Contested Notions of Nature e x a m i n i n g
t h e
c r e v a s s e
Clarissa LIM Kye Lee MArch II, Fall Semester 2008993796 Final Assignment ARCH 7375 Design after Nature Word count: 5028
Introduction Nature is a contested ideology within our society, from physically as to how we define nature as well as how humanity sits in our understanding of nature. Currently, we have defined it as:
"The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations."
We understand, from the Oxford dictionary definition, that nature is a separate entity from humanity or the products of humanity itself. In this essay, I would like to intervene and challenge this ideal. I propose that there should be no clear separation between what we interpret as nature and what is the opposing force - artificial. This essay will first investigate the various definitions of nature throughout time. Then I will observe four areas where the human negotiations with nature proliferate1. Political - The spatial control of nature ranging from building codes in the context of Hong Kong and the promotion of the recent LEED green building rating ideal. 2. Physical - New infrastructural taxonomies. Taking Del Tredici’s The Flora of the Future and investigating the various ecosystems plants take over the contested urban conditions in Hong Kong 3. Valuation - Gardens are heterotopias - spaces where we recreate nature for our pleasure. I will evaluate nature as beauty and humans definition of this recreation of true beauty. 4. Destruction - Industrial destruction and the act of remediation to generate a new nature. How humanity has treated brown-field sites and radiation zones, and our immediate response as a generation of a new course of things. These four points will be observed, drawing and investigated in the realm of understanding the contested relationship humanity has with nature. By no means is it a resolve, but rather an analysis of the changes through time and typology. This analysis aims to identify the separation is not apparent, and the grey area is where the relationship should lie.
Oxford English Dictionary
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Definitions of Nature / Physis The definition of nature has been transformative through time, changing throughout the development of our known society. This first section begins with observing the various definitions nature has attributed to throughout the years of humanity.
“From Latin, natura “course of things; natural character, constitution, quality; the universe,” “Online Etymology Dictionary.” Online Etymology Dictionary, www.etymonline.com/. The etymology of nature originate from the Latin term, natura. The translation, course of things examines nature as the continuous phenomenon of everything, the growth and development of all living entities. Natural character also infers how the innate condition of the earth and the continuity of this character can proliferate. In Sophist tradition (5th century BCE), the physis acts as a foil to nomos , which means “Law”or “custom”1 - also the initial term of nurture. This sparked the debate on which parts of human existence are natural, and which are due to convention. This sparked the debate of nature versus nurture, allowing us to examine undertaking various methods of how we manipulate nature has been questioned from a very early period of humanity. In Greek theology and philosophy , the term physis is used to translate the English term, nature.2 This term is related again to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals and other features of the world to develop on their own 4
1 Dunkie, Roger. The Classical Origins of Western Culture: The Core Studies 1 Study Guide. Brooklyn College Core Curriculum Series. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn College., 1986. 2 Guthrie, W.K.C. Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus (volume 2 of his History of Greek Philosophy), Cambridge UP, 1965.
In early use: Nature personified (obsolete). Later: nature in various philosophical contexts; especially the inherent quality of a being or object. definition of physis , Oxford English Dictionary w445 accord. This relates back to the etymology of nature, examining nature as a continuous growing without control. Aristotle has implied the multiplicity in the dimensions of the term, physis. He retains the sense of growth, and adds the four causes - Nature itself contains its own source of matter (material), power/motion (efficiency), form, and end (final)3. Here, he compares nature to artifacts. Nature will continue to grow and change in a particular way unless it is stopped - that of which will cause it to turn to an artifact. Artifacts are caused by human artifice, not innate conditions. He further interprets the multiplicity in the meaning of nature, examining that it can exist within living and non-living objects.4 3 Atwill, Janet. “The Interstices of Nature, Spontaneity, and Chance.” Rhetoric Reclaimed: Aristotle and the Liberal Arts Tradition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1998. N. Print. 4 See Appendix (2) for further examination of Nature (Philosphy)
Definitions of Nature Homer further adds to the “course of things” interpretation. Through his seminal poem, he mentions nature as act of “drawing it from the ground, and showed me its nature.” The process of growing is innate and continuous process. Nature can also exist in between man and god. Drawing from the transcendental interpretation of Emerson, he writes “Nature, in the common sense, refers to essence unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf”5. The experience of nature must be holistic, an “intercourse with heaven and earth”6 and thus is the collective of everything which creates the impression of three ideals: Perfectness, Harmony and Beauty. When interpreting humanity’s impact upon nature, he further indicates that “but his(man’s) operations taken together are so insignificant...that of the world on the human mind, they do not vary the result.” At this stage in history (1836), when the industrial revolution has began to proliferate, humanity perhaps has yet to promote a strong foothold upon nature. Nature is still seen as pristine, but Emerson ventures to interpret it through the human connection with nature being of importance. These revelations regarding nature seeks to examine it as something more than an object, rather it is a result of our connections and our understanding which deem to determine nature. Cronan’s essay about humanity’s examination of nature results in a skewed interpretation of what he notes as “wilderness”. Often observed as a term meaning things, flora, fauna and geology that have not been substantially altered by human intervention within nature, Cronan deems wilderness as “quite profoundly a human creation”7, as he argues that almost everything has been in some way touched by humanity. “People should always be conscious that they are part of the natural world, inextricably tied to the ecological systems that sustain their lives”.8 This implies that now humanity has an impact on the natural world that nature is deemed something new.
