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GREGORY BECK RUBIN - STUDIO DEDALE JANUARY TO APRIL 2008 Walls are the most element aspect of architecture. at is because they limit space. We build walls, like Vitruvius, to be pure and homogenous. However, if we slice through the walls of Vitruvius,and the prefabricated walls in a building in Winnipeg Today, they would bear no resemblance to one another. Toaccommodate both the ideal of architecture and the reality of building in a Northern climate, we have developedtechnologies that we can hide inside the wall. Perhaps if we had not thought of the wall the way Vitruvius taught usto, then we may not have designed all its layers in the way we have, compacted and, more importantly, hidden. eideals we impose on our most basic tool, the wall, is indicative of the way we value space in general, both naturaland artificial. If we were to envision this threshold between interior and exterior differently, we would regard thespace differently.For my project, I will investigate the hidden space of the wall. e goal of the project is to explore new paradigmsof the wall in the Canadian context, historical and environmental. e project takes on the wall as an iconographicsymbol as well as technological system.IMAGESa. Kabah, Meccab. Barber House, Point Douglas Winnipeg c. Abandonded Crack House, Point Douglas Winnipeg d. Sketch: Building behaviour & body behavioure. Black Box, Winnipeg f. Black Box at nightg. Black Box Interiorabcdefg

WHEN I began the project, I wanted to find space in Point Douglas where I could cut into an existing building envelope, preferably a home. e wood frame wall of most typical home constructions is in fact a “void wall”. ecavity spaces inside the wall are the spaces where we hide vital infrastructure. By cutting into the wall, and reveal-ing the hidden inside the wall I would do two things. First, I would identify the systems as they relate to the lived world. And second, by revealing hidden activity, I would alter my understanding of architecture, and its effectson our perceptions of internal and external spaces. �Aer a good few weeks of searching, I was generously offeredspace in a home. However, for a number of reasons, I have decided that the project will not be built in Point Doug-las. Rather, I will build my own space here on campus, and go through the same exploration, closer to Studio, thelab equipment, etc... ere are disadvantages and advantages to both situations (building on campus versus in PointDouglas), and I am going with my gut on this one.(aside: anks very much to the good folks I have met in Point Douglas and helped me to get the space, but moreimportantly, introduce me to the neighbourhood and its various facets. I am still very keen to develop work in PointDouglas, and hopefully, this can happen in the future).e plan now is to build a black box on campus. e space is defined by the walls that enclose it: a wood framedroom closed and sealed: a non-space, a void space. Aer the space comes to be, I would enter the space, and begin todefine it by revealing the layers of the wall in that space, creating new space. I have two roles to play in this project,and each role comes with its own set of questions. First, I will define the system that is the wall for establishing the black box space. What are they? e composite wall is a complex organism - is it autopoetic? What are theminimum layers or systems that make up this wall for it to limit space (and do what: sustain inhabitation)? Is theresuch a thing as space without someone to inhabit it? is last questions lends itself to defining my second role, thatof observer/eventual inhabitant or the void space. I will have to enter into the black box (how?) and then transformthe walls so that it can sustain me. But sustain me how? What is the essence of Architecture? In this sense, the wallsand I take on the role of two performers. How will we interact?e transformation of the black box is an evolutionary process. But it is also the site for recording the transforma-tion. Similar to my last term’s final installation, Curio, I intend to draw on the box, inside, outside, above, and allaround. It is critical that both the drawing and whatever armatures, insertions, details and constructs are consideredat the same scale.e transformation is also directly linked to how my body, and its different senses measure and define space. Wethink that seeing space dominates all of our other perceptions of space. And this is largely true in the modernistcontext. But it is another contradiction, like the Vitruvian and the prefabricated wall section. Building architecture with all of our sense is essential to exploring the new paradigms of the wall.Another rule I would like to establish throughout the process of this project, is to recycle/reuse existing building materials as I start to cut into the walls. Habitat for Humanity runs the Restore in town and there are all kindsof building materials they sell there. e black box itself will be built from dimension standardized parts: 4 X 8 plywood sheets, 2 X 4 lumber beams, rigid insulation, pipes, circuitry, etc... As I take apart these prefabricated com- ponents, what I will add should embody the same cultural phenomena which produced these materials and theirattributes in the first place.e project embodies the idea of expanding the systems and codes that are embodied in the architecture of theroom. Bu building into the order of the wall, its expansion becomes an example of what potentials lies in thematerials and language of building we employ today. e new spaces are there, and with rigorous and imaginativeinterpretations of their layers, they will be revealed, and their phenomena will affect our vision of architecture.ab