landscape architecture

Indigenous hunters, elders, and a women’s sewing circle: They are some of the non-academic teachers that Chris Grosset says have transformed his landscape architecture practice.

“Learning on the job, learning in the field, learning in people’s homes has changed my approach,” says Grosset, a U of T alumnus who has worked in Indigenous communities for nearly 20 years. “Skills I needed to do this work have evolved over time. They’re not something I learned in school.”

Grosset, a partner and senior consultant at the Indigenous firm NVision Insight Group Inc., will share his experiences in a lecture tonight at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. His talk, “The Path. The Mountain. The Journey: Landscape architecture, learning and reconciliation” is part of the faculty’s “What Is A School?” lecture series, which explores the changing nature of the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, art and urbanism, as well as evolving pedagogies in these areas.

Chris Grosset has spent nearly 20 years working in Indigenous communities throughout Canada (photo courtesy of Chris Grosset)

“It is important for the field of landscape architecture to self-reflect on our changing role as design consultants,” explains Liat Margolis, an associate professor and director of the master of landscape architecture program. “Chris’s talk will purposefully not talk about projects but instead talk about his journey of unlearning and learning as a way of defining truth and reconciliation as it relates to landscape architecture.”

Margolis says bringing Grosset to U of T is part of an ongoing dialogue at Daniels about how to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.

Read about TRC at U of T

When Senator Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, released the TRC calls to action in June 2015, he said, “We have described for you a mountain. We have shown you the path to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.” Grosset, whose lecture title references Sinclair's symbolic mountain, says he's learned that on the path to reconciliation, it's important to slow down and listen.

As an example, Grosset describes a project he worked on – a public park – that came out of a lengthy consultation with a community in Nunavut that wanted to build a park to commemorate its cultural connection to whales. "They had just completed their first whale hunt in the modern history of their community and so we were able to secure the skull and jawbones of that whale that they had harvested, and that was integrated into the design.”

He says they were also able to get funding to help men in the community who had lost the traditional skills of working with stone. Men on income support were able to work on the project as a part of a training program. They learned to collect the stone and prepare the site, and ultimately they built the park.

“And so the thing is that in that case this is not about the design at all, it doesn’t matter what it looks like. The whole thing is about using the landscape to reconnect and to heal. So that’s what I try to do.”

Grosset recalls that when he completed his master's in landscape architecture at the University of Guelph, he had his heart set on working with heritage gardens: researching historic properties and designing gardens with contemporary art elements. As he was looking for that dream job, he took a trip to Iqaluit to visit some friends.

“When I arrived there … just to see the incredible white landscape, the big beautiful sky, just the vastness of it. It was just such a powerful landscape and I just knew that I wanted to stay there as long as I could."

Grosset’s lecture will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Mediatheque, room 200 at 1 Spadina Crescent. Registration is required.

U of T’s Winter Stations warm up Toronto’s beaches

Romi Levine — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 17:15:42 +0000

U of T’s Winter Stations warm up Toronto’s beaches

Romi Levine Tue, 02/28/2017 - 12:15

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Beachgoers enjoy U of T's Winter Station installation named, “Midwinter Fire” (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

landscape architecture

On Location

Subheadline

The event runs until March 27

Torontonians have been flocking to the sandy shores of Lake Ontario to check out the whimsical structures lining the beach.

Winter Stations is the annual design competition where creative teams from all over the world build art installations around the lifeguard posts scattered across Toronto's east-end beaches. This year, ��Ƶ architecture and landscape architecture master’s students from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design made their debut.

The event is a chance for students and budding designers to show off their talent, alongside more experienced architects. Three schools, including U of T, were chosen to participate.

“To me, this is a great opportunity for young designers to design, build and deliver pieces where normally in the studio, they don't necessarily see things out and work through problems,” says Aaron Hendershott of RAW Design, one of the event organizers. “I think it's a great learning experience for the students and they do really compelling work.”

Students at U of T participated in an internal competition to decide which installation would be included and it was Midwinter Fire that got the vote.

U of T architecture and landscape architecture students assembled Midwinter Fire on a snowy beach, days before the Winter Stations event opened to the public (photo by Romi Levine)

The structure utilizes local vegetation to brighten up the wintry beach and reflective walls to make the installation appear larger, almost infinite.

Can landscape design mitigate wildfires? U of T student says yes

lavende4 — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 15:19:33 +0000

Can landscape design mitigate wildfires? U of T student says yes

lavende4 Mon, 07/18/2016 - 11:19

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Aftermath of the Fort McMurray wildfire: what can landscape architects do to help mitigate wildfire disasters? (Jonathan Hayward/Getty Images)

Dale Duncan

Author legacy

Dale Duncan

Topic

Our Community

wildfires

Daniels Faculty of Architecture

landscape architecture

During a trip to Adelaide, Australia in 2015, Jordan Duke witnessed her first wildfire.

