Designing Canadian Energy Futures
Research and teaching project
Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto
2021
The economist Harold Innis once claimed that Canadians were mere “hewers of wood and drawers of water”; in other words, that Canada was a nation of abundant natural resources ripe for the taking. We now recognize how Innis’ simplistic remark obscures important debates about the role of energy resources in Canada. Contemporary discourses of decarbonization, climate justice, and Indigenous sovereignty (among many others) reveal the complex and contradictory perspectives that characterize the design and construction of Canada’s energy landscapes. While some argue for the continued extraction of hydrocarbons as a pragmatic bridge to a low-carbon future, others advocate for a more rapid—and radical—socio-technical transition. Many pathways exist in between, all of which present unique risks and opportunities.
How can these debates inform the construction of Canada’s energy system? More specifically, how can attention to the environmental histories of contemporary energy projects influence the design of our future energy landscapes? Design plays a central role in production of infrastructures that link people to landscapes of energy extraction, generation, and transmission across Canada and throughout the global energy system. Architects and landscape architects increasingly find themselves at the centre of these complex debates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, designers have been repeatedly told that our current historical moment offers an unprecedented opportunity to “build back better”; and to envision a more just and sustainable society centered on the decarbonization of the economy guided by a program of social and environmental justice. These goals are important, urgent, and necessary; nowhere can we observe their convergence more vividly than in debates surrounding the future of energy landscapes in Canada.
This project is supported by funding from the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation Annual Grants Program and Northern Research Bursary.
Robb, D. (2021, 14 May). Envisioning Canada’s future energy landscapes. Historians for the Future.
A proposed landscape for small-scale hydropower generation in Metro Vancouver (image courtesy of Blair Kern).
Proposed Co-Op Refinery Waste Water Treatment Plant (image courtesy of Diana Koulouthros).
Proposed Athabasca Oil Processing and Carbon Capture Complex (image courtesy of Clayton Zdan).
Future risk of wildfires at the Fort St. James Green Energy Project (image courtesy of Vail Zerr).