Al NAssER fei alisoN lIANg mAIN mARIoTTI · 2017. 5. 4. · sCoTT heNRy lINg yue mA laRRy mAc aNsoN RiChaRd mAIN sTefaNia mARIoTTI fadi mAsoud TaRaNeh mEshkANI ... 88 90 92 94 96

Thesis ReviewsWINTER 2010

Khalid Al NAssERMahfil AlI ZahRa AWANg NaRges AyAT soNia-CRisTiNa BAdEscu lauRa ChRisTiNa BAlTodANo saliM BAmAkhRAmA MiChael BARkER sTeveN BEITEs MaRTiNa BRAuNsTEIN MaTThew ausTiN johN BRoWN fioNN ByRNE MoNiCa cAsTRo lauRel aNNe chRIsTIE alessaNdRo colAvEcchIo Nadia d’AgNoNE saRah dANEshvAR MaRiela dE FélIx-dávIlAMaya dEsAI shadi EdAREhchI gIlANI ReNé FAN MaRTiN hoguE Maxwell kERRIgAN shadi khATAmI ayda khAzAEI NEzhAd safoRa khoylou haRiM lABuschAgNE BReNT lAumAN

fei alisoN lIANg sCoTT heNRy lINg yue mA laRRy mAc aNsoN RiChaRd mAIN sTefaNia mARIoTTI fadi mAsoud TaRaNeh mEshkANI MauRy mITchEll MaRia muszyNskA shiKha NARulA elie aNdRew NEhmE jaMes Neu-wa o’NEIll wei PANg MaRiaNgela PIccIoNE Maxwell sTepheN PRoByN KeviN schoRN laRa sEmENIuk KaThRyN sloTEk BReTT sNydER leyla solEImANI kARImABAd MiChael jasoN TRANquAdA daNNy shao-ChaN TsENg johN vuu MaNdy WoNg li xu xueKuN yANg

Thesis ReviewsWINTER 2010

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AckNoWlEdgEmENTs

Thank you to the program directors, pina petricone, Master of architecture, jane wolff, Master of landscape architecture, and Robert levit, Master of urban design; to Cecille sioulis for strong program support in the graduate programs and invaluable coordi-nation of the final Thesis Reviews; to Rob wright for Mla thesis; to anna lightfoot for communications assistance and production of this book; to dean Richard M. sommer and Komala prabhakar for intellectual and logistical support; and to john howarth, johnny Bui, Bryn dhir, ana da silva Borges, and Zita da silva for facilities, resources, and coordination assistance for this winter’s Thesis Reviews. also thank you to an impressive array of guest critics and all thesis advisors.

M aRCh Thesis Reviews FAll 2009 54

Khalid Al NAssERMahfil AlI ZahRa AWANg NaRges AyAT soNia-CRisTiNa BAdEscu lauRa ChRisTiNa BAlTodANo saliM BAmAkhRAmA MiChael BARkER sTeveN BEITEs MaRTiNa BRAuNsTEIN MaTThew ausTiN johN BRoWN fioNN ByRNE MoNiCa cAsTRo lauRel aNNe chRIsTIE alessaNdRo colAvEcchIo Nadia d’AgNoNE saRah dANEshvAR MaRiela dE FélIx-dávIlA Maya dEsAI shadi EdAREhchI gIlANI ReNé FAN MaRTiN hoguE Maxwell kERRIgAN shadi khATAmI ayda khAzAEI NEzhAd safoRa khoylou haRiM lABuschAgNE

BReNT lAumAN fei alisoN lIANg sCoTT heNRy lINg yue mA laRRy mAc aNsoN RiChaRd mAIN sTefaNia mARIoTTI fadi mAsoud TaRaNeh mEshkANI MauRy mITchEll MaRia muszyNskA shiKha NARulA elie aNdRew NEhmE jaMes Neu-wa o’NEIll wei PANg MaRiaNgela PIccIoNE Maxwell sTepheN PRoByN KeviN schoRN laRa sEmENIuk KaThRyN sloTEk BReTT sNydER leyla solEImANI kARImABAd MiChael jasoN TRANquAdA daNNy shao-ChaN TsENg johN vuu li xu xueKuN yANg

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6 Thesis Reviews WINTER 2010

9Thesis Reviews WINTER 2010

Advisor: RodolPhE El-khouRy

from Critical Mass to Critical Ass, san francisco remains a principal disseminator of a burgeoning anarchic cycling culture. for the first time since the second world war, a grassroots movement is now asserting an egalitarian right of road possession, challenging a decadent yet prevailing condition in street hierarchy.

yet, within a city that actively embraces and propagates complete streets initiatives is a major region-al transit gap. The tenacious issue of linking the peninsula to the east Bay remains unrealized, leaving two-wheeled transbay commuters reliant on complicated, specious accommodations on transit.

as the North american metropolis realizes the viability of promoting active transportation in alleviating environmental and congestion pressures, more dwellers should adopt cycling as a primary means of transportation. Recent audacious municipal decisions, backed by a broad civilian consensus, aspire for a more inclusive and affluent san francisco public realm. plans to revitalize Market street into a grand civic boulevard and double the existing network of arterial and neighborhood bicycle routes prioritize public space, active transportation and the efficiency of public transit. such corrections are reclaiming large chunks of civic real estate lost to the car sixty years ago in the ethos of Modernism.

while the geographic scopes of these infrastructural revisions are limited and peninsula-bound, the thesis utilizes the civic zeitgeist as a momentous opportunity to formulate strategies for a transbay cycling expressway, stressing the importance of a comprehensive transportation network in a twenty-first century context. in instigating a network reflective of a healthier, more efficient and sustainable urban future, newly introduced architectural systems would integrate into existing regional infrastructure to generate advanced urban infrastructural mutations.

The Bay Bridge—arresting, monumental and archetypical of the twentieth century—is engaged as a subject for experimental hybridity. as infrastructure, it would mutate, adjusting accordingly to the urbanistic demands of a revised transit network. as icon, it would re-manifest itself emblematic of a collective membership in the public sphere, provoking alternative and more fitting means of transportation within the Bay area. as urban paradigm, it would foster dynamic change on a number of levels—from individual habits and perception to a more inclusive approach in planning for the twenty-first century city.

Khalid Al NAssER, March

BEyoNd ThE ‘WIgglE’PIvoTAl sTRATEgIEs FoR BRIdgINg ThE EAsT BAy

8

Thesis Reviews WINTER 2010 11

Advisor: RoBERT lEvIT

it is now well acknowledged that suburban development is no longer efficient. sky high gas prices, empty nesters returning to the city, and the threat of falling home values cannot conform to suburban living. in 1949, a house price was $8,000, a down payment was $90, and gas was $0.27 per gallon in the town of watertown, New york. in 2008 the same house price was $73,000, a down payment was $827, and gas was $2.48 per gallon. demand for apartments, condos and townhouses has gone up between 2005 and 2007. on the other hand, demand for large houses has decreased in the same period of time. experts assume that by 2025, there will be surplus of 22 million large lot homes in the suburban area. The question is—what is the future of the suburban area?

The study area for this thesis is the hurontario Corridor in Mississauga, a suburban city. Mississauga is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada with population of around 0.7 million. The hurontario Corridor ranges from Brampton downtown on north to port Credit on south. The corridor is significantly important for future growth, due to its central location and connectivity with other public and private transit networks. This study will search for a new kind of urbanism that will be transit oriented, mixed-use, compact built form, more pedestrian-friendly and create a contextual vibrant neighbourhood as a response to the crisis of suburban development in the near future.

here, the proposition is to introduce a new public transit system along the hurontario Corridor and to examine what kind of development is appropriate on either side of the corridor to incorporate the new transit system. Three major nodes have been identified in the intersection of two transit systems, which are go Transit (bus and rail) and light Rail Transit along hurontario Corridor. a detailed proposition will be developed encompassing these identified nodes.

go uRBANIsm huRoNTARIo coRRIdoR, mIssIssAugA

Mahfil AlI, Mud

10


Advisor: RoBERT WRIghT

in her book, Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, the environmental journalist alanna Mitchell affirms that two phenomena are changing the ocean’s character: carbon dioxide and heat. about one third of the carbon dioxide humans are emitting has entered the ocean while approximately 80% of the additional heat created by climate change has been absorbed by it. Concurrently, the mass removal of marine life by global fisheries has upset the ocean’s own ability to stabilize itself.

CLiMATE CHANGE is NoW CoNsidErEd THE MAJor THrEAT To TroPiCAL MAriNE ECosYsTEMs.

as ocean acidification increases and ph levels decrease (the result of Co2 dissolving in water), the cumulative effect is the inhibition of coral reef calcification and formation. as ocean temperatures rise, they have begun to engender another dangerous phenomenon: the migration of commercially significant species of fish out of the Caribbean to cooler waters. Considering about 70% of Caribbean protein intake comes from its fisheries, this is of critical concern.

iMPACTs To CorAL rEEFs ArE FUrTHEr AMPLiFiEd BY LoCAL, ANTHroPoGENiC EvENTs.

