In 1979, Yvan Pouliot, a biologist who graduated from Université Laval, stayed on the islands of the Basse-Côte-Nord Territory to study the region’s seabirds. There, he discovered an “exceptional nordicity,” a way of life bearing multiple similarities to what he had long observed in Arctic villages. He wrote: “During my walks, I noticed the places where residual materials […] ended their life. The used oil from generators as well as household waste and hazardous materials, such as batteries, were thrown into a ravine […]. In this isolated place, only a few people had left an impressive amount of waste.” (La nature de l’injustice, Khan and Hallmich, 2023, p. 94)

The isolation of communities in the Basse-Côte-Nord Territory generates social and political marginalization. The disproportionate burden these populations must bear in facing environmental harms such as resource extraction, land use, and waste management is known as environmental injustice. Here, waste burns. It burns in ways permitted by law. Black clouds rise above landfill sites; they are the toxic gases released from smoldering refuse at the edge of villages. In the Basse-Côte-Nord Territory, more than 15,000 m² of waste are produced each year. Every type of refuse ends up, without prior sorting, either burned or simply, as Yvan Pouliot described, thrown into nature. In many communities, car wrecks pile up and deteriorate over the years. Recyclables are stored, without prior sorting, in massive containers while awaiting the arrival of cargo ships. Organic matter is often mixed with other waste, creating problems of soil contamination. Change is urgently needed. For the survival of soil, water, and ecosystems, it is imperative to find solutions for waste management in remote territories, ceasing to treat nature as subordinate to humanity.

By locating itself on the existing dumpsite of Blanc-Sablon, this project proposes to shift the way we see a site marked by human exploitation. Like the decomposition, recomposition, and reassembly of an object, the project unfolds in distinct phases, allowing it to gradually evolve according to the region’s needs. A steel framework anchors itself above the site and houses three articulated robots that continuously organize, map, and catalogue the landfill. Like a machine reclaiming control, these robots intensify the automated process of waste management, seeking to optimize the reuse of objects already present in the territory. The peripheral frame of this structure allows for the insertion of a recovery center, a materials library, and an incinerator, thereby creating a complete and autonomous operational sequence. The project positions itself here as an instruction manual; as a tool of cohesion and social repair for communities carrying the burden of decades of environmental neglect.