The new station typology is designed to not interfere with the larger movement patterns of the caribou. Rather than develop a dependency where caribou linger around a station that provides food, this proposal recognises that food isn’t the problem, access to it is. While net ecological resources are unchanged, the station modifies local environmental conditions, facilitating access to food made inaccessible by increasingly unpredictable climate. The project is designed to acknowledge that architecture in the Arctic landscape can establish a relationship that is mutual, rather than commensal. The Caribou Pivot Station unravels traditional relations between architecture and animals, establishing a position between a trans- and a post-humanism. It contains a trans-humanist dedication to enhanced performance through environmental modification while rejecting the hyper-performance of
1 For more on the ongoing dramatic transformations in the Arctic Region see Chapin, F S, Jeffries, R L, et al. Arctic Ecosystems in a Changing Climate: An Ecophysiological Perspective, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1992 2 Miller, F L, Barry, S J. ‘Long-term control of Peary caribou numbers by unpredictable, exceptionally severe snow or ice conditions in a non- equilibrium grazing system’, Arctic 62(2), 2009: 175 – 189 3 Miller, F L, Barry, S J and Calvery, W A. ‘Near-total loss of caribou on south-central Canadian Arctic Islands and the role of seasonal migration in their demise’, Arctic 60(1), 2007: 23 - 36 4 Wolfe, C. What is Posthumanism? Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010 evolutionary engineering. Its post-humanist ambition decentralises the human in relation to ecological balance, but only just enough to mobilise action. A ‘man as animal’ approach contextualises the relationship between us, our attendant architecture and infrastructure, and the caribou. The demise of the Peary caribou, the result of human actions, gives us the opportunity to use architecture as a ‘prosthetic creature’ in this ecological network. Our co-evolution with various forms of technology and our consequent separation from nature can propose productive intrusions into ecological systems. Caribou Pivot Stations rebalance ecological and environmental conditions on site without transforming them through additional resources or energy. The stations simply re-direct these conditions to the advantage of the caribou. /
InfraNet Lab,Toronto project team: Mason White Lola Sheppard
Fionn Byrne Andria Fong Neeraj Bhatia Maya Przybylski
On Site review 24
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