Ground 42 – Summer 2018 – Somatics by Ground Magazine

Landscape Architect Quarterly 06/

Round Table Embodied Design

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Features Parcon in the Park

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Felt Sense

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Somatic Engagement and Health

Publication # 40026106

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CSLA Awards

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OALA Awards Summer 2018 Issue 42

Masthead

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Editor Lorraine Johnson

2018 OALA Governing Council

Photo Editor Jasper Flores

President Jane Welsh

OALA Editorial Board Julius Aquino Shannon Baker Trish Clarke Jasper Flores Eric Gordon Ruthanne Henry (chair) Vincent Javet Eric Klaver James MacDonald Nelson Katie Strang Andrew Taylor Dalia Todary-Michael Jane Welsh

Vice President Kendall Flower

Web Editor Jennifer Foden Associate Web Editor Julius Aquino Social Media Manager Black Current Marketing Art Direction/Design www.typotherapy.com Advertising Inquiries advertising@oala.ca 416.231.4181 Cover Contact improv dancing at Corktown Common, Toronto. Image courtesy of Real Eguchi. See page 06. Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published four times a year by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. Ontario Association of Landscape Architects 3 Church Street, Suite 506 Toronto, Ontario M5E 1M2 416.231.4181 www.oala.ca oala@oala.ca Copyright © 2018 by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. Contributors retain copyright of their work. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0847-3080 Canada Post Sales Product Agreement No. 40026106 See www.groundmag.ca to download articles and share content on social media.

Treasurer Steve Barnhart Secretary Stefan Fediuk Past President Doris Chee Councillors Cynthia Graham Cameron Smith Justin Whalen Associate Councillor—Senior Trish Clarke Associate Councillor—Junior Mark Hillmer Lay Councillor TBC

OALA

About

About the OALA

Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects and provides an open forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to the profession of landscape architecture. Letters to the editor, article proposals, and feedback are encouraged. For submission guidelines, contact Ground at magazine@oala.ca. Ground reserves the right to edit all submissions. The views expressed in the magazine are those of the writers and not necessarily the views of the OALA and its Governing Council.

The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects works to promote and advance the profession of landscape architecture and maintain standards of professional practice consistent with the public interest. The OALA promotes public understanding of the profession and the advancement of the practice of landscape architecture. In support of the improvement and/or conservation of the natural, cultural, social and built environments, the OALA undertakes activities including promotion to governments, professionals and developers of the standards and benefits of landscape architecture.

Upcoming Issues of Ground Ground 43 (Fall) Legacy Ground 44 (Winter) Stress Deadline for advertising space reservations: October 16, 2018 Deadline for editorial proposals: July 12, 2018

Appointed Educator University of Toronto Peter North Appointed Educator University of Guelph Brendan Stewart University of Toronto Student Representative Joshua Kirk University of Guelph Student Representative Jenny Trinh OALA Staff Executive Director Aina Budrevics Registrar Ingrid Little Coordinator Sarah Manteuffel

Errata Brendan Stewart’s article “Dry-stone Walls: Ripe for re-invention,” which appeared in Ground 41 (Spring 2018), did not credit waller Sunny Wieler for his involvement in the design of the triangular structure in Caledon. We apologize for this omission.

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Advisory Panel Andrew B. Anderson, BLA, MSc. World Heritage Management Landscape & Heritage Expert, Oman Botanic Garden John Danahy, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA, Principal, Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto Real Eguchi, OALA, Eguchi Associates Landscape Architects, Toronto Donna Hinde, OALA, FCSLA, Partner, The Planning Partnership, Toronto Ryan James, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect, Novatech, Ottawa Alissa North, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Peter North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Nathan Perkins, MLA, PhD, ASLA, Associate Professor, University of Guelph Victoria Taylor, OALA, Principal, Victoria Taylor Landscape Architect, Toronto Jim Vafiades, OALA, FCSLA, Senior Landscape Architect, Stantec, Toronto

Contents

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Up Front Information on the ground Somatics:

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Re-imagining the Landscape Skateboarding as somatics TEXT BY ARIEL STAGNI

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Round Table Embodied design MODERATED BY REAL EGUCHI, OALA, AND ERIC KLAVER, OALA

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Parcon in the Park TEXT BY ANDREW SUSENO AND KIMBERLY TATE

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Felt Sense Ken Otter and Real Eguchi, OALA, in conversation about somatic intelligence and the living landscape Somatic Engagement and Health COORDINATED BY REAL EGUCHI, OALA, AND LORRAINE JOHNSON

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CSLA Awards OALA Awards Grounding Looking at the land: Haudenosaunee perspective TEXT BY MILLIE KNAPP

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Design by Detail Gas up TEXT BY VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA

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Notes A miscellany of news and events Artifact Looking through portals TEXT BY LORRAINE JOHNSON

TO VIEW ADDITIONAL CONTENT RELATED TO GROUND ARTICLES, VISIT WWW.GROUNDMAG.CA.

Summer 2018 Issue 42

President’s Message

Guest Message

President’s Message

Guest Message

An auspicious moment: my first President’s Message in Ground, in an issue that celebrates national design excellence and OALA award winners as well as the unique theme of somatics. As Real Eguchi states in his Guest Message, this issue explores “the dynamic, integral links between mind, body, community, and environment.” With summer finally on its way, we have even more opportunities to think about this relationship and enjoy the grace and elegance of our natural and built environments—shaped by landscape architects.

It has been a great pleasure and a wonderful honour to help shape this issue of Ground.

Our continued work on the Practice Act has forced us to take stock of where the profession of landscape architecture sits amongst the design professions, and where we would like it to be. Our many conversations with politicians, other professionals, and people of influence have clarified our unique role and contribution in the shaping of urban and natural landscapes. As the need for climate change adaptation becomes more urgent in the years ahead, landscape architecture is uniquely positioned, as Colleen Mercer Clarke pointed out in her keynote presentation at the World Design Summit in 2017, as “the profession most concerned with design, management, and stewardship of land and water” and the profession that can best tackle the complexities and connections between ecosystem functions and health, and human wellbeing. Our collective work on the Practice Act has increased the profile of the profession of landscape architecture. The role each of us plays in this dialogue is vital—our conversations and working relationships bring increased respect and credibility to our profession. JANE WELSH, OALA, FCSLA OALA PRESIDENT PRESIDENT@OALA.CA

Somatics is a topic that is dear to my heart and of growing professional interest as a result of directing my energy from running, yoga, and meditation towards a creative, somatic movement practice. In that we embody ongoing natural process, there can be no doubt that how we perceive and treat our own bodies directly influences how we engage with nature beyond our own skin, and perhaps how we design. Given the growing environmental issues that are impacting human health and the wellbeing of other species, why can we not shift gears towards a more compassionate existence? In this issue of Ground, we begin to explore the criticality of embodied intelligence to landscape architecture. As neurobiology and other sciences that focus on somatics continue to inform us of the dynamic, integral links between mind, body, community, and environment, landscape architects can help move us beyond a culture of fear and the need for overt control. May we help make a shift towards a culture that acknowledges emotional injury that will in turn help us embrace social and ecological diversity. Psychotherapist and author Francis Weller notes: “Grief is subversive, undermining the quiet agreement to behave and be in control of our emotions. It is an act of protest that declares our refusal to live numb and small. There is something feral about grief, something essentially outside the ordained and sanctioned behaviors of our culture. Contrary to our fears, grief is suffused with life-force... Grief is alive, wild, untamed and cannot be domesticated.” As we somatically engage with our diverse array of embodied emotions and embrace loss and grief, we restore our relationship to our own inner landscape and thus to the outer landscape within which we dwell. I believe that the design of healthy, lived-in landscapes can help with this reconnection. I have learned so much from the research that was necessary to assist in the publication of this issue of Ground. Thank you to the many people who gifted their energy to the process. Finally, congratulations to this year’s recipients of awards included here in Ground. Your dedication to excellence is critical in elevating the profession and, in turn, provides more opportunities for landscape architects to address society’s challenges. REAL EGUCHI, OALA GROUND ADVISORY PANEL MEMBER MAGAZINE@OALA.CA

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Up Front

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02 CORRIDORS

rethinking hydro lands On Google Earth, during the growing season, you can see black-eyed Susans in bloom on the Scarborough Centre Butterfly Trail—a big mass of bright yellow amidst the city’s grey. Something changes in the mind when what we normally think of as a small, local landscape feature is visible from the sky. It takes on a certain significance and solidity, even if that feature is as relatively ephemeral as blooming wildflowers.

Up Front: Information on the Ground

A change in perspective likewise describes what is happening throughout a significant portion of the Gatineau Hydro Corridor, where the Scarborough Centre Butterfly Trail has flourished since 2015. Once thought of as an out-of-bounds, waste place necessary for power transmission, this corridor, which dissects the Toronto landscape, is becoming a focus for innovative environmental and social projects. Leading the way is the announcement, in April 2018, that the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), in partnership with the City of Toronto and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation, will transform a 500-acre section of the corridor into one of Canada’s largest linear greenspaces—The Meadoway. The Meadoway will create a 16-kilometre east/west connection—for wildlife, for humans—between Toronto’s most significant natural features—the river valleys and ravines that predominantly run north/south. If you were to walk along the corridor, you could go from the Don River in the downtown to the Rouge Park in the east, surrounded by living, growing plants, not asphalt. Historically, those living, growing plants were mainly turf, mowed by Hydro One (through an agreement with the province, which owns the land). With the Meadoway, the partners have launched a 16-kilometre trail of pollinator habitat and engaged community programming from the Don Valley to the Rouge Valley. Arlen Leeming, Manager of Flagship Projects and Partnerships at TRCA and The Living City

Foundation, notes that the Meadoway is an example of what is possible across the 4,200 acres and 500 kilometres of transmission corridors that exist in the Toronto region. “We’ll never get an opportunity again to revitalize an area as large as 4,200 acres in the heart of Canada’s largest urban region,” he says with passion. “The Meadoway is creating the first step in establishing vital east/west connections for the north/south ravine systems.” The Meadoway encompasses more than 500 acres of the total 4,200 acres of potential, and will include 20 kilometres of mixed-use trails. Home to more than 1,000 species of flora and fauna, the trail will connect 15 existing parks and greenspaces, including four ravines and five watercourses, with a path extending from downtown Toronto to the Rouge National Urban Park. What the Meadoway also connects is people: “The communities that live beside the Hydro corridor don’t necessarily feel connected to those landscapes,” says Leeming. But with a 16-kilometre-long revitalized greenway, “people won’t need to travel outside the city for experiences of nature—they’ll have nature right in their backyard.” TEXT BY LORRAINE JOHNSON, EDITOR OF GROUND.

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Aerial view of the Meadoway looking west towards downtown Toronto

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Courtesy of TRCA

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The Meadoway in full bloom under the Hydro towers

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Courtesy of TRCA

Re-imagining the Landscape

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Skateboarding as somatics

TEXT BY ARIEL STAGNI

“Two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential, but it was the minds of 11-yearolds that could see that potential.” —Craig R. Stecyk III As a skateboarder, I am familiar with the many ways that space is controlled. Exploring public and private property as a teenaged skater, I learned how it felt to be “othered.” I’ve been asked to leave countless places, banned from office towers and shopping malls, and criminalized for skateboarding in parking lots, streets, and sidewalks. Across North American municipalities, it is not uncommon for governments, land owners, and property managers to post signs stating that skateboarding is not allowed. In Toronto, I’ve watched teenaged skaters get handed tickets and fines by security guards and police officers for trespassing.

With the growth in popularity of skateboarding in the 1990s, my friends and I got our first glimpse of defensive architecture that targeted skateboarders. We initially noticed that aftermarket “accents” (also known as skate stoppers, caps, blocks, notches, spikes, planters, etc.) were added in urban settings to ledges, benches, and handrails. A more recent trend has these and other anti-skateboarding features built right into original designs. Despite all the signals we receive about how spaces are not to be used, our belief in skateboarding, coupled with our commitment to finding and creating places to skateboard, compels us to question and challenge social norms by exercising our ideas of how spaces could be used. Consider photo 01, above. What do you see?

