Ford Boxes is an architectural research project, which focuses on the impact of the Ford car factory in Cork, iand how this impacted the lives of people and the built environment of the city.
As a way to explore the relationship between Cork and Ford from an cultural, economical and architectural point of view, Bik van der Pol looked at how the wooden boxes (made of high quality plywood, and the predecessor of the container) that used to ship and deliver car parts for the Ford T Model and -tractor to Cork, were recycled.
Architect LeCorbusier, for example, was highly inspired by the way Ford had set up his concept of assembling. It is not unthinkable that Ford's ideas shaped the architect's insights towards the development of prefab panel housing. Ford Boxes examines the re-use of material and the second life of things, the creativity and inventiveness of the local Cork people and employees of the factory in how they re-adapted the boxes for their own use and how this re-use of pre-fabricated material impacted the built environment. of Cork at large.
Located on the high cliffs overlooking Cork and the sea, many of todays' summer houses all once started off as Ford boxes. They have, in time, been turned into permanent housing, as a result of inventive re-use of left-over material of the assembly line. Because of the law in Ireland, initial structures could not be demolished. One could only extend, not break down. It is for this reason, that inside every house, once built from the woorden boxes, a Ford box can be found.
Traveling around Cork, interviewing former Ford employees, and locating the remaining boxes (which could be traced inside the houses, or partly re-used as dog kennels, pigeon lofts and garden sheds), we explored how the left-over material of this global industry became integrated into Cork society.
Ford Boxes materialised as a collection of videofilms made by Bik Van der Pol, exhibited as part of an installation, and an insert in the Evening Echo.
