Wide Load [Bred Last] A House Moved

Carless, Tonia; Sarjeant, Robin; Benedict Brown, James; Hynam, Matt; Roush, Paula

Abstract

https://www.msdm.org.uk/wide-load
This book is a photographic archive and written essays of a house move in Northern Sweden. It considers the historic, cultural, technical and material significance of house moving in the region, through a single historic house move from the Teg area of Umea, to nearby Degernas in the summer of 2021. The main frame of analysis is the spatial politics of un-building. It is an investigation of the mobility of shifting built and occupied forms in relation to a historic and future context of urban reconfiguration.

It is a visual essay that explores the context through the form of the book itself. The book is also understood to be a potential model that constructs and translates analysis of the space. It is a collaborative architectural work to document the house move and a series of other spatial productions, models, drawings and collage of the space beneath and between the ground and house, image projections, exhibitions and events.

The book is structured in chronological order of the physical move, relocation, and relevance to the wider spatial analysis of removing buildings in Umea. It uses a visual discourse of working into and onto the images in order to develop a visual research and a visual production of space. The written essays are directed towards a critical history of house moving in Vasterbotten, and framing the move within the wider context of un-building in the area. There are 3 short dialogue exchanges that consider, the wider location and context of the periphery, the construction and interior of the house and the connection between this and the demolition of traditional timber cottages in Umea associated with a major new housing development area.

The research uncovers aspects of the implications of technological and social change in Norrlands, it considers how political narratives of the region might be embedded in the space and It develops new readings of cause, effect and values associated with the relocation

The subject matter has been selected as an extraordinary moment of socio-spatial displacement, through capital investments, where multiple cultural layers are shifted through the action of Husflyttningar (House relocation).

Citation

Carless, T., Sarjeant, R., Benedict Brown, J., Hynam, M., & Roush, P. (2023). T. Carless (Ed.). Wide Load [Bred Last] A House Moved. London: msdm London

• Book Type: Edited Book
• Acceptance Date: Nov 19, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jan 27, 2023
• Publication Date: Jan 27, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2023
• Keywords: Architecture; domesticity; photogrammetry; research by design; Unsettling; de-growth; occupation; relocation; house-moving; caretaking; displacement
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10487496
• Related Public URLs: https://www.msdm.org.uk/wide-load
• Additional Information: ISBN: 978-1-7391803-0-0