LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE + URBANISM
LANDSCAPE THEORY ANUSHKA ATHIQUE
Tutors: Roo Angell, Anushka Athique, Bob Bagley, Emma Colthurst, Benz o K tzen, Sarah Milliken. Thanks to: Mark Garcia, Christina Geros, Local Works Studio — Loretta and Ben Bosence, Joseph Schneider, Ed Wall.
“ I t m at e r s w h at m at e r s w e u s e to t h i n k ot h e r m a t e r s w i t h; i t m a t e r s w h a t s t o r i e s w e t e l t o t e l o t h e r s t o r i e s w i t h; i t m a t e r s w h a t k n o t s k n o t kn ot s , w h at th o u g ht s th i n k th o u g ht s , w h at d e s c r i pt o n s d e s c r i b e d e s c r i pt o n s , w h at ti e s ti e ti e s . It m at e r s w h at s to r i e s m a ke w o r l d s , w h at w o r l d s m a ke s to r i e s”.
— Donna J. Haraway
LANDSAPEC IS a messy business, it is experience and production, representation and archive. It necessarily crosses with other disciplines, forming connections across time and geographies, operating networks simultaneously at multiple scales. It is, as Georg Simmel describes, the infinite interconnectedness of objects, the uninterrupted creation and destruction of forms. Landscape History and Theory at Greenwich embraces this interconnectedness adopting an interdisciplinary approach across the entirety of all programmes. We work to reveal nuanced discussions between ourselves and other disciplines, other agents, and other collaborators - situating ourselves in the exchange between theory and applied practice. To be able to work wiht these relationships and to address the intimate d ( is)connections between the production and the enactment of Landscape we need to question how we htink about Landscape: how we categorise, how we conceive of its borders and boundaries; the language we use to talk about the multiple human and non-human agents that work simultaneously, but not always together, to alter and redefine our Landscapes. Landscape History and Theory at Greenwich explores the critical discourses surrounding landscape, architecture, and urbanism whilst identifying itself as part of interdisciplinary an dialogue across design, performance, philosophy, sociology, geography, history, and anthropology. The exchange of ideas o ( ur own and other peoples) within our working group are key to understanding Landscape and Urbanism as live interdisciplinary practices.
In the first-year we look at the core ideas of landscape and architectural theory, contextualising our positions within London. In the second-year we expand this knowledge, exploring key texts through discussion and site-based workshops. In the third-year personal research is developed as a dissertation that connects sites, projects and landscape theory. Masters students combine and develop these research approaches with seminars and presentation to produce an illustrated thesis. As thinkers and designers at Greenwich, we use this discussion to explore the porosity between theory and applied practice. We actively encourage participation with research through workshops, seminars, site-specific investigation, and presentation. Our aim is to develop a critical methodology that can be applied to practical assignments as well as written work. In doing this, students develop an understanding of the multiscalar sites of research: the theoretical understanding of a site, the expansive view that comes with hindsight, and the immediacy of working with people and materials. It is an approach that appreciates knowledge — like landscape — as forever in flux, and that only by embracing the knowledge developed by different disciplines can we allow our own to grow continuously and exponentially.
→ Olivia Pemberton Cheese: An Expression of a Landscape
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