place mattering matters

Posted by Daniela Elza on Feb 24 2022

Place Mattering Matters 

The newly minted Place Mattering Matters Collective gathers two artists (Maria Roth & Daniela Elza) and two architects (Richard Evans & Graham McGarva) with the purpose of opening conversations on the qualities of place needed to thrive in our shared urban environment: to look at the issues through the poetics of space as well as the mathematics of it.  

 After the two battles we had with Vancouver city hall last year—one for the lease renewal framework in June, and the other in October on the proposed redevelopment plan of False Creek South—we saw the need to continue to engage with communities that are fighting for their deeply affordable homes. We started the Place Mattering Matters Salon to look at the different pieces of the puzzle in the un-affordable housing crisis. 

Salon 01 launched on January 25th with the screening of the movie PUSH to lay some common vocabulary and background on the financialization of our homes.

Salon 02 followed on February 8th with a discussion on mass affordability with guest speaker Patrick Condon who has been writing with passion and clarity on the complexities we are grappling with. Patrick’s book Sick City: Disease, Race, Inequality and Urban Land is free to download.

Each salon aims to dispel myths entrenched in the discourse, contributes to unpacking words around housing that are poorly defined, and has some form of poetic/artistic engagement. We close with the questions: What can we do today? (short-term) and What can we do tomorrow (long-term)? We hope to empower each other with specific actions we can take right away and build a vision for the future. We aim to accomplish all this in a once-a-month 60 minute (for now online) session.  

We run on the second Tuesday of the month. Salon 03: Celebrating Women in the City is on March 8th, 4PM with guest speaker Leslie Kern. You can find her book here. You can register here.  

Salon 04, on April 12, will discuss the more poetic aspects of what gives our neighbourhoods a happiness advantage. Other topics we hope to cover in future salons are illicit/criminal money in housing & aging in community. 

As it rapidly transforms around us, not only does place matter, but that it matters is essential for the health of the whole community. We hope you can join us in these explorations. 

contact us at email: info@placematteringmatters.com

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