Defunding Halifax Police with an Art Historical and Contemporary Framework in Architecture

Abstract

Policing and surveillance contribute to the segregation and oppression of marginalized communities across North America. The police state’s power is maintained through architecture and urban design, making the architect complicit in these power structures. In Halifax, the David P Mckinnon Police Headquarters (completed in 1975) has cemented spatial and social divisions for the communities of the North End and Uniacke Square. This project learns from contemporary discourses of police reform by transforming the McKinnon building to a space for public programming. Methodologically, the project engages twentieth-century history of political action in artistic and architectural representation to develop a contemporary strategy for spatial resistance. The design incorporates new community-centric architectural programs and form making to rethink Halifax's urban and political condition. A broad strategy of "preventive law enforcement" is explored in three large-scale experimental drawings that reorganize the conventional relationships between architectural representation and structures of power.