The Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2010 grants in support of research, communication and scholarship. "This year’s grants reflect the diversity of disciplines who share the Foundation’s goal of balancing human use and enjoyment of land with conservation and health of the environment,” said Cecelia Paine, LACF president, in announcing these awards. "Each of these initiatives contributes in a unique way to understanding and enhancing the relationship between humans and their environment."
Adjudication
The grant proposals are adjudicated and awarded by a national jury composed of five individuals who representing the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairie and British Columbia regions and practice in public, private and academic fields.
Student Grant Recipient
"Resilient Form: Urban Design in a Dynamic Context"
Nandor Gortva, Master’s Candidate in Environmental Design (Urban Design) - University of Calgary; Alberta
Grant Awarded: $2,000
Grant Objective
The purpose of the proposed research is a very intelligent combination of urban and ecological theories, focused on the issue of resilience as the opportunity to combine them and thus improve urban development. An innovative approach, it has the potential to influence urban planning and design practice. This strong theoretical underpinning, as well as practical application has the potential for excellence in design.
The various meanings and evolving technical definition of resilience will be examined. Resilience will be understood broadly as staying power through a process of adaptation to internal and external pressures, rather than through persistence or resistance. The utility of understanding resilience in this way will be demonstrated by exploring how urban and natural systems are open, complex and evolving. The research focus will be applied in an exploration of more sustainable configurations of urban spatial structure and built form in order to demonstrate its utility for urban planning and design practice.
Professional Grant Recipients
“Innate Terrain”
Alissa North, Assistant Professor, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto
Grant Awarded: $8,000
Awarded the Gunter Schoch Bursary
Innate Terrain, a one-day national symposium and two week exhibition on the exemplary work of established and emerging Canadian landscape architects received “seed” funding from the LACF in 2009. This grant will assist with the compilation and publication of the work, ideas and emerging trends exhibited in over four generations of Canadian landscape architects.
The publication will document the projects collected for Transforming Landscapes, the exhibition inaugurated at the seventy-fifth congress of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. By showcasing the exemplary Canadian projects of established and emerging Canadian landscape architects, the publication aims to locate Canadian landscape architects in North American and international contexts, thereby relaying a distinct approach practiced by Canadian landscape architects.
“Getting to Minus 80: Low Carbon Community Solutions”
Elisa Campbell, Patrick Condon, Ronald Kellett, the Design Centre for Sustainability, University of British Columbia.
Grant Awarded: $5,000
Grant Objective
The Getting to Minus 80 project will assist public and private sector planning and design practitioners in moving Canadian municipalities from high-level sustainability intentions to implementable low carbon community policy approaches. This research and publication will provide strategies for achieving a minimum 50% reduction in current per capita energy consumption and associated GHG emissions solely through sustainable community land use and transportation planning. Based on “real world” case studies, this project will provide illustrations and measured evaluation of design strategies applicable to Canadian municipalities. Partners in this project are the Institute for Sustainable Horticulture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the Township of Langley. One highlight of the project will be the role of agriculture in achieving low carbon communities.
Among other outcomes, the project will result in the “Low Carbon Community Solutions” book and web content, which will synthesize sub-urban strategies and those for urbanized inner cities.
“Ce jardin est-il un écosystème, un parc ou un musée?” Is this Garden an Ecosystem, a Park or a Museum?
Guy Tremblay, AAPC, CSLA
Grant Awarded: $2,500
Grant Objective
Cinchona Gardens, Jamaica is a semi-abandoned, historic botanical garden, which has sustained damage during successive storms. These gardens border on a national park. The gardens and national park are recognized for their biodiversity. The national park is being impacted by nearby deforestation. The garden serves as a local recreation site and has high ecotourism and educational value. Specifically, this project aims to develop and test a grid of sustainable design criteria for the restoration of Chinchona Gardens. Moreover, the research and intervention will be carried out in collaboration with Jamaican partners to conserve an important element of Caribbean heritage, the only high elevation botanic gardens in this part of the world that was developed between 1860 and 1920.
“Alternative Surface Consolidation in Northern Climates”
Anna Thurmayr, CSLA and Dr. Kris Dick; Professors at the University of Manitoba
Grant Awarded: $2,500
Grant Objective
The aim of the proposed research is to test economical and ecological construction methods in the cold prairie climate of Winnipeg. Contrary to the dominant methods of hard surfacing this project will explore techniques, which allow infiltration of precipitation. The research will focus on a technique known as the gravel lawn. In temperate climates gravel lawn is suitable for parking areas and is often used as emergency access routes. The application and suitability to the cold prairie climate will be tested. Based on the comprehensive research the goal of the project is to provide successful construction recommendations and to market alternatives through publication of the research results.
For further information on LACF grants, please contact:
Faye Langmaid, FCSLA, MCIP
Chair of the LACF Grants Programme
fayepaul@mnsi.net
For information on the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation or to make a charitable donation, go to www.lacf.ca
