Chun Wang Portfolio 2025 by Chun Wong

Chun Wang

SELECTED WORKS

Alhs’kiilh: To be Closely Related

Location: Ts’awlhmim (Larso Bay), The Nuxalk Territory, BC

Designer: Chun Wang

Time: 2023

Instructor: John Bass

A Network of Reciprocity

In Nuxalk people's worldview, humans and nature are inseparable. They live within a network of relationships encompassing mountains, water, trees, and fish. Looking at history, however, the site was transformed by settler's colonialism, cultural devastation, and logging industry, cutting the intimate bond betwen human and nature.

The project is situated on the Tsa'awlhmim (Larso Bay), a place where Nuxalk people lived, thrived, and gathered salmon. It was part of the so-called "Nuxalk Urbanism", in which old villages (each of them are paired with a certain food sources) sprawled around the Nuxalk territory.

The project is a wholistic plan of a village, encompassing residential units, a restored forest garden, and a healthy stream supporting salmon runs. They are proposed to restore the relationship between people and the land.

in the center of the village, there would be a gathering place with a fire pit, serving as a space of playing, storytelling, and intergenerational knowledge-sharing.

Extensive trails will be contructed throughout the site, guiding people to food sources and enabling experiences and learning with nature. They will also lead people to the southern dock, as well as to forest play structures and gardens in the north. The boardwalks have a comfortable slope for those with mobility challenges.

On top of the mound, a new village will be established in close proximity to various food sources. As it exists now, rainwater flows over the barren mound surface, leading to soil loss and stream contamination. To address this issue, the mound is regraded to collect water and redirect it to the stream before contamination occurs.

Harvesting and managing edible plants have long been local traditions. These practices are employed to have restore the salmon runs. Driftwood from the logging industry is collected and laid on the slope to serve as a growing medium for licorice ferns, whose roots are a primary food source. These logs retain soil from thimbleberries, salmonberries, and more.

The Salmonid Shrine

Location: Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC

Designer: Chun Wang

Time: 2022

Instructor: Sara Jacobs, Tatiana Nozaki

One of the most important role landscape architecture has is to pursue the reconciliation between people and the environment which has been alienated by modernity, colonization, and industrialization. It helps people to immerse into nature, be inspired by nature, and rebuild their sense of belonging to the land and community.

The salmonid shrine contemplates the kinship between Indigenous people and salmon, delves into their history of gathering, consuming, and worshipping the fish. It is on the Beaver Creek, a place of a historical salmon run. My design takes advantae of the notion of people "looking own" when stepping on stepstones over the water. It slows people down, bringing their attention to the water, and those paying homage to the fish. The circular form of space thus recalls a sense of meditation and concentration.

Cross Section

A healthy river of salmon runs needs clear running water. Water from neighboring swamp is rerouted to the center of the space, driving the circular water feature and flow over the inscription of salmons in the launguages of people associated with the fish

The Trail for Transformation

Location: Green Lake, Whistler, BC

Designer: Chun Wang

Time: 2024

Instructor: Alexandra van Zyl

Point 2: Passing the mysterious trail between native shrubs. Approaching the lake.

The Trail of Transformation changes Whistler's Nicklaus North Gold Course's to a site of reconnection, reciprocity, and mutual understanding. On the site of Lil'wat people's transformers story. The trail curates the clock-wise walking path, bringing people to Green Lake and Fitzsimmons Creek, helping them immensing into the past. Inspired by Arnold Van Gennep's The Rite of Passage, nine points of stopping are provided, isolates people from the present, transforming them by personal perception to water, and eventually re-emerge them with awareness to Indigenous right and climate change.

Redirecting

Nicklaus North Golf

Point 4: Sitting by the water. Hearing the sound of the river and the wave.

Point 6: Sitting low by the creek. Feeling the flowing water.

Point 7: Seeing the glacier and the river. Understanding the water system and the climate crisis.

Point 8: Sitting around. Joining Indigenous knowledge sessions.

The Archipelago | A Healing Garden to Depression

Location: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC

Designer: Chun Wang

Time: 2024

Instructor: Alexandra van Zyl

The Healing Garden targets DEPRESSION, a place where students can execute mindfulness practice, a treatment proven effective. The garden has islands that encourage visitors ro stop and concentrate on natural elements, like water, plants, foliage, and light. It consists of meandering paths and mounds covered by moss. Light beams project through trees in summer and patches of mosses grow on rocks composing like islands in winter. It's a garden of self-reflection and relief.