Forgotten Ecologies: Architecture for Natural Coexistence within Albertan Agrarian Landscapes

Abstract

Western epistemologies based on a dualism between man and “nature” have created economic systems at war with ecological systems. The segmented Alberta prairie landscape perpetuates this dualistic thought through economic tasks that are separate from “nature”. How can architecture be designed to support non-human tasks and facilitate interactions that foster the development of empathy with the more than human world? A research and visitor center will be designed within a proposed grassland preserve in Southern Alberta to help focus on landscape as ecological process. The proposed preserve reestablishes natural systems and species so that one can observe, appreciate/ respect, and understand how to live within the prairies while supporting its ecologies and inhabitants. The project uses ecological spatial concepts and relations between the near and the far, both physically and temporally, to inspire architecture that frames ecosystem relationships and the connectivity between all things.