A bs t r a c t
Situated in the Coastal Mountain Range of BC, The Pemberton Valley is a place of beauty and contrast. Snow capped mountains, glacier fed rivers, and towering forests dominate the visual landscape. The contrast lies in man’s quest to conquer this landscape through interventions focused on resource extraction. This project uses the post-extraction landscape called the slash to explore these contrasts. The term slash refers to the state a forest is left in after it has been logged. Roads are cut deep into the hillsides. Stumps dot the barren landscape, punctuated by piles of logs and debris . It is a violent terrain, especially when contrasted with the surrounding borders of untouched forest. Although it is a landscape of destruction and violence, it is also a landscape of transition,over time new growth emerges from the rubble and the forest regenerates. This project explores architectures role as a mediator in the relationship between Man and Wild in this condition. An architectural intervention in the slash will function as a record of man’s destructive forces and also provide a static reference of the forests regeneration. Architecture that functions as a place of retreat and escape will not only create an immediate connection to nature, but also provide a setting to reflect on the impacts of humanities destructive actions in the wilderness.