Wetland Wasteland

Abstract

The Lake Washington Shipping Canal lowered the lake by almost ten feet, exposing new wetlands on the University of Washington campus. The city of Seattle leased the soft land and turned it into a landfill. When the landfill closed, the university reclaimed the surface for a large parking lot and athletic facilities, as well as a wildlife area and an ecology classroom. Wetland Wasteland proposes a new layer, one that reconnects with the history of the site in a way that generates a new use relevant to the current context. An incinerator collects trash from the neighboring areas and gives heat and power back to them, as well as to a series of baths out in the landscape. The baths use the natural level line of the water to monitor the movements of the soft, shifting land.