7.1 Conclusions

Conclusions & discussion

This thesis began with the supposition that landscape architecture can have a role in addressing the lack of engagement with glacier retreat. The underlying premise is that in order to foster engagement, one first has to deal with the psychological dimensions of the issue. Until now, there were few landscape architects that considered the psychological aspects of environmental degradation almost none involved in glacier retreat. This thesis therefore brings glacier retreat, psychology, and landscape architecture together to discuss and demonstrate landscape architecture’s capacity and responsibility to approach environmental issues in a novel way.

7.1 CONCLUSIONS

7.1.1 CONTRIBUTIONS TO RESEARCH AND DESIGN

This thesis contributes to socio-psychological research by demonstrating that the experience of environmental melancholia does apply to a case of a retreating glacier and that people do want to engage in a more meaningful way with it. Its contributions for psychology could possibly even be extended to considering the role of contemplation (and more specifically, melancholic contemplation) as a form of reparation to precede and ground action-driven modes of engagement.

It contributes to landscape architectural research by developing a novel aesthetic framework that connects aesthetic properties to particular mental states. An important aspect is that it builds upon landscape architectural research that argues for the generative/ performative role of aesthetics in landscape architecture as a whole and the role of aesthetics in ‘the sustainability agenda’ (Meyer, 2008; van Etteger et al., 2016).

It also contributes to research about the landscape architectural design process, because it finds that using projective design alternatives facilitates engagement with glacier retreat in the design process itself and can provide the design with a greater chance of being accepted and embraced within its community.

Finally, it contributes to landscape architectural design by recommending an approach to apply the aesthetic framework of properties to design a space for melancholic contemplation. Through the design strategy for Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park and the spatial design at Haupapa/Tasman Glacier in New Zealand, it exemplifies how the approach can be applied to a glacial landscape. Glaciers are one of many natural phenomena that we are losing as a result of climate change, so providing spaces for melancholic contemplation becomes increasingly relevant for various environments as people try to process the losses and respond to them.

7.1.2 ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS Research questions 1. How do people experience and reflect upon glacier retreat at Haupapa/Tasman Glacier in Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park?

The above contributions developed out of the journey to answer specific research and design questions. These questions were formulated to achieve the thesis’ design and research aims. The research aims were to find out how people experience glacier retreat and integrate existing landscape architectural research to inform a design approach. The design aims were to explore a physical intervention to address a psychological issue, explore the performative role of aesthetics, and use design to inform future research and design methods. The research and design components evolved together and mutually informed one another. The answers to the following questions convey this and communicate how the above aims were achieved. To understand how people experience and reflect on glacier retreat in the National Park, I conducted unstructured, openended interviews with a diverse pool of fourteen people, observed visitor behaviour on-site, and noted how information was presented in the Park. From the interviews, I analysed people’s experiences according to the environmental melancholia theory by Lertzman, and gathered their reflections based on the attitudes and opinions they offered me during the interviews. From the fieldwork, I gained an understanding of how most front-country visitors perceive glacier retreat and how the Park informs visitors about the changes.

This research confirmed my hypothesis that, in this case, most people experienced environmental melancholia towards glacier retreat. The two arms of environmental melancholia are ‘loss, mourning and melancholia’ and ‘ambivalence’. The first manifested as the following symptoms: anxiety about commercialization, sadness towards the loss of an icon and of livelihood, feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem, and disappointment with the last-chance tourism trend, amongst others. With regards to ambivalence, interviewees expressed discomfort towards a number of contradicting, but coexisting values and practices, including but not limited to: development & commercialization vs. conservation values, pollution and noise of helicopters vs. tourism and terrain access, Ngāi Tahu commercial interests vs. spiritual values, and pressing climate change vs. being a holiday destination.

Interviewees reflected on glacier retreat with a range of attitudes and priorities, but it was evident that they were all interested, concerned, and open to considering ways to engage with the issue. Visitor behaviour and Park information, again, showed concern, but a lack of emphasis. Although the glacier was a part of the National Park experience, most visitors were primarily there to experience the spectacular scenery.

The results consolidated into four recommendations that shaped the subsequent direction of this thesis and might also be useful to consider for other cases:

I. Address larger external processes: include necessary context; go beyond the glacier itself.

II. Address larger internal processes: address environmental melancholia, but also include broader reflections.

III. Awareness is needed for concern: one cannot address something if one is ignorant of it.

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

I paired the findings from Question 1 with literature from different fields (from Chapter 2) to create the foundation for a landscape architecture approach to address the melancholic experience of losing a glacier (possibly applicable to other environmental losses). I arrived at the use of aesthetics in landscape architecture to foster melancholia and contemplation, and together a state of melancholic contemplation. This decision was based on the argument that forms of inaction, namely melancholy and contemplation are undervalued in contemporary society although they are necessary for meaningful engagement.

I developed the framework by merging literature in landscape architecture about melancholia with contemplation and overlaying them onto an understanding of contemplation as a progressive experience.

Zangwill’s Aesthetic Creation Theory (2007) inspired the elements within the aesthetic framework, and the framework built upon it in two ways. First, it explicitly attributed aesthetic properties to a certain mental state, and secondly, it incorporated a linear progression between the aesthetic properties; the presence/ absence of certain properties serve/jeopardize the effectiveness of subsequent properties. For the purpose of a landscape architecture intervention, it also added “design devices” as contributors to non-aesthetic properties.

The literature review found four aesthetic properties to have the greatest chance of ensuring that a landscape is conducive for melancholic contemplation, because they set the foundation of ‘focus, purpose, and purity of mind’ and concentration. The four properties are (I) that the otherworldly space is designated, (II) that it establishes awareness, and (III & IV) that it is characterized by slowness and solemn tranquility.

This research found that the aesthetic framework could not be used in isolation. It should therefore be considered as part of an overall design approach. The thesis process itself informed the recommendations for this approach. The approach consists of two parts, assessment and then design. The subsequent chapters illustrated how this approach could be applied and explored how the elements within the framework could be translated into design guidelines and then into a spatial intervention. 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?

Three methods were needed to answer this question: interviews with projective design alternatives, a site analysis based on insights from the interviews, and a site assessment based on the needs of the aesthetic framework. Together, these provided the information to produce design guidelines for each aesthetic property in the framework.

In the second-half of the unstructured, open-ended interviews, I presented the projective design alternatives. I assessed the designs based on criteria that came out of the interviews themselves: interestingness, appropriateness and feasibility. I then produced a list of design recommendations to fulfill these criteria, which were incorporated into the design guidelines. By involving interviewees through the design alternatives, I discovered that the design process itself could be used to engage people with glacier retreat. The positive feedback and the ideas that I received suggested that interviewees were eager to contribute and also wanted to exercise their creativity for this purpose.

I then analysed the site on two scales, Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park and context and Haupapa/Tasman Glacier. The analysis provided the information to conduct a site assessment of the opportunities and challenges to reach a state of melancholic contemplation. The journey from the highway to the Glacier was conceived as a means to attain ‘purpose, focus, and purity of mind’ and ‘concentration’ and resulted in four design guidelines for the Park.

The experience of the site itself would reinforce these two states and also provide the experience conducive for melancholic contemplation. I produced seventeen design guidelines for the site. Although it seemed a large number, the guidelines did not necessarily prescribe dramatic design devices. The design devices were in constant ‘dialogue’ with the design guidelines; a single design device could contribute to multiple aesthetic properties and thereby result in new design guidelines. The design process also informed the guidelines, but because they were intended as a starting point for design, not all iterations from the design process were included.