By: Celine Godberson

As a built environment consultant, and Designer I am preoccupied with the creation of spaces, which may foster good experiences. By good I mean authentic, perhaps even transformative. For many of us, it is within the built environment of our daily lives where we either find these experiences or do not.

“Place based” thinking is an essential part of a sustainable approach to any development. Place encompasses many aspects which range from the more obvious considerations of service accesses and environmental attributes to cultural and social considerations. The aspiration for meaning and belonging, which seems to be part of our human experience, is deeply rooted to place. Without consideration of this fundamental need when planning for development we cannot create sustainable communities.

The best design seeks to be restorative both to the physical space and to the visitor. Ralph Klein Park, created in response to a convergence of issues related to water management in the southeast of Calgary, has reconstructed wetlands to mitigate chronic flooding. The park is a wonderful example of restorative design.

My visit to the park was part of the curriculum for the Sustainable Building Advisor certification program offered in Calgary through Buffalo Jump Environmental. As I entered the park I had to cross a bridge, which created a sense of transition into another, distinct place. Then as I walked toward the Ralph Klein Park building, I was overcome with calm. It was as if I was walking into a natural setting, which allowed me to connect with something beyond my immediate preoccupations.

The architecture of both the landscape and the building responded to each other and resonated with the surrounding prairie. The low horizontal planes of the building; the repetition of natural materials and appli-cation; the transitions between built and natural: all transported me to a more environmentally and emo-tionally sustainable place.

The site is situated on the fringe of city sprawl, wedged between an expanding industrial park, acreages and retreating farmland. This is a familiar landscape; the zone where the natural environment continues to lose out to notions of “development”. In fact the site may have been natural wetlands at one time, an essential ecosystem we have discovered through the consequences of their demise.

The built environment has been so well integrated into the natural landscape at Ralph Klein Park that it enhances the experience of the place. Synergistic relationships between built and natural, water and land, architecture and art, create a transformative experience. Each of these elements functions as a bridge to an unfamiliar and perhaps undervalued natural environment: the wetlands ecosystem.

The one hundred year high watermark is denoted through color variation in the stones used; a poetic vis-ual anchor to the site and its history. The intimate dance of time and place: the more we know this dance as it is recorded in the landscape the more perhaps we feel at home.

In A Place in Mind: the search for authenticity (Vehicule Press, 2010), Avi Friedman writes, “Good places which foster special moments and lead to unique experiences can be recreated. The fundamentals need not be forgotten and they can be redesigned into new and existing communities. After all, they make us who we are.” I find this statement deeply hopeful. It reminds me that even in places, which have been forgotten or greatly compromised, we can restore and regenerate. Ralph Klein Park is an example of this applied and the ecological and cultural relevance, which can be restored.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Visit the Ralph Klein Park, which includes an Environmental Education and Ethics Centre, Family Discovery Kit rentals, outdoor amphitheatre, man-made wetland, picnic and day use area, public art, and a community orchard. Click here for the address, hours and other details.

2. Read Avi Friedman's book A PLACE IN MIND for more inspiration on the importance of places in creating culture and an ethic of sustainability. Click here to watch a trailer of the book.

3. Consider enrolling in the Sustainable Building Advisor (SBA) course this fall and learn how to apply the fundamental principles of sustainability to the built environment. By the end of course you will be able to: understand key practices of sustainable building, apply LEED™, Built Green™ and other established guidelines, analyze the costs and benefits of incorporating sustainable building measures, take advantage of financial incentives and technical assistance, work with building professionals and utilities to improve a building’s performance, establish a sustainable design goal for project development, and assist in the education and training of staff in sustainable building. Registration for October start date closes on August 31, 2011. Click here for more information or contact Michael Duarte-Pedrosa at michael@buffalojumpenvironmental.com or 403.563.9110.

4. Contact Maison Style for interior design and project management services for residential projects. With extensive design experience and certification as a Sustainable Building Advisor, Maison Style can assist in the selection of materials and finishes which will contribute to the best indoor air quality for your family. Click here for more information or call Celine Godberson at 403-519-8491 or email celine@maisonstyle.ca

5. Visit the photo archives at the Glenbow Museum to connect with the history of this place and others in and around Calgary. Identify with our past to help create a more sustainable future.