Tidal Materialities: Place through Time and Making An Exploration of Coastal Wrack as a Regenerative Architectural Material in Atlantic Canada

This thesis explores washed-ashore seaweed as a regenerative material for architectural thinking and making in Atlantic Canada. Situated within growing concerns about climate change, material extraction, and the environmental impacts of construction, the research asks how coastal wrack might be understood not as waste, but as a material with spatial, ecological, and cultural potential. Through field encounters along Atlantic shorelines, hands-on material exploration, and reflections on locality, the study examines seaweed’s changing qualities across conditions of tide, weather, and decay. These investigations are grounded in direct observation and low-energy making processes, revealing seaweed as a material that takes form through exposure, duration, and locality. Rather than seeking full standardization, the thesis works with variability as a design condition. The resulting design responses translate these material findings into architectural propositions that foreground care, temporality, and alternative approaches to regenerative material practice.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Holman, Ashlynn Ellen

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2026 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, distribution to students, research and scholarship. Theses may only be shared by linking to the Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be copied without proper attribution to the author; no part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2026-17189

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/45346