Puffin
Triangle Island is located approximately 10 kilometers northwest of Vancouver Island and is part of the Scott Islands. It is home to one of Canada’s largest seabird colonies, in particular Cassin’s auklet and the tufted puffin. A remote location only frequented by researchers, Triangle Island is a nexus of biodiversity, isolation, and a wild Pacific beauty. These three ideas were drivers in this proposal for a redesign of the Triangle Island Research Station.
The site is highly protected, the island itself part of the Anne Vallée Ecological Reserve, off limits to anyone but researchers. A fragile but incredibly important ecosystem, Triangle Island serves as a breeding ground for two million seabirds every spring and acts an indicator ecosystem for monitoring climate change. As a result, the proposed design is lightweight, non-invasive, and economical. About half the world’s Cassin’s auklets live on Triangle Island and 60,000 tufted puffins. The island is also the world’s second-largest nursery of Steller sea lions. A light touch on the vulnerable ecosystem as well as a a notion of field observation played a role in the design of the research station. Drawing inspiration from the burrows of the tufted puffin, the design aims to camouflage with the environment, not drawing attention to itself rather serving as an expression of reverence of nature. The researcher is subservient to the marine environment and its inhabitants. An outcrop of land in the Pacific Ocean, Triangle Island has been described as other-worldly due in part to its overwhelming ecological significance but also difficult access and remoteness. The design therefore assumed the role of a comfortable home for the researchers - cozy, spacious, and rejuvenating. As research is conducted primarily in the summer months, the proposal is to create a place where researchers can kick off their boots, socialize, contemplate, all within a well built, practical, and providing space, in a sense nuturing the researcher, giving them the protection they need to recharge and continue their fieldwork. The design is friendly, warm, and communal. The proposed design recognizes the picturesque setting in which it is located. Researchers perform fairly high risk work on the slopes of the island, requiring immense concentration on the tasks at hand. In conjunction with creating an embracing space, the proposed research station aims to create intentional moments of engagement with the natural beauty of the island. Through generous but considered openings, researchers have the opportunity to appreciate the landscape in which they toil, from the comfort of their common space, as they ascend the staircase or as they lie in their bunks. A balance between climate exposure, interference with the ecology, and the occupants comfort and experience, the design sits neatly in the landscape, a representation of the relationship between human and nature.
Competition
University of British Columbia
Instructor—AnnaLisa Meyboom
W2019