“We were driving over a hill and I could see a large plume of smoke in the horizon,” she said. “Thousands of hectares were on fire.” From the plane, the next day when she flew out, Duke was struck by the vast expanse of charred earth. She thought about it the entire flight home.

As a student in the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, Duke wondered: what could landscape architects do to help mitigate wildfire disasters? In the wake of the fire that struck Fort McMurray in Alberta in May, it’s a question that carries increased relevance — particularly since wildfires are predicted to increase in the future.

For her thesis project the following year, Duke researched how wildfires could be mitigated through tools that exist within the realm of landscape architecture. Her research culminated in the development of a strategy for Cleland Conservation Park. The park is based in South Australia where in February 2009, wildfires claimed over 170 lives. Her plan — which combined remote sensors embedded in the landscape with site-specific landscape design strategies that would produce both short- and long-term results — projected new possibilities, not only for the field of landscape architecture but also for how we could diminish such disasters in the future.

“There’s a lot of planning when it comes to wildfires in terms of where to build neighbourhoods, and there are many techniques to track and evaluate an area’s likelihood of burning, but I found that there were few systems in place to reduce the risk of a large wildfire occurring in the first place, “ says Duke.

Inspired by her work the previous summer at the Daniels Faculty’s Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (gritlab), the first part of her strategy included embedding remote sensors within the landscape that would allow for real-time monitoring of data such as humidity, wind, temperature, vegetation density, and water availability — factors that contribute to the likelihood of a fire.

“At gritlab, we learned that sensor technology is cheap and easy to deploy. I had no computer engineering background, but by the end of the summer, we were installing sensors throughout the green roof, downloading data and doing analysis,” says Duke. “This triggered an idea: what if we could take these sensors and deploy them across a huge site to monitor variables that would let us know in advance when fires are likely to happen?”

Under Duke’s plan, data from the sensors would activate a variety of responses across the landscape. For example, on dry, hot days, weather modifiers installed along the ridges and valleys of the park would disperse mist across the site to increase humidity levels. Using the regular ocean breeze moving across the site, the modifiers would also scatter the seeds of fire-resistent cypress trees along the ridges of the landscape. Over time, the wall of trees that would eventually grow would become windbreaks that could help slow the pace of a fire.

Excess rainwater, which normally flows down the hills to the ocean during heavy rain, would be collected in reservoirs, which could become recreational pools for people visiting the park or sources of water for animals in search of refuge. When sensors indicate the risk of a fire in a particular location, however, the water would be released down the valley to soak the landscape below. The large amount of rapidly released water would also increase erosion runoff, thus creating firebreaks throughout the valley.

Duke also considered vegetation, which provides fuel for burning fires. Artificial watering holes strategically placed throughout the park would attract animals in times of drought. Native wallabies, kangaroos and other animals coming to the pools of water would then feed on nearby vegetation, reducing fuel for a potential fire.

“None of these devices eliminate risk,” says Duke. “Instead, they work to shift risk from large scale, catastrophic events to smaller, everyday risk levels.”

In addition to these and other tactics designed to mitigate risk, Duke explored ways to influence human behavior. The weather monitors along the ridge of the hill above the city, for example, could be programmed to light more brightly at night during periods of high-energy use.

“The idea is to change the collective consciousness of the local population by highlighting invisible phenomena and patterns that are contributing to climate change and wildfire occurrences,” says Duke. Energy consumption in the city of Adelaide is among the highest in Australia.

Jordan Duke (centre), with Dean Richard Sommer and Associate Professor Alissa North, Director of the Master of Architecture Landscape program, at the 2016 Graduation Awards Ceremony

While the scope of her thesis was to research and propose a new approach to mitigating wildfires, Duke does hope to one day build and test her project.

Her hope is that the strategy she devised will plant the seeds for ways that landscape architects can contribute to wildfire mitigation in the future.

“Developing science fiction scenarios are necessary,” says Duke. “Imagining what could be done is usually the first step towards something actually happening.”

Assistant Professor Liat Margolis was Duke’s thesis advisor. Duke received the American Society of Landscape Architects Certificate of Honor and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Student Award of Merit at this year’s graduation awards ceremony.

landscape architecture

The landscape of reconciliation: Chris Grosset reflects on nearly 20 years of working in Indigenous communities

Read about TRC at U of T

U of T’s Winter Stations warm up Toronto’s beaches

Read more about U of T's Midwinter Fire

Can landscape design mitigate wildfires? U of T student says yes