Barcelona’s Fossar de les Moreres: Disinterring the Heterotopic
Reclaiming the Obsolete in Transitional Landscapes: Perception, Motion, Engagement
Landscape Urbanism in Europe: From Brownfields to Sustainable Urban Development
Intentions for the Unintentional: Spontaneous Vegetation as the Basis for Innovative Planting Design in Urban Areas
Barcelona’s Fossar de les Moreres: Disinterring the Heterotopic Anne Marie Hallal / History of Architecture and Urbanism, Cornell University
Abstract The architectural discourse has eagerly embraced, frequently misinterpreted, and reluctantly abandoned
Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia since he formulated it in the late 1960s. As a response, this article recuperates
heterotopia by underscoring its subversive roots, its potential for revealing the built environment’s political relevance,
and its usefulness in interpreting urban landscapes as unique elements of everyday life. By reformulating the idea in terms of
Fossar de les Moreres, a Barcelonan memorial built in 1988 to commemorate Catalan independence, this essay serves a dual purpose:
clarifying the complex meaning of one specific urban landscape while emphasizing the contemporary relevance of heterotopia,
particularly in relation to landscape architecture. As it is most often landscapes which the concept, in its formalistic guise,
is employed to categorize, colonize and, effectively, control, the assertion of a more accurate definition of heterotopic spaces
that is based on engagement, autonomy, multivalency and change is essential to promoting a landscape architecture discourse
founded on similar terms. Ultimately, this article is a model for one way to more successfully insert landscape architecture into
ongoing theoretical debates addressing space, urbanism and design.
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Reclaiming the Obsolete in Transitional Landscapes: Perception, Motion, Engagement Krystallia Kamvasinou / Kent School of Architecture, UK
Abstract Transitional landscapes are spaces/interfaces between city and countryside commonly experienced on the move;
although highly present in the commuting life of metropolitan areas, they are perceived as obsolete by the people who mostly use
them – the everyday passengers. However, these landscapes suggest a new type, a product of mobility as a condition of modernity.
Here, the notion of the terrain vague is employed to delineate the transitional landscape as a territory with hidden poetics and
as a new type of public space. Fundamental to this is a redefinition of engagement that takes the moving user into account.
This engagement is demonstrated in a series of digitally conducted design experiments for two hypothetical projects in real
locations (Athens, Greece; London, Britain) which explored the momentary perception of motion as part of a wider design method.
The study concludes that transitional landscapes can be rendered desirable both aesthetically and financially through the
mediation of motion perception.
Landscape Urbanism in Europe: From Brownfields to Sustainable Urban Development Pierre Donadieu / École nationale supérieure du paysage de Versailles
Abstract The article explores the notion of landscape urbanism in the European – and especially the French – context.
It develops the idea that this very recent notion of American origin, which is at the intersection of many theories and practices
in landscape architecture, urban planning and design, ecology and architecture, may be used to partly describe a set of
professional practices in landscape architecture which emerged in France and Europe from the 1970s. The role of the State in
France in this change is highlighted, as well as the recent acknowledgment of the notion of urban sustainable development.
Intentions for the Unintentional: Spontaneous Vegetation as the Basis for Innovative Planting Design in Urban Areas
Norbert Kühn / Technische Universität Berlin
Abstract Spontaneous vegetation is a characteristic component of the urban environment. It occurs at no financial
cost, is authentic and is always appropriate to the site conditions. Until now, the use of spontaneous vegetation for ornamental
purposes in public or private areas has been largely misunderstood. If it is possible to make spontaneous vegetation more
attractive, it may also be possible to introduce it as an alternative to ornamental plantings in the city. To intervene in
spontaneous vegetation may seem contradictory: ‘spontaneous’ means that which occurs by chance, without conscious design intent.
We are dealing here with design using spontaneously occurring species. The starting point of this idea is to use plants that can
clearly build stable communities under the given conditions of a site and to try to transform the plant communities according to
a design perspective.
The investigations show that ‘improving’ spontaneous stands by adding new plants is possible. However, a proper assessment of
competition conditions is needed to get a permanent establishment of these new plant communities. Theories that originally
derive from vegetation ecology (i.e. plant strategies and equilibrium models) can help us to understand the underlying processes
and to make these interventions more successful.
The European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools ECLAS
ECLAS exists to foster and develope scholarship in landscape architecture throughout Europe by
strengthening contacts and enriching the dialogue between members of Europe's landscape academic community.
Le:Notre
The LE:NOTRE Thematic Network in Landscape Architecture aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of landscape architecture
education in Europe by identifying, analysing and building on current best practice to defi ne new standards and identify future needs for
professional education at undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education levels, as well as for research methods teaching.
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