Healing Aquascapes

Abstract

The Healing Aquascape is a strategy to remediate the Burrard Inlet of southern BC and recover the waterway as an integral site in the development of the cultural landscape. As the ecology of the inlet is impoverished by effluent pollution there is a grand opportunity to create a rich cultural environment wherein a remediation infrastructure stages a celebration of the indigenous arts, promotes aquatic recreation, and the pursuit of knowledge of the local ecology. How might one spawn an aquatic infrastructure that restores ecological functionality and enriches the collective cultural landscape? This thesis proposes a recreational canoe circuit of remediation towers that connect an ecology research laboratory in the water with an aboriginal culture centre on the shore. The art of aquascape is a conceptual analogue at multiple scales to detangle the complexities of site and aid the investigation, development, and representation of a strategy apropos of a healing infrastructure.