Post Pandemia at the Poissonerie Shanahan (Clark 2021)
Author: Shannon Clark
Thesis Advisor: Ozayr Saloojee
Date: 2021
Master of Architecture
Carleton University
Abstract:
An epidemic is not simply biological, but rather a spatial phenomenon that mutates sociopolitical constructions. The mysteries and fears associated with the lurid metaphors of disease have landscaped the city – the typical setting for those thought most susceptible to illness – as though we are looking at “the section of a fibrous tumour.” This thesis speculates on the transformations of space and human relation through epidemic scales. Set in the fictional Poissonerie Shanahan in Montreal’s Jean Talon Market as envisioned by the Quebecois novel, Nikolski, this research draws parallels between the tools of past urban epidemics and current morphologies as a result of COVID-19. By using fiction as a template to understand the intersections of architecture, urbanism and public health, the thesis chronicles an epidemic representation in order to exercise our empathetic intelligence in the face of a global crisis that has rapidly spatialized blame.