ART,
ARCHITECTURE IN LAND
FINDING
NEMO.
THE
MODERNITY OF SURVIVALISM IN A KRAS POLITICAL CONVERSATION.
STORY
OF A FIRST TIME FARMER.
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| Shack Project - Site. |
How
can working in the land re-imagine both the physical and mental form? A deep
personal philosophical equation, complicated by a dysfunctional socio-political
situations, a question that I have been in contemplation, ever more intently
since I have be dealing with a land project, steep in the ridges of the
Northern Range of Trinidad, It wasn’t soon enough that I found out that
re-imagining a space had a certain amount of commitment, failure,
disappointment, knowledge transference, physicality and learning to happen. I
quickly gained respect for the women and men who commit their lives to the
pursuit in cultivation, living in quite, polite understanding of the land,
while at the same time monetizing, profiting from their physical sweat, muscle
intelligence, knowledge transference, human kind and nature working in a
balance to sustain, to live in the simplicity of comfort that country is.
I
have met the farmer who uses the chemicals; I have met the farmer who doesn’t.
There are organic chemicals that work in balance with the land and there are
those that don’t. I sat in a farmer’s meeting with a chemical company
representative. I asked about their organic chemicals and why aren’t they
recommending that farmers use organics...I didn’t get much response.
I
have used chemicals to tame, to clear out the wild that overwhelms space so
quickly, I learned that I must by my hand kill to re-plant new seed, a new
vision must come at the felling of trees, clearing site lines and replanting in
the site new seeds, hardy seeds, soft seeds that need presence and continuity. I
have also learnt that there is no such thing as the unwanted, they are there
and their purpose is there for a certain amount of bio diversity, for the
crickets, for the ants, to get rid of them means that they will feed off you.
There must be a wild corridor within the tame; I will have to learn to balance
that in the design of the vision.
The
vision must be soft in its implementation, care must be given in interpreting
ideas, and thought must be shared with others who vision fits with yours. All
farmers or people of the land, are not caring custodians to the land, their
knowledge is skewed, flawed and out dated.
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| To you left is the open area, there will be doors(9ft.). An open balcony kitchen, a loft that will hold a simple arrangement for several people (hammocks). Ground level will be able to store and act as a chill spot, hammock limming. |
I DISLIKE SQUATTING
I
have come to dislike squatting, but I have also come to understand the
historical, political and social position of why squatters lifestyle is so well
endowed in the way this society has been configurated. My neighbour’s story, of
not one but two squatters on either side of his land each taking half an acre.
Both were told by the then political representative at the time (PNM) to stay
on the land even when the state authorities told them to vacate, only to
retract (said statement) when in the realization that they both were breaking
the law. There are so many of them like zombies, roaming the space, to
hatch tents at moment of vaps to spring up a corrugated house, of found
materials and an assortment of bought hardware products. Dey jus take yuh land, with a real seriousness of you lossing your land to them, nah, dat cant work. Why we must call for them to get that land policy up and presented for comments. But the Spatial Consultation, held by Ministry of Planning, is a good start. Lets hear more..JPG) |
| Detail of loft area. |
LABOUR
“Dem
fellas grow in de bush, buh dey not of de bush” my neighbour told me about the
labour I had, but had to part ways. At $200 a task which was most likely 3-4
hours of work, Marvin my helper was of little help, there was no motivation, a
task would create more nuisances, a fell tree would block up several paths
through the land. It is hard to understand why a young man who has grown up in
the land can’t manage the land in the simplicity as it takes for them to run up
in the deep forest to hunt, or to light a cigarette while clearing the land,
machete held in the right hand, their poetry of balance they have acquired
walking this mountainous terrain, it’s admirable. But in there somewhere there
is a deep seethed laziness, carelessness to knowledge, an arrogance and
ignorance derived from a political modernity, a break down in the transference
of inter-generational knowledge, a break down in the implementation modern
values.
