tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/landscape-architecture-11123/articles
Landscape architecture – The Conversation
2022-05-11T19:33:39Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181398
2022-05-11T19:33:39Z
2022-05-11T19:33:39Z
Landscapes can be weaponized to influence public opinion and perception during war
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462569/original/file-20220511-26-wicbe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C349%2C1820%2C1664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. military released a defoliant called Agent Orange over the South Vietnam countryside to weaponize the forest during the Vietnam War as part of the Operation Ranch Hand project.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Blast craters, denuded landscapes and burning oil wells. When we think of the relation between war and the landscape, we think of such <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780759119291/War-and-Nature-The-Environmental-Consequences-of-War-in-a-Globalized-World">destructive acts and toxic legacies</a>. Through this lens, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/science/war-environmental-impact-ukraine.html">nature and the landscape are often seen as casualties of war</a>. </p>
<p>Yet there have been cases where nations have used the landscape as a weapon. In one such touchstone case — <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43298516">Operation Ranch Hand</a> — the U.S. military released a defoliant called Agent Orange over the South Vietnam countryside to weaponize the forest during the Vietnam War. </p>
<p>While the end of the Vietnam War saw an international <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/isn/4783.htm">ban on using the environment as a weapon,</a> landscape design — which includes the planning and planting of green spaces — continues to present itself as a tool capable of influencing the hearts and minds of local populations and ultimately achieving military objectives.</p>
<p>While speaking about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, U.S. Secretary of State <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-on-cnn-state-of-the-union-with-jake-tapper/">Antony Blinken said,</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Winning a battle is not winning the war. Taking a city does not mean Vladimir Putin’s taking the hearts and minds of the Ukrainian people. On the contrary, he is destined to lose.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Clearly, the United States military doctrine considers winning “<a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-07-15/hearts-and-minds-myth">hearts and minds</a>” as a necessary measure to win a war. </p>
<p>As a design critic who has been studying the role of landscapes in warfare, I argue that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10464883.2022.2017690">trees and green spaces can be components of a non-coercive mode of warfare</a>, as they can be used to further community solidarity and diminish the likelihood of insurgency.</p>
<h2>Winning hearts and minds</h2>
<p>The experience of the United States military in Afghanistan has proven that having a more powerful military force does not guarantee winning a war. </p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-war-afghanistan">Taliban surrendered Kandahar</a> only two months after the launch of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/world/operation-enduring-freedom-fast-facts/index.html">Operation Enduring Freedom</a> in 2001, the U.S. military remained in Afghanistan and engaged in violent conflict for the next 20 years, ultimately withdrawing and returning the nation to Taliban control. </p>
<p>Central to the United States’ effort to secure peace was the strategy of winning “hearts and minds,” or making emotional and intellectual appeals to the local population through attraction and persuasion instead of force.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An army officer high-fives a girl carried by a woman outside the door of a bus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462096/original/file-20220509-11-kcylbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462096/original/file-20220509-11-kcylbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462096/original/file-20220509-11-kcylbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462096/original/file-20220509-11-kcylbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462096/original/file-20220509-11-kcylbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462096/original/file-20220509-11-kcylbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462096/original/file-20220509-11-kcylbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A U.S. Army officer high-fives a girl, evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, during the ‘Operation Allies Welcome,’ on Aug. 30, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The U.S. military may have ultimately failed to win the war in Afghanistan, but they did develop tactics to secure peace and win over the hearts and minds of local citizens. While <a href="https://fic.tufts.edu/publication-item/winning-hearts-and-minds-examing-the-relationship-between-aid-and-security-in-afghanistan/">not every effort was successful,</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10464883.2022.2017690">I found several instances where the U.S. military’s</a> war-fighting objectives aligned with an unlikely ally — the profession of landscape architecture.</p>
<p>Landscape architects, after all, have always worked to <a href="https://www.asla.org/livable.aspx">improve public and environmental health</a>. And while hearts and minds are not exactly the same as physical and mental health, it is understood that <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/discord-and-collaboration-essays-on-international-politics/oclc/370692">physical health and well-being are necessary to establish a peaceful society</a>. </p>
<h2>Green spaces influence health and mental well-being</h2>
<p>American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s legacy of park building in the United States shows that landscape architects are concerned with public health and social stability. Olmsted was the first professional to use the title of “landscape architect” and is best known for <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/frederick-law-olmsted.htm">designing New York’s Central Park</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/22/us/frederick-law-olmsted-american-parks.html">Olmsted’s parks helped sustain Americans’ mental and physical health and social connections</a> during the darkest days of the pandemic. Urban residents enjoyed the greenery in these designed spaces after recognizing that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-parks-canada-prescription-1.6344141">spending time in nature can improve one’s physical health and mental well-being</a>. </p>
<p>Since Olmsted’s time, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2007.07.001">growing body of scientific research has concluded</a> that exposure to green space contributes to improved health and well-being. While medical professionals have been <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/prescribtion-nature-canada.html">prescribing spending time with nature</a>, landscape architects have been working to maximize the positive outcomes of exposure through design. </p>
<p>Landscape design presents itself as a tool capable of influencing the health and well-being and, therefore, the hearts and minds of local populations. Ultimately it can achieve military objectives through the planning and planting of green space.</p>
<h2>Weaponizing the landscape</h2>
<p>Using the landscape as a weapon is an underappreciated area of study.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign that reads 'Dioxin contamination zone — livestock, poultry and fishery operations not permitted' is placed in a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462098/original/file-20220509-11-h61m5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462098/original/file-20220509-11-h61m5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462098/original/file-20220509-11-h61m5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462098/original/file-20220509-11-h61m5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462098/original/file-20220509-11-h61m5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462098/original/file-20220509-11-h61m5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462098/original/file-20220509-11-h61m5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A warning sign near Danang airport, Vietnam, that reads ‘Dioxin contamination zone — livestock, poultry and fishery operations not permitted’ is seen in a field that was contaminated during the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Maika Elan, File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1976, the United States, along with 47 other nations, became signatories to the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of <a href="https://www.un.org/disarmament/enmod/">Environmental Modification Techniques</a>. This treaty prohibits “modification of the natural environment for use as a weapon of war” and “acts of war injurious to the natural environment.” </p>
<p>While deliberate environmental destruction continues, exemplified by the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/11/1/13481682/isis-mosul-oil-fires-sulfur">burning of oil wells set ablaze by Iraqi troops during the Gulf War</a>, researchers hope that the International Criminal Court may one day prosecute “<a href="https://theconversation.com/crimes-against-the-environment-the-silent-victim-of-warfare-50215">crimes against the environment</a>.” </p>
<p>More recently, the Stop Ecocide Foundation has been working to provide a <a href="https://www.stopecocide.earth/legal-definition">criminal definition of ecocide</a> that will carry the force of international law, making punishable “severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment.” </p>
<p>These efforts are laudable and deserve our support. Yet, the understandable emphasis on damage and destruction decreases the attention given to acts of war, like tree planting efforts, that “improve” an environment.</p>
<h2>Understanding the long-term impacts of war</h2>
<p>One project undertaken by the U.S. military in Afghanistan saw active troops lead a <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/image/354994/green-belt-project">reforestation effort</a> in the Panjshir region, where they planted 35,000 trees, creating a regional green space.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Army officer planting a sapling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460188/original/file-20220428-22-v2uv5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=94%2C37%2C2002%2C1314&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460188/original/file-20220428-22-v2uv5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460188/original/file-20220428-22-v2uv5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460188/original/file-20220428-22-v2uv5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460188/original/file-20220428-22-v2uv5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460188/original/file-20220428-22-v2uv5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460188/original/file-20220428-22-v2uv5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A U.S. Army officer plants a sapling during the ‘Afghanistan’s Future Takes Root’ initiative in Panjshir, Afghanistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.dvidshub.net/image/328273/afghanistans-future-takes-root">(1st Lt. Holly Hess/DVIDS)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As many individuals experienced this regional planting effort, the landscape influenced the hearts and minds of local citizens on a population scale. </p>
<p>Despite the U.S. military now having withdrawn from Afghanistan, these planted trees and other green spaces continue to grow and exert influence. Thus, it is not just acts of war injurious to the environment that have wide-reaching and long-term impacts on a population. </p>
<p>As I write from my office on the <a href="https://indigenous.ubc.ca/indigenous-engagement/musqueam-and-ubc/#:%7E:text=">unceded territory of the Musqueam people</a>, I am more keenly aware that a beautiful landscape can manipulate hearts and minds and become a weapon of war. The continued presence of a colonial landscape, designed and imposed on these lands, is easier to recognize if we ask what this land looked like before and after establishing a settler-colonial society. </p>
<p>We experience green spaces differently depending on their design and our cultural background. We need to think about who designed and built our local green spaces and for what purpose. Ultimately, it matters if the landscape is redesigned and replanted by local populations or by occupying forces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fionn Byrne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Green spaces can be used as non-coercive modes of warfare to further social cohesion and diminish the likelihood of insurgency.
Fionn Byrne, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165718
2021-08-06T19:55:49Z
2021-08-06T19:55:49Z
3 wildfire lessons for forest towns as Dixie Fire destroys historic Greenville, California
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415042/original/file-20210806-15-4onwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C36%2C8111%2C5379&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Dixie Fire devastated rural Greenville, California, a town of 800 residents, on Aug. 4, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/firefighter-surveys-a-destroyed-downtown-during-the-dixie-news-photo/1234491141?adppopup=true">Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A wildfire burning in hot, dry mountain forest swept through the Gold Rush town of Greenville, California, on Aug. 4, reducing neighborhoods and the historic downtown to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fires-environment-and-nature-california-13faa6976260a4a9e10906c70b4ed2d0">charred rubble</a>. Hours earlier, the sheriff had warned Greenville’s remaining residents to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/plumascountysheriff/posts/greenville-if-you-are-still-in-the-greenville-area-you-are-in-imminent-danger-an/4571493709541466/">get out immediately</a> as strong, gusty winds drove the Dixie Fire toward town. At the same time, firefighters were also trying to protect two other communities – all not far from where the deadly <a href="https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2021/02/new-timeline-deadliest-california-wildfire-could-guide-lifesaving-research">Camp Fire</a> destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.</p>
<p>This kind of trauma is becoming familiar, from loss of homes to the obliteration of entire towns. Fear of what the future holds in a changing climate lends uncertainty to people’s daily lives. They want to know how to protect their homes, their families, their communities. But they also want to protect core values they cherish – good places to raise their children, freedom to choose their lifestyle, a sense of place in nature and belonging.</p>
<p>How can people prepare for a future that’s unlike anything their communities have ever experienced?</p>
<p>The emergence of extreme fires in recent years and the resulting devastation shows that communities need better means to anticipate mounting dangers, and underscores how settlement patterns, land management and lifestyles will have to change to prevent even larger catastrophes. Our research team of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HK23BhsAAAAJ&hl=en">landscape</a> <a href="https://dcp.ufl.edu/faculties/hulse-david/">architects</a>, ecologists, social scientists and computer scientists has been exploring and testing strategies to help.</p>
<h2>What might the future hold?</h2>
<p>Because climate change is contributing to unprecedented extreme fire weather, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.05.012">we used simulation modeling</a> to explore and test how forest management and rural development could reduce or amplify wildfire risks in coming decades.</p>
<p>To do this, we created a computer version of the rural landscape around Eugene-Springfield, a midsize metropolitan area in Oregon’s Willamette Valley with a rapidly expanding population. Our simulations played out in carefully mapped representations of that landscape beginning in 2007, including its vegetation, property boundaries and the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.11.020">type of landowner</a> managing each parcel, such as farmers, foresters or rural residents who moved to the countryside from the city. </p>
<p>For each of 50 simulated years, as climate models generated fire weather and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/13-0906.1">altered the vegetation</a>, each landowner chose actions such as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-hazard-fuel-reduction.htm">removing hazardous fuels</a> like small trees and underbrush, restoring fire-adapted ecosystems, growing crops, building homes or protecting homes with landscaping and building materials recommended by the National Fire Protection Association’s <a href="https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Wildfire/Firewise-USA">Firewise</a> program. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two images: a thinned forest and a tree in grasslands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415038/original/file-20210806-23-664t4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415038/original/file-20210806-23-664t4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415038/original/file-20210806-23-664t4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415038/original/file-20210806-23-664t4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415038/original/file-20210806-23-664t4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415038/original/file-20210806-23-664t4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415038/original/file-20210806-23-664t4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest thinning (left) and grassland restoration can help reduce wildfire severity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bart Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over time, the simulated landowners could respond to emerging threats while protecting valued crops, amenities, lifestyles and ecosystems.</p>
<p>We tested different strategies under two climate models in 600 simulated futures. Under one climate model, wildfire behavior remained much the same as in the recent past while the number of fires grew because of increased human ignitions as the population increased. Under the other, more extreme climate model, wildfires larger than any experienced in the Willamette Valley’s recent past could erupt without warning, threatening homes even as landowners’ vegetation management reduced the fires’ spread. </p>
<p>It turned out that those worst-case projections were dwarfed by the wildfires in 2020 <a href="https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2020/10/30/climate-change-oregon-wildfires-2020/6056170002/">just outside our study area</a>.</p>
<h2>Three lessons for surviving the future</h2>
<p>Here are three key lessons we’re learning from our research on how people might reliably reduce their losses in a future that could bring more fires, unpredictable larger fires, or both.</p>
<p>1) Prepare for uncertainty: In a simulated world with extreme, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/05/dixie-river-fire-california-climate/">unpredictable wildfires</a>, 10 times more homes were threatened in our study area than in identical rural development and forest management scenarios under less extreme climate impacts. In our worst-case scenario – in which rural development expands without constraint and the forests aren’t thinned by people or allowed to burn naturally – over 30 times more homes were threatened than under conditions with less rural population growth and more management.</p>
<p>The good news was that when 30% of the burnable landscape was actively managed to reduce fire risk with forest-thinning techniques and grassland restoration, the threat to homes fell by nearly half in the world of extreme wildfires.</p>
<p>2) Choose treatments wisely: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2433">Reducing forest density</a> by thinning out smaller trees and underbrush effectively reduced the spread and severity of fires in extreme fire weather. In fact, our results suggest <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-hazard-fuel-reduction.htm">these tactics</a> become increasingly effective as fires grow larger and more intense.</p>
<p>In our study area, restoring imperiled native grasslands with scattered trees could do the best job of reducing risk to individual homes by creating “safe” places, where the fire isn’t in the tree canopy and firefighters can battle it, under even extreme wildfire conditions. One such fire exploded out of nowhere under the less-extreme climate model, threatening over 900 homes. Two-thirds of homes in restored grasslands were protected by Firewise practices. Density thinning was only half as effective because of the difficulties of protecting homes in a forest. But the biggest challenge was that the high costs of thinning kept most forest landowners from maintaining treatments over time. As a result, high-severity fire consumed unmanaged forests, threatening 85% of homes there.</p>
<p>Grasslands pose a two-edged sword if not carefully managed – under extreme fire weather they could foster fast-spreading fire corridors that leave homes in nearby forests exposed to greater risk.</p>
<p><iframe id="XGpHB" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/XGpHB/7/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1746/FireAni_3x3Futures_640px_v2.gif?1628292398"></p><figure><figcaption><span class="caption">An animation shows how the same fire spreads in three potential future landscapes in three scenarios under extreme fire weather: with no management, thinning only and thinning accompanied by grassland restoration. Fires move quickly in unmanaged forest canopies and in grasslands with insufficient management. They don’t move as fast in a forest with reduced fuels.
