TRACES: UNCOVERING A MATERIAL MEMORY - REVEALING WATER, LAND AND TIME AT THE EDGE OF THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

by Berjoska Rajnis

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture

at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia July 2010

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The undersigned hereby certify that they have read a thesis entitled "TRACES: Uncovering a Material Memory- Revealing Water, Land and Time at the Edge of the Urban Landscape" by Berjoska Rajnis, and recommend it for acceptance to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture.

Date:

Catherine Venart, supervisor

Ted Cavanagh, advisor

Deborah Gans, external examiner

Il DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

Author: Berjoska Rajnis Title: Traces: Uncovering a Material Memory - Revealing Water, Land and Time at the Edge of the Urban Landscape

Department: School of Architecture Degree: Master of Architecture

Convocation: October 201 0

Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions.

The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged.

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in to my city

IV CONTENTS

Abstract vi Acknowledgments vii

INTRODUCTION 1 Thesis Question 1 Landscapes 1 Intent 3

Site 5

DESIGNAPPROACH 7 Trace Concepts 7 Landing 8 Grounding 13 Finding 34 Founding 41

DESIGN ELEMENTS 54 Uncovering the Form: Water as a Cellar 54 Directional Strategies 56 Edges: Walls 60 Movement: Ramps 65 Shafts: from Cellar to Garret 71 Physical Power of Water 72 Enclosed Spaces 73

CONCLUSION 75

REFERENCES 77

? ABSTRACT

The water's edge ¡? Halifax's South End is a layered one, comprised of the natural shifts and an accumu- lation of the built environment. When these layers are uncovered, the traces of geological and historical imprints are discovered, revealing the essence of a place and our existence within it.

A brook, an esplanade, and inhabitable water's edge tells of the city's past, while a creek piped into the sewer system, and a large industrial area of infill, tell the story of this place today.

Through a process of re-constructive analysis and excavation, various times and their enmeshed mate- rialities are revealed. The essence of the place - its waters, landforms and people - unfolds, revealing the site's connections and its material memory.

In reconnecting the city to its water edges, this urban architectural intervention produces yet another ele- ment of grafting, embedding a stamp of our presence in an attempt to create new public space.

Vl ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following organizations for their valuable help during this thesis research: Halifax Regional Water Commission, Halifax Port Authority, Pier 21 Museum - Research Centre, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Dalhousie University School ofArchi- tecture Resource Centre.

To my supervisor: Catherine Venait, thank you for your inspiring thoughts and encouragement.

To my advisor: Ted Cavanagh, thank you for your valuable insights.

To Steve Parcell: thank you for your effort in editing this report.

Many thanks to Craig Rodmore for your continuing interest in this project and valuable suggestions. It is greatly appreciated.

To the faculty and staff of Dalhousie University School of Architecture and to my classmates, many thanks.

Most of all, I wish to thank my family, my husband Pre- drag and my daughter Una, for supporting me through this endeavour of the past four years. I love you.

And to my mother for teaching me about courage and perseverance. Volim te.

VII 1 INTRODUCTION

In water lurk the mysteries of time. There is a kind of river of things, passing into being, and time is a violent torrent. For no sooner is each seen, then it has been carried away, and another is being carried by, and that, too, will be carried away. (Spellman, 2003, p. 79)

Thesis Question

How can the process of excavation of a marginai site reconnect the city to its water edge and create an architectural language that embeds the place's his- tory, meaning and essence in a new form of public realm?

Landscapes

By its own nature, the land shifts and changes over time and with it our built environment as well. The landscape that surrounds us is in a constant flux, and therefore it is a never-ending source of inspiration for our inventions, allowing us to interpret and experience our surroundings differently as time goes on. These daily and seasonal changes create shifting landscapes where nature and humans play equal roles in forming our surroundings.

The activities of humans extend well beyond our day to day operations. These activities, overtime, through political, cultural, social and economic events shape our land, creating new landscapes and conditions. This phenomenon is a process rather than a product. 2

It is a condition that is characterized by movement, change, and evolution.

The process of modernization has resulted in industrializing and functionalizing of our urban landscapes and daily lives, severing our connection to the "natural world". Sometimes newly-created land conditions defeat their own purpose, producing negative Impact on both the natural environment and the urban population. Conditions of urban segregations, lack of urban continuity, and a diminishment of quality of life within the city are results of this process.

Interventions like these, created by humans, often lack sensitivity towards the land and the people who inhabit it, creating urban areas or edges that are characterized as difficult urban conditions. These edges, typically known as city fringes, or marginal sites, are seen as unfit for the urban context in terms of public life. However, a placement of industry and infrastructure at these sites is found suitable, as these elements are seen as by-products of marginalized sites. Very often, however, these city fringes possess richness and diversity: historical, geological, social, etc. As very dynamic and tectonic pieces of the urban setting, they create opportunities for reinventions, free play, and re-interpretation.

We create a sense of place every time we inhabit the land. Through this process of habitation, the language of our own space is developed. In the same way, the built environment on a larger scale, such as the 3 city, assumes all of its past - cultural, political, and social - in creating a language of its own. Because of this, the intimacy of one's home and the intimacy of one's city hold the value of ownership, a sense of place and belonging. To a visitor, it is a place that has an identity.

According to Aldo Rossi, the metaphor for the city is the one of a giant man-made house, where all parts come to life through the process of making and time. Rossi proposes a return to concepts of reason, logic, history and memory as these elements are fundamental for the development of the city (Rossi, 1982).

Therefore, the city is a story comprised of many narratives, a layered element that extends to the horizons of our physical perception and goes beyond into memory of time. It is also a story that speaks about the ground and its multiple layers accumulated over time. In the city, these layers are stories about our place in this world, and they reveal the most fundamental reasons of our being.

Intent

This thesis builds an analysis on a condition imposed by the juxtaposition of geographical variables - water and land; the built environment - its infrastructure and connectivity; and social and cultural identities of past and present times, in an attempt to recover and reconnect the traces of nature and man-made 4 patterns and memories that are embedded into the essence of a place.

In this investigation, dimensions of time and space are explored through a vertical and horizontal analysis of the site.

The vertical analysis explores a dimension of time through a process of revealing the layers of place, as a section through history, both natural and built. The horizontal analysis deals with spatial relation of the existing site and its growth.

The process of layering, connecting and intersecting these horizontal and vertical elements results in an architectural intervention, which reactivates the public realm. This new element of grafting is based on a process of recovering the layers of meanings that constitute the psyche of the site, the city and our existence on it. Grafting is understood as a process of attaching or adding, and as a product - a graft, simultaneously. The architectural intervention acts as a graft connecting the present site to its historical context, therefore uniting its past and its present in the architectural language of the public realm.

This process is not meant to be a process of nostalgic recounting of what has been lost, but it is rather a process of understanding of what the place was, what it is today and what it might become in the future.

The space in which we live, which draws us out of ourselves, in which the erosion of our lives, our time and our history occurs, the space that claws and gnaws at us, is also, in itself, a heterogeneous 5 space. In other words, we do not live in a kind of void, inside of which we could place individuals and things. We do not live inside a void that could be colored with diverse shades of light, we live inside a set of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not superimposable on one another. (Foucault, 1986, p.23)

Site

The site of this architectural exploration is situated at the southeastern edge of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is an area where the land and water once intersected, creating the elemental "edge" — one belonging to the land, and the other to the water.

