driftwood surplus accumulation is the mother of invention
photo - documentation | ad hoc structures by michael leeb
Pacific Rim National Park Vancouver Island folk architecture driftwood storms seaweed
On two occasions during 2006 (July and September) I visited Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Co- lumbia with the intention of creating a body of work, both photographs and drawings, of the beaches. Although I have been visiting this area since my childhood in the late 1960’s, I had only seen the hand-built driftwood structures on Wicki- ninish Beach and Long Beach as forts and places to play. Now I see that many of the structures have similarities to indigenous architecture, not only of the west coast but also further afield. Driftwood is Western red cedar, yellow cedar, yew, fir and spruce trees that have either been eroded from the shoreline or are the result of logging, swept to sea and deposited back on the beach. The accumula- tion of driftwood makes a seawall that halts erosion at the shoreline and provides a massive amount of material for beachcombers, tourists, park visitors and local people to build things with. In a typical structure, a roof beam with logs propped against it forms a lean-to with a wall on the seaward side. Some sheds are left open on the side facing east towards the woods, while in others the roof extends around both sides with an opening either on the north or south end. Some have the appearance of longhouses: they are rectilinear, have a post and beam frame, and a roof that is only slightly pitched with a centre peak, or at other times essentially flat. When dry, seaweed such as bull kelp becomes a resilient rope-like ma- terial, ideal for lashing posts and beams together. Other seaweeds, such as fir needle, seem to be used more decoratively. The diversity of these driftwood structures comes not only from their builders, but from each driftwood log, uniquely fashioned by nature through the forces of wind, frost, sun, waves, rain and the individuality of the original tree. When I returned to Long Beach after a heavy rain storm on Septem- ber 17, 2006, all of the driftwood and the structures south of Incinerator Rock and north towards the First Nation village of Esowista had disap- peared, swept to sea or silted over with small dunes. However, drift- wood and seaweed characterise these west coast beaches, providing an endless supply of material for a next generation of imaginative builders.
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