CLIMATE. The known, the sensed and the unseen Course Leader: Claire Windsor
Visual Research Essay Kim Joseph Villanueva s3755649
MILESTONE 1: INTERACTING Kim Joseph Villanueva s3755649
Australian Garden Stage 1 by Elizabeth K. Meyer
Attitudes towards my home environment
Known American Landscape Architect, Elizabeth Meyers perfectly captures the ideas and intentions behind the design of the Australian Gardens, Cranbourne in 3 words – Grafting, Splicing and Hybridising. She was initially compelled and immediately curious with the striking inaccessible red-orange field, and the abrupt shift from dry to wet in the rockpool waterway. This shift as she described is grafted into a notch in the red sand garden. As she describes the garden on her first encounter, the patterns, arrangements of plants and constructiveness of the landscape become more apparent. Thus, highlighting the purpose of a Botanical Garden as institution for research, education, and entertainment.
Being able to experience living long term in 4 different countries and learning about different cultures and backgrounds has opened my eyes to different environments/landscapes which inspired me to take up Landscape Architecture. My attitude towards my home environment started with my interest in drawing and art when I was little. I was fortunate enough to be able to pursue my art career and landscape architecture studies at the same time. This has helped me develop my personal way of working in landscape architecture, specifically in fieldwork and site visit through drawing and field sketching. For me, drawing and experiencing the landscape provide a technique that brings together visual, experiential, and sensorial approaches. It plays a crucial role in enlisting our critical reasoning, engaging our senses and imagination in a fundamental way to generate new knowledge. Field sketching also helps us see the unseen by interpreting the landscape with your own hand, attempting to capture the atmosphere, character, and feel of the landscape which has a very different effect than photographs and other digital means.
Sensed Meyer’s essay is a critical interpretation of the Australian Garden through her own different sensual modalities of approaching and experiencing the landscape. For her, what is known and what is sensed corroborate with each other. Our knowledge of a place can greatly affect what we see or what we sense and vice versa. After her visit to the garden, she learned about the influence of Japanese garden to TCL Principal Perry Lethlean and the inspiration to Fred Williams’ abstract paintings. These knowledge of hybridised references and influences changed her perception of the garden, giving more depth and understanding to the strange beauty of the landscape. Unseen Based on Meyer’s experience, unseen are the influences and inspiration behind the design of the garden. The TCL team spliced and grafted each garden groups and interpreted an abstraction to an actual landscape to alter and encourage experiences in many different ways. Unseen is also the environmental imagination through aesthetic experiences of each visitors creating their own unique journey, discovery, and narrative of an Australian landscape.
My own experience of the ‘Australian Garden’ The Australian Garden is an excellent display of Australian native plants. The contrast of the red sand ground to the blue sky and hues of green vegetation immediately draws me in to explore more. Wandering through different parts and sections of the garden was an effortless experience. As I walk along the paths I started to question and sense the site if it really feels like an Australian landscape. In some ways, yes, but the overly constructed elements somewhat give an impression of an aesthetically focused landscape which I think is both its strength and weakness. I have yet to experience the Australian outback and red centre but this somewhat artificial or abstract representation of it shows a glimpse of how strange and beautiful it could be. I approach the garden in its singularity. Having a compassionate commitment to the senses is a vital instrument in understanding and knowing the site. My experience is documented on site in photographs, notes of sounds, smells and other sensory perceptions and movements. I had to draw the site in interpretative drawings, somewhat abstract representation as I unravel the garden’s unseen colours, textures, and character on paper.
MILESTONE 2: INTERPRETING Kim Joseph Villanueva s3755649
Alternative methods in representing the cultural values in the environment Diversity of views from Milestone 1: Interacting These are collections of words and phrases from different seminar presentations in Milestone 1 that I found to be significant. I have compiled these words and phrases in order to understand and analyse everyone’s diverse views from Australian Garden Stage 1 by Elizabeth K. Meyer. The collection of views is very much aligned with one another with different presentations focusing on different elements or aspects of the site and Meyer’s views. Some sees the site as a meaningful place where it expresses a certain design idea, cultural and historical background, and more. To others, it is more of an artificial garden with overly constructed elements somewhat give an impression of an aesthetically focused landscape. One also pointed out that the dryness and wetness are the strongest contrast which is also the same feeling they experienced in Australia’s natural landscape. The way plants are curated is also the main topic of interest. By creating different groups of Australian native plants, it stimulates visitors to further explore and the use of water to guide through the linear paths creates an exciting journey. From all the presentations, we can all agree that this landscape gave us unique experiences through different aspects of culture, sensual modalities, awareness, structures of surfaces, lines and events.