The coastal areas of southwest Tobago have seen a dramatic loss of vegetation in recent years due to expanding shoreline developments (mostly tourism related), unsuitable farming practices and the direct output of sewage into coastal waters. The result has been an intense increase in top-soil erosion, marine-based pollution and subsequently, levels of sedimentation and nutrients in inshore reefs. over-fishing has further exacerbated the stress Tobago’s coral reefs are under.

A GLoBAL PLAN oF ACTioN is UrGENTLY NEEdEd For MAKiNG THEsE HiGH vALUE ECosYsTEMs MorE rEsiLiENT.

This thesis project will attempt to ameliorate vital tourism development in Tobago with the sensitive coral reef ecology at its centre. Buccoo Reef, the island’s only marine protected area and largest fringing coral reef complex, will be the site of focus. The project seeks to evolve reef recreation while supporting reef ecology through a combination of zoning and sustainable infrastructure. a key component will be an artificial reef technology that improves the ability of coral reefs to resist environmental stress.

ElEcTRIFIEd REEFsThE RE-chARgINg oF ToBAgo’s Buccoo REEF ThRough ElEcTRo-AccumulATIoN + ThE EvoluTIoN oF TouRIsm

ZahRa AWANg, Mla

12


Advisor: RoBERT lEvIT

Urban infrastructure is the underlying physical and organizational structure required for the func-tioning of the city and supporting the daily lives of people. it refers to communication, power, water, sewerage, transportation networks and other basic urban facilities and installations. as the definition suggests, urban infrastructure is the foundation of the city requiring cities to make huge capital investments in the construction of new infrastructure as well as paying the maintenance costs of previously built structures.

however, it should be considered that the urban communities at the turn of 21st century are facing two major crises: environmental and the economic.

The adverse impacts of the way we use existing infrastructure on the environment show that in previous decades much of this urban infrastructure has been erected without much concern for its environmental consequences. This will put forward the challenge to look for the ways through which the existing city structures could be retrofitted in order to be less harmful for the environment. in this regard, the transportation infrastructure, with nearly 14% of the annual carbon emission, could be the subject of further exploration. however, among different transportation systems, highways and freeways seem to be less explored, although they cover a high percentage of the land in the city and they have an important role in daily transportation.

The main goal of the thesis is to have a second look at the current opportunities and issues surrounding the highway system in cities; seeking the solution by following three major themes: Hybridization, Optimization and Remediation.

The site selected to further explore the above mentioned ideas is the Navvab expressway in Tehran. Navvab expressway is one of the major expressways in Tehran, which was built with the main goal of connecting the northern areas of the city to the south. The project is now infamous for the many social and environmental issues that it brought to the city, making it a good example of the current situation of existing freeway systems in cities all over the world.

REThINkINg uRBAN INFRAsTRucTuRE

hyBRIdIzATIoN, REmEdIATIoN ANd oPTImIzATIoN oF cITIEs’ExIsTINg INFRAsTRucTuRE

NaRges AyAT, Mud

14


In the city, memories of the past are formalized into cultures. The layers of the building become narrative. Instead of a static, defined composition, we have a relationship between different scenes, forming architectural settings in the context of theatrical presentation. (Nadim Karam)

The thesis is exploring means of illustrating an analysis of the city through its different strata, pertaining to aspects of visual, social and material culture. it is also an attempt at mapping the realms of memory, history and perception, by assembling different readings of the multiplicity of urban constructions. using the established architectural methodology of representation, the ensuing diagrams and illustrations look at overlapping areas of transparency into distinct layers of information, with the intention of assembling a comprehensive discourse on the complexity and dynamics of the urban space.

architectural representation designates conventional views through various means of simplified layering and projection, using legends and abbreviations, systems of quantification and hierar-chization. The challenge of the project resides in the search to achieve a comparable level of accuracy in expressing less obvious urban dimensions, through an introspective exercise of site analysis. The narrative is constructed on the coordinates of a multi-directional and dimensional movement through space, time and architecture.

Advisor: dAvId lIEBERmAN

PAlERmomAPPINg AN ARchITEcTuRE oF mEmoRy

soNia-CRisTiNa BAdEscu, March

16


The greater Metropolitan area of san josé, which represents 3.85% of the country’s territory, is inhabited by 61% of the population. The demand patterns show that public bus transit is the main mode of transportation; however, important travel needs are not properly addressed by the regular transportation network. This deficiency is reflected in the existence of private services and the high level of car ownership, resulting in a strong car culture.

according to studies carried out by an Ngo called Co2neutral2021, the transportation sector accounts for 45% of the ghg emissions. Major changes are recommended, since Costa Rica ratified the Kyoto protocol committing to become carbon neutral by the year 2021. Contradictorily, its urban structure and infrastructure is not equipped for the use or implementation of alternative modes of transportation.

This thesis will use transportation infrastructure as a guiding principle in the design of a new urban landscape which will redefine the mobilization culture by creating livable spaces with transporta-tion at the forefront.

The thesis will be implemented from a holistic approach first at a network scale followed by a site specific intervention. The project aims to create a public work that is not just functional and utilitarian but also incorporates nature in urban spaces to foster ecological growth. it will promote a new way in which people move around the city and make use of the urban public space.

Advisor: ElIsE shEllEy

cREATINg A NEW lANdscAPE To REdEFINE TRANsPoRTATIoN INFRAsTRucTuRE IN

sAN josé, cosTA RIcA

lauRa ChRisTiNa BAlTodANo, Mla

18


This project creates connective flexible spaces that encourage social interactions and enable new modes of artistic production within the Banff Centre. it infills the physical armature of the Banff Centre campus, both existing buildings and surrounding nature, with a series of connective social programs. These programs act as social condensers and enable users from different disciplines to cross paths and work together in an informal setting. This project further explores the potential of using homasote (recycled newspaper product) as a biodegradable building material. homasote’s limited lifespan bridges the gap between the ever-evolving built form and the everlasting natural landscape.

Advisor: BRIgITTE shIm

coNNEcTIvE socIAl coNdENsERs

saliM BAmAkhRAmA, March

20


in the next 20 years the population of the Town of Markham is projected to grow by approximately 25% from 300,000 people to 423,500. This project will investigate the possibilities for redirecting a portion of this growth to an existing area of the town while increasing the ecological functioning of the site. The finished strategy and framework will provide an alternative to the continued sprawling form that suburban locations have tended towards for the last 70 years.

The Town of Markham, ontario is located at the periphery of the greater Toronto area, yet seems indistinguishable from it. it would typically be described as an edge city reflecting all the aspects of an old historical centre and new development (sprawl). when viewed within the greater region, it is a part of a continuous sprawling city associated with Toronto. The image of Markham by most who know it would be a developed centre around highway 7 with banal, commercial strips and associated parking lots.

it is proposed that through the process of aggregation, adaptation and selective removal, existing banal, ecologically desolate suburban locations can ‘grow’ into places of ecological, social, cultural and economic importance. like the great cities of the world that grow, recede, slow, progress along with a multitude of other processes, it is believed that existing suburban infrastructure can serve as the scaffold upon which new elements are grafted, creating richly time layered places. Through initial catalytic interventions, the existing paradigm can be shifted from one of auto centric to one that privileges ecological systems and human needs.


suBuRBIA 2.0

MiChael BARkER, Mla

22


Advisor: Tom BEssAI

This thesis proposes an urban revitalization strategy that begins to evaluate the city as a living organism, one that is flexible, mobile and expandable. drawing on ecological relations found in nature and inspired from the adaptive strategies of parasitic colonies, this thesis incorporates biologically-inspired processes within the framework of architectural design to support the emergence of self-organized structures. Through the redeployment of technologies once used for resource extraction in the region, these parasitic structures begin to radically transform sudbury ontario’s degraded downtown area into a utopian and sustainable city centre while maintaining strong ties to its natural and artificial surroundings.

RE-INvENTINg doWNToWN sudBuRy

sTeveN BEITEs, March

24


Advisor: kIRAN chhIBA

villa epecuén, argentina, is a ruin both formed and revealed by the flooding waters of lago epecuén. The fascination of the site arises from its stillness and velvet-like crystallized salt surfaces that emerge out of the salt-water lake, while providing a sense of scale and vastness of what was lost. villa epecuén, heavily inundated and deserted by its inhabitants, looks lifeless and calm at first glance, yet its resilience to new conditions is revealed in the emergence of small salt-tolerant plants, bird migrations, aquatic habitat and tourism activity through the ruins.

a discourse between the physical, moral, social or economic factors reveals itself in the disintegration and destruction of built form, leaving traces of its existence as ruins. ever since the 17th century, people have had a fascination with ruins and their symbolic reflection on humanity, civilization, religion and nature. Ruins displayed endeavours that reflected cultural heritage and the revelation of the blissful ancient life.

