For the last Um…Crits for the semester we will talk crowdsourcing, artist books and photography when following the creative process of Robin Durand’s Small Visionary Project Små grejer (Little Things). Durand is developing a pocket guide of so-called banal architecture with a renewed curiosity, revealing a sense of care, dedication and relation of the architecture to its place.
Små Grejer (Little Things) is a pocket architecture guide to Umeå Kommun which gathers together a collection of hybridized buildings where modifications intentionally made by its users transform the symbolic value of the architecture. These modifications are often small-scale and likely made by a single individual. Seemingly minor, they manage to offer a different architectural experience: where the relation to the body is very direct, along with the impact of the modifications. These interventions on buildings can also be read as traces of care.
This pocket guide will be a tool for a critical reflection on the architecture of the everyday in the area of the Umeå Kommun. It aims to look at so-called banal architecture with a renewed curiosity, revealing a sense of care, dedication and relation of the architecture to its place.