Re-Imagining Periphery: More-Than-Human Visions of Cohabitation and Consciousness

This thesis uses the Ottawa Greenbelt as a case study to examine spatial notions of hierarchy and organization that have structured anthropocentric processes of land control and delineation. The Greenbelt, as a site of tension between urban and wild, exemplifies the divisive nature with which humans have come to understand wilderness and its non-human occupants.The non-human is used in the thesis to expand upon habitual human patterns of visual perception and architectural convention so as to re-imagine historical and cultural narratives that designate peripheral places and beings (both human and non-human) as "other." Through the revealing of invisible worlds of experience, architectural interventions are created that respond to species specific phenomena, attempt to facilitate interconnectivity between socio-ecological systems, and propose an alternative lens for understanding ethical responses to climate change.