Every construction of a building starts with appropriation of nature: The building or its earliest predecessor displaces what was once part of nature, and many of its materials are extracted or harvested from nature. As the physical, biological, technological, economic, social and cultural environments change during its lifetime, a building undergoes various phases of use, reuse, misuse and disuse, until it succumbs to the force of nature or some catastrophic intervention by humans. Once disintegration of the structure is complete and the final debris is cleared, the site becomes receptive to yet another cycle of construction.

These photographs document the different stages of construction, including pre-construction, post-construction, re-construction, and de-construction of buildings, as parts of the ecology of construction. They were taken during the daily commute between my studio on Parker Street and Carnegie Community Centre on Main at Hastings, mostly from 2019 to 2020, and often with a mobile phone camera.

This project is supported by the 2019-20 Downtown Eastside Small Arts Grants Program.