Rewilding begins with an act of creative letting go—honoring a home once deeply lived in and loved, while reimagining the delicate boundary between house and landscape.

Fairlawn, once a home in East Aurora, NY, is now a relict in the landscape—an evolving study of deconstruction, material reuse, weathering, afforestation, and rewilding.

GRACEFUL DEPARTURE

By Chelsea Kashan

White planes, plaster

Blend into a background cloud

The crickets are just a whisper, from the round table

The wind is light and the blinds are up, recharging

Peaceful but pieces

of plaster walls crumble

Evidence of time

The beginning of an end

It’s a welcomed contradiction

We look, wander, wonder

What will stay and what to let go

A reversal of order, from 20 years known

Lets eat! A feast

For bees, flies, our eyes

Fixed on elongated views

That glide over water like dragonflies

We raise our socks

Traverse eye level meadows

Joe-pye-weed, Queen Anne’s Lace

Tulip poplar, Norway spruce

Calmly lost at sea

But ready for a destination, a loop

A Horse doesn’t behave

On dead ends.

Neither does time

White plaster, cracked + blue

Crushed glass, filled pool exposed beams, punctured plaster

Inside out, a habitat to rewild

The land is still, worked

Compacted, and grown

Grounded with memory, and images in a book

The shadow is artist

Is it a story to tell

or one to teach?

A material ensemble

in question

The future is long, our minds venture far

200 years, for who?

I’ll be out next month

My graceful departure

The bus, the trees, and the deer who eat

The past stories pivot to one untold

A land that researches + Artists

Would gather to see

The goat barn is home

Shredding snake skin on

Stone walls

That will certainly remain?

PROJECT TIMELINE

House Construction

Completion: 2007

House lived and loved:

2007 - 2025

Deconstruction & Rewilding

Design Plan: 2024-2025

House Deconstruction:

Spring-Summer 2026

Material Repurposing

On-site: Summer 2026

Plant Miyawaki Forest & Deconstructed House Ruins: Fall 2026

Miyawaki Forest – projected

climax forest: 2041-2066

Miyawaki Forest – projected

self-sufficiency: 2029

Rewilded landscape &

place of study: 2026+

90 DAY TIME LAPSE

JUNE-AUGUST 2026