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Richmond Street,Toronto

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Ariel Stagni

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Somatically exploring an abandoned industrial site with a Backside 50-50,a skateboard manoeuvre

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Rob Mentov

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180 Switch Crook move on a wooden bench in an intense skateboarding session

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Jeff Comber

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Backside Powerslide, Toronto City Hall ramp

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Jeff Comber

Re-imagining the Landscape

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As a skater, I see smooth ground, a waxed concrete ledge that looks like it is a healthy height for a grind or slide. And I want to jump over that fire hydrant and explore some tricks I’ve been playing with. Simply put, I see opportunities! If you’ve ever been on a skateboard, maybe you, too, are familiar with the sense of playfulness and freedom that can happen there. Getting onto a skateboard demands your immediate and undivided attention. It simultaneously invites and requires you be present.

accepted rules about how spaces should be used, skaters carry a powerful lens that helps identify opportunities. To distinguish such opportunities requires creativity and playfulness. This compulsion happens on and off our skateboards, which means that skaters are always exploring and analyzing the built environment. We skate benches, ledges, flat surfaces, embankments, parking blocks, handrails, curb cuts, bumps, stairs... There is almost no distance we won’t go to imagine, find, or make a novel experience on our skateboards. This unstructured play can take place almost anywhere, and it often adds life and activity to unused or underused spaces.

When I step onto my skateboard, I’m reminded of the potential of this tool, and I want it to feel like an extension of my body. At once, I search for resistance between the soles of my shoes and the griptape of my skateboard, and my toes and the edges of my feet tell me where I’m positioned on my skateboard. My curiosity blooms and I begin to explore my surroundings. As I move in space, I find equilibrium in my movements, and the work of my muscles turns to ease of movement. Tapping into my body’s awareness is a requirement for not falling off, and that natural high is a big reason why people get back onto their skateboards. As I scan my body, my sensors are open and my body buzzes as I process new information. As a skateboarder in this state, I collect and instantly process feedback about changes in slope, elevation, materials, and textures. I am hyper-aware and able to focus intently. On my skateboard, I can experience countless moments in which the world slows, background noise drops away, and what shines through is a highly efficient experience of being. It is potent, captivating, and

exhilarating. This is the zone athletes achieve when the universe and the components of their training align. In this mindfulness practice, this present moment is the one that matters. Worldly thoughts get sidelined, and, recognizing that this feeling is fleeting and may be immediately followed by pain, living in the moment feels all the more salient. Could the quality of our spaces benefit from a similar embodied presence/kinesthetic exercise like the one described above? What if all spaces were considered mindfully in the design phase? Kinesthetic exploration on a skateboard is as much about somatics as it is about engagement with physical surroundings. In this way, skateboarding is also about responding to the built environment and re-imagining what is found there. Skaters begin with a utilitarian approach, and wonder, “How can I make immediate use of this space?” To see through commonly 02

This approach is relevant and bold in a world subscribing to all the ways we shouldn’t use spaces. Skaters choose to ignore the dominant, single story of how spaces should be used, and, in this manner, skateboarding offers a criticism of how spaces are designed and used. Not only does skateboarding challenge the status quo, it also adds diversity of use. Seeing and using space differently is a practice in problem-solving and seeing alternatives. This practice builds capacity in people to re-imagine options, which adds resilience in their communities. What if we chose to shift our focus from controlling the use of space to valuing the practice of imagining the use of space? Skateboarding is one example of beauty that can emerge when we move beyond our single story of how to use space. What if spaces were designed to welcome a multiplicity of uses including ones that re-interpret how spaces can be used? What other magic is waiting to emerge? BIO/ ARIEL STAGNI IS AN AVID SKATER WHO BELIEVES IN SKATEBOARDING AS A TOOL FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. HE HAS WORKED ON MORE THAN 50 SKATE-PARK PROJECTS ACROSS ONTARIO AND CONSULTS ON ALL ASPECTS OF SKATE-PARK DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED PROGRAMMING. TO VIEW ADDITIONAL CONTENT RELATED TO THIS GROUND ARTICLE, VISIT WWW.GROUNDMAG.CA.

Round Table

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MODERATED BY REAL EGUCHI, OALA, AND ERIC KLAVER, OALA

Round Table

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Contact improv,a somatic postmodern dance form practised here in intimate alignment with the landscape at Corktown Common,a park in Toronto

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Real Eguchi

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Movement workshop at the 2017 World Design Summit in Montreal facilitated by Svetlana Lavrentieva, Rennie Tang,and Lisa Sandlos as part of a collaborative and participatory practices session

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HEIDI CAMPBELL, SENIOR LANDSCAPE DESIGNER AT EVERGREEN, HAS A MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND A BACHELOR OF EDUCATION. SHE HAS MORE THAN 25 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN THE DESIGN OF OUTDOOR SPACES, WITH A STRONG EMPHASIS ON CREATING NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR PLAY AND LEARNING. A QUALIFIED TEACHER WITH A FOCUS ON COLLABORATIVE PLACEMAKING, SHE HAS WORKED WITH ARTISTS, VOLUNTEERS, AND COMMUNITY GROUPS TO ENVISION AND CO-CREATE PLAYFUL, INTERACTIVE, AND EMERGENT PUBLIC SPACES FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES. REAL EGUCHI, OALA, IS A PRINCIPAL OF EGUCHI ASSOCIATES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS/ BREAL ART + DESIGN. HIS KEY CURRENT INTERESTS INCLUDE “SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY,” AN AESTHETIC THAT DERIVES FROM THE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE SENSIBILITY OF WABI-SABI AND THE AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE OF AWE IN RELATIONSHIP TO NATURAL PROCESS. THROUGH HIS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE/ART/SOMATICBASED PRACTICE, REAL EXPLORES LOSS, GRIEF, AND CONNECTION, AND IS INSPIRED BY THE MULTIPLICITY OF WHOLE RELATIONSHIPS THAT NON-PRESCRIPTIVE, PROXIMATE LANDSCAPES CAN PROMOTE. ERIC KLAVER, OALA, IS A MEMBER OF THE GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD AND A PARTNER AT PLANT ARCHITECT. SVETLANA LAVRENTIEVA, OALA, IS A TORONTO-BASED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND ARTIST. SHE SEES THE DESIGN PROCESS AS COLLABORATIVE, AND OFTEN SEARCHES FOR INSPIRATION FROM DANCE, FASHION, PERFORMANCE ARTS, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND CINEMA. AS A PRACTISING LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND AS A PAINTER, SVETLANA’S WORK EXPLORES VARIOUS STATES OF NATURE. FORMERLY TRAINED AS A DANCER, SVETLANA CONTINUES TO CONNECT PHYSICAL MOVEMENT WITH LANDSCAPE. SVETLANA RECEIVED HER BACHELOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA AND HER MLA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. ANDREW LEVITT COMPLETED HIS UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES IN ARCHITECTURE AT THE ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION IN LONDON, AND HAS A MASTER’S DEGREE IN COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY FROM CHESTNUT HILL COLLEGE IN PHILADELPHIA. AFTER WORKING AS BOTH AN ARCHITECT AND JUNGIAN-ORIENTED PSYCHOTHERAPIST, ANDREW JOINED THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, WHERE HE TEACHES IN BOTH THE GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE DESIGN STUDIOS. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF THE INNER STUDIO—A DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO THE RESOURCES OF THE PSYCHE, PUBLISHED

BY RIVERSIDE ARCHITECTURAL PRESS IN 2006. HIS MOST RECENT BOOK, LISTENING TO DESIGN, WAS PUBLISHED BY REAKTION BOOKS IN THE SPRING OF 2018. ANDREW HAS TAUGHT, LECTURED, AND PRESENTED SEMINARS AT UNIVERSITIES AND CONFERENCES IN CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, AND EUROPE. TERENCE RADFORD, OALA, BCSLA, HAS A BACHELOR OF VISUAL ARTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA AND A MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. AS AN INDIGENOUS PRACTITIONER AND MEMBER OF THE METIS NATION OF B.C. (MNBC), TERENCE BELIEVES IN A SYSTEMSBASED APPROACH TO LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND HAS WORKED ON A NUMBER OF PROJECTS FEATURING GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE, INCLUDING GREEN ROOFS AND RAIN GARDENS. HE BELIEVES EVERY PROJECT IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SITE RESTORATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE. LAURI SUE ROBERTSON, PRESIDENT AND OWNER OF DISABILITY AWARENESS CONSULTANTS, HOLDS DEGREES IN SOCIAL WORK, CRIMINOLOGY, AND HUMAN RESOURCES. SHE IS A FORMER PRISON GUARD AND SOCIAL WORKER, AND HAS 15 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AS A HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER. SINCE 1995, SHE HAS BEEN DELIVERING DISABILITY AWARENESS TRAINING, CONSULTATION, AND SITE AUDITS FOR CLIENTS WHO SEEK TO CREATE ACCESSIBLE ENVIRONMENTS. SHE WAS ON THE PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE FOR THE EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS OF THE ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, AND HAS WRITTEN MANY TRAINING MANUALS FOR THE PROVINCE. PHILIP SHEPHERD IS RECOGNIZED AS AN INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITY ON EMBODIMENT. HE TRAVELS THE WORLD TEACHING THE EMBODIED PRESENT PROCESS™ (TEPP), A UNIQUE SET OF PRACTICES HE DEVELOPED FOR GETTING US OUT OF OUR HEADS AND RECONNECTED WITH THE PROFOUND INTELLIGENCE OF THE BODY. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF TWO BOOKS: NEW SELF, NEW WORLD: RECOVERING OUR SENSES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, AND THE RECENTLY PUBLISHED RADICAL WHOLENESS: THE EMBODIED PRESENT AND THE ORDINARY GRACE OF BEING. AMY TESSLER HOLDS A BACHELOR OF EDUCATION FROM MCGILL UNIVERSITY AND HAS COMPLETED A MASTERS-LEVEL POST-GRADUATE PROGRAM IN INTEGRATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY AT THE LIVING INSTITUTE. AMY IS ALSO TRAINED IN ADVANCED EMDR THERAPY AS WELL AS STRUCTURAL DISSOCIATION THERAPY. SHE IS FASCINATED BY TRAUMA’S EFFECT ON THE BRAIN AND BODY AND HOW YOUNG RELATIONAL WOUNDS INFORM OUR CURRENT RELATIONSHIPS. AMY IS DEVOTED TO THE HEALING PROCESS AND USES SOMATIC AND RELATIONAL MODALITIES TO HELP CLIENTS RENEW THEIR SENSE OF INNER TRUST WHILE NURTURING GROWTH OF ALL KINDS.

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Svetlana Lavrentieva

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Building forts,part of Neighbourhood Nature Play at Gzowski Park,Kitchener: a new approach to park design with Evergreen in partnership with the City of Kitchener and the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation

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Courtesy of Evergreen

Round Table

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Lauri Sue Robertson (LSR): I’m fine. [Gesturing] That’s sign language for fine, by the way, or happy. Heidi Campbell (HC): I’m feeling energized, but a little nervous. Eric Klaver (EK): I’m feeling content, and intrigued about what’s going on. Andrew Levitt (AL): I’m happy to be here with all of you, and I’m looking forward to this evening. RE: I’ll start with a definition of somatics: relating to the body as a source of information and wisdom. Somatics suggests a more holistic view of being, with the head and body in a reciprocal relationship. In my late 50s, I started practising something called ecstatic and contact improv dance (which Amy also does). It’s a form of somatics. I was glued to the wall for the first few months because I was so afraid, and a lot of stuff surfaced for me, like being racialized when I was younger. I realized how traumatized I was. I felt very vulnerable, but I also felt joy in my body, and I couldn’t understand that, so I started researching, and learned about somatics.

Real Eguchi (RE): Let’s start somatically, eyes closed, holding each other’s hands, focusing on the breath…now, saying two words about how we feel, along with a gesture that relates to how we’re feeling. I’m excited and I’m nervous. Amy Tessler (AT): I’m feeling excited and curious. 06 05/

Loose parts play at Earth Day Canada’s Earth Play event in Trinity Bellwoods Park,Toronto,on Earth Day,2018

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Real Eguchi

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Ecstatic dance workshop at the 11th Women’s Worlds Congress

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Courtesy of Women’s Worlds

Philip Shepherd (PS): I’m feeling fairly present, and appetent for what is to come. Terence Radford (TR): I’m feeling pretty anxious, which I always feel after driving on Highway 401. Svetlana Lavrentieva (SL): I’m feeling at peace.