At the turn of the 20th century, with a rapid development of industry and trade, this "edge" changed dramatically. Through the process of cut and fill, portions of Halifax peninsula with the area of the the waters of Halifax Harbour were reclaimed, site highlighted creating additional land in order to accommodate the connection of deep water ocean terminals and rail. This transformation of the entire edge of the city was significant, as 25% of the harbour width was reclaimed at the location of the new terminals. The new land created through this process of "infilling" has left a significant impact on the life of this city and its inhabitants, literally severing the relationship of the city to its water edge and the way people inhabit it. Site:Halifax South End (aerial photo) Lighter area represents the infill, while the dark area in this aerial This condition has created experiential and photo is the line of the original water programmatic fragments with no urban continuity, edge. Photo source: where neighbourhoods are separated physically from Nova Scotia Government, each other, from the life of the city, and from one of its Nova Scotia Geographic Information Services, 2002 most fundamental elements - the city's water edge. 6 If one can establish a track through space which m jm, m m± becomes the actual path of movement of large ¿¡¿jrrjjjr¡m number of people, or participators, and can design the area adjacent to it to produce a continuous flow or harmonic experience as one moves over that track in space, successful designs in cities will be created. (Bacon, 1967, p. 34)

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Illustration: Paul Klee (lithograph). From: Design of Cities by Edmund Bacon

"Paul Klee's drawings capturing the idea of two lines of central movement that represent essentials, the basic design structure - the public aspect, while the outer rays and the forms produced by their interactions are nonessentials, the individual works, and therefore suitable subject for freedom...yet the whole has a kind of unity only because of the powerful cohesive effect of the central line of movement, which binds them all together and from which they derive their strength." (Bacon, 1967, p. 241) 7

DESIGN APPROACH

Trace Concepts

Christopher Girat, in his essay entitled "Four Trace Concepts in Landscape Architecture", writes about a recovery of landscape, which goes beyond environmental concerns and attempts to reconstruct landscape culturally and imaginatively to benefit people who live on it (Girot, 1999, p. 59).

Girot suggests four "trace concepts" - landing, grounding, finding and founding - which he uses as investigative tools or design strategies. "Trace concepts" especially pertain to recovering sites, using memory through processes of marking, impressing and founding as the main tool of discovery, inquiry and resolution.

This method is sequential as it unfolds and reveals the layers of spatial conditions that exist within a given landscape. Some of these traces are more difficult to discover and understand. This experiential approach has a complexity of observing and understanding of all urban conditions through a visual and sensual perception of place. As Edmund Bacon points out, it is then up to the designer to make the judgment as to which elements are essential, relevant and fertile so that they can be used further in a design process, creating a work that is meaningful in both spatial and time context.

When an architectural design draws solely from tradition and only repeats the dictates of its site, I sense a lack of a genuine concern with the world and the emanations of contemporary life. If a work of architecture speaks only of contemporary trends and sophisticated visions without triggering vibrations in its place, this work is not anchored in its site, and I miss the specific gravity of the ground it stands on. (Zumthor, 2006, p. 42)

Landing

There is almost an idea of relativity in landing; one might argue that circumstances change at every moment and that the perception of a place can never really be twice the same. The sense ui eiiiry and ianuiny is, therefore, personal, ix escapes clear scientific methodology and is almost always the result of chance. Landing is an event open to the elements and to the seasons, to all the customs and risks at large. It is, in fact, a living manifestation of the experiential potential of a site and thus has potent spatial and psychological effects on the subsequent thinking-through of the Hsrfa®L!fW53!k design project. (Girot, 1999, p. 62) Path

George's (siano - The importance of "landing" in this project is ...... Wesiin Hotel & Train station significant, as the site's first impressions remain Road for freight ..... HaMfax seaport present throughout the entire project. These first (Seawall) RliiTracksPlace impressions or readings of the site are vocalized ..... Tunnel through the project intent, design strategies and Deep Water Q Tenninsls piers:A,A-i,B design elements. As the first and the most important r Gram Elevators segment of the design process, the landing becomes

Harbour a step that sets a tone to the process of this thesis investigation. Southend \ \ Container Terminal \PierC \

Perception of a Place ?/.·

The existing site is dominated by large elements Point Pleasant Park of infrastructure: deep water ocean terminals and Xn --X historic sheds (Halifax Seaport); grain elevators and X) their complex system of bridges; a road used primarily Understanding the site by freight trucks; rail tracks; freight cars and industrial machinery. The presence of the ocean is more sensed than it is actually observed, as the connection to the harbour is visually and physically severed by presence of the grain elevators and sheds that sit on the seawall of Halifax Harbour and deep water ocean terminals (piers).

To the southeast, the site's edges are defined by the waters of the harbour, while the inland edges are residential and commercial, including a hotel and Halifax's train station to the north, and the grain Residential elevator to the south. Commercial Industrial The access to the water from the residential part Tourism/Culture of this neighbourhood is obstructed by a five-story Transportation (road, rail) residential building named Peninsula Place, as well as a massive area taken by the rail tracks that sits directly behind this building towards the water. The only access one would have to the "other" side is through an underground tunnel that cuts directly below the rail trucks, exiting right onto the road that runs parallel to A the water edge and ocean terminals.

The site's larger area also presents an obstruction for those who stroll along the water edge, taking a harbourwalk path from the city's downtown going south. This path abruptly stops right at the site, where the infrastructure starts. Continuity of the path is disrupted, and access to Point Pleasant Park, Edges which sits at the other end of this huge infrastructure- dominated area, becomes difficult, taking a person through a dismal area of strange structures, noise and absence. 10 Today, this is a place where people rarely venture. Not only do its hard edges (freight road, rail, ocean fe*=*, -tí .«».H terminals) represent obstacles for anyone trying to get through, but these are also areas of restricted movement imposed by the Halifax Port Authority. Combined, these elements make any casual visit an unpleasant experience.

There is a different impression of space that this place radiates, like none other along the Halifax waterfront. It is a strange mix of power and strength,

Ground: on one hand, probably heightened by the presence of on i= under massive infrastructure pieces and large vessels, and above - Water: serenity on the other hand that somehow make this Movement on/under „ place different than any other. It is the contradiction of these initial observations that originally made me wonder what this place really was. And years after, through this thesis research, I embarked into the process of discovery. 11

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Site's Present and Future Interventions

The Halifax Seaport has undergone a great transformation lately. Just 10 years ago, there was only a silence present here. The old sheds that sit on these piers were in bad shape, and almost no one would wander in this direction. The opening of Pier 21, an immigration museum and a national landmark, in 1 999, was the initial catalyst for change, generating other development and activities in the area. Gentrification of a portion of this industrial site resulted in seawall sheds (piers) becoming fully or almost fully utilized by different programs, mostly public related, such as culture and tourism.

Harbourwalk Path Seaport's Pavilions 20 and 22 are docking points for New Farmers Pier 19 Market Cruise Ship Piera) Pavilion a large number of cruise ships. The very last shed in Immigration Pier 21 «fé?ë&- Museum Tourism and Pier 21 Culture Annex the line of buildings that form a wall towards the water Cruise Ship Pier 22 Pavilion is Pavilion 23, a venue for big events and conferences. Events Pier 23 Venue The latest changes are NSCAD (Nova Scotia College ofArt and Design) and a new Halifax Farmers Market, which will find its home at what used to be Shed 1 9 of Halifax Seawall. With this latest addition, the place Harbour will go through yet another transformation. * *m All these changes occurred without addressing a major barrier created by the massive infrastructure itself, the rail and ocean terminals that had in so many ways

Point Pleasant Park / changed the life of inhabitants of the old water edge of Halifax's South End. Even though the area of seawall has been greatly revitalized, its physical disconnection O from the rest of the city remains a problem. Because Sheds of Halifax Seaport and their programs of this, a leisurely walk in this direction is still a very 13

rare occurrence, and the present and future success of this area will remain questionable as long as its connectivity is unresolved.

