Project Entry 2017 for North America
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Retrofitting residential neighborhoods, Markham, Ontario, Canada
Synanthropic Suburbia explores the tension between humans and synanthropic species – animals who benefit from living in close proximity to people but remain beyond their control. It re-imagines human and animal interactions through a series of Ecological Prosthetics which subvert conventional housing typologies and enable multi-species relationships. These subtle, architectural retrofits restructure the behaviors and territorial boundaries of six animal species and their human neighbors.
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Retrofitting residential neighborhoods, Markham, Ontario, Canada
The compost chimney, extended eave and habitat dormer manipulate banal building components to create ecological opportunities and reinvent the architectural language of the suburbs. Each prosthetic augments human spatial boundaries to invite animals to inhabit the periphery of the domestic realm. The objective is to emphasize the need for ecological thinking in design practices and shift priorities from the desires of individual homeowners towards the quality of our shared ecosystem.
Last updated: March 21, 2017 Markham, Ontario, Canada
Beyond sustainability - enhancing ecology through architectural intervention
Suburbanization throughout Ontario has transformed vibrant agrarian and natural ecosystems into homogeneous suburban landscapes incapable of supporting a diversity of wildlife. The objective of Synanthropic Suburbia is to retrofit existing suburban neighborhoods into viable animal habitats. The project seeks to be move beyond sustainability, towards an architecture that actively improves its local ecosystem. Through the strategic addition of ecological prosthetics, the project offsets the negative impacts of suburban development and encourages homeowner engagement with local ecosystems. Each prosthetic is carefully detailed to limit its environmental impact and accommodate the biological needs of select animal species to create resilient architectural and environmental conditions.
Suburban standardization - leveraging uniformity towards economic viability
Ecological prosthetics are designed to leverage the uniformity of residential wood-frame construction in developer-built communities. Each prosthetic is standardized to typical housing models and prefabricated, reducing overall cost and enabling homeowners to affordably modify their existing home. In return, homeowners receive improved building performance and enhanced ecosystem services. Compost chimneys improve soil quality, limiting the need for chemical fertilizers; extended eaves collect and store rainwater for irrigation, reducing water consumption; and habitat dormers encourage insect consuming animals, controlling local pest populations. The investments of individual homeowners accumulate, resulting in a suburban community with increased biodiversity and environmental performance.
Innovative practice - expanding architectural thinking through ecological principles
Synanthropic Suburbia explores new disciplinary frontiers by integrating ecological principles into architectural design. By focusing on identifiable suburban elements like the chimney, eave and dormer the project makes ideas of multi-species cohabitation and environmental stewardship accessible to a wide audience. Though formally subtle, the prosthetics radically alter the performance and function of conventional building components to embrace animal species. These design principles have broad applicability and could be adapted to local species, construction methods and homeowner desires to create a range of prosthetics. Furthermore, the project speculates on how the multiplication of small architectural interventions across a community could have wide-scale, positive environmental impact.