This research project’s aim was to critically observe and recontextualize a man made space that is frequently considered a boundary, obstruction or concrete wasteland.What might an ecological map of the Gardiner Expressway and its environs look like? How do we make it? How does it change the way we view the city if we think about it as an urban nature/ecology?

By establishing the Gardiner as a facet of urban nature it stands to challenge colonial and capitalistic perceptions of land-value and mapping conventions that delineate policy, ownership, and access. Hostility is transformed into an aspect of nature – that may yet still be harsh – which can be engaged with and cultivated. The work is meant to be seen with pages stacked on a light-box, with each page added a complete portrait of an overlooked space is revealed (see above) until it becomes as muddled as our perception of it in the background of our mundane lives.