Through this process of "landing", the site is analyzed in its physical and psychological terms. The elements that strongly characterize it become evident: its edges, boundaries and connections, both visual and physical. Complexity of the site is observed through the presence of different elements of infrastructure: rail and deep water ocean terminals, on one hand; and attempts to "humanize" this area by inclusion of different public programs, on the other hand. The "feel" of the site then could be characterized as one of contradictions, where a need to create boundaries and a desire to overcome them clash within the same

space.

Grounding

Grounding is a process of implying successive layers, both visible and invisible. Sometimes the most important aspect of a given site is almost intangible. It is not necessarily what remains visible to the eye that matters most, but those forces and events that undergird the evolution of aplace. (Girat, 1999, p. 63)

A thorough understanding of the site requires a process of discovery through which all layers that constitute the site in its physical and perceptual forms are revealed, observed, analyzed and understood. Through this investigation an archaeological approach was taken, where one by one the layers that constitute the site's evolution are revealed: historical, cultural, 14 geological and natural. In the "grounding", every new layer that is discovered helps to define a more firm understanding of this place and its making. An understanding of the site's history was proven to be fundamental in setting the design strategy and later, in forming the design elements for an architectural proposition.

Historical Overview

A very different picture of this area was painted through historical documents and ¡mages. The Halifax Harbour of the 18th and 19th centuries was described as a hustling and bustling place, filled with life not only s on the water, but also at the harbour's edges. The Halifax 1879 (¡mage) The general area of the site as it city's inhabitants were actively engaged with the life was in 1879 of the city, utilizing its land and water resources in a Image source: Nova Scotia Tourism and Culture web site variety of ways.

In the area adjacent to the chosen site, at the intersection of today's Barrington Street and lnglis Street, the small park known as Freshwater Park was a point where a water stream - Freshwater Creek (Brook) - cut through before plunging into the harbour. The water edge, the line between the land and the ocean, existed right on that spot where the stream left the park. Remnants of this park still exist today, but the stream and the water edge have long disappeared.

As historical maps dating from the early and mid- 19th century show, a network of small streets with 15 merchants' homes and homesteads surrounded this area of the city then known as Smith's Field, and later in the early 1900s simply as Freshwater.

The industrialization in the 19th century brought changes to the way people perceived their surroundings and utilized natural resources and the landscape. A number of water-mills, tanneries and saw-mills characterized the built environment of this area at that time. Later, the introduction of the railway system and utilization of the harbour as a centre of trade and transportation resulted in reshaping the land to an extent unknown before. This radical transformation through cutting and filling of the land and water in the early 20th century dramatically changed the landscape and people's perception of it. 16

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Barrington Street former: Pleasant Street Smith's Field (Freshwater)

Freshwater Creek l'mJ&'fejfeX-ìc'Js' ' íg¿ P&Sj Freshwater Park Inglis Street Harbour (area of future infill)

" Pleasant Street iCTpíp / used to continue tt?$? ?/?:'? rtrmui-'-'-r' .-_- to Point Pleasant

Halifax 1878 (map) Map source: H. W. Hopkins, "City Atlas of Halifax, Nova Scotia : from actual surveys and records", 1878. Map modified by author. 17

Halifax Citadel

\ George's \ Island

Point Pleasant S

late 1800's infill 1913

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20th century development combined layers - present Changing profiles of Halifax Peninsula 18 Revealing the Layers

The recognition of complexity in architecture does not negate what Louis Kahn has called "the desire for simplicity." But aesthetic simplicity which is a satisfaction to the mind derives, when valid and profound, from inner complexity. (Venturi, 1977, P- 17)

Water

Water is what sustains life, and it has always played the most important role in establishing cities and in maintaining their existence. But water has, also, been a contributing factor to the death of cities once its sources became unavailable, either naturally or forcefully through wars.

People have always gathered and built their settlements around water sources. Historically, first settlements were on the banks of rivers or near lakes, ponds and enclosed springs. Later, as cities developed, a system of waterways was engineered to bring fresh water from distant springs and rivers into the cities. These structures, aqueducts, were marvels of civilization, admired and held in awe by many for their magnificent forms and the ability to bring what was considered sacred - water - within the walls of the cities.

The very first, primitive forms of aqueducts were built by the ancient civilizations of Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. Romans, however, perfected the

Water craftsmanship of aqueduct building, which allowed them to celebrate water in abundance though different forms of public life. 19 This water system had an underlying meaning in atf *t\ which one of the Titans - Mnemosyne, titaness of memory - used an element of water as the source of remembrance. Romans domesticated Mnemosyne through both the codification of public memories in Roman law and through the piping of city water (lllich, 1986, p. 37). Roman aqueduct of Segovia, Spain Built around 50 AD Photo source: Heritage Key web site The existence of water sources and our ability to visually, physically and haptically connect with them is essential for our physical and physiological health and survival.

Thus water will appear to us as a complete being with body, soul, and voice. Perhaps more than any other element, water is a complete poetic reality. A poetics of water, despite the variety of ways in which it is presented to our eyes, is bound to have unity. Water should suggest to the poet a new obligation: the unity of the element. Lacking this unity of the element, material imagination remains unsatisfied, and formal imagination is insufficient for drawing together dissimilar features. The work lacks life because it lacks substance. (Bachelard, 1983, pp. 15-16)

Ivan lllich argues that water is needed for dreaming a city as a dwelling place, and that in today's industrial world we have lost our instinctive ability to dwell and dream, as the water lost its sacred character by being removed from our everyday encounter, piped deep into the ground, far away from our sense to hear it, touch it, and feel it. 20

Harbour

Establishment of Halifax in 1749 wasn't directly linked to the importance of local lakes, rivers and TIE streams, but rather it was due primarily to its harbour HnLIrAX. and deep waters, as well as to its prominent drumlin that overlooks the harbour and its entrance. It was IV TIj-u ' : Subì a perfect location for a military establishment, from which this town grew and became a city.

Halifax Harbour, as the second deepest natural harbour in the world today, has always played an important role in shaping the life of the city and its inhabitants, directly affecting the local economy, and therefore all other segments of this city's life.

Today, the primary role of the harbour and its waters is for military purposes as it has been in the past; but also as a big international seaport, the Halifax Harbour is an important node for sea trade and transportation of goods.

The most distinctive feature of Halifax site is its large, deep, navigable harbour carved by rivers, enlarged by glacial action and inundated by geologically recent relative sea level rise. (P. F. Karrow and O. L. White, 1998, p. 410)

yilWIllllHCTWlilHHL ?*=· ll»3i35&36MisJ»3ASäÄ.38Hi>lHs St.Sf --£.-< Freshwater Creek (Freshwater Brook) "SARS Freshwater Creek was important not only as a source Halifax's South End 1851 (map) showing a path of Freshwater of fresh water for the people of Halifax, the military and Brook Map source: J. Del. Irons, "Plan of ships, but it also played a significant role in shaping the City of Halifax", Halifax, 1851 the city's landscape and history. 21 In a newspaper article from 1988, Paul A. Erickson describes the path of Freshwater Creek during the last 200 years. According to this article, the precise origin of the stream is unknown, but it appeared above ground in the Common's northwest corner near what is now the intersection of Robie Street and Cunard Street. From there the creek meandered across the Common, through Egg Pond (now a skateboarding park), towards the Halifax Public Garden's duck pond (Griffin Pond), and continued more steeply underneath Spring Garden Road, along the western edge of South Park Street and Victoria Park. From this point it carved its way more steeply down through a ravine across Fenwick Street and Queen Street and down the hill below the junction of Queen Street and Victoria Road, where Queen Street Bridge used to be. In the final section of its run it wove its way through Freshwater Park, plunging into the harbour at the foot of lnglis Street, right where the old Kissing Bridge used to be.