Defined as “Relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.”10 It is fundamental that we question the definition of nature - we must understand that how we interpret nature as the human race is not static. Schwägerl writes that “wild nature no longer exists on land or out at sea.”11 The implications of humanity have touched all corners of Earth and what we understood as nature is no more, and if humanity does not touch it is the “result of human decision-making...as when an area is perceived as being lasting value and is then protected” What I would like to propose involves identifying Schwägerl’s work. He commented that the “Anthropocene idea can help people see themselves as active, integrated participants in an emerging new nature that will make earth more humanist rather than just humanised”12. The human being should be an integral element within various processes which exist within nature. The term, “emerging nature”, it indicates a new understanding that we are to be integrated into nature, both humanity and non-humanity should exist simultaneously, rather than executing the act of eliminating one another. In this essay, I will examine nature by the current Oxford dictionary definition and test four realms against my hypothesis of generating an emerging nature.
Currently, humans seem to have separated our existence from our nature9, calling ourselves the pioneers of a new age - the Anthropocene, a proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on earths geology and ecosystems. 5 Emerson, W. Ralph, Nature, James Munroe and Company ,1836 6 Emerson, W. Ralph, Nature, James Munroe and Company ,1836 7 Cronan, William, The Trouble with Wilderness or,. Getting Back to the Wrong Nature, 1995 8 Cronan, William, The Trouble with Wilderness or,. Getting Back to the Wrong Nature, 1995 9 When examining the current definition of nature, “The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.” Oxford English Dictionary
10 “Anthropocene”. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Harper Collins Publishers. 28 Dec. 2017. <Dictionary.com http://www.dictionary.com/browse/anthropocene>. 11 Schwägerl, Christian. The anthropocene: the human era and how it shapes our planet. Synergetic Press, 2014. 12 Schwägerl, Christian. The anthropocene: the human era and how it shapes our planet. Synergetic Press, 2014.
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Definitions of Nature / various ideologies This is an examination of the various ideologies which pertain to the definition of nature. It examins nature through the various interpretations and movements.
1. Words are signs of nature facts. 2. Particular nature facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts. 3. Nature is the symbol of spirit.
HOMER Author of The Odyssey
“ So saying, Argeiphontes [=Hermes] gave me the herb, drawing it from the ground, and showed me its nature.” Odyssey (ed. A.T. Murray
ARISTOTLE
CLASSICAL ELEMENTS
EMERSON Transcendentalism Nature
1. Growing of things 2. Immanent thing from which
a growing thing first begins to grow i.e. seed 3. The source from which the primary motion in every natural object is induced in that object as such. 4. the primary stuff, shapeless and unchangeable from its own potency. 5. Nature is primary matter, and the form or essence it produces. Metaphysics 1014b-1015a, translated by Hugh Tredennick
The classical elements are relevant to various cultures, it encompasses earth, water, air and fire. They are used to explain nature and the complexity for all matter in terms of simplest substances.
“Transcendentalism suggests that the divine, or God, suffuses nature, and suggests that reality can be understood by studying nature” “Transcendentalism.” The Oxford Dictionary of English. 2010
Cronan deems wilderness as “quite profoundly a human creation”, as he argues that almost everything has been in some way touched by humanity.
TROUBLE WITH WILDERNESS
“liberated ourselves from the environment” Jessie Ausubel
ANTHROPOCENE Geology of Mankind Great acceleration Anthrocene
“Relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.” “wild animals, rocks, forest, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention.” “Wilderness”. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Harper Collins Publishers
“Anthropocene”. Collins English Dictionary Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Harper Collins Publishers
The anthropocene introduces a hyperobject quality to the examination of nature. It presents nature as the result of human activity and the implications.