</span></figcaption></figure><p></p>
<p>3) Manage rural development. Dealing with the often-divisive issue of where and how people build new homes is crucial when it comes to wildfire risk. Oregon is renowned for <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/lcd/OP/Pages/index.aspx">statewide policies</a> that constrain urban sprawl.</p>
<p>When we tested scenarios with more relaxed rules, we found that adding many new rural homes increased the average risk per home. Under these relaxed policies, sites in less risky areas were quickly developed and housing shifted to steeper, forested terrain at greater risk of severe fires. That can compound risk by putting more homes in harm’s way and increasing the potential for vehicles and power lines to ignite fires.</p>
<p>An advantage of simulation modeling is that it allows scientists, policymakers and citizens to investigate things we can’t easily test in the real world. We can explore prospective solutions, identify new problems they create and address them and run the simulations again.</p>
<p>In the real world, there is only one chance to get it right. People need to be able to identify reliable, adaptive approaches that can be implemented in sufficient time and in the right places before catastrophes happen. As carpenters say, “Measure twice, cut once.”</p>
<h2>So what should people in fire-prone areas do?</h2>
<p>Western wildfires are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089858">getting more extreme</a>, but in many cases landowners and communities may be able to dramatically reduce the damage.</p>
<p>Our worst-case scenario – high climate impacts, large numbers of new rural homes and no fuels management – led to an order of magnitude greater risk to homes in our study area over the next 50 years. But by consolidating new development in cities and clustered rural housing, the risk dropped by half. And combining compact development with management of burnable vegetation reduced it by nearly 75%.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four illustrations of a landscape after fire in 2020, 2025 and 2050" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415061/original/file-20210806-17-1dj3ete.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415061/original/file-20210806-17-1dj3ete.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1181&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415061/original/file-20210806-17-1dj3ete.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1181&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415061/original/file-20210806-17-1dj3ete.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1181&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415061/original/file-20210806-17-1dj3ete.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415061/original/file-20210806-17-1dj3ete.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415061/original/file-20210806-17-1dj3ete.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">University of Oregon landscape architecture students worked with landowners whose homes were destroyed in the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire to help them develop greater resilience to future wildfires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cameron Dunstan and Eyrie Horton</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a smaller scale, everyone can take <a href="https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Wildfire/Preparing-homes-for-wildfire">basic steps to help protect their homes</a>. Here are a few tips: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Keep roofs and gutters repaired and clear of dead leaves and conifer needles that a flying ember could ignite. </p></li>
<li><p>Keep burnable material, including flammable plants and leaves, away from houses and especially from under porches. </p></li>
<li><p>Keep tree canopies at least 10 feet from the home and prune branches up 6-10 feet from the ground within 30 feet of the house. </p></li>
<li><p>Thin trees as much as 100-200 feet from the house to allow space between them so it’s harder for fire to move from one tree to the next.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The results of our simulations emphasize the power and consequences of today’s decisions on tomorrow’s risk.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated Aug. 11, 2021, with an additional chart showing affects of grasslands and forests on fire threat to homes.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165718/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bart Johnson receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the State of Oregon for research focused on wildfire risk mitigation and restoration of fire-adapted ecosystems.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Hulse receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the University of Florida.</span></em></p>
Hundreds of computer simulations point to a few best strategies for keeping homes safe from fire in a warming climate.
Bart Johnson, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Oregon
David Hulse, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139194
2020-06-11T19:40:12Z
2020-06-11T19:40:12Z
How cities can add accessible green space in a post-coronavirus world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341242/original/file-20200611-80770-102058m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C51%2C2434%2C1566&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cities can prepare for climate change emergencies by adding green spaces to help manage stormwater, heat stress and air quality.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to weigh the benefits of keeping green spaces open against the public health concerns that come from their use. During the pandemic, playgrounds have been taped off, parks locked and access to outdoor spaces for recreation cut off.</p>
<p>Green spaces have positive effects on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397908705892">mental health</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cym059">physical fitness</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16030452">social cohesion</a> and <a href="https://csme.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Nadkarni-Dharma-News-2002.pdf">spiritual wellness</a>. Although researchers say the coronavirus spreads more easily indoors than outdoors, they also believe the <a href="https://ncceh.ca/documents/guide/covid-19-and-outdoor-safety-considerations-use-outdoor-recreational-spaces">concentrated use of green spaces will increase the transmission of COVID-19</a>.</p>
<p>As cabin fever set in and governments began to ease restrictions, those living in urban areas have turned, en masse, to green spaces. <a href="https://osf.io/3wx5a/">Urban nature has been a source of resilience for many during COVID-19</a>. But the outcome has been disconcerting. COVID-19 has highlighted the <a href="https://alextabascio.wordpress.com/2020/05/24/does-downtown-toronto-have-enough-green-space-to-support-its-residents/amp/">inadequacy of green space for the dense populations of cities</a>. It also reinforces existing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.05.017">inequities regarding unequal access to parks in term of size and quality</a>. </p>
<h2>Human benefits only part of the story</h2>
<p>Natural features and diverse urban forests are <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/planning-montreals-urban-forest/">essential for cities to be more resilient and resistant to future challenges</a>, such as invasive species. They are also imperative to <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-ways-cities-can-prepare-for-climate-emergencies-125536">how cities can prepare for climate change emergencies</a> by helping manage stormwater, heat stress and air quality.</p>
<p>Cities around the world can make incremental adjustments and take on radical overhauls to improve their green spaces. Some cities have already started.</p>
<p>Urban green space patches are critically important — and always have been — <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2017/nrs_2017_lepczyk_001.pdf">for biodiversity conservation</a>. But only recently do we seem to appreciate their value and presence. In fact, research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-4944(95)90001-2">gazing at trees has psychological benefits</a>. Improving green spaces means making use of traditionally grey infrastructure spaces and infusing them with green.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341246/original/file-20200611-80789-aanssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341246/original/file-20200611-80789-aanssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341246/original/file-20200611-80789-aanssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341246/original/file-20200611-80789-aanssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341246/original/file-20200611-80789-aanssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341246/original/file-20200611-80789-aanssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341246/original/file-20200611-80789-aanssc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Landscapes can be designed with the benefits of plants, soil and biodiversity in mind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To do this properly, cities need to adopt an ecosystem planning approach that incorporates <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05607-x">nature-based design to make them more liveable and resilient. It also means managing cities as ecosystems</a>. </p>
<p>In our field of ecosystem restoration, we talk about patch size and quality, corridors and matrices of green space when we assess landscapes for their ability to support biodiversity. Cities that map these spaces are finding increasing trends (e.g. community stewardship, tree planting initiatives) connecting <a href="https://treecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Article-1-EN-CUFN-Trends-in-Canada%E2%80%99s-Urban-Forests.pdf">people and nature</a>. Some cities map the green dots of tree canopy cover to ensure the urban forest is well-managed and to prepare for consequences of climate change.</p>
<p>For example, one analysis found <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2020/ie/bgrd/backgroundfile-141368.pdf">Toronto lacked permeable surfaces and growing space on public land</a>, making it difficult for the city to meet its <a href="http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/it/newsrel.nsf/11476e3d3711f56e85256616006b891f/c3c788e736e7f0d0852584fe00734171?OpenDocument">tree canopy target of 40 per cent coverage by 2050</a>, part of its commitment to the local economy and better equip Toronto to face the effects of climate change. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1197213014749040641"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.toronto.ca/business-economy/partnerships-sponsorships-donations/partner-2/parks-environment/urban-forestry-grants-and-incentives/">Continued investments and partnerships with community and stewardship groups</a> has allowed Toronto to increase canopy cover on private land to about 28 per cent. This connect-the-dots approach can be applied incrementally to increase the availability of green space within neighbourhoods that possess both the need and desire to grow their urban canopy.</p>
<h2>Incremental adjustments are not enough</h2>
<p>More radical approaches to landscape design move beyond reactively adding green space to existing grey infrastructure. Instead, decision-makers can prospectively develop landscapes with the benefits of plants and soil in mind.</p>
<p>Even when such aspirational policies and plans exist, they may fail because the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.06.010">tools that guide the implementation of ecosystem-based urban plans are often missing</a>. Components of green space design are <a href="https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art13/">overlooked because they are quite literally out of sight and therefore out of mind</a>. For example, the specifications for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-018-00005-z">soil quality and quantity are critical to green</a> and blue infrastructure (vegetation and water elements, respectively) are usually insufficient to support nature-based designs.</p>
<p>The success stories of large-scale <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56091-5_6">green-blue infrastructure</a> design have something in common: they consider <a href="http://www.adaptivecircularcities.com/designing-green-and-blue-infrastructure-to-support-healthy-urban-living/">ecosystem services — the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems — first and often</a>.</p>
<p>Utrecht, Netherlands, is an <a href="http://www.adaptivecircularcities.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/T02-ACC-WP3-Green-Blue-infrastructure-for-Healthy-Urban-Living-Final-report-160701.pdf">excellent example</a> of the resilience nexus that occurs when applying new design principles that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.11.038">support climate adaptation and contribute to a healthy, liveable urban environments</a>. The city has incorporated green-blue infrastructure goals its plans since 2007, and the legacy of this mindset is already obvious. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341259/original/file-20200611-80778-1coy7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341259/original/file-20200611-80778-1coy7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341259/original/file-20200611-80778-1coy7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341259/original/file-20200611-80778-1coy7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341259/original/file-20200611-80778-1coy7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341259/original/file-20200611-80778-1coy7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341259/original/file-20200611-80778-1coy7qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People exercise in a park in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within a fixed city boundary and an increasing urban population, green space per household increased 24 per cent between 2009 and 2014. There are other measurable benefits too: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.009">trees have made streets more aesthetically appealing and more comfortable on hot days</a>. And by mapping ecosystem services, Utrecht city officials confirmed that <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/knowledge/ecosystem_assessment/pdf/102.pdf">green spaces could be easily accessed from any part of the city</a>.</p>
<p>In North America, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.11.013">ecosystem services are certainly gaining more attention</a>. A key lesson from Utrecht is that cities must commit to planning using an ecosystem approach if they want healthy, liveable cities that improve biodiversity and support climate adaption. </p>
<p>As we navigate the next few months and try to determine what the new normal looks like, cities and municipalities will begin to determine what is feasible. COVID-19 has taught us that availability and accessibility of green space is inadequate. Perhaps as we re-emerge from this crisis, it is the opportune time to pause and consider what is possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Plummer receives relevant research funding from Mitacs Accelerate (IT17685)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darby McGrath receives funding from the Ontario Horticultural Trades Association, Landscape Alberta Nursery Trades Association and several Canadian municipalities for research partnerships. She is on the Board of Directors of Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LEAF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sivajanani Sivarajah is affiliated with the Ontario Urban Forest Council. </span></em></p>
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the lack of green space available to those living in urban areas. Cities must be managed as ecosystems to make them more liveable and resilient.
