The Yorklands in Guelph: Looking to the Future of a Landscape Shaped by Policy and Reform

Abstract

Formerly home of a provincial prison, “the Yorklands” in Guelph, ON, is now a popular, passive green space. Guelph is exploring adjacent intensification, which it must balance with local climate change mitigation, food security, and community goals. This study explores the potential for adaptive-reuse at the Yorklands that would implement urban agriculture to address those goals. A landscape narrative method provides the basis for this by combining archival data, public policy context and site analysis to interpret and highlight the layered past at the Yorklands. Findings highlight the Yorklands’ unique history of prison labour (and cultural heritage features), current opportunities within planning policy, and local community stakeholder goals. This research is an example of understanding a historic landscape through the creation of a narrative prior to adaptive-reuse. At the Yorklands, it will provide crucial background for holistic landscape design intervention.