“iron laws of ecology that bind other species ”
Edward O. Wilson
HUMAN ECOLOGY Examination of ecological design & it’s shortcomings
“Our machines, have truly replaced us” Jessie Ausubel
MACHINE-AGE
“the physical and biotic environment that cradled the human species ”
“humans are beginning to create new lifeforms through interbreeding, gene technology... biotechnical design.”
Edward O. Wilson
Christian Schwägerl
Human ecology examines our attempts of resolving of ecological problems lead to further incurred unforeseen issues.
“Technopoly represents, in Postman’s view, the cultural equivalent of AIDS, which is to say a culture with no defense whatsoever against technology or the claims of expertise. It flourishes when the “tie between information and human purpose has been severed.”
Dr. David Orr See Appendix (2) for further examination on Dr. David Orr’s work
Notes from the Appendix A (JPN1) 1(c) Communal sky gardens
PART I: political spatial control Examination of Spatial Regulations The first area of contested negotiations is the political strata. Nature is now built into spaces, controlled by how much and how large. Overlaid with our framework of politics, economy and development, which seem to have an invisible control over human space, the context of where nature should emerge as a cohesive element appears problematic. Competing interests prevents a resolution to occur. Building codes have been generated for architects and builders to conform to a set standard to protect public health, safety and general welfare. To allow any piece of architecture to be built, one must apply for planning permission and must abide by these code and regulations enacted by appropriate government or private authority.13 This applies to regulating what is understood to be nature. Various building authorities have included a greenery percentage as a requirement when building new infrastructure and architecture. In the Hong Kong context, various government departments have implemented schemes of greening to promote environmental benefits14, both on a private and public sectors. In the public sector, the CEDD (Civil Engineering and Development Department) has created a Greening Master Plan, implementing their schemes throughout the public spaces and walkways of Hong Kong. Much is being controlled, from the selection of species, to location of such greening spaces. Under the Buildings Department, various building ordinances which include green features have been excluded from the Gross Floor Area (GFA) count, such as communal sky gardens for residential buildings15 and communal podium gardens for non-residential buildings16. There are highly controlled provisions to allow for such spaces to be built in the first place:
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13 Ching, Francis D. K., and Steven R. Winkel. Building Codes Illustrated: A guide to understanding the 2015 international building code. John Wiley, 2016. 14 Wolf, Kathleen. Nature and Consumer Environments, www.naturewithin.info/consumer.html. 15 Au, Choi-Kai, et al. Buildings Department, Lands Department, Planning Department , Joint Practice Note No. 1 , 4(a) 16 Au, Choi-Kai, et al. Buildings Department, Lands Department, Planning Department , Joint Practice Note No. 1 , BD GP/ENV/8 LD 2/1020/00 TPB/C/BLC/2 4(d)
These diagrams are drawn examples of regulations stipulated from the Joint Practice Note No.1 in coordination with the Buildings Department, Lands Department and the Planning Department on the topic of Green Innovative Buildings. It exemplifies to what extent these rules control the area of where and how (fig. (iv)) greenery can be located within the boundaries of building projects. This reduces nature as a commodity and allows project to seemingly increase in value as more is being built. The act of negotiation as to what nature is and can be is lost. Developers is examine this condition as construction costs and designers would have to fulfill these spaces with the cheapest methodology to present it.
50% <X
(iv) The net area of the garden is not less than 50% of the area of the footprint of the tower,
These stipulations are usually also specified in land leases. The land leases presented by the Planning Department (planD) will specify greening and garden requirements for each land lot being built upon. In comparison with how we view nature, here it is used to fulfill a building requirement. The government aims to control wilderness into alloted two dimensionally planned spaces.
(iv) and where it is made up of conâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t more than one parcel on the same floor, the parcels are connected with each other by communal circulation areas on the same floor;
PART I - political spatial control 15% <
(v) Planted with vegetation or (faces open air )
The treatment of nature, and the segregation from the human circulated spaces is also due to the ease of management for us, humans. Issues such as a drainage, soil depth and species are cultivated for the human enjoyment and maintenance. This allows nature to be associated with our infrastructure, to coexist with the ebbs and flows of water into systems humans have created. This pertains highly to an over simplistic view of using greenery as an act of sustainable building. Schwägerl have commented that we must understand that humans have “alter(ed) the geological state of the earth” and using “an alteration in sedimentation process via the construction of man-made rock strata - concrete.”17 We have thus created a new concept of ecological restoration, seemingly “trapped between the profession’s idealistic rhetoric about the innate superiority of native ecosystems and the constraints imposed by the financial and ecological realities of a particular site”18. Not only has man created a new ‘nature’, we have turned to these methodological cookie cutter systems to simplify ecological issues and consider developer’s budgets.
