| Summary: | The tradition of the summer cottage in Ontario is a testament to Canadians’ close identification with the wilderness. This
thesis establishes a link between the Ontario cottage and the ancient villa originating in classical Roman culture, a building
type that for over two millennia has given architectural expression to man’s relationship with nature. In the twenty-first
century, this relationship is characterized by a deep sense of crisis. This thesis proposes a new classification of the cottage:
Villa Canadensis, a synthesis of the fundamental agricultural instincts of the ancient villa and the satisfaction of a productive
relationship with the landscape, with the Canadian desire to experience nature in a wilderness setting. The Villa Canadensis
will be actively engaged in the cultivation and rehabilitation of the wilderness.
The site for rehabilitation is a decommissioned suburban gravel pit near Cambridge, Ontario. It sprawls over 200
acres, and encroaches on several sensitive ecosystems that are unique to the Waterloo region. The proposal is for a community
of cottages to be built on the disused site. Through the combination of regenerative architecture and an ecosystem
approach to the devastated landscape, the occupants of Villa Canadensis will participate in the stabilization and remediation
of the site, and will eventually become stewards of an enhanced ecosystem, a cultivated wilderness that they have helped to
create.
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