In the summer of 2015, a second year studio at the Waterloo School of Architecture investigated, through design and discussion, the relationship of building, landscape and urban networks. The studio aimed to design for Toronto’s various ecologies; inhabitation, mobility, natural systems, infrastructures and cultural and social structures. The site of study was the Don Valley, a ravine in Toronto that forms part of the Don River watershed. This series is a collection of selected projects from the studio.
Proposal by Alexandra Sermol | Studio Coordinator : Lola Sheppard
SHROOMS R US
The Don River Valley has been degraded to a point where ecological systems are stressed and failing, and at the crux of this issue is ground and runoff water contamination. This intervention focuses on remediation through the production of mushrooms for mycoremediation. The network of cells within a fungus, called mycelium, filter heavy metals and other contaminants out of ground water.
The mushroom farming facility is bermed into the side of the Don River valley as mushrooms require hot, humid environments to grow. The system relies on the sectional relationship of this site – the close proximity of steep hill to river which enables a direct movement of mushrooms from interior growing facility into the wetland planting fields. Mushrooms are transported throughout the lower wetland areas via cable lifts to nodes within the wetland depending on species, and then embedded directly into the ground.
Sneha Sumanth is a graduate student at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. Her role in BRIDGE involves overseeing the website and publications. Her thesis work looks at the relationship of energy and architecture in the offshore infrastructure of the Santa Barbara Channel in California.
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