GRADUATION SUMMER 2020
Julie Lund Rasmussen
GRADUATION PROJECT:
The Well-Maintained City: Architecture and the invisible labour
PROGRAMME:
Studio 2A: Building Design and Techniques
CONTACT:
+45 24245857
julielundr@gmail.com
@julielundras
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
We expect our streets to sparkle and our cities to shine with pride and desire – any traces from yesterday’s party must be removed before dawn. We expect our city to inspire us and keep us safe – street lights, cameras and boulevards create easy access and surveillance to locate and break up any threats. However, in order to maintain these expectations, the city of Aarhus consists of many layers of labour that tend to be invisible during our waking hours or have a very fleeting presence throughout the day.
This thesis project explores aspects of maintenance in architecture and brings focus to different forms of labour that are vital to our cities. I believe that architecture should honour the work of those behind the heavy task of maintaining and serving the urban fabric and its citizens’ expectations. Central to a functioning society is work, but at the core of this, it is also the labour of those who maintain our cities clean and ordered so that we can effortlessly carry on with our everyday lives.
The project proposes a space in the city for these seemingly invisible workers: A Worker’s House. The building addresses ideas of ‘the break’, health and personal well-being, as well as spatial and material possibilities of self and fun maintenance. The site is located in Aarhus on an empty plot at a narrow alley called Posthussmøgen (Post Office Alley). Historically, this area was a place where workers from the low class of society lived. This project gives this area back to the workers that maintain our city.
I believe there are a great power and responsibility within the role of the architect: to recognize forms of invisible labour that make architecture and cities functioning and even possible. This project does so in two ways: making places for people that help maintain the city, and designing architecture through the lenses of maintenance itself.
MAINTENANCE – AND THE (REAL) FACE OF THE CITY
Everyday though out the year the city of aarhus is being cleaned by a big team of street cleaners. But different event in the city means that more workers are needed. This mapping is creating an overview of how much and how often the city needs to be cleaned.
PERSONIFICATION
The project focus on three different characters that are maintaining different layers of our city in different ways: The Street Cleaner, The Delivery Rider (Wolt) and The Night Bouncer.
Common for all of them is that they are seen as invisible and the work is often not appreciated. I want to bring a focus towards them and make the work they are doing visible.
In the project, the word ‘invisible’ is used to denote the invisibility of the workers to most citizens since their hours of operation occur when no one is inhabiting public spaces. The fact that certain forms of urban labour are hidden away from everyday life creates a distance between them and us, and in my opinion, the work is very often not recognized or appreciated.
AREAS OF EVENTS
The project finds its sites in the city centre of Aarhus close to the main canal. It is in this area all three characters for my project are mostly operating.
THE BLOCK
In addition to invisible forms of labour, there are streets in this block that also have a component of invisibility and little maintenance.
The streets that have been a great focus has been Fiskergyde, Fiskergade and posthussøgen.
These three streets are the backsides of popular, touristic streets, and act as service corridors for the delivery of commercial business that can be seen as another type of ‘invisible’ labour.
At these streets, public life feels different as it becomes an attractor for more underground activities.
Common for all of the streets are that they function as alley, and the lead you from one place to another. It is not a place you stop or spend time.
I believe these places are as interesting as more ‘important streets’ and that they tell an important history and story of Aarhus that tends to be concealed.
The streets Fiskergade and Fiskergyde have a hidden and untold story that dates back to the year 1400.
Back in time, this was the area where fishermen and the poor part of society lived.
With this project I want to bring the place back to the workers and bring a focus towards these non-popular places that also is a part of our cities.
THE WORKER’S HOUSE
The project
Programme
Section
Plan drawings
North elevation
South elevation
