1.3 Research & design introduction

1.3.1 SITUATION

It is self-evident that glaciers are disappearing as a result of anthropogenic climate change and that it has implications for associated communities. The retreat of Haupapa/Tasman Glacier and the formation of the pro-glacial Tasman Lake most directly affect recreational and business possibilities within Aoraki/ Mt. Cook National Park. This affects the sense of community, identity, and/or livelihoods of employees, tourists, backcountry recreationists, and education groups (Jurt et al., 2015; Wilson, Purdie, Stewart, & Espiner, 2015). D.O.C. and the concessioners that operate within the Park adjust business models and access routes to adapt to the consequences of a changing landscape, not to mitigate impacts. Education about the causes and consequences of climate change is limited to a section in the visitor centre, guides, and a single information board at the Haupapa/Tasman Viewpoint.

The draft Aoraki/Mt. Cook Park Management Plan indicates that the Park is insufficiently engaged with glacier recession and climate change. The current stagnation of the plan shows that stakeholders are dissatisfied with the direction that park management is moving in. The draft Plan has no objectives pertaining to climate change and refers to it only descriptively. For the Tasman Valley, climate change is only a ‘management consideration’:

“The ongoing and future impacts of climate change within Haupapa Place are likely to be increasingly felt in managing natural values and recreation opportunities” (D.O.C., 2018, p. 129).

Research that directly explores the lived experiences and psychological implications of losing Haupapa/Tasman Glacier as a result of climate change can provide insight into engagement possibilities for the Park itself. Perhaps it can become an example for other communities dealing with similar challenges. Such research and subsequent design investigation opens the door for more meaningful forms of leisure and interaction with changing landscapes. 1.3.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

This thesis explores the intersection between glacier retreat, psychology, and landscape architecture (see Figure 1-7), making it the first project to do so, and therefore simultaneously creating and addressing its own so-called knowledge gap. The following paragraphs tease out what is known and unknown in these three fields and explains where the opportunities are.

Glacier retreat There is strong foundation of research done about glacier retreat by New Zealand universities about the implications of climate change on glaciological processes, tourism, stakeholder perspectives, and businesses on both a national level and focused on Haupapa/Tasman Glacier and Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park (Hennessy et al., 2007; Kaufmann et al., 2002; Kerr, Owens, & Henderson, 2019; Purdie, 2013; Purdie, Anderson, Mackintosh, & Lawson, 2018; Purdie & Kerr, 2019, amongst others). There is also a national initiative, The Deep South Challenge, which aims to enable New Zealanders to respond to climate change through education and engagement (The Deep South Challenge, n.d.). The psychological dimension of the observed changes is absent from the above investigations and there is also no indication of spatial planning or design strategies to mitigate or prepare for the consequences.

Psychology As introduced in Section 1.1, the psychological dimension of climate change is gaining traction in scientific research with different research angles catering to different approaches and inquiries. Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic dimensions of engagement, a book by researcher and consultant Renee Lertzman, stands out as the most exhaustive exploration of loss in relation to environmental degradation and has the most thorough description of methods. She and the other authors mentioned previously are not equipped to substantially apply their gained knowledge in space. Lertzman’s recommendations are conversation and information-oriented with a direct call to art and design to get involved (2015).

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Landscape architecture Carey Clouse (2014) and Geoff Manaugh (2010) verbalize the potential to learn from artificial glaciers, but they are currently the only voices representing landscape architecture in the above discussion. Their arguments advocate what Rudi van Etteger might call, “positivistic and technocratic tendencies” (van Etteger, Thompson, & Vicenzotti, 2016, p. 80). They do not address experience, and therefore aesthetics, in the underlying ‘sustainability agenda’. Elizabeth Meyer, like van Etteger, is a strong advocate for aesthetics as a tool to restore the balance between functionalism and aesthetics for meaningful engagement with environmental issues and the spaces in which they manifest (Meyer, 2008; van Etteger et al., 2016).

Beyond glacial landscapes and sustainability, there is a rich landscape tradition in the design of places to commemorate, remember, perform ritual, praise, contemplate, and reflect. More recently, some of these spaces have attracted researchers and practitioners who hope to better understand how their aesthetic qualities affect experience (Imbert, 2007; Olszewska, Marques, Ryan, & Barbosa, 2018; Zangwill, 2007, amongst others). There is also a recent publication, Melancholy and the Landscape, by Jacky Bowring that comprehensively explores melancholia as an important experience and aesthetic dimension currently undervalued in design (2016).

1.3.3 THESIS AIMS

Design aims The opportunity for this design and research inquiry lies in the intersection of the above three fields. Through design, this thesis aims to find out:

1. How a landscape architecture intervention can address the psychological experience of glacier retreat and thereby become a place to engage with broader issues of climate change and environmental degradation. Specifically,

2. The design will explore how aesthetic experience can be instrumental in addressing this psychological dimension.

3. If the design is successful in its objectives, it could inform future design and research methods and secure a place for aesthetics in the growing field of sustainable and regenerative design. Design assignment The assignment is to design a landscape intervention at the retreating Haupapa/Tasman Glacier in the context of Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park that responds to the specific experience of glacier retreat at this site. The design should facilitate engagement with the decline of the glacier in the broader glacial landscape and employ existing knowledge from glaciology, psychology and landscape architecture to inform the design process and design outcome.

Research aims The design assignment requires a research-based foundation. It involves finding and exploring fruitful meeting points between existing theory in environmental psychology and aesthetic theory in landscape architecture to learn:

1. How people experience glacier retreat, using Haupapa/ Tasman Glacier as a case study and

2. How existing avenues of investigation in landscape architecture can be used to inform an aesthetic framework to guide a spatial response to address this experience.

Hypothesis I hypothesize that people experience environmental melancholia in relation to glacier retreat at Haupapa/Tasman Glacier and that a landscape intervention can provide a meaningful response to this experience.

I begin with this hypothesis in order to compose the design assignment and the questions needed to inform the assignment. The answer to the first research question (RQ1) has to validate the hypothesis in order to continue to the following questions (RQ2 and RQ3). A comparable psycho-social case study of climate change in Norway by Kari Marie Norgaard as well as recent social media posts about Haupapa/Tasman Glacier support the hypothesis, but even so, the details have to be investigated to create a well-informed response.

1.3.4 QUESTIONS

I have formulated the following questions in order to achieve the above-mentioned aims of this thesis. As this is a design thesis, the over-arching objective is to produce a design as described in the design assignment and thereby answer the following question:

How can a landscape intervention at the Haupapa/Tasman Glacier within Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park address environmental melancholia and therefore become a place to encourage engagement with glacial retreat?

In order to do so, I need to investigate the specific experience in Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park, the foundation of addressing such experiences in landscape architecture, and how those can be integrated into the specific landscape in question. The first question forms the foundation of the thesis and the other questions follow from it:

1. How do people experience and reflect upon glacier retreat at Haupapa/Tasman Glacier in Aoraki/ Mt. Cook National Park?

If the hypothesis is confirmed and further reflections of glacier retreat are incorporated, then the next question is directed towards gaining insights from landscape architectural theory that can be applied to a spatial approach:

2. What aesthetic framework of properties is appropriate to address environmental melancholia in relation to glacier retreat?

In order to create a design for a specific site, the last research question aims to incorporate site characteristics and translate the general approach into applicable solutions:

3. How do site characteristics aid in the translation of the aesthetic framework into site-specific design guidelines for Haupapa/Tasman Glacier site in Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park?