They are the least-thought out public spaces in Ottawa and yet they are used hundreds of thousands of times in a day. Many people spend more time in and around them them per day than they do with their families. The spaces are all improvised on a case-by-case basis yet every building has one, and no two are the exactly same.
They are, of course, the smoking areas. Arising as a necessity from mid-90s legislation that first banned smokers from federal government buildings and later from any workplace in Ontario, they cropped up in front of and behind buildings across Ottawa.
Butt-filled and foul smelling, not too many even thought about the demands the improvised spaces put on the public sphere.
But one Ottawa entrepreneur did. Seeing so many federal buildings go smoke-free before the Ontario-wide legislation came into force gave local office supplier Jerry Johnstone the head start on a marketplace that soon was booming across the world, and his patented “Butt Stop” public ashtrays have now been sold around the globe including to clients like the US military and resort hotels in the Caribbean. The photo above is from Santa Barbara, California.
What is interesting about his designs is the way they reflect institutional attitudes about smoking. Durable and made from stainless steel, when bolted on to the wall of a loading bay or rear wall of a building, they are usually the only concession made to the existance of smokers in the workforce.
And as rules proliferate that send smokers nine meters away from entrances or even right off certain properties altogether, Gerry’s outdoor ashtrays have taken on attributes that acknowledge the banishment. One model is actually called “smoker’s outpost” – a single upright on a weighted base with a hole at the top of the post. Meant for a parking lot or piece of waste ground well away from the building itself, smokers huddle around the remote structure, creating yet another form of this improvised and unplanned social space.
-Photo credit rosidae
5 comments
Have to admit a bias on this one. I am a pretty vehement non-smoker. But I think this post brings up an interesting idea – how people indulging in what is a less and less acceptable behaviour are accommodated by institutions.
Smoking’s still legal, but no organization would want to endorse it or even look like it was doing so. (Remember the big “scoop” by Global TV a while ago about the “SECRET SMOKING ROOMS [gasp] at CBC headquarters in Toronto”?) And given the impact of smoking in terms of discarded butts, NOT doing something isn’t really an option either. So… in comes the butt stop.
“But I think this post brings up an interesting idea – how people indulging in what is a less and less acceptable behaviour are accommodated by institutions.”
He he, y’a un autre exemple de comportement “less acceptable” qui est accomodé par les insitutions: la prière.
There is a butt-stop attached to the front of my apartment building. Whenever I come in or go out I am faced with the lingering smell or actually have to trip over the smokers sitting right in front of the door, they don’t even try to move when someone wants to get in or go out. I have asthma and allergies and the smoke makes my breathing difficult. I would like to see legislation banning smoking from apartment buildings (landlord optional, of course). I would prefer to live in a smoke-free building, inside and out.
I remember all the fuss over the smoking rooms at CBC posted at Tea Makers and InsideTheCBC.com. Oy, what a fuss!
I’m not a fan of smoking, not with my lungs in their problematic condition, and yet there are times when I look at the arguments…
I’m not sure if butt stops (cleverly the cig-arrêt in French) are very effective, as the ones i’ve seen in busy locations are often overflowing and surrounded by a huge ring of detritus (the tarry mess which covers the devices is far less pleasant than the previous large sand filled cannisters).
The urban hookah is one innovation which has truly impressed me.
http://www.moskowarchitects.com/hookah.htm