Agata Mrozowski Portfolio

AGATA MROZOWSKI

Visual Communication, Fall 2020

Instructor: Fadi Masoud

University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Landscape Architecture

Visualizing Cahokia

Driving east on Collinsville Rd, in the Mississippi valley, gentle mounds swell above the horizon line. The grassy volumes reaching for the sky cover kilometer stretches of the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Oak, hickory, and cedar stand stoically, their vascular webs pulsating and cycling life, holding the secrets of time past.

The 120 earthen mounds, are signs of a time dating back to the 11th and 14th Century where the largest metropolis north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico and Central America stood. Aligned to the constellations in the celestial skies, and the solstice calendar, the mounds were sculpted by hand and basket, shifting land in honour of the chiefs - the greatest expression of loyalty. The depth of this devotion is best exemplified in the largest of the earthworks, Monks Mound, where a climb up the summit to where the governance resided, lends an immense view of the territory meeting the cosmos.

Opposite page: Axonometric drawing visualizing the mounds in relationship to the celestial skies.

Render looking east at Monks Mound from Cahokia Woodhenge, a series of large timber poles used to read the seasonal cycles through the sky.

Plan of Cahokia Mounds in alignment with the celestial skies.

Landscape Studio, Spring 2021

Instructor: Elise Shelley, Liat Margolis

Partner: Madison Appleby University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Landscape Architecture

Embodied Energy: Living Lab

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action provide a framework for this design of the west campus of the University of Toronto. As modern urban infrastructure is dependent on linear streams of material and economic flow that rely on the exhaustion of non-renewable natural resources often situated on the contested territories of Indigenous peoples, the proposal takes into consideration embodied energy – the total sum of energy used to extract, manufacture, transport, and assemble materials for the built environment. It asks, what vernacular materials can we employ to minimize the impacts of our ecological footprint? How can we increase the porosity of material surfaces to relieve the pressures off of the city’s water management infrastructure?

At the same time, energy is also understood from a spiritual point of view. “Within many Indigenous worldviews, objects are keepers of memory, and... are inscribed with or possess an animacy of their own.”[1] Embodied Energy: Living Lab, encourages land-based learning by establishing conditions for a ‘living lab’ that furthers the study of urban ecology by examining the relationships between the city’s material composition and robust, resilient, and adaptable species found within alvar habitats.

Proposed plan of Willcocks St., West Campus, U of T.

Material redistribution and system energy flow on Willcocks St.

Section of Willcocks St. at Spadina Ave.

Section of Willcocks St. at Huron St.

Integrated Urbanism Studio, Fall 2021

Instructor: Fadi Masoud, Megan Esopenko

Team: Nadia Chan, Tina Cui, Joey Ngai Chiu

University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Landscape Architecture

Re:charge

Re:charge looks at redefining the existing technology, industry, and open spaces of West Rexdale through the lens of the Green New Deal. Most of the site is currently occupied by the Woodbine Racetrack and Casino, with plans for a mega entertainment complex. However, the project envisions a different development approach that prioritizes community investment and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The proposals centre around investing in local renewable energy production to power community infrastructure and empower the community.

Opposite page:

(Top) Axonometric before conditions

(Middle) Axonometric after design interventions

(Bottom) Night view

Diagram of district energy potential.

The Efficiency Commons

The Common Sink

The Efficiency Commons takes the existing warehouse and manufacturing district and retools it for new green energy generation and green manufacturing jobs. It will house repurposing stations, new hightech industries and the Sleepless Circuit - a new entertainment destination.

The Common Sink is a large central green space on the defunct Woodbine Racetrack. The new park will include a horse sanctuary, a large wetland green space, a successional forest that connects the two ravines, and a land-art sculpture park that takes into consideration hydrology and habitat connectivity.

The Verve The Central Link

The Verve is a long north-south mixed-use residential, manufacturing, and employment corridor that has a unique typology of warehouse co-op housing and civic amenities that do not currently exist. It includes artist-run galleries, and the Knowledge is Power Community Center.

The Central Link is the proposed transit station that centralizes existing and proposed transit systems among three butting municipalities that converge at this point.

Landscape Comprehensive Studio, Spring 2021

Instructor: Behnaz Assadi, Todd Douglas

Partner: Nadia Chan

University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Landscape Architecture

Cultivating Relations on the Toronto Islands

The archipelago of 14 islands, are home to six Environmentally Significant Areas, including human and non-human inhabitants. For over a Century, their borders have been reinforced with fill to maintain their security, however their stability continues to be threatened by accelerated high-water levels, flooding, and soil erosion.

