116 pages / This project uses interview responses from local, impacted people to explore the future landscape of the Lithium Pilot Plant in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, as its development responds to the rise and fall of global lithium demand. As technology changes, so do the materials that support it. Recent research suggests that lithium could become obsolete in the next fifty years despite current trends towards lithium-ion based technology. Such as shift could leave mass quantities of mining remnants and would constitute the next step in a continuous history of Bolivian resource exploitation. This project explores a speculative future scenario where solutions for the gradual transition from current mining practices constructively deal with mining waste and prepare the study area for a post-mining era. Through this exploration, the project deviates from more standard approaches to mined landscape reclamation, which conceive of returning the landscape to its original state. The overarching premise is that, if a reclamation program framework is established, it could permit the territory to transition to alternative, productive uses. Based on several local interviews and my personal evaluations about the future land use and cover classes, I developed a reclamation program for the study area depicted in a 2070 scenario master plan. The proposal establishes a new economy of infrastructure tourism in the region, using agriculture, energy production and celestial movements in a new form of territorial restructuring.

Applying complex ecosystems theory, this thesis maps and analyzes the codependency of ecological and manufacturing flows affecting cities, the landscape, and the environment. Learning from this analysis, a prototype for a hybrid eco-manufacturing and urban park is proposed on degraded industrial lands. Its design is influenced by eco-industrial parks including Kalundborg and contemporary urban parks including La Villette, Downsview, and Fresh Kills. The prototype’s design is motivated by the mutating spatiality caused by contemporary trends in North American manufacturing and the degrading environmental state of the Great Lakes. The horizontal expansion of post-Fordist industrial areas on the urban periphery of North American cities has helped lead decentralization of core urban areas. This organization is becoming vulnerable to future energy and environmental concerns. In Hamilton, this trend has resulted in approximately 3,400 acres of underutilized contaminated land in its historical bayfront industrial areas. The hybrid park prototype will incubate reuse of a 576 acre site within this land by creating a network of eco-operations and public spaces. As part of North America’s Great Lakes, Hamilton Harbour drains into the head of Lake Ontario. The Port of Hamilton’s manufacturing activity strains the ecological systems of these lakes. Some of the most problematic discharge into Hamilton Harbour occurs at Windermere Basin. The basin is surrounded by a twilight industrial area that contaminates its water, soil, and air. This will be the location of the hybrid park prototype. Light manufacturing spaces that treat industrial contamination will be designed. Their organization will hypothesize a new form of urbanization based on environmentally benign uses of energy and materials.

Applying complex ecosystems theory, this thesis maps and analyzes the codependency of ecological and manufacturing flows affecting cities, the landscape, and the environment. Learning from this analysis, a prototype for a hybrid eco-manufacturing and urban park is proposed on degraded industrial lands. Its design is influenced by eco-industrial parks including Kalundborg and contemporary urban parks including La Villette, Downsview, and Fresh Kills. The prototype’s design is motivated by the mutating spatiality caused by contemporary trends in North American manufacturing and the degrading environmental state of the Great Lakes. The horizontal expansion of post-Fordist industrial areas on the urban periphery of North American cities has helped lead decentralization of core urban areas. This organization is becoming vulnerable to future energy and environmental concerns. In Hamilton, this trend has resulted in approximately 3,400 acres of underutilized contaminated land in its historical bayfront industrial areas. The hybrid park prototype will incubate reuse of a 576 acre site within this land by creating a network of eco-operations and public spaces. As part of North America’s Great Lakes, Hamilton Harbour drains into the head of Lake Ontario. The Port of Hamilton’s manufacturing activity strains the ecological systems of these lakes. Some of the most problematic discharge into Hamilton Harbour occurs at Windermere Basin. The basin is surrounded by a twilight industrial area that contaminates its water, soil, and air. This will be the location of the hybrid park prototype. Light manufacturing spaces that treat industrial contamination will be designed. Their organization will hypothesize a new form of urbanization based on environmentally benign uses of energy and materials.