Up North & Outback : Journeys Between Two Nations' Subconscious

Australia has been long considered the antipode to the northern hemisphere. Dubbed the ‘Land Down Under’, it finds the ultimate contrast with Canada; the ‘Great White North’. Directionally defined with a fuzzy frontier, references to the ‘Up North’ and ‘Outback’ point to the wild expanse found at the centre of each nation’s cultural identity, despite its remoteness from major population centres. A shared reverence for a distant land fosters a mutual exchange of working-holiday travellers drawn toward the familiarity amidst a foreign landscape. This project traces the parallel journeys of travellers from the city to the rugged heartlands of Canada and Australia. A proposed orientation to nature is mediated by a short-term accommodation strategy designed for three conditions; an urban lot, a cultivated clearing and a forged wilderness.