Landscape – Great Idea! X-LArch III - Department für Raum ...

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Landscape - Great Idea!
Lilli Lička
In 2003 we started this series on landscape architecture.
In the first conference we pointed out the relation between
disciplines working on landscape issues with landscape
architecture: engineering, arts, architecture and urbanism,
traffic, ecology, sociology. Meanwhile these interactions
have become usual cooperations within research teams,
studios and project-groups. The integration of necessary
competences, however, does not deliver a clear strategy or
method for planning and design of landscape. This is why
the second issue of X-Larch, in the year 2006, focussed on
innovative approaches: landscape-x-periments 1 .
Finally this third conference, X-Larch III, picks up another
issue which has been discussed in profession, research
and publications in recent years. It is the topic of scale
which inevitably results in the discussion of the very
fundamental question of the idea behind landscape(s).
It is conceived as another contribution to the ongoing
international discourse on landscape and landscape
architecture.
The mergence of disciplines, the range of approaches and
the blurring of borders between professional tasks comes
along with the global development of urbanisation. In the
year of 2008, 50% of the people worldwide are living in
cities, and this number is yet to increase, changing urban
landscapes at an accelerated pace. Edward Soja and
Miguel Kanai announce the global urban age consisting
of the urbanization of the globe on the one hand and the
globalization of urbanism as a way of life on the other.
Globally the structures of landscapes and settlements are
converging - resulting in types of urbanity abandoning its
built up structure. The dichotomy between land and city
has been abandoned long time ago, finally culminating
in the discussion about suburbia and the ‘city between’
publicized by the ‘Ladenburger Kolleg’ around Thomas
Sieverts. In the context of spatial development landscape
plays a crucial role. In the discussion on urbanism
landscape is a central feature. Not only is the discussion on
spatial development very closely related to green and open
spaces as well as to productive cultural landscape, there
is also a tendency to a much more action-based planning
approach. If e.g. Richard Weller, Australian’s renowned
landscape architect entitles his research for a large scale
future of the city region of Perth as ‘planning by Design’,
he aligns with this overall growing interest for a pro-active
strategy of designing at large scale. Scenarios, of course,
have been a means for projecting uncertainties into the
future for a long time. Doing so by landscape architectural
design, however, is a newly observed procedure. It comes
along with a new attention for large scale building sites
and development projects, such as documented in the
publication on Large Parks, edited by Julia Czerniak
and George Hargreaves. The last edition of TOPOS is
dedicated to the same topic: Landscape Strategies and
contains a number of extensive projects all over the globe.
Apart from designing vast entities of landscape there
is another issue related to scale, which is of growing
interest. It is the close connection between smaller scale
projects with their wider surrounding. It seems as if
there is an increasing awareness of wider relations. One
could assume that this is a result of globalisation and the
inherent growth of connectivity. It seems as if it shows a
larger interest in complexity as a whole. That’s why the
first focus of X-Larch III is called: Scale matters!
Furthermore there are specific ideas connected to the
power of landscape as a solution for spatial problems.
Landscape ecology is now interpreted as a model to
understand and come up against environmental problems
through design concepts, last shown in the project for
fresh kills in N.Y by field operations. The production of
landscape has always been based on a construct of ideas.
As ideas shift along societal changes, the meaning of
landscape is subject to constant mutation. Designed and
built landscapes function as a catalogue of interpretations
of nature, of society, of economics, of cultures.
The second question of X-Larch III therefore deals with
Landscape as a model. In which way can landscape
act as a model or an instrument to enhance spatial
qualities? How do ideas interact with the built outcomes?
Ideas and ideologies change, they seem to become
interchangeable due to globalised mechanisms. Can we
identify ideas behind „new landscapes“, or the way they
were developed?
In this publication we hope to collect some answers to
those complex questions. It was made possible thanks
to all lecturers at the conference: Thank you for your
contributions!
Thanks to my colleagues at ILA (Institute of Landscape
Architecture) for scholarly discussions, for developing
ideas, for supporting the organisation and for working hard
to realise the event.
Endnotes / References
1
All lectures of the international conference X-LArch I is available
on a CD at the Institute of Landscape Architecture, X-Larch II is
published on the homepage: http://www.rali.boku.ac.at/7635.html
Burdett, Ricky; Sudjic, Deyan (ed.): The endless city. The urban
age project by the London School of Economics and Deutsche
Bank‘s Alfred Herrhausen Society. Phaidon , London 2007
Corner, James: Lifescape – Fresh Kills Parkland, in: Topos
51/2005, p. 14-21. München, Callwey
Czerniak, Julia; Hargreaves, George (ed.): Large parks. Princeton
Architectural Press, New York 2007
Sieverts, Thomas : Zwischenstadt. Bertelsmann Fachzeitschriften, 2001
Topos 66/2009: Landscape Strategies. München, Callwey
Preface