This thesis is to redefine the ideological, picturesque and static notion of ruins as a recovering operative landscape that assumes active and strategic roles in expanding its efficacy within a space. By identifying the ecological, hydrological, social and economic forces of the site, the design recognizes villa epecuén as a dynamic and newly discovered ruin landscape responding to its fluctuating lake levels, providing protection from future floods and reintroducing the salt water therapeutic spa element that had originally formed the town’s existence.

oPERATIvE RuINs oF vIllA EPEcuéN

MaRTiNa BRAuNsTEIN, Mla

26


Advisor: AlIssA NoRTh

with the introduction of landscape urbanism there has been a major shift in the importance placed on landscape to inspire and create changes in the environments in which we live. over the last few decades, landscape is seen as a catalyst for positive change in urban environments, but can this paradigm change the outport settlements in Newfoundland?

Newfoundland enjoyed years of economic prosperity from its varied coastal landscapes, but the collapse of the fishing industry causes the province a continuing period of economic instability and a migration off the island. with the demise of the cod fishery in the early 1990s, people migrated from the outports to urban centres such as st. john’s in search of employment. with a passionate attachment to their coast, rural Newfoundlanders continue to struggle to hold on to their communities, their history and their culture. To move forward, the people need to understand that change is needed to save their communities. it is only then that the outports can be re-envisioned in order to capitalize on their unique geographic locations and existing infrastructure. it is vital that new forms of industry are adapted to outports to maximize productivity for the people and the local ecology. This thesis provides strategies to mitigate the migration off the island and to save a people and their place.

NEWFouNdlANdscAPEusINg lANdscAPE As ouTPoRT REgENERAToR

MaTThew ausTiN johN BRoWN, Mla

28


Advisor: lIAT mARgolIs

Throughout human history the rise and fall of great civilizations has been attributed, in part, to their ability to secure and extract natural resources. The need to protect these resources or to secure more from others and to facilitate their movement has driven a great deal of technological innovation. in our world this has also generated a global industry of arms’ manufacturing and dealing.

since the industrial Revolution in the 18th century and the advent of the plough and other agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transportation inventions, the rate of extraction of resources began to accelerate at rates never before seen in history. Today, it is estimated that the annual rate of resource usage is 40% greater than the earth’s yearly regenerative capabilities and as such is ultimately unsustainable.

Resource extraction has greatly transformed the surface of the earth and every other strata and is responsible for global climactic change not seen in the past 20,000 years. The velocity of this transformation has outpaced many biological systems’ ability to accommodate change and has lead to their degradation and failure in a growing number of cases.

if we continue resource extraction with the speed and magnitude we have used in the past, the failure of biological systems will lead to human suffering and loss of life never before witnessed on this planet. our current era of stability, predicated on resource abundance, will give way to an era of increasing global conflict and terrorism as societies and individuals struggle to secure and protect the decreasing availability and quality of resources. The global industry of arms manufacturing will prosper as the wealthy attempt to secure resources at the expense and to the demise of the poor.

This thesis presents an alternative strategy to the traditional uses of military technology. it argues for one to consider the use of these technologies to produce resources rather than the historical practice of securing and defending them. The objective is to maintain ecological services by increasing biodiversity and diversifying habitats in a local, regional, and global context where the transformation of landscapes by humans has accelerated beyond the adaptive abilities of many biological systems.

AccElERATEd EcosysTEms

fioNN ByRNE, Mla

30


Advisor: AdRIAN BlAckWEll

This thesis aims to develop an innovative urban form for affordable housing in Costa Rica by harnessing an affordable, adaptable and sustainable system of repetition and transformation with an inherent capacity for future expansion and self empowerment from its inhabitants.

INNovATIvE AFFoRdABlE housINg sysTEm

MoNiCa cAsTRo, Mud

32



Cities and urbanized areas can be criticized for their fragmenting nature, disrupting the connectivity of existing ecologies and thereby lowering species diversity. however, there are opportunities within city limits to bolster natural reserves through the restoration of habitat in under-utilized spaces, such as cemeteries. depending on the site history and context, cemeteries may already harbor important remnant habitat, or may be adjacent to remnant reserves that could benefit from a buffered ecology. however, the default “lawn cemetery,” a common cemetery type in North america, leaves much to be desired in the way of biodiversity and ecology, with little valuable habitat or structural diversity. The varied and diverse history of cemetery landscape design coupled with contemporary ecological consciousness suggests the possibility of an evolved form of cemetery, more sensitive to its ecological context. a study of cemeteries in the City of Toronto reveals that many are located adjacent to ravines, an opportunity to buffer and expand existing ecologies. Cemeteries occupy a relatively large amount of land area within most cities, with Toronto cemeteries covering approximately 1% of all land uses, while parks cover 7%. The site of york Cemetery in suburban Toronto, a typical suburban lawn cemetery located adjacent to the west don River is used to explore these ideas.

additionally, the design of cemeteries has not evolved to match their role in an increasingly pluralistic society. The burgeoning cultural diversity of cities such as Toronto could be more meaningfully reflected in a cemetery’s form. it is also apparent that after approximately twenty years, loved ones rarely visit the deceased’s grave. Therefore it is argued that cemeteries are in fact ‘dead space’ in that they no longer serve a meaningful function ecologically, socially or culturally. This thesis intends to examine methods of increasing ecological viability of existing lawn cemeteries while being sensitive to the needs and beliefs of contemporary society.

dEAd sPAcEsTRANsFoRmINg ThE NATuRE oF lAWN cEmETERIEs

lauRel aNNe chRIsTIE, Mla

34


Advisor: PETE NoRTh

The Canadian North, once seen as inaccessible, stands to see large-scale exploitation and a multiplicity of development due to warming climates and melting ice. increased human habitation, resource development, transport traffic and habitat change will cause dramatic shifts in the social, political and ecological systems that currently exist in the arctic. Competition for sovereignty is strong and northern settlements will serve as the strongest territorial marker available. The first to act on the new potential have been oil and gas companies seeking to develop the rich deposits previously buried under ice. This is the first opportunity that the Canadian government cannot deny. The future will see a convergence and overlap of private and public investment interest; the aim of this project is to examine the opportunities that will emerge.

This thesis project tests the use of landscape design as an agent to combine resource extraction infrastructure with a community’s social and economic development. landscape design will be used because its foundational quality creates long-term change that is not superficial. it has the ability to interact and direct ecological systems in the same breath as it directs urban form. The project uses the future city of inuvik, Northwest Territories as the stage for this exercise in overlapping interests. By its strategic location in the Mackenzie delta, inuvik is positioned to grow from a small northern town into a city and begin acting as it is defined, as the regional hub. This project imagines inuvik in 2091 and develops a strategy for growth that changes the southern Canadian urban form into one based on nodes and flexible connections. inuvik’s function as a port city translates to a coast-based fabric of barge ports with districts that surround them. The schedule of import and export, distributed throughout the city, charge districts when the ports are in use and recharge the landscape in between visits.

dIvERgINg gEogRAPhy, coNvERgINg EcologIEs

alessaNdRo colAvEcchIo, Mla

36


Advisor: NAdIA AmoRoso

waste is an inevitable fact of life. Rather than think of refuse as something merely to be disposed of, this thesis rethinks what is commonly thrown away, and understands it as a fundamental part of a larger system of biophysical ecological interactions surrounding it.

embracing the banal and refused, this proposal looks at the processes of canal dredging within the venice lagoon, italy. The chosen site is the isole delle Tresse, off the coast of the porto Marghera industrial zone in the ecologically fragile central lagoon. it is a completely artificial landfill island about 1.5 km long and 0.5 km wide in between the Malamocco-Marghera and Tresse Canals. it has grown and been expanded over the years to accumulate over 1 million cubic meters of waste, including urban waste, building debris, and industrial refuse produced by the works of maintenance and dredging of channels, and is quickly filling.

as a critique to the existing landfill infrastructure, instead of isolating the dumping site as a separate and static waste system, my proposition is to use the dredged material in a dynamic and innovative way. designing an extension to the existing marginalized dumpsite, the thesis explores a formal dredge dumping system as a conduit to increase biological diversity while simultaneously creating a relavatory datascape that engages its viewers and exposes the dredging process from specific viewpoints throughout the lagoon. it takes its ideas from a variety of disciplines including landscape infrastructure, landscape ecology and land art. Through a categorized and phased formal dumping system, as well as through natural succession and a specialized planting scheme, the project establishes a catalyst framework and structure for constant and undetermined change that is both formed by and subject to the ephemeral hydrodynamic processes of the lagoon, including wind directions, water currents, and varying water tides.

dREdgEd EcologIEs

Nadia d’AgNoNE, Mla

38


Advisor: NAshId NABIAN

The project explores different aspects of designing portable, lightweight, easy to install and dis-mantle inhabitable units for post-disaster scenarios where there is an urgency to provide temporary accommodation for victims.

The proposed fabricated artifact is treated as an industrial design artifact. The structural compo-nents are detail designed so that the artifact expands from a minimum volume to an occupiable unit. This allows for convenient stacking and shipping of the ‘instant fields of habitation’ from their sites of production to the locations of their consumption.

The units attach in a checkerboard grid condition, which allows them to create ‘instant fields of habitation’ in which each and every constituting piece maintains its status as an autonomous functional sphere accessible from outside the field. at the same time it establishes connections to the neighbouring units to create a field condition where a mat-like artifact acquires structural integrity and stability.

during the research phase of the project different structural models for expandable architectural systems are catalogued along with possible mechanical joints that allow for the required physical locomotion for spatial expansion and contraction. a study of minimum required geometrical dimen-sions for such units is also conducted, in which physiological, spatial, and psychological require-ments of the prospective users are taken into account.