Ryan Plummer, Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University
Darby McGrath, Adjunct professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University
Sivajanani Sivarajah, Research Associate, Department of Architectural Science, Toronto Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137882
2020-05-18T12:18:51Z
2020-05-18T12:18:51Z
Parks matter more than ever during a time of sickness – something Frederick Law Olmsted understood in the 19th century
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335229/original/file-20200514-77239-1cyqgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4526%2C3505&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Looking south from New York City's Central Park.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Central_Park_-_The_Pond_%2848377220157%29.jpg">Ajay Suresh/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has altered humans’ relationship with natural landscapes in ways that may be long-lasting. One of its most direct effects on people’s daily lives is reduced access to public parks.</p>
<p>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html">guidelines</a> urging Americans to stay at home whenever feasible, and to avoid discretionary travel and gatherings of more than 10 people. Emergency declarations and stay-at-home orders <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_local_government_response_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic">vary from state to state</a>, but many jurisdictions have closed <a href="https://thedyrt.com/magazine/local/campground-closures-list-covid-19/">state</a> and <a href="https://parks.arlingtonva.us/2020/04/parks-recreation-working-to-keep-people-healthy-and-safe/">county parks</a>, as well as smaller parks, playgrounds, beaches and other outdoor destinations. </p>
<p>There’s good reason for these actions, especially in places where people have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/26/us/southern-california-beaches-coronavirus-heat/index.html">spurned social distancing rules</a>. But particularly in urban environments, parks are important to human health and well-being. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Le_Brasseur">landscape architect</a>, I believe that <a href="https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/frederick-law-olmsted-sr">Frederick Law Olmsted</a>, the founder of our field, took the right approach. Olmsted served as general secretary of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, and his knowledge of contagious diseases informed his visions for his great North American urban parks, including <a href="https://www.centralpark.com/">Central Park</a> in New York, <a href="https://www.lemontroyal.qc.ca/en">Mount Royal Park</a> in Montreal and Boston’s <a href="https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/park-overview/">Emerald Necklace</a> park system. In my view, closing parks and public green spaces should be a temporary, last-resort measure for disease control, and reopening closed parks should be a priority as cities emerge from shutdowns.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lm4UD1eOTSI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Experts explain how urban parks promote public health.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making healthy places</h2>
<p>Olmsted was born in 1822 but became a landscape architect rather late in his career, at <a href="https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/olmsted-his-essential-theory">age 43</a>. His ideas evolved from a diverse and unique set of experiences. </p>
<p>From the start, Olmsted recognized the positive effect of nature, noting how urban trees provided a “<a href="https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Olmsted_Trees.pdf">soothing and refreshing sanitary influence</a>.” His “sanitary style” of design offered more than mere decoration and ornamentation. “Service must precede art” was his cry. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335236/original/file-20200514-77276-1kzmnri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Olmsted’s 1874 plan for the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.publicdomainfiles.com/show_file.php?id=13966301411602">Architect of the Capitol</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Olmsted came of age in the mid-19th century, as the public health movement was rapidly developing in response to typhoid, cholera and typhus epidemics in European cities. As managing editor of Putnam’s Monthly in New York City, he regularly walked the crowded tenement streets of Lower Manhattan. </p>
<p>At the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, Olmsted led efforts to improve sanitation in Union Army military camps and protect soldiers’ health. He initiated policies for selecting proper camp locations, installing drainage and disposing of waste, ventilating tents and preparing food, all designed to reduce disease. And in 1866 he witnessed adoption of New York’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Health_Bill">Metropolitan Health Bill</a>, the first city law to control unhealthy housing conditions. </p>
<h2>Antidotes to urban stress</h2>
<p>The insights Olmsted gained into connections between space, disease control and public health clearly influenced his landscape architectural career and the design of many urban park systems. For example, his design for the interlinked parks that forms Boston’s <a href="https://ramboll.com/-/media/files/rgr/lcl/bgi_final-report_mit_boston_20160403.pdf?la=en">Emerald Necklace</a> foreshadowed the concept of green infrastructure. </p>
<p>This system centered on stagnant and deteriorated marshes that had became disconnected from the tidal flow of the Charles River as Boston grew. City residents were dumping trash and sewage in the marshes, creating <a href="https://landscapes.northeastern.edu/water-sanitation-and-public-health-in-boston/">fetid dumps that spread waterborne diseases</a>. Olmsted’s design reconnected these water systems to improve flow and flush out stagnant zones, while integrating a series of smaller parks along its trailways. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334754/original/file-20200513-156656-1hfm6mb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boston’s Emerald Necklace park system today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/park-overview/emerald-necklace-map/">Emerald Necklace Conservancy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Olmsted also designed <a href="https://www.6sqft.com/in-1894-the-first-bike-lane-in-america-was-built-on-brooklyns-ocean-parkway/">America’s first bike lane</a>, which originated in Brooklyn, New York’s Prospect Park. Of the tree-lined boulevards in his design for Central Park, Olmsted said, “Air is disinfected by sunlight and foliage. Foliage also acts mechanically to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2013.836557">purify the air by screening it.</a>” </p>
<p>In all of his urban parks, Olmsted sought to immerse visitors in restorative and therapeutic natural landscapes – an experience he viewed as the most profound and effective antidote to the stress and ailments of urban life.</p>
<h2>Parks in the time of COVID-19</h2>
<p>Today researchers are documenting many health benefits associated with being outside. Spending time in parks and green spaces clearly benefits urban dwellers’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2007.09.009">psychological, emotional and overall well-being</a>. It <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10030913">reduces stress</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916591231001">improves cognitive functioning</a> and is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40471-015-0043-7">improved overall health</a>. </p>
<p>In my view, government agencies should work to make these vital services as widely available as possible, especially during stressful periods like pandemic shutdowns. Certain types of public green spaces, such as botanical gardens, arboretums and wide trails, are well suited to maintaining social distancing rules. Other types where visitors may be likely to cluster, such as beaches and playgrounds, require stricter regulation.</p>
<p>There are many ways to make parks accessible with appropriate levels of control. One option is stationing agents at entry points to monitor and enforce capacity controls. Park managers can use timed entries and parking area restrictions to limit social crowding, as well as temperature screening and face mask provisions. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1258546078162419712"}"></div></p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/sps_covid.html">New Jersey</a>, many public parks have reopened for walking, hiking, bicycling and fishing while keeping playgrounds, picnic and camping areas and restrooms closed. They also have limited parking capacity to 50% of capacity. </p>
<p>In Shanghai, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3075224/coronavirus-parks-and-tourist-attractions-reopen-china-tries-get">China</a>, the government recently reopened most parks and several major attractions, including the <a href="http://en.csnbgsh.cn/sites/chenshan/chenshan_en/index.ashx">Chenshan Botanical Garden</a> and the <a href="http://www.smartshanghai.com/venue/2401/Shanghai_Zoo_shanghai">city zoo</a>. Entry requires successful screening and online reservations, and visits are limited to a maximum of two hours.</p>
<p>Technologies such as GPS tracking and biometrics can set a precedent for future green space interaction. Residents could sign up for reserved time slots and log into apps that monitor their entry and distancing behavior. Some Americans might be put off by such technocentric means, but officials should be clear that making visitation easy and safe for all is the priority.</p>
<p>There will be challenges, especially when people <a href="https://www.wxyz.com/news/coronavirus/dnr-state-park-closures-likely-if-people-dont-follow-social-distancing-rules">flout social distancing rules</a>. But urban parks and nature offer plenty of benefits that are especially important during a pandemic. I believe that finding ways to enjoy them now in a manner safe for all will be well worth the effort.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard leBrasseur does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of many great North American city parks, understood that ready access to nature made cities healthier places to live.
Richard leBrasseur, Assisant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director, Green Infrastructure Performance Lab, Dalhousie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/136168
2020-05-15T12:12:32Z
2020-05-15T12:12:32Z
Solar farms, power stations and water treatment plants can be attractions instead of eyesores
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334817/original/file-20200513-156651-13qpfmc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C843&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Infrastructure as art: Jacob van Ruisdael, 'Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede,' c. 1670. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://hart.amsterdam/collectie/object/amcollect/38744">Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amid the economic and social fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people see the process of restarting society as a chance to do things differently. Some organizations are calling for big investments in infrastructure, both to <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/en/research-insights/featured/infrastructure-productivity-boost-coronavirus">generate jobs</a> and to promote <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/a-green-reboot-after-the-pandemic/">green economic growth</a>. </p>
<p>But projects that sound worthy in the abstract can meet stiff resistance when it’s time to break ground locally. For example, in 2012 I served on a committee tasked with choosing an energy provider to build a solar farm on an old landfill in the progressive town of Amherst, Massachusetts. Neighbors, who were not consulted, fought to preserve a bucolic meadow that had grown up on the landfill site. After several lawsuits, the project died an unhappy death.</p>
<p>This debacle got me thinking. As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K9EF21oAAAAJ&hl=en">architectural historian</a>, I knew that Americans had not always been so disconnected from facilities that produced necessities like food, energy and clean water. My new book, “<a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/landscape-and-infrastructure-9781350071094/">Landscape and Infrastructure: Re-Imagining the Pastoral Paradigm for the 21st Century</a>,” explores how Western views of the systems that sustain society have evolved. It also highlights contemporary projects that successfully marry infrastructure and community into places where people want to be.</p>
<h2>Art objects and tourist attractions</h2>
<p>In European landscape paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, such as <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jacob-van-ruisdael">Jacob Ruisdael’s Dutch landscapes</a>, windmills compete with church spires for prominence on the skyline. This wasn’t just an aesthetic choice. Painters focused on windmills because they generated wealth and prosperity.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334805/original/file-20200513-156665-uw4kqo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ha-ha in front of Heaton Hall, Heaton Park, Manchester, U.K.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Heaton_Hall_Ha-Ha_%28filtered%29.JPG">Richerman/English Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Classic English landscape gardens include a feature called <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/what-is-a-ha-ha">a ha-ha</a> – a grassy trench running across a lawn, reinforced by a sunken wall that was invisible from the main house. This created a view of what looked like unbroken lawn, grazed by sheep and cattle – key sources of wealth and prosperity – while separating visitors from the animals and their waste.</p>
<p>In the 19th and 20th centuries a handful of architects and artists wrangled with weaving infrastructure and nature together. Frederick Graff’s 1823 <a href="https://www.visitphilly.com/things-to-do/attractions/water-works-restaurant-and-lounge/">Fairmount Water Works</a> protected Philadelphia’s water supply and drew hordes of visitors to admire its Neo-Palladian architecture and landscape park along the Schuylkill River. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334816/original/file-20200513-156641-seia91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Doughty, ‘View of the Fairmount Waterworks, Philadelphia, from the West Bank of the Schuylkill River,’ 1826.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/343835.html?mulR=64047836%7C6">Philadelphia Museum of Art</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And in the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned a utopian community called <a href="https://franklloydwright.org/revisiting-frank-lloyd-wrights-vision-broadacre-city/">Broadacre City</a> – his Depression-era answer to urban planning. This project, which was never built at scale, wove together gardens, industry and residences into what he called a <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia-the-beautiful/">Usonian society</a> – one that offered Americans deeper connections with nature and productivity. </p>
<h2>Going industrial</h2>
<p>Yet as societies industrialized, artists and landscape architects began to downplay or separate industry and infrastructure from their views of nature. People came to understand nature as something unspoiled and separate from modern communities – a view that still dominates today.</p>
<p>As cities and suburbs expanded in the 19th and 20th centuries, so did power stations, water treatment plants and waste facilities. Increasingly, these structures were built on the industrial fringes of metropolitan areas, out of sight and out of mind. Often they were located in underserved communities that lacked the political clout to object. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329536/original/file-20200421-82654-17b5ujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A solar farm in Hadley, Massachusetts, that produces renewable electricity but does nothing for the land it sits on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Margaret Vickery</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even renewable energy systems, for all of their green cachet, often perpetuate this destructive tradition. Many solar farms across the U.S. are lifeless slabs encircled by chain link fences, taking up land and habitat. For most of us, the idea that infrastructure can be inviting and aesthetic seems contradictory.</p>
<h2>Productive and attractive</h2>
<p>What’s the alternative? In my book I highlight recent infrastructure projects whose creative teams included artists, architects or landscape architects and invited community input. These facilities don’t just generate electricity or process waste: They also offer recreation and education, and connect visitors to the sources of their energy and drinking water.</p>
<p>Hampden, Connecticut’s <a href="https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CT-01-009-0098">water filtration plant</a>, completed in 2005, is one such ecological and aesthetic asset. The structure, which resembles an inverted silver teardrop, emerges from a landscape carefully designed to mimic the filtering processes that happen within the building. Paths and ponds around the site provide recreation, education and wildlife habitat. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335141/original/file-20200514-77235-1ro2zib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lake Whitney Water Purification Plant, Hamden, Connecticut, 2005. Steven Holl Architects, Michael van Valkenburgh Landscape Architects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Felicella</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.hooddesignstudio.com/solarstrand">Solar Strand</a> at the University at Buffalo, New York, designed in 2012, is a dramatic contrast to fields of solar panels arranged in unbroken rows. Laid out like a strand of DNA, irregular placement of arrays creates breakout spaces for outdoor classrooms. Paths meander through, wildflowers bloom and rabbits graze. It is a place of learning and recreation that showcases the school’s commitment to clean energy. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7nI98b1R8I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Landscape architect Walter Hood describes his concept for the UB Solar Strand.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Copenhagen’s <a href="http://www.volund.dk/Waste_to_Energy/References/ARC_Amager_Bakke_Copenhagen">Amager Bakke</a> waste-to-energy plant, completed in 2019, converts trash to electricity and provides an <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/150162866/big-s-waste-to-energy-ski-slope-amager-bakke-is-now-open">artificial ski slope</a> and climbing walls for visitors who come to recycle their washing machines, paper and plastics. The ski track on the plant’s sloping roof is bordered by green plantings that spread seeds across the surrounding landscape. Waste-to-energy plants are <a href="https://theconversation.com/garbage-in-garbage-out-incinerating-trash-is-not-an-effective-way-to-protect-the-climate-or-reduce-waste-84182">highly unpopular in many places</a>, but developers built a new apartment complex near Amager Bakke to take advantage of the recreational opportunities it offers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335144/original/file-20200514-77239-ms84yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On the sloping roof of the Amager Bakke Waste to Energy Plant, Copenhagen, 2018 (artist’s rendition).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© SLA Landscape Architects</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cfmoller.com/p/Energy-Climate-and-Environmental-Park-i3034.html#">Solrøgård Energy, Climate and Environmental Park</a>, opened in 2019 in Hillerød, Denmark, is home to a recycling center, geothermal energy system and state-of-the-art <a href="https://www.designraid.net/11126/solrodgard-water-treatment-plant-by-henning-larsen-architects/">wastewater treatment plant</a>. The plant features two buildings, bifurcated by rainwater gardens and flowering trees, tucked within the landscape. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHj3kA2Ay_E&feature=youtu.be">Paths lead over their grassy roofs</a>, and large windows offer views of the treatment processes taking place inside. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335146/original/file-20200514-77255-ayr0ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hillerød Renseanlaeg Water Treatment Plant, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Henning Larsen Architects A/S/</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of these facilities involve the surrounding community, educate the public and include nature and the landscape. Such creative approaches could have avoided the bitter dispute Amherst experienced in 2012. </p>
<p>Projects like these demonstrate that infrastructure can do more than provide energy and water: It can also create aesthetically welcoming spaces for society. As U.S. leaders consider how to restart the economy, I believe they should consider investing in projects that are not only productive, but enhance and revitalize the communities around them. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136168/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meg Vickery receives funding from the University of Massachusetts Amherst for research. </span></em></p>
Are facilities that produce necessities like energy and clean water doomed to be ugly? Not when artists and landscape architects help design them.
