Our planet's poorest people are also its largest construction force. Whether recent immigrants to growing cities or the last residents in shrinking cities, these occupiers have a great need and, often, no choice but to self-build. They use whatever can be found to create places to live, to work, and perhaps hide. Leftover Rightunder highlights selected projects from ten years of Wes Janz's efforts to showcase these people's work in the design and education communities of which he is a member.
Through hundreds of color photos, Janz documents subjects that include small architectures, boarded houses, a house teardown, a Goodwill outlet store, and common American waste streams (couches, mattresses, shipping pallets, and construction site dumpsters full of useable materials) as well as his own efforts to repurpose those materials in workshops with students. The book concludes with detailed photos showing the construction of Janz's beautiful Pallet Garage (2011-2013) which he describes as "very likely the first building in the United States to be constructed almost entirely of timber pallets and authorized with a building permit."
Wes Janz, PhD, RA, is a professor of architecture at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. In 2006, he was the recipient of the university's Outstanding Teaching Award. He is the founder of onesmallproject, a collection of global and local initiatives that foreground the lives of people many observers consider to be in need or at risk. Janz was one of five finalists for the inaugural Curry Stone Design Prize, an international award established in 2008 to recognize and encourage breakthrough projects that "engage communities at the fulcrum of change, raising awareness, empowering individuals and fostering collective revitalization ." He is married to Marcia Stone and lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Dimensions: 5.5 in x 8.5", 96 pages
Materials: Softcover book, perfect bound
Half Letter Press
(Avondale)
Half Letter Press is a publishing imprint and online store initiated by Temporary Services—Brett Bloom & Marc Fischer, who have published booklets as an element of their collaborative work since 1998. Half Letter Press was created to publish and distribute book and booklet length works by themselves and others, and to use this endeavor to build long-term support and expanded audiences for people that work creatively in experimental ways.
