Occupying the Threshold: Voids as Opportunities

Abstract

Cities begin as vast vacant land; when physical form is inserted a void is created. Infrastructure is the foundation that enables the growth, mobility and exchange of cities and their inhabitants. As these infrastructures and corresponding industries begin to change, they reshape the voids within the city fabric and create both physical and psychological divide. This thesis explores the potential, within this physical divide, to stitch together communities fragmented by deindustrialization through cultural engagement and production. By manipulating the physical and psychological boundaries that have existed within Regina’s city fabric over time, the proposed architectural interventions add a parasitic layer to the warehouse district to socially recharge voids and thresholds that have become lifeless. This layer acts as both the adhesive between past and future development, and the binding agent between disjointed communities, ultimately creating opportunities that become catalysts for urban revitalization.