For me, it all comes down to accepting myself and my body. I want to consciously integrate my somatic awareness into my work, which I have not really done yet, though I’ve written about mindful design. I think that many people carry trauma, or emotional injury, and I’m wondering how that influences how we design landscapes, and how we live in them. To get at these questions, I’d like to pretend that we are the somatic focus group on a larger design team, and we’re going to design something—say, a park. Our goal is to create a landscape that promotes emotional and physical wellbeing and growth for individuals, and health of communities, nature, and the environment. This is a huge undertaking! I believe that in our profession we pick and choose what we want to focus on, and what we

Round Table

ignore. Vulnerable communities, and other species, are often left out, though this is improving. I think that somatics can inform how we embrace people and species who are different from ourselves and different from the mainstream. How do we design lived-in landscapes that somatically support people in their growth and healing? PS: I’d like to add to your definition. Our view of somatics tends to be defined by the border that we hold around the body, so it becomes introspective. You can pay attention to what is happening in the body, or you can attune to the body’s understanding of what is happening in the world. They’re very different things. Somatics in practice, to me, is more about the body’s attunement to the world. You watch kids running around, and none of them is thinking, “What am I feeling?” Instead, it’s like the world is calling to them to come and play, and engage, and they’re at an age in which they haven’t been inculcated in selfconsciousness, they’re still at an age of world consciousness. I think somatics, at its base, is an engagement with the body’s intelligence in such a way that it opens us to the world, not in an enclosed way of introspection of the self that feels like it’s held separate from the world within a boundary. AL: The product is less important than the process, and so maybe the question for landscape architects is: how could the training of a landscape architect change so that instead of prescribing outcomes, the focus is on supporting instinctual creativity, aliveness, etc.? SL: When I go on a site visit, I’m not just there to take photos and measure the grades. I want to experience the space through physical movement in addition to visual sensations. As designers, we need to look at how the body moves through spaces. What kind of shapes are being

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created and what kind of forms start to evolve? I’m trying to get away from the twodimensional precedent imagery that we’re constantly being bombarded with, and I try to get inspired by the surroundings. AT: For me, somatics is about how I can use my body to discern what I’m perceiving in the world, and to understand that information and to process it through my body’s intelligent filters, which guide my choices and allow me to recognize that I have choices. It widens our limitations beyond cognitive thinking for decisionmaking. Therein, the question becomes, what are the sensations in my body allowing me to make of my experience in the world in this moment, and how can I use that information to make choices, or to understand my agency? RE: Gabor Maté posits that from childhood we all are somewhat traumatized, that we live in an addictive culture. If we’re not whole, it allows other people to control us. It’s the notion of control from the outside that I’m interested in. PS: In our Western culture, we’re used to being in our heads, and taking charge of the body, taking charge of our lives, and it creates a duality within us whereby we seek that same top-down control from others, whether that’s politicians, or celebrities, or whatever. I’m wary of language that reinforces this division. It’s such an easy thing to talk about, wanting to use the body. You can’t set that up without imputing a division. If you are using the body, there is a separation. I think our primary relationship is our relationship to the body. That’s the template for all other relationships, and if we divide, and compartmentalize, and fear a lack of control, that’s how we relate to bodies. What we create becomes bordered, and compartmentalized, and controlled. Our boundary around the self as we experience it, holds us separate from nature, holds us separate from nature’s intelligence, such that we have to choose to notice it, which is so different from feeling it as a seamless part of who we are.

AL: When we’re talking about the body, we’re doing something odd, because the body doesn’t have words. We’re thinking of something and ascribing it to the body, so what does the body have? Is it pleasurable, or is it not pleasurable? Sure, we have to give words to emotions, but there’s a level that the body operates on that’s instinctive. The wisdom of the body results from millions of years of our organs being developed. I’m not thinking about secretions from my kidneys right now. I trust my kidneys to be doing all they need to do. There’s an intelligence on that level, but there’s also a quality of animation, and aliveness, an instinctual language the body responds to, that we’re often in exile from. And I think our education sends us there. PS: The primary wound in our culture is the division of our thinking from our being. We have been taught in school that we can think more clearly if we shut down the body’s energy, and suppress it, and fill our heads with information and concentrate on that. What my work addresses is bringing our thinking, and our being, back together. When that happens, you feel every thought, and every sensation is recognized as a form of thought. LSR: That separation of mind and body goes much further back than schooling. Think about your earliest years, sitting someplace with your parents and them saying, “Don’t fidget.” We’re taught from our earliest years to separate what we’re thinking from what we’re feeling, and how we act. We spend our whole lives separating our minds from our bodies. AT: In talking about landscape architecture, and setting up structures, how can we invite people back into feeling safe with their impulses, so we’re not just organizing our structures around protecting ourselves from injury? RE: It seems safe to say, then, that we seek too much control with our minds because we are fragmented.

Round Table

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encouraged by the user-centric behaviourmapping that’s coming into design language, but we’ve got a long way to go in hearing children’s voices in landscape. That being said, I think landscape architects are well positioned to make an impact, along with urban planners, urban designers, and architects. What we need to do is to open up space for children to be the architects of their places, and step back, get out of the way. Messiness is something that our culture doesn’t seem able to reconcile. RE: What happened to adventure playgrounds?

AL: We couldn’t exist without the capacity to think, so thinking is not the problem. It’s not helpful to demonize a particular part of ourselves. But we can acknowledge that perhaps we overvalue thinking. You can see that in education. Everyone has their own way of being present, whether that’s coming from somatic experience, or not. Human beings are really complex, and we’re just at the beginning of investigating what a human being is. PS: There are a lot of ways of not being present, as well.

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Children balancing on a log at the Children’s Garden Play Lab,Evergreen Brick Works,Toronto

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Evergreen

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The simplest—and messiest—materials are often those most utilized by children in play spaces.

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Real Eguchi

RE: The question is, then, how do we design landscapes that accommodate the range and complexity of how we are as humans? And I think it’s important to remember one definition of natural play as being freely chosen, self-directed, and intrinsically motivated. HC: When I work with very young children, I find they have impulses that are being restricted in their environments—school is one, but the homescape is another. In this era of risk-averse parenting, children don’t seem to have the space and time for their own creativity, their own body impulses, their own responses. We make a lot of assumptions about what they need. I’m

HC: Adventure playgrounds have seen most of their success in the U.K. But in North America, everything is built with a heavy dose of risk management and litigation at the forefront. What is great about adventure play spaces is that they are filled with loose materials—including wood, recycled tires, rope, and tools— and playworkers (trained play experts) give children the space to take risks and explore their imagination. The “loose parts play” movement is on the rise, which means that, in a very cultured landscape, children can play with different materials and try to shape their environments a little bit. The social aspect of that is amazing. Some teachers in Ottawa opened up space in their schoolground for free play with loose parts, and what they found was that children who had been on the margins socially were engaging in the space, and coming to them, and wanting to be part of this daily. Other teachers were noticing that their students who wouldn’t speak in class were speaking outdoors in the natural environment, and were expressive verbally. They were also moving their bodies differently. On a school landscape, so many things are prescribed, and it’s so based on surveillance, and being able to see everywhere. Children don’t have anywhere to let their hair down, so to speak, and play together in interesting ways.

Round Table

EK: When we do public consultations, there is a tendency to catastrophize things. People immediately go to what kind of disaster, what kind of terrible things can happen to children in this environment, rather than, “What can they actually be doing in this environment?”

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Loose parts play

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Courtesy of Real Eguchi

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LSR: It’s important that any play area should have multiple facets. Some children like to be in a more enclosed space, others in a wide-open space. Some children might like to play in big groups, and other kids can really only cope with one or two other people at a time. So, you need a combination of environments. Whether the kids are disabled or not is not the issue, but just what each individual kid is bringing to the party. We all bring our own histories to our interactions. I had a really violent dad, so I wouldn’t play with other kids who were really vigorous, because in my experience, that was a prelude to getting hit. You have to have different sorts of environments for each child to come out and say, “Okay, I feel safe in this particular spot. I’m comfortable here to play.” AL: As more people speak about their experiences, and more people process their experiences, we’re going to have an awareness that changes what design is. There are introverts and extroverts, there are people who will wake up wounded, there are people who will go to bed wounded. Our whole notion of the individual is changing, and with that is a design shift, especially around the idea of user experience, which now might incorporate psychological input. SL: There are a series of spaces in Toronto, called Wave Decks. The structures are definitely playful, though it’s not a playground. You often see people of different ages and mobilities running or walking up and down the decks, even skipping up the steps. As designers, we can start thinking about how to incorporate elements that allow not only children but also adults to play in spaces that are “designated” as play, but that are on our daily routes. These elements do not have

to be complicated. But they do have to invite people to play, to feel safe, and to open up both bodies and minds. AL: On an urban level, we’re so organized around getting through the city that we’re not really thinking about just being in the city. I think designers need to get more inspired around that kind of place in which people can live more fully. I think that quality of a space where one can play very simply has lasting benefits. EK: Here’s a funny example about play. With the King Street Pilot Project in Toronto, some of the restaurateurs were protesting by playing a hockey game in front of a restaurant, as if it were some sort of satire. I thought, that’s poor satire, because it’s actually really great that you could play hockey on King Street! RE: I’d like to talk about risk in play environments, and in landscapes in general. HC: In 2016, a position statement on active outdoor play was spearheaded by CHEO (the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario) and endorsed by a diverse, crosssectoral group of partners, stakeholders, and researchers, including the B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit. It basically says that if we don’t allow children to take risks, we are at risk of even more catastrophic injuries: “Access to active play in nature, and outdoors, with its risks, is essential for healthy child development. We recommend increasing children’s opportunities for self-directed play outdoors, in all settings: at home, at school, in childcare, the community, and nature.” This has really opened the door for a lot of different conversations at the institutional level, provincial level, for inspectors, childcare centres, and educators. As a society, we need to recognize the difference between danger and risk. And we need to value long-term health and fun as much as we value safety. Experiential education, and more time for free play in nature, is really in view now.

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LSR: There’s a wonderful playground right near my house, and it’s got a rubberized ground surface, so I can go on it in my wheelchair. I can go up to the swings, the seesaw, and whatever, and if I were there with a little kid, or if I were a little kid, I could play in this playground. Wheelchairs don’t roll on wood chips. We also sink right into gravel, sand, and dirt. The rubberized surface is so great, because if you fall on it, you don’t break anything, and the chair will roll on it, so it’s firm, but it’s soft—it’s terrific. Anybody could play on it. RE: When you face physical challenges in the landscape, how does that affect you emotionally? LSR: It makes me furious. When I got here tonight, for example, the building had an atrocious ramp, it had to be at an angle of about 45 degrees. I couldn’t possibly have done it alone, and I’d have been furious if somebody had expected me to. If I go to a park, and the walkway is made from logs—accordion logs—it’s very nice and rural and everything, but I can’t use it. 10 10/

A sense of independence requires inclusive accessibility:this was not possible for Lauri Sue Robertson to access the building to participate in the Round Table discussion on somatics; assistance was required for safe access.

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Courtesy of Real Eguchi

AL: It’s incredible that society is in the hands of adults, yet there are so many people who are victims, or are not served. Sometimes I think we need a kind of mass apology, so we can start again, and say, “I’m sorry. We made significant errors in our assumptions, let’s start again.” SL: We’ve talked a lot about risk management today. When I sit down to design, that’s not the first thing I think about. It’s one of the things, but it’s not what inspires me. TR: Especially in school playgrounds, we as designers can get caught up in trying to fix problems, address issues, and create something stable—something that’s risk averse, or accessible, or easily maintained, and on budget—but there isn’t necessarily a real focus on the process. Working with Indigenous communities, their interaction with landscape is very different. They have a very different viewpoint on it. There’s a respect for the environment, and the ecology that’s there, and an understanding of how that develops, and how to engage with it.

