Date of Award
Spring 5-31-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)
Department
Landscape Architecture
First Advisor
Fatema Maswood
Second Advisor
Mark Hamin
Abstract
This thesis challenges the notion of Human Exceptionalism by examining the agency of the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) in rehabilitating a 50 acre parcel of land on the Woonasquatucket River watershed, Rhode Island, USA. By reimagining the site without its current commercial and industrial land uses, the project aims to contribute to the nationwide effort of creating and restoring wetlands degraded and damaged over the centuries by human activity. Finally, a pathway running through the site along the river connects to the Woonasquatucket Greenway further down south, with strategically placed look-out points, allowing humans to witness and, therefore, acknowledge the agency of non-human animals in making landscapes, checking the third, didactic goal of the project.
Beginning by positioning the project within a larger philosophical context, I move into site selection and investigation through multiple visits, sketching, map-making, and reviews of various literature and precedents, primarily through visual representations. All of these then inform the research's outcome, which is an iterative design proposal for rehabilitating the wetland site. Finally, I speculate on how the site changes through the cycles of beaver occupation and abandonment. Although the unpredictability of working with non-human organisms poses challenges and a high risk of damage, it can be a cost-effective solution to wetland restoration, dramatically enhancing biodiversity if humans co-manage the site with beavers.
Recommended Citation
Rajan, Charanya Ms., "Wetland rehabilitation through interspecies co-design" (2025). Masters Theses. 1440.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1440
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