In challenging our use, accessibility and attachments to space and how to design equitably and with inclusivity, the Museum of Vancouver is inviting community members to participate in ResiStories: Building Community Futures on June 29. The panel brings together moderator and political geographer, Eugene McCann, along with three members of University of British Columbia’s (UBC) school of architecture and landscape architecture (SALA), Andy Grellmann and Hannah Roorda and SALA interdisciplinary fellow Young-Tack (YT) Oh.

With his fellowship at UBC SALA focused on the theme of repair, Oh discusses the importance of reflecting on and having discussions on what ‘broken’ means in the context of design and semantics.

“The nuance of this meaning, broken, physically, symbolically, metaphorically: breaking is not always a bad thing. What was working in the first place is not necessarily working for everyone, or anyone,” says Oh. “What does it mean to break?… The assumption that things were working, and for whom, what circumstances and conditions? What it means to repair – is it a return to a status quo or to reform or improve, a change in condition, upgrade or evolution? [It means] a lot of things.”

Encouraging conversations with community stakeholders

Oh says that he has not lived in any one place for more than four years and that he frequently travels amongst cities, countries and continents, with this being only his second year in Canada. Nonetheless, he’s been very interested to engage with Vancouver and its spaces, both within this event, and in his own work.

“Moving around so much, a lot of my work has been careful, to engage communities, to take time,” he says. “The need to build trust and an understanding with people [is important], to have patience and believe that it is worthwhile to do this.”

That community engagement is important for resolving various local challenges. Such challenges include issues being discussed in Roorda’s work on Vancouver’s current housing crisis, which notes that despite the substantial number of vacancies, a lack of housing availability still exists within the city. Oh notes how Roorda’s work discusses an alternative, breaking away from the current state of affairs where houses sit “empty and fallow” for decades while waiting for zoning permits.

“If properties are not used, they should be turned over to the public realm,” Oh says.

Beyond this, Oh notes another poignant example from one of his students’ projects at UBC which highlights the inequity of resources dedicated to even immediately adjacent spaces in Vancouver, partly due to factors like tourism and the cruise ship industry.

“At what cost to the local folks [is it] to accommodate this industry? The dichotomy that exists between Gastown and the Downtown Eastside, the resources put into certain neighborhoods, but not others,” says Oh. “Many organizations, small organizations, [bring awareness] to this such as the Powell Street Festival, Hives for Humanity, Gallery Gachet, MOV, the Vancouver Heritage Society, Carnegie Community Center and countless others, who are trying to have these conversations.”

While other organizations, and events like this panel, look to shine a spotlight on the various inequities that affect Vancouver’s spaces, Oh says he is also looking at inspiring hope in addressing these challenges within his own work.

“Part of my work is in increasing spatial literacy and justice, an understanding as it relates to youth, introducing architecture to high school students, to instill the notion that the built environment or spatial literacy should be taught in high school,” he says.

In all, Oh hopes initiatives like these can shine a light on the notions we take for granted when it comes to using the spaces around us.

“[We often do not] use space as designed, we personalize it, make it our own… everyone is their own architect with their own individual level of understanding based on personal lived experience that is nevertheless crucial to a broader understanding of space,” says Oh. “Accessibility is important to the conversation. Diversity, equity and inclusion is for everyone, not just a particular group of people.”

For more informationabout the event, visit: www.museumofvancouver.ca/resistories-building-futures