(xiii) All planters, furniture and equipment are fixed to floors, walls or similar permanent constructions
17 Schwägerl, Christian. The anthropocene: the human era and how it shapes our planet. Synergetic Press, 2014. 18 Tredici, Peter Del. “The Flora of the Future.” Places Journal, no. 2014, 2014, doi:10.22269/140417.
Nature has a predetermined space
Recommendations from the CEDD for planting greenery
We have created a new system to regulate nature, and thus we need to regulate this system. Nature is seen as a categorisation. Not only is the spatial allocation governed, categorisation is allocated by types of species, site settings, environmental constraints, visual treatment, plant design, maintenance and implementation19. For each of these categories, a rating is allocated for each species. These categorisations allocates species and plants as a currency, nature becomes a type of natural capital20 to fulfill our ecologically friendly government requirements21. It is not seen as an expression of beauty as interpreted by Emerson, the experience between man and nature is now pre-determined and artificially generated.
19 CEDD, Departmental Appendix Checklist for Landscape Design Considerations, 2001w, 20 Hawken, P., Lovins, H., Lovins, A. Natural Capitalism. 1999. Boston: Little Brown. 21 See Appendix (3) for various governmental bodies involved with tree management, greenery management.
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PART II - physical physical new infrastructural taxonomies The second area of contested negotiation is the urban ecologies created by the perseverance of flora and fauna between built environments- new infrastructural taxonomies. Despite the strenuous work landscape architects and architects conduct when planning the location of where greenery is implemented, plants appear spontaneously throughout urban ecosystems. Del Tredici names these spaces as “new infrastructural taxonomies”22, and indicates that plants are able to proliferate in the harshest of conditions. We have named this type of nature as weed, a term which is not allocated to a specific species. It is defined as such in the dictionary:
“ a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth; especially : one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants” Merriam-Webster Dictionary This implies there are aesthetics associated with nature. Humans at some point decided what part of nature is considered to be beautiful (See part IIIValue) and what is considered a pest, or nuisance. A lot of these plants have been “pre-adapted” to the conditions of the urban ecology. We can see some examples in the images:
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Tredici, Peter Del. “The Flora of the Future.” Places Journal, no. 2014, 2014, doi:10.22269/140417.
PART II - physical These images were taken on a 5 minute walk from where I was sitting. These small plants are unaccounted for and are growing under the radar.23 These spaces of urban ecology persist in all corners of our built environment. Currently, they protrude from our infrastructure, finding crevices to grow in wherever humidity collects. They were not given these spaces, these are unplanned growths. Del Tredici names several infrastructural elements24 which allows various types of plants to grow. These plants appear in contested negotiations with infrastructure humans build. But how do we to allow a symbiotic relationship with both man made structures and plants? In Hong Kong, a historical technique of masonry wall trees (image to the right) grown onto retaining walls of slope elevation walls was implemented. As Hong Kong is a mountainous city, many of these walls require a binding agent to prevent landslides from occurring. Originated from the 19th century migrant masonry workers from Wu Hua, Guangdong25. These techniques were implemented onto the retaining walls, thus creating a symbiosis of the natural and artificial. Here, the natural is considered an aid to the built environment. Not only the obvious manner of preventing landslide, but promotes biodiversity and the allowance to grow unhindered by a conditioned allotment for the plants. The upward growth of the tree allows human activity to occur on the ground. The ultimate goal is for the human survival, humanity again is put on the forefront as we manipulate nature for our ecology to persist. These trees are considered a culturally significant and thus, aesthetically pleasing. Much like how greenery increases value of a built environment, these masonry wall trees also have been said to increase property value and historical value. Despite humans still retaining control, nature here is seen as multiple in its value, both monetary and culturally. In the next part, complete control and cultivation of nature is explored. 23 Register, Tree. “Tree Registration Map.” Tree Register, Tree Management Department, CEDD, www.greening.gov.hk/treeregister/map/treeIndex.aspx. 24 Vacant Lots, Median Strip, Stone Walls, Pavement Cracks Tredici, Peter Del. “The Flora of the Future.” Places Journal, no. 2014, 2014, doi:10.22269/140417. 25 Siu, Pui-kei Ronnie. “Experiencing the unexpected behavior of nature: the outdoor museum of wall trees.” University of Hong Kong, 2009.