Standing near Kissing Bridge, Haligonians watched ships tie up near the mouth of the brook, whereupon sailors rolled casks up the beach, filled them with fresh water and then rolled them back down again. (Erickson, 1988, p. 8)

Freshwater Creek had a direct impact on development of the city's botanical gardens, created along what later became Spring Garden Road, supporting the flora ofthat area and making it attractive. Eventually this led to the establishment of the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society and Gardens, from which Halifax's Public Gardens developed, the city's well known and cherished park and one of the finest examples of Victorian gardens in North America. 22

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Path of Feshwater Brook Map: Halifax Prior to 1870 Map source: Halifax Regional Water Commission 23 Industrialization in the 19th century utilized this waterway in many different ways. The stream's force was used for running tanneries and mills, built along the steepest path of the brook towards the harbour.

Old watermill in Cape Breton" Freshwater Creek was also a gathering place where Photo source: Clara Dennis, available at Nova Scotia Archives and Records women used to wash clothes and children enjoyed Management web site skating during the winter months. The frozen ponds of Freshwater Creek were ideal places for skaters. These ponds were either natural or man-made, as the brook was dammed to accommodate the need for watermills.

In the late 1800's, this urban stream was piped into a sewer system, and it forever disappeared from our sight.

Halifax Common Skatepark- former Egg Pond Today, traces of this stream are visible only through Photo source: Spectrum Skateparks web site the presence of green areas that follow the course of this waterway that once meandered through Halifax. The only portion of Freshwater Creek still visible, above the ground, is a short stream of water and Griffin Pond in the Public Gardens.

In the Common (which Freshwater Brook helped define), Public Gardens and Victoria Park, these traces blend into their surroundings and are a pleasure to behold. In the gouged ravine, old tannery yard and area around Kissing Bridge, ignoring or trying to overcome the brook has met Griffin Pond, Halifax Public Gardens with less aesthetic and engineering success. Photo source: Halifax Regional Water Mixed results are common where man and nature Commission web site interact. (Erickson, 1988, p. 11) 24

Sewage

The first section of the brook was piped for sewage in the late 1880s, and according to Greg Rice, project engineer for Halifax Regional Water Commission, covering the brook may also have been due to development pressures to provide more land in the area (Halifax Regional Municipality, 2010).

The brook's disappearance from the ground surface in the late 1 880s greatly changed the landscape of the city. In places where the brook ran through a deep ravine, as is the case with Queen Street, its section between Barrington and lnglis St., the depth of the stream/sewer line is about 14 meters, and infilling its path has created the new landscape that we have today.

Recent Freshwater Brook Sewer System replacement uncovered old, five-foot diameter pipes made of brick and mortar with a circular cross section, while an even older type of pipe was made of rock and mortar.

i*/{* In the 1950s a section of this old sewer system T'a/ Sofr Soi*. collapsed on Fenwick Street due to an excessive Freshwater Brook sewer pipe (image): cross-section amount of rain, sending a truck some 45 feet deep Image source: Halifax Regional Water Commission web site into the ground on top of the collapsed sewer pipe.

Today, new measures are being implemented in the city of Halifax that deal with sewer and stormwater management in a more sensible way. From the time when the sewer system came into existence in the city of Halifax, the stormwater, the Brook, and sewage 25 have all been combined into one system. Presently, more environmentally-friendly measures are starting to be implemented by Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). These measures include treatment of sewage, as a part of the Harbour Solution Project, as well as separation of stormwater from the sewer system.

This new approach to the importance of a clean harbour might just be the right opportunity for the FRESHWATER BROOK SEWEH REPLACEMENT j ¦J-A HOiJTi- comeback of Freshwater Brook. The treatment of Freshwater Brook Sewer stormwater could be facilitated more easily than Replacement: new route for Freshwater Sewer pipe will run treatment of sewage, as the water is relatively clean along Victoria Road as opposed to its and in this case includes the stream of Freshwater original route - a path of Freshwater Brook (dotted line) Brook. !mage source: Halifax Regionai Water Commission Apart from traces left in the form of green areas, the brook still reminds us of its existence, but it needs our attention to be noticed. This reminder is the sound of running water that can be heard on quiet nights. It comes from the ground, finding its way through the manholes of streets in Halifax's South End.

Natural features of an urban landscape are usually obscured by man-made structures. In places, however, nature pokes through this human veneer to remind us that obscuring it can meet with mixed Today's end of former Pleasant Street, success...After heavy rains the cemetery (on now Barrington Street. At this dead- South Park Street) remains wet for a long time, end where the infrastructure starts, and water can be seen bubbling out of the ground the sound of running water can be among graves in a thwarted attempt to follow its heard coming from the ground. once-free path to the sea. (Erickson, 1988, p. 10) 26

Land

Every new work of architecture intervenes in a specific historical situation. It is essential to the quality of the intervention that the new building should embrace qualities that can enter into a meaningful dialogue with the existing situation. For if the intervention is to find its place, it must make us see what already exists in a new light. We throw a stone into the water. Sand swirls up and settles again. The stir was necessary. Thestone has found its place. But the pond is no longer the same. (Zumthor, 2006, p. 18)

Our built environment evolves over time and with it the land we inhabit changes, too. These changes are either a product of nature's power to reshape and change its own landscape, or they are a product of man's will to improve and change his/her own built environment. Configuration, settlement, erosion, deposition, excavation, infill are only some of the ways through which either the nature or humans affect the land.

The landscape that surrounds us is affected by nature and time whose effects are seen through changes of seasons, daily cycles of sun and moon, weathering, hydrology and, in general, through a passage of time.

In the world of built environment these changes are results of humans' adaptation to their surroundings, evolution of societies and a desire to overcome the nature. An understanding of this built environment requires an understanding of the relationship among objects rather than an understanding of objects themselves. 27 In his essay titled "The Reclaiming of Sites", Sébastien Marat explains that the sites are not blank surfaces on which we organize our urban functions, but places that possess sense and memory. According to Marot the overall sense of the site could be achieved by analyzing a relationship between its built environment and its natural surrounding through a process of recollection of previous history, transition, sequence and visual connections (Marot, 1999, pp. 50-52).

Changing landscapes aren't only results of natural or man-made process of addition to the site, but very often these shifting landscapes are formed through a process of subtraction and removal, where things hidden, or things removed from the surface became primary elements in reading the land conditions and in gaining a sense of the place.

As we have seen, Freshwater Creek played a significant role in shaping the city and in maintaining a relationship of the city to its water edge. However, its disappearance affected the city's landscape and with it the city's connection to the water edge.

Almost simultaneously with this event of the creek's disappearance from the urban fabric of Halifax, another reshaping of the land took place. The very same coast line of Halifax Harbour where the creek once plunged into the harbour became a location of the new land extension. This new act of land making would completely transform the relationship between the city and its water edge, creating an even deeper disconnection that still exists today. 28

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Sewage pipes presently connect the city to its water edge Metamorphosis of the site 29

Geology

The geology of the Halifax peninsula and the city's general region is comprised of slate, metasandstone and granite layers, while the sandy olive-grey colour of its soil is due to local bedrock sources formed during 70 the glacial period. During this period glacial deposition played the main role in shaping the Halifax region, as well as the erosion due to sea-level rise and fall. Glacier material was carried by rivers and streams and in that process created a southeast sloping of the land in the city. 50 H

Erosion is a natural process of weathering, but it

40 is also a result of man's use of land, excavation of aggregates, and reshaping of the landscape.

