A 1960s International Style federal heritage building in Ottawa overlays a colonized wilderness topography. The work reflects on the friction between built forms and natural geographies.

Through the cyanotype printing process — a technique historically linked to blueprints — I layer contemporary photographs over historic graphics. These impressions aim to provoke a re-examination of the building’s aesthetic, colonial function as an institution dedicated to surveying and mapping Canada for the purpose of resource extraction, and of its architectural significance, in consideration of its place now within a rapidly developing urban neighbourhood.

I layer my images of the complex over vintage topographical maps, originally created in the same buildings in the late 1950s. The maps, based on aerial photographs, include notations detailing their creation.

The cyanotype’s watery, translucent form allows the yellow-green and blue hues of the maps to subtly bleed through, creating a conversation between the built environment we see now and the natural world that these maps sought to order.  Companion cyanotype images capture the structure as it is now, its architectural features emphasizing clean lines, imposed order, asymmetrical massing, and functional aesthetic. 

These studies highlight the establishment’s intent for the structure of the building and the expression of its internal function, while the natural lines of jagged rivers, lakes, and valleys elude the imposed order of the architects.