http://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1845412/hong-kongs-wall-trees-everything-you-need-know-about-banyans-define
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PART III - value The third area of contested negotiation examines the valuation of nature. Currently, the control of nature is never used as negative lexicon in the context of the traditional English Gardens or glass houses filled with pruned flora and fauna. Paradoxically we celebrate and value the act of retaining nature within these products of humanity. It is very much us, the humans who have invaded their realms of existing. We have controlled nature and thus exploit the value of aesthetics and beauty for our own pleasure. This phenomenon creates a heterotopia, a controlled space created by humanity to generate nature. Humans have now shaped the “course of things”, disconnecting the gardens from what we understand as nature. It draws upon nature as a machine26, creating new species and colours for the visual experience. These spaces act as a separate reality from the urban condition. Time is a dimension which can diverge from nature’s natural course by manipulating growing conditions. It transform the experience of the viewer and takes them elsewhere - through temperature, through variety in flora and fauna.
Château de Versailles Versailles, France
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Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England
Orr, David, The Nature of Design, 2004, citing Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, 1964
The conditioned nature were generated due to an inherent value the garden possesses. Throughout history, we can observe the various cultures have taken to this art of cultivation. Beauty in nature is examined in realms such as philosophy, art and literature. In the realm of aesthetics of nature, we understand the term: disinterestedness, as “we respond to the object’s rightness of design, which satisfies our imagination and intellect, even though we are not evaluating the object’s purpose”27. This is summarised in three conceptualisations of nature:
1. The idea of beautiful: this applied to tamed and cultivated European gardens and landscapes.
2. The idea of the sublime: this explained the threatening and terrifying
side of nature such as mountains and wilderness; however, when it is viewed through the disinterestedness perspective, it can be aesthetically appreciated rather than feared or neglected 3. The notion of the picturesque: the term “picturesque” means “picturelike”, where the natural world is experienced as if it is divided into art-like scenes.28
Powerscourt Gardens Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland
Butchart Gardens Vancouver Island, British Columbia
27 Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Trans. Werner S. Pluhar. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1987. 28 Zalta, Edward N. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2004. Carlson, Allen. “Environmental Aesthetics”.
PART III: value These three dimensions presents the human perspective of how we constantly view nature as irrationally beautiful. The three qualities are unpurposefully inherent, other than to continue growth and birth - cycles of nature. The fallacy lies in the inherent quality of the beauty in nature, but it appears to have no rules or stakes regarding why this beauty exists. Humans continue this cycle of cultivation to consistently promote the creation of such artifacts. Leopold adds further to this conversation, indicating that nature is most true when it comes from “integrity, stability, and beauty”.29 These three attributes are not constant in wilderness, as ecosystems are not stable and change is a constant factor. These qualities can only be found in the relationship between human and nature - in gardens and cultivated land. In present day, interpreting these inherent qualities as truths, gardens are therefore viewed as a spectacle, a place of tourism and value to a neighbourhood. The relationship between human and nature can be valuated in the images we take, the experiences we pay for.
Villa d’Este Tivoli, Italy
Dumbarton Oaks Washington, D.C. USA
29 “Understanding the Land Ethic.” The Aldo Leopold Foundation, 8 May 2017, www.aldoleopold. org/post/understanding-land-ethic/.
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise” “Understanding the Land Ethic.” The Aldo Leopold Foundation, 8 May 2017, www.aldoleopold.org/post/understanding-land-ethic/. The images below are the top 10 gardens list by National Geographic. We curate our experiences in nature through our instant social media heterotopias, examining the control humans hold over nature.
Gardens of the Villa Éphrussi de Rothschild St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France
The Master-of-Nets Garden Suzhou, China
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PART IV: destruction Throughout this essay, we have discussed the growth of nature and how nature proliferates through human control. This final part examines the contested negotiation between destruction and the new nature left behind.
Easterling taps into the consciences of humans by altering our perception associated with vacant lots. She introduces Vergara’s successive photography on Detroit vacant lots. These spaces were titled “green ghettos”, due to nature taking over these built conditions.
If we take my initial hypothesis, that humanity and nature should be symbiotic, what happens when destruction occurs? Destruction is not new to humanity, we have seen destruction occur on a daily basis, be it warfare, industrial disasters , nuclear disasters or a chemical leak. These spaces are forgotten, left to remediate back to the original state. This argument builds upon the destruction, act of “corrective tabula rasa,”30 humankind has created upon earth - a piece of brownfield site. This generates a new nature of our human production of space. These spaces should not be seen as devastations of property and livelihoods, but rather a potential for new forms of remediations, for production.
