Zina Fraser
Decay or Growth?
A Cyclical Future for the North American Cemetery
Fall 2022, GSD Landscape Option Studio,
Advised by Gina Ford and Anyeley Hallova
Brief: This option studio course asked students to reimagine the landscape of Parrot Creek, an 80-acre residential treatment center for incarcerated youth, through the lens of Trauma-Informed Design. Our work was also informed by a sequence of virtual community engagement meetings.
Project Description: Parrot Creek Child and Family Services sits on a forested site in Clackamas County, Oregon. The therapeutic center was established in 1968 with the goal of preventing youth from becoming re-incarcerated as adults.
My proposal began with understanding the overlapping journeys happening on the site. The regional landscape is gradually being restored to its native fire ecology, which supports biodiversity and resilience. As an institution, Parrot Creek is working toward a more equitable justice system by using a restorative justice approach, which focuses on healing communities from harm and understands that offenders have often been harmed themselves. This approach involves helping youth heal from their personal traumas.
I propose that in order to connect these journeys, human and non-human healing must be understood as interwined. My framework plan brings fire ecology back to the landscape through a mosaic of controlled burns. The burns are staggered so that all stages of succession are present onsite at any given time, supporting biodiversity and setting the stage for a fire ecology co-op program that the youth can enter at any time.
The variety of spatial conditions created by the fire mosaic align with the youths’ need for both open and closed-feeling spaces, and a network of pathways to programmed spaces respond to the youths’ desire for opportunities to move through the landscape. Like the meadows and forests, who become strong again after each fire, Parrot Creek becomes a place where crisis is the beginning of the healing story, not the end.
Human and Non-Human Healing: Fire Ecology and Restorative Justice Intertwined
Landscape Journey from Fire Suppression Back to Fire Ecology
Institutional Journey to Restorative Justice
Proposal: Fire Mosaic as Framework
Flying Squirrel-Inspired Space
Flying squirrels need a canopy made up of diverse trees of different heights to enable them to move through the forest. Fire is necessary to maintain diversity and prevent trees from crowing out the understory. This space is inspired by the squirrel, and creates opportunity for physical self-regulation and play for many developmental levels.
Many children who have experienced trauma have not had enough opportunities for play and may have development levels that are lower than typical for their age. This space is design to allow for play at many levels without appearing like a play structure meant for young children, encouraging the youth to play without fear of judgement.