AAHA Venice Biennale 2023
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Type: Exhibition
Location: Venice, Italy
Exhibition Website: Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA)
Curatorial Team: Adrian Blackwell, David Fortin, Matthew Soules, Sara Stevens, Patrick Stewart, Tijana Vujosevic
Project Team: Black Urbanism TO, CP Planning, Keele Eglinton Residents
Credits: Justin Bailey (Reggae Lane photo), Gyimah Gariba (cover illustration), Beth Lesser (archival photos)
Axonometric drawing of Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighborhood
SOCA has been invited by Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) as a contributing architect representing Canada in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, from May 20 to November 26, 2023.
AAHA will transform the Canada Pavilion in the Giardini into a campaign headquarters for equitable housing that rejects this concept of property and the financialized form of architecture that it implies. To address these issues, they will work with interdisciplinary and geographically dispersed teams comprised of activist organizations, advocates for non-alienated housing, and architects. They will collaborate to develop demands and create architectural projects to address housing alienation, presenting bold visions for equitable and deeply affordable housing in Canada. The AAHA goal is to mobilize all Canadians to join the call for safer, healthier, and more equitable housing.
Working with local activists and advocates, this exhibition illustrates a viable alternative to the economic and cultural displacement occurring in Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighbourhood. Reparative Architecture: Housing without Erasure!!!
Informational poster on population change in Little Jamaica
Informational poster on Community Land Trust virtual focus group
Elevation drawing of main street with mid-rise housing and community sports centre expansions
Dancehall musician Tenor Saw, photo by Beth Lesser
Informational poster on reparative planning
Elevation drawing of mid-rise expansion placed within existing block
Informational poster on unpacking Community Land Trusts
Elevation drawing of a proposal for a mixed-use laneway
Diagram of incremental housing proposal
Clara Lemontagne shopping at a grocery store in Little Jamaica run by Florrie Temple in 1978, photo by Mike Slaughter, Toronto Archives
Elevation drawing of a mixed-use apartment block
View of Reggae Lane