I grew up in a rural environment, and I’ve been living in the city for quite some time now. I view the city environment as a dead space. Our buildings, our walls, our materials, are all meant to deter life so that the building can be stable and last a long time. It’s as if we want to create something that is not living, because if it’s not living, it’s stable. We design our cities so that they’re stable and they’re not going to change. We have a real aversion to letting ecology, or letting natural processes, shift that. PS: I remember, as a kid, finding an ant crawling on my finger, and I’m feeling it, and I’m discovering the world, because a child innately understands nature as its most intimate teacher. In the adult world, nature is a form of decoration. LSR: Our society tries to push us into little boxes. People are still, in many cases, designing for the greatest possible number of people. Seventeen percent of the population has at least one disability, and if you include our friends, and our families who go places with us, you’re looking at about 50 percent of the population that’s impacted, at some point, by living with people who have disabilities. So, to say that such and such a landscape or landscape feature doesn’t need to be inclusive, or it doesn’t need to be an environment where Indigenous people would be comfortable, or it doesn’t need to be an environment where women feel safe to walk, or it doesn’t need to be an environment where people with disabilities can function, you’re ignoring large percentages of society. Everybody’s trying to design for the middle-class, white male. TR: I don’t want to speak for all Indigenous communities. We’re each different. But in designing with Indigenous communities, there are differences in the symbolism that’s used, and the way that plants are treated. Probably the biggest difference is with the programming—how the site is used by the community. The design is almost secondary to how the community chooses to engage with it, and how they’re going to activate it, and how, through their own process of being,

Round Table

they’re going to change the meaning of that site through their relationship with it. We can design to facilitate this as much as possible, but in the end, the community takes ownership of it, and the design grows through a natural process. AT: I like that you’re speaking about a way of being with the environment, and I’m curious about how we can change the relationship between being and the living city. How, for example, can we be comfortable with what we’re feeling, with all the flashy stimulation of the city? How do we learn to recognize our own needs: when we need to rest, where we can rest in the city, when we want to play, etc.? How can we listen to our rhythms again? RE: Perhaps we’re talking about fear of uncertainty, fear of nature, fear of others, fear of risk, and the need for play. Play allows us to negotiate those things, and the earlier it happens, the better. PS: We have a cultural commitment to safety, but we confuse safety and security. There’s a belief that you can make yourself safe. The reality is, if you’re alive, you’re not safe. There is a security of being—whatever circumstance you find yourself in, you can return to that security of being—but it requires a permeability to the world. It requires a felt relationship. There is no security outside of relationship. Safety comes out of relationship, and security opens you to relationship, so you feel held by the present, held by the natural world. You discover yourself through that relationship. Grasping for safety is a huge cultural thing that is fear-based, and it’s almost oblivious of the embodied somatic place of rest, which brings you back to the security of your being. I like Donald Winnicott’s observation that play is the one activity where the whole of the personality is invited to be present. AT: From my understanding of trauma, in our limbic system we’re really caught up

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in re-living past events, and our bodies are anticipating danger. It’s really difficult to integrate and recognize the present. While we’re never actually safe in that kind of way, we also can’t get aligned with our security-based mechanisms and with the parts of us that can feel grounded here, or with the parts of us that can feel like I have an ally, or I have support, or I can make a boundary if I need to. If we don’t know within ourselves that we have this agency, then it’s challenging to be present in a way that we can see the world through the eyes of option, through the eyes of engagement.

AT: Leaving safety aside, I think we’ve become afraid of failure, afraid of making mistakes. But when you’re learning anything, you’ve been making mistakes. What environments are going to allow us to feel comfortable learning?

RE: Should we design landscapes that provide for that safety or security of being, but at the same time, allow for risk-taking? Maybe the landscape can be a safe container for somatic-based, cognitive behavioural therapy.

RE: We didn’t get around to discussing the design of a park—the physical elements and qualities of landscapes—that I proposed at the beginning, but from a somatic perspective, as a summary: if a community planted an orchard in a park, it’s nourishing to the body, there is potential for community education and engagement in the planting, maintenance, and harvesting, there’s a risk that it’s not going to grow well, there is the uncertainty each year of what fruit can be harvested, there is the challenge that unwanted wildlife will come to the park, there is the likelihood that the fruit is not going to be as perfect as what you’d get in the grocery store… Maybe this is a good example of all the things we’ve been talking about tonight.

TR: Maybe it’s less a question of the design, and more about how we can add layers to make a space more complex. Instead of just being a space I walk through, this is also a place I sit, this is a space where I eat berries off of bushes, this is a space where I can lean against a tree, this is a space where I can take a nap. How can a path be more than just a path? PS: There’s a real tendency to design landscapes that communicate to the user what your relationship with that landscape is. The challenge is to design a landscape that doesn’t define that, that is open to curiosity, and inquiry, and play. SL: As design professionals, how do we use our imaginations to design so that everyday experiences can become different? To make it an adventure every day, or maybe a risky adventure… AL: Risk is such a legal term. What’s left behind is adventure. People move quite naturally into environments that are interesting, yet we end up talking about risk. The issue is: getting people to be alive, enjoying an adventure.

SL: We can plan everything to be safe and protected. We can sit around the table and draw everything to meet the latest standards and to minimize risks. We take risks every day by crossing the street, by riding bikes, by walking on sidewalks. We should embrace risk, and, hopefully, great experiences will happen.

AT: It shows us, too, all the cycles of life, that we can be okay with things coming to life, and dying, and everything in between. TO VIEW ADDITIONAL CONTENT RELATED TO THIS GROUND ARTICLE, VISIT WWW.GROUNDMAG.CA.

Parcon in the Park

TEXT BY ANDREW SUSENO AND KIMBERLY TATE

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New York is a city of cubicles and micro-units, and its urban, hardscaped parks absorb the spill-out of our private moments. We come outside to be with ourselves and in the company of others, but anonymously, to recover from the stress of our lives. A life of constant sitting causes us to walk in a terse manner, tailbones tucked under, hips locked, gait and breath restrained. We survey the plaza for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;best spot,â&#x20AC;? unaware that the way we look has been influenced by what we do most. On our break, we are filled with anxiety and stress, still thinking about all the things we must do later today, unaware that our thinking is likewise influenced by what our bodies do most. We find a bench, hurry to sit, and bury our heads in our phones.

I lean forward, nudging my head into her shoulder. She speaks through our contact point. She wants to get up. She angles her shoulder surface and I roll off to her side, finding myself standing in front of her, hands on the bench. Her hands reach across to my ribs. Then she stands and walks, using my body like a moving tabletop. I am sensitive to the collapsing together and the recovering of her legs with each shift of weight toward the side of the bench where she can reach the back. Our relationship is symbiotic, a bridge to new perspectives and physical experiences for both of us. Through the pressure of her forearms on my back, I am intimately aware of her stepping and gazing at the expanse of the great lawn.

In Bryant Park, I sit on a bench near a friend in a motorized wheelchair. She cannot access the expansive green lawn, the benches, or the stairs to the public library. People walk by her, not considering their own able-bodied access; in fact, some look at her with disdain as if she were in the way.

We are doing Parcon, a boldly relational movement form inspired by Parkour (an urban obstacle-course sport) and contact improvisation (an improvisation duet dance that uses any part of the body to communicate through touch, weight-sharing, and momentum-play with another person). Parcon makes our dance into a trio inviting exploration of the environment with any part of the body while in contact with each other.

Can the design of our landscapes partner with us to expand perspectives and be a bridge to new experiences? Can it dynamically respond to our changing needs? Designing the built environment is an act of choreography. Design blocks the scenes and sequences of spatial experiences. It sets permissible areas of access, pathways through, and moments of stillness on a site. Design positions bodies according to the size, orientation, and shapes of accommodating fixtures. It facilitates interactions between users (human and non-human) embedded with cultural values and social norms. Designers are agents for the built environment to partner with its users in a dance of being alive! At the interface of built environment and inhabitant emerges conditions of transformational possibilities. A slight variation in shape of the standard park bench can invite the office worker on lunch to step sideways out of the everyday orthogonal, and instead lean, twist, squat, and peer into a beautifully confounding alternate reality of the spiraling tree canopy that has always been there, just above eye level. An undulating variation of

Parcon in the Park

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surface texture may invite us to linger just a bit longer and stretch open to inhale. A city park could offer more than just another seat. In partnership with a playful park bench, the visitor can reconnect to movement, sensation, and emotion. Design can guide attention to direct experience with all that is special in the moment, and the process of design can open up when designers involve their whole embodied selves. Designers must know themselves as moving beings amongst others in context. Somatic practices such as Parcon can be generative in the design process by helping us to get in touch, literally, with the world around us and directly experience transformative shifts in attention. Parcon gives a direct experience to movers of how the human body engages with a space through the body’s structure, balance, and strength, and how the space choreographs our movement and perceptions. Parcon expands embodied intelligence. Exploring beyond boundaries set by status quo and habit not only reorganizes our physicality but also the very act of perception and thought. Parcon nurtures physical and creative agility by inviting us to explore around, over, and through a structure, concept, or obstacle. Inclines, levels, slopes, curves, and angles change in the experience of two people negotiating a space together. The ability to engage with another person allows for us to both literally and figuratively roll into the unknown. Practising this roll into mystery together can expand our capacity to trust the unfolding moment and our confidence in being seen. It can extend our threshold of risk, nurturing intuition and deepening wisdom.

Parcon is radically inclusive, proactively building curriculum and presence with marginalized communities, especially in oppressive spaces. “Parcon Resilience” is a particular approach to practising Parcon that integrates reflection and social justice. Through contact, Parcon allows us to empathize and support one another to explore environments in ways that defy the laws that gravity and society set on our bodies. Seeing and joining others in their struggle, investigating multiple viewpoints, we can move beyond systems of control we may be complicit in perpetuating, and then we can re-pattern design to support social justice and fullness of being. She finds her way to a standing tabletop position with her hands on the back of the bench, and I am floating—stomach on her shoulder with my hands touching the back of the bench to titrate my load. We shift back and forth together, leisurely looking at people passing at eye level. We are both feeling joyful and excited, taking in the expanse of the park around us and the stairs, which no longer seem like an obstacle.

BIOS/ ANDREW SUSENO IS A DOCTOR OF PHYSICAL THERAPY, A SOMATIC MOVEMENT EDUCATOR, AND AN ARTIST. HE IS THE CREATOR OF PARCON RESILIENCE, AN APPROACH TO PARCON DEDICATED TO EMPOWERING MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES AND DEVELOPING COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS-BUILDING. KIMBERLY TATE IS AN ARTIST, ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER, URBAN EXPERIMENTAL DANCER, AND EDUCATOR AT PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND THE AIANY CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE. BUILDER OF SITE-SPECIFIC EXPERIMENTAL DANCE LABYRINTHS, DANCITECTURE, SHE INVITES MOVERS OF ALL FORMS TO RE-PATTERN THEIR EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE OF SPACE.

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A stroll in Nelson Rockefeller Park transforms into a dance trio of two connected bodies dancing with the landscape.

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Andrew Suseno

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At the interface of built environment and inhabitant emerges conditions for transformational possibilities.

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Andrew Suseno

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The practice of Parcon,a bold relational and inclusive movement form,draws inspiration from people of all abilities and also the qualities of the landscape.

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Annie Gottlieb

TO VIEW ADDITIONAL CONTENT RELATED TO THIS GROUND ARTICLE, VISIT WWW.GROUNDMAG.CA.

Felt Sense

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Ken Otter and Real Eguchi, OALA, in conversation about somatic intelligence and the living landscape

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RE: I happened to discover through my somatic practice that the postmodern dancer Anna Halprin has been a pioneer in somatic art and therapy. Her late husband, Lawrence Halprin, was a major figure in landscape architecture. You were friends with both, worked with Lawrence, and still work with the Tamalpa Institute, which Anna co-founded with her daughter. Can you share how you have been influenced by the Halprins and how they brought somatics and design together?

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REAL EGUCHI, OALA, IS A PRINCIPAL OF EGUCHI ASSOCIATES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS/ BREAL ART + DESIGN. HIS KEY CURRENT INTERESTS INCLUDE “SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY,” AN AESTHETIC THAT DERIVES FROM THE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE SENSIBILITY OF WABI-SABI AND THE AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE OF AWE IN RELATIONSHIP TO NATURAL PROCESS. THROUGH HIS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE/ART/SOMATICBASED PRACTICE, REAL EXPLORES LOSS, GRIEF, AND CONNECTION, AND IS INSPIRED BY THE MULTIPLICITY OF WHOLE RELATIONSHIPS THAT NON-PRESCRIPTIVE, PROXIMATE LANDSCAPES CAN PROMOTE. KEN OTTER, M.A., PH.D., DESIGNS AND FACILITATES INNOVATIVE AND TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES FOR PEOPLE—INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY—WHO WANT TO USE THEIR ROLE AND WORK TO CATALYZE MEANINGFUL SYSTEMS CHANGE IN THEIR WORLD. HE CURRENTLY WORKS AS THE CO-DIRECTOR OF THE LEADERSHIP CENTER AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN LEADERSHIP AT SAINT MARY’S COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA. HE IS ALSO A CORE FACULTY MEMBER AT THE TAMALPA INSTITUTE IN THE U.S.

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Oceanside somatic workshop helping participants tune into their felt sense of the environment

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Ken Otter

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One of many experimental dance workshops focused on community building and healing,led by somatics pioneer Anna Halprin,who co-founded the Tamalpa Institute

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Ken Otter

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Postmodern dancer Anna Halprin,the spouse of the late landscape architect Lawrence Halprin.Their collaborations significantly influenced each other’s work.

