This may be a bit of a long read, but it's the basis for my studies in India:
Identity and Community: The Architecture of L’Arche
The past two semesters have been integral in developing a basis for my thesis studies which will be furthered with travel experience and first hand research. My recent M2 design studio (fig1.1) focused on developing mixed-use, high-density housing on Quinpool Road as a pilot project. The program is inspired by an organization that I worked with as a Mental Health Support Worker called Beginning Again. Beginning Again is a registered charity whose objective is to provide an accepting and supportive environment for people with special needs. Its co-operative enterprise is a non-profit thrift store which recycles donated goods and sells them at affordable prices. To facilitate this, members work alongside volunteers in different positions, both front and back of house operations.
Located in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Beginning Again provides a meeting place for the community, and works in partnership with local health services, religious affiliations and small businesses. Its vision is to creatively respond to the mental and physical health needs of people through participation in the community enterprise. My design project explored how housing could be a complementary program to the existing fundamental support system, creating a cohesive live, work and learn environment. The product of this initiative is communal dwelling where people seek refuge and find place through occasion and communication. More than anywhere else this occurs at the kitchen table; it is a sharing space; a hub where cultures meet and a domain where everyone is at the same level. This notion of the collective table is an important social value at Beginning Again and one that I would like to develop further.
While researching the notion of community, disability and the collective table further, I have encountered an organization that engages the same social model and cooperative vision as Beginning Again. L’Arche is a federation founded by Jean Vanier in France, which encompasses 131 communities in more than 30 countries on five continents. Canadian raised Vanier began this venture over 40 years ago when he decided to live with people who had intellectual disabilities. L’Arche is about people, with and without an intellectual disability, who share their lives in homes, workshops and day programmes. These are grouped into what L’Arche calls communities, which have been developed within the organization but do not not follow a common building typology. Communities in France (La Merci), Canada (Daybreak) and India (Asha Niketan) were founded by 1970 and remain the most developed networks within the organization. My proposal involves travel to L’Arche communities in India, Canada (Ontario) and Brussels (multiple communities in each). It will explore how one social model can be adapted to different cultures that respond to diverse environments, while still addressing the needs of the organization. In addition it will look at the community gathering place and occasion of the kitchen table as it varies between cultures and economies. The investigation consists of three parts which will unfold concurrently.
First: an analysis of the built environment, to which I will study elements or artifacts from each community and look at common patterns of dwelling and the corresponding architectural language. This will involve investigating how the buildings operate in plan, section and in detail. For multiple buildings on site, it will consist of looking at their relationship to each other, as well as to the site. Additionally, I will look at the site and its response to its neighbors, context and local vernacular. The second analysis will look more deeply into the social and collective aspect, and what makes a successful community and environment, keeping in mind the considerable cultural and economic differences within each country and region. This will involve observing members of the community, their daily endeavors and program, to learn which spaces best facilitate their lifestyle and values. The aim is to find how each community creates place and celebrates occasion within their environment. The last analysis is all encompassing in that it looks at the larger scale of the city and culture. This will involve considering how much the underlying political, social and economic systems are reflected into the community and in return, how each L’Arche community engages it's city/town. The goal is to understand how a community can function as an individual entity while being a part of a greater whole. In developing not only a local and international identity, will the social model succeed, or will it loose its unique approach to the collective table. In researching this established social model, I will be better able to understand how to approach the programming, design and siting of Beginning Again. In addition, it will explore the methods in establishing a community identity and architecture that expresses that identity.
The method of study will include visits to L’Arche communities to conduct first hand interviews with members of the communities, in order to understand inhabitation patterns and the collective mindset. As well, it will occur through a collection of study drawings (both technical and conceptual) which will be an analysis of the building typology, topology and morphology. The final presentation will be a series of panels (one for each) which will be mixed-media collection of watercolors, photographs, sketches, and found print. They will reflect and incorporate the tri-part analysis as well as express each community’s unique environment, identity and culture.
