Echoes of Relocation: Reparative Landscapes for Landscaped Communities

Abstract

How can landscape architecture be used as a tool of spatial translation¹ for communities that have been historically landscaped²? Echoes of Relocation attempts to answer this question through the approach of a speculative landscape remediation project, evolved over the course of a century. Its story exists in 3 periods: harm, home, and hope; these provisioned through the palimpsests of the landscape. Through a forensic archival investigation of the Gordon Plaza neighborhood, this project develops a methodology to visualize the complex relationships of the community, when the land they occupy proves to be tainted with remnants of industrial refuse, toxic waste, and the detritus of municipal growth. It proposes a model of reparative opportunity and stewardship, while also making use of the primary tools of landscape architecture - time, soil, plants, water, language - to shape the ground with narratives of hope, while also visualizing the embodied harm of the past.