A Literary Landscape for Canada’s Next One Hundred & Fifty Years

The upcoming 150th anniversary of confederation provides Canadians with a unique opportunity for cultural and architectural exploration, fifty years after Expo 67. This thesis inhabits the intermediary space of expositions, between celebration and permanent imprint. It explores the architectural potential of Sesquicentennial through the proposal of a new public landscape on a contested site, one razed in preparation for Centennial projects in the 1960s: LeBreton Flats, Ottawa. A critical approach to the literature program “CanLit” (a legacy of Centennial), and more specifically to literary depictions of Canadians’ relationship to landscape, conceptually structures the proposition. Elevated walkways recovering the lost neighborhood’s street grid, new pavilions and soil remediation gardens, provide the template for the 2017 celebrations while also establishing a viable infrastructure for a future neighbourhood. July 1st 2017 provides an occasion for citizens to reflect on what Canadian identity means to them, as they celebrate as a nation.