| Recognizing the overwhelming influence the Canadian Navy has had not only on the formation of Canada, but on millions of individual Canadians, there is a significant gap in the historical education of the subject. A national Canadian Naval Museum is needed to bring together the millions of experiences and wealth of information that are now spread over the country in basements, closets, naval bases, and maritime museums. One museum should serve as a focal point for understanding the Canadian Navy.; The Canadian Naval Museum proposed here is sited in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on MacNab's Island's Maugers Beach at the site of the existing lighthouse. This site places the museum at the mouth of the harbour of a city founded on military naval concerns and still acting as a major naval port.; The thesis has striven to accomplish two goals. One: to develop an architecture that can enable the museum to become part of the Canadian Naval History; and two: to offer the civilian, veteran, and enlisted visitor to chance to see, hear, and experience in some form, what it is to be in the Navy, and affected by it. In doing this, the form and composition of the buildings adopt a strategy of engaging the visitor, of taking part in the display of the naval history. To what extent can form, scale and material be used to achieve these goals?... |