Margaret Birney Vickery, Lecturer in Art History, UMass Amherst
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/138099
2020-05-08T12:16:57Z
2020-05-08T12:16:57Z
Mothers behind bars nurture relationships with visitors in this unusual prison garden
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333439/original/file-20200507-49546-578ebh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=563%2C0%2C6495%2C4320&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The design called for plants and play spaces – big improvements over brick and razor wire.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iowa State University student design team</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Leaves are rustling. You can hear the sound of children kicking a ball, plinking the keys of a toy xylophone. People are laughing and talking.</p>
<p>Are you picturing a prison? My colleagues and I did – and we turned these visions into reality. The garden and playscape we created at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW) is changing the way incarcerated women spend time with their children, family and friends.</p>
<p>“Home” is not a word typically associated with prison environments, but that’s one way respondents in our recent study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2020.1733165">described the new outdoor area</a>. Our design-build team made up of <a href="https://www.design.iastate.edu">Iowa State University design students</a> and incarcerated women and staff at ICIW created a space where incarcerated women can forget their identity as inmates and step back into their roles as mothers or grandmothers, sisters or aunts.</p>
<h2>Hard to maintain connections with home</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The outdoor space before renovation was far from child-friendly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Stevens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People living inside prisons must endure isolation, tight spaces, loss of identity and separation from loved ones. Prisons are typically stark and void of color and living plants. Visits from loved ones can ease this difficult situation, but prison visits are complicated.</p>
<p>Many incarcerated people find it difficult to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16625-4">maintain connections with loved ones</a>, <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/89601/parent-child_visiting_practices_in_prisons_and_jails.pdf">especially children</a>. These bonds can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020279">a critical component of successful reentry</a> back to their home and community after release. Though often cold and condemning, the prison visiting room may be the place where mothers and children first face one another after the traumatic events that led to incarceration – with security officers and other incarcerated people and visitors within earshot.</p>
<p>And that’s only if children make the difficult trip. It is often financially and logistically impossible for those caring for the children of incarcerated parents to make a visit happen. Caregivers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854815613528">might be worried about the conditions</a> they’d be bringing children into.</p>
<p>Why is this important? Because <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/6148/">more than 5 million children</a> in the U.S. have seen a parent sent to prison. Forty-eight percent of women in federal correctional facilities and 55% in state prisons <a href="https://www.aecf.org/resources/a-shared-sentence/">are mothers of children under the age of 18</a>. Children of incarcerated parents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2020.1733165">are at increased risk of</a> themselves becoming incarcerated, struggling with mental health and performing poorly in school. They also tend to display behavioral issues and feelings of shame and abandonment.</p>
<p>When my students and I started working with the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in 2011, our task was seemingly simple: beautify the grounds. The warden wanted calm inmates. These goals were linked – and I can happily say <a href="https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.37.1.55">we’ve achieved both</a>.</p>
<p>But from the start, one project felt most significant to me – creating a nurturing outdoor space where mothers could build and maintain those incredibly important relationships with their children.</p>
<h2>Adding nature within prison walls</h2>
<p>Research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-4944(95)90001-2">natural environments can</a> <a href="https://plantsolutions.com/documents/HealthSettingsUlrich.pdf">help mitigate stress and</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122668">offer other psychological benefits</a>.</p>
<p>The original outdoor visiting space consisted of brick and razor wire. As landscape architects, my team used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916589215001">environmental psychology</a> and <a href="https://www.workman.com/products/therapeutic-gardens">therapeutic landscape</a> theories to carefully design active and passive spaces surrounded by gardens. Our aim was to employ the benefits of nature to improve connections between an incarcerated individual and her loved ones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We took participatory design theories to heart, putting the power of design in the hands of incarcerated women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lauren Dietz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through <a href="https://islandpress.org/books/design-democracy">participatory design</a>, we honored the needs and desires of the incarcerated women by including them as the most knowledgeable members of the design team. With pencils and play dough in hand, resident designers and their child visitors explicitly described what they wanted: a garden that felt and looked like home or a park.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asked to draw their favorite part of the garden, several children shared their love for the ‘tulip spinners.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Stevens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The finished garden includes a circular walk wide enough for two tricycles or wheelchairs to pass comfortably. Play equipment like the tulip spinners provide a fun way for kids to release energy and are a great conversation piece for observers. We installed more comfortable seating where residents and visitors can take advantage of the positive natural distractions of colorful plants and rustling Quaking Aspen leaves.</p>
<p>One Saturday afternoon, we watched as a family arrived to visit mom. The younger children embraced her with warm hugs while a teenager stayed silent with arms crossed. Mom gave him a little space as they walked to the garden and then began to talk.</p>
<p>Even though it was exactly what we hoped would happen in the garden, we watched in amazement as their body language changed from tense to accepting and they started talking together. The visit eventually ended with the warmth that every mother and child need from each other. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Incarcerated women enjoy the space with young visitors and stop to play the xylophone. The plants will mature and fill in over time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Stevens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What moms and kids say about the new space</h2>
<p>To learn more about the garden’s effect on incarcerated women and their visitors, my colleagues <a href="https://directory.tacoma.uw.edu/employee/btoews">Barb Toews</a> and <a href="https://www.designconsultation.net">Amy Wagenfeld</a> conducted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2020.1733165">interviews and surveys</a> with them in the garden itself. They told us that visits had changed in four important ways:</p>
<ul>
<li>More child-friendly: Visits are now more conducive to “kids being kids.”</li>
<li>Improved emotional experience: Visits are less stressful or boring. Interviewees used words such as “cozy,” “calm” and “fun” to describe their experience in the garden.</li>
<li>Home-like environment: The “backyard” feel to the garden facilitates natural play and conversations between the incarcerated women and their visitors.</li>
<li>Improved parent-child relationship: Child visitors come more often, stay longer, enjoy better activities and improved quiet time. Overall the garden improved the quality of the time incarcerated women and their kids spent together.</li>
</ul>
<p>People tend to support strengthening mother-child relationships, but I do sometimes hear critiques. Some argue that improving prison environments is a poor use of money – but the garden was supported by donors and the sweat equity of the ICIW women and our students. Others say that people just shouldn’t commit crimes, or that if a prison is too nice people will want to stay. But while the prison may indeed be the safest place many of these women have lived, they just want to go home. And I’d argue that <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/4286-towards-humane-prisons">healthy environments are a necessity</a>, not a luxury.</p>
<p>Mothering is at once an extraordinary and challenging journey. I know this firsthand and I cannot imagine doing it from prison. Based on the requests for information and consultations I’ve received from around the world, many people, especially the newest generation of environmental designers, recognize these challenges and care about strengthening those mother-child bonds by changing prisons’ physical spaces.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Stevens has received funding from the Iowa Department of Corrections and The Wellmark Foundation.
She is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Environmental Design Research Association. </span></em></p>
About half of incarcerated women in the United States are mothers to children under age 18. Natural spaces within a prison can help maintain their mother-child bonds.
Julie Stevens, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Iowa State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124772
2019-10-09T18:59:15Z
2019-10-09T18:59:15Z
Why we need ‘crazy’ ideas for new city parks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296115/original/file-20191009-3894-6yue75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8004%2C4503&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sea Line Park, one of the shortlisted entries in the competition to design a new park for the Melbourne of 2050.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Future Park Design Ideas Competition</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two seemingly unrelated but important things happened in Melbourne last week. One was a memorial service for <a href="https://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/news/vale-david-yencken-ao">David Yencken</a> AO; the other was the exhibition opening of the <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/be150/competitions/futurepark">Future Park Design Ideas Competition</a>. The connection between the two is that both gave us radical ideas for Melbourne’s open space.</p>
<p>David Yencken was a visionary man who had a profound impact on Victoria and Melbourne. He was responsible, among many things, for the transformation of <a href="https://www.travelvictoria.com.au/southbank/">Southbank</a> and co-founding <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/merchant-builders-celebrating-a-fifty-year-legacy">Merchant Builders</a>. But one of his wildest ideas was the 1985 <a href="https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2016/09/imagine-a-city-swanston-st-party/">Greening of Swanston Street</a>, when vehicle traffic was closed and a weekend street party was held right in the middle of Melbourne.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-three-decade-remaking-of-the-city-revived-the-buzz-of-marvellous-melbourne-91481">How a three-decade remaking of the city revived the buzz of 'Marvellous Melbourne'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As the secretary (chief executive) of the Ministry for Planning and Environment, Yencken had been charged with changing perceptions of the city by rethinking its public spaces. At a time before <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-day-for-turning-parking-spaces-into-pop-up-parks-65164">pop-up parks</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/look-out-behind-the-bus-stop-here-come-guerrilla-gardeners-digging-up-an-urban-revolution-29225">guerrilla gardening</a>, his radical idea demonstrated what was possible for the inner city and sowed the seed of the <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/blog/melbourne-urban-transformation">idea of closing Swanston Street to traffic</a>. </p>
<p>The project was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-man-who-helped-re-imagine-melbourne-20190705-p524mc.html">not without controversy</a> – it was costly and came in for political criticism as a stunt. But looking back to a time when inner Melbourne was underutilised and dominated by traffic, we can see how that radical idea sparked the imagination about what was possible for the city centre.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Greening of Swanston Street in 1985.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Victorian Ministry of Planning</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-day-for-turning-parking-spaces-into-pop-up-parks-65164">A day for turning parking spaces into pop-up parks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Future Park fires imaginations and debate</h2>
<p>This is just what the <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/be150/competitions/futurepark">Future Park competition</a> needs to achieve. The open competition held by the University of Melbourne and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects has attracted global interest, with 123 entries from 20 countries. </p>
<p>The brief was simple but provocative. Designers were to find space within 10 kilometres of the city centre and design a future park that responds to the challenges of Melbourne today. The design responses from the 31 shortlisted entries ranged from manufactured lagoons to urban wildlife corridors and street transformation parks that Yencken would be proud of. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Melbourne from Past to Last, a vision of a city street park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Future Park Design Ideas Competition</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first wave of media coverage on the competition inspired a range of public comments about Melbourne’s open space. For example, from the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/visions-of-utopia-lagoons-floating-pods-among-future-park-entries-20190929-p52vzc.html">online comments in The Age</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Royal Park is a massive area of underutilised space. Driving down Elliott Av it’s just an open wasteland. Grassland and scattered gum trees does not make a welcoming “park”.</p>
<p>How about bulldozing the eyesore known as Federation Square and putting a park in its place?</p>
<p>These designs forget to include the things that make it a Melbourne park, graffiti, vandalism, weeds and the homeless.</p>
<p>Architects and landscapers rarely, if ever, have a grasp on what will work for people … they are too busy trying to be creative, and not busy enough trying to make people happy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What the public comments show us is that there is no single or obvious solution to our parks and public spaces. Some people like it busy, some people like the quiet. Some want European trees and others desire native plantings. It’s complicated, and each of these opinions make valid points. </p>
<p>Just like Yencken’s Greening of Swanston, there will always be debate about what makes good public space. And that is exactly why we need more radical ideas – some might call them “crazy” – for our cities.</p>
<p>We know the future of our cities will be complicated. Like it or not, there will be more people, a changing climate and increasing pressure on infrastructure and services. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-we-want-liveable-cities-in-2060-well-have-to-work-together-to-transform-urban-systems-119235">If we want liveable cities in 2060 we'll have to work together to transform urban systems</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Wicked problems call for radical thinking</h2>
<p>These messy issues are often described as <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-many-wicked-problems-how-science-policy-and-politics-can-work-together-8990">wicked problems</a>. Popular in public policy and management, the term is used to explain problems with debatable cause and effect. Critically, the lack of agreement about wicked problems produces conflicting goals towards resolution.</p>
<p>Obviously, we need science, governance and planning, but finding solutions to wicked problems will also require creativity and collaboration. We need debate and we need ideas that can expand our imagination about what our cities can be. This is why it is so important that the competition entries for the Future Park explore new and outrageous possibilities.</p>
<p>Ideas throughout the shortlisted entries include plans for a new NBN: the National Biodiversity Network, which creates ecological corridors across the country. Others propose transforming schools into parkland; parks designed for bees; designs that return darkness to our urban landscapes; and sculpting new islands as rising sea levels engulf our coastline.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Multi-deck parks: as cities grow and space becomes ever more precious, urban parks replace car parks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Future Park Design Ideas Competition</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As design solutions, these ideas reflect the challenges of our world today. While many of these schemes are technically, socially or economically unfeasible, they remind us of the power of thinking outside of the box. Importantly, the competition format puts all of these ideas together in one place for us to think about and discuss. </p>
<p>In Australia, we have a <a href="https://theconversation.com/architecture-competitions-are-risky-but-we-can-build-on-that-29476">limited culture of “open design competitions”</a> for either built projects or speculative solutions. But design competitions provide opportunities for new voices and discovering unexpected solutions within these wild ideas. </p>
<p>Radical ideas are important and so is having the freedom to voice them. Especially as a way of expanding the discussions we need to have about the challenging future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reshaping-sydney-by-design-few-know-about-the-mandatory-competitions-but-we-all-see-the-results-111839">Reshaping Sydney by design – few know about the mandatory competitions, but we all see the results</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Future Park competition winners will be announced on Friday, October 11, at the <a href="https://www.aila.org.au/imis_prod/TSATP/Home/TSATP/Default.aspx?hkey=39717070-b978-492a-b2d6-c59aab8cd866">2019 International Festival of Landscape Architecture</a> in Melbourne. The <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/be150/events/the-future-park-design-ideas-competition-the-square-and-the-park-exhibition">Future Park exhibition</a> is at Dulux Gallery, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, from October 4 to November 1.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Walls' PhD research was funded by the David Yencken Scholarship for Landscape Architecture and Ecological Sustainability.</span></em></p>
Some might scoff at the free-ranging ideas sparked by a competition to design future parks for Melbourne. But the legacy of a radical idea to green a CBD street in 1985 shows why we need such thinking.
