Layers: Lac Leamy + LeBreton Flats (Lewis 2020)

This thesis explores cut and fill operations to create an occupiable archive of LeBreton Flats’ intertwined industrial and environmental histories. Employing visualization techniques which draw historical elements into dialogue, the thesis develops a method for understanding the cut and fill operations and flow formations which have shaped the region since the turn of the 19th century. The thesis envisions a reflective landscape for LeBreton Flats, which currently sits as a vacant brownfield west of the parliamentary precinct in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. This project uses time-based studies and sectional and layered drawings to question the perception of impermeable boundaries between land and water. Translation of the dynamic qualities of the site to a tangible scale is achieved through a series of constructions embedded within a reimagined landscape. These constructions provide frameworks through which temporal processes of environmental fluctuation and human control are rendered visible and accessible.