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Ken Otter

KO: It was during my time as a participant in events with Larry Halprin that I first got introduced to the power of somatic awareness and knowing for environmental design. I recall in my first workshop with Larry, in 1981, we were instructed to walk around the town in which he lived, and to note our felt responses when we did our walk. In our discussion, he then made the connections to what we were feeling by identifying the features of the built and natural environment and why these produced these feelings. Tuning into the felt sense of the environment—both physical and social—has been a part of my work ever since. RE: Landscape architecture is increasingly embracing community facilitation processes that Halprin was famous for. How might this relate to somatics?

Real Eguchi (RE): Somatics is blossoming in the worlds of arts, science, and therapy because it is a critical pathway for knowing, creating, and healing but also a means of augmenting other forms of intelligence, such as reasoning and imagining. There is widespread research in fields such as somatic psychology that demonstrates the benefits of a more holistic view of who we are. Embodied cognition is a related term. Ken, how do you define somatics? Ken Otter (KO): Somatic awareness is the physical, felt dimension of experience made conscious. It is the tingling sensation in my chest and the short gasp of breath that signal feelings of delight when I arrive at the top of a hill and look out over fields of lavender and sunflowers in the late afternoon Tuscan summer sunshine. It is the constriction I sense in my breath and the hurried pace of my walk that signal feelings of uncertainty and foreboding as I travel through the dark, narrow passageways in the medieval Tuscan village nearby.

KO: The facilitation of participatory design processes was one of Larry’s fortes. As a pioneer in “design thinking,” he created the RSVP Cycles and the Take Part Process as a way for participants to generate inputs into the designs of the places people live, work, or recreate. I attended several workshops with Larry over the years, including at Sea Ranch. In them he would guide participants in activities intended to make explicit the effect the environment had on a somatic and affective level. To Larry, this was important information to account for in designing environments. RE: For the sake of our discussion, let’s assume that the overriding goal of landscape architecture is to promote the health of individuals, communities, and all other living species. I think low-impact design and habitat restoration are a few good examples. How might we envision the importance of somatics to landscape architects and landscape design?

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RE: Neurobiology has increasingly been confirming what you’ve noted. Recognizing that nature and natural processes played key roles in both Lawrence and Anna Halprin’s work, I am interested in that critical link between body as nature and body in nature. KO: One of my favourite pieces of writing from Larry Halprin is an unpublished manuscript entitled The Art of the Environment. In it, he writes that designed landscapes are “mirror images of ourselves…[they] express what we think of ourselves, how we view our values in life, and what we want to be.” For the most part, design reflects personal and cultural values. Disassociation from our kinship with wild earth results in prioritizing other values such as status, mastery, control, and efficiency in design, which in turn reinforces this disassociation. On this point, Halprin goes on to say, “we respond to nature because we ourselves are part of its making. We are biologically part of its creation and therefore we empathize with the order and interrelationships of it.”

KO: That landscapes and dwellings evoke our felt sense and colour our experiences is well recognized. Yet among landscape architects and designers, I wonder to what degree the felt sense, or somatic awareness, of those who live, work, and recreate in designed landscapes and dwellings is considered as a conscious part of the design process? It would not take much to incorporate somatic awareness into the design process so our designed environments can be more enriching. I think of this awareness and facility with it as somatic intelligence. The positive and healthful effects of naturally occurring wild environments is a well-recognized fact. Several scientific studies have demonstrated that even small exposure to bodies of water, open meadows, trees, parks, and a starstudded sky produces effects correlated with positive emotions and health. Many studies also show the debilitating effects on people’s health, moods, and thinking of built environments without access to other-thanhuman life forms.

In this way, our belonging to wild nature informs our biological, physiological, and emotional responses to our environment. It stands to reason, then, that attention to the vitalizing effects and felt experiences of people in designed places are as important as all other factors. Again, according to Halprin, natural processes “form the basic source of our aesthetic sensibilities. They are the grammar of our aesthetic language, the ultimate source to which we can refer in our search for a landscape art...” For Halprin,

landscape design is not about imitating the outward forms of nature but rather its natural processes. On this topic, he writes, “I try to capture the essence of my own empathy with nature and evoke in others the impact that form, composition, and character in nature have had upon me.” He goes beyond linking landscape design to empathy with nature to also include how environments “choreograph” human movement in the environment. RE: I am interested in the notion of dissociation that you mention, but in terms of being disconnected from both nature and self. I believe that most of us live with developmental trauma or emotional injury, perhaps somewhere along a nonclinical complex PTSD spectrum, and that we need landscapes as safe, therapeutic containers in which we co-exist with natural processes. Somatic, therapeutic landscapes would help us develop equanimity, creativity, and emotional resilience. KO: What somatics can offer us in the way of healing is the ability to attend to felt dimensions of our current reality. What it feels like to step outside, to come inside. To be in a home that feels secure and to be in landscapes that feel enriching. Landscape architects can use this somatic awareness as a tool. Otherwise, design becomes selfreferential. Designers will just design from

One way of understanding why naturally occurring environments have vitalizing and healthy effects in people is the fact that for all but a sliver of time, humans have been immersed in and co-evolved with this wild natural environment. Thus, our health and wellbeing are inextricably tied to participation in this living world—to have ready access to fresh air, clean water, and oxygen-producing trees. I think this co-evolutionary journey also informs aesthetics. Larry Halprin believed that our sense of what is aesthetically appealing reflects the forms and patterns in nature with which we co-evolved.

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Practising somatic movement in a park in Suzhou,China,with spaces designed to encourage many individual and group somatic activities simultaneously

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Real Eguchi

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A complex array of materials and elements that are composed harmoniously encourages curiosity and an openness to varied sensations.

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Real Eguchi

Felt Sense

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support us and facilitate us in living with less certainty, increased connection, greater compassion, and in our grieving. I believe this all relates to health.

certain habits and patterns, not attuned to nature and not attuned to felt experiences of a particular place. This further dissociates us from our bodies and from nature, and perpetuates the stress and trauma of our lives. RE: I think that many of the lived-in landscapes we inhabit are an expression of our culture that keeps us emotionally injured or, at the least, manifests (is a symptom of) our trauma. An example might be a “conceptual,” public plaza that references abstract expressionism or minimalism. Conceptual= abstract=of the head! KO: As embodied beings, our somatic sense opens us up to what it means to be human and thus to the natural beauty and the natural processes of life. I would argue this is healthy but, as you suggest, we are too traumatized to recognize this, and the design of our cities doesn’t support our innate needs, our wellbeing, or how we feel. Related to this, we increasingly don’t want to feel our own mortality and thus gravitate to the need for more and more control. RE: I’d love to end with how lived-in landscapes and design process can somatically

KO: In designing a walk through the city, we need to pay attention to the same empathies as on a walk in nature. I think we can design how they are modulated and how the kinesthetic qualities are evoked. For Halprin, a primary component of the design process is empathy with the environment, and a felt sense of what brings about what is vitalizing, renewing, and aesthetically evocative. This capacity is what we find through somatic intelligence—that is, somatic awareness and facility with it. With more somatic intelligence as part of the design process, landscape architecture can be part of the vanguard for creating engaging, evocative, life-affirming, nourishing places that delight the senses for people where they dwell, reflecting the geography and the values and aspirations of people and places. This would go a long way towards helping better connect people and place, and people with their bodies, which in turn can restore our natural inclinations to create more health and wholeness in our world. In so doing, we would also open up to the enormous feelings of loss and grief present to what we have done to the world and ourselves. I recall something Joseph Campbell said in a lecture I attended decades ago. Human beings have had two responses to the awareness of our mortality, which have been reflected in the different ways we organize collectively. One is to seek mastery over

the changing, uncertain, and impermanent world, and the other is to participate in it. We killed off the latter and are desperately trying to fortify the former—to our peril. According to ecophilosopher Joanna Macy, the good news about opening our hearts to our grief and loss is that, in doing so, we open our hearts to beauty and connection and love, as well. And this love and connection is a source of power and wisdom, which can help us heal—reconnect body, mind, and heart, and the fictional human/ nature divide, which in turn can renew our covenant with the living world. And I think designers of our environments can play an important role in helping us do this.

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Somatic workshop with two participants sharing their sensory experience in collaboration with nature embodied by a tree

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Ken Otter

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Ken Otter at Sea Ranch,California

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Real Eguchi

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An organic-shaped shopping mall, with eight levels of roof gardens,knitted into the urban fabric of Osaka,Japan, inspires our awareness that our bodies are an integral part of nature.

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Real Eguchi

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Non-prescriptive forms of play encourage the complete integration of mind and body while promoting a felt dimension.

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Real Eguchi

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Adult play in the Allan Gardens playground,in Toronto,conceptually designed by Eguchi Associates. Play that is freely chosen,self-directed, and intrinsically motivated in relationship to the landscape,is a form of somatics that is critical in developing embodied intelligence.

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Real Eguchi

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COORDINATED BY REAL EGUCHI, OALA, AND LORRAINE JOHNSON

From Alex Waffle, MLA At Earthscape, where I’m a playground designer, we’re trying to disrupt this notion of playgrounds as being only for children and, instead, we’re designing spaces that support the mental and physical health of the entire family. The playscape at Confederation Park in Calgary is an example in which the lines between playground and landscape are blurred. Paths, seating, a “Little Library,” and planting were integral design features that encourage parents to come into the space with their children. Informal seating, log edging, a water pump in a sand pit, and natural topography all offer play opportunities beyond the play equipment. Stepping stones and log benches encourage exploration through a grove of nearby conifers. 01

For this issue, Ground sent out a request asking OALA members to respond to the following questions: _1. What somatic-based health practices do you engage in on a regular basis that help you to embrace emotional challenges and/or explore and accept the limitations of your body?

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Confederation Park,Calgary

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Courtesy of Earthscape

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Aerial view,photographed using a drone,of Confederation Park,Calgary

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Courtesy of Wilco Contractors

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Confederation Park,Calgary

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Courtesy of Earthscape

_2. What landscapes do you experience on a regular basis in your community that you find somatically engaging? What qualities of those landscapes do you find nourishing and what aspects evoke uncertainty/uneasiness and promote emotional resilience? _3. In that landscape architects design playgrounds to promote the social, intellectual, physical, and emotional growth and overall wellbeing of children, how are you similarly designing other landscapes (perhaps with a body-centred approach) to support the health of children, adults, and other species? Many thanks to all those who contributed.

We need playgrounds that offer discovery and challenge for toddlers, kids, teens, and adults—playscapes that are challenging, engaging, unique, and natural so you can climb really high or balance on uneven terrain. When you design playgrounds that are interesting and wondrous, the mind and body are inspired to explore. Using natural materials provides a warmth and texture that is grounding.

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From Barbara Eguchi, OALA I am a landscape watercolourist and I prefer to paint en plein air (outdoors). Watercolour painting is a process that draws upon proprioception. While I try to exercise and control my hand-eye coordination, the paints and paper never exactly react in the way I want them to, and with every stroke I am thus drawn into each moment. Painting is creative, joyful, always uncertain, and challenging. For me, it is somatic-based meditation. Painting outdoors includes other challenges that deepen my engagement. I have to adjust to accepting even less control as environmental conditions guide how I am feeling and the way paint, paper, and I interact. Temperature, wind, and rain can be highly impactful, and there is a vast array of sounds, smells, and sights that heavily influence the painting process compared to studio work. I also find that people stopping by changes how I feel. But it is all good practice for engaged, healthy living compared to painting only indoors. I find that most richly heterogenous landscapes are engaging to my senses, whether they are constructed or more natural. They each offer different opportunities for me to explore and take on challenges that can lead to success or disappointment while I “play” with my paints. Like children in a playground, I need to first feel somewhat safe and comfortable. Depending on my mood, I might seek out a quiet spot or one with lots of activity, human or otherwise. I do hope that, in the years to come, I allow myself to continue to connect intimately and somatically with the landscape rather than retreat into the “comfort” of my studio.