Wendy Walls, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/73111
2017-08-23T02:00:08Z
2017-08-23T02:00:08Z
Here’s a better vision for the US-Mexico border: Make the Rio Grande grand again
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181604/original/file-20170809-13327-13oy39u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Big Bend National Park's Santa Elena Canyon, the Rio Grande separates the United States (left) from Mexico (right).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/66959354">Ken Lund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Leer <a href="https://theconversation.com/una-mejor-idea-para-la-frontera-entre-eua-y-mexico-invertimos-en-el-rio-no-en-un-muro-83077">en español</a>.</em> </p>
<p>The United States and Mexico have shared their current international border for nearly 170 years. Today they cooperate at multiple levels on issues that affect the border region, although you would not know it from the divisive rhetoric that we hear in both countries. President Trump’s focus on building a border wall threatens to undermine many binational initiatives, as well as <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/17/514356130/the-environmental-consequences-of-a-wall-on-the-u-s-mexico-border">our shared natural environment</a>. </p>
<p>As a scholar focusing on urban planning and design in the border region, I have worked with communities in both countries to restore deteriorated urban and natural environments. I see great potential for <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-way-to-promote-green-infrastructure-in-your-city-78975">green infrastructure</a> – projects that use live natural systems to deliver benefits to people and the local environment. This approach can help mitigate air and water pollution, restore soils and habitats and regenerate plant, animal and human communities.</p>
<p>I also see an opportunity for Mexico and the United States to work together on a much larger scale. Rather than spending billions of dollars on a border wall, here is an alternative vision: regenerating the <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/river/rio-grande-river/">Rio Grande</a>, which forms more than half of the border, to form the core of a binational park that showcases our spectacular shared landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181599/original/file-20170809-10793-1nqgax0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rio Grande rises in south-central Colorado and flows 1,885 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande#/media/File:Riogranderivermap.png">Kmusser</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today the river’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/us/mighty-rio-grande-now-a-trickle-under-siege.html">volume is decreasing</a>, thanks to climate change and water diversions for agriculture and municipal uses. It is polluted with fertilizers and sewage, and has <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/nature/rio-trouble.htm">lost at least seven native fish species</a>. Restoring it would produce immense benefits for wildlife, agriculture, recreation and communities on both sides. </p>
<h2>Environmental challenges along the border</h2>
<p>Mexico and the United States have signed numerous agreements regulating the border, starting with the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Guadalupe.html">Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</a> in 1848. In 1944 they created the <a href="https://www.ibwc.gov/home.html">International Boundary and Water Commission</a> to manage water supplies, water quality and flood control in the border region. </p>
<p>Environmental issues that affect communities on the border include <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1380/downloads/Chapter5.pdf">raw sewage dumping, agro-chemical pollution and flooding</a>. Loss of riparian habitat – the lush green zones along river banks – has reduced shade and natural cooling in the river’s urban stretches. </p>
<p>Recognizing these issues, the United States and Mexico established the <a href="http://www.becc.org/">Border Environment Cooperation Commission</a> in a side pact to the North American Free Trade Agreement. This organization funds environmental programs proposed by local communities and governments within a 400-kilometer-wide strip along the border. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/border2020">Border 2020 program</a> also provides grants focused on environmental issues in the United States and Mexico. </p>
<h2>Greening infrastructure along the border</h2>
<p>I have coordinated applied collaborative design studios, in which students work with local and state planning authorities to address problems such as flooding and lack of accessible, high-quality public space. These projects seek to improve urban infrastructure systems in ways that increase ecosystem services, such as improving water quality.</p>
<p>For example, as part of the Border 2012 (precedent to Border 2020) program, the EPA provided funding for a pilot program to build flood-prevention detention ponds in Nogales, Mexico, a sister city with Nogales, Arizona. City leaders wanted to assess whether the ponds could also serve as public space amenities. Working with students from Arizona State University, my colleague <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/756610">Francisco Lara Valencia</a> and I produced a <a href="http://server.cocef.org/Final_Reports_B2012/20044/20044_Final_Report_EN.pdf">report</a> for local planning authorities. In it we proposed creating a network of connected green spaces to absorb stormwater and provide park lands, bringing nature into the city. By doing so, EPA and Mexican authorities could have a positive environmental impact on both cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169883/original/file-20170518-2399-1jnobbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top: The Rio Grande in eastern Ciudad Juarez today, with tourists photographing the border barriers on the American side. Bottom: The same site envisioned 10 years from now, with tourists photographing wildlife and a living river.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gabriel Diaz Montemayor</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I also worked with students at the University of Texas at Austin to create a <a href="http://soa.utexas.edu/work/landscape-architecture-comprehensive-design-studio-hermosillo-green-corridors-plan">green corridor master plan</a> for the city of Hermosillo, Sonora in 2015. Green corridors typically run along natural or artificial waterways to soak up stormwater and provide places to play. The city is now launching a strategic plan that incorporates these concepts. </p>
<p>In 2015-16 at UT Austin, we developed an urban planning and design strategy for border towns in the state of Tamaulipas that are expected to be impacted by oil and gas production resulting from recent energy reforms in Mexico. Our case study city is <a href="http://soa.utexas.edu/work/advanced-studio-spring-2016-integral-cities-tamaulipas-border-region-infrastructure-rapid">Ciudad Miguel Aleman</a>, a border sister city with Roma, Texas, separated only by the width of the Rio Grande. </p>
<p>The plan and designs propose to leverage construction of infrastructure for oil and gas production fields to include detention and filtration ponds and green corridors, which will serve as high-quality public spaces and mitigate flood risks. It also calls for creating natural preserves and recreation areas on the Mexican side of the river, mirroring existing areas on the American side. </p>
<h2>An international border park</h2>
<p>A green vision for the border region would expand this sister-city-specific approach into a large-scale urban ecology and planning effort. This initiative could integrate streets, parks, industries, towns, cities, creeks and other tributaries, agriculture and fracking fields throughout the Rio Grande’s entire 182,000-square-mile watershed. </p>
<p>One possible starting point would be to restore riparian zones along the river through the binational metropolis of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, redesigning the existing channel. Recreating natural habitat on both sides of the river would cool and clean the air and provide attractive public spaces. </p>
<p>But why stop there? As the Rio Grande advances to the Gulf of Mexico, it cuts through incredibly valuable, beautiful and remote landscapes, including <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm">Big Bend National Park</a> in Texas and the <a href="http://www.chihuahua.gob.mx/areas/santa_elena">Cañon de Santa Elena</a>, Ocampo, and <a href="http://www.gob.mx/semarnat/articulos/maderas-del-carmen-area-de-proteccion-de-flora-y-fauna">Maderas del Carmen</a> reserves in Mexico. Traveling its length could become a trip comparable to hiking the Appalachian Trail, with opportunities to see recovering natural areas and wildlife and learn from two of the world’s richest cultures. </p>
<p>Together these areas form a vast, potentially binational natural park which could be managed cooperatively, much like <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/354">Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park</a> on the U.S.-Canadian border. In fact, advocates on both sides of the border have been pursuing this vision <a href="https://greaterbigbend.wordpress.com/international-park-timeline-2/">for more than 80 years</a>. When Texas officials proposed creating Big Bend National Park in the 1930s, they envisioned an international park. In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote to Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend [establishment of Big Bend National Park] will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Discussions lapsed in the 1950s, then resumed in the 1980s at the grassroots level, but were drowned out by debates over border security and immigration after the September 11, 2001 attacks.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181686/original/file-20170810-20679-deh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho during a state visit by Roosevelt to Monterrey, Mexico, April 20, 1943.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Franklin_D_Roosevelt_Manuel_Avila_Camacho_Monterrey.jpg">National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Uniting, not dividing</h2>
<p>So far, Congress has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/us/politics/trump-veto-spending-bill.html">refused to fund</a> President Trump’s requests for billions of dollars to build a border wall. In any case, building a wall on a wide, inhabited river corridor with flood risks is a dubious goal. As experts have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/us/politics/on-the-mexican-border-a-case-for-technology-over-concrete.html?_r=0">pointed out</a>, it is more effective to police the border with technology and human power than to build a barrier.</p>
<p>In fact, restoring river habitat could improve border security by fostering higher and more constant water flow. Making the Rio Grande healthier would also benefit farmers and energy producers on both sides of the border. </p>
<p>In his 1951 essay “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cRddYSJCEBEC&pg=PA43&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false">Chihuahua as We Might Have Been</a>,” American cultural landscape scholar J.B. Jackson wrote that “rivers are meant to bring men together, not to keep them apart,” and that the border imposes an artificial division on a region that humans accepted as one unified entity for hundreds of years – the Spanish Southwest. This vast shared watershed should remind us that we are fragile in isolation, but powerful when we come together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Diaz Montemayor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Instead of building a wall on the US-Mexico border, a landscape architect calls for restoring the Rio Grande and turning its course into an international park – an idea first proposed in the 1930s.
Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/68594
2016-12-07T13:32:02Z
2016-12-07T13:32:02Z
How five vivid arts projects offer up hope for repair and resistance
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148910/original/image-20161206-25738-1rh76za.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swartberg House in the Karoo, designed by Jennifer Beningfield, Open Studio.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Davies</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>Review 2016:</strong> This has been a year most of humanity would like to forget with war, disasters, racism, sexism and, especially in arts and culture, the deaths of revered icons. But it is also in the arts and culture where people look for and find hope. The Conversation Africa has asked a number of our contributors to give us five books, records, buildings, works of art and so on, in their field that made a difference to them in 2016. Here is architecture scholar Hannah le Roux’s year in review.</em></p>
<p>In an el Niño year that started in the high thirties, it seems that the works that have held my interest share a theme of global impact. The five vivid projects that come to mind all link how we build, experience and consume in space to the consequences of these ways. </p>
<p>They make it clear that it is no longer a marginal question to ask how to live on this planet and the consequences that holds for people close and far from us. Specifically, they come out of a questioning of the devastating impact of colonial cultures on the New World, and in different and beautifully constructed media, propose ways to structure acts of repair or resistance into our personal and professional positions.</p>
<h2>1. UrbanNext</h2>
<p><a href="https://urbannext.net">UrbanNext</a> is a website with sound ambitions to create a community of self reporting urban practitioners, particularly around the challenging issues that hold interest of architects looking at trans-disciplinary and transnational issues. The site is linked to the most courageous of architecture publishers, <a href="http://actar.com/">Actar</a>, who work out of Barcelona and New York. It has a youthful freshness that crosses between architecture, urbanism, technology and ecology, with a fair amount of content sourced in Africa as well as cities in crisis, such as Detroit.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148909/original/image-20161206-25727-1bmeo0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148909/original/image-20161206-25727-1bmeo0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148909/original/image-20161206-25727-1bmeo0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148909/original/image-20161206-25727-1bmeo0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148909/original/image-20161206-25727-1bmeo0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148909/original/image-20161206-25727-1bmeo0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148909/original/image-20161206-25727-1bmeo0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Experts on architecture, urbanism and technology, like architect Mitch McEwen, feature on UrbanNext.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">McEwen Studio</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It carries good video clips narrated by some of the more thoughtful people in this field, including <a href="https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/faculty/directory/v-mitch-mcewen">Mitch McEwen</a>, <a href="https://www.anupamakundoo.com/">Anupama Kundoo</a>, <a href="http://kellereasterling.com/">Keller Easterling</a>, <a href="https://www.lacatonvassal.com/">Jean-Philippe Vassal</a> and <a href="http://journal.sva.edu/issues/2015spring/qaamelieKlein.html">Amelie Klein</a>. Many are people with whom I have recently been in touch in the course of other projects, and this made for a good sense of the growing connectivity that transcends our specific locations. </p>
<h2>2. Extraction</h2>
<p>A similar sense of the world shrinking and moving south in its orientation came from the Architecture Exhibition at the <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/Home.html">Venice Biennale</a>. Amongst many great shows, I was moved by the installation of the Canadian contribution on the bare ground between the French, English and Canadian pavilions.</p>
<p>The team of <a href="http://www.extraction.ca/english.html">“EXTRACTION”</a> has landscape architect and Harvard academic <a href="http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/person/pierre-belanger/">Pierre Bélanger</a> as the curator. They detail the consequences of the more than 10,000 mining projects carried out around the world by Canadian firms. The powerful message of “EXTRACTION” lay in the way it presented the content, set against a huge array of sandbags that held the crushed ore needed to produce a gram of gold. </p>
<p>There is an obvious connection with the <a href="http://www.chamberofmines.org.za/sa-mining/gold">Witwatersrand</a> landscape in South Africa, made toxic by mining, and this global scan of mining. To view the media content of this anti-pavilion one had to kneel before the pavilions of Britain and France and peer into the hollow of a surveyor’s peg. 800 images flashed past, detailing the consequences of all the digging that has enriched and, they argue, constructed Canada.</p>
<h2>3. Annie Proulx</h2>
<p>In the cold months, I tackled the thick tome that Annie Proulx published at the age of 80: <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Barkskins/Annie-Proulx/9780743288781">“Barkskins”</a>. Canada and Michigan are again sites of concern, now as the background to the felling of their forests and their inter-generational impact. It is through both the greed for extraction and the awareness of its consequences that lives and attitudes are produced in the process of deforestation. </p>
<p>“Barkskins” begins with the arrival of two French woodsmen in 1693, and ends in the present. I hugely appreciated Proulx’s meticulous historical research. Also her hard-bitten prose, which is filled with sudden deaths by accident and impoverished lives, as well as her guarded optimism that this devastation will somehow be halted, if not reversed through the survival of some innate and indigenous sense of resistance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148893/original/image-20161206-25753-12lhkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148893/original/image-20161206-25753-12lhkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148893/original/image-20161206-25753-12lhkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148893/original/image-20161206-25753-12lhkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148893/original/image-20161206-25753-12lhkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148893/original/image-20161206-25753-12lhkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148893/original/image-20161206-25753-12lhkqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American author Annie Proulx.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Hanna/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Captain Fantastic</h2>
<p>Forests, education and community also came out as the backdrop for <a href="http://www.bleeckerstreetmedia.com/captainfantastic">“Captain Fantastic”</a>, an appealing family drama that tells the story of a father having to reassess the Utopian life he has built for his six children. The film stimulated some decent discussion with my own son, who is at the end of his own secondary schooling, about the respective values of de-linking and self-educating – and perhaps decolonising – and the often compromised system of suburban schools.</p>
<p>The system that is promoted here learns by respecting the land, practising creativity, self building and having conversations based on classical and critical thought. The clarity around these positions is of course possible in a space of isolation, and it is in the tension between such idealism and the broader world that the drama places out.</p>
<h2>5. Swartberg House</h2>
<p>We will end the year with a visit to Jennifer Beningfield’s <a href="http://www.openstudioarchitects.com/project/swartberg-house">Swartberg House</a>, which I already know through her drawings and photos. It is situated on the edge of the Great Karoo, a semi-arid region in the heart of South Africa. The background to the building is her PhD and then book on the literature of South African landscapes, <a href="http://www.openstudioarchitects.com/profile/jennifer-beningfield-0">“The Frightened Land”</a>, which is mindful of the ethics of living on colonised territory. Her architectural response to the landscape, which is both material and conceptual, is a pure but nuanced white walled shelter with an incredibly calming interior. </p>
<p>It links to areas of planting, a pool and above all, the sky overhead. The idea of the house is a retreat, from which to simultaneously enjoy our privileged place in relation to the land, while rebuilding awareness though the phenomenological connection of how we are linked to the fragile system in which we pause, and through which we move.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah le Roux has received funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. </span></em></p>
Buildings, thinkers, books, films and works of art can ask central questions about how to live on this planet and its consequences.
Hannah le Roux, Associate professor of Architecture, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56933
2016-04-26T10:30:54Z
2016-04-26T10:30:54Z
How an 18th century landscape architect influenced housing estate design
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119675/original/image-20160421-26981-5dnda5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Skowronek/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.capabilitybrown.org/">Lancelot “Capability” Brown</a> is credited with transforming the English landscape during the 18th century. This year marks the 300th anniversary of his birth. With his trinity of design features – grass, trees and water – Brown created an enduring image of England, and Englishness.</p>
<p>His style was a reaction against the formal parterres and clipped topiary reminiscent of Versailles, and the classically-inspired allusions of the previous age.</p>
<p>The landscapes he created were simple, uncluttered and restrained. During his lifetime, Brown worked on over <a href="http://johnphibbs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Landscapes-attributed-to-Brown-3rd-ed..pdf">250 landscapes</a>, including at <a href="http://www.blenheimpalace.com/attractions-and-events/park/capability-brown-300-festival-2016.html">Blenheim Palace</a>, <a href="http://www.burghley.co.uk/capability2016/">Burghley</a>, <a href="http://www.chatsworth.org/attractions-and-events/events/capability-brown-talk-and-tour">Chatsworth</a>, <a href="http://www.comptonverney.org.uk/park/capability-brown/">Compton Verney</a>, <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/croome/features/the-very-capable-brown-creator-of-croome">Croome</a>, <a href="http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/events/capability-brown-highclere">Highclere Castle</a>, <a href="http://www.miltonabbey.org/capability-brown-milton-abbey.php">Milton Abbey</a>, <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/events/73d0b3bc-e326-4f8e-a915-d7f354310ba0/pages/details">Stowe</a>, and <a href="http://www.weston-park.com/news/weston-park-celebrates-300-years-of-capability-brown-1716-2016/">Weston Park</a>. He created an aesthetic product that was exported across Europe as “<a href="http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover-the-estate/le-domaine-de-marie-antoinette/the-queen-hamlet/the-english-garden-">le jardin anglais</a>” and “<a href="http://www.schloesser.bayern.de/englisch/garden/objects/mu_engl1.htm">der englischer garten</a>”. And as part of the original British Invasion, he influenced the design of Central Park in New York, long before the Beatles and Rolling Stones took America.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119934/original/image-20160424-22354-d3odqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119934/original/image-20160424-22354-d3odqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119934/original/image-20160424-22354-d3odqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119934/original/image-20160424-22354-d3odqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119934/original/image-20160424-22354-d3odqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119934/original/image-20160424-22354-d3odqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119934/original/image-20160424-22354-d3odqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Denham Place, Buckinghamshire (ca. 1695) – what Brown’s landscapes replaced.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yale Center for British Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But I worry that Capability Brown has become a bit too much of a tea and crumpets vision of Englishness – the England of Merchant Ivory films, Jane Austen adaptations and wet-shirted Colin Firths. We’re in danger of overlooking what a massive change he brought upon the social and economic landscapes of 18th century England. </p>
<p>This enormous influence was not only felt in his own time. Between the 1930s and 1950s, the architects and planners who wrought a significant upheaval in British architecture and design looked back to “tea and crumpets” Capability Brown for inspiration. They scoured the 18th century to find answers to the suburbanisation of the English countryside. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119012/original/image-20160417-26305-1kybzpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blenheim Palace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oliver Cox</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 1939, over <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/period_1930s.shtml">4m new suburban homes</a> had been built. One commentator remarked how:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The suburban building which has taken place since the war covers an area out of all proportion to the people housed, and is completely out of scale with the urban centres to which it is attached.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The landscape architect Christopher Tunnard <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gwwSBAAAQBAJ">lamented</a> how modernist architects had been unable to find a way of working with the historic landscapes. As Alexandra Harris suggests in her recent book, <a href="http://www.thamesandhudson.com/Romantic_Moderns/9780500251713">Romantic Moderns</a>, European architects such as Le Corbusier even struggled to tether their buildings to the ground – preferring concrete over local stone, and “levitating mezzanines” rather than patios. What Tunnard suggested instead, was the creative reuse of the aristocratic landscapes of the 18th century.</p>
<p>Tunnard argued that 18th century manor houses and landscapes – such as Capability Brown’s Claremont in Surrey – could be re-purposed to provide the answers to housing an increasingly urban population. Where once a country house might have stood, this group of architects and planners argued that its place must be taken by tower blocks, so that “more people might be housed … and virtually the whole estate might be left open for the benefit of the residents and the public”. Tunnard borrowed Brown’s techniques for a new purpose – but replaced aristocrats with ordinary homeowners. The architects Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry suggested a similar scheme for Windsor Great Park.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120037/original/image-20160425-22360-1eh0fik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120037/original/image-20160425-22360-1eh0fik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120037/original/image-20160425-22360-1eh0fik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120037/original/image-20160425-22360-1eh0fik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120037/original/image-20160425-22360-1eh0fik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120037/original/image-20160425-22360-1eh0fik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120037/original/image-20160425-22360-1eh0fik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Windsor Great Park today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kanuman/Shutterstock.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although the destruction of World War II rendered these imaginative schemes of the 1930s unnecessary, it also thrust Capability Brown into a new phase of influence. In his 1955 <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h9llv">Reith Lectures</a>, Nikolaus Pevsner stressed that in a post-war world of ongoing reconstruction, the English needed to look back, and within, and by doing so, they would take the aesthetic lead:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The genius of the place … is the character of the site, and the character of the site is, in a town, not only the geographical but also the historical, social and especially the aesthetic character.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pevsner was asking his audience, and the architectural and planning professions, to think like Capability Brown, and work with the capabilities of the site. What is particularly significant is Pevsner’s plea that “functionalism” – 1950s town planning speak for “each case on its own merit” – be the guiding principle behind the building of new towns, and the reconstruction of old.</p>
<p>He speaks of the “visual blessings” provided by “variety and surprise”, and how these find their first expressions in the English landscape garden. The future then, for Pevsner, lay in the past. “There is plenty of precedent to make use of in our situation today,” he wrote, “not by copying but by applying the same principles, the same great English principles.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119936/original/image-20160424-22396-jidzvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119936/original/image-20160424-22396-jidzvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119936/original/image-20160424-22396-jidzvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119936/original/image-20160424-22396-jidzvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119936/original/image-20160424-22396-jidzvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119936/original/image-20160424-22396-jidzvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119936/original/image-20160424-22396-jidzvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alton Estate, Roehampton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">diamondgeezer/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pevsner suggested that by building new towns such as Stevenage and Harlow, clumps and concrete could be combined to create a better place to live. Brown’s landscapes, with their extensive vistas, mature planting and rolling lawns, created not only a sense of place, but were also a valuable amenity – a point frequently returned to in parliamentary debates about national infrastructure – and a point worth remembering as the future for urban parks in the UK and USA looks <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7b238d6e-c51d-11e5-808f-8231cd71622e.html#slide0">increasingly bleak</a>.</p>
<p>As we celebrate the life and work of Capability Brown this year, we should remember that during the middle of the 20th century he was a powerful inspiration for change. The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01rtkbd">Alton East Estate in Roehampton</a>, designed by the late architect Oliver Cox, is a testament to the mid-century belief that clumps and concrete were by no means mutually exclusive. This housing estate was the most successful attempt to harness the beauty of the aristocratic landscape, which was re-imagined as a socially democratic setting for a new postwar society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Cox is a member of the Research Group for Capability Brown 300. He receives funding from the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and is a Trustee of Compton Verney. </span></em></p>
The tea and crumpets vision of Englishness that Capability Brown brings to mind does him an injustice.
