Abstract
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The site of interest for my design thesis proposal is that of Griffintown – a historical and industrial quarterin the southwest portion of Montreal, Quebec. The neighbourhood is located along the Lachine Canal andis considered to be the heart of the industrial revolution in Canada. Since the collapse of industry in thelate 1960
s / early 1970
s, Griffintown has been largely vacant of any residents as well as city interest. Anew development, however, has kindled some new attention for the dormant area and has created adichotomy of ideas for what should be developed. On one side of the argument the major developer,Devimco, is proposing a complete re-appropriation of the district, which would transform it into a majorcommercial and residential corridor. Opposing this development are a number of community groupswhich have formed to defend Griffintown and have generated alternative plans which aim to preserve thehistorical and cultural aspects of the neighbourhood.My intentions are to do neither, explicitly. Rather, I am proposing a smaller scale intervention under thenotion of a
public institution
. I intend to develop a site in Griffintown – the abandoned CN Wellingtoncontrol tower – into a
public bath,
which will offer potential instances of intimacy and publicity for both itsusers as well as the observers of the building. This will be accomplished through an investigation ofhistorical discoveries and anecdotes as well as the phenomena of observation existing on and around thesite.I propose to use to carry out these intentions through a process, which I have developed for modelinglight as a representation for sight lines into the building using a projector and scale model of the existingbuilding. Finally, working between physical modeling and conventional architectural drawing will allow fora comprehensive building proposal.
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