published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

The research presented in this thesis is intended to reveal the layers of social and cultural meaning invested in a building conventionally regarded as a work of abstract aesthetic modernism, and one which has been evaluated, within the framework of a national heritage preservation policy, as an architectural landmark of the post-war era of urban reconstruction. By combining the research methods of architectural history (archival) and of anthropology (ethnographic) I have located and interpreted the architecture of the Brunswick within a larger social story that demonstrates how the lived experience of a particular environment exists in parallel with the more objective official discourse that invests a work of architecture or art with cultural significance. The thesis traces the architectural inception and complex evolution of the building, its critical reception, and the proposals for redevelopment that culminated in a major refurbishment and transformation of the shopping precinct in 2006. It goes on to present an ethnographic account of the Brunswick as a social, as much as an architectural space, and an anthropological interpretation of the relationship between identity and place in terms of the specific qualities of the built environment. It shows that the material environment becomes real and vivid to people as an embodiment of the social dimensions of their lives, and that the boundaries between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ – the private space of the home, and the layered sequence of public spaces extending through the building to the city beyond - are not objectively fixed, but subjectively perceived and negotiated in different ways. Although the Brunswick exerts considerable power as a unique architectural image, its boundaries do not define an integrated social space, nor a unified experience of the place as a living environment. Nevertheless, repeated interaction and sensory experience make it a tangible architectural framework for everyday and domestic life which evidently shapes the view from the inside looking out. The research aims to make a significant contribution to knowledge at a meeting-point between anthropology and architecture, which might help to inform future understanding of the interaction between people and the built habitat in modern urban societies.

The impervious surfaces of built landscapes create stormwater runoff that causes water quantity and quality problems downstream, upsetting natural hydrology and harming aquatic ecosystems. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) includes practices that reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and the pollutants it carries utilizing plants, soils, and other materials to capture, store, reuse, infiltrate, evapotranspire, and filter stormwater. GSI helps to restore developed landscapes, mimicking natural hydrologic processes and providing important water treatment functions as well as beneficial green spaces in urban areas. However, there are many challenges associated with the implementation and maintenance of GSI in our communities and cultures. This research explores the human side of implementing GSI, investigating current maintenance capacities in rural and urban settings, and exploring multifunctional benefits of GSI to provide both biophysical and cultural ecosystem services (CES). Research goals include characterizing the current state of GSI implementation and maintenance in municipalities in the State of Vermont (USA) and eliciting lessons that can inform GSI design practices and policies. Multifunctional GSI design objectives that provide and enhance CES are described, revealing opportunities to instill values and a sense of stewardship for the health wellbeing of people and ecosystems. The first chapter provides relevant topical background to set the stage for the latter two chapters. The second chapter analyzes results from a survey of municipal officials in Vermont that occurred as part of NSF-EPSCoR-funded Basin Resilience to Extreme Events project research on stormwater management. The survey included questions about GSI and maintenance practices in place and perceptions of visual appeal and ability to maintain bioretention systems shown in landscape visualizations. Results show that visual appeal and perceived maintainability of vegetated bioretention practices do not appear to be significant barriers to adoption and operation, but stormwater policy and funding are shown to be both significant barriers and solutions to implementing and maintaining GSI in Vermont municipalities. Additionally, urban and rural towns provide very different contexts for implementing and maintaining GSI in Vermont and characteristics of development patterns and maintenance capacity should be considered in policy, regulations, outreach, and education. The third chapter offers a literature review, guided by a CES framework, of design elements that can be included in GSI to create multifunctional urban green spaces. CES categories of aesthetic, recreation, education, sense of place, social capital, and stewardship benefits framed a set of design elements, principles, practices, and documented benefits to guide multifunctional design of GSI. Findings include the importance of participatory processes to elicit diverse landscape values, visible water pathways, biodiversity, spaces for creative use, accessibility, interaction with water, interpretive signage, and artful and biophilic design features to enhance feelings of preference, pleasure, relaxation, learning, connection, and inclusion. The health and wellbeing of water and people must be integrated into the design of GSI for cities to be ecologically functional and culturally meaningful to their populations.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Winnipeg is a spatially, culturally, psychologically and visually fragmented city, particularly due to the vehicular-oriented growth which has engendered segmented land-use, dismantled walkable networks and provoked disconnection between culture and nature as well as within nature itself. In particular, the displacement of daily life from the complex web of interrelationships in ecosystems, which are essentially the mechanisms supporting our existence, should be the primary concern of urban design. In order to resolve this critical issue, this practicum will isolate and examine a problematic site while deconstructing fragmentation into specific causes, namely pollution, habitat degradation, placelessness and lack of urban ecological education. Concluding that this condition is ultimately created by our own fragmented thinking, the production of pragmatic solutions which continually evoke further fragmentation, I present a series of solutions to these challenges in the form of a landscape architectural design proposal for the City of Winnipeg.

The goal of this project is to create an outdoor environment that responds to the social, physical and emotional needs of older adults.The main objective of this project is to provide quality outdoor spaces associated with a housing facility. To meet this objective, the project stresses three major objectives: (1) to integrate the older adults' housing facility with the neighborhood in order to eliminate segregation and loneliness; (2) to determine the aspects of nature that are beneficial to the older adults' physical and mental health; and (3) to create an appropriate outdoor environment that will increase social contact and enhance active and passive recreational spaces to improve physical and emotional health.The literature section of this project focuses on setting up criteria for the questionnaire. The Literature review also helps to identify guidelines for design and design principles. Criteria for the final conceptual design was set using the data from the survey and the case studies. Finally a conceptual design was created to meet the objectives. / Department of Landscape Architecture