From Daria Nardone, OALA In my recent recovery from a car accident, I learned that the key practices for healing are daily meditation and walking in natural surroundings. I live near Ashbridges Bay [in Toronto] and often walk south through the park to the lake’s edge where there is a small, secluded beach cove. Looking over Lake Ontario, surrounded by natural vegetation, nourishes my soul. Climbing over the rugged shoreline for a good view of the Toronto skyline provides a sense of awe, or heightened excitement when I risk jumping from one rocky boulder to the next. It reminds me of early childhood. My love of landscape was inspired by the Italian mountain village where I was born, and its beautiful views over the Cassino Valley. Nature had healed most of the physical wounds of destruction caused by carpet bombing in World War II; as a child, the rubble within nature was my playground. This strong sense of belonging in

my village, surrounded by nature’s beauty, was ruptured when, at the age of 4, I was brought to live in a dense urban neighbourhood in Glasgow, Scotland. I mourned the lost sense of place and freedom I had from living mostly outdoors within a closely knit community. I believe that nature’s beauty is a balm that can help us be more mindful of our environments and enhance our sense of wellbeing. In my work, I strive to bring beauty and peace into the lives of others, with the hope of reducing levels of stress and bringing moments of joy that come with being lost in our senses. 04/

Barbara Eguchi painting en plein air

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Courtesy of Barbara Eguchi

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Residential design by Daria Nardone

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Daria Nardone

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Daria Nardone,circa 1960,washing her hands outside her grandmother’s house with water collected at the village fountain

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Daria Nardone

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elements inspired by feng shui principles. It is important to offset hardscape with softscape, and to include features that promote interest, such as something that can be touched or smelled. Movement and flow of energy are important. When specifying materials and plant species, I choose plantings that bloom at different times of the year, and materials that will weather attractively over time.

From Heather Flemming, Bachelor of Community Design, Honours in Urban Design

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Artwork by Heather Flemming

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Heather Flemming

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Beach walk

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Jane Darragh

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Jane Darragh on a recent ski trip in Quebec

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Courtesy of Jane Darragh

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Pedestrianized Gould Street in Toronto

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Paul Young

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Outdoor exercise structures designed by Shawn Gallaugher for the St.James Town community,Toronto

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Shawn Gallaugher

It’s important for me to stay aligned physically, mentally, and spiritually. In my experience, yoga and meditation relieve stress, add flexibility, and reinforce my positive perspective. I intentionally take time to visualize how I will handle challenges, and this helps me accept my limitations and focus more on exploring my strengths. Music is another powerful tool that helps me feel connected in life. As another form of meditation, I paint nature- and ocean-inspired canvases. There are statues in Toronto’s Ireland Park that I often visit, sometimes very late at night when it’s very quiet. I also sometimes visit large, old cemeteries with my camera, and photograph the shadows cast over the stones and landscape by nearby trees. Some of the older tombs and stones are discoloured and weathered, and show what appear as faces sometimes. The energy in these places is eerie, and I am reminded of my human fragility and mortality. In my work (and also at home), I want to promote balance through use of materials, space layout, size of objects, and colour. When I can, I apply design cues and

From Jane Darragh, OALA Cross-country skiing comes to mind, with the challenge of skiing down an icy trail and staring at a hill before ascending it. What I love about skiing is being one with nature on a cold, sunny day with fresh snow. When I need to be re-energized, I walk down to the lake and take in the distant horizon line while listening to the waves break as they reach the shore. It’s very soothing and helps me find balance.

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Dance has become an important part of my own somatic experience in a form called ecstatic dance. With no steps to follow—no choreography—the body moves to the flow and rhythm of the music. My body is the teacher, expressing itself through movement and stillness. Stillness is an important part of the somatic experience, for it is only in stillness that we can fully appreciate movement in the landscape.

From Paul Young, OALA Where do my mind and body feel best? To name a few favourites: Tommy Thompson Park, the Don Valley, and the pedestrianized Gould Street [all in Toronto] come to mind. Some of the characteristics of these places include the following features. They are green. They allow users to move freely and without stress. They are public and free. There is a lot going on: birds, beavers, people, coyotes, water, and views that change with each season. They are quieter than most parts of the city. And they are car-free. Some streets are becoming more park-like. (I think of the Esplanade, Queens Quay, and Front St. East in the Canary District [all in Toronto].) My body wants to use them in the same way I use trails: to get to destinations and, at the same time, to exercise outside. Exercise is linked to physical and mental health. Imagine an expansive gym woven into the city. Happy minds, happy bodies.

have the added boost of connecting with the landscape while improving health and wellness. It’s not only great for your muscles, it renews your mental health. From Sheila Murray, OALA Taking the 10-minute ferry ride home to Toronto Island is an experience that is both pleasurable and undesirable. One’s life is somewhat ruled by the schedule, and every Islander knows what it feels like to have their heart racing while running for the boat. But there is a great sense of relief once you are on the ferry, and when you exit onto the Island the air feels so different, so clean, so fresh. The walk to Pilates or yoga class is about one kilometre but you pass by small, colourful houses, cross a channel of water on a lovely wooden bridge, and end up at the Algonquin Island Clubhouse in a designated wilderness area where the classes are held. You also have the best views of Toronto, though it is also one of the windiest places on the Island. One is always acutely aware of the environment when you live on the Island. I think this is because walking and biking are the only modes of transit. From Stewart McIntosh, OALA

From Shawn Gallaugher, MLA Studies show that just 15 minutes of highintensity interval training burns more calories than jogging for an hour on a treadmill. Short bursts of intense exercise alternated with low-intensity recovery periods is the most time-efficient way to exercise. Combine this training with exercising outdoors and you

As a landscape architecture student in 1991, I attended a dance performance by the Desrosiers Dance Theatre arranged by then OALA president Ann Milovsoroff, OALA Emeritus, as part of the 1991 OALA/ CSLA Conference. I recall Ann’s motive was to demonstrate that landscape as an art form can be expressed by the fluidity of human form, and that movement can be an expression of landscape. People moving through a space become part of the unchoreographed dance of that space.

From Virginia Burt, OALA, FCSLA, FASLA My ongoing practice includes using applied kinesiology (muscle testing) to tap my body knowledge and inner knower. Free-form writing is another technique I use. This is a kinesthetic activity most importantly done by hand: the neural impulses from the fingers are sent back to the brain so the activity actually releases and records patterns of the unconscious. Where we live, at home, I am blessed with a fabulous view of the ridge and forest beyond. The qualities of light, forest, and natural rocks are temporal and emotive—they lift me. We also have an amazing quality at sunrise, where the sun’s path climbs the ridge comparable to the way the sun travels in the mountains. It is an early morning gift as I meditate. Just down our road, there is a spectacular view overlooking Lake Ontario—again, an uplifting and wondrous sparkling or storminess or sunrise that connects me to Nature’s many sides. In my work, I use archetypal spaces that we, as beings, have emotional responses to. My work also includes the spiritual, and it has been my experience that setting a clear intention for any designed space allows a testing of any design decision throughout the process from concept to implementation.

BIOS/ REAL EGUCHI, OALA, IS A PRINCIPAL OF EGUCHI ASSOCIATES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS/ BREAL ART + DESIGN. LORRAINE JOHNSON IS THE EDITOR OF GROUND.

CSLA Awards

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CSLA AWARDS 03

Jury’s Award of Excellence The Jury’s Award of Excellence is given to one project per year that best demonstrates the CSLA’s vision of advancing the art, science, and practice of landscape architecture. The recipient of the 2018 Jury’s Award of Excellence and a National Award is Upper Fort Garry Provincial Park.

Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Awards of Excellence— Ontario Region

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Awards of Excellence are given for outstanding accomplishment in landscape architecture. Congratulations to the following OALA members whose projects received awards.

Project Name: Upper Fort Garry Provincial Park Consultant: HTFC Planning and Design Contact: Glen Manning Category: Medium-Scale Public Landscapes Project Description: Upper Fort Garry offers a striking departure from standard heritage interpretation, embracing the ambiguity inherent in our historic records to fuel an approach to urban place-making that combines crowd-sourced content, grassroots programming, art, and technology to honour the fort’s heritage and stimulate new conversations on the history being written today.

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Upper Fort Garry Provincial Park, Winnipeg

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Courtesy of HFTC Planning and Design

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Project Name: Taking Back the Riverbank: Pijinuiskaq Park and King Street Consultant: Ekistics Plan+Design Contact: Devin Segal Category: Small-Scale Public Landscapes Project Description: Pijinuiskaq Park and King Street in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, signifies a shift from a car-centric downtown to a pedestrian-oriented main street that prioritizes public space along the riverfront.

Project Name: Surrey Bend Regional Park Consultant: space2place Contact: Jeff Cutler Category: Large-Scale Public Landscapes

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Pijinuiskaq Park and King Street, Bridgewater,Nova Scotia

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Courtesy of Ekistics Plan+Design

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Surrey Bend Regional Park,Burnaby, British Columbia

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Courtesy of space2place

Project Description: Surrey Bend Regional Park offers a tremendous opportunity to protect a unique ecosystem, allowing residents to experience and understand the historic landscape of the Fraser River floodplain.

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CSLA AWARDS

Project Name: R. Garden: A Modernist Reflection Consultant: Virginia Burt Designs, Inc. Contact: Virginia Burt Category: Residential Landscapes Project Description: Created when the owners needed a place of solace from grief and loss, this garden became an oasis of calm—a serene gallery for diverse sculpture, and a bridge between the home’s classical architecture and the owners’ modernist tastes.

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R.Garden

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Courtesy of Virginia Burt Designs,Inc.

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Project Name: Ponderosa Commons Consultant: Hapa Collaborative Contact: Joseph Fry Category: Medium-Scale Public Landscapes

Project Description: Ponderosa Commons is a vision of how a university campus landscape can be an extension of learning, creative, and social spaces.

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Ponderosa Commons,University of British Columbia

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Courtesy of Hapa Collaborative

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CSLA AWARDS 28

Project Name: People, Parks and Dogs—A Strategy for Sharing Vancouver Parks Consultant: space2place Contact: Jeff Cutler Category: Research Project Description: This strategy will provide an evidencebased plan for the sharing of Vancouver’s parks and beaches by people and dogs as the city’s population grows and people live in smaller spaces.

Project Name: Proactive Rejuvenation of Senescent Acacia Slopes along Highways in Hong Kong (A Phased Replacement Project) Consultant: Landscape Unit of Highways Department Contact: Tony Tung King Mui Category: Landscape Management Project Description: To create a resilient and biophilic cityscape in the concrete jungle of Hong Kong, this project was formulated to gradually replace the senescent Acacia with a palette of native and naturalized plant species.

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A Strategy for Sharing Vancouver Parks

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Courtesy of space2place

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Rejuvenation Plan for Highway Slopes, Hong Kong

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Courtesy of Landscape Unit of Highways Department

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Project Name: Lethbridge River Valley Parks Master Plan Consultant: O2 Planning + Design Contact: Douglas Olson Category: Planning and Analysis Project Description: The Lethbridge River Valley Parks Master Plan provides clear direction for the sustainable use and preservation of the city’s cherished Old Man River Valley.

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Lethbridge River Valley Parks Master Plan

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Courtesy of 02 Planning + Design

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Edmonton’s Green Network Strategy

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02 Planning + Design

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Wascana Landscape/Irrigation Master Plan,Regina

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Courtesy of Scatliff+Miller+Murray

Project Name: Breathe: Edmonton’s Green Network Strategy Consultant: O2 Planning + Design Contact: Douglas Olson Category: Planning and Analysis Project Description: Breathe: Edmonton’s Green Network Strategy introduces an innovative framework for the effective management and strategic development of the city’s open-space network, providing clear direction for wise stewardship of these lands.

Project Name: Wascana Landscape/Irrigation Master Plan Consultant: Scatliff+Miller+Murray Contact: Bob Somers Category: Landscape Management Project Description: This project developed a custom groundcover maintenance “calculator,” which provided the economic rationale to reduce irrigation requirements by converting select areas of groundcover to native and noninvasive drought-tolerant species.

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CSLA AWARDS 41

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Project Name: Parliament Hill Escarpment Stairway and Site Rehabilitation Consultant: Civitas Group Contact: Diane Matichuk Category: Small-Scale Public Landscapes Project Description: The Escarpment Stairway connecting Parliament Hill with the Ottawa Riverâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the first landscape intervention on the Hill in 100 yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is designed to meet heritage conservation standards, and provides residents and visitors with stunning views.

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Parliament Hill Escarpment Stairway and Site Rehabilitation

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Courtesy of Civitas Group

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Birch Grove Residence

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Courtesy of Fox Whyte Landscape Architecture & Design Inc.

