Challenging Displacement: a temporal site intervention

Angela Gmeinweser and Roxane Grégoire

Given the historic and present day displacement that the City of Vancouver has enacted on its residents, our research centred on asking what it would look like to have Hogan’s Alley be a place for people made vulnerable by the city to take up space, self-organize, and live in community. Our intention with this community centred approach was to learn how to offer a space for community programming and to capture oral histories, (one of the desires outlined by the Hogan's Alley Society). In addition, the site is on the edge of Skwácháy̓s, an important space in Coast Salish culture, and given this relationship we reflected on how we could serve various needs and desires within the space ranging from human to non-human. Our research culminated in this proposal for a temporal site intervention that outlines the evolution of a Community Engagement Centre and informal settlement in Hogan's Alley. The Georgia Viaducts, a symbol of the violence and oppression enacted by the city, form a foundation modified by residents over time to shelter and empower the local community.