SHallow

Kendra Scanlon

Joe Dahmen

Two hundred years of global trade access has hardened shorelines in səlilwət/ Burrard Inlet, cashing in on waters and land as part of the global movement to unrestrained free-market capitalism. This economic model has driven the earth to a near tipping point of climate disaster resulting in warmer, more acidic, rising oceans. Examining ‘adaptation’ as the interplay of colonial water relations and economics prompts the landscape architect to take responsibility for baring the devices which uphold the status quo. Through this ‘making visible’ are definition of relationships begins to emerge that has the capacity to alter the rules, mechanisms, and comprehensions of institutions. How might adaptation design activate a transgression of neoliberal values in order to support multivalent futures?
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A return to the shallows brings local adaptation efforts into confrontation with the global value chain, actively disrupting long accepted notions of land use management and planning by constrain-ing growth to material histories and ethics which have yet to be fully uncovered. And while the shallows of a marsh may seem a passive recipient of conservation efforts, they are, in fact, more active in the import/export market than its naturalized appearance suggests.