Project Name: Birch Grove Residence Consultant: Fox Whyte Landscape Architecture & Design Inc. Contact: Kate Fox-Whyte Category: Residential Landscapes

Project Description: The lush planting and unique design details in this contemporary residential garden offer a fresh, bold aesthetic within a suburban neighbourhood. 46

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Project Name: Trillium Park and William G. Davis Trail Consultant: LANDinc Contact: Patrick Morello Category: Medium-Scale Public Landscapes Project Description: The Trillium Park and William G. Davis Trail transforms a derelict 7.5-acre parking lot into a new public garden at Ontario Place, with walking trails through a native-planted, wilderness-inspired terrain and a First Nations-inspired gateway.

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Trillium Park and William G.Davis Trail,Toronto

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Nadia Molinari

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Berczy Park,Toronto

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Courtesy of Claude Cormier et Associés

Project Name: Berczy Park Consultant: Claude Cormier et Associés Contact: Claude Cormier Category: Small-Scale Public Landscapes Project Description: The revitalization of this small, iconic park—with green space for play, garden for dogs, and plaza for public—coheres through a common denominator: the playful Dog Fountain.

OALA Awards

2018 OALA AWARDS Congratulations to all those honoured with 2018 OALA Recognition Awards, and a special thanks to the OALA Honours, Awards and Protocol Committee: Doris Chee,Sarah Culp (Chair),Nelson Edwards,Stefan Fediuk, Jim Melvin,Jane Welsh, and Justin Whalen.

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OALA JACK COPELAND AWARD FOR ASSOCIATE LEADERSHIP AND CONTRIBUTION: This award recognizes the outstanding leadership and contribution of an Associate for going above and beyond to assist fellow Associates. Activities include, but are not limited to, tutorials, LARE exam help, special tasks, OALA library, special events, meeting Associates and others, including being an Associate representative on OALA Council. Trish Clarke Trish Clarke joined the OALA Council as an Associate representative in April of 2016 and has been a valuable addition, going out of her way to interact with Associate members. DAVID ERB MEMORIAL AWARD: The award is named after David Erb, who was an outstanding volunteer in furthering the goals of the OALA, and his example set a truly high standard. The award is the best way to acknowledge the one outstanding OALA member each year whose volunteer contributions over a number of years have made a real difference. Nick Miele Through nearly 20 years of volunteering, Nick Miele’s positive contributions have helped a multitude of candidate landscape architects along their career path. Since 2000, Nick has been a part of the OALA visiting team to the University of Toronto and the University of Guelph, leading student information sessions and providing outreach and education. In addition, Nick is a long-standing member of the OALA Examining Board.

OALA AWARD FOR SERVICE TO THE ENVIRONMENT: This award is given to a non-landscape architectural individual, group, organization, or agency in the Province of Ontario to recognize and encourage a special or unusual contribution to the sensitive, sustainable design for human use of the environment. The contribution must emulate the fundamental principles of the OALA and the OALA mission statement and go beyond the normal levels of community action in preserving, protecting, or improving the environment. Paula Davies, Chair of the Todmorden Mills Wildflower Preserve Paula Davies has been a dedicated volunteer in environmental stewardship since the late 1980s and has been instrumental in the Todmorden Mills project, which started in 1991 and serves as an excellent model of a citizen-led restoration of an urban ravine. Under Paula’s direction, members of the Preserve have been actively restoring forests, wetlands, and meadows. In addition to Paula’s work at Todmorden, she is a member of the OMNRF Monarch Butterfly Rescue group, a board member of ProtectNatureTO, and a director of the Toronto Historical Association. OALA PUBLIC PRACTICE AWARD: This award recognizes the outstanding leadership of a member of the profession in public practice who promotes and enhances landscape architecture by working for improved understanding and appreciation of the work of landscape architects in both public and private practice. Carolyn Woodland Carolyn Woodland started her public practice career in 2002, when she joined the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) following 25 years of private practice with a landscape architectural consulting firm,

OALA Awards

where she was a managing partner. In her current TRCA position as Senior Director, Planning, Greenspace and Communications, she has overseen the environmental planning, development review, policy and environmental assessment functions within 18 municipalities in the jurisdiction. Carolyn’s significant work has helped to protect Ontario’s future by defining plans to manage growth, protect and enhance greenspace, protect watersheds, and focus on climate change. OALA HONORARY MEMBER: The Honorary category of membership is for non-landscape architects whom Council wishes to recognize for outstanding contributions in their own fields to improve the quality of natural and human environments. There are two Honorary Member Award recipients this year. Ken Greenberg Ken Greenberg is widely recognized for his big-picture thinking, his passion for thoughtful design, and his deep respect for the profession of landscape architecture. Ken is an urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto, and Principal of Greenberg Consultants. For more than four decades, Ken has played a pivotal role in public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe. Geoff Cape Geoff Cape founded Evergreen in 1991 with the ambition to connect people to nature in cities. Since then, Evergreen has evolved into a national organization focused on integrating people, natural, and built worlds, and

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turning spaces into great places. In 2010, he led the creation of Evergreen Brick Works, an adaptive re-use of 16 buildings on a 41-acre campus in downtown Toronto, a place where the world can experience sustainable practices that enable flourishing cities. OALA EMERITUS MEMBER: Emeritus members are full members of the OALA who have ceased full-time practice and who are nominated by another full member in recognition of their years of service to the profession. There are three Emeritus Member recipients this year. Gary Heine Gary Heine began his landscape architecture career in 1964 at Project Planning Associates Ltd. He joined JSW+ in 1967 and retired in September 2017 after 50 years of service. Gary was instrumental in the master planning and detailed design development of the Toronto Zoo, and also the master planning and design of the Centreville Amusement Park on Centre Island, Toronto, from its inception in the late 1960s. Gary was JSW+ staff lead on the creation of a gateway to the Main Block on Parliament Hill, commissioned by the National Capital Commission in 1989. Gary’s extensive and continuous professional practice spans decades. Robert Norman Robert Norman has made major contributions to the profession of landscape architecture in Ontario and beyond, working for the majority of his career in municipal practice, until he retired in 2017. Rob served as President of the OALA in 1991-1992, and President of the CSLA in 2015-2016. He continues his volunteer efforts with the OALA through various committees and task forces. Rob has received many awards throughout his career, and has been a committed volunteer for the betterment of the profession.

Richard Bondi Richard Bondi started his career in 1973 with Strong Moorhead Sigsby Ltd., one of the early landscape architectural design offices in Toronto. In 1985, this firm evolved into FORREC and what is now a multidisciplinary entertainment design company, where he continued his 43-year-long career until retirement in 2016. Rick has participated in award-winning and innovative landscape design projects throughout Canada and internationally. Most memorable are Canada’s Wonderland, Muskoka Wharf, West Edmonton Mall, Universal Studios Florida, and Sumter Landing The Villages, to name a few. OALA PINNACLE AWARD FOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURAL EXCELLENCE: This award recognizes an OALA member and his or her professional work. It singles out specific projects to draw attention to a body of work that demonstrates outstanding professional accomplishment. David Leinster For more than 30 years, David Leinster has elevated the profession of landscape architecture not only in the province of Ontario, but throughout Canada and across the globe. His impressive portfolio of work includes award-winning projects that span the spectrum in terms of scale, scope, location, and budget. There is a consistent theme that drives each project: David’s desire to improve the quality of life for the people who will benefit from his work. David served as OALA President (2000-2002) and is currently Chair of the City of Ottawa’s Urban Design Review Panel, a member of the Toronto Community Housing Design Review Panel, and a past member of the City of Toronto’s Public Art Advisory Committee. David frequently contributes to academia, both as an external reviewer, a lecturer, and as a mentor. David has dedicated his entire career to the design of public spaces. MORE INFORMATION ON THE AWARD WINNERS CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.OALA.CA/ AWARDS/2018-AWARDS/2018-OALA-AWARDS/.

Grounding

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Haudenosaunee perspective TEXT BY MILLIE KNAPP

Grounding This is the second in a series of articles, by Millie Knapp, that share understandings of Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee teachings about the land. Sky Woman, her daughter, and her twin grandsons come to life in the film Iroquois Creation Story. Peter Jemison, the film’s producer, is also historic site manager at Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor, New York. Visitors watch Iroquois Creation Story in the orientation theatre at the site’s Seneca Art and Culture Center. Jemison knows well the ancient tale of Sky Woman and her descendants. One telling he’s studied is the English translation of the version told to Tuscarora anthropologist J.N.B. Hewitt in the 1890s. In 2005, Seneca historian and writer John Mohawk published an annotated version of the saga in his book Iroquois Creation Story. “John Mohawk chose points to help us understand the meaning of the Creation story, of Sky Woman, her daughter, the twins that go about making the things here on Earth, the struggle that goes on between the twins and the struggle that remains with us,” says Jemison. “It’s too simple to say the struggle is between good and evil.” Jemison explains the struggle using an analogy: “If the Creator created human beings and [the Creator’s] brother Flint created monkeys…monkeys aren’t bad, but they aren’t humans,” he says. “If the Creator made wild strawberries and his brother created poison ivy growing nearby, it can be bad for people who are allergic.” He points to another example of the forces at work, using the occurrence of the white-tailed deer and the overpopulation that happens when wolves are killed off by humans. Wolves help control deer numbers. Wolves are needed. They are not looked at as bad, as their presence provides balance to the ecosystem. “It’s like ying and yang—the balance,” says Jemison. “The struggle in the world for humans to maintain balance occurs every day. Life is not eternal, as it was in the Sky World. Human beings have a certain number of days that they’ll be here on Earth. They

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spring from the Earth. They return to the Earth. They become a part of the Earth again.” On Earth, Creator made sure everything humans needed was available. Humans showed their relationship to the gifts left for them by giving thanks. Thankfulness is expressed, says Jemison, “to greet our relatives that give us those things that we depend on to survive.” According to Jemison, ways of being thankful are expressed in two words that come from Onöndowa’ga:’, the language of the people of the Great Hill (the Seneca Nation). Dödwadahnö:yö’ means “We will give thanks,” and Ganö:nyök means “the path of thanksgiving that is followed.” “The practice of our way of life helps people come to a good peace of mind,” Jemison says. “It helps us to understand the importance of using a good mind, given that we are human and we’re given all sorts of challenges. We lose our way. We have to find our way back to a path.” Jemison’s way back to the path is found in instructions left by the Creator with messengers. “In order for us to survive, we must remain who we are as Hodinöhsö:ni’ relying on the messages we’ve been given,” says Jemison. Today, people gather to hear the message of late-18th-century Seneca Chief and prophet Handsome Lake, who brought a prophesy of the world to come: that is, the world today. Before Handsome Lake, the prophet Peacemaker brought the message of peace, power, and justice. The message is “the basis of our Great Law which united the Hodinöhsö:ni’ (Iroquois Confederacy),” says Jemison. Today, the confederacy consists of Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora nations. Jigöhsahsë’ was the first person to heed the Peacemaker’s message. She later helped form the Iroquois Confederacy. Jemision highlights the important roles of Hodinöhsö:ni’ women. “We take our clan and our nation from our mother. The head of each of our clans is a woman. If we don’t have the traditional form of government, there’s still a woman in charge of each of our clans,” says Jemison.

Ganondagan is the original site of a 17thcentury Seneca town. A typical Seneca family’s lifestyle from the late 1600s can be seen inside a furnished bark longhouse built in 1998. Tucked into the hill near the longhouse sits the Seneca Art and Culture Center, erected in 2015. The 17,300-square-foot centre features an interactive, multi-media exhibit gallery, orientation theatre, auditorium, catering kitchen, gift shop, and offices. Jemison shared design ideas for the centre with architect Francois DeMenil, who studied Iroquoian design by looking at how wampum belts are made. “Design is woven into the belts. When you’re holding one, a message can come to you. It helps you looking at it, but it also has embedded in it a message,” says Jemison. DeMenil was interested in a modern design for the centre, and sought inspiration from Hodinöhsö:ni’ culture. “Rooms come off a central axis like a wampum belt,” says Jemison about the Seneca Art and Culture Center. The Hiawatha Belt, for example, shows how the confederacy nations are connected, but each is a separate entity. The Hiawatha belt records the agreement of the five original nations to live in peace as the Hodinöhsö:ni’ Confederacy. In the centre of the belt, a tree symbol represents the Onondaga nation, which is where the Peacemaker planted the Tree of Peace. Under the tree, the leaders of the five nations buried their weapons of war. A tree figures at the centre of Sky Woman’s story, too. She fell through to this world from a hole made in the Sky World by the uprooting of a tree. The Creation Story of the Hodinöhsö:ni’ begins with a woman. Messages of peace seep through the stories. “You can bring people a great deal of comfort to place in a perspective what we have been given as instruction, as knowledge, we Haudenosaunee people,” says Jemison. BIO/ MILLIE KNAPP, ANISHINAABE, WRITES ABOUT INDIGENOUS ART AND CULTURE. MILLIE’S FATHER WAS HODINÖHSÖ:NI’, SPECIFICALLY, TUSCARORA.

