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Submission for the OAA Headquarters Landscape Design Competition (2024).
With WT Infrastructure and Wild by Design.
The character and function of a landscape is often defined through the relationships between its components. These relationships create connections, form dependence, and define elements and communities based on context. Looking at the landscape surrounding the existing OAA Headquarters, we may ask, what is the building’s relationship with its context? What is its place? Is it anchored to site? Can it be defined by its relation to it? Through examination we have concluded that there is a sense of dislocation and arbitrariness in the building’s relationship to its site and the land. The site is missing many of the activities, elements, and processes that come together to create “place.”
The proposed concept was borne out of a process of site memory recovery, with the goal of better relating the OAA Headquarters to its context. Before the area was parcelled for business and industry, it was farmland where soil was turned and tended to – the land was productive. And before this, the meandering contours of the Don River helped shape the settlement and movement patterns of the Indigenous Peoples who call this land home. The site was not adjacent to the river and valley; it was the river and valley. The weaving traces of the ever-shifting river supported – and continue to support – human and animal communities in a rich and robust way.
The site memory is a history of various traces. Lines of varying dimensions, undulating, curving, stretching out across time, with some memories stronger than others, but all currently buried and invisible. A trace can be the markings of those who have previously traversed the land, it can be a recording of a previous use, it is the genetic memory of animals who cross the nearby riparian landscape. Like the Don River and its changing valley, the traces of site memory carve a multitude of courses, dictated through seasons, storms, and life cycles.
The proposed design tells the story of this landscape from memory, its folds and channels weave through the OAA site, creating new spaces for gathering and growing. The memory traces are represented by materials and material change, providing demarcation where there is a change in programming or plant community. Experiential and ecological dynamics settle amongst its energetic spatial structure. Landscape processes are expressed legibly as a more complex planting plan shows growth and displays seasonal change, and where water collects, is cleaned and infiltrates. The trace pattern envelops the OAA building giving it a more rooted presence. The building will continue to provide a sense of stability and shelter but in a landscape that will better demonstrate the natural processes and placemaking qualities.