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Dwelling as a form of homelessness: a Travelers’ Hotel on Davie Street, Vancouver

This Thesis Project began as an exploration of the architectural, philosophical and psychological
nature of dwelling. From this exploration I have made an argument about the nature of dwelling
based on several premises. First, that dwelling is determined by the boundaries between public and
private space. Second, these boundaries of dwelling may only be adjusted or determined by a political
operation- the mediation between private desire and public consensus. Third, the successful
mediation of these boundaries depends on two basic conditions: equality and communication, principally
speech. To test this thesis I looked for a dwelling typology where everyone was equal and
where there was a minimum condition of private space. These conditions create the largest potential
for dwelling in the terms of my argument. I chose the Travellers' Hotel, a changing typology that
brings together people from around the world who share all the space of the building including the
kitchen, and the two most private spaces of a dwelling; the bedroom and the bathroom. I chose a site
in downtown Vancouver, the corner of Davie and Granville Streets, that is the intersection of major
transportation and pedestrian axes of the city and major demographic, economic, and physical
changes in the fabric of the city.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5804
Date05 1900
CreatorsHagarty, Terry Martin
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
RelationUBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/]

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