The proposed fabricated system is also examined in terms of real-life scenarios and how temporary infrastructures of commodities can be integrated into the resulting inhabitable field condition to provide its temporary residents with day-to-day necessities such as systems of clean water supply and waste disposal.

INsTANT cITy

saRah dANEshvAR, March

40


Advisor: mAsoN WhITE

AquA_dERmIs

Through the phenomenon of sweating, our bodies have the ability to regulate their own temperature by responding directly to ever changing climatic conditions. what if built environments could sweat as our bodies do? what if they could perform as a natural sensorial link between humans and their natural environment? This thesis explores how specific climatic conditions found in the hot and humid equatorial zone provide a great opportunity for the exploration of alternative cooling technologies inspired by our own body’s reaction to temperature changes.

MaRiela dE FélIx-dávIlA, March

42



“Restoration ecology.... is more than tree planting or ecosystem preservation: it is an attempt to reproduce, or at least mimic, natural systems. It is also a way of learning about these systems, a model for a sound relationship between humans and the rest of nature.... Restoration thus nurtures a new appreciation of working landscape.”

- alexander wilson (1991)

Challenging the notion of “naturalness” and our conceptions of a picturesque nature, this thesis aims to recreate the performative qualities of a forest ecosystem, from functional capacity to experiential quality. The project proposes an organic approach to the implementation of a uniquely synthetic landscape system as a new means of remediation for irreversibly degraded land areas. Based on automated systems and built-in mechanisms for succession, the implementation of a synthetic and interdependent water & energy cycle creates the rudimentary ecosystem for the beta landscape, while designed elements of performance, interactivity and programmed environmental cues create the experience of nature.

drawing research from across various fields of study, from synthetic biology to robotics, this thesis brings together seemingly opposite notions of nature & machine and serves as a speculative tool by which the discipline might contribute to the current dialogue on technology and renewable energy at the crucial research phase.

syNThETIc lANdscAPEsA cAsE FoR ThE ImPlEmENTATIoN oF A BETA lANdscAPE

AT ThE gAsPé mINEs, quéBEc

Maya dEsAI, March

44


This thesis will propose a resilient hybrid design solution as a prototype to inhabit arid climates. The scope of this thesis will explore the resilient design principles in the urban scale and ultimately in architecture scale.

This thesis will deploy a synergistic alternative between different design realms that yields a proposition that informs and reduces the dependency on water.

it will redefine the aesthetic principles of place making inherent in genius of the place as opposed to current architecture and landscape manifestations.

it will critically examine and investigate the global water issue—dependency and exploitation of hydrological systems—and it will focus on a site in the Mojave desert, in the southwest part of the u.s.

This thesis is going to investigate the water balance of the region including sources, consumption, and waste. it will critically look into the mega-engineering proposition developed by the Nevada water authority- groundwater development project- and will demonstrate that the only substantial response to the projected drought rests in sustainable urbanism, whereas the integrated design solution “meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.”1

and finally this thesis will investigate the opportunities of this prototype for being applicable to other arid regions in the world.

Advisor: johN dANAhy

A NEW PRoToTyPE To INhABIT ThE ARId clImATEs

shadi EdAREhchI gIlANI, Mla

46

1 ian l.Mcharg. The Built environment, a collaborative inquiry into design and planning. edited by wendy R.Mcclure and Tom j.Bartuska. john wiley & sons, 2007.



PoRT-ABlE lANdscAPEsRETRoFITTINg BARgEs FoR Ecology ANd PuBlIc sPAcE

IN NEWToWN cREEk

Newtown Creek is a 4 mile tidal waterway on the western tip of long island that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New york City. during its industrial heydey in the late 19th century, Newtown Creek was a major oil refining centre, with a direct pipeline from pennsylvania oil fields and home to standard oil, the largest oil operation in the region owned by john d. Rockefeller.

when many oil refining and storage facilities moved away during the 1950s, a number of waste industries concentrated along the shore of Newtown Creek, culminating today with 12 solid waste transfer stations and the largest sewage treatment plant in the city.

Central to these two industries is the receipt and shipment of materials by barge. Newtown Creek remains an active though secondary waterway, but targeted with increased traffic since the City’s department of sanitiation declared the efficiency of barges for long-distance export of containerized waste. This design thesis investigates augmenting the existing petroleum and waste barge traffic with ecological and event barges that provide stormwater treatment, remediate oil leaking from an underground spill, and allow for public access to the largely privatized shoreline.

ReNé FAN, Mla

48


Advisor: jANE WolFF

Lamentable is the fact, that during the six days given over to creation, picnic tables and outdoor fireplaces, footbridges and many other of man’s requirements, even in natural surroundings, were negligently and entirely overlooked.” albert good

This research thesis examines the human relationship to nature and wilderness as it is cultivated through the recreational practice of camping, and the degree to which the infrastructure and prac-tices that help underpin this fundamental experience are concealed or expressed as landscapes.

as territories both defined and serviced by an increasingly complex and sophisticated range of infrastructures, campgrounds deserve special consideration as a field of study in landscape architecture because they require visitors to play an active role in shaping the places they inhabit. situated “somewhere between challenging new circumstances and the safe reassurances of familiarity,” the camp functions as a substitute for the home, a refuge from the elements, a place to dwell, to sleep, to interact socially, to prepare and eat food. and while the campground does in fact constitute a physical installation of materials on a site, it also requires in return a personal investment of equipment (tent, sleeping bags, etc.) on behalf of the camper to fully complete the site and enable its occupation.

Campgrounds are the product not only of physical but of cultural operations as well. This conceit of nature is validated through a systematic repetition of practices in the camper’s approach to finding, erecting, occupying, and breaking the campsite. indeed, the practice of camping is not only driven by a desire to temporarily substitute physical circumstances (the camp for the home) but to tran-scend daily realities for a new, almost mythical identity and a new set of responsibilities. as physi-cally and culturally constructed places, the role of campgrounds is to seamlessly facilitate these literal substitutions but also in its capacity to achieve a more transcendent experience—a process which has been, and remains, historically complex and uneven. The project examines, through both writing and analytical drawings, the role played by three infrastructural systems—the campsite plot, roads, and the information apparatus through which we perceive and use campgrounds—in critically shaping this perspective.

cAmPINg: chANgINg sITuATIoNs

MaRTiN hoguE, Mla

50



This thesis capitalizes on the unique character and diversity of the Thorncliffe park neighbourhood in Toronto. The charting of the ebbs and flows of all users through the site is utilized in engaging and linking the groundplane appropriately to its population. Through the development of a spatial reorganization strategy, a new precedent for tower block landscape renewal can be achieved.

cATAlyTIc shIFTENhANcINg sPATIAl sTRucTuRE FoR ThoRNclIFFE PARk

Maxwell kERRIgAN, Mla

52


Advisor: PETE NoRTh

Rapid increase in both size and density of our modern cities has resulted in urban centres that lack a climate responsive approach. Cities are no longer a direct byproduct of the forces that act upon them, but a place-less space that embraces southern values and strives to maintain a 20 °C temperature regardless of the time of the year or its location.

This proposal re-examines the basic infrastructures of snow removal and disposal in the City of Toronto. a series of multi-scale interventions are proposed as case studies for climate responsive design that values snow as a renewable energy source while treating meltwater before releasing it into lake ontario.

FRom sNoWFAll To mElTWATER

shadi khATAmI, Mla

54



The Zayandeh-Rud river basin, in central iran with a semi-arid climate and large agricultural, industrial and domestic water uses, is an example of a complicated watershed system where the lack of complete knowledge about the interacting subsystems has led to failure of the policy makers in addressing the water shortage in the basin. This has led to the dramatic death of this river and has consequently created a drastic threat to the natural environment.

This project attempts to propose a rehabilitation plan for the river as well as interventions along its banks. My proposal is a strategic plan that addresses the ecology of the river and the social, historical and economic concerns of the city. it works at two different scales. Based on an in-depth analysis of the urban and ecological context of Zayande-Rud River, the project at the bigger scale is a master plan with recommended measures for improving regional water quality. at site scale, the project is a set of critical interventions strategically phased to enhance water quality, river restoration plan, remediate contaminated sites, create open spaces, and to build on existing resources for economic development.

The overall effect creates a project that elevates river as a form of urban infrastructure that possesses the potential to merge and blend disjuncture between the needs of a 21st century population and the historicist imperatives necessary to preserve the river.

zAyANdEh-Rud RIvER REsToRATIoN PRojEcT

ayda khAzAEI NEzhAd, Mla

56


This thesis is concerned with the emergent disjointed geographies of the social. The observed existing dynamics, physicality and modes of operation of these geographies begin to provide an alternative view to the a priori assumptions about notions of public space and their relation to the city. This project is an investigation of the new realities of the collective power in the modern metropolis of Tehran, iran.

