Conditions of Observation is a photographic research tool developed for my Master of Architecture
thesis at the University of Toronto. All photographs are my own, taken
primarily with my iPhone between 2017 and 2025 as part of my ongoing
practice of noticing.
The thesis (forthcoming) explores the role of contemporary vernacular materials
and contingent urban conditions in shaping architectural culture. By studying
formal and material conditions, this thesis will engage directly with contingent
urban context through observation, documentation, and interpretive making
to examine how the overlooked artifacts of everyday life are the result of
informal participation in the production of space and contemporary design
culture.
This thesis foregrounds adaptive reuse and economies of construction, treating
discarded, provisional, and improvised material conditions as resources for
contextual architectural invention. Drawing on discourses of semiology, contemporary
material culture, and spatial production, the research
proposes techniques of observation and making that highlight chance encounters,
circumstantial geometries, and the aesthetics of contemporaneity as a productive
force in design.
Warmly,
Scott Christian McCallum
