The Polyvalent Ruin: Reconciling Time and Place in Rural Nova Scotia

Abstract

The thesis examines the effects of depopulation in Canso, Nova Scotia and articulates a response to the challenges of building in a socially and economically precarious community. In examining the fluxuations in historical population and economy it is concluded that Canso is not on an inevitably downward trajectory. Rather, it is a historically resilient community which has gone through many cycles of growth and decline. The population of Canso is aging which presents an immediate need for elderly housing. This program is used as the catalyst for any number of future programmatic uses accommodated by an architectural framework designed for adaptation and disassembly. The historical continuity of this inconstant architecture is articulated by the intersection of building and landscape, creating a ruin which is both a record of the building in time and the inspiration for possible future development.