The meaning of public space as a fixed point or program provided by the top-down design of the city proves to be problematic and naïve, as the collective shows signs of much sophisticated relation to available loose city matter and conditions in pursuit of orchestrating them for the moments of becoming public. No ingredient of the city has solely a single life, or for that reason a fixed effect on the creation of the social. social is not a backdrop of the city, but it is a changing context that is constructed from the existing matter of the city gradually or suddenly on daily basis. These moments of becoming public or ‘publicness’ is therefore a more accurate image of the liberal workings of society.

Through addition of infrastructure, this thesis tries to explore the possibility of design towards the end goal of enabling the formation of social geographies and publicness. The infrastructure as a whole is a vital part of the city and therefore acquires an undeniable right for widespread presence. This is when its parts are left open to adapt and be adapted by multiple identities and potentially become part of the constantly forming social reality of the city. The intervention is a structural skin, with zero square meters dedicated space for occupation, which is designed to inherently be combinative and spreadable in its context. in other words, the inherent dNa of the infrastructure as parts begins to attach itself to different points of the city and act like an open-source hardware.

socIAl INFRAsTRucTuRE

safoRa khoylou, March

58



‘Indian Reserve’: “…a tract of land, the legal title which is invested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of the band.” _ Canada indian act 1876

since their inception, Canada’s reserve system was conceived as a eurocentric construct, primarily serving the interests of new settlers to North america. with vastly divergent notions of possession and land ownership, reserves often became places of isolation and neglect, a product of a top-down approach in design and implementation. generalized solutions were used to address logistically and culturally complex issues and problems, perpetuating a cycle of decay and isolation. Conversely, however, reserves have also become places of identity and family, where a connection to the land and traditions of the elders play a vital role in negotiating their ever changing social and political identity.

focusing on the rural and remote reserve, which constitutes nearly seventy percent of the estimated 615 first Nation Reserves in Canada, this thesis postulates that by re-appropriating the imposed fly-in shipping infrastructure, one can democratize the design and building process of such remote communities. providing architectural building blocks to its inhabitants, needs such as localized food production and an engagement with environmental research and stewardship, currently at the forefront in the discourse of managing Canada’s northern regions, can be addressed. architecture, and hybridized programmed spaces, can then begin to provide a framework and an opportunity to express the already significant commitment that many of the first Nation communities have with engaging and leaving a positive legacy for future generations.

REThINkINg ThE REsERvEdEmocRATIzEd INFRAsTRucTuRE ANd ThE

RE-APPRoPRIATIoN oF FIRsT NATIoN IdENTITy

haRiM peTRus jaCoBus lABuschAgNE, March

60

62 Thesis Reviews WINTER 2010 63

Advisor: BRIgITTE shIm

“The Americans have disfigured their share of the rapids with mills and manufactories, and…[other] unseasonable sights and signs of sordid industry. Worse than all is the round tower…I do hope the violated majesty of nature will take the matter in hand, and overwhelm or cast it down the precipice one of these fine days, though indeed a barrel of gunpowder were a shorter if not a surer method.”

– anna jameson1

on september 9th, 1897, john joyce, a wealthy brewer from Boston, acquired the rights to exploit shawinigan falls on the saint-Maurice River in Quebec—whose vertical drop of 44 metres stands just three shy of the falls of Niagara—for $50,100 Canadian dollars, and together with john edward aldred founded the shawinigan water and power Company (swp).2 in 1899, swp commissioned Montreal engineering firm pringle & sons to design the master plan for the town of shawinigan,3

whose newfound capacity for the generation of electricity attracted industrial giants in aluminum, pulp and paper, and electrochemistry, along with a population of thousands of employees.

The creation of “resource towns”4 and economies of exploitation have resulted in decades of decline as technologies evolve, geographic potentials shift or dissolve, and employers consolidate or cease production. These communities are now left to contemplate the future of moribund archi-tectures that are monuments to early twentieth century relationships to the productive landscape, social hegemonies, global economies, and politics. This project strives to leverage the artifacts of the resource town as assets ready for redeployment to again exploit shawinigan’s geographic, logistical, infrastructural and geopolitical position through its industrial architecture.

1 Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada. vol. 2. london: saunders and otley, 1838. electronic Resource. 4 Nov. 2009.

2 Stories from our Lives. Compilation of historical facts courtesy of La Cite de l’Energie. print. 9 jan. 2009.3 ibid.4 artibise, alan f.j., and gilbert a. stelter. “Canadian Resource Towns in historical perspective.” Shaping the

Urban Landscape: Aspects of the Canadian City-Building Process. ed. alan f.j. artibise and gilbert a. stelter. ottawa: Carleton university press, 1982. 414. print.

REdEPloymENTREPosITIoNINg ThE ARTIFAcTs oF ThE NoRTh AmERIcAN

REsouRcE ToWN

BReNT lAumAN, March


Advisor: mARy lou loBsINgER

ulTRA hydRA

This particular species of hydra was first detected in urban regions of Toronto, Canada. Colloquially known as the inkling, no known relatives are known to exist. due to a superficial similarity between inklings and darklings, the two species are often confused.

The inkling is found in moderately congested urban centres that experience high levels of pollution, noise and conurbation. only known proliferating species habituated in an urban centre of the city of Toronto, known locally as dundas square.

The inkling is liquid in appearance, smoke-like in movement. it is dark black or deep blue in color with regions of opacity and regions of transparency. it is an amorphous entity, constantly changing, undulating, contracting and expanding.

as the inkling develops it will undergo periodic phases of death; these phases are unpredictable and vary depending on conditions present in the environment, a further field of inquiry. The resulting chrysalid entity and the amorphous entity remain integrally connected.

The growth and death of the inkling over the past five years since detection has allowed for a complex chrysalid accumulation in the yonge-dundas square location, which, at first reviled by the community and local authorities, has recently begun to support temporary inhabitants and become a marker for the region.

fei alisoN lIANg, March


lITToRAl dRIFT


This thesis explores the development of a new urban plan for Toronto’s western Beaches, a large site that precariously functions as both a recreational zone and a regional transportation corridor. site analysis carried out from the inception of the project identifies three major challenges affecting the site: limited accessibility between adjacent neighbourhoods and the waterfront recreational spaces; the slow yet relentless erosion of beach areas due to the absence of sediment deposition; and the heavy pollution emanating from the humber River into swimming and boating areas.

Littoral Drift proposes a bold new plan utilizing landscape and urban design strategies to address these challenges. adjacent neighbourhoods are extended and integrated with the waterfront and its recreational spaces. all obstacles preventing lake ontario’s natural littoral drift from depositing sediment in the area are eliminated, allowing for the formation, migration, and growth of wetland shoals and beach sand dunes. finally, a new reclaimed land delta at the mouth of the humber River will engage the sedimentation drift, while also holding and treating the water prior to its release into lake ontario.

This thesis’ aggressive new plan will solidify Toronto’s western Beaches as a waterfront where residents of the ever-growing city will be able to commute, live, and play.

sCoTT heNRy lINg, March



Mining industry has brought prosperity to the City of fushun in Northern China. however, it has permanently changed the landscape and the natural environment in the city and in the region. This project looks at the remediation process and future land use of the west open-pit, which is claimed to be the biggest man-made hole in asia. Through the remediation process, more lands will be open for urban intensification, and the danger that this open-pit has brought to the city will be eased. The design will address the changes in the ecological, economic and social functions of the coal mine area. The design will focus on the remediating strategies and the future development of the land. The stainability and land value will be increased through the remediation and development. This design is site specific; however, its implications will be applicable to other mines with similar circumstances.

yue mA, Mla

REcyclE, REdo ANd REcREATE



By 2050, the earth will have to contend with housing ten billion people—almost three and a half billion more than what currently exists today. The results of this fast approaching phenomena are in direct contention with one of our most valuable, yet non-replenishable resources—agricul-tural land for food production. historically, cities have advantageously developed on or near major waterways, taking advantage of the most fertile adjacent lands. however, as cities grow, they also envelop these once productive arable lands, and consume them forever in order to accommodate growing urban demand. as a result, relying on conventional agricultural practices will not suffice long into the future and we must explore new ways of accommodating greater densities of agri-culture into our cities.

This case is evident in the course of vancouver, British Columbia’s development. The burgeoning city of Canada’s west has experienced increasingly rapid growth within the last few decades and is resulting in a metropolitan area that is culprit to quickly consuming much of BC’s most arable lands along the fraser River delta. however, vancouver does do one thing well, and that is to accommodate livable dense urban neighbourhoods, known more commonly as vancouverism. however, vancouverism is proliferating within the city as a forest of mono-form podium-towers—a form that is accommodating, yet isolating and indifferent in nature.

Thus, embracing new technologies and possibilities to redefine urban agriculture, combined with the re-thinking of the predominant podium-tower form as the only appropriate form to address density in the context of vancouver, this thesis seeks to address an alternative that combines these two elements to produce an architecture that can evolve vancouver towards a productive urbanism.

