Sofia Nannini – Is there a known optimum gate size for the dual control of cattle and sheep?

Sofia Nannini discusses a small but representative collection of files within the Cedric Price fonds: the proposal for a light and reconfigurable livestock pen to clean and weigh cattle and sheep that he called Westpen. The design concept was largely driven by the movement of the animals and the flexibility of the program, suggesting that the pen could become a bucolic family picnic area when not used for the animals, simply by removing the gates that control them. Nannini, a 2023 Research Fellow, focuses precisely on this question of control of the non-human: in the context of Price’s interest in impermanence and the creative potential of human interaction and individual free will, Nannini exposes architecture’s responsibility in perpetuating the assumed dominion of our species over others.

CCA Singles are short printed one-offs that present one voice, one object, or one event. Ranging from raw source material to edited topical reflections, they propose intimate contact with ideas generated or collected at the CCA.

64 pages, 20 x 30 cm, softcover, Published by Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal).