In the Wake of Industry: Reprogramming the Halifax Grain Elevator

Abstract

Industrial structures in urban areas often have a contested relationship with humans because of their imposition on the landscape. With many industries now in decline, deindustrialization presents an opportunity to adapt these structures to changing values of contemporary society.

Declining grain trade in eastern Canada permits an adaptive reuse of the grain elevator in Halifax. This building and its urban surroundings are the site for an architectural intervention that uses cross-programming to juxtapose human motivations and industrial motivations. New public programs take advantage of the building’s central urban location, large scale, and monumental qualities. The thesis explores how human programs can be integrated into an industrial building that is still functioning, rather than waiting for it to be abandoned or to fall into ruin.