My first exposure to a truly small home was back in May 1990 when a professor of mine at McGill University built a tiny 1,000 square foot house right on the grounds of the university's downtown campus.
Prof. Witold Rybcynski was testing his architectural thesis that a well-designed and flexible micro-home would be appealing to a majority of people who experienced it. The Grow Home, as it was called, was two storeys high and, at 14 feet wide, was small at the extreme. But small meant affordable and the construction cost proved to be a paltry $35,000, a shockingly low number even by construction numbers of the day. Roughly 10,000 people passed through its doors and, although the results were far from scientific, the general consensus was that this tiny residence would be a wonderful place to live with the design meeting with popular acceptance.
Rybcynski's theories on smaller living transformed my thinking back then and his ideas have stayed with me to this day. I've grown to believe that living smaller is a must for a sustainable future and that we must discard any notions that living bigger means living better.
West Vancouver artist Cori Creed, being a good friend, is well aware of my strong beliefs and recently asked me to join her and artist Tracey Tarling in a collaborative art exhibition to explore how people consume to create their physical world. To Have & To Hold - Objects of Identity & The Things We Leave Behind, opens this Thursday, May 15 with a reception between 7 and 9 p.m. at the CityScape Community Art Space at 335 Lonsdale Ave.
In the exhibition, Creed, Tarling and myself will be presenting large-scale paintings, photographs, and installed pieces that invite viewers to reflect on their attachment to material objects. The exhibition will attempt to illustrate the arguments between want and need, of quality versus quantity, and of materiality and identity.
By selecting five subjects and visually separating their bodies from material adornments and personal products, Creed and Tarling will highlight ways that we consume to create our physical identities, how attached we become to the pieces that define us and how we share objects with others in order to illuminate the vast difference between want and need.
I will be approaching the subject from the perspective of our living spaces, using actual expedition abodes and equipment I've used on adventurers as well as an architectural case study to illustrate the difference between necessity and everything that comes after. I will look at how the spaces we choose to inhabit play a role in our choices and tendencies to fill them.
I invite all interested readers to join us at the gallery this Thursday evening for the opening. I hope to see you there. In addition, an artist talk is scheduled for next Thursday, May 22, from 6 to 7 p.m. The show will remain on display until June 21. nvartscouncil.ca
Kevin Vallely is a residential designer in North Vancouver. vallely.ca
