Jacob Heydorn Gorski

Burnt: A Tale of 3 Fires

'Burnt: a Tale of three Fires' investigates how embracing wildfire can restore resiliency and create  new cultural connections between a landscape and its inhabitants. It draws from the designer’s  childhood fascination of landscape and fire and takes inspiration from a Dutch attitude towards another natural threat: water. The project focuses on the mountain town of Red Feather Lakes in the American state of Colorado to question dominant narratives we have of wildfire and offer  a new path forward. 

The project takes inspiration from local ecology to develop three new strategies for wildfire:  defensive, resilient, and resistant. Each strategy kickstarts a process based on community involvement and site-derived materials to let fire tell a different story about the landscape. In  the first site, fire breaks shape the way a forest burns and allow recreants to experience the ‘terrible sublime’ of the postfire landscape. In the second site, a stream is transformed into a naturally-managed defensive buffer that mitigates the effects of post-fire flooding. In the last site, a community comes together to restore a severely burnt forest. Together, these three 
strategies not only reshape and restore the ecosystem but also use fire as a means to create new landscape experiences and community exchange. While site-specific, the interventions here offer a model for other landscapes in the American West for a possible future with fire. 

We have, to quote Dante, found ourselves “within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.” This project offers a new path ahead, one lit by the light of fire.  
 

Afstudeerdatum: 6 december 2022  
Afstudeercommissie: Jana Crepon (Mentor), Hank van Tilborg, Sarah McCaffrey 
Toegevoegde leden t.b.v. het examen: Marieke Timmermans, Robbert Jongerius