30 The important characteristic of local geology is the phenomenon of "fill", which is an anthropogenic deposit. Its heterogenic nature is the result of 20 resources that people had on hand when creating

metasandstone these "fills". Depending on its location it usually consists of earth materials, grubbing (soil and 10 vegetation scrapings), demolition debris, ash and cinders, and municipal solid waste. The thickest deposits occur along the shores of the harbour, where Stratigraphie logs (¡mage), showing the fill has been placed for land reclamation. These Halifax Formation exposed during the Railway Cut in Halifax. Layers shown "fills" often carry artefacts of archaeological value and in meters. are considered a cultural resource (P. F. Karrow and Image source: Urban Geology of Canadian Cities O. L.White, 1998, p. 428). 30

Infill

At the turn of the 20th century a campaign for a more developed railway system and deep water ocean terminals would dramatically change the urban landscape and life of its inhabitants.

Once again, the area of Freshwater would undergo a dramatic transformation. Here the edge of the water J.P.P.C. shifted, and what once was the water became the land. Freshwater Brook/sewer line was filled with earth even further, and the city's water edge extended deeper into the waters of the Halifax Harbour.

The methods used in this type of urban harbour infill were dumping and dredging. Not only did they affect a visible urban landscape, but they greatly changed J.P.P.C. the ocean floor, affecting its configuration and the life on the seabed.

These types of infill along the harbour's edge were primarily done in order to provide additional land surface for development. In the area known as Reed Rock, where today's deep water ocean terminals are located, the line of the coast was directly adjacent to the edges of Pleasant Street, today's Barrington F.B.C, ¡mages showing land in making, Street. The street used to run from the Halifax 1915 Photo source: Foley Brothers Commercial District directly to Point Pleasant Park. Collection (F.B.C.) and J. P. Porter Today this line is disconnected and Barrington Street Collection (J.P.P.C), courtesy of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia is a dead-end street in its south direction. 31

Rail Cut

The decision to create a new ocean and shipping terminal at Greenbank near Point Pleasant Park was made on October 30, 1912. The need for an enlarged ocean, rail and shipping terminal required extensive work in creating a way of passage for the rail. The location that was chosen was at the western edge of Halifax peninsula bordering the Northwest Arm. Rail Cut 1913-1918 Photo source: J.P.P.C, courtesy of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia The work on the rail cut started simultaneously at both ends of the cut - one being at the Fairview location on Bedford Basin, and the other one at the Greenbank location near Point Pleasant Park, at the harbour

Bedford Basin side. The project required creating a deep cut through Fairview Cove Contaïwr Terminal Halifax's slate formation, at some sections cutting 65 feet deep. The length of the entire cut was 8 km, connecting the harbour end of the cut with the main line at Fairview. The dug-out material was dumped on the south shore of the Bedford Basin to create Halifax Harbour

GreenbankReed Ro* freight-marshalling yards, while at the other end - the Breakwater

Point Pleasant harbour side at Greenbank - the debris was dumped Park O into the harbour in order to create a breakwater, a Diagram showing two infill points first infill element needed for constructing new deep (marked in red) and a line that connects them: the railway cut. water terminals

After five years of digging, the two crews finally joined the ends in 1917. 32

Deep Water Ocean Terminals

7 The section of Pleasant Street (today's Barrington Street) south of lnglis Street, right at the spot where the Freshwater neighbourhood gathering place used to be, was closed off to allow for construction of the southern turn-around for the Halifax Street Railway line. This was well before the rail cut was completed. The process of "infilling" at this location started almost Setting perimeters: 1917, F.B.C. simultaneously with the rail cut project, in 1913.

The first phase of the project included construction of the seawall and deep ocean terminal (Pier "A"), while the other two piers (Pier "A-1 " and "B") and cargo terminal were built much later in the 20th century.

Construction of the seawall, F.B.C. This project was very well documented in two photograph collections: Porter and Foley Brothers. This photo history of the place in making shows the vastness of the area that the project covered and the inconceivable scale of work where human and material resources were fully utilized in making the new land.

Construction site: 1915, F.B.C. The extremely heterogeneous composition of most fills leads to a correspondingly haphazard distribution of strength and compressibility. The varying degrees of compactions, organic content and stage of decomposition make many of the filled areas suitable only for wharf backup lands, parking lots or lightly loaded structures, unless suitable engineering measures are taken. Even those fills that may have been placed in a controlled manner using select material often have to be treated as suspect in terms of engineering behavior unless quality control records have been maintained. (P. Inside a diving bell: 1915, J. P.P.C. F. Karrow and O. L. White, 1998, p.437) Photo source: J. PPC. and F.B.C. , courtesy of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia il a ???G··-:

co 34 The project required enormous logistics ofengineering, machinery and man-power. Building the piers at such a water depth, reaching 45 feet deep at the face of the wall at low tide, was a colossal undertaking for that time.

A large retaining wall was built using so-called "shells", structural concrete elements that were placed at perimeters of the "new" land/infill, deeply extending it into the waters of Halifax Harbour. The enclosed area was then filled with debris, rocks and sand.

Finding

Finding is the alchemical component in the design process; it may be permanent or impermanent, the result of fleeting vision or some resounding echo. Finding usually discloses the evidence to support one's initial intuitions about place. (Girot, 1999, p. 63)

As Christopher Girot suggests in his essay "Four Trace Concepts in Landscape Architecture", finding is an act and a process of searching and discovery, with both tangible and ephemeral results. A found object, story, relics, etc., could carry a distinct quality of place, its essence and uniqueness, and it contributes to durability of the place's identity (Girot, 1999, p.63).

Revealing the layers of the site's history uncovered the following elements that by their nature possess alchemical quality and therefore find their placement in the design proposal. 35 The Story of Kissing Bridge

Memories of Kissing Bridge live on in almanacs of this city, like those written by Paul Erickson and Thomas Akins, each recorded in a different historic era. The bridge was built at the foot of lnglis Street, at the intersection with Pleasant Street (Barrington Street). First known as Freshwater Bridge, this wooden structure was completed in 1798.

As Erickson describes it, this area looked very different some 200 years ago. Railways and ocean terminals had not yet been built, and Pleasant Street ran right along the ocean edge to Point Pleasant Park. This was one of the favourite routes for Sunday strollers. Freshwater Park, the brook, and the intersection of two streets right at the point where the brook plunged into the ocean, was an ideal spot for leisure.

The junction of Pleasant and lnglis Streets and the mouth of Freshwater Brook at Kissing Bridge was the setting for the Esplanade, a park on the beach with benches lined up along a stone retaining wall. On warm summer evenings this spot was secluded and, according to folklore, became a lover's lane. Couples embraced, kissed and then carved their initials into the bridge's wooden rails. (Erickson, 1988, p. 11)

As the brook was turned into a sewer pipe, Kissing Bridge was removed and a roadbed was built over the stream. The railway expanded and ocean terminals were built right where the water edge used to be. The public space was lost to industry, transportation and future development, and the lovers' lane became a "dead-end" lane. 36 Esplanade

One of the first larger infill projects in the area of Freshwater was an extension of the existing ¦? esplanade that surrounded the area of the mouth of Freshwater Brook. The new esplanade took the form of a promenade pier.

