Materials are the land

Client(s): Ouroboros Deconstruction, CreateTO

This mural, installed at Dundas at Ossington in Toronto on construction hoarding, was created as an educational and community engagement tool for a pilot deconstruction project. It illustrates the disassembly of the existing Victorian house on the site and the building’srelationship to the larger site context, land, and non-linear material processes. 

One of the most compelling things about deconstruction is its celebration of material stories and origins. The house is a part of a much larger story, from the scale of bricks and wallpaper to bedrock and the lost Garrison Creek that runs under the neighbourhood this site is located in. As depicted in the sketch, the plan is to wrap the corner of the hoarding (where it transitions from the parking lot side to the Dundas side) with a small portion of the building's elevation drawn to scale. As you move across the fence, the elevation gets peeled apart (inspired by architectural building science illustrations), showing the layers of structure and material beneath (bricks, studs, structural timber, plaster, wallpaper), and how individual elements are salvaged. These fold into various perspectives of the larger site and land.