"Change its name repeatedly. Burn it down": the politics of place as impermanent in Lisa Robertson's 'Occasional work and seven walks from the office for soft architecture'

Abstract

In her 2003 book of essays Occasional Work and Seven Walks from the Office for Soft Architecture, Vancouver poet Lisa Robertson poetically explores ideas of impermanence and change within the frame of a Vancouver that, in her words, is dissolving "in the fluid called money" (1 ). In my thesis, I think about the ways that Robertson examines impermanent architectural forms (scaffolds, shacks, furniture, gardens) as spatial forms with the ability to counter narratives that fix or make permanent both spatial and social relations, and how those impermanent or "soft" architectures can act as points of intervention or agency where individuals and groups can alter space in ways that suit them. Through this, Robertson argues for spaces that are not charged by a singularly perfected identity, but rather for spaces that are mutable and multivalent, spaces that are able to accommodate both difference and change.