New Research

Now that my thesis is over, it is time for me to move on to that pesky internship and finding out what I’m really interested in. 

For my thesis I focused on global issues - how informal settlements can be developed using their own architecture as the basis.  I studied the informality of spaces, how people use and adapt their own environment to support themselves, and how the informal settlements are self-supporting machines that exist because they are necessary for the survival of millions of people. 

Now, I’m in Edmonton, AB. 

Where do I go from here?  I think the largest realization from my research, especially looking at the work of Saskia Sassen and Rahul Mehrotra, is that people use and adapt both the formal and informal world in order to survive.  In informal settlements, survival is mostly economical - how to make enough money to survive in the moment and to send to family members who might still be in the rural environment.  In the formal city, physical infrastructure becomes a mere background to the economic activities that support survival, while in the informal city, the built-fabric is modified to fit specific, live-supporting activities. 

What about Edmonton?  In winter, this is a harsh, lonely place.  Sunlight lasts for 6 hours a day, and the wind penetrates to the bone (no matter what kind of winter jacket you have on or how heavy your toque is).  No wonder we have so many malls here (10 or so), which doesn’t even start to include the countless strip malls and conglomerations of big box stores that surround our city.  We live inside our homes, our vehicles and the large spaces dedicated to shopping…

In the summer everything change.  Our shopping streets fill with people, festivals brighten public spaces all summer long, the River Valley becomes a playground for cyclists, walkers and runner alike.  We escape to the long summer days (oh, 18 hours of sunlight or so), and a dry heat. 

It’s those 9 months of winter though that can really take their toll on people.  West Edmonton Mall, one of the largest malls in the world (not the largest anymore by far thanks to developments in Asia and the Middle East), becomes an escape for the masses.  Shoppers, walkers, layabouts, workers, kids, teenagers, animals….

Is the WEM a mere background to the informal activities that happen in it?  What is the image of the mall - the architecture or the people who use the space?  Using photography and observations my plan is to start documenting the activities that happen within the mall.  How people use space… how rules and order are bent in order to accommodate all the activities that happen in it… are there varying activities?  I think so, that is my hypothesis at this point.  I will see though, and will use this blog as the forum for my results.  Perhaps in a series….

Anyway, I think this will move forward into asking the largest question of all - is West Edmonton Mall more than just a mall, is it a public space that should be considered equal to what is downtown or near Whyte Avenue?  It exists on the fringe of the city, and while most of us ‘city folk’ hardly trek that far west to just go inside a mall (especially at Christmas), it is used by a huge amount of people (wikipedia tells me 60,000 to 150,000 people visit a day).  As a city we have to accept the existence of this place, and try to use it to the city’s advantage. 

Can I take my global knowledge and apply it locally?  Let’s see.