Block 26
In my work, I investigate how humans make use of space, how they change it to suit their needs, how they discard it when it becomes unneeded and the role time plays in the transition of space. I am interested in the tension between duration of time and this transition. With this project I am investigating an urban landscape that is evolving from an under serviced, under funded, social housing neighbourhood to a new mixed income housing community. Built 50 years ago, Regent Park is one of the oldest and largest concentrated public housing communities in Canada. The community occupies a 69-acre site just east of the downtown core of Toronto and is home to 7,500 people living in 2,087 social housing units. The Toronto Community Housing Corporation, which owns and manages Regent Park, will demolish and re-build the entire community in six phases. This project documents the deconstruction of a single building in the community. In the reconstruction plan it is designated as “Block 26” but for the past residents who called it home, it was 605 Whiteside Place, Toronto. With this work I explore human space. How we use this space, how it is discarded and deconstructed. Fifty years is relatively short duration for a building, and what was home to hundreds of people was gone in a few short weeks.
