Thursday, September 10, 2015 9:00 am
-
9:00 am
EDT (GMT -04:00)
Of the thesis entitled: Forgotten Landscapes: Restoring our Rural Imagination
Abstract:
As
our
world
becomes
increasingly interconnected
through
technology
and
global
trade,
consumers
are
more
and
more detached
from
the
realities
of
our
consumption
and
the
cultivated
land
that supports
us.
These
food
producing
territories,
vastly
exceeding
the
space
used for
human
habitation,
are
structured
in
such
a
way
to
displace
environmental systems
and
human
life,
while
simultaneously
being
degraded
by
the
growing requirements
of
today’s
urban
living.
Advancements
in
industrial
agricultural technology,
alongside
the
subsequent migration
towards
urban
centers,
has played
an
important
role
in
reinforcing
these
systemic
changes
and
the
growing disconnect
between
urban
and
rural.
Despite
this,
consumers
retain
a
strong influence
over
land
management
and
food
production
techniques,
though
often without
an
awareness
of
their
impact.
Thus,
redeveloping
human
relationships with
rural
landscapes
is
a
vital
element
to
addressing
land
remediation.
This thesis challenges the existing remediation approaches to problems of dryland agriculture in Western Australia by attempting to address the disconnect between consumers and their rural footprint. By examining and documenting site history, psychology of rural places, local wildlife habitats and ecological functions, performance requirements for remediation and long-term salinity management, the design of a new framework for land restoration using social infrastructure is developed. This design proposes an intervention that engages human and environmental dynamics to catalyze discovery and responsiveness towards rural systems and health. It promotes a diversity of social and environmental conditions within farming landscapes, leveraging under utilized land, flexible implementation strategies, cultural vestiges and existing infrastructure. Through research and design methods, this thesis hopes to reveal how an improved understanding of rural landscapes – by engagement with human scale intervention – can create cross collaboration and heightened awareness between urban and rural to develop a new consciousness of farmlands and the larger environment, for the benefit of ecological and human systems.
This thesis challenges the existing remediation approaches to problems of dryland agriculture in Western Australia by attempting to address the disconnect between consumers and their rural footprint. By examining and documenting site history, psychology of rural places, local wildlife habitats and ecological functions, performance requirements for remediation and long-term salinity management, the design of a new framework for land restoration using social infrastructure is developed. This design proposes an intervention that engages human and environmental dynamics to catalyze discovery and responsiveness towards rural systems and health. It promotes a diversity of social and environmental conditions within farming landscapes, leveraging under utilized land, flexible implementation strategies, cultural vestiges and existing infrastructure. Through research and design methods, this thesis hopes to reveal how an improved understanding of rural landscapes – by engagement with human scale intervention – can create cross collaboration and heightened awareness between urban and rural to develop a new consciousness of farmlands and the larger environment, for the benefit of ecological and human systems.
The examining committee is as follows:
Co-Supervisors:
Matthew Spremulli, University of Waterloo
Lola Sheppard, University
of
Waterloo
Committee Member:
Andrew Levitt,
University
of Waterloo
External Reader:
Dr. Fiona McKenzie, University of Western Australia
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Thursday
September 10,
2015
9:00AM
ARC
2026
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.