NiS+TS worked with students from the Architecture program at Dalhousie University in a design-build Free Lab for the first time in Summer 2014. This was the first of three Free Labs NiS+TS did with Dalhousie Architecture students, with succeeding sessions undertaken during the summers of 2016 and 2017.
In 2014’s intensive two-week course, the group researched and workshopped architectural approaches to the theme of “walking the debris field”, based on walking, mobility and history. The resulting XYZ structure is a modular sculptural form based on building fragments (foundations and chimneys) from ruined houses in the Richmond neighbourhood devastated in the Explosion. The “XYZ” refers to computer drawing coordinates. The sculpture was installed as a permanent public artwork beside the community garden behind the Devonshire Arena, near the site of the original Richmond School destroyed in 1917. Panels along the sides of the sculpture list in braille the names of the 1,963 people killed in the Explosion.
NiS+TS enjoyed working with these student participants on the XYZ Marker project: Francois Abbott, Tanner Allred, Erin Bai, David D’Andrea, Celine Kobenter, Ilya Nepogodin, Galen Novakowski, Kevin Tang, and Graham Tkachuk.
The NiS+TS Free Lab project received support through the Institute of Applied Creativity at NSCAD University, the School of Architecture at Dalhousie University, and Arts Nova Scotia.
