Mohan Wang

Living With Fire

It is the new normal that more and more people are being exposed to more frequent and catastrophic wildfires and the burn-on-burn phenomenon is becoming common. With climate change and sprawling land-use patterns that increase the wildland-urban interface, a greater number of communities are going to have to adapt to living with fire. Landscape architects are in need to play a more significant role in establishing a beneficial and sustainable human-fire relationship. Based on the study of the historic and modern prescribed burning, fire-mitigation, and post-fire recovery strategies, this thesis focuses on the wildland-urban interface and the Mediterranean ecosystem in the Santa Monica Mountain region. By transforming a ranch into a fire educational park and proposing multifunction installations as markers in fire-touched wildland, the thesis aims to convey new attitudes towards the fire landscape and initiate aesthetic and ecological dialogues on innovative ways of living with fire. 

Some of the overarching questions guiding this thesis include: What role can landscape architects play under the new normal with more frequent and intensive fire? What kind of attitudes, knowledge, views, and emotions are valuable to be conveyed and presented in the fire educational park? How do multifunction installations add ecological and cultural value to fire-touched wildland? How can design respond to seasonal change and the long-term evolution of fire landscapes?