The following are excerpts from Halifax's newspapers dating from the late 1800s:

Esplanade's point of placement within the present context The new Seawall at Freshwater is nearly finished, and ¡s a really valuable work, as it reclaims from the sea a plot of ground 360 feet wide by 120 feet deep, and will place at the disposal of the city several valuable building lots. {The Citizen, 1870)

»????¥? A number of gentlemen, residents of the south end, met at the Freshwater esplanade last evening and talked over the proposed improvements to the spot. It was decided to solicit subscription from persons living in the vicinity, and a committee, with Wm. Robertson, as treasurer, was appointed. Should enough money be forthcoming it is intended to extend the grounds into the harbour some hundred feet farther and perhaps build a promenade pier. A building will be erected to serve as a protection from rain and for a waiting room for persons coming to the city in any of the time. Additional benches will be placed on the grounds and a man is to be engaged as caretaker. The flag staff and band stand will be painted, and in the fall more trees and shrubs will be planted. (The Morning l· Herald, 1884)

1913 sewage system map, showing the area of the site with a plan for future land extension (seawall and Construction of this extension was done by building Pier "A"). Also shown is the esplanade that existed at the site before the retaining walls around the perimeters of the new process of infill started. Map source: courtesy of Halifax esplanade, filling the area possibly with huge rocks Regional Water Commission and debris. 37 Once completed, the esplanade provided an extension of an already well-established public space that stretched from the Freshwater Park into this new promenade pier. At this time, Freshwater Brook had already been covered and turned into a sewer line. The new esplanade incorporated a Freshwater Brook sewer pipe extension that cut right through the middle portion of the esplanade, with an outfall placed at its very edge.

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Shells - hollow concrete blocks Shells (image) Image source: C. Greene, Wharves and Piers: Their Design, Construction, and Equipment The retaining wall of the seawall and deep ocean terminals was built using hollow cellular concrete blocks measuring 31'(L) ? 22'(W) and 4'(H). The blocks were stacked on top of each other and filled

J.P.P.C. with debris, stone and concrete, depending on where the higher structural strength was needed. These stacks of hollow concrete blocks weighed 60 tons each, and each row of stacks was connected with the next one using large, so-called "keys" that were either timber or large concrete piles. Just the seawall portion of this retaining wall measured some 2000 feet in length. F.B.C. Shells - structural concrete elements used in constructing the seawall Photo source: J. P.P.C, and F.B.C. , courtesy of Public Archives of Nova Scotia 38

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Area 3 Collages: interpreting the layers - past, present and future 39 Grounding and Finding as Design Foundations

Layers revealed throughout the "grounding" and "finding" become the basis for the architectural strategy, the premise for forming architectural elements and positioning them.

In this direct relationship between historic layers and the language of the architecture, the layer of "water" - Freshwater Creek - becomes the water reservoir, a gathering and a public space, while the sewage/ storm water pipe that carries the same stream sets a scenario for a water collection and filtration process. The role of the water becomes significant on many different levels, including its haptic quality, which is re-activated through this architectural proposal, and its physical power that finds its use throughout the program's proposal. The original land, the coast line and the "infill" are translated in architectural forms expressed in elements that are permanent and heavy - edges - and elements that are temporary and light - infill. The rail cut becomes a new act of reshaping the land, while the deep water ocean terminals and their structural characteristics become a programmatic setting that unites the concept of "edge" and "water".

As with the "grounding", the "finding" revealed elements that carry strong attributes of the site's history. A bridge, an esplanade and "shells" become anchoring points of this design proposal. These elements that talk about cultural memory of the place are expressed through the analog forms where >¡i

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¡GßHWf the site 41 "bridge" becomes a series of pathways that connect different elements of the site and programs; the "esplanade" becomes a basis for the overall form of public space, while the "shells" translate into a series of "edges" that define different site conditions, attributes and programs.

Founding

Founding inevitably happens each time something new occurs, staking out the ground for future events. Still, it would be wrong and rather cynical to place all newly founded projects on the same level; a well-founded project remains clear in its approach and resolution, extending the legacy of a place toward a productive future. (Girot, 1999, p. 65)

In forming the design strategy and an architectural proposition; "landing", "grounding" and "finding" are merged and overlaid, establishing the reason, logic, intent and essence of the architectural intervention.

Overlay

One calls the forms of the art of building organic when they proceed from a true fundamental idea, and when in their creation lawfulness and an inner spiritual necessity manifest themselves, by which nature creates, creates only the good and the beautiful, and utilizes even the hateful as an element that is necessary for the harmony of the whole. (Semper, 1994, p. 230)

Each layer creates a map, a plan and section of land, water and cultural memories: some historical, some felt. These have been collected, analyzed, compiled and overlaid to give an understanding of the process 42 of addition and subtraction over time, which lead to the existing conditions and relations between the city and its water edge. This process of mapping reveals the context and its layers of history, showing their gradual change as each subsequent layer is added to the previous one. Through this process past and present are seen as one.

Three elements that inform the design and represent groundwork for this thesis exploration are water, land and time (memory). These elements are anchors of our existence, and the dynamics that occur between them are what we actually experience.

These elements take the leading role in forming a premise for design decisions and their unfolding. When extrapolated, water, land and time are y constants, and these elements do not need to have a site-specific context to be architecturally explored. Layers: transparency of plexiglas allows for reading of different historical In this instance, they become the basis for a site- layers, where each one describes a specific exploration and architectural proposition. The specific event. In this model the story of "Flying Fish" reverberation of these elements is discovered through is the one about WWII and women who at that time worked in a fish the process of overlaying, exposing and excavating. factory. On their way to work and back The brook, the esplanade, the bridge, and industry, they would walk through the tunnel located on the site. For their safety, along with the process of making, such as the making the guards were placed at each end of the land, become forms through which the concepts of the tunnel. "Flying Fish" is a memory element. of water, land, time and memory are explored. 43

Reading the layers 44

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Locating the Site

The larger area of investigation for this thesis is the "infill" area around a location where the mouth of the old creek used to be, at the southeast edge of Halifax's South End neighbourhood. Through research and analysis, defining a more specific location for an architectural proposition resulted. The site area being developed is bounded between what today is an apartment building (Peninsula Place) and the 1 800s edge of the land and water (Freshwater neighbourhood), as well as the infill land directly behind it, that stretches across the rail tracks and to where the new water's edge is situated today: the Seawall of Halifax Port. This stretch of land is where a crucial sequence of spaces and elements take place.

For the purpose of this thesis the removal of Peninsula Place is the first step in the process of excavating, revealing and exposing the meaning and poetry of the old and new water edge. This building was built only a decade ago; however, it has been experiencing numerous problems related to water and sewage flooding. It is located at the very spot where the Freshwater Brook plunged into the harbour, and where the old esplanade and its later extension - promenade pier- were built. Today's complex system of water and sewer nodes is located at this site. Right across from this building is a pump house, a facility managed by the Halifax Regional Water Commission. The purpose of this building is to collect sewage, pumping it north to the Halifax Sewage Treatment Plant where it is actually treated. 47

The location of Peninsula Place is considered the first edge in this architectural proposition, while the other one is where the actual water edge is today - the Halifax seawall with the shed for Pier 23 on it. These two edges become two anchors, two firm points of the design proposition, while the area between them is what is considered as a light, fleeting element, represented by "infill".

Program

In an attempt to resolve an issue of connectivity between these two edges of different times, and connectivity between the current water's edge and the city, this design proposal calls for the creation of public space. Water and its various edges become the vehicle of the design process.

In this sequence of making, one more layer is added to the existing built environment. This newest reshaping and moulding of the land grafts a public space and through this act re-activates what existed at the site before: harmony of land, water and people.

This proposal consists of three parts: water reservoir/ public space, nature/park/wetland, and public bath. Each part is characterized by specifics of its location and history, while all three simultaneously and mutually deal with the concept of "edge" and water.

