Category Archives: context-sensitive design

An architectural approach to landscape

The architecture of landscape, in Deptford Creek

It is a pleasure to find a really successful instance of an architectural approach to landscape design. The Laban Centre in Deptford, London, was designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and won the Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2003. The sculptured landforms create a sense of place and work well with the mirror glass. Children love running amok on the grass.

The pity of the scheme is that it is not integrated with the intriguing landscape of Deptford Creek. It lurks behind steel fencing, like a business park. So, reluctantly, I classify it as context-insensitive design – but the blame probably rests with the health and safety and security brigade.

Conceptual design for architecture and landscape

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Zaha Hadid has a wonderful design sense – she could have been a sculptor. The BBC devoted a profile to her recently ( http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/profile/profile_20090404-1900a.mp3 ) and in it Simon Jenkins remarks that ‘I don’t think she does context: she does concept’. He imagines all her buildings isolated in the Iraqi desert – like the Phaeno Science Center (photo courtesy maurizio mucciola) in Wolfsburg. It was a world-scale tragedy when, in 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition turned the course of American architecture away from Sullivan and Wright and back to Italianism followed by European Modernism. The BBC also broadcast an excellent profile of Frank Lloyd Wright on 9th April 2009 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00jjjpv. He drew on the classic inspiration of landscape architecture: NATURE.

Deptford Creek London Landscape Archaeology

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I wish I could tell you whether this rotting barge is a ‘wreck awaiting removal’ or a ‘scheduled monument awaiting a viewing fee’. I fear the former. Deptford Creek is a very interesting place. Henry VIII established England’s first Royal Dockyard here. Peter Romanov, son of Alexis I, was born in the Kremlin and came to Deptford in 1698 to learn shipbuilding. This was 4 years before he became the Czar who became Peter the Great. An exceedingly strong man, he worked, drank and womanized with the shipwrights. From 1871 until 1914 Deptford was the City Corporation’s Foreign Cattle Market. But almost all the evidence of this fascinating history has gone. The Docklands Light Railway was as heartlessly perched over the river as if it been in Tokyo. Then, with the 1990s YBA’s and Britart, Deptford became an artist’s enclave. Most certainly, the old ships should not be removed. But nor should they be restored. They should be allowed to sink, ever so gradually, into the mud.

Abu Dhabi and sustainable landscape architecture in the Gulf

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Since Gulf and Asian landscape architecture are improving, it may be a good time to dwell on past mistakes. The above photo is of the east corniche in Abu Dhabi. It was designed in conjunction with major traffic routes and exemplifies what goes wrong when landscape architecture work is supervised by firms of engineering consultants. The east corniche ‘park’ lies beside a 12 lane carriageway and flyover. It is a horrible place to be, especially during the rushhour. Pedestrian access just about impossible. Abu Dhabi is not short of money but this is a terrible way to waste water, space and resources. The ‘park’, better described as a ‘GARK‘, is ‘decorated’ with petunias, lawns and a fountain. Abu Dhabi is developing a grey water mains water supply but many lawns of this type are watered with drinking water. Grassland irrigation is calculated at 12 litres per square meter per day, which is 4,380 litres of water per square metre per year. Since there are about 58,000 sq m of grass, it must require about 250 million litres of water per year. In desert conditions, petunias probably require more water. Desalination plants dump their excess salt back into the Gulf. This will turn the mangroves yellow in perhaps 50 years. Beyond the gark, to the right, you can see the tops of the mangrove swamps which border the Abu Dhabi Gulf coast. The mangroves grow practically without maintenance in seawater. They are an ecological treasure chest and very beautiful. One wonders if the ‘designer’ of the Corniche east park ever woke up and felt really stupid about what he or she had done. It is not too late to commission a landscape architecture firm to claim the gark for the mangroves.

Asian landscape architecture and garden design in the twentieth century

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Singapore skyline by Gyver Chang

Why were Asian garden design and landscape architecture such a disappointment in the twentieth century? There is much work which looks anti-ecological, anti-contextual, almost anti-human – and far too American or far too European (see note on Chinese context theory). Luckily, there are some exceptions, including the twenty-first century landscape designs for King Abdullah International Gardens and the Abu Dhabi Corniche. Instead of writing an essay (which is is in fact what I have done for the final chapter of Asian gardens) I offer the short statement that the problems with Asian garden and landscape design in the 20th century resulted from a poor understanding of design history and theory. There were lacks of appreciation:

by many landscape architects that their profession’s design theory was at least 4000 years old on 14 May 1863 ( Norman T Newton gives this day as ‘the first official use of the title Landscape Architect’ – he knew the art was older but his perception of the theory was post-1863)
by the Asian clients and designers who believed Asia should be ‘modernized’ by being ‘westernized’
by the World Bank and associated development agencies which were certain that western is better, because it is based on science , and because science is the ultimate criterion of truth
by a host of architects, engineers and planners who believed too fervently in ‘master planning’ and therefore fostered the tragedy of feminine design
by bankers and property developers who believed that calculation of short term profit was the way to distinguish good projects from bad projects
by the abstract and anti-contextual nature of international modern design theory
by an inadequate knowledge of Asian design history and theory

The corrective to these Seven Deadly Design Sins should be gulping that wonderful Asian virtue – HARMONY. History matters, theory matters, science matters, beliefs matter, profit matters, ecology matters, design matters, people matter -we all matter!

Chinese landscape architecture competition for Tiananman Square

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Tripper54 put this on Flickr with the caption 'me at tiananmen square'

The landscape architecture profession in China has grown rapidly but now faces a supreme challenge: how to re-design Tiananmen Square. Though understandable, Tiananmen Square was a blunder and this should be recognized. Only then can it become the brilliant centre of world culture which Beijing deserves. Its current design is understandable for three reasons:

China had no tradition of creating public open space in towns at the time it was designed and nor did it have a landscape architecture profession
The design inspiration for Tiananmen Square came from Soviet Russia, which could just as well have taught lessons in running fair trials
As the capital of the world’s most populous country, the Beijing authorities wanted to have the world’s largest and greatest urban square

The present landscape design of Tiananmen Square is regrettable for three reasons:

the section of the Ming capital it replaced should most certainly have been conserved
the landscape design of the new square was horrific: it has scarcely any use, scarcely any beauty, and is totally unsuited to Beijing’s climate. People just stand around with nothing to do but take ‘I was there’ photographs of each other.
the tragic events of 1989 are, one assumes, as much regretted in Beijing as they are in the rest of the world

So what should be done? It is loved as the heart of the nation and I can’t say – but finding an answer is a great challenge for the landscape architecture profession, hence the Web 2.0 Landscape Competition announced today. + more information on the Tiananmen landscape architecture competition (and a October 2009 blog post about the competition)

The grey slabbed area is the famous Tiananmen Square in Beijing

Garden Design and Landscape Architecture

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