Train Hopping

The Hobo, another element involved within the railway culture. Train hopping , i discovered, is still being practiced within North America. It was a widely used method of transport during the depression and has survived ever since. Some of the travel logs of these individuals, speaks about a risky and sometimes fatal practice of travel. Some pics illustrate the risk involved. The life of a hobo is interesting because it illustrates the character and behaviour of the train itself. It acts like an organism, controlled by its infrastructure, and a great force when confronted with other vehicles or elements. The act of individuals trying to coexist with this organism, speaks alot about my behaviour, and how i approached the site. It speaks more about interface, in particular the train and the pedestrian.

Traces of the Existing Structure

After exploring the north facing wall of the platforms, i discovered the presence of multiple entries, etc. Along maple street is a sliding door, and west of that is a door with no parking signs on either side. The elements illustrate some circulation of the space, suggesting continuous corridors along the street, as if it were never cut off by the railway. I took some more pictures into the spaces under the platform, and discover more signs of life. One of the rooms has tagging on the walls, and in an adjacent room there exists some clothing. Just like Hobo's use the train as refuge, this "underground space" is also a refuge for some homeless. I am just curious in how they got into the space.

Moving railways in Winnipeg

I came across this article from the CBC regarding the current CPR lines through northern downtown area. There are some speculation that the area maybe reconfigured into green space and condos, not necessarily the best solution. They assume that the current rail lines would relocate but that seems a lot of expense and energy when we should be trying to configure the space to coexist with these still functional railways.

I then started looking at what perhaps other cities have been doing to deal with the issue and i came across this design from Calgary by a architectural collaborative with Mark Boutin, here is an excerpt from Canadian Architect:

"This project is a design for the first of an envisioned series of international networked centres dedicated to fulfilling the United Nations mandate for international cooperation towards a healthy global community. Spearheaded by a society of scholars worldwide, the centres are conceived as forums for the discussion, debate, and dissemination of world affairs. The client's mandate was to create an architecture that symbolically and functionally evoked a bringing together of diverse people to share and celebrate their differences and similarities, aspiring to greater tolerance and understanding.

The 25,000-square-foot building melds visitor service and exhibition space with discussion and debate forums, lecture halls, curatorial areas, theatre, parking, and public event spaces. Retail spaces are also provided at ground and lower levels of the public plaza.

The site is a residual space presently occupied by a Canadian Pacific Rail line that divides the city of Calgary immediately south of downtown. Although functionally and symbolically connective at the national scale, locally the rail manifests a schism that cuts off one side of the city from the other. The site is currently surrounded by mid-rise and high-rise buildings..."

Interactive Architecture

A couple days ago i was looking further into precedents for my project and came across this paper regarding the ecology of an interactive environment. The article made me start to think about the potential for an isolated site. Patrick and i had discussions about the potential for the device to respond to outside stimulus. I am interested in pursuing the possibility that the device can respond to the elements becoming an active participant of the ecology within it. More importantly the subtle noises, and minimal interaction within the site could create a interesting dialogue between nature and machine. The absence of life makes everything else within contrast that much more. There is always some kind of life within an area. The challenge is generating a space, like a virus that feeds of the existing ecology and brings a new life to it.

Site Selection

After discussion with Patrick the following will be my focus for the next week:

Understanding of the site by understanding the railways, the culture behind, unfold the dialogue of the railway in Canada. The underground spaces below the platforms are still an interest for me, but perhaps speculating on how the space is formed could be interesting. When i visited the site today i noticed part of the wall enclosing that space is broken open, a potential for understanding what is in the space.

Perhaps there is a possibility to have differing spanning points, a series of spans, which change or switch like the synaptic behavior of the monster.

I need to understand the logic of the railway.

Winnipeg Railway

Today I went exploring around the old Railway station on Higgins and Main. Now an Aboriginal resource centre, this building use to be a immigration point for the city and Canada. What interests me are the platforms behind the station and the corridors below where train passenger traffic once flourished. I Was able to get on the rail line and explore the spaces above the platform, and east of it where the Disraeli bridge spans. The building scheduled for demolition on Higgins could be a possible bridging, spanning point. Or perhaps the old CPR station could be a spanning point to a warehouse across the street. But i am not completely satisfied with the bridging point. I am still in search of bridging points or possibly other spanning areas. but the rail line , a once public area could prove to be beneficial.

Site Selection

Behavior analysis formulated the following: The device responds to light and specifically movement. More importantly it is the disruption of that movement that stimulated the device. I see the device as parts of a 'living system' , the subconscious, instinctual drive as part of the device it self and the proscenium as another living system like muscular or breathing that naturally operated without direct stimulus from the outside world. The device interrupts that movement of the proscenium through the interaction the device has with environmental stimulus. The space created is related to the interface between man and machine seen through interruption in geometries and fluctuations in traces. Movement and indirect movement manipulates the space created by the device. Indirect vibration through tensile forces in the structure. There is definitely an element of the uncanny , and the subconscious of the device and the unconscious reaction from outside stimulus to the uncanny nature that are a big part of this. But also the progression of structure and the elements of span play another important role. Communication of movement into space and indirect movement into space.

Also scale seems to be a growing role in the project, as it has progressed the linear action has spread and the device growing.

After exploring the point Douglas area, i was drawn to abandoned sites and burnt down buildings, but the voids interested me more. For example the dead end created by the railway border, and i envision spanning the space between bordering building or structures. After discussion with Patrick, spanning the railway might be a consideration of a site. Existing CPR building and old platforms and tunnels that bridge this division between north and south point Douglas ope for opportunity. I need to find point of crossing, and explore the opportunities within that division.

In regards to systems , electrical and tensile structure are interests for me. Perhaps the tensile structure become electrical conduits for communication between the two, further exploring the double aspect of interface.