All three parts represent a sequence of spaces and elements that constitute a public space. An element that connects all three parts and their different 48 edge conditions is water. The idea is an attempt to recover Freshwater Brook, in a form that is feasible considering the conditions that exist on the site today. Water is used as a life line connecting these different elements of the proposal. Through this gesture, water is returned to the water, to the place where its memory exists. At the same time water is a mediating element between the existing condition of the site and our own need and right to move freely through a site that is characterized by so many boundaries.

Water Reservoir/Public Space

The first part - water reservoir/public space - is located at what is considered an old water edge, where Freshwater neighbourhood and the brook used to be. This element directly relates to the layer of land, but it also integrates water as a fundamental part of its cultural memory.

Water reservoir becomes the location where open, Area 1: Water reservoir semi-open and enclosed public spaces are situated. Land, water and time/memory are synthesized through the program that includes a public plaza, water reservoir, paths, a café and a public laundry room with a common enclosed space between them, as well as a drinking fountain and a coffee roasting house.

The stormwater is held within the reservoir, filtered and moved to the next space in sequence. At this location, the water is more sensed than it is seen or felt by touch. TO fc= O) 8 Q. ¦s e re ¡? "e ? E ?> f "S

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Nature/Park/Wetland

The second part - nature/park/wetland - is located between the original and present water edge, at the area of today's infill. This is a fleeting element, a layer of memory/time, and it acts as an interlocking component between the old and the new water edge, incorporating water, land and time (memory) as its fundamental parts.

This area of infill mostly includes the portion of the land on which rail tracks are currently located. As the rail traffic has been greatly reduced lately, the program proposal suggests taking the portion of the land occupied by unused tracks and turning the entire area into a park that would incorporate the wetland. This way the sequence of spaces continues through the element of water that moves from the water reservoir into the wetland. At this stage the water becomes exposed, visible, and touchable. It is a sequence that carries progression of human interaction with water, enhancing our senses and awareness.

Public Bath

The last part in this programmatic sequence - public bath - is located at the current water edge, the seawall, where the shed on Pier 23 sits. This programmatic element relates to the layer of water. However, as an "edge" form that demarks body of water from the land, it also speaks of land and the cultural memory of the place. 51 With its present conditions, this edge is inaccessible to people; therefore, creation of public related activities and space sequence continues at this location, too.

The program proposes incorporating a public bath within an existing structure: the seawall. In exposing the wall's structural elements, the "shells" become the setting for the new beach.

Shells either partially or fully exposed become the new seabed: walked on, touched and felt, heightening one's awareness of waters that one is swimming or standing in, and waters that one is standing above, waters of the ocean.

In this sequence water from the wetland is moved to the public bath and culmination of our experience of water and land simultaneously takes place through the act of bathing and swimming. At this stage water surrounds the participant entirely and in more than one way: physically, through bathing; visually, through observing the waters of the harbour as one bathes; and psychologically, through the awareness that the land on which one stands is not actually the land but the depth of the ocean underneath our feet.

Water as a Life-Line

Water in this sequence becomes a source of remembrance of what this place used to be and, on the personal level, a remembrance of our own memories and intimate thoughts: happiness, sadness, fear, daydreaming. 52

? .^ „,r-*.W-i--' \_-?'-?. I? Freshwaterrresnwaier Çreekure \ ^..X* _ \LrtJ - original path New stormwater system T Marked path of I Freshwater Creek Drinking fountain Water powering a water wheel at \ coffeeroast house Filtered water to public laundry Water reservoir with two filtration 1 chambers Water reservoir - filtered water storage chamber _ — Wetland \ ????" : additional water 'i4,,,| ; filtration ¡J

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Movement of water 53

Water remains a chaos until a creative story interprets its seeming equivocation as being the quivering ambiguity of life. Most myths of creation have as one of their main tasks the conjuring of water. This conjuring always seems to be a division. Just as the founder, by plowing the sulcus primigenitus, creates inhabitable space, so the creator, by dividing waters, makes space for creation. (Illich, 1986, p. 25)

This thesis explores the first element/segment in this sequence, a location of the original water edge that is a placement of a water reservoir, a public plaza, and its adjacent objects. The other two segments (public bath and park) are presented here as concepts of the overall project and they have not been explored as architectural expressions beyond this point.

In conclusion, the founding established the main design form, position and a role of its important elements, creating a relationship among them and a relationship of the architectural intervention to its historical and present context. Through this basis of architectural narrative, more defined design elements are formed and established. 54 DESIGN ELEMENTS

The water reservoir and public plaza are placed at the very location of what used to be the Freshwater Esplanade. It is today's location of Peninsula Place, an apartment building that sits at the intersection of Barrington Street and lnglis Street.

The concepts of water, land, and time/memory are explored through placement of architectural elements that create a sequence within this given space, and on a macro level relate to the elements that comprise an entire project.

To remember means to be tied to collective frameworks of social reference points that allow memories to be coordinated in time and space. Not only are memories acquired through society, they are recalled, recognized, and located socially. Memory also orders the experience and ensures the continuity of collectivities....Rooted not only in traditions but also in images and ideas derived from the present and in a concrete experiential reality, these collective memories are not pure recollections but reconstructions. (Vromen, 1993, p.511)

Uncovering the Form: Water as a Cellar

^t: \/ ? -v/ The proposition to create a water reservoir is an attempt to capture and reinvent the idea of a brook: -^-"Vi. Freshwater Brook. Today, the waters of the brook /^V'i are simply expelled into the harbour, at the location of Pier "A", close to but not quite the same as the brook's natural path. The piped stream can be

A manhole: sound of the brook heard just before entering its last turn on its long underground route through a systems of pipes at the 55

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In creating the water reservoir the idea of esplanade in its original form and place is excavated. This is not a physical excavation of this built form, but rather a placement of an added layer that takes the form and location of what existed here previously.

Recovering the form of the esplanade becomes a starting point of this design scheme, where the movement and placement of water takes primary function. Here the water becomes sacred again. The reservoir holds it, filters it and puts it in use again.

Directional Strategies

The place that holds this body of water - the reservoir's top part - becomes a surface for the upper portion of the public plaza. The area that is adjacent to it, at the street level, becomes the lower level of this public place. These lower levels, as well as ramps on the intermediate levels of the plaza, open up towards the street, Barrington Street and lnglis Street, forming a quad with the existing portion of Freshwater Park that sits on the other side of Barrington Street.

The plaza's northwest corner opens up completely towards the north direction of Barrington Street, the 57

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Paper models showing development of design elements 59 direction of heaviest traffic, pedestrian and vehicular; while its southeast direction, with its series of landscape elements and ramps, stretches towards the tunnel and the dead-end lane of Barrington Street where the current stormwater outlet is placed.

The lower plaza's corner that opens up towards Barrington Street becomes the location for a cafe, while a public laundry room is pushed more inwards, closer to the proximity of the reservoir, at the location of what used to be the waters of Halifax Harbour. A common space is placed between these two buildings. This series of volumes/buildings creates the partial enclosure of the lower plaza that sits between them, the street, the series of ramps to the southeast and the walls of the reservoir to the northeast.

The continuation of lnglis Street is expressed through a long series of steps that are directly adjacent to the wall of the reservoir. The space underneath these steps becomes usable. At this spot a coffee roasting house is located with a water wheel attached to its outside wall.

The upper plaza, with its two segments and its series of ramps and bridges, is placed in relationship to the old water edge, the infill, and the current conditions of the site, including the rail tracks. These elements allow further passage of people, taking them from the first section of the upper plaza, across the rail tracks to the other side and in the direction of the seawall, the current water edge. 60 Edges: Walls

As the condition of the current site includes three lines of rail tracks that cut across an imprint of the old esplanade's form, the public space created is, therefore, separated into two segments: one being on one side of rail track and towards Barrington Street and lnglis Street, and the other segment at the other side of rail tracks, at the location of the infill.

The site becomes the setting for a new series of "edges". The first edge is defined by what was the original coast line. Here the walls are placed along this important line defining the original water edge and the starting point of the old esplanade's extension, first infill built in late 1800s. From this point on, the inner space is taken by the water reservoir, while the reservoir's top becomes the upper portion of this plaza complex.

The second edge is the one that sits at the threshold where a datum line of public place is disrupted by the presence of rail tracks. Here a thick retaining wall is built, cutting deep into the ground, forming the edge between the water enclosed within the walls of the water reservoir and, on the other side, the ground that carries the rail track. The form and dynamics of the railway that cuts through this public plaza is emphasized by keeping it at the same level with the public space, on both of its sides.

The subsequent edges are the ones that are located on the other side of this railway cut. Here again, 61

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This path of the water defined by series of edges continues even further towards the harbour, where the water in its path intersects the inner and outer edges of the seawall and its "shells" before it finally merges with the waters of the harbour.

The interplay of lines - edges - is in a direct response to the act of making the land and conditions that presently exist on the site, where the series of boundaries overwhelms one's presence there. Through this design intervention, edges become markers of the old and the newly created land, the edges that in its sequence create a way of passage for people while enclosing the industry within its restricted passage of movement. The boundaries that limit the area of movement of the rail are elements Conceptual model of the public bath: of public space. What is bounded and what is set Revealed shells become a visible new "free" becomes flipped in this sequence of elements water edge, while bodies of water are placed within it, and outside it. and meanings. 64

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The line of Freshwater Brook path is uncovered and exposed through the change in ground surface. In the area of the brook's general direction, a series of long ramps are placed. The ramps all sit at the land side of the original water edge, taking a person from the street level to the upper portion of the plaza. The ramps are terminated by a long line of stairs that extend the physical and the visual direction of lnglis Street.

The materiality of this first set of ramps is evocative of land. The ramps are solid, concrete pieces wedged into the landscape. They are the land. These elements talk about permanence of the ground, its source, but they also talk about passage of time and water.

The lightness of movement - people walking these ramps - represents the movement of water and passage of time. Walking is seen as an act of remembrance.

Solid ramp elements become hollow in their section wherever their path crosses the path of the brook. With this gesture, the brook is uncovered; a memory of it is respected. Long ramps become landings at these intersection points. These are places for pause and reflection.

As people move from the street level, taking these ramps to the upper portion of the plaza, the second 66

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This threshold between the old and the new land continues through the movement of ramps towards the top where high above the rail cars a metal platform bridges two sides of the plaza, crossing the rail tracks, and adding yet another layer to the history and another layer to the land created by infill. Metal as the main material here continues throughout this level, heightening the acoustical qualities of the space when a train passes underneath the platform.

Enric Miralles takes the idea of walking as a prevailing element in his architectural work. By taking the participator through spaces, the act of walking becomes essential, inviting one's participation in space and understanding of architectural elements and their order (Spellman, 2003, p. 155). 69

Movement of people 70

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Two towers are placed at the edges, one at the edge of the original coast line and the second one at the edge of the old esplanade extension. They both represent beacons, points that mark the land in making and can be observed from the distance.

These towers talk about the future and light with their extending vertical forms that reach towards the sky. They also talk about our past with their foundation encased deep inside the waters of the reservoir.

The movement of the stairs that run between the towers' foundation and their tops represents our journey from the past to the future, while the narrow bridge that connects them is a sequential connection of different time dimensions.

In an analysis of Carl Jung's "Modern Man in Search of a Soul", dual usage of cellar and attic is used to show our fears. As both spaces represent our fears, Jung comes to the conclusion that our unconsciousness, symbolized by cellar, is a fear we hesitate to face, as opposed to the one in the attic. The attic is seen as a light, elevated space where things could be rationalized, while the cellar is a place where the darkness always remains, and our fears are expressed in its most raw, fundamental form. This analysis is in the domain of phenomenology as much as it is in the domain of psychoanalysis (Bachelard, 1972, p.18). 72 As the cellar symbolizes the depth of our soul that is in a constant process of searching, it is there that we eventually face our fears and move from constructed world (fiction) to the dream world (poetry). The totality of our existence becomes our dream and reality. We achieve this unity through the depth of all our fears, dreams and thoughts. Here the tower becomes the keeper of our past, memory and intimacy as it is directly connected to the cellar with stairs. The stairs are, in Bachelard's writing, an element of a high complexity as they connect different spaces and levels of our imaginations and memories.

Physical Power of Water

Historically, Freshwater Brook played a crucial role in the development of industry along its path, with a number of watermills built down its stream, powering tanneries and sawmills. Therefore, the water took the role of a generator for the local economy.

The water of Freshwater Brook is In the process of reinventing the brook's past and the used to run a water wheel, which in role it played, this proposal incorporates the waters turn produces energy for powering a coffee roaster. of this stream in a similar way. As the stormwater pipe is directed towards the new water reservoir, the water of the brook is captured, filtered and re-used for the life of the inhabitants. In more than one way; the brook, throughout this proposal, finds the daylight once again.

The filtered water is used to power the water-wheel attached to the walls of the reservoir, which in turn 73 powers the coffee roaster. The public laundry room uses the supply of this filtered water for laundry machines, while the rest of the water is directed towards the second portion of the reservoir that sits at the other side of the rail tracks, where the water is stored and used further for supplying the public bath.

Enclosed Spaces

The design proposal incorporates three buildings: a coffee house, a public laundry room and a common space that is located between these two buildings. This line of objects creates a series of spaces that are interconnected.

The buildings' sequence of volumes describes the site Three elements: land, infill and water itself and its history. Three elements become three main segments of the site's sequence: the original land (coffee house), the infill (common space), and the water (the public laundry room).

The fourth element weaves its way around these volumes, holding them firmly interconnected. This element, in a more figurative way, becomes a new expression of water as a life-line. In the reality of the project the line is an arcade through which most of the circulation between these buildings takes place. It is a promenade of our movement and daily rituals. 74

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Revealing the site's historical layers, recognizing its past and current conditions, and understanding the process of creating the new land and built environment on it, were crucial in this thesis exploration. Difficult conditions that exist on this marginal site, where different elements of nature and built environment clash, have created an interesting setting for architectural intervention.

Reconnecting the city with its water edge through a series of architectural interventions that are strategically placed in relation to their historical points of references and their current context was essential for this project.

The element of water was used as a foundation for a programmatic and architectural proposition. The water reservoir played a role of an interlocking element joining the site's past to its present in a narrative way, and physically connecting the old to the new water edge. This important architectural element bridged a gap caused by infrastructure, creating new conditions where public life can take place again and water can be celebrated in its different forms and functions.

The element of land was used to create new "edges", which were defined by bodies of water; and similarly, the bodies of water became defined by a series of "edges". The interplay of these two elements draws its reasons directly from the site's conditions and its history. 76

Architecture responds to elements found and to those buried deep underground. Each subsequent response is a layer added to our history and meaning. It is a passing occurrence, like the water, but it holds permanence as a whole.

For an experienced event is finite - at any rate, confined to one sphere of experience; a remembered event is infinite, because it is only a key to everything that happened before it and after it. (Benjamin, 1968, p. 202) 77

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