Author Jerry Mander, defined our modern spaces as artificial environments that deprive the senses. My cube explores the artificial environment created by the University of Waterloo. The Grad House is the only remaining reference to the Mennonite farms that the University is built on. The B2 Green, the large green space separating the math building from the biology building, is the future home of the nanotechnology building. Despite countless studies on the benefits of natural light, the new accounting building has four tiny windows on the first floor. The Environmental Studies building, reflects the fortress like architecture of its time, its students unable to survey the surrounding environment. The ES building is surrounded by the Austrian pine, an exotic tree species that is currently being destroyed by a fungus that native evergreens are immune. The garden outside of the ES building is filled with native plants, it is intended to set a precedent for future landscaping on the university. Behind the B2 green is the rock garden defining paths with imported rocks identified by plaques. These images represent the constructed environment, a series of spaces that are intended to satisfy the student’s need for nature. However, the “nature” of the University of Waterloo has been imported and the buildings that nurture intellect sever any connection to “nature” that the urban green space is intended to provide.
