As good as the West’: two paradoxes of globalisation and landscape architecture in St. Petersburg
Diversification of grassland in urban greenspace with planted, nursery-grown forbs
Para-Scape: landscape architecture in Dubai
Landscape architecture’s commitment to landscape concept: a missing link?
Embedded poetics and surrounding politics of a coastal squatter settlement
Two squares in Helsinki: a biography
As good as the West’: two paradoxes of globalisation and landscape architecture in St. Petersburg Jacky Bowring, Shelley Egoz and Maria Ignatieva, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand
Abstract One of the challenges of contemporary landscape architecture is the globalisation of place. Nowhere is the threat of homogenisation more apparent than in places vulnerable to change, where the potential loss of heritage fabric rings alarm bells. St. Petersburg is one such place, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a city which had existed outside of the excesses of late 20th-century Westernisation owing to its sequestration inside the Soviet Union. The city is changing in response to exposure to the West, and this could be a cause for concern, a worry that the city will become just another ‘placeless’ place. However, we argue that this is a superficial reading, and that in looking more deeply into the history and culture of St. Petersburg, a legacy of borrowing from elsewhere is revealed. Moreover, the aspirations for global ideals are not necessarily ‘placeless’, as we illustrate through the ways in which St. Petersburg has made the landscapes its own through the invention of tradition and a persistent sense of ‘the local’ which is indelible to change. We use two case studies to explore the dynamics of the global and the local in St. Petersburg: the historic case of the grand palatial grounds of Peterhof, and the modern pedestrianised street of Malaya Sadovaya.
top
Diversification of grassland in urban greenspace with planted, nursery-grown forbs James Hitchmough, Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Abstract Landscape architecture is increasingly involved in management-oriented approaches to the development of more stimulating urban greenspace. This often involves modest capital budgets and interventions, often in conjunction with community groups, over long periods of time. An example of this process is the diversification of grasslands in urban parks through the addition of dicotyledenous herbaceous perennials (forbs). Three experiments were established at RHS Harlow Carr between 1996 and 2003 to investigate the establishment of cultivated forbs in urban meadow grassland. The 25 forb species tested responded as ‘increasers’, ‘decreasers’ or one of two intermediate categories. Mulching did not improve establishment in terms of aboveground dry weight or survivorship beyond that of a meadow-free gap of the same size. A meadow-free gap improved establishment in the first year but, in subsequent years, only for species well fitted to the site and the meadow cutting regime. Many ‘decreaser’ species were extinct three years after planting. Observations are made on other factors affecting establishment and persistence, and the practicality of planting as a means of producing visually dramatic meadow grassland in urban greenspace.
top
Para-Scape: landscape architecture in Dubai Julian Bolleter, Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, University of Western Australia, Perth
Abstract This paper explores the role of landscape architecture in the city state of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) [1]. Landscape architecture in
Dubai is generally regarded as a benign force, but is a nonetheless important component of constructing Dubai’s global image and legitimising its socio-political hierarchy. Landscape, in broad terms, is analysed through the lens of Para-Scape: a landscape derived from Koranic depictions of paradise.
A survey of a range of landscape architectural projects leads to identification of the dominant landscape architectural typologies that underlie and illuminate the ways in which culture and nature are perceived in Dubai. Primarily, landscape architecture in Dubai is enlisted to serve two grand narratives: the paradisiacal image of greening the desert (Para-Scape), and making the city more attractive to global capital. The paper reveals and examines the way landscape is used within the city to serve these larger narratives. Comparing the work being carried out in Dubai
with the tenets of the various charters of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), it becomes apparent that what is happening is Dubai presents a fascinating discrepancy between theory and practice [2]. As the handmaiden of global capital with, apparently, scant regardfor pressing ecological and social issues, landscape architecture in Dubai is arguably in a state of crisis. This paper explores this crisis in physical and theoretical terms – not in order to pass definitive judgement on landscape architecture in Dubai but better understand the complexity of what would otherwise appear a superficial situation. What is happening in Dubai is interesting precisely because it so blatantly affronts IFLA’s ideals.
top
Landscape architecture’s commitment to landscape concept: a missing link? Adnan Kaplan, Ege (Aegean) University, Faculty of Agriculture Department of Landscape Architecture, Izmir, Turkey
Abstract This paper is primarily derived from the notion that neither landscapebased approaches nor the discipline of landscape architecture have yet fully engaged in responding to this decade’s complex environmental and social challenges, since both landscape phenomena and discipline are to some extent under the influence of 19th century Romanticism and a number of obsolete ideas. This misalignment, at least from other planning and design disciplines’ point of view, has impeded further development of the discipline in effectively engaging with the multiple interfaces possible in the environmental and social realms. To investigate this notion, a two-stage approach outlined here aims at establishing a constructive continuum between ‘landscape’, ‘landscape concept’ and the ‘discipline’ in order to extrapolate landscape architecture’s own concept and thus establish a sound basis for self-criticism within the discipline.
Self-criticism in conjunction with the continuum could not only produce new approaches to (un)built landscapes, but may also result in shifting the paradigm of the discipline. This would enable the discipline to take more active roles in imposing substantial landscape-based norms and values – i.e., through its own conceptions applied across the planning and design scales – upon the physical environment, rather than simply playing the defensive role of just protecting natural and cultural features against cultural interventions or destruction. To exemplify the hypothesis above, a number of case studies across a set of different contexts have been considered.
The growing interest in better understanding landscape and the discipline has the potential to fit well with the emerging ‘ecological era’ and ideas of sustainability. This would create the prospect of a future congruent with the advancement of landscape architecture, on the proviso that the discipline successfully restores the missing link with landscape concept.
The shift in paradigm would then suggest developing a comprehensive tradition of self-criticism to question the current direction of the discipline and disengage from the status quo policies of the past. Such self-criticism will further landscape-based approaches and increase the breadth of the discipline in individual and interdisciplinary landscape studies.
top
Embedded poetics and surrounding politics of a coastal squatter settlement Reena Tiwari, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia
Abstract This article explores the poetics of built environment at Wedge, a squatter community located on the Western Australian coastline, and uncovers its surrounding politics. Built and un-built patterns at Wedge are chaotic, organic and ambiguous, and yet there are glimpses of a poetic order within the decayed fragments from within its vernacular built form. The article explores this poetic order and further un-layers the politics of the place by revealing the desires of different stakeholders involved in its ‘planned development’. Are the poetics at Wedge under threat from the nature of the political game being played here? Is the very act of ‘ordering and planning’ this place going to result in a loss of its cultural significance, and the creation of a place based on the conflicting desires of the various stakeholders?
top
Two squares in Helsinki: a biography
Abstract Woven into the fabric of buildings, streets, and plazas are clues that tell us about their times, their purposes, and perhaps even suggested behaviour within them. By tracing changes in spatial forms and how they are deciphered, we may create one of a city’s many possible histories. Rather than stressing the role of the city’s buildings, the discussion focuses instead on Helsinki’s two major open spaces: the commercial Market Square and the more ceremonial Senate Square, designed by Carl Ludwig Engel in the early 1800s. Although their architectural frames have remained essentially the same through the years, the activities within them have followed the developments of modern life. From their stories we may witness the continuing evolution of urban living characteristic of modern cities, and perhaps learn to better identify and understand them when projecting new designs.
top
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.
Come in and join Topos
Here you will find an excerpt of the current issue of Topos.