Oliver Cox, Knowledge Exchange Fellow , University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/55415
2016-03-02T17:40:49Z
2016-03-02T17:40:49Z
Power plants needn’t be ugly – let’s make them green and beautiful
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113615/original/image-20160302-25902-7fcaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tidal Lagoon, Swansea Bay, as envisaged by LDA Design.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">http://www.lda-design.co.uk</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Energy suppliers often refer to their industry as being caught in a “trilemma”, as people demand electricity that is both secure and cheap, while also being clean.</p>
<p>But maybe it’s time to add a fourth consideration to the list – beauty.</p>
<p>Just as we marvel at Roman aqueducts or Victorian railways, so we could design power plants, solar panels, turbines and other infrastructure to be beautiful additions to the landscape. As we move away from ugly coal and gas, we have a great chance to celebrate low carbon energy with imaginative new designs.</p>
<p>UK energy minister <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/beautiful-nuclear-power-stations-can-win-over-sceptics-says-energy-secretary-amber-rudd-10301365.html">Amber Rudd</a> seems to agree. Speaking last year about nuclear energy, she stated: “I think it is a reasonable ambition to make sure that these big projects have aesthetic appeal as well [as being functional] to help win the public over.”</p>
<p>Yet there are two problems to look out for. First, it is unreasonable to merely mask controversial or potentially environmentally damaging developments with a veneer of “attractiveness”. Managing public opinion with pretty designs does not supplant other valid concerns such as the choice of location or huge construction costs. </p>
<p>Second, even where “beautiful” design is sought as part of an environmentally responsible scheme, how individuals define and perceive “beauty” will certainly be a highly variable affair. One person’s majestic wind turbine is another person’s imposing eyesore. Like any type of architecture, judgements about beauty will depend on highly personal preferences, and how the new design relates to its existing context.</p>
<h2>Big infrastructure demands bold designs</h2>
<p>The quest to find an appropriate aesthetic when designing novel infrastructure is not new. When the Victorians built the UK’s railway system a century and a half ago, the scale of this new technology and the visual and environmental changes it brought to urban and rural landscapes alike were immense – and <a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/ind_rev/rs/denault.htm">hotly debated</a>. </p>
<p>Engineers and architects designed large viaducts and impressive stations to be beautiful as well as functional. Though their alien structures were decried by some as ugly impositions, with time those same buildings have come to be part of the cherished character of British landscapes. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, nuclear power once again called for unprecedentedly large and unusual buildings. At <a href="https://magnoxsites.com/site/trawsfynydd">Trawsfynydd</a> in Wales, the leading designers of their time took up the challenge. Architect Sir Basil Spence and landscape architect Dame Sylvia Crowe designed a nuclear power station in a bold modernist style. </p>
<p>Although decades have passed and the plant has been decommissioned, opinions about its aesthetic value continue to be divided; some praise the architecture as “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/dec/21/snowdonia-nuclear-power-station-wales-architecture">optimistic, triumphant [and] pioneering</a>” while others would be happy to see the building completely disappear.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113547/original/image-20160302-25902-mc7n41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Modernist masterpiece or concrete calamity?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimkillock/4890702572/">Jim Killock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good design can add to the landscape</h2>
<p>We need innovative and sensitive design ideas for new energy systems, not just to “win over” the public but to actually improve the environment. Recent examples of well considered and multifunctional energy landscapes do exist. </p>
<p>At <a href="http://www.iba-hamburg.de/en/projects/energieberg-georgswerder/projekt/energy-hill-georgswerder.html">Georgswerder Energy Hill</a> in the German city of Hamburg, large wind turbines stand proudly atop an artificial mountain of landfill in a post-industrial area. Purified groundwater onsite is captured and used for energy, and the sunny side of the mountain is graced by solar panels. Visitors learn about renewable energy at a visitor centre before walking up to an elegant public “horizon line” walkway that encircles the mountain and gives expansive views of the city beyond. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113548/original/image-20160302-25879-1uc7khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View from the hill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/svensson/14340538339/">Alexander Svensson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Norway, the <a href="http://qz.com/395064/this-norwegian-power-station-isnt-just-green-its-beautiful/">Øvre Forsland hydroelectric power station</a> similarly aims to be educative, to reflect the local context, and to unapologetically attract attention.</p>
<p>One interesting example on the drawing board is the proposed <a href="http://www.tidallagoonswanseabay.com/">Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay</a>. The power station consists of a large artificial lagoon formed by a sea wall, with water allowed in and out through underwater electricity turbines. Electricity is harvested from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-artificial-lagoons-can-be-used-to-harvest-energy-from-the-tides-38403">difference between low and high tides</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113552/original/image-20160302-25869-16tssib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Don’t book your holiday just yet – building work hasn’t started.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.tidallagoonswanseabay.com/about-us/image-gallery/116/">Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The plans include space for walkers and cyclists along the top of the sea walls, and an iconic, ark-shaped offshore visitor centre <a href="http://juicearchitects.com/4A_15_Iceberg.htm">(pictured above, by Juice Architects)</a> on the far side of the lagoon. Landscape architects LDA have already received the highest accolade in their field – <a href="http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/casestudies/casestudy.php?id=405">the Presidents’ Medal</a> – for creatively developing a scheme which “puts place-making at its heart and seeks to integrate a major renewable energy project into the lives of local people”. </p>
<h2>Celebrate change through design</h2>
<p>Given the grim consequences of climate change and the political stakes associated with generating energy, the question of aesthetics may seem trivial. Investments in renewables obviously need to be based on more than just appearances.</p>
<p>However, as society quickly transitions to better sources of energy, <a href="http://architizer.com/blog/power-plant-architecture/">designers are embracing</a> the opportunity to reflect and celebrate the change. Seeing how big power plants, as well as hugely important small-scale <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-more-big-power-plants-civic-energy-could-provide-half-our-electricity-by-2050-38183">community initiatives</a>, can fit within the landscapes that people use and enjoy is a real challenge. </p>
<p>There will probably never be a power plant or solar panel that everyone deems beautiful. But debating beauty and design alongside function is vital to achieve better renewable energy developments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Porter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Celebrate the shift to renewable energy with bold designs that add to the landscape.
Nicole Porter, Assistant Professor, Architecture & Built Environment, University of Nottingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32660
2014-11-17T10:41:43Z
2014-11-17T10:41:43Z
Access denied – how security is transforming public space
<p>The recent security <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/us/series-of-secret-service-blunders-eased-way-for-white-house-intruder.html?smid=tw-bna">lapses</a> at the White House have brought to the forefront the 13-year-old question of how to effectively secure public spaces. As officials weigh <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/white-house-security-mulls-tourist-screens.html">increasing perimeter security and installing additional checkpoints</a> at public areas adjacent to the White House, it’s worth examining the effects of counter-terrorism measures on our urban experience.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/00marapr/concrete.cfm">Jersey barriers</a>, bollards, restricted areas, CCTV cameras and security guards have transformed public space in many cities. At the same time, planners and urban advocates strive to balance the desire for safe cities with the need for vibrant and connected public spaces. One hallmark of a democratic society is the ability of citizens to gather and <a href="http://bottomupurbanism.wikispaces.com/file/view/lefebvre-The+right+to+the+city.pdf">move freely about the city</a>.</p>
<h2>Balancing security and civility</h2>
<p><a href="http://dusp.mit.edu/cdd/project/placemaking">Community participation</a> in the planning and design of public areas results in safe and vibrant spaces. There is evidence that non-invasive methods such as <a href="https://www.bja.gov/evaluation/program-crime-prevention/cpted1.htm">Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED)</a>, which implements, in the design of spaces, strategies like the creation of good sightlines to put “eyes on the street,” may translate into <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=9697">less crime</a>. But security measures imposed upon people can also <a href="http://www.pps.org/reference/grplacefeat/">detract from</a> public spaces, discouraging gatherings, eliminating services, or even making public space more dangerous.</p>
<p>Some security measures are the result of federal security guidelines and professional threat assessments. Others seem to be reactionary, for instance when officials installed temporary French barriers around Boston’s City Hall Plaza after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Designed as crowd control devices, they cannot withstand vehicular force or attempted truck bombings. The result is a cordoned-off plaza that simply blocks pedestrians from accessing a vast public space that already has trouble enticing people. The 2013 Boston Marathon bombings have forced us to focus on security in public spaces once again. But security should not be the sole consideration in how our public spaces are designed and used.</p>
<p>Cities function well when people can enjoy social and physical freedom. Unnecessary security measures can erode our <a href="http://bottomupurbanism.wikispaces.com/file/view/lefebvre-The+right+to+the+city.pdf">right to access city spaces</a>, exploit <a href="http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2136&context=ulj">fear and insecurity</a> and promote feelings of <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415951470/">vulnerability and anxiety</a>. This sense of vulnerability leads to increasing security measures, creating a vicious cycle in which more is always perceived as better.</p>
<h2>Security machismo</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415540339/">My ongoing research</a> on counter-terrorism measures in Boston’s financial district and government center starts with a fundamental question: what were the motives for securing public spaces in the first place? </p>
<p>An environment of <a href="http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2136&context=ulj">pretext securitization and pretext responses</a> – in which “pretext” describes false responses to security threats – is one culprit. </p>
<p>In some office towers, clients compared the secure company headquarters in New York City to the Boston satellite office and wondered why there was such an open door in Boston. This comparison prompted some building personnel to needlessly upgrade security and perimeter protection to assuage fears. </p>
<p>A focus on maintaining market edge has caused building owners to install security measures and block public access to stay current with the competition. If your neighbor has the latest in security, it’s easier to market your building if you have the latest in security too. </p>
<p>The need for a high level of securitization is often about prestige. In my Boston field research, public officials and building owners boasted of being a “top-ten target,” a kind of security machismo that promotes bigger and better security upgrades wherever possible. </p>
<p>This perceived need for security also satisfies the desire to deflect to another target. Many buildings sport “hardened” perimeters as a tool to entice would-be terrorists to look to the path of least resistance and shift terrorism strikes to neighboring buildings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62659/original/ksbkh9mt-1414081704.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Security is an excuse for closing office space, but profit is sometimes the real motive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/30764252@N00/412205498">Photo of the John Hancock Tower in Boston. Kevin/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Security for profit?</h2>
<p>To secure necessary insurance and financing, developers and designers drop to the drafting room floor amenities such as an atrium, a rooftop garden and ground floor retail. In the search for profits, manufacturers of security equipment and the security assessment industry call the design shots. Without expertise in security assessment, owners, architects and landscape architects turn to equipment manufacturers and consultants to provide design specifications and advice. The security industry is happy to step in. </p>
<p>In these scenarios and others, design follows the money. The Department of Homeland Security enjoyed a <a href="http://nationalpriorities.org/en/analysis/2011/us-security-spending-since-911/">301% increase in spending over the decade after 9/11</a>. DHS security funding creates security needs – the result being that every problem can have a security solution. </p>
<p>Alleged security threats also allow some companies to perniciously reclaim privately owned public space for private use and profit. Just two days after 9/11, the owners of the John Hancock tower in Boston decided to permanently close the top-floor Hancock Observatory, the closest thing Boston had to a museum of the city. The decision was <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/06/15/searching_for_an_answer_on_60th_floor/">never revisited</a>, even as public access was reinstated in high-risk structures such as the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty in New York City. The public lost an iconic public space while the building owners gained valuable class A office space. </p>
<p>More than a decade after 9/11 it is fair to say that when security measures come, they tend to stay. It is not clear that any security interventions have been dialed back. The prevailing wisdom is still that more is better. And who’s to argue? No one wants to be the one who made the bad decision. An obsession with security creeps into the public realm and into privately-owned public spaces and becomes white noise. But this new normal has more to do with private interests than public security agendas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Silberberg is the Founder and Managing Director of CivicMoxie, LLC, a planning and urban design group. She received funding from The Boston Society of Architects Research in Architecture Grant Program to support her research on the securitization of public space post-9/11. </span></em></p>
The recent security lapses at the White House have brought to the forefront the 13-year-old question of how to effectively secure public spaces. As officials weigh increasing perimeter security and installing…
Susan Silberberg, Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32219
2014-10-31T01:02:23Z
2014-10-31T01:02:23Z
Future forecasting: landscape architects might save the world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62940/original/cnfjgckm-1414458315.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Landscape architects need to mediate between the soft and hard elements of the city.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Forecast, photo by John Gollings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I predict we’re going to hear a lot more from landscape architects in the coming years. There has long been a misunderstanding about what they actually do – “something about gardens” being a common response. </p>
<p>But the diversity and scale of work in landscape architecture is huge, and the mix of skills and expertise required shows real promise for dealing with the pressing issues facing Australian cities. Whether climate change or urbanisation, population growth or densification, landscape architects have ideas for how to make our future cities liveable, workable and beautiful. </p>
