CEDAR COVE SAMPLER

Bodily Choreography for Cognitive Immersion

Jordan Yule

Daniel Roerh

“Cedar Cove Sampler: Bodily Choreography for CognitiveImmersion” was an investigation into how a marginal fragment of post-industrial land can be experientially maximized in spite of its size and shape. Using a theoretical framework derived from Japanese ZenGardens, and developed through the observations of Architect andLandscape Theorist, Marc Treib, choreographed bodily engagement is used to enhance physical and cognitive immersion in the landscape.

The objective of this project was to design a park following these principles in a lower-income neighbourhood where access to immersive and restorative landscapes is reduced. The site is located in the North East of Vancouver, in a neighbourhood sectioned off from Burrard Inlet by an industrial shore-line. The land in question is part of the unceded, ancestral lands of the Squamish First Nation, near the land-form referred to, and translated as, Cedar Cove.

This is why I call my project “Cedar Cove Sampler”. Both because it is a sampler of possible landscape choreographies, and also because it is a rough and wildly diminished sample of the immersive and relational landscape that existed here prior to settlement.

“WILD” (SAMPLE 1/4)

"WILD" (Sample 1/4)

“STILL” (SAMPLE 2/4)

"STILL” (SAMPLE 2/4)

SITE WEDGED BETWEEN ROAD AND RAIL

SITE WEDGED BETWEEN ROAD AND RAIL

Theory diagramZen garden choreography

tHEORY DEVELOPED THROUGH CLOSE ANALYSIS OF ZEN GARDEN CHOREOGRAPHY