“Even the most devastating disasters potentially rewire building and landscape networks with new associations and adjacencies”
Camilo Vergara, Tracking Time, Former Packard Plant, Detroit, USA Other than the act of restoring and rebuilding, there is the act of doing nothing. These conditions create a space where nature begins to take over the desolation. Leaving a space to the elements for nature. This allows a negative energy to be replaced with a new landscape of open space. The course of things allows nature to overtake the built environment, to grow and expand on spaces humanity trampled upon. One can see a clear overtaking of control from both nature and humanity in the series Former Ransom Gillis Mansion below.
Subtraction, Keller Easterling 30
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Easterling, Keller, et al. Subtraction. Sternberg Press, 2014.
Camilo Vergara, Tracking Time, Former Ransom Gillis Mansion, Detroit, USA
PART IV: destruction In the case of nuclear disasters, to do nothing is the first step of remediation. The aim is to allow radiation to disperse before reintroducing human activity. Disasters such as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011 has left a 20km perimeter void in the Tohoku region31. Slowly, the evacuation ban of these spaces are being lifted32, but not all the residents have returned to the area33. These spaces have attached stigma these disasters have caused a physical barrier to manifest. A group of artists curated by Jason Waite created an invisible exhibition titled “Don’t Follow the Wind’ within Fukushima’s evacuation zone. 34 Much like the radiation, it remains invisible unless visited in person. Initiated in 2012, very few people have access to the four sites of the exhibition. Inaccessible due to the site conditions, nature has been left to grow around the pieces over the past 5 years of inactivity. The exhibition generates a condition of remediation, allowing spaces to be without human activity. The affected areas generates a condition that negotiations cannot be made it is strict non-dwelling condition where humans must not exist during a specific time period. This condition presents new natures where humans cannot exist without harm, “rewir(ing) building and landscape networks”35, creating new untouchable conditions of subtraction.
“They are dead architecture. Their total image has been lost. The remaining fragments require the operation of the imagination if they are to be restored” Publication excerpt from Terence Riley, ed., The Changing of the Avant-Garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman Collection, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2002, p. 101 Returning to even further in the past, the end of World War II has very similar sentiments to these conditions. After two nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Metabolists began interpreting and understanding the post-war condition of Japan. The Metabolist group dealt with themes of destruction, regeneration and unhindered growth in these trying times.
Isozaki, Arata. Re-Ruined Hiroshima, project, MoMA 31 “Evacuation order lifted for town of Naraha but few returning home.” Fukushima on the Globe, 7 Oct. 2015, fukushimaontheglobe.com/the_earthquake_and_the_nuclear_accident/situation-of-evacuees/4481.html. 32 The lifted evacuation ban have started from April 2014 and is still on-going to this date. 33 See Appendix (4) for further information about residents not returning 34 McCurry, Justin. “Fukushima’s radioactive wasteland turns into art gallery.” The Guardian, 15 11. 2015, www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/16/fukushimas-radioactive-wasteland-turns-into-art-gallery. 35 Easterling, Keller, et al. Subtraction. Sternberg Press, 2014.
Isozaki interprets the disaster through a visionary project, “re-ruined Hiroshima”. The collage depicts another disaster, a new typology of built environment where the blast itself is the spatial condition. Operated on a level above ground, the project accepts the ruined condition of the city and exemplifies the true condition. The act of remediation is not to restore, but to enable the current condition of the city to act as the next step, the active form. 15
& in the end? These four negotiations are vastly different in their negotiations with nature. Each negotiation examines a different aspect of nature. Each manifestation of nature is different, depicting the multiplicity in its inherent implications.
with humanity, however it is exploited for value and the “course of things” is constantly managed and controlled. Nature is generated for our pleasure, and ultimately for the persistence of the human ecology.
The first negotiation observes nature as a commodity, as greenery. In this example, Nature is specific types of greenery - plants. Nature is specified by species and number and used to fulfill a building ordinance. Nature is still allowed to grow and to continue the “course of things”, but to a limited degree as the conditions are controlled. By Aristotle’s interpretation, this condition will be an artifact, where it is separate from nature. This artifact allows nature to not only be categorised, but a currency to achieve a general greater cohesiveness with the environmental quality. The more, appears to be more beautiful, better quality of life and in general increased environmental quality. But the underlying requirements, maintenance and allocation of space depicts a chosen, artificial experience.
