaborative effort we meet once weekly as a group with both professors.
Photographs of my final model from M1, which focused on the play between light and shadow.
Main floor plan, rendered to show daily movements.
Jordy's staircase from M1, installed in an existing trench in the basement of the architecture building.
This blog will be used to record our time at the site for anyone interested in tracking our progress, with the hope that the entries could be of a high enough quality to be incorporated into our final thesis document. It will also give us a chance to keep friends and fellow students informed, as we’re dividing our weeks between studio and the site, which is a two and a half hour drive away.
That's all for now. I'll post again soon with a summary of our first semester's research.
Sited within an abandoned Eaton’s Catalogue Home on a farmstead in rural Manitoba, the thesis dwells in the duality of domestic space as symbolic image and constructed interior. As the final occupants of a building that must be demolished, our work strives to inhabit the instant between waking and dreaming, “the moment where the subject is not sure of the distinction between a representation and a spatial condition” [Charles Rice, The Emergence of the Interior].
6 Comments
Love the plan above. Is it drawn by hand with charcoal, etc.? Or textures applied later?
Shannon, welcome to Archinect! It's always great to see other Canadians here and... the work is beautiful. Looking forward to seeing this develop. Are the two of you planning to practice together after graduation?
Welcome Shannon.
I love the futurist style renderings and images. Whether Futurism has anything to do with the project, i doubt it, but the imagery is very cool.
nice to see u of m back here. and cool projects too! look forward to seeing what you do this year.
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. To answer your questions, I think Jordy and I would both like to have quite a few more years of work experience before branching out on our own. That being said, we make a really good team so it's definitely a possibility down the road.
To make the plan I actually turned a print of the draft into a stencil and messed around with spraypaint on sheets of mylar. The final image is a photograph of the drawing backlit on a light table.
cool technique for that drawing
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