Fourth Year Design Studio
Carleton University, 2022
Tank Worlds Website
Students: Stephanie Alkhoury, Madelyn Byrtus, Frederic Darbouze, Nishant Dave, Noah Desjardin, Charlotte Egan, Pauline Gahunia, Tobia Graziani, Simran Kaur, Alice Luong, Megan Maksymyshyn, Ramon Renderos Soto, Sarah Van Alstyne, Dan Vu
This studio uses tank world models to develop an alternate future for Port Hope, Ontario. Port Hope is home to one of the oldest and largest uranium conversion facilities in Canada, formerly known as Eldorado Mining and Refinery Limited. Between 1933 to 1953, waste from the refining process was distributed throughout the town, leading to large-scale soil and sediment contamination. In 1987, Port Hope Harbour was officially designated as one of Canada’s nine Great Lakes ‘Areas of Concern’. The federal government commissioned the Port Hope Area Initiative Project for an extensive remediation of sites throughout Port Hope as well as the harbour itself. Remediation is well underway, but how the public will occupy remediated sites in the future is unclear.
Using tank-world models, mappings reliant on GIS and satellite imagery, and video, students designed possible futures for a portion of Port Hope harbour and surrounding areas. In the tanks, water represents both water and air; ground is constructed within and upon this shifting medium. Oil, dye, sand, and other particulates simulate airborne pollutants as well as contaminated soil and sediment. Architectural models / instruments/ infrastructures made of plexiglass, steel, plaster, and other materials are suspended within, rest upon, or sank into this fluid environment. Components dredged, contained, filtered, and sequestered contaminants, leading to design interventions that in turn act as instruments, infrastructures, and architectures of remediation, tending and caring for the site as it recovers over time.