Rooted In Healing

Nicole Brekelmans and Marije Stryker

Rooted in Healing is an exploration of community healing through ecological healing. Inspired by the physical emergence of stories and food landscapes within past and present Hogan’s Alley, the design uses such familiar elements within the Georgia Viaduct plot to encourage the surrounding community to drift onto the site and deeply root their existing sense of place and stories. Such drifting aims to rid the previously established oppressive sense of place and initiate a healing specifically for those erased while also restoring the landscape. The final design is not a park but rather a pen̓em̓áy, a dynamic food garden that changes and drifts over time and in response to community use. The pen̓em̓áy is made up of a mix of native and introduced plants, and includes a central pavilion. Throughout multiple years new plant communities are introduced – edible meadows, medicinal berry patches, orchards, and food forests – and begin a dialogue with the community and the landscape. Planting, tending, harvesting, drifting are all ongoing processes allowing the community to experience transformation and become stewards of the pen̓em̓áy, ultimately working to the goal of reciprocity.