Archiprix International 2001
University of Waterloo, School of Architecture - Cambridge (Ontario), Canada
William Alexander Radford
Tutors: Andrew Levitt, Janna Levitt, Tim Scott
'In wildness is the preservation of the world... It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brains and bowels, the primitive vigor of Nature in us that inspires that dream. I shall never find in the wilds of Labrador any greater wildness than in some recess of Concord, ie. than I import into it.' - Henry David Thoreau This thesis proposes a means of rejuvenating Cambridge, Ontario, a city situated in a floodplain that is currently undergoing post-industrial decay. The Grand River, once controlled for the purposes of industry, is now allowed to run wild and form a new symbiotic relationship with the city. Periodic flooding occurs, and development within the floodplain is reconceived to accomodate and benefit from this cyclical phenomenon. Under this new condition, the freedom of the river to return to its wild state is reciprocal with the flourishing of the city, making it a place of beauty and desire - a place that stimulates memory and imagination and provides a heightened sense of being. Returned to its natural state, the river's seasonal flooding wears away the man-made and consumes what cannot be maintained. New islands form and buried creeks are revealed, transforming the city. Fragments from the city's past are left in various stages of ruin and reclamation by the wild. Earth berms are used to protect historic buildings against flood damage. Four to six-storey perimeter buildings define the edge of the floodplain, with commercial and institutional uses at grade and high density residential above with views into the valley. An arterial road for vehicular traffic also skirts the edge of the floodplain. Within the floodplain a variety of uses are proposed,such as orchards, Carolingian forest providing wildlife habitat, meadows, and allotment gardens that benefit from the river's cyclical sedimentary deposit of fertile soil. The floodplain also supports specially designed two-storey row houses on stilts accessed by light pedestrian bridges as well as floating houses accessible by water or land, depending on flood conditions and water levels. 'We shall not cease from our exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.' - T.S. Eliot