ToWARds A PRoducTIvE uRBANIsm

laRRy mAc, March

70


Advisor: PETE NoRTh

There are over 10,000 abandoned mines in Canada. former mines present a range of complex environmental issues; however, their distance to urban populations leaves them relatively unnoticed. Northern saskatchewan contains one of Canada’s most problematic abandoned mines—the former gunnar uranium Mine site. saskatchewan is a province historically recognized for contributions in agriculture; however, its borders encompass the athabasca Basin, known as Canada’s largest active uranium mining region. Basin deposits are in excess of $2.2 trillion dollars; increasing development maintains Canada’s position as the top global uranium producer. as industry increases, there are and will continue to be significant environmental concerns present after mine closure.

saskatchewan’s historical uranium mining industry left a landscape littered with abandoned sites and their contaminants throughout the northern portion of the province. Radioactivity is a growing concern. Tailings are unmanaged with heavy metals leaching into surrounding soils and hydrological systems. site contamination continues untouched by the human hands that created it. The radionuclide decay chain illustrates that many of the elements found in a uranium mine’s aftermath take thousands, millions or even billions of years to reach chemical stability.

The former gunnar Mine site is over 125 km from any substantial human population; many would propose that these remote sites are exclusively isolated by their surrounding natural systems. This thesis argues that those natural systems incrementally spread site radioactivity beyond any geographic borders and therefore connect the seemingly disconnected. hydrologic flows, ecological movement and polluted food-chain dynamics ensure all forms of contamination continue unmitigated.

issues surrounding abandoned uranium mine sites are vastly complex; therefore, this thesis will assemble reclamation strategies based on the natural environment. By re-purposing Mcharg’s theory of Design with Nature, this thesis will integrate resilient components of the site while strongly isolating others. using environmental planning and landscape ecological design-based approaches, former open-pit mine sites can be returned to health and functionality through reconstruction of site ecology, renewal of landscape resources and development of a sustainable landscape. This thesis will demonstrate that such biologically and ecologically based techniques can be used more effectively than traditional engineering approaches in the rehabilitation of surface and open-pit mines.

dIscoNNEcTINg ThE coNNEcTEdlANdscAPE EcologIcAl ImPouNdmENT, REclAmATIoN ANd REmEdIATIoN sTRATEgIEs FoR guNNAR’s FoRmER

uRANIum mINE sITE

aNsoN RiChaRd mAIN, Mla

72


Advisor: jANE WolFF

according to louisiana state university geologists, approximately 5, 212 square miles of coastline will be lost by 2100. This rate of coastal land loss is a result of the infrastructure implemented along the Mississippi River to control the level and speed of water to maintain it for navigation as well as the extensive dredging of canals and other waterways in louisiana. over time, this infrastructure and dredging activities has decreased the sediment load, vital to the health of wetlands which protect coastal communities from storm surges. This has resulted in coastal land loss.

This thesis project will introduce a new process of land building in which animal habitat is incorporated as the vital element that will assist in the development and stabilization of the new land and vegetation. Two sites will be used to demonstrate this new process; the Mississippi River gulf outlet (MRgo) and Bayou Bienvenue, both in need of restoration at different scales and with different approaches.

This thesis will therefore use landscape as an economic generator to help re-establish the wetlands that have become depleted and introduce habitats for alligators as the crucial and vital component of the land-building process in restoration efforts.

AvoIdINg cATAsTRoPhEAllIgAToRs As A PRoducTIvE comPoNENT IN A NEW

lANd BuIldINg PRocEss

sTefaNia mARIoTTI, Mla

74



“Hegemony; “leadership” or “hegemon” for “leader” is the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups, regardless of the explicit consent or non consent of the latter.”

george perkins Marsh is one of the first people to explain the fall of the Roman empire. he claimed that the clearing of the lush lands surrounding the Mediterranean for agriculture led to environmental degradation and thus ceased to be productive. The concept of modern conservation stemmed from Marsh’s findings.

using the jordan River, one of the world’s most contested and symbolic border-river regions as a case study, the project will uncover the underplayed link between water diversion for urbanization and agriculture and resulting desertification in this locale and its global reach. in the jordan River Basin, the most polemic and controversial aspect of water distribution is not scarcity but allocation and control. The premise is that both agriculture and urban settlement along the jordan River in their 20th century format will increase the contention in this already sensitive region if they do not evolve and adapt to new realities.

as the population increases and the economy shifts away from agriculture, this thesis will propose a regional landscape planning scheme and water infrastructure based on a new land use and urbanization regime in the jordan valley. The design process will scan and map the region to understand how systems of abstraction, diversion, and desalination for urban and agricultural uses shapes the processes of settlement and pre-emptily design for future changes. The project’s conclusion will reveal how the future of the region rests on a new economy of fluids based on more receptive, de-engineered, and decentralized infrastructures involving trans-territories/border regions organized around a new land use pattern. This necessitates an understanding of the landscape’s limitations and potentials, and consequently ensures the augmented river’s ecological health where landscape, not politics, is the new hegemon.

lANdscAPE ThE NEW hEgEmoNyThE joRdAN vAllEy’s NEW BoRdER REAlITy

fadi mAsoud, Mla

76


Advisor: NAshId NABIAN

This thesis is concerned with empowering the resistance of socio-political movements and their relationship to time and space. its aim is to encourage the use of non-violent methods for resis-tance. There are many examples of non-violent resistance in different parts of the world. The most famous are the orange Revolution of ukraine, the velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia, and the Non-cooperation Movement of Mahatma gandhi in india.

in non-violent resistance, the temporal and spatial consciousness about the physical context can help the opposition. Media and Technology are also very effective tools for the escalation of the movements.

in this thesis, i am using several of the 198 Methods of Nonviolent action by gene sharp, a senior scholar from the albert einstein institution. These methods are analyzed spatially and temporally within a specific socio-political and geographical context. To increase the success rate of a peace-ful and non-violent movement against a state, it is crucial to understand and analyze the space and history.

The final product is a visual manual for non-violent resistance. it contains historical references and examines its use by both government and resistance. it also includes several maps and drawings that illustrate the spatial aspect of the methods.

ThE TEmPo-sPATIAl mANuAl FoR ThE NoN-vIolENT REsIsTANcE

TaRaNeh mEshkANI, March

78



jane jacobs once said that “cities happen to be problems in organized complexity, like the life sciences. They present situations in which half a dozen or several dozen quantities are all varying simultaneously and in subtly interconnected ways…. The variables are many but they are not helter skelter; they are interrelated into an organic whole.” how might ‘organized complexity’ be defined? it is the non-random, or correlated, interaction between the parts. These relationships create a differentiated structure which can, as a system, interact with other systems. The coordinated system manifests properties not carried by, or dictated by, individual parts. Cities, at their core, are fields of organized complexity made up of interrelated collections of parts. This thesis is about these collections. it is about the aggregation of built density and landscape throughout a decaying urban field condition. in North america, the accepted norms of our automobile-reliant culture and its resultant infrastructure have proved detrimental to the evolution of our cities through an unbalanced favoring of sprawl and hard surfaces over sustainable density and an integrated landscape. The effects of this neglect are seen not only in our major metropolises, but also particularly strongly in the deteriorating urban cores of our growing mid-sized metropolitan cities all across the contemporary North american landscape. This project explores the potential relationships between built urban form and urban landscape infrastructure.

agricITy

MauRy mITchEll, Mud

80



The City of Toronto has an official plan to double its tree canopy from 17% to between 35 and 40% by 2050. My thesis is an attempt to define what this means and then to help the city meet this target by analyzing the available data: the tree inventory, tree mortality rates, tree maintenance policies, how many trees the city and other organizations plant each year and whether these will actually double the canopy. The thesis will look at carbon, how much we produce, what benefits trees offer for this, the largest portion of greenhouse gas.

we need carbon sinks for the megatons of carbon that Torontonians produce each year by burning fossil fuels and consuming electricity, oil and gas. forests planted after 1990 are the only ones considered as carbon sinks by the Kyoto protocol, as mature forests are thought to be saturated with carbon.

Currently, there is a surplus of Toronto district school Board sites, as enrolment declines due to low birth rates. The school lands will allow for the planting of about 211,000 trees according to reforestation guidelines. if the land minus the buildings are planted the number of trees that could be planted increases to about 252,000 trees, not including the ancillary green spaces that could be planted that reveal themselves through the mapping process.

The thesis looks at 56 school sites across the gTa and catalogues them in a matrix using criteria of patch size, the hydro Corridor, proximity to watercourses, hardscape versus softscape, adjacencies to green spaces and parks and potential tree planting patches. The matrix catalogues minimum patch sizes for a tree ecosystem, for wildlife and interior forest conditions, proximity to other surplus schools, and the possibility of linkages utilizing land bridges. The work looks at what types of trees can be planted on the site chosen to study in detail and to design. soil conditions and drainage will dictate what trees can be planted. The school sites will be grouped in proximity to each other, and coupled with the data in the matrix will give the hierarchy of sites to be included in the planting phases.

uRBAN FoREsTRy oPPoRTuNITIEs

MaRia muszyNskA, Mla

82


Advisor: jANE WolFF

in the gulf of Mexico resides the biggest “dead Zone” of the world, a symbol of our ignorant attitude towards our rivers and its dynamic systems. our notion about rivers has led us to think of them as artifacts that require “management” and “control.” our past encompasses our constant need to separate river from soil, and draw defined lines between what is water and what is land. Today, we think of rivers as effluent channels, navigational routes, or simply as bodies that must be confined between two pieces of land. however, rivers are not meant to be tamed or viewed as entities at our disposal.

