Summary:
Ghost Parcels address the changing of our rural spaces that act as natural buffers between cities. The thesis looks at how these are currently being transformed into sites for living and no longer for sites of exploration, admiration, and reflection. It investigates with how farming has developed from indigenous practices then to European/colonial homesteads and then, on to the current mass industrial practice.
Ghost Parcel is a result from Great Housing Recession of the mid-2000s. Defined as an untouched rural site that has been was divided into smaller parcels and planned for development, typically residential, but because of the economic recession; development plans have been temporally or permanently halted. Resulting in large expanses of rural land with imaginary site boundaries. In addition to the impeding development plans for ghost parcels, rural farms and rural land are also becoming obsolete due to the current trend of mass industrial farming. A farming model which has many questionable animal, health, and environmental issues.
The development plans implemented for the majority of these Ghost Parcels are bland subdivision developments, expanding over the rural land, promising a quaint life in newly developed landscape. Resulting in an erosion of these rural lands that act as important natural buffers between cities. These lands can better serve the population by becoming opportunities for rural recreation alongside low impact and strategic housing opportunities. The project takes ques from sustainable indigenous farming practices and transformative architecture of regional homestead barns to develop its conceptual premise. The Ghost Parcels initiative is to return our rural spaces to the public domain in order to create an opportunity indigenous agriculture education, agritourism, outdoor recreation, and rural retreat.
Master of Architecture Thesis - 2018
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