Broken City Lab: fixing a broken city
By Mike Laverty
Lance Writer
Photo By Cristina Naccarato
March 4, 2009
 Residents of Windsor and other industrial cities in North America have accepted derelict buildings and abandoned infrastructure as part of their urban landscape. The economic crisis that has dominated our lives recently has turned these locations into ominous symbols of failure and a bleak future.
Broken City Lab is a newly formed collective of creative researchers attempting to transform these sites into positive examples of sustainability through a unique and innovative approach.
The group also focuses on social activism through addressing issues such as homelessness, environmental degradation, and unemployment. They believe that Windsor is “a city with a broken economy, broken environment, broken design, broken politics, and a broken heart” that needs to be fixed.
Justin A. Langlois, founder and research director of Broken City Lab, spoke with The Lance about the mission and methods of his organization. “Broken City Lab is organized as a collective, decisions come out of the group organically. Ideas brought up on the blog, or in our weekly Office Hours (an open forum) are discussed, brainstormed, critiqued, planned, and executed.”
The group also holds public presentations in addition to setting up installations and altering the cityscape.
One of their main objectives is to engage the public and encourage others to take part in fixing the city. Broken City Lab seeks to “demonstrate the potential for creative consideration and activity in the everyday workings and interactions in the city and in its communities. We hope to encourage others to take up similar practices by offering the instructions and source code of the projects we’ve already developed and projects we’re working on for the future,” said Langlois.
From March 2-6 Broken City Lab will be hosting: “Making Things Happen (For a Week Straight)” at the LeBel Gallery, located on the corner of Huron Church Rd. and College Ave. This will not be a normal exhibition according to the organizers. “We’re taking on the gallery show as an extended set of office hours, where we want a concentrated amount of time to work on existing projects and imagine new projects, while welcoming others from the community to participate, ask questions, and collaborate with us,” explained Langlois.
Future projects include an installation on the E.C. Row Expressway Walkway and documenting the abandoned houses on Indian Rd. near the Ambassador Bridge.
The emphasis of most projects is to find sustainable methods that raise public awareness and help to fix the broken city.
Each of the projects are documented and placed on the Broken City Lab website to encourage others to follow their example. “We plan to continue our extensive documentation on our website, and we would love to eventually compile a book of some kind,” said Langlois.
Broken City Lab displays their objectives and achievements to the public, but places an emphasis on continuous action and maintaining several active projects. “This is the same idea behind using the gallery as a collaborative workspace rather than holding some kind of archive show for the week,” Langlois said.
Langlois also explained the relationship Broken City Lab with the city of Windsor. “So far, we’ve been really fortunate with the incredible amount of support we’ve received from faculty, other students, and community groups. We believe in doing things legitimately and developing a good rapport with the city, so that future projects can occur smoothly and without resistance, and the city has been pretty receptive so far.”
For more information or to participate, visit Broken City Lab at http://www.brokencitylab.org.
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