Landscape urbanism

Landscape Urbanism is a theory of urbanism arguing that landscape, rather than architecture, is more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience. Landscape Urbanism has emerged as a theory in the last fifteen years. Landscape Urbanism describes "the ability to produce urban effects traditionally achieved through the construction of buildings simply through the organization of horizontal surfaces." . The term, "Landscape Urbanism" was coined by architect and current Landscape Architecture chair of the GSD at Harvard, Charles Waldheim, as a means of describing the recent emergence of landscape as a medium of urban order for the contemporary city [1]. "The origins of Landscape Urbanism can be traced to postmodern critiques of modernist architecture and planning."

History

The first event was the Landscape Urbanism conference sponsored by the Graham Foundation in Chicago in April 1997. Speakers included Charles Waldheim, Mohsen Mostafavi, James Corner of James Corner/Field Operations, Alex Wall, and Adriaan Geuze of the firm West 8, among others. The formative period of Landscape Urbanism can be traced back to University of Pennsylvania in the late 1980s, at a time when James Corner, Mohsen Mostafavi, and others were exploring the artificial boundaries of Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Architecture, searching for better ways to deal with complex urban projects. Charles Waldheim, Anu Mathur, Alan Berger, Chris Reed, amongst others, were students at the University of Pennsylvania during this formative period for Landscape Urbanism. After the Chicago conference, European design schools and North American design institutions formed academic programs and began to formalize a field of Landscape Urbanism studies, including Oslo School of Architecture [2], Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium [3], the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Toronto, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology [4]. In 2000 the London's Architectural Association developed its own Landscape Urbanism program under the direction of Ciro Najle and chairman at the time Mohsen Mostafavi. This was marked by the 2003 publication of the book "Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic Landscape" a year before chairman Mostafavi left the AA.

Themes

James Corner, in an essay entitled "Terra Fluxus," describes the main qualities of Landscape Urbanism in abstract rather than practical terms, lending the genre to speculation rather than practice:

• Process in time: urbanization is a dynamic process characterized more by terms like fluidity, spontaneous feedback, and non-linearity, than stability, predictability, or rationality. Ecology and systems theory are concepts inherent to the city. Apart from a unique set of lingo, this idea of 'process in time' affirms to idea of phased construction projects.It is hardly an innovative concept as architectural, landscape or urbanist projects often use multiple phases of construction.

• Surface, not form: horizontality and decentralization in places like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, San Jose, and the suburban and exurban fringes of most American cites is the supermajority of the American urban condition. As many theories of urbanism attempt to ignore this fact or retrofit it to new urbanism, Landscape Urbanism attempts to understand it and find solutions for it. Landscape Urbanism uses 'territories' and 'potential' as well as 'program' to define strategies; it finds thinking in terms of adaptable 'systems' instead of rigid 'structures' as a better way to organize physical improvements.

• Form: This concept negates the idea of 'plan' in preference of flexibility, or the organic nature of city development. The idea is the effect of the theories of Colin Rowe and Aldo Rossi affirming that different portions of cities should develop relative to their own set of criteria.

Projects

• Fresh Kills Landfill Competition, Field Operations/James Corner [5]
• The High Line, Field Operations/James Corner
• Downsview Park Competition, all finalist entries [6]
• Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam, West 8/Adriaan Geuze
• Also see projects by Stoss/Chris Reed [7]

See also

• Landscape architecture
• Ecological Urbanism
• Urban design
• Urban planning

References

• Almy, Dean, "Center 14: On Landscape Urbanism", The Center for American Architecture and Design, The University of Texas at Austin, 2007

• Allen, Stan. "Mat Urbanism: The Thick 2-D." Case: Le Corbusier's Venice Hospital and the Mat Building Revival. Ed. Hashim Sarkis. Munich ; New York: Prestel, 2001.

• Connolly, Peter, "Embracing Openness: Making Landscape Urbanism Landscape Architectural: Part 2", in "The Mesh Book: Landscape/Infrastructure", Edited by Julian Raxworthy and Jessica Blood, RMIT University Press, Melbourne, 2004, 200-219.

• Corner, James. Recovering Landscape : Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.

• Czerniak, Julia. CASE--Downsview Park Toronto. Munich ; New York; Cambridge, Mass.: Prestel; Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, 2001.

• Kerb 15 - Landscape Urbanism]. This issue includes contributions from Charles Waldheim, Mohsen Mostafavi, FOA, Karres en Brands, Kongjian Yu, Kyong Park, Kathryn Gustafson, Stephen Read, Kelly Shannon, Richard Weller, Sue Anne Ware, Cesar Torres, Peter Connolly and Adrian Napoleone, Melbourne, RMIT Press, 2007.

• Duncan, Allison & Seltzer, Ethan, "Landscape Urbanism: An Annotated Bibliography" http://www.terrafluxus.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/final-format-LU-bib-2.pdf. Accessed June 24. 2010

• Koolhaas, Rem. "Atlanta." S,M,L,XL. New York: Monacelli Press, 1999.

• Mostafavi, Mohsen, Ciro Najle, and Architectural Association. Landscape Urbanism : A Manual for the Machinic Landscape. London: Architectural Association, 2003.

• Topos 71 -Landscape Urbanism. This issue includes contributions from Charles Waldheim, James Corner, Mohsen Mostafavi, Adriaan Geuze, Susannah Drake, Kongjian Yu, Frederick Steiner, and Dean Almy.

• Waldheim, Charles. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. 1st ed. New York, N.Y.: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

• Wilson, Matthew. ‘Vertical Landscraping, a Big Regionalism for Dubai’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34, 925-40. 2010.

External links

• Sustainable Urban Development Resource Guide