Public space and civil yards in Dutch rural landscapes of the future
Qualitative Research as a Perspective for Urban Open Space Planning
Theory and Critique in Landscape Architecture: Making Connections
The Narrative Approach in the Design Studio
Rural Landscape Anatomy: Public space and civil yards in Dutch rural landscapes of the future Paul A. Roncken, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Abstract Landscape Architecture is still maturing in the Netherlands. It fills gaps left by urban designers and provides
integrated design examples that reflect current cultural conditions, yet at the same time this does not necessarily lead to specific and
adaptive design strategies. When dealing with the future of rural landscapes and countryside, a shift should take place regarding current
landscape architects’ competencies because, as Dutch landscape architects are gradually becoming urbanists (they may not call themselves
‘stedenbouwers’ since that is a protected title), the long-term growth and maintenance of trees, perennials and biotopes is losing their attention.
Many dominant designers perceive the future of rural landscapes as being only loosely related to agrarian activities. They regard the rural landscape
as bourgeois countryside with rural backdrops. Mixed with a fashionable historic perception and this results in an awkward brew of “purified spaces”
that only solve non-rural issues. Worse, the same urbanist ‘best practices’ are repeated over and over again and thus gain authority amongst the
relatively small community of landscape-related professions, without much review.
In this paper I will comment on this status quo and also explore some projects by young landscape architects who show glimpses of a shift in design motives.
These projects focus on the mechanisms that have produced current rural patterns and aesthetics. The counterurbanisation that will gradually introduce
non-agrarian inhabitants into the future rural landscape will also have to work creatively with mechanisms such as establishing right-of-way routes,
and initiating causal relationships between the ownership and care of yard, garden and landscape – mechanisms that will produce future living landscapes
instead of fashionable images that reflect (sub)urban demands.
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Qualitative Research as a Perspective for Urban Open Space Planning Soeren Schoebel, Munich University of Technology, Germany
Abstract In the twentieth century, German open space planning was based mainly on quantitative arguments.
The recent change of attitudes and ideas in society and space has led to a discussion of ‘quality instead of quantity’ in politics and landscape architecture.
However, this alteration has until now remained focused on concrete objects without grasping the changed nature of the general purposes and concepts of open
space in an urban landscape.
These fundamentally changed relationships are the topics of research in the social, cultural and economic sciences with the help of specific – so called
qualitative – methods. In the largest possible spectrum of perspective considerations, that which is under investigation is not submitted to inductive
measurement or deductive derivation, but to ‘abductive’ interpretation. In this approach, with the help of certain technologies, unknowns are searched for and
a new structure of relationships is being developed. In doing this, qualitative science not only affects the understanding of the cultural context, but also,
because of its methodological requirements, the ideas behind landscape architecture.
Using Berlin as an example, a process of qualitative open space planning is introduced, with which contemporary, structural qualities and purposes of open
space are defined and categorized. Although the categories stemming from these qualitative methods have a narrow regional context, the methods of this
investigation and their perspectives are applicable for other cities as well.
Theory and Critique in Landscape Architecture: Making Connections Simon R. Swaffield, Lincoln University, New Zealand
Abstract The relationship between theory and critique in landscape architecture varies according to the way the theory is constructed.
This can be demonstrated using an heuristic analytical framework focused upon the ‘pre-suppositional’ hierarchy of assumptions that underlie theory and
critique. Categories of epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology, methods, and modes of representation can be used to explore the relationship
between design critique and alternative theoretical positions. The analysis suggests that the ability to articulate from critique to theory, and from theory
to critique, will determine the future shape of the theoretical foundation for the discipline, and is a key factor in determining the validity and efficacy
of particular examples of critique. An argument is made for greater attention being paid towards a ‘social constructionist’ framework for theory and critique
within landscape architecture.
From “Reading” the Landscape to “Writing” a Garden: The Narrative Approach in the Design Studio Dr. Tal Alon-Mozes, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Abstract Reading landscapes as text or narrative became a valuable mode of interpretation of natural and man-made environments, by A. Spirn (1998)
and M. Potteiger & J. Purinton (1998), who based their work on the theoretical framework proposed by Barthes, Geertz, Duncan and others. But are these critical
tools applicable to the design studio?
This paper examines the use of the narrative approach and its literary framework as a source of inspiration, as well as an approach in design. It applies
concepts such as text/narrative, story-world, context, figure of speech and others to a second-year landscape architecture studio. The studio consisted of
three phases, which included the design of a small site on the basis of a given text (a poem or prose), the examination of the theoretical framework of the
concept and relevant precedents and, finally, the writing/design of a story/garden.
Each of the phases raised different questions and problems concerning the transformation of an interpretive approach into a design approach. In writing their
own stories, ‘telling-stories’ students developed an interesting dialogue with the existing layers of an already ‘written’ site. While some erased these layers,
others used them as the basis for their design: te-interpreting, re-questioning, re-writing the site.
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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