Accommodation
Julia Child’s Kitchen, Washington, DC
Drawing by John Ota
Right now, It’s almost impossible, and certainly irresponsible, to think about the built environment without considering the effects of COVID-19. In our last issue, we discussed discomfort in the built environment, acknowledging “a new, more insidious, form of discomfort” that had entered our lives in pandemic form. In this issue of The Right Angle Journal, we examine how two separate meanings of a single word can collide, collaborate and assume special importance under these unusual circumstances.
The word is accommodation, which can mean either a place to dwell, or adjustments made in response to changing circumstances. Both definitions are especially pertinent. We had originally planned to dedicate this issue to the growing crisis in affordable housing, but thanks to COVID-19, this problem has been joined by others, just as urgent, especially those affecting the places in which we have all learned to spend more time: our homes and neighbourhoods.
Bowing to another COVID-19 circumstance, the current economic slump, our journal will be temporarily switching to semi-annual publication. Meanwhile, our website www.therightanglejournal.com will be ramping up to fill the gap. You will see us again in print in about six months. Stay well.
Introduction
Accommodation, noun:
1. Lodging;
2. An adaptation or adjustment due to a change in circumstances.
In our last issue, we quoted the Roman writer/orator Horace, translated as: “[I]t’s hard, but patience makes more tolerable that which it is impossible to correct.”1 Patience and forbearance are definitely essential qualities in dealing with the pandemic.
Quarantine in the City has Resulted in a New Collectivity
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a fear of the unknown that was most unsettling. As our society crept slowly into shadow, there was a growing realization that the airborne virus would have a drastic impact on city life around the world. Working as an urban planner and designer in Toronto, I often observe patterns and behaviours of human interaction with the built environment. However, during the pandemic, I have noticed a distinct change in the relationship between Torontonians and their city.
Our Housing Crisis is not Going Away
If our society is to be great, it has to work for everyone.
The provision of suitable housing that meets the needs of owners and tenants alike is essential. Yet there is an ever growing shortage of affordable housing. Governments, community groups, professions – in short, everyone – recognizes this gap in our basic need. But filling that gap is an expensive proposition. Perhaps too great for any government.
A Book Discussion
After months of being stuck at home in COVID isolation, many of us can now go out, cautiously, for a restaurant meal. But so much has changed. The carefree dining experience of a few months ago, crowding together in a cozy gastropub, huddling in a crowded jazz bistro – these are, for now, things of the past. For the foreseeable future, if we want to dine with friends in a relaxed indoor atmosphere, it will be in our own houses, prepared (or plated from take-out containers) in a domestic space that some of us have only now begun to fully appreciate – our very own kitchens.
LOCATIONS: Discovering the Humber
The east bank of the Humber, where it flows into Lake Ontario, is formed by a ridge, whose steep sides are still clothed by vestiges of the original forest. ...
There is no monument to recall the past, but this is one of the most historic spots in the lake region, and where we may go back to the beginning of Canadian history.1
– Percy J. Robinson