ABOUT
One of the interviewees guiding us through the site of a revegetalization project
© Thomas Dufresne, 2023
Go Along Landscapes is a digital platform dedicated to a Landscape Architecture research project focused on post-industrial sites across Canada. Between 2021 and 2023, a team based at the University of Montreal conducted extensive fieldwork in southern Quebec and Nova Scotia, to explore the rehabilitation of landscapes transformed by asbestos mining or heavy steel industry. The research aimed to understand not only the technical challenges of site reclamation but also the human, historical, and sensory dimensions of these spaces.
Walking—an increasingly valued tool in ethnographic research—was central to the methodology. The team organized a series of walking interviews with planners, engineers, site managers, and local residents. These walks, sometimes lasting several hours, unfolded across abandoned mines, reengineered terrains, and the neighborhoods that surround them. By letting themselves be guided through the landscape by those who know it intimately, researchers gained access to both expert knowledge and sensitive knowledge, with insights rooted in lived experience and bodily perception. Testimonies were enriched by sensory impressions—visual, olfactory, tactile, and sonic—as well as by reflections and personal stories tied directly to the land.
The response from local communities was remarkable. About fifteen formal interviews were recorded, featuring long-time residents who had witnessed the full trajectory of transformation: from active industrial operations through uncertainty and decline, to today’s efforts at environmental restoration. Some participants had worked in the steel factory or the mines as engineers or laborers; others arrived later as consultants or concerned citizens. Descendants of workers and miners and newer residents also stepped forward, all united by a complex and often emotional relationship to a landscape profoundly reshaped by decades of industrial activity, scarred by abandoned extraction sites, engineered voids, and vast expanses of contaminated or disrupted terrain.
To broaden the scope, the team also conducted a public survey on perceptions of newly created parklands on former industrial sites. In autumn 2023, the town of Val-des-Sources served as a case study in three university courses focusing on landscape and heritage. Community members joined students for site tours and a collaborative design workshop, deepening the conversation around collective memory and stewardship. Across all these encounters, a shared sense of responsibility emerged—a commitment to caring for landscapes once shaped by extraction or industry, now reimagined as spaces of memory, transition, and potential.
THE TEAM
Heather Braiden is both a mother and a landscape architect. In 2021, she joined the Faculty of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at the Université de Montréal, driven by a deep passion for investigating natural phenomena and the human interventions and technologies that reshape landscapes. A primary focus of her work is assessing the impact of mining activities and industrial developments on our built environment and the communities situated within it. Heather works closely with managers of post-industrial and perpetual care site managers to gain deeper insights into the rehabilitation process and the unique value that reclaimed spaces can bring to communities. She dedicates her attention to the construction and evolution of these areas, the recreational opportunities they present, and the meanings they hold for people. Furthermore, her research investigates the experiences of communities impacted by floods, actively seeking collaborative solutions to mitigate these effects.
Robert France studies the history, use, and management of cultural landscapes and has taught at the universities of Harvard, Ca-Foscari Venice, and McGill, and is presently a professor at Dalhousie. He has published over two hundred journal articles and more than twenty books, including those on pilgrimage - Waymarking Italy’s Influence on the American Environmental Imagination While on Pilgrimage to Assisi and Along the Way: Pilgrimage Scenes form the Camino Francés to Santiago de Compostela; on landscapes - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes and Handbook of Regenerative Landscape Design; on landscape phenomenology - Regenerative Agrourbanism: Experiencing Edible Placemaking Transforming Neglected or Damaged Landscapes, Lives, and Livelihoods and Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water; and on environmental history - Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq and Veniceland Atlantis: The Bleak Future of the World’s Favorite City.
Claire da Rocha Carneiro holds a degree in urban planning with a specialization in built heritage conservation. She joined the research team in 2022. Her work focuses particularly on the intersection between heritage and environmental change. Her academic and professional path reflects a strong interest in sensitive and participatory approaches to territorial analysis, which she explores through fieldwork, collaborative workshops, and documentary research. She draws on methods from ethnology and sociology to better understand how communities experience, perceive, and transmit their environments.
Thomas Dufresne joined the research team in 2023. An environmental professional, he currently works at Groupe GÉOS, where he contributes to projects related to environmental management and sustainable development. With a background in biological sciences from Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, followed by a master’s degree in ecology and sustainable development from the Université de Montréal, Thomas brings a rich and diverse professional experience. His career reflects a strong commitment to environmental awareness and the dissemination of scientific knowledge.