The project explores architecture's capacity as an aesthetic alibi for the manufactured landscape. The Fort Mcmurray tourist industry of nature walks and pit tours is satirized through an pattern book of Athabasca cottage homes that ranges from private units, timeshare rentals, to multi-unit condominium complexes. In an attempt to expose the hidden absurdities of tar-sand tourism, the project examines the typology of the North American vacation home as an emulsifying agent of industrial carnage and the natural pristine, and further scrutinizes its potential participation in the aestheticization and legitimization of environmental destruction.