The last negotiation examines nature as new entity, the brownfield site, the site of destruction. Due to circumstances, humanity has left these spaces for the elements. Nature is interpreted as whatever grows within these spaces and therefore becomes these forms of whatever is leftover. Nature grows and persists within realms where humanity has left. They take over and control the way humans would navigate these sites, even if built environment are located there. These new nature and conditions allows the “course of things”to take place. The human response is to clear it up, start from a tabula rasa condition where nothing exists. But due to money, time and radioactive conditions, these hyperobjects forces humanity to live by the sidelines, affecting our spatial conditions. The absence of humans allows new relationships to occur.
The second negotiation examines proliferation of nature in-between our built environment. Nature here are the micro-ecosystems which persist in the enclaves and residue spaces in between built environment. It exemplifies how nature cannot be completely controlled by humanity. This shows the strength of these pre-adapted species, but is their resultant condition due to humanity’s intervention? Due to the controlled nature scenario from the first negotiation, this allows these micro-ecosystems to persist. This examines despite our aim to control nature, it will persist as our primal instinct is to survive, therefore this adaptation in biology is the resultant force which allows these plants to grow. There is an innate fallacy in our attempts to provide a place for nature to persist, a result of generating nature for human ecology36. This negotiation appears to act in a cycle, as a result nature continues to persist.
Ultimately the idea of generating true equal integration with nature requires much more study in constructing our built environments. Unlike the current day definition, we must understand there is a relationship we have developed with nature. Much like the various interpretations of nature depicted in the beginning, it is ever evolving and we begin to question the need for aesthetic beauty within nature and the need for generating a human ecology as a response to the anthropocene. Must we assimilate for a greater good of the earth? We have already, as a species, compared to other parts of nature provide new frameworks to live by38. How do we assimilate every step of our process of what we understand to be a normal way of living to the elements?
The third negotiation is deeply embedded in our culture and history - an examination of the heterotopia that is the garden and the value of nature. The garden is used a manifestation of value, much like the introduction of the aesthetics of nature to indicate inherent value of beauty. Value is interpreted in various methodologies, ranging from beauty, monetary value and social value. These values exist in the public realm like the botanical gardens and the resultant garden tourism industry, and the private realm, such as the lawn culture which persists in suburban neighbourhoods37. Here, the negotiation lies in the total control of humanity by generating a conditioned climate for value. The exploitation of nature is evident here. Nature is existing simultaneously 16
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Orr, David, The Nature of Design, 2004 Teyssot, Georges, The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday life, 1998
Currently from the four negotiations, the disconnect appears to be exceedingly vast. It calls for new interpretations of what is our aim. Is it to generate a greater connection with nature? As a whole we to aim for an improvement of the ecological system, therefore we seem to require a new ways of regulation, engineering and construction. The design of these systems are flawed in principle and execution. Humanity’s current “course of things” have led us to short term ideal answers to generating spaces. The way how humanity examines nature is also problematic. Much like Cronan’s testament to the “Trouble with Wilderness”, the four realms examined here identify how quick we are to our resolutions with utilising nature. One should understand that nature is not only multiple in meanings, but in entities, and 38
Wilson, E. O., 1998. Consilience. New York: Knopf.
& in the end? this essay only touches upon a small number of negotiations. The entities mentioned here are so few compared to our current scientific knowledge. I must conclude by indicating this essay draws upon the importance of viewing nature with depth. The definition of nature is an ever-evolving quality. Each encounter with nature may not be obvious, which further emphasises the need to endeavor to understand humans spatial relationship with nature. These observations are only a step into this investigation. The need to identify a point of negotiation is only the start to uncovering the extent of humanityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s footprint on this earth.
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Appendix 1. Nature as a philosophy “51. The human understanding is, by its own nature, prone to abstraction, and supposes that which is fluctuating to be fixed. But it is better to dissect than abstract nature; It is best to consider matter, its conformation, and the changes of that conformation, its own action, and the law of this action or motion, for forms are a mere fiction of the human mind, unless you will call the laws of action by that name.”
“a rule that [can] be deduced from fixed principles by a sure process of reasoning”
“For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs, the beginning whereof is in some principall part within; why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheeles as doth a watch) have an artificiall life?”
