Monuments of the Kettle Valley Railway: Reviving a Network within Extreme Landscapes

Abstract

This thesis examines the abandoned Kettle Valley Railway which extends 600 kilometres across the extreme topography of southern British Columbia, Canada. The Kettle Valley Railway is recognized as the most challenging railway built in world history. Abandoned since the mid 1900s, nothing remains of the railway except a path and the monumental infrastructure ruins. The abandoned railway is revitalized by adding architectural interventions that highlight the characteristics of specific railway monuments through their unique historical narratives and tremendous engineering feats. Located on a site that already has a high density of every infrastructure typology, the Othello Bathhouse tests a set of design criteria for future interventions along the railway. Eventually, the entirety of the railway would be punctuated with architecture that follows a consistent language, offering travellers a place for pause that reinvigorates a network that once provided us with one of the most sensory experiences in the world.