House-Home 1999
Strachan House is a unique form of housing that has attracted international attention since it opened in December 1996. It was created to accommodate and respond to, the specific needs of chronically homeless men and women. In a turn of the century abandoned timber and brick warehouse, Levitt Goodman Architects designed a series of interior houses connected by streets to lodge 70 residents. The photographic component of this project was collaborative, with Debra Friedman, and presents a visual record of the Strachan House from the initial phases of construction to its inhabited state. Over a period of two and a half years Friedman concentrated on making portraits while I documented the architectural components of the project. The combined images by myself and Friedman not only document the structural evolution of Strachan House but also explore the ways in which the residents have created homes for themselves. These diptychs are meant to blend the environmental portrait with a record of the environment, a technique commonly employed by editorial publications that cover home decor. RB
