Keenan Ngo
Buried Landscapes (Carrying
Place Trail, Ontario)
Between Toronto and Lake Simcoe, an indigenous portage route called the Carrying Place Trail was used for thousands of years prior to the arrival of settlers to North America. Urbanism has erased the trail leaving scattered remnants in a fragmented landscape. These fragments are an archipelago of stories and memories under a disturbed ground.
To have an intimate relationship with the land requires respect and a curiosity for discovery—seeking out and learning the stories and knowledge hidden beneath the surface. How can architecture reclaim urbanism, alter landforms, and reconstruct landscapes to uncover history and engage with the land for a sense of place? How do we respect what came before and make new connections between people, community, and place for a sense of being?
Four stations at significant moments of disruption acknowledge scars in the land and catalogue different techniques for addressing disruptions in the landscape. They are the first of many that begin a process of transformation.
© Archipelago Studio 2020 @ the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto.