Griffintown Studio

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Model: Re-excavating A Section Of The Site: Testing The Soil Remediation Process

Can the soil remediation process be a way to make sense of the cultural artifacts hidden within the toxic soil? I believe it can. Soil washing can be an alternative form for removing the earth around the hidden artifacts. By running water continuously over the ground, solid earth turns into sludge, the landscape begins to move, and artifacts formerly underground become distinct materials punctuating the fluid wetland around it. As the next stages of the soil remediation process come into play - screening the soil for large objects and then introducing bacteria to "bio-remediate" the carcinogens contaminating the sludge - the foundations of former factories are used for situating the mechanics used to proceed with the remediation process.

I have begun to make a model of this process, by taking the area where the Glenora Mill foundation have been excavated on the Pointe-des-Seigneurs. This documented excavation site is the only ones I have found, and it clearly show the scale and details of the artifacts. In my model they are still undergroud, awaiting to be releaved by soil washing.

Thesis Proposal

Thesis Proposal - Revised

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work Architecture

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Soil Remediation by Soil Washing. And Site Topography

I propose to design a building to remediate the Pointe-des-Seigneurs’ toxic landscape, by literally washing away the contaminants. A new industrial building is situated at the canal’s edge by the St. Gabriel locks and diverts water onto the site, enabling new forms of interaction between the canal, the landscape including the previously buried artifacts, and the participants of the park space. The environmental impact of the program enables new residents and visitors to regain a technological experience of landscape and building.

Soil washing and soil flushing are two techniques for soil remediation using water moved by gravity to pull out contaminants. As water infiltrates the landscape, the ground becomes more liquid, and distinguishes itself from the material artifacts that it previously encased. Newfound building foundations become point of contact between the central building and the site for incorporating the additional program required to complete the remediation process. This alternative form of excavation reactivates the material artifacts of the site. The hydro powered central building, like the canal, will reach across the landscape, and reposition the boundaries between the canal and the landscape as it processes the layers of history through its clean up. This program creates an environmental economy for the city that re-uses the technology of the site.

What would happen if the site were flooded with water from the canal? By drawing out the site's topography I can start to form an answer. Although it is hard to perceive the site's various level changes, when I have visited the site, the drawing gives an more in depth account of the highs, and lows of the terrain. I have superimposed the topographic map on top of the political map to blur the distinction between the federal and municipal plans for site development.

2 & 3

4

Images:
1. Map describing known contaminated sites on the Pointe-des-Seigneurs and around the St. Gabriel Locks. The yellow area is federal land, and the red blue area is municipal land.
2. Drawing out the site's topography.
3. Detail of the drawing above.
4. Topographic map of the site. Between the canal and adjacent landscape, the characteristics of the canal level changes are extreme and rigid compared to the more subtle, and winding changes in elevation of the landscape around it.