Controlled Undoing : Rethinking the death of a corner store

This thesis calls for a critical and poetic way of looking at architectural death. This thesis will establish its underlying premises, indicate the failings of the utilitarian attitude of obsolescence that leads to total demolition, and the superficial idea of heritage building conservation as method of treating death in architecture. It urges stakeholders to rethink how architecture is valued and how buildings should die, proposing an alternative end-of-life process- a controlled undoing, a practice of lengthening and slowing the death of a building, while creating an alternative approach to preserving histories, memories and intangible heritage. More specifically, a controlled undoing shall be seen as a collection of funeral rituals facilitated by the architect, in which architectural operations are performed to reveal memories and intangible cultural heritage. This collection of rituals shall allow the community to commemorate an obsolete building, creating a continuous flow of inheritance of the building’s legacy. This thesis travels back in time to the moment of death of BK Grocery, one of the disappearing corner stores in Vancouver, and speculates an alternative death through a funeral. With the examination of mortuary rituals from three cultures, this thesis explores the different concepts of death as an aid to the speculation. Through controlled undoing, this thesis attempts to strategically arrange the death of BK Grocery so that the needs of the neighbourhood community is maintained, facilitating emotional, historical, social, and environmental continuity, while preserving intangible values such as authentic culture, traditions, identities, and place.Applied Science, Faculty ofArchitecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School ofUnreviewedGraduat