I
also remember a story of an agriculturist, who mentioned as he passed through
the village, stating “this is a lazy village!”, how does a man say such a
thing, make these conclusions, what signals does he see, witnesses, that will
make him come to those conclusions. I have been around there for a while and I
will have to say the man was right, but I will have to be fair to the people.
This laziness has a political nature to it.
DREAMING THROUGH LAZINESS
How
do you keep dreaming in a space that is lazy and harsh. In my interaction with the land I
try to interact with it ever other day, at 3 hour task time allotted to that
day. But when things are tight I find myself going up on Sundays, with 3 hours
task time. With that in mind I have been able to maintain a certain acreage, I
will say about 2 acres, this to my amazement the guy who we had couldn’t do. So
to maximize time and labour I came to the realization of the Shack Project,
which I hope will intensify the time I spend in the land, 3 in the morning, 3
in the pm, sleep, wake in the a.m another 3 hours and another 3 in the
afternoon, that should be 12 hours in two days. That is allot of time, you know
what can be done in 3 hours, farless 12.
The
idea or concept of the individual working through their full competences
through task management, will develop a knowledge base that must be
complemented with science and obeah, intellectualism and sometimes guts.
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| The brim of the house is low as to allow a certain amount of outdoor living. people will have to live on the balcony. This shows the studio area(the will be a wrought iron gate between the two black lines), kitchen to the right, steps to the left, |
THE SHACK PROJECT .
The
design is about the tradition, the history, and memory. Influenced by my
Amerindian past I have developed the idea as a construct to the outdoors, as
most of the living will be done on the outside of the rooms and on the 308
balcony, where all the kitchen dinning will take place. The shack is modular,
can be built off site, brought to the site and installed, in my observation,
the only commitment will be the foundation where we will have to pour cement,
form there we will lock in and hook, lock in and hook.
So
there is the costing, talking to the contractors, understanding the land
situation (there is a landslip on the road).
But
what is interesting is the off the grid design, there are no utilities there
and there is the serious consideration of
1.
Developing cisterns.
2.
Light.
3.
Solar energy,
4.
lamp,
5.
Harvesting spring
water,
6.
Developing cisterns,
7.
Rain water harvesting,
8.
Developing a
filtering system for shower, kitchen and sewer.
All these
mechanism will have to be creatively considered and engineered into the design
cost, for present installation and future upgrades. As a modular design the
intention isn’t only about present, but it is about upgrading as we grow, which
is a very Caribbean way of development. But that intention is placed into the
DNA of the design at inception.
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| Loft to the left, which will face North. |
THE DREAM.
Can farming maintain the dream of the farmer, their ambitions. Here in the mountains valleys of the Northern Range, the village is semi rural, as most of the residence have a job not related to the land, they commute every morning to the flats (urban centres) to their respective jobs. There seem to be migration into the village and there is the selling and the buying of land, by people who do not live in the area. So there is this distant connection to the land, a manner of long understanding, but a tiredness that makes men and women move away from a consistency. But as I sit here there are the cocoa, the cressels, the plantain, the breadfruit, and fruits. There are the women and men carrying out the work, one guy left his job to raise cristofine full time.
But I wonder, as the project starts the realism of farming, or is it better to develop art-farming. Develop a space that will be able to invoke the principals of farming while enjoying the principals of creative research and development. I like that idea, I will like to see something in the village that will allow them to imagine just a little more. Just a little is so much, just a twist in the degree of how we see and pursue the things that we love can make so much difference in how we experience our lives.
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| Detail of the loft. |
As I sat with
my village friend as we do after a early morning task, in his garage we speak
of life, on that day we talked about the village of Trinidad and Tobago. I’m at
the firm believe that we will not be able move forward if we don’t confront our
dark psychological past and present. We have to acknowledge that we’re a
damaged people, to move forward in this is to embrace this, speak of it, print
it... then we will feel something very cathartic happening in the village. But
this isn’t as easy as we think, we’re comfortable in our sin.
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| I will be going up with Shivo to look at the road. Hear what he has to say about cutting the road, which will make this project a little more plausible.
Well, when thhis thing happens. We will do a jam session in the Heights.
keep Posted
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