To address the challenges of this shifting sandbar, the proposed flood mitigation strategies focus on building out the edges through bio-engineering methods, with the goal of promoting accretion and sedimentation, protection of the shoreline, as well as increasing biodiversity and enhancing habitat opportunities.

In addition, the strategy of reintroducing manoomin (Ojibwe for wild rice) to the interior canals of the islands offers a way to not only think about the physical interventions to mitigate the effects of climate change but also asks us to consider necessary changes to the culture that shapes our relationships to the land, Indigenous land.

Wild rice growth cycle diagram.

The reintroduction and cultivation of wild rice provides a myriad of ecological benefits including: the filtering of water, increasing water clarity, decreasing algae blooms, binding loose soil, providing protection from high winds and waves, and creating a magnetic habitat for fish, waterfowl and other relations.

Diagram of identified vulnerable edges and correspnding soil erosion and flood-mitigation strategies.

Plan of Trout Pond transect.

Plan of proposed fish smoking hunt, amenities, and adjacent planting plan.

Prior to European colonization, the Mississaugas of the Credit hunted and fished on the islands, trapping muskrat, spearing fish in shallow lagoons and shooting duck, geese, and other waterfowl on its wild rice. A series of fish smoking structures are proposed to exercise the time-honoured practice and provide for a wayfinging system around Trout Pond.

Option Studio I Mediated Alps: reconstructung mountain archives and futures, Fall 2021

Instructor: Aisling O’Carroll

University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Landscape Architecture

Explorations of a Stereoscopic Lineage

Through reinterpretation and reconstruction, this project explores the role of historical representation and technology with respect to the archival document above and the popular 19thC instrument, the Underwood and Underwood stereograph.

A series of exercises in stereoscopic vision trace the lineage of 3D effect mediums to the present-day evolution of VR. An analogue device that combines a variety of stereoscopic viewing methods from old to new was created using a combination of reproductive technologies and as much found material as possible. The culminating VR reconstruction of the Mer de la Glace image provides viewers with an experience of the eroding mountain bases of the Alps, and the disappearance of the famous ice-forms to be confronted with the dramatic effects of climate change.

Above: “A remnant of the Glacial Period – Huge Mer de Glace and Grandes Jorasses, Alps” (94) 1829 by Underwood and Underwood. Source: National Mountain Museum - CAI Turin. Below: Underwood and Underwood Stereoscope. Source: National Science and Media Museum.

Opposite page: (Top) Anaglyph image. (Bottom) 360 image generated with open-source software experienced with the VR Media Player App.

images.

Lenses - Deconstructed +3.0 reading glasses, reversed and reassembled, two colour anaglyph lenses, and kaleidoscopic lenses inserted into cardboard laser-cut frames.

Stereoscope kit of parts.

Opposite page: Design process.

Handle - Photogrammetry PolyCAM App used to scan original stereoscope into a 3D mesh and isolate handle to create a 3D print.

Ledge - Laser cut scrap acrylic material using original instrument dimensions. Magnets secure headset in place.

Headset - Translated an open-source template for Google Cardboard VR Headset into CAD with modifications for laser cutting. Velcro for straps.

Slider - Bandsaw cut scrap wood, with plastic adhesive hooks, and added magnifying-glass specimen clips to hold

Straps - Leather scraps with velcro to hold cell phone in place for VR viewing.

Thesis, Spring 2022

Instructor: Liat Margolis

University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Landscape Architecture

Down By Law in Parkdale: Examining the City of Toronto’s Community Aspirations at a District Scale

Through the investigation of a 24,000 sq foot fenced off open space in Parkdale - property of the Toronto District School Board, this thesis maps the incongruencies between the city’s proclaimed aspirations around wellness, food security, open space, Indigenous land rights, and existing park bylaws, and policies that contradict the goals set forth by the City of Toronto.

This thesis asks, as park bylaws restrict cultural expression and practice within the public realm and disproportionately target the most marginalized constituents of our society, how can landscape architects move away from the myth of universal design premised on the idea of ‘design for all,’ and challenge existing bylaws to design with contextual specificity to advance autonomy, equity, dignity, and care within the urban realm? How might locally embedded bottom-up systems of governance within the community such as land-trust models, steward public infrastructure that encourages relationality, collective care, and shared governance?

Opposite page: Summary review of policy and strategy reports published by the City of Toronto pertaining to themes of education, health, food accessibility, equity, environment and ecology.

The values of the City of Toronto’s Coat of Arms annotated. The city’s official symbol is found on municipal codes and enacted By-laws.

Opposite page: Aerial image of the 24,000 sq foot fenced off property of the Toronto District School Board, situated within the heart of Parkdale, Toronto.

Above: (Social) media analysis of community grassroot organizations’ mobalizations, reclamations, and use of public space.