— Critique of Pure Reason pp. Bxxvi-xxvii
Francis Bacon Physic doth make inquiry, and take consideration of the same natures : but how? Only as to the material and efficient causes of them, and not as to the forms. Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning II.VII.6 Bacon accepts the need to divest to observe nature incrementally. There are limitations to the ways all matter do not change, and changes are specific to what we understand as laws of nature
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“...though we cannot know these objects as things in themselves, we must yet be in a position at least to think them as things in themselves; otherwise we should be landed in the absurd conclusion that there can be appearance without anything that appears.”
Hugo Grotius
Thomas Hobbes
Immanuel Kant
Hugo Grotius describes anything can be a law of nature as long as there is a reasoned process of happenings
His most famous work, Leviathan, opens with the word “Nature” and then parenthetically defines it as “the art whereby God hath made and governes the world”. He examines nature as part of God’s creation, but also examines how life is evident in other forms of movement.
Specifically, Kant argued that the human mind comes ready-made with a priori programming, so to speak, which allows it to make sense of nature.
Appendix 2. Dr. David Orrâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work on Human Ecology HUMAN ECOLOGY AS A PROBLEM OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN Dr. David Orr Director, Environmental Studies Oberlin College From The Nature of Design (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) â&#x20AC;&#x153;Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords.â&#x20AC;? --George Perkins Marsh
the land. We provision ourselves by mining ancient sunlight stored as fossil fuels. The choice is not whether human societies have a design strategy or not, but whether it works ecologically or not and can be sustained within the regenerative capacity of the particular ecosystem. The problem of ecological design has become more difficult as the human population has grown and technology has multiplied. It is now the overriding problem of our time affecting virtually all other issues on the human agenda. How and how intelligently we weave the human presence into the natural world will reduce or intensify other problems having to do with ethnic conflicts, economics, hunger, political stability, health, and human happiness.
The Problem of Human Ecology Whatever their particular causes, environmental problems all share one fundamental trait: with rare exceptions they are unintended, unforeseen, and sometimes ironic, side effects of actions arising from other intentions. We intend one thing and sooner or later get something very different. We intended merely to be prosperous and healthy but have inadvertently triggered a mass extinction of other species, spread pollution throughout the world, and triggered climatic change-all of which undermines our prosperity and health. Environmental problems, then, are mostly the result of a miscalibration between human intentions and ecological results, which is to say that they are a species of design failure. The possibility that ecological problems are design failures is perhaps bad news becauseit may signal inherent flaws in our perceptual and mental abilities. On the other hand, it may begood news. If our problems are, to a great extent, the result of design failures the obvious solution is better design, by which I mean a closer fit between human intentions and the ecological systems where the results of our intentions are ultimately played out. The perennial problem of human ecology is how different cultures provision themselves with food, shelter, energy, and the means of livelihood by extracting energy and materials from their surroundings (Smil, 1994). Ecological design describes the ensemble of technologies and strategies by which societies use the natural world to construct culture and meet their needs. Since the natural world is continually modified by human actions, culture and ecology are shifting parts of an equation that can never be solved. Nor can there be one correct design strategy. Hunter-gatherers lived on current solar income. Feudal barons extracted wealth from sunlight by exploiting serfs who farmed 19
Appendix 3. Tree management and various governing bodies in the Hong Kong Government that examines the flora and fauna. All retrieved from http://www.greening.gov.hk
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Appendix 4. Fukushima aftermath FUKUSHIMA â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Buildings converted from temporary housing units in Fukushima Prefecture have had few takers despite being offered free of charge, due partly to insufficient publicity, a prefectural official said Monday. Only three of 430 publicly provided temporary housing units have been given to applicants since the program started last May as part of efforts to reuse emergency quarters set up after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The prefectural government is encouraging the secondary use as a way to minimize removal costs and reduce waste. The plan, however, has been stymied because municipalities have come up with few ideas on how to reuse these structures, the official said. The three units that have been given away, all part of a building in the town of Tadami, were built after downpours in Fukushima and Niigata prefectures in July 2011 and are now being used as offices by a nonprofit organization based in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. The Fukushima Prefectural Government owns about 13,000 units of disaster relief housing. More temporary housing for victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster will soon become available as the contract terms for some of the shelters expire at the end of this month. Municipalities are considering converting about 50 units for public housing in the village of Kawauchi, while a complex in the town of Namie is slated for provisional accommodation to residents when the nuclear evacuation advisory will be partially lifted for the town at the end of March. Retrieved from: The Japan Times, Few takers for free disaster relief housing in Fukushima ,12/31/2017, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/03/06/ national/takers-free-disaster-relief-housing-fukushima/#.Wkj1LN-WZPY 2/3
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