The Muskeg Creek Trails – Athabasca

“Architects identify the built environment in multiple ways including outdoor spaces. The built environment that I refer to is in nature adjacent to a town. The Muskeg Creek Trails in the town of Athabasca is located on hills near the Athabasca Rivers. The town borders Treaty 6 and Treaty 8. Alberta is within Treaty 6, 7, and 8 areas homelands to many Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. The Muskeg Creek Trails are within the dense bush. There is a canopy of poplar, spruce, birch, willow, trees covering the forest.  The hush of wind, a crackle of shrubs, and the softness of the earth beneath the feet connect walkers and runners to the hills. As I walked through the Muskeg Creek Trails, I breathe the living Mother Earth. I hear the streams trickle with life. My senses are awoken and I feel alive. I believe that a positive experience of quality should reflect…the feeling of being alive in those spaces of quality. I am not sure how that can be captured in a built environment except in natural spaces like parks. I particularly remember visiting… the Muskeg Cree Trails a few times when I moved to the area near the town of Athabasca. I discovered a sign showing the length of loops to walk. Each time I went to the Muskeg Creek Trails, I was so grateful for having a beautiful sacred space to walk and connect to Mother Nature without feeling rushed for time. The online work environment kept me very busy with projects to work on, writing to complete, papers to mark, and meetings to attend. At times exhaustion from sitting for long periods of time in front of hurtful screen light and feeling the stress of world events, weighed heavily on me. Walking in the outdoors helped me to recharge my mind, body, spirit, and heart. Spending time in outdoor places in nature offered me experiences to decompress and pay attention to my senses and breathe.  If connection to the natural world is combined with our contemporary way of living and working, appreciation for the natural way is clarified in our vision. Through this exercise of sharing positive experiences of Quality in the Built Environment, we learn together, share cultural ideas, and promote the concept of quality from a multi-cultural lens. I think natural spaces are definitely one important part of quality.” (Booklet Positive Lived Experiences of Quality in the Built Environment 2023, p.246).

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