land Pronunciation: \land\ Function: noun 1 a: the solid part of the surface of the earth ; also : a corresponding part of a celestial body b: ground or soil of a specified situation, nature, or quality c: the surface of the earth and all its natural resources 2: a portion of the earth’s solid surface distinguishable by boundaries or ownership as a: country b: a rural area characterized by farming or ranching ; also : farming or ranching as a way of life 3: realm , domain, sometimes used in combination 4: the people of a country 5: an area of a partly machined surface (as the inside of a gun barrel) that is left without machining — land·less \ˈland-lˈs\ adjective
LAND Mojdeh Baratloo with Marissa Gregory Human beings are terrestrial; we have few permanent aquatic habitations, and even fewer aerial (the international space station may be the only one). We live our lives, create our nations, establish our cities on terra firma: dry land. This habitation is so embedded in our species that it is nearly absurd to question it, and yet it shall increasingly be questioned. If anyone, globally, is asked what land is, an image comes immediately to mind. What are its edges? What is its depth? The character, climate? Is it bounded mentally, emotionally, physically? How is it valued? Further elaboration reveals a conceptual and tangible character infused with a rich diversity. Although embedded in our consciousness, land can be easily misunderstood and oversimplified. The term “land” is significant in human understanding, holding three parts of speech in its English form: noun (the land), verb (to land), and adjective (land-
less, land-locked, land-lover). We append “land” to other words to form additional meanings: homeland, wasteland, landscape, landmark. We use it to describe political and social realms: land of the free, Greenland, Swaziland, dreamland, playland. We appropriate it for commercial uses: Disneyland, TVland. It takes this amount of variation to describe the conceptual and physical form that is land. In different places, land has different associations. Various cultures utilize and appreciate it distinctly. The translocation of experience and knowledge of land generates opportunities for reinterpreting its importance, as two (or more) systems of understanding merge, collide, or overlay in the same physical space. When the Dutch arrived to inhabit Manhattan Island, in what is now New York City, their history of seafaring and manipulation of water to increase land, converting marshes to dry land, was translated to the area, although the Native American population already inhabiting the area
our terrains. How can we balance the advantages of this in the context of the complex systems involved? Architects are taught to draw grading plans—reshaping contours, flowing water away from some parts and toward others—but this is a gross oversimplification of processes that we may be disturbing or altering; how can we understand and create more appropriate responses? The technical, legal understanding of land is very different from emotional, biological, chemical, or other types of understanding. Land as property; owning land also includes the animal, vegetable, mineral, water, and air rights to the space above and below; land has depth and is much richer than just soil. The earth is multilayered and complex; is our legal understanding of property and property rights complex enough to fully encapsulate land? How can we better engage the complexities of the idea? To whose benefit should this be done? And what new concepts for understanding both land and property
are required in dynamic environments? Can the confines of legal systems that define property be challenged to appreciate the larger dynamic nature of land?
INTRODUCTION CU 21
hadn’t utilized this approach because culturally their understanding of territory and land did not require it. The importance of the land/water edge to trade and economy has been evident in cultures of various parts of the globe throughout time; a port city is very different from a city without commercial waterways. The coastal and riverine cities of the United States hold economic prominence over the heartland that is the center of the country, and this phenomenon is not limited to the U.S. In fact, projections show that the coastal cities of the world will continue to increase in population as people around the globe move from rural areas to cities, and coastal cities make up the majority of the world’s large cities. As climate change affects sea levels, these areas will experience unprecedented variation in their relationship to terra firma. As cultures globally face new relationships between land and water simultaneously, an exciting opportunity for a new lexicon of response is generated. Current technology enables us to move mountains, carve valleys, and otherwise restructure