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Seneca Art and Culture Center,at Ganondagan State Historic Site,in Victor,New York

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Courtesy of Peter Jemison

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Wampum belt display at the Seneca Art and Culture Center

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Courtesy of Peter Jemison

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Bark longhouse at Ganondagan

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Courtesy of Peter Jemison

Design by Detail

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A decommissioned landfill becomes a luminous landscape

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Biogas capture wells in an open meadow section of Parc Frédéric-Back,Montreal

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Adrien Williams

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The surface paint used on the spheres contains phosphorescent fibres that store solar energy and release it at night,as light.

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Courtesy of Ville de Montréal

Design by Detail

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Small glass doors are designed for daily maintenance inspections.

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Adrien Williams

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Flashlights and smartphones create ecological graffiti on the surface of the spheres.

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Courtesy of City of Montreal

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TEXT BY VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA

A 192-hectare post-industrial land-conversion project in the north Montreal neighbourhood of Saint Michel is an example of how design can tackle one of the cultural challenges of our Anthropocene epoch: What do we do when left with a large disturbed landscape in the middle of a metropolitan area? The converted site, altered by decades of industrial processes and waste storage, opened in 2017 as the Saint Michel Environmental Complex, a new cultural hub and urban park that features the 153-hectare Parc Frédéric-Back, TOHU (a centre for experimental performance), Canada’s largest indoor skate park, and the adjacent Cirque du Soleil headquarters. Parc Frédéric-Back (Phase 1 of which opened in December 2017) stands out for the significant public resources ($26.6 million) spent to support the design of new public space and as a genre of city-building in which culture and design take the lead. From the late 1800s to 1930s, the site operated as the Miron quarry, from which limestone was extracted to build some of Montreal’s landmark buildings and infrastructure. Through the 1970s, the site became a private landfill for the city’s waste, and after years of community protest over issues such as odour, the City purchased the land in 1984, closed the landfill in 2009, and began the process of site decontamination, landfill biogas recovery, and park planning. Project landscape architect Diane Martin of the City of Montreal hired the Montrealbased firm Lemay to create the master plan park design. One unique design element of this master plan required a specialized team of landscape architects, environmental scientists, industrial fabricators, and engineers to design a public face for the 255 landfill biogas capture wells that remained 03

Design by Detail

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on top of the 72-hectare former landfill. The wells, installed down through 70 metres of piled garbage to the bedrock below, capture excess biogas from the 17-kilometrelong underground system of pipes that convert the landfill’s biogas to electricity for the city’s power grid. With the site conversion plans in place, this punctured landscape of wells, active since 2009, needed a public face that would address the environmental necessity of landfill gas capture and help the city tell the story of the site’s cultural legacy. The Lemay team, led by project landscape architect Lucie St-Pierre, developed a design for the wells based on a conceptual re-inter06

pretation of the world of energy transfer and the cosmology of the universe. According to St. Pierre, the team created a series of spherical objects that would read across the new park landscape as “stars in the sky” and a fantastical, magical world—to evoke a “dream-like image” that would contrast the ideas of light (sky) and dark (earth) and stir public wonder and a curiosity to investigate further the processes and realities of urban waste and sustainability. The team’s ideas harmonized the technical requirements of gas collection with the time-based processes of a rotting site; of ongoing leachate flows, microbial activity, and gas build-up. While it is standard for many cities to prevent greenhouse gases from landfills from reaching the atmosphere, few have the vision to encourage such an artistic interpretation. It is fitting that a park named after one of Canada’s Oscar-winning animation artists and also a pioneering environmentalist would feature this engaging installation of hundreds of glossy white spheres as present-day markers of a decomposing past. Read as functional infrastructure in a landscape, the 54 spheres (a total of 255 are planned for installation by 2023) somehow simultaneously reference a 19th-century pastoral landscape of grazing sheep and a 21st-century magical realm that celebrates the art and science of human ingenuity. By

Design by Detail

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Parc Frédéric-Back Project Team Client: City of Montreal Project Landscape Architect: Diane Martin, City of Montreal Landscape Architect Park Design: Lemay Industrial Designer of the Spheres: Morelli Size: 153 hectares constructed over a 72-hectare decommissioned landfill

day, the spheres read like a pop-up field of white bubbles that appear to have just emerged from the gaseous depths below. By night, a self-illuminated lighting scheme uses a special surface paint made of phosphorescent fibres to store solar energy that is released as light. In summer evenings, especially, the spheres become a landscape of luminous points, their glow generated by the stored sunlight. The spheres sit in a variety of planted landscapes, the species determined by soil depth. With rain as the only water source, the selected plants had to be hardy, drought tolerant, and offer seasonal interest. Spheres in park areas with only 300mm of soil sit in a meadow planting of perennials and grasses, including Aster, Monarda, Heliopsis, and Sorghastrum. In locations with up to two metres of soil, shrubs and trees are introduced around the spheres. Four critical parameters—public safety, equipment security, access for daily maintenance, and budget—influenced the spheres’ design. The final form needed to protect the contents, be “familiar and soft” but also tamper-proof, be unaffected by shifting and settling soils, and repel snow accumulation. According to St-Pierre, the design team simplified and simplified their prototype design until they arrived at the most basic geometric shape—the circle. The three-metre-diameter shell allows an equal radius of clearance around the well capture equipment inside, and the curvaceous surface of the rigid fibreglass structure is unyielding but also beckons human touch by visitors of all ages. White was chosen to heighten the luminescence and provide a soft look against the hard shell, and also to contrast with the mixed planting scheme. Fabrication costs were $5,000 per sphere.

Site testing of two prototypes took place prior to the park opening. Observations during a six-month period provided important design feedback that was unanticipated on paper. Opening the service door one day to see wasp nests inside the spheres revealed a design flaw that had potential health and equipment safety impacts. A fine mesh was added to the air vent detail. Another observation was a much more magical discovery for the team. During nighttime test visits with minimal lighting, the city maintenance crew were surprised to see how light from their flashlights and smartphones was being temporarily recorded on the surface of the spheres. Lasting only an hour, these markings were the result of the stored solar in the phosphorescent fibres of the painted surface. As an unexpected discovery, this “ecological graffiti” adds “une peu de magie”—the type of one-of-a-kind public engagement experience that the designers hoped for. This discovery will reveal itself over time, and, as Parc Frédéric-Back opens for its first Montreal summer, visitors will add their own personal souvenir to the next chapter in the story of this cultural landscape.

Project Construction: Phase 1 opened in December 2017; final phase planned to open in 2023 Budget for the Park: $27.2 million For more details about the Saint Michel Environmental Complex, visit http://tohu.ca/en. BIO/ VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA, IS GROUND’S DESIGN BY DETAIL COLUMNIST. SHE DESIGNS SPACES INFORMED AND INSPIRED BY CONTEXT, ECOLOGY, SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT, AND HORTICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES. IN PRIVATE PRACTICE SINCE 2012, TAYLOR ENGAGES WITH LANDSCAPE AS AN ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL PRACTICE THROUGH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COMMISSIONS, CURATORIAL PROJECTS, TEACHING, WRITING, AND TEMPORARY ARTWORKS. TAYLOR EXPANDED HER PUBLIC PRACTICE IN 2016 AS CO-FOUNDER OF ====\\DERAIL PLATFORM FOR ART + ARCHITECTURE, A CURATORIAL PROJECT TO ANIMATE SPACES ALONG URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE CORRIDORS. TAYLOR IS THE FOUNDING CURATOR OF THE GLADSTONE HOTEL’S ANNUAL GROW OP EXHIBITION; A SESSIONAL INSTRUCTOR AND CRITIC AT THE JOHN H. DANIELS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, AND AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE; AND A GROUND ADVISORY PANEL MEMBER.

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Design detail sketches for biogas capture spheres

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Courtesy of Lemay

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Concept design reference image

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Courtesy of Lemay

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Parc Frédéric-Back landscape master plan showing placement of spheres over the former landfill

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Courtesy of Ville de Montréal

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The large doors of the spheres are designed for seasonal maintenance inspections.

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Courtesy of Lemay

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Light activates the surface of the spheres.

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Courtesy of Lemay

Notes

Notes: A Miscellany of News and Events

books

exhibitions

awards At the recent Grow Op exhibition, held annually at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, the OALA/Ground Award was presented to Tammy Salzl for her piece Beauty and Folly. Salzl is a Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist whose work uses metaphorical and experiential avenues to link the dilemma of our interior lives to the physical realities of our times. Ground Editorial Board members chose this work based on the psychological and immersive quality as well as the carefully sequenced experiences and element of surprise.

events The Dry Stone Canada Festival takes place September 29-30, 2018, on Amherst Island. This community-based festival, open to the public, attracts dry-stone wallers from across North America as well as internationally, and the focus for this year is the role of dry stone in the cultural landscape. For more information, visit www.drystonecanada.com.

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An exhibition by Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario on July 12, 2018. Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental features more than 20 largescale artworks, including the 15-foot projection on water Fountain (2005) and works from the Wave Sound series, which debuted as part of the LandMarks 2017/Repères 2017 project [see Ground 39, Fall 2017]. For more information, visit www.ago.ca.

pollinators The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the Pollinator Partnership are soliciting nominees for the 2018 Pollinator Advocate Award, recognizing individuals or organizations that have contributed significantly to pollinator species protection and conservation in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Nominations are due by July 6, 2018. For more information, visit www.pollinator.org/awards.

A recently published collection of essays, Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017), edited by Ashlee Cunsolo and Karen Landman, is timely and critical, and brings emotions to the discussion of dealing with environmental challenges. The authors expand our understanding of bereavement related to ecological decline, while providing new perspectives on how design can help to reconcile our relationship with nature. Other recent publications that may be of interest to landscape architects include: A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future, by Benjamin Vogt (New Society Publishers, 2017); The Fruitful City: The Enduring Power of the Urban Food Forest, by Helena Moncrieff (ECW Press, 2018); A Tapestry Garden: The Art of Weaving Plants and Place, by Marietta and Ernie O’Bryne (Thomas Allen & Son, 2018); and Woody Plants of the Northern Forest, by Jerry Jenkins (Cornell University Press, 2018).

new members The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects is proud to recognize and welcome the following new full members to the Association: Nadia Amoroso *

Valerie Hough

Jonn Barton *

Matthew Naylor

Connor Blaikie *

Melissa Poulin

Elena Brescia

Jeffrey Regan Suiter

James D Burnett

Brendan te Brinke *

Shaney Clemmons

Dalia Todary-Michael *

Marvin Cruz *

Dorota Trzesicka-Mlynarz

Liz Davidson

Justin Whalen *

Shira Davis

Stacey Willick

James Giddings *

Jenna Wouters

Ian Hampson

Adam Zaremba

Peter Henley *

Asterisk (*) denotes Full Members without the use of professional seal. 01/

Detail of Beauty and Folly,by Tammy Salzl

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Ruthanne Henry

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Rebecca Belmore installing Wave Sound at Pukaskwa National Park

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Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario

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Wave Sound,by Rebecca Belmore, Gros Morne National Park

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Kyra Kordoski

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Farmer Antony John,a 2017 Pollinator Advocate Award winner

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Courtesy of Pollinator Partnership

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Artifact

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05 TEXT BY LORRAINE JOHNSON

Using abandoned places as canvases for his sculptural interventions, Toronto-based artist and designer Ryan Phyper invites us to look through portals and see landscapes anew. He uses materials at hand, creating frames in out-of-the-way sites of crumbling infrastructure. The result is three-dimensional graffiti—spontaneous creations that assist in processes of natural reclamation, sculptures that serve as structural frameworks for future growth.

In addition to his artistic practice in abandoned spaces, Phyper was recently commissioned by Rain Gardens United to install sculptures in three residential rain gardens in the east end of Toronto. His simple but striking pieces trace the movement of water on the landscape, drawing attention to elemental flow and reminding us—with jigsaw-like artistry—of the natural process of infiltration. BIO/ LORRAINE JOHNSON IS THE EDITOR OF GROUND.

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Ryan Phyper’s sculptural interventions in the landscape,including one (02) in a residential rain garden

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Ryan Phyper

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