HOW BIG IS YOUR UMBRELLA?
There are various contemporary practices being developed in landscape architecture and associated disciplines that offer forms of practice that navigate between multiple histories, communities and agendas. In order to see this development it is necessary to acknowledge that what landscape architectural practice is is only ever what it has been. That is to say that what is included within the definition of ‘landscape architecture’ as an umbrella term are practices that have been deemed landscape architectural after their initial inception. This phenomena can be extracted from studying the lineage (practice overtime) of landscape architecture. Consider, a road might once have just been the least impassable route from point A to point B and now they are essential network systems that have been carefully curated to optimise communal connectivity and efficiency. Prior to institutionalisation, the road was not designed it was merely a product of inhabitance; once institutionalised it is planned, designed, engineered, standardised, built and maintained. What this anecdote shows that boundaries of landscape architecture practice have consolidated overtime; therefore boundaries of practice are set by those that precede the current.
A landscape architectural boundary is considered to be the extents of what landscape architectural practice is in a theoretical sense. It implies a distinction between what landscape architecture is not; and therefore dictating what landscape architectural practice cannot be. As boundaries are set by those that precede the current, precedents are the definition and directors for the lineage of disciplinary conventions. As was made evident with the aforementioned road, it is by tracing these lineages that moments when boundaries change can be extracted, uncovering how the boundaries have been expanding and there is a growing number of practices under the ‘landscape architecture’ umbrella.
Drawing parallels between the theoretical understanding moments of change to landscape architectural lineage, Terremoto’s practice is dissected to show how it is possible for contemporary practices, and associated disciplines, to re-mold what landscape architectural practice can become.
Above: Extracxt from A2 project drawing, refer to page 12.
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