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A travelling performance space on the rail lines of North America

University of British Columbia

This is a thesis study of the possibilities offered by the circuit of rail lines running throughout North America. With the track as a connective site touching diverse locations, a series of mobile interventions have been designed to create traveling performance installations. Primary to this investigation is a discussion of the role architecture can have as a signal. Acting as a visitor to places along the line presently utilized only as a function of the railroad, a series of rail cars can work to activate the dormant soul of the periodic stops of a road show. Five stops have been identified here to establish a way in which to see environments a rail line typically finds itself. The beginnings of a list of stops one may prepare for on a tour of the lines. A narrow perspective has been displayed towards the way in which an extensive but fragile network of rail lines could be reincorporated back into the social experience of the city. Track originally laid as a North American link for travel and exchange has continued over time to be seen rather as a number of regional zones than one unbroken site. The completion of the two longest lines in Canada became a primary tool towards the realization of a national dream connecting the two coasts, binding the country. Broadening the possibility of usage of the lines can work to save the essential quality of the site; an unbroken passage. Without the compliance of all territories touched by the presence of the line, sections are certain to be blocked by the construction of unrelated private developments that dismiss the need to maintain a complete circuit. Redeveloped over any portion of the line can only place associated rail space and structure in the focus of physical and typological erasure As this project informs a site's possible new usage, inherent qualities of the site may be brought forward in a way the original site function could not; a set of rail lines binding the sides of a galley loading area can be transformed into a collection area for a jazz concert, a strip of land between two spurs in the rural landscape, the temporary stand for a horse auction. Small tests establish information about the site's future growth or define minimal standards of future built form. Groundwork will be laid to inform the next move beyond this thesis exploration. Interventions such as these give the city and the network between cities a possible source upon which to establish a contemporary direction for development. To respect the history and presence of a stop may allow us to reach a place of integration with existing site conditions rather than abandonment of the components that comprise the industrial voice of the city.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-04-30

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7765

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace