Industrial Commemoration: A Grain Elevator Prototype for Economic Development in Rural Manitoba

Abstract

This thesis is inspired by Manitoba’s rural industrial heritage that identifies with the iconic, traditional, prairie grain elevator. The evolution of the globalized agricultural industry is made visible through the elevators’ system and architectural models, from vanishing wood archetypes to mega concrete structures. The intention of this work is to find economic opportunities generating new networks by initiating a local crop processing program as means of empowering small, local farming groups. This research is a systemic approach that explores the power that a site-specific activity survey may have on prototypical objects that make evident the attributes of crop, land owner type, and local economies. The assembly and disassembly of the new elevator’s structure and machine at the micro- and macro-site not only mirror past local networks but also activate the memory of the rise and fall of the powerful wooden steeples that were once rooted in the infinite prairie horizon.