“The water I speak of is the water needed for dreaming city as a dwelling place.” (Illich, Ivan, H2O and The Waters of Forgetfulness)

the desert

Located within what was a denser residential area, the Craig pump station used to be the neighborhood's visble connection to the water. Axes of communication have replaced the flow of water and isolated the pump station.

the submerged city

The flow of vehicles, cutting literally through the urban fabric, has created an urban desert. The former urban fabric is revealed under currently vacant spaces.

the submerged site : the 'under-site' revealed

The pump station is among the rare buildings which have avoided submersion. It used to be the symbol of Montreal's web of freshwater rendered underground. It is now also one of the only remaining witness of the existing urban fabric.

emergence

The pumpstation is re-activated. The submerged city starts to emerge from site and surrounding vacant lots. The tip of the buildings emerges over the surface, very discreetly, merely as a hint evoking the presence of the existing urban fabric. Curiosity for the memory of the site.

 

Water : a tool for display

The idea of water, will be used as a tool for revealing, displaying, evoking, questioning, the memory of the pump station and of the site. The double nature of water (the reflective surface and the hidden depths) wil allow juxtaposition between past and present, between urban space and water. Display of the historical, imaginary, objective, and subjective memory will contribute to a re-connection with the urban space and water of our dreams.

Submersion

How to make submerged memory emerge?
Imagining that the past urban fabric still exists immersed under the surface, my aim is to reactivate the pump station, and thus making our memory of the site and of water emerge. The idea is neither to rebuild, recreate nor to replicate the historical past of the site. It is rather to give a few hints on the surface of what lies underneath in order to intrigue the passer-by, and thus make him slow down or “derive” from his everyday path.

Reflection

“More tangible than space, [water] is even more elusive for two reasons: first because this water has a nearly unlimited ability to carry metaphors and second, because water even more subtly than space, always possesses two sides. As a vehicle for metaphors, water is a shifting mirror. What it says reflects the fashion of the age; what it seems to reveal and betray hides the stuff that lies beneath.” (Illich, Ivan. H2O : The Waters of Forgetfulness)Water reflects the present, but the image displayed on its surface is one of a transformed present. It is distorted and juxtaposed with a glimpse of the world lying beneath. Water both reveals and conceals. It acts as the interface between past and present.

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