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Landscape Identity

Peter Zöch On Identit y · Kathryn Moore A Ne w Look at L a ndsc a pe · Lola Sheppard, Mason White Pr ac tic ed A rc tic L a ndsc a pes · Craig Dykers T he Mec h a nic s of Being · Jan de Graaf, Robert Schütte Difficult L a ndsc a pes · Gareth Doherty Liter at ure a nd L a ndsc a pe · Greg Grabasch, Bruno Marques Indigenous Cult ures of Austr alia a nd Aote a roa / Ne w Ze ala nd · Jerry van Eyck/!melk Iden tit y is not Imitation : L a s Veg a s St rip, USA · Topotek 1 Lor sc h A bbe y World Heritage Sit e, Germa n y · Hansen Partnership M acK enzie Fall s Gorge T r ail, Aust r alia · Studio Vulkan Wildwood Plaza , Swit zerla nd · Landskapsfabrikken Climate Pa rk , Norway

Kathryn Moore

A New Look at Landscape Landscape can be described in many ways, for example, its ecological diversity, botanical or cultural significance. But it is always more than its constituent parts. For future challenges we need to formulate a new philosophy of landscape that considers identity at its core.

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e no longer fully recognise the pivotal role that landscape plays in shaping identity, culture, self-confidence and worth in everyday life. Detached from the fabric of our lives, from our experience, the stories and myths, memories and celebrations that make up a sense of place, it is taken for granted, taken as read. Identity can look after itself. Its potency, complexity and value are therefore all too often overlooked within the development process.

Objectified, we think of it as something out there, beyond the city, green, blue, or grey, a place to pass through, to visit and admire provided it’s pretty enough. But ultimately, it’s up for grabs, there to be used or abused, man­ handled or bulldozed.

The groundswell of criticism against this cultural vandalism has been evident for a considerable time now. Ian Nairn’s campaign for example “to convince the public – as well as the planners – of the full horror of what is happening in England today”, articulated in Your England Revisited, and Nan Fairbrother’s New Lives, New Landscapes, in which she presents “plans to halt haphazard and thoughtless modern development” were significant in drawing attention to the crisis of what seemed like the uncontrollable despoliation of urban and rural England. They were asking us to ­observe what was happening. Look and understand, make critical, informed judgements about our surroundings.

In their singular and some might say, idiosyncratic ways, critics such as Denis Cosgrove, Simon Schama, Jonathan Meades and Paul ­

HS2LV is a proposal to transform the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail link, the UK’s largest infrastructure project for generations, from a linear engineering scheme into an iconic landscape vision that would be a catalyst for wider social and economic transformation.

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Jerry van Eyck

Identity is not Imitation The ability to conjure an emotional connection to the landscape and to a particular experience is the most powerful tool landscape architects have. The ongoing design and construction of a new public realm along the famous Las Vegas Strip is establishing a vocabulary that is authentic to Las Vegas.

The composite elevation of Las Vegas Boulevard at night represents how visitors traditionally perceive the distinct hotel properties as they move along The Strip. The blurred vision of the same elevation (top) fades out individual characters and exposes a continuous and cohesive boulevard experience.

In the vocabulary of landscape architects, the term “identity” is overused and misunderstood. It is a much more complex and nuanced concept than many acknowledge. Taken literally, identity means the quality of ­being identical, or sameness (idem). Identity as a design rationale or mechanism therefore requires not only an original and a double, but the conceptual displacement of the double from its original. But what is the “double,” and more interestingly, what is the “original?” The original is usually intangible. It resides and is negotiated in the collective consciousness, existing apart from physical experience. The “original” exists in the mind of the experiencer, and so identity is produced through the mental act of reconciliation between original and double. If identity is a relational experience not necessarily located in tangible space, we must ask: On whose perception is this based? How does this bear on what we do as ­designers when we say our work “creates” identity?

The literary critic Harold Bloom makes a statement in the introduction to his book A Map of Misreading that is remarkable in its simplicity and power: “Every reading is, inherently, a misreading.” In other words, the ­intention of the author can never be known, since through the act of reading, the reader constructs the text anew. In much the same way, the identity of a city or place is to some degree a misreading of intentions. Identity is perceived by an audience that actively relates physical experience to the everchanging notion of environment as it is modeled in popular consciousness.

Perception and projection. Our ideas about, and expectations of cities or places are not made exclusively in the physical space. The city of our collective consciousness is an aggregate of cultural viewpoints, media representations, and socio-economic constructions. The “context” for our ideas about cities and places is substantially in our heads. This ­deviates widely from the way that design disciplines have framed the issue of context. The common premise that our designs should be ­rationalized by metrics, materiality, and aesthetics “as found” in the adjacent built or unbuilt environment is simplistic and misguided. The identity of a place can never be clarified, and is even less likely to be discovered through the creation of an echo chamber of continuity ­reverberating only in the space of the “double.”

Saying that context is in our heads does not dismiss the idea of context – it simply relocates it. Context exists in the mind of the individual and is shared in the vast collective consciousness where the “original” also exists. After making that claim, does this now give us permission as designers to do whatever we wish? Do we practice with an attitude of no-holds-barred, anything goes?

No. It makes our work more challenging. We, as designers, need to act as arbiters of perception. Interestingly, one could then ask, “Is it the designer’s state of mind that matters? Is identity a projection of the designer?”

Jutta Kehrer

Landscapes of

Imagination Four impressive luxury resorts present different ways towards responsible resort

design. Yet, all not only achieve to protect the existing natural environment but to magnify its presence and identity by making each landscape become an essential part of the resorts’ narrative and guest experience.

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ver the past decades travel & tourism has become a major economic driver.

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) latest annual research, in conjunction with Oxford Economics, shows a growth in travel & tourism’s contribution to world GDP for the fifth consecutive year in 2014, rising to a total of 9.8 per cent of world GDP (US$7.6 trillion). The sector now supports nearly 277 million people in employment, that’s 1 in 11 jobs on the globe, and WTTC’s 2015 forecast predicts growth at an even increased rate. Clearly the earth has become a travelled planet, with travel & tourism destinations challenged by the benefits of economic growth versus the adverse impacts on ecosystems and cultural authenticity. This article portrays four top tier luxury resorts. All are

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situated in prime landscapes at desired tourism destinations and strongly rely on landscape and cultural identity as their core assets and guides to distinction and success. Whilst catering for a niche market of discerning international travellers within the global travel & tourism industry, these resorts represent pioneering examples, ­indicative of a general shift in traveller awareness and higher demand for sustainable and culturally sensitive travel destinations.

United by high construction standards, spacious site layouts and prime landscapes as site conditions, each resort represents a prototype in its own right and explores different avenues towards responsible resort design: from the lush sanctuary skilfully inscribed into the tropical Balinese jungle at Hanging Gardens, to the

“

A hotel is an illusion; it’s what you don’t have at home ... When you design a hotel, you want this

illusion to be there … First of all location is very important for the cultural content. You cannot be too literal about the location rather you have to take the spirit of the site and use it as a guide.

Jaya Pratomo Ibrahim (1948-2015)

”

Hanging Gardens represents a quiet sanctuary, skilfully embedded into the lush Balinese rainforest. Local materials, respect for nature and the original contours of the land characterise the resort – with one exception: the astounding split-level pool, which escalates the dramatic sense of place.

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