{"id":6529,"date":"2010-10-22T14:00:23","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingatlantic.ca\/?p=6529"},"modified":"2013-01-21T04:59:14","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T08:59:14","slug":"representing-halifax-vacantcity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2010\/10\/22\/representing-halifax-vacantcity\/","title":{"rendered":"[Re]Presenting Halifax: Vacan[t]c[it]y"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The <\/em>[Re]Presenting Halifax series<\/em><\/a> revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my <\/em>first post<\/em><\/a> for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the <\/em>series<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

HALIFAX – <\/strong>This city is suffering from an affliction of vacancy. Not of vacant spaces themselves, but of an inability to make anything of them. Spacing Atlantic will be co-hosting an event<\/a> this Saturday for the 4Days unconference<\/a> in an effort to \u201cgenerate ideas for the downtown’s stockpile of vacant spaces\u201d. With that in mind, this installment attempts to presents two bold alternatives to what are otherwise dead zones within a dynamic urban context. This also provides for further reflection on the previous theme<\/a>: public land holdings as “non-living pieces of peninsular Halifax”.<\/p>\n

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Current conditions in the "city centre" of HRM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Alternative condition - farms and forest - for the "city centre" of the HRM<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n
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Current Conditions of Peninsular Halifax<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Potential condition - urban infill - of Peninsular Halifax<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The images above illustrate the extremes: farms, forests, dense building fabric. They pass over all of the interim uses that might fall inbetween. But what they do show is an alternative to our present standard “filler”: parking lots. Perhaps the most uncreative, unproductive, inefficient use of space, parking has become an accepted, and arguably favoured solution (among decision makers and property developers) throughout the HRM and within the city centre in particular. Despite the often slow redevelopment process, consequences or missed opportunities of vacant and neglected sites are rarely considers and almost never discussed.<\/p>\n

Surveying the wide range of vacant and neglected sites \u2014 even at the coarse grain presented in the images above \u2014one question comes to mind: how can a city function with so many voids within its core? With all these sites unused, misused, \u00a0neglected, and seemingly abandoned, what is missing from Halifax? With so much unused space, surely something must be missing.<\/p>\n

What are the consequences of such frequent spatial\u00a0interruptions? More importantly, what can emerge from these conditions? What have others done when faced with similar realities? What can be gained from new approaches, perspectives and interim uses for vacant spaces? When located within the city, at what point are these spaces deemed public spaces in the hope that they will be\u00a0reappropriated? When should they be?\u00a0From an\u00a0archipelago\u00a0of \u00a0“nothingness”, to a network of interim and dynamic “flex” spaces, vacant urban space is available for appropriation \u2014 if not expropriation \u2014 given the consequences to the surrounding context and long periods of neglect.<\/p>\n

Can such voids be repositioned as “flex” infrastructure? Is this useful? Can voids be used to structure radical change; provide spaces for overflow of water, people, waste, experimentation; to adapt and accept future uncertainty?\u00a0How can the void or vacant space \u2014 as an urban (social and spatial) resource \u2014 be exploited to improve livability and the ability of the city and its residents to accept the radical transformations that fragile future conditions will surely demand?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series. HALIFAX – This city is suffering from an affliction of vacancy. Not of vacant spaces themselves, but ofContinue reading “[Re]Presenting Halifax: Vacan[t]c[it]y”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8057,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5864,5866,5873,341],"tags":[412,347,3244,351,390,391,385],"class_list":["post-6529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-green-space","category-traffic","category-urban-design","tag-representing-halifax","tag-development","tag-favoured-solution","tag-halifax","tag-parking","tag-public-space","tag-urban-green"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n[Re]Presenting Halifax: Vacan[t]c[it]y - Spacing Atlantic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2010\/10\/22\/representing-halifax-vacantcity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"[Re]Presenting Halifax: Vacan[t]c[it]y - Spacing Atlantic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. 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