Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Landscapes
Kelly Shannon
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LANDSCAPES
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self-help basis, with necessary legal provisions. As has been insightfully commented
the language of architecture used for the
favelas project is not especially sophisticated;
it works more like a series of bandages
that aid in survival, both functionally and
psychologically. Bright yellow handrails
along a hillside now signal the path leading
to the community elsewhere, a bridge
with a high-tech look spans an otherwise
impassable valley full of garbage (Mori
2003: 55). New landscape elements vegetation were also part of the strategy in order
to provide slope stabilization, to enhance
spatial experiences and to provide muchneeded shade. Through what Rodolfo
Machado has termed iconographic pragmatism (Machado 2003, 15), the Favela Barrio
Project has erased the opposition of the
formal and informal city through hygienic
betterment, engineering improvements and
site specific interventions. The project realized an interconnected landscape arising from
the provision of a new infrastructure of public
facilities, public health and safety (water and
waste management).
Finally, there are two projects that use
landscape as the main structuring element to
strategically guide new urbanization. In
French Guyana, the landscape firm Agence
Ter from Paris made a careful reading of the
site which confirmed not only the geographical wealth of the island, but also revealed that
traditional rural and urban habitats had ingenious ways of deals with topography and rainy
season floods. The significance of water in
the landscape was clearly evident ranging
from rivers and marshes (important in the
overall regulating system of absorption of
heavy rains and water excesses due to high
tides) to man-made devices (canals, gutters
and channels). Further research made evident
that the La Crique Fouille swamp that
bisects the island was a former inlet which
silted-up over time from erosion. The presentday inner-communal borderland was thus
discovered as the eighteenth century hydrologic origin of the island and provided the
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impetus for future development and territorial unity. The area, exposed to enormous
hydrological fluctuations because of tides
and heavy tropical rainfall, is simultaneously
being turned into a protected ecological zone
and the site for new urban areas. A large
green, floodable plain contains new canals
for water discharge and links to a series of
water retention ponds, which in turn are controlled by a series of sluices. Between the
system of ponds, and at the foothills of the
surrounding mountain peaks, are new centres
for urbanization. Strong Cartesian geometries
structure the buildable areas, while the limits
of the natural reserve follow those of the
topography. The floodable area was viewed
as a green river and settlement was located
on the anchored piedmonts of the riverbank.
The growth and evolution of the landscape
and new tropical towns are simultaneously
guided; geo-morphological and urban
structures work as a total system, and larger
environmental concerns such as keeping
development away from the fragile
coastline are addressed. Agence Ter
has stressed that in this project, they sought
geographic urbanization.
Across the globe, the landscape design of
the 80 ha suburban campus of Shenyang
Architectural University in northeast China
connects students to parts of Chinese society
that they might otherwise shun. Rice fields
are the main organizing design element for
the campus plan but they are not merely
didactic and ornamental. The built 3 ha phase
of the project is structured by highly productive landscapes, building on Shenyangs
reputation as the source of high-quality
short-grain rice. Elements of the traditional
agricultural environment serve as tangible
symbols and reminders of the historical and
contemporary role of agriculture in China.
The site was indeed a former paddy field and
its irrigation system was still intact. The
geometric layout, reminiscent of the earlier
field parcellation, is interspersed with study
platforms, accessed by narrow concrete
pathways lined by no-maintenance native
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, Stan (2001) Mat Urbanism: The Thick 2-D,
in Hashim Sarkis (ed.) Case: Le Corbusiers
Venice Hospital. Cambridge: Harvard Graduate
School of Design and Munich: Prestel 118126.
Bava, Henri (2002) Landscape as a Foundation, Topos
40: 7077.
Berrizbeitia, Anita (2001) Scales of Undecidability, in
Julia Czerniak (ed.) Downsview Park Toronto.
Cambridge: Harvard Design School and Munich:
Prestel, 116125.
Corner, James (1999) Introduction: Recovering
Landscape as a Critical Cultural Practice, in
Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary
Landscape Architecture. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 128.
Corner, James and Stan, Allen (2002) Lifescape,
Praxis Landscapes issue, New Orleans, 2027.
Frampton, Kenneth (1995) Toward an Urban
Landscape, Columbia Documents; New York:
Columbia University, pp. 8393.
Machado, Rodolfo (2003) Memoir of a Visit, in
The Favela Barrio Project: Jorge Mario Juregui
Architects. Cambridge: Harvard Graduate School of
Design, 915.
Marot, Sbastian (2003) Sub-urbanism and the Art
of Memory. London: AA Publications.
Mitchell, Don and Richard Van Deusen (2001)
Downsview Park: Open Space or Public Space? in
Julia Czerniak (ed.) Downsview Park Toronto.
Cambridge: Harvard Design School and Munich:
Prestel, 102115.
Mori, Toshiko (2003) Urbanism and Magical Realism,
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Jorge Mario Juregui Architects. Cambridge: Harvard
Graduate School of Design, 4859.
Mostafavi, Mohsen and Ciro Najle (eds) (2003)
Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic
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Pollack, Linda (2002) Sublime Matters: Fresh Kills,
Praxis Landscapes issue, New Orleans, 5863.
Shane, Grahame (2004) The Emergence of Landscape
Urbanism: Reflections on Stalking Detroit , Harvard
Design Magazine 20, Spring/Summer.
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