Villa Canadensis - The Ontario Cottage as an instrument of rehabilitation

architecture;rehabilitation;Architecture

Bentley, Michael

University of Waterloo

关键词: architecture;    rehabilitation;    Architecture;   

Others  :  https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/3556/1/Bentley-Villa%20Canadensis.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: UWSPACE Waterloo Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

The tradition of the summer cottage in Ontario is a testament to Canadians’ close identification with the wilderness. Thisthesis establishes a link between the Ontario cottage and the ancient villa originating in classical Roman culture, a buildingtype that for over two millennia has given architectural expression to man’s relationship with nature. In the twenty-firstcentury, this relationship is characterized by a deep sense of crisis. This thesis proposes a new classification of the cottage:Villa Canadensis, a synthesis of the fundamental agricultural instincts of the ancient villa and the satisfaction of a productiverelationship with the landscape, with the Canadian desire to experience nature in a wilderness setting. The Villa Canadensiswill be actively engaged in the cultivation and rehabilitation of the wilderness.The site for rehabilitation is a decommissioned suburban gravel pit near Cambridge, Ontario. It sprawls over 200acres, and encroaches on several sensitive ecosystems that are unique to the Waterloo region. The proposal is for a communityof cottages to be built on the disused site. Through the combination of regenerative architecture and an ecosystemapproach to the devastated landscape, the occupants of Villa Canadensis will participate in the stabilization and remediationof the site, and will eventually become stewards of an enhanced ecosystem, a cultivated wilderness that they have helped tocreate.