The lake as a vessel for life: an architectural response to connecting leisure landscapes about the Muskoka Lakes

Examining the anthropogenic change over the \nlast two hundred years, Canada’s landscape at large \nhas been molded into that of a globalized society. \nOften by means of the infrastructure that connects \nthese economies, the people that drive them, drive \nupon the roads and make use of these same modes \nof transportation as well. The research will focus \non the necessity of providing alternative modes of \nconveyance about the community at both the local \nbut also provincial scales. As means of connecting \nurban civilizations become safer, faster and more \nefficient, our own vision of space and time trend \ntowards that of a compressed reality[1]. A reality \nwhereby one place is just as readily accessible to the \naverage citizen as the next, as if distance and – with \nany luck – the emissions that coincide with traversing \nany given landscape are troubles of the past. Now, as we rely upon contemporary \ntechnology more and more to provide an immediacy \nof experience, that very experience estranges \nperceptions of landscapes and places that are not of \ntheir own corporeality[2]. Thus, the question is posed; \nwhat subverted intentions do people’s metaphysical \npreconceptions of one place, impose onto the next \nwhen engaging in true corporeality? In a period in which transient and trans-local \nlifestyles are colliding with those of domestic comfort \nacross numerous temporal and spatial agendas. How \nthen, do local populations perceive and interpret \nthe globalization of space brought upon by these \ntrans-local residents – daytime or seasonal – that \nare more often imposed upon localities rather than \ndiscussed? In a manner of collaboration rather than \napprehensive co-existence, can local, year-round \narchitectural programming begin to reimagine the \nvernacular practices within a given context, provided \na history of translocality? Without affecting the landscapes that continue \nto facilitate these exchanges of people, knowledge, \nand economics amongst these different populations \nin an adverse manner, but rather instill a context specific sense of year-round resiliency? How might the design of civic spaces within these inherently \ntrans-local destinations act as an inclusive space for \nall to experience? Extrapolating from the brief yet thorough \nhistory of Ontario’s cottage and lodging culture about \nthe Muskoka Lakes. Colonial-European settlement \nhas played a significant role in how the ethnography \nof rural and urban Canadian lives at large, have \ntaken form – both in architectural and societal \nmanifestations. Inadvertently, the privatization of \nlake-frontage within the Muskoka Lakes has been \na subject of historic subversion and contemporary \ndiscussion since discovery. Still to this day, finding no \nsustainable resolve. On a seasonal basis, the area has \nbecome so saturated with an industry that depends \nupon the influx of non-permanent residents, such that \nit promotes exclusivity upon the lakes, as the further \nprivatization of lodging ensues. Both, as the translocal “cottage” and archetypal Muskokan “resort” \nestablish themselves as globalized commodity, \nrather than corporeal experience. In examining the past, with contemporary and \nhistoric modes of lodging upon the lakes acting as both \naccess and destination, how can the reinterpretation \nof the architecture and social structuring of past \nresorts provide a new paradigm to act as precedent \nat larger scales, advocating for interconnected \ncommunities and landscapes. In that the implicit \nbiases assumed by each of three populations – the \nlocal, trans-local, and day-visitor – trend towards \nsolidarity and sustainability for all. The overt position \nthat this paper will take is that of the apprehensive \nresident, concerned with the privatization of the \nMuskoka Lakes so that generations to come may \ntranscend temporal constraint of travelling to and \nfrom the area to enjoy the rejuvenating, embodied \nexperiences that this unique landscape provides \nthose who reside upon it.

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