<p>All this was under discussion in Brisbane earlier this month at <a href="http://forecast.aila.org.au/#about">Forecast: the Inaugural Festival of Landscape Architecture</a>, presented by the <a href="http://www.aila.org.au/">Australian Institute of Landscape Architects</a> (AILA) at the State Library of Queensland – where <a href="http://www.aila.org.au/awards/">the winners</a> were also announced for the AILA National Awards, pictured here.</p>
<p>Forecast was an inspiring event. As an outsider, albeit from the aligned field of architecture, I thought I knew exactly what landscape architects did. But I was wrong. </p>
<p>It turns out landscape architects are everywhere: working from the scale of a tiny green roof, to city-wide green infrastructure; from the remediation of a massive outback mine site, to the design of an inner urban “pocket park”. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62934/original/jr77wssc-1414457920.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adelaide Airport Project: a collaboration between Taylor Cullity Lethlean, Woodhead Architects, Dryden Crute Design, Bluebottle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Forecast, photo by Ben Wrigley</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, they don’t just work on projects, they also work on policy, and they are key figures in community consultation and engagement. This was one of the main themes of the festival – that the diversity of work undertaken by landscape architects goes way beyond “capital D” design. </p>
<p>The festival was a deliberate turn away from conventional industry conference formats – creative directors <a href="http://forecast.aila.org.au/creative-directors.aspx">Sharon Mackay and Di Snape</a>, advised by Dr Catherin Bull AM, set out to “blow up the conference model”, abandoning keynote lectures in favour of “a series of conversations about the future of landscape architecture”.</p>
<h2>Collaborating with the living world</h2>
<p>Surprisingly, it can be controversial to talk to a landscape architect about plants. A few years ago, it seemed the profession was doing its best to abandon vegetation altogether – many of the universities stopped teaching plant knowledge, as they moved towards a largely design-based education. To this day horticulture remains a touchy subject. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, landscape architects have today re-embraced plants – in the context of a holistic approach to natural and artificial ecosystems. They engage not just with the plant, but the soil and water and air and climate and everything around that plant. This also includes the human, social and cultural context. </p>
<p>To my eye, the unique perspective of landscape architects comes from this ability to balance ecological and built systems – mediating between the soft and hard elements of the city, and the natural and constructed environment more broadly. </p>
<p>Landscape architecture is always already collaborative. It works with “materials” that have a life of their own, and designs with all the phenomena of the living world. When your design “collaborator” is a water table, or a soil ecology, then you will always need to allow for the inherent changeability of that. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62935/original/b9fq3g58-1414458058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taylor Cullity Lethlean with Tonkin Zulaikha Greer won the 2014 Australian Medal for Landscape Architecture for the National Arboretum Canberra Masterplan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Forecast, photo by John Gollings</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Your design will also be interdependent with other systems, and influenced by circumstance and sheer chance. You might know roughly how big that tree is going to grow, but its exact form is impossible to predict in advance, and only partly controllable with pruning or maintenance. </p>
<p>Working under these conditions mean that landscape architects are better placed than many other built environment professions to cope with uncertainty and change, and to renounce the expectation (or the fantasy) of the designer being able to exert total control over materials, places or people. </p>
<h2>The call to green infrastructure</h2>
<p>In the past, landscape architects have often not been part of large-scale urban decision making processes – they have been engaged down the line as consultants, designing specific, small parts of a much bigger urban picture. Think paving and bench seats or, as one participant dryly suggested, “arranging the parsley”. </p>
<p>But as Forecast made clear, landscape architects are agitating to take on a much greater strategic role, to push their way to the decision-making table and bring design expertise to bear at a city-wide or region-wide scale. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63380/original/dbk9chxz-1414734603.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Greater Curtin project. Andy Sharp, Director of Properties Facilities and Development at Curtin University who spoke at Forecast, is charged with bringing this to life.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This scale of work is often described as green infrastructure. We might all be familiar with older forms of “grey infrastructure” such as roads and railways, power grids and networks of garbage collection. But landscape architects are challenging traditional ways of dealing with water, waste, energy and transport – the circulatory systems of the city. </p>
<p>Instead of channelling rainwater runoff into a sewer system, for instance, landscape architects are looking to capture and reuse it on site in green rooves, or let it seep through permeable paving into the soil. </p>
<p>Likewise, a city that has a network of interlinked open spaces pleasant to walk in encourages “active transport” and reduces the need for car and public transport infrastructure. </p>
<h2>Plants save lives</h2>
<p>Increasingly, <a href="http://www.asla.org/livable.aspx">science-based research</a> is revealing a connection between the work of landscape architects and larger public health imperatives. </p>
<p>Vegetation helps to reduce the effect of heat waves (saving lives), the shade of tree canopy ameliorates urban heat islands (saving power), access to vegetation, fresh air and daylight improves the speed of recovery of hospital patients (saving inpatient time), and the provision of quality public open space encourages active commuting (saving the need for car transport). </p>
<p>All of these things also, needless to say, save money. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62938/original/mhbf2sdd-1414458183.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Revitalising Central Dandenong: Lonsdale Street Redevelopment, by BKK Architects and Taylor Cullity Lethlean, won the 2014 Urban Design National Awards of Excellence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Forecast, image by John Gollings</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Landscape architect <a href="http://forecast.aila.org.au/speaker-deiter-lim.aspx">Deiter Lim</a>, who spoke at the festival, described the <a href="http://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/health+reform/the+new+royal+adelaide+hospital/introducing+the+new+royal+adelaide+hospital">new Royal Adelaide Hospital project</a>, which he predicts will be “Australia’s best hospital, by far”, where the model of care is based on patients’ access to fresh air, natural light, tactile surfaces, and plants. </p>
<p>Here landscape architecture becomes central to the project. This is not because of a rarefied idea about “design”, but because it is integral to the model of care. It will save time and money, and most importantly it is best for people. </p>
<p>So landscape architects are experts in certain design measures that can increase public health, productivity, wellbeing, and quality of life. Perhaps more importantly, they can increasingly argue this in terms that politicians and bureaucrats can understand – they can play the numbers game. </p>
<p>Landscape architect <a href="http://forecast.aila.org.au/speaker-penny-hall.aspx">Penny Hall</a> demonstrated this at the festival showing an aerial view of a park noting the dollar value of each tree – calculated in terms of carbon dioxide capture, temperature reduction, property values, and so on. </p>
<p>We might be dismayed at this empirical approach to something as unquantifiably beautiful as a tree. But Hall’s point is this: when seen as an environmental asset, a tree can be entered into the metrics and calculations – and especially the economic markers – that govern the management of the built environment. </p>
<h2>Making more than just ‘adequate’ public spaces</h2>
<p>There was a real sense of mobilisation at Forecast, of rallying to the cause of a more sustainable world through landscape architecture. </p>
<p>But within all this, the highlight for me was from <a href="http://forecast.aila.org.au/speaker-pamille-berg.aspx">Pamille Berg AO</a>, the Canberra-based public art consultant, who had a call to action of a different kind – to make special places, “not just adequate places”, and to remember the “long now” of responsibility over centuries. </p>
<p>Berg argued that “we must remember that our public space projects are not mute”. They can give a message either about “thin-ness” and “mean-ness” and “a valueless approach”, or they can speak about “the essential public values of empathy, compassion, inclusion, and the sheer exhilaration of wonderful creative making”. </p>
<p>Berg’s eloquent contribution was a kind of still point in the midst of the festival’s swirling energies and passions. It was a reminder that looking to the future must be done with one eye on the past. </p>
<p>The festival ended with a well-deserved standing ovation for the creative directors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Stead has received funding from the University of Queensland, the University of Technology Sydney, the Swedish Institute, and Arts Queensland. She currently receives funding from The Australian Research Council. She is an affiliate member of the Australian Institute of Architects. Naomi was a speaker at the Forecast festival, in the session on 'Design Narratives and Profiling Practice.'</span></em></p>
I predict we’re going to hear a lot more from landscape architects in the coming years. There has long been a misunderstanding about what they actually do – “something about gardens” being a common response…
Naomi Stead, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Architecture, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/28184
2014-06-25T06:26:09Z
2014-06-25T06:26:09Z
Acconci’s design for Hobart is an idea about an idea about …
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51978/original/c3h7whv9-1403575384.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Future Hobart is an enticement to think laterally about pragmatic issues of city design.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edgetas/9147875242/">Tone Edge</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At <a href="http://darkmofo.net.au/">Dark MOFO</a> last week, the City of Hobart joined forces with the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) to commission New York artist/ landscape architect <a href="http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/1529">Vito Acconci</a> to create <a href="http://www.darkmofo.net.au/program/future-hobart-2014-vito-acconci/">an architectural prototype</a> for bridging connections between previously discrete aspects of Hobart.</p>
<p>Representatives from the Brooklyn-based <a href="http://acconci.com/">Acconci Studio</a> were introduced to six sites. They elected to address ways of connecting Hobart’s city centre to Queens Domain, a large urban park containing 200 hectares including Government House, the Botanical Gardens and significant aboriginal sites – as well as the Hobart Cenotaph (the state’s war memorial) and the Soldiers Memorial Avenue, which have been disconnected by major highways (below).</p>
<p>Acconci Studio’s scheme is more a provocation than a proposal; it’s an idea about an idea for a “bridge” which is not necessarily intended to be built. Still, it can help us understand how to connect places in a city in a manner that transcends a purely pragmatic economic engineering solution. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Future Hobart 2014: Acconci Studio, concept designs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The changing face of Hobart</h2>
<p>In a place that has endured ongoing economic recession, where change has been generally been understood as negative or reductive, the locals can be very resistant to new ideas – even when they may lead to exciting new opportunities. </p>
<p>This has been the case in Tasmania, which has been in a recession since apple exports fell dramatically in the 1970s and other industries of hydro, mining and forestry declined in production and/or employment.</p>
<p>But in the year 2000 the tide began to change. A shift in the property markets occurred as interstate investors began to realise you could buy a house in Tasmania for less than the price of an outhouse in a suburban backyard on the mainland. “Economic refugees” began to arrive in droves. They had turned the tide on ongoing outward migration by 2003. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dark MOFO 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eugen Naiman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An influx of people has led to an increase in opportunities – and the state is beginning to find ways to imagine a new future via strategic initiatives for arts and culture. Over the last five years MONA has been transforming the life of the city. </p>
<p>Two years before the museum opened in 2011, MONA launched the inaugural Festival of Music and Art (MONA FOMA, or MOFO for short). Since then MONA has been showing the city how it can be transformed into a place of vibrant life, bolstering tourism while providing a fantastic series of cultural events for the locals.</p>
<p>The City of Hobart capitalised on the positive response to MOFO, developing a strategic initiative for arts and culture, <a href="http://www.hobartcity.com.au/Community/Arts_and_Culture/Cultural_Development/Creative_Hobart">Creative Hobart</a>, which highlights the potential for the city as a “platform for cultural expression and creative participation”. </p>
<p>This included commissioning Acconci Studio to provide speculative ideas for the city.</p>
<h2>So, how does Acconci’s proposal stack up?</h2>
<p>Acconci’s design proposition is based on the aspiration to “free or liberate persons”, creating multiple choices through walkways leading in different directions. This provides a matrix of discovery in which, according to design notes, the lines of history “wind and wave, you can’t see them all at once but you know they’re there”.</p>
<p>The mesh-like bridge (below) provides a labyrinthine crucible that takes people across the highway. It is complemented by a structured landscape of lights and trees that arc around the cenotaph, providing a contrast to its linear formality.</p>
<p>Acconci’s project is an enticement to think laterally about pragmatic issues of city design. This is beautifully described in a poem by Maria Acconci, which suggests a direct poetic connection between the Cenotaph and the bridge and highlights ideas of memory and experience. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51861/original/5kbd69wh-1403492685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Future Hobart 2014: Acconci Studio, concept designs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, the main way that the public was able to access these ideas was via a public forum and exhibition presented during Dark MOFO last week. Both of these options offered an abstract and obtuse introduction to the project – and failed to communicate the potential of Acconci’s proposal or provide an understanding of his approach or previous work. </p>
<p>On reflection, one wonders if it’s necessary to build a physical bridge over the road. In reality this would alter the approach into the city, as the dimension of a bridge needed to span the six-lane highway would create a large structure that would mask the broad landscape vista towards Mt Wellington, a key characteristic of the approach to the city.</p>
<p>Perhaps the basket-like structure could take form on an adjacent site, spanning between the Domain and the nearby aquatic centre, providing a lookout back towards the Cenotaph. This would highlight the connections made by the lines of light and trees inscribed within the Cenotaph site. </p>
<p>The physical connection between the Domain and the Cenotaph could be made on the ground, linking under the highway in a manner that extends the picturesque movement that currently characterises the site. </p>
<p>It’s not clear how far this project has been developed in terms of the formal commissioning. Currently Acconci Studio’s project is just the beginning, a thread of an idea. It could take many forms or simply act to inspire broader conceptual approaches to understanding how to shape the city in a way that celebrates place, both from the past and present, as well as into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Norrie is the founder of the Regional Urban Studies Laboratory (RUSL), a design research project, which works with explores local urban issues with local councils in Tasmania. This includes a collaborative research project with the City of Hobart which speculates on future urban proposals for the city.</span></em></p>
At Dark MOFO last week, the City of Hobart joined forces with the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) to commission New York artist/ landscape architect Vito Acconci to create an architectural prototype for…
Helen Norrie, Lecturer, School of Architecture and Design, University of Tasmania
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.