Meimei Yang

Archival Thresholds: A Ritual Activation of Architecture

Archival Thresholds documents the living and architectural heritage of one of Toronto's oldest and largest Artscape studios which ceases to operate as a space for art in March of 2022. It proposes a reincarnation of the building's evolving heritage through the making of objects from found and collected artifacts of the site.

The method of archiving takes the found artifacts of heritage through digital and physical means of collection, re-presentation as functional objects, and finally activation in the existing building envelope as archival thresholds of memory.

While this investigation uses 15 Case Goods Lane as a case study, the methodology being proposed lends itself to any heritage site. These objects are dormant yet resilient. They can insert themselves into any time and any space in order to serve as memorialization of its history, and forces themselves to be remembered and engaged with through the daily visual and physical engagement of threshold interactions.

Archival Thresholds challenges the idea of the discarded versus the sacred - dealing with something ephemeral like time and the change that comes with it by making permanent.

  1. Interior Design Studio VII
    IRN 701
    Instructor
    Catherine Dowling
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