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Carleton University

Fugitive Architecture: Obsolescence, Aspiration, and Adaptation in Vancouver's Urbanizing Industrial Areas

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

'Fugitive Architecture' is a provocation born as a response to development practices that commodify architecture through the dictum of "highest and best use." In contrast to market-driven aspirational architecture, this thesis problematizes notions of urban decay and renewal, unsettling norms of market economics and urban planning. Profit-driven design methodologies diminish a building's material quality and longevity, adversely impacting life-cycle outcomes. Central to this thesis is a new design approach that embraces obsolescence and uses adaptability to prolong building lifespans while anticipating aging. This expands material and temporal notions of transience to include socioeconomic and political factors in the built environment. Fieldwork, including the photographic documentation of existing conditions in Vancouver's urbanizing industrial landscapes, informs speculative design interventions over a continuum of scales, from infrastructures to assembly details. Fugitive architecture reciprocates the evolving needs of building inhabitants, area residents, and local communities as they face pervasive gentrification.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
Level thesis:degree_level
Master's
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Carleton University
Year dc:date.issued
2021

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Jaworski, Michael Walter David

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright © 2021 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/41094

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Carleton University
Base URL
carleton.scholaris.ca/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
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related terms
citation

Jaworski, Michael Walter David. Fugitive Architecture: Obsolescence, Aspiration, and Adaptation in Vancouver's Urbanizing Industrial Areas. Master's thesis, Carleton University, 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14718/41094