The thesis project proposes the re-envisioning of our rivers as more than two lines on a map. it begs for systematic restoration of upper Mississippi and ohio-Tennessee river floodplains in order to decrease the nutrient pollution flowing downstream into the gulf of Mexico. The two sub-basins (upper Mississippi and ohio-Tennessee) consist of 32% of total land area of the Mississippi River Basin, and yet they contribute to 83% of the total nutrient pollution that flows downstream into the gulf of Mexico. Two anthropogenic activities can be held responsible for this phenomenon—extensive draining of approximately 89% of original wetland area, and increased fertilizer input from the agriculture land that was created from the draining of these wetlands. Consequently, the river’s landscape has not only lost its natural ability to treat the water and slow its flow, but it also receives increased input of nutrients from human acitivities.

however, the floodplain of the two sub-basins has many livelihoods and economies bound to it. how do we achieve a balance between our need for controlling the river landscape and what is nat-ural “river logic?” This design project will answer the the question in the form of a twofold strategy.

RIvER logIc

shiKha NARulA, Mla

84



A TRANsIT huB FoR BEIRuT

elie aNdRew NEhmE, March

Beirut is the biggest port city in a relatively narrow coastal country with a severe circulation-congestion problem and an inefficient public transportation system. vehicles invade pavements. wastelands become car parks. Roads are saturated with private cars, taxis, buses and trucks shipping freight. several studies and proposals have been brought forth, including reorganizing road infrastructures, rehabilitating the unused railway network, the addition of dedicated bus routes, a new metro system and a maritime public transport system—all to help reduce road traffic and facilitate circulation of people and goods.

Millions of dollars have been invested in the redevelopment and planning of the downtown. it is estimated that up to one third of the projected development cannot be supported by the current transportation scheme. The road system is oriented toward the downtown and access to many parts of the city is easiest from the downtown. as the spine of a potentially extensive public transit system, connection to the downtown and development of the downtown as a future transportation hub is highly strategic, while creating a meeting place in the heart of the city. The increased movement enables accessibility throughout the country and is likely to generate encounters that can act as a catalyst for social change.

86



This is a thesis for the transformative power of architecture; for its potential to catalyze change and anticipate future trajectories. The testing ground for this thesis is waikiki, the engine of hawai’i’s $12 billion-a-year tourism industry and an ecologically and culturally significant location.

The former seat of the Kingdom of hawai’i, waikiki was historically a thriving wetland ecosystem, named for its aquatic resources: “wai,” meaning water, and “kiki,” spouting. early polynesian settlers worked within this landscape to create a highly productive system of aquaculture and taro ponds, which were later adapted by Chinese immigrants into rice paddies. This connection with land and culture was severed by the construction, in the 1920s, of the ala wai canal, which drained the wetlands and led to the resettlement of most of waikiki’s hawai’ian and Chinese inhabitants. The canal was a catalyst towards the shift from a diverse agricultural society to a post-industrial tourist mono-culture.

Today, with the increase in global oil prices and a prolonged economic downturn, the reliance on a tourism dominated economy is being called into question. at the same time, a renaissance of hawai’ian culture is reexamining local ways and means of living as an alternative to post-industrial society.

This thesis is a proposal for a new series of catalytic architecture(s) that would accelerate this shift from tourist ghetto to vibrant hawai’ian place.

cATAlyTIc WAIkIkI

jaMes Neu-wa o’NEIll, March

88



TRANsFoRmINg WITh WATERsERsoN cREEk WATERshEd mANAgEmENT sTRATEgIEs

problematic streams in Mississauga have increasing impact on people’s lives, lake ontario’s water quality and aquatic systems. These challenges ask for a comprehensive landscape design integrating landscape, urban planning, ecology and engineering. This integrated design method will also create a new way to rethink the relationships between humans and nature, urban and suburban. This project addresses water quality issues and flood risks of serson Creek in lakeview, Mississauga, ontario. it envisions a landscape framework that generates a new water management system and allows people to live, interact and transform with water/nature.

wei PANg, Mla

90


WESTON PUBLIC is a site-specific collaborative research project that investigates the complexity of community experience in public space in weston-Mount dennis.

The project joins architecture and documentary film as a form of spatial and social practice and was made in collaboration with sarah sharkey pearce, a graduate student in the school of image arts at Ryerson university.

WESTON PUBLIC makes an interventionist proposition for a new discursive public, understanding “public-ness” as a complex layering of actions and experiences of people, as well as the architectures within which they enact their experience. as a series of narrative episodes, the project becomes a tool to facilitate a neighborhood’s participation in its own story and transformation; and provides an analytical basis for approaching design + documentary that privileges the dreams, desires and experiences of a community over needs-based assessments.

The project will be exhibited as a site-specific multi-channel video installation and exist as an archive of stories and drawings on the web.

Advisor: scoTT soRlI

WEsToN PuBlIc

MaRiaNgela PIccIoNE, March

92



WAsTEWATER TREATmENT ANd ITs RolE IN ThE PuBlIc REAlm: large scale networks collect and transport sewage from large numbers of people to highly technologized wastewater treatment plants. These plants are seen as a security risk and as undesirable places to be. There-fore, the plants are treated as inaccessible islands within the urban framework, outside of the ex-perience of those people who live in the vicinity and those who contribute their waste to the plant.

AssumPTIoNs: waste is a basic and fundamental connection that we have to our environment. waste is a gift, ‘one man’s trash is another’s treasure;’ however, our practice of trying to place waste ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ risks turning that gift into a curse. Restricting physical and experi-ential access of wastewater treatment processes creates and sustains ignorance about the impact and connection that we have to our environment.

ThEsIs: This thesis argues that there exist opportunities within the toolsets available to a landscape architect to create wastewater treatment landscapes as a space of contemplation and beauty within the urban environment and public realm. in addition, it is argued that this should be implemented in juxtaposition to our existing waste water treatment plants in the gTa. This will give the public an opportunity to revaluate our current attitudes and approaches to waste, through a direct experience of the treatment plant and a landscape architectural alternative of wastewater treatment.

ThE PRojEcT: an exploration of the thesis through the ashbridges Bay Treatment plant as site

goAls:• provide a landscape architectural treatment solution to partially treated waste eliminated from

the ashbridges Bay Treatment plant• describe an experiential journey that follows the treatment process, beginning/ending at the

ashbridges Bay Treatment plant and beginning/ending at the site where clean water is released back into the environment

• situate the experiential journey and treatment process within the context of site, and the proposed program and form put forth in the Lake Ontario Masterplan and the masterplan, Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant: A Landscape in the Works

coNTEmPlATINg WAsTE

Maxwell sTepheN PRoByN, Mla

94



glass architecture (as fantasized by paul scheerbart in his 1914 book, Glasarchitektur ) can be considered as both a technologically and culturally motivated design project in the service of aesthetics that have cognitive and socially transformative effects.[1] architectural experimentation with glass and glazing systems has resulted in many technological advancements—the results of which having contributed to the increased pleasure and comfort of our buildings. This project shares scheerbart’s fantasist spirit while adding the functional and performance specifications of today’s architectural glazing systems. The result is the invention of a light-manipulating glazing system which is designed to selectively reflect or refract incident solar radiation at specific latitudes and compass orientations.

[1] detlef Mertins. essay: Bioconstructivisms. Engineered Transparency (New york, Ny: princeton architectural press, 2009)

lIghT-mANIPulATINg dEvIcE

KeviN schoRN, March

96



for the past half-century, post-industrial cities in the great lakes region have suffered severe economic and demographic decline. at the same time, the great lakes—which make up the world’s largest freshwater system—have struggled with environmental degradation in the form of contamination and pollution, a legacy left behind by unsound industrial activity, urban expansion and modern agricultural practices.

in the wake of current trends towards sustainable urban living and with a heightened interest in water quality and conservation, the shrinking cities of the great lakes region are perfectly poised to be re-invented. The ubiquitous abandoned industrial sites found along such cities’ waterfronts and riverbanks have the potential to serve as the nexus of nature and city, two seemingly incongruous systems whose distinct dynamics can begin to merge at this point.

situated in the city of Buffalo, New york, this thesis will explore the potential for landscape urbanism to serve as the primary tool for the organization (and re-organization) of contemporary, sustainable urban form in a manner that responds both to current context as well as to the indeterminate possibilities of the future. ecological infrastructure will be fully integrated into the city’s existing fabric to provide the foundation for a new urban living model, enabling a shrinking city to develop a hybridized urban ecology that re-shapes how the city and its people share space with natural systems. what results is a symbiotic relationship, one where the city gives the water’s edge room to expand and breathe, and where the water’s restorative capacities begin to rehabilitate a tainted urban landscape. This new hybridized zone will be designed to evolve over time—a functional, accessible, adaptable urban eco-scape that not only improves civic conditions for those who live there today, but will also have the potential to be synthesized into the city of the future.

hyBRIdIzEd uRBAN Eco-scAPERE-EsTABlIshINg ThE RElATIoNshIP BETWEEN shRINkINg

cITIEs + ThE gREAT lAkEs

laRa sEmENIuk, Mla

98


Advisor: mEg gRAhAm

FARms, cITIEs & FoodA cRITIcAl REcoNNEcTIoN FoR uRBAN ENduRANcE

This thesis project reconceptualizes the contemporary urban experience through an exploration of urban agriculture. disconnected from the physical reality of geographies and biological imperatives, the city dweller exists within a world of intangible networks. By developing a continuous productive landscape, this scheme reintroduces a physical connection and understanding of place within the urban environment.

