Uplands Futures: Explorations of a Place on Standby

The consolidation of Canadian military bases has resulted in the closure of many supporting military family housing communities across the country. In Ottawa, the Canadian Forces Base Uplands formally closed its base in 1996, however, its housing has since remained open. What was once supporting a busy air force station, Uplands military family housing has experienced a decline in housing occupancy. To Uplands' site planners, it is not considered an urgent site for intervention due to other priority communities. Therefore, Uplands military family housing is a place on standby - ready for occupancy but waiting for an uncertain future. This thesis reveals the site's present reality as an opportunity for active engagement rather than passive waiting. Photography is engaged as a primary communicative and imaginative tool for exploration. This thesis explores what one can do before possible erasure of the site's past, and before obsolescence is its only possible future.