Archinect - News

Beavers: Nature's landscape architects

2019-07-12T15:54:00-04:00

In California and Oregon, beavers are enhancing wetlands that are critical breeding habitat for salmonids, amphibians, and waterfowl. In Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico, environmental groups have partnered with ranchers and farmers to encourage beaver activity on small streams. Watershed advocates in California are leading a campaign to have beavers removed from the state’s non-native species list, so that they can be managed as a keystone species rather than a nuisance.

Writing in Places Journal, landscape designer Stacy Passmore explores the amazing landscapes beavers create when they are allowed to fulfill their natural role as environmental engineers.

More and more, beavers and humans have become partners in reshaping the landscapes of the American west, where, Passmore reports, the aquatic mammals have been deployed to remediate defunct mines, re-wild marginal lands, and boost biodiversity as they restore wetlands and other riparian landscapes.

The beavers, according to Passmore, are "subversive animals are rewriting the landscape, changing its topography, without hardly anybody registering the change."

It's likely that in the future, humans and beavers will work together more and more, as climate change reshapes the world's natural environments. But dont count on them to fix climate change. Passmore writes: "As beavers are 'reintroduced' to more areas, we should remember that we cannot restore historic conditions. We must conceptualize a mes...

Four firms get public [park] attention in Edmonton

2011-04-15T19:57:32-04:00

To use a pejorative, the City of Edmonton was a "competition virgin." Soliciting design for infrastructure through competition is a first-time endeavour for Edmonton and this competition was looking for the best firms, large and small, across North America. The intention of the competition was bring design to the parks of Edmonton and offer the public infrastructure to meet the needs of the outdoor spaces.

The four winning firms– Dub Architects Ltd. of Edmonton, Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative of Calgary, Rayleen Hill Architectureof Nova Scotia and two-time winner gh3 of Toronto– were chosen out of 64 companies who had submitted 135 designs. Before construction can begin, the firms will need to enter an agreement with the city and the designs will be finalized after input from the general public. These five projects will split a budget of $13,200,000 and are expected to open in 2012 and 2013.

Here are the winning designs chosen in no particular order:

Mill Woods Sports ...

City of Trois-Rivières picks Paul Laurendeau's amphitheatre proposal

2011-04-14T15:43:10-04:00

The 14,000 square-meter, 10,000-seat open-air amphitheater will sit at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence Rivers. The C$34,000,000 amphitheater is part of a major former industrial site redevelopment project.

Laurendeau, a Québécois architect and LEED AP, established his firm in Montréal in 1995 after only 4 years of working London and Paris. He is an alumni of both McGill University and Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf.

For more images, floor plans and details, check out his website Paul Laurendeau Architecte and ArchDaily.