KaThRyN sloTEk, March

100


Advisor: mARc RyAN

Through stratification, excavation and incision of the ground plane, this thesis investigation will leverage existing conditions and infrastructure above, on and below grade to reduce waste and provide amenity. This research will be tested within context of st. james Town, an economically disadvantaged and culturally diverse neighborhood near downtown Toronto.

The City of Toronto is home to 2,000 high-rise buildings and ranks second (after New york City) in North america for the greatest number of structures over 12 floors. Toronto’s expansion in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, when planning and architecture embraced modernist esthetic and values, has resulted in over 1,000 concrete towers—many of which are situated in high density clusters. inspired by le Corbusier’s “tower in the park” schemes, the stacking of residential units allowed for up to 90% of the surface area to be left as open space. while conceptually envisioned as park-like recreational space, the impact of underground infrastructure (parking) and an uninspired landscape approach (which equated open space with empty space) has resulted in dysfunctional landscapes.

in Toronto, the densest of these developments have become enclaves for the financially disadvantaged and those with few housing options, which has created a downward cycle of lack of investment and reduced desirability. These communities have defined borders, hard edges and lack amenities to encourage visitors—in fact they were designed to discourage intruders and as a result they are poorly understood by outsiders and have become synonymous with crime, violence and poverty.

Recognizing the considerable value and investment that high-rise residential infrastructure present, the city is committed to existing siting, geometry and density. The landscape, however, remains pliable and can play a pivotal role in transforming the ecological, social and economic health of these communities.

This thesis project proposes that through the reorganization/consolidation of infrastructure, the insertion of ecologically sustainable processes, and the investment in the public realm, landscape architecture can create desirable high-density communities and can offer an alternative to architecturally-focused redevelopment approaches.

ToWERs IN ThE PARk (REdux)

BReTT sNydER, Mla

102



“What is a Happening? A game, an adventure, a number of activities engaged in by participants for the sake of playing.”

–allan Kaprow

if in Constant’s New Babylon, the citizens are all artists of their own lives and constantly at play, then when the idea shrinks to the scale of a building in fun palace, a valuable idea is lost, and that is merging everyday lives of people with play. fun palace becomes a gigantic concentrated playground; a fairy land isolated from the reality of the city and everyday lives of the citizens; a heaven far from the earth.

what if the dream of having a fun palace in a city could come true with breaking it apart and throwing the pieces into the realm of the city?

This thesis project is interested in how architecture can create opportunities for people, who generally have limited time to play, to be engaged in a playful activity on a daily basis as part of their routine life. The design project studies the practice of pip-principle in public spaces: polycentric, interstitial, and participatory, and as a result introduces a network of playgrounds for adults in downtown Toronto’s paTh system.

These playgrounds focus mainly on a specific culture of play in adults which is often lost, and that is the ability of engaging oneself physically in a playful activity. The design investigates the capability of architecture to be a medium for adults’ body play without any conventional playground equipment and simply with manipulating an environment that encourages a playful activity.

ThE EscAPE FRom BoREdomARchITEcTuRE oF PlAy IN EvERydAy lIFE

leyla solEImANI kARImABAd, March

104



lATERAl INTERFAcE

The ambition of Metrolinx to create an improved universal transit system in the greater Toronto area (gTa) is long overdue. The gTa continues to grow as one of the leading metropolises in North america, and with a new growth strategy for key areas of intensification, heavy demands are placed on an underdeveloped public transit network.

Transit infrastructure systems seek to establish an efficient means of distributing a population between the complexities of varying programmatic events. These assemblages manage complex systems of flow, movement and exchange, and interface by either interconnecting or straddling the urban, interurban and international scale (stan allen, Points + Lines).

although the proposed Metrolinx plan seeks to provide greater connectivity through new rapid transit corridors, there still remains the absence of a centralized high-speed lateral connection. Movement across the city becomes inhibited by slower speeds and higher frequencies of stops. The result leads to implications for achieving the full potential of the city’s growth strategy.

lateral interface seeks to create a new form of mobility in the gTa by hybridizing existing transit infrastructure and reinforcing the current Metrolinx strategy. establishing an east-west high-speed public transit corridor becomes instrumental in strengthening the city’s north-south avenues and linking key economic and cultural growth centers along its axis. These nodes act as a catalyst and evolve into new typologies of interface within the urban fabric. lateral interface offers the potential of transforming the relationship of architecture and infrastructure within the city.

MiChael jasoN TRANquAdA, March

106



ThE AFTERlIFE oF A gREAT cANAdIAN dumP

urban development, renewal of ecological habitats, and a 2.25 square km garbage dump are seemingly autonomous entities that oppose one another. Through phasing strategies, this proposal challenges the current method of urban waste-management to create a reality where landfills, a contaminated and manufactured landscape that serves as a dumping ground for our wasteful society, can be transformed into an ecological haven and development where new and exciting forms of architecture and programs can emerge.

daNNy shao-ChaN TsENg, March

108


Advisor: mARc RyAN

This thesis seeks to create a rainwater harvesting infrastructure on the landscape and urban design scale that is flexible to santa fe’s unique conditions of both water scarcity and seasonal monsoon storms with the terminus at the santa fe River. The thesis is critical of the conventional engineer stormwater infrastructure that is applied to every american city without any sensibility to santa fe’s semi-arid context. The current infrastructure’s function is to get stormwater off the streets and sent out of the city as quickly as possible.

The consequence is that during the summer monsoon season, vast volumes of polluted stormwater rush out of outfalls located along the santa fe River, further eroding the degraded river bed, damag-ing the natural habitat, and throwing away an opportunity to gather precious water.

The design will consist of a stormwater system that acknowledges the particular precipitation patterns of the american southwest, its delicate river ecology, and the residents’ desperate need for water. New Mexico’s tradition of the acequias (networks of community-managed irrigation ditches) plays a role by re-establishing a water culture that people in this region once had that was lost in the shift from rural to urban. These values are of shared un-commoditized water, frugality, public stewardship of infrastructure, and community celebration of water.

This contemporary ‘urban acequia’ will harvest rainwater from multiple scales and send it to santa fe’s ‘water district’ (Barrio de agua). The space will be flexible, interactive, and responsive to fluctuating water levels coming in from the acequias and natural events. interfaced with the santa fe River, the district is complete with water cleansing and storage facilities that will strategically release water to make the currently dry santa fe River into a living stream once again. This will be the platform where santa feans celebrate their water harvesting efforts and reconnect with their river. The city will set a precedent for other american southwest cities to follow in having a new adaptive, efficient, and appropriate water system based on local traditions and ecological specifics of their region.

sANTA FE(RE)EsTABlIshINg AN AdAPTIvE WATER culTuRE

johN vuu, Mla

110



REhABIlITATIoN oF ABANdoNEd quARRIEs

There are about 80,000 quarries in China, including those that are closed. however, only about 12% of these closed quarries have been re-vegetated yet, and 88% of the abandoned quarries are still left without any treatment. Quarries that are left untreated always cause extensive land disturbances and have negative safety and environmental impacts. Rehabilitation activities are always required after those quarries are closed.

Most of the existing approaches to rehabilitation of the abandoned quarries are considering more about the environmental issues rather than considering it in a framework of landscape, urbanism and culture.

actually, as one type of the urban land uses, with the involvement of planners and landscape architects these sites that are seen as eyesores and as separate from the urban fabric of the city can be integrated into their natural, social and economic context.

This design thesis addresses rehabilitation of abandoned quarries into new urban land uses which could be integrated into the urban context. it tries to transform post-industrial lands into new attractions that improve the ecosystem, beautify the city, entice tourists, stimulate economic development and teach visitors how to better protect the environment while blending nature, culture and human beings.

li xu, Mla

112



Canada’s oil sands are called the “dirtiest oil on earth.” The oil comes with a deleterious envi-ronmental impact. This thesis uses landscape ecology to design and reorganize the oil sands’ surface mining site, its operations and reclamation processes. it aims to redeem Canada’s dam-aged environmental reputation while searching for a place for landscape architecture within this contemporary industrial process.

cANAdA’s oIl sANdssusTAINABIlITy ThRough REoRgANzATIoN

Kyle xueKuN yANg, Mla

114

Documents

Al NAssER fei alisoN lIANg mAIN mARIoTTI · 2017. 5. 4. · sCoTT heNRy lINg yue mA laRRy mAc aNsoN RiChaRd mAIN sTefaNia mARIoTTI fadi mAsoud TaRaNeh mEshkANI ... 88 90 92 94 96