John Wolseley, Visual Artist The strategy John Wolseley employs in searching for new topic matter consists of making numerous visits to the most secluded locations in search of meaning and subjectivity. By using watercolour and paint, he shows his interest in nature. He can’t help but explore each spot that he selects. He has to discover everything he can about the local environment, including local history, geology, geography, and flora and fauna. His work incorporates environmentalist ideals. When he collects information on the flora and wildlife found in his destinations, he is particularly interested in species that are under threat from deforestation. What is especially striking about Wolseley’s work is its attention to detail, as though the artist is interested with the finer aspects of life. Wolseley’s goal is to communicate the environmental issues in his paintings by presenting sketches and paintings that are intricate but meticulous. Although John Wolseley’s work fits within the wide definition of what is commonly referred to as “landscape art,” it is crucial to distinguish two distinct traditions. In one, the artist stands in front of an easel, observing the landscape, which she or he then portrays in whichever media is being used. This is the most well-established Western landscape art convention, and Wolseley having been exposed to it from England. In the alternative tradition, the landscape is not seen as a separate entity to be viewed and recorded, but rather as an inherent part of the environment that the artist is witnessing from within, an idea that is central to most Australian Indigenous art. (Grishin, 2016)
Upon his arrival in Australia, Wolseley observed a different scene in contrast to Europe, where the country had not been “painted to death” via European views. Wolseley’s work can be defined as “anti-humanist” in the context of his painting. Simply put, a humanist approach to art is based on the belief that humans are at the centre of everything: the world exists to suit the needs, goals, and wants of humanity. An ‘anti-humanist’ stance holds that the environment is the most significant component, stating that man is not at the top of the food chain. Wolseley spends four to six months a year in distant locations creating new ways to break down the artist’s work and personal and environmental barriers. Over the course of several decades, Wolseley knows that nature is an active collaborator rather than a lifeless object to be depicted. He seeks to encompass all of the senses in his work by using sound in a few of his pieces. He discovered that the many marks nature had left on his sheets of paper were neither accidental nor random; instead, the various species had left a massive record of their songs on his papers. The unseen is empowering nature to express herself in her own terms, he uses indigenous colours, pollens, and charcoal, as well as the texture of stone surfaces as frottage. Similarly, he combines discovered bits such as bark, lichen, leaves, feathers, and insects, imprints of birds and other animals into the work’s fabric. Wolseley empowers the natural environment at the expense of the artist by giving voice to these aspects in his paintings.
Bernard Lassus, Landscape Architect Bernard Lassus’ methodology goes one step farther than other approaches and seeks to use landscape design as a viable discipline. To thoroughly grasp and modify a landscape, a complementary viewpoint on the physical and sensuous, the known, and unseen is required. In his work, Lassus wishes to bring back the sensory approach to land understanding to its original place as a means of knowing the landscape. His idea is that it is essential to reconcile science with the sensory world by using the sensory method. Lassus believes in establishing a harmonious balance between environment and culture. Once the site has been explored with a programmatic viewpoint, based on the properties of a landscape and the project’s initial criteria, Lassus begins his design process. A site integrated within an overarching scenario of landscape development will aid in the creation of a narrative which includes planning the activities and ecological, economic, and social processes that occur on the site. Lassus’ technique is one of a kind; it looks for ways to portray cultural factors that shape the landscape.
For Lassus, “inventive analysis” is the label for his method of site assessment. His methodology is unique to every single site because of how he approaches it. He believes a designer needs to have a “floating attention” in order to objectively evaluate a site and its attributes. A designer must get “swept away” by a site in order to have a full understanding of its structure, especially of the unseen. He encourages designers to check sites in the middle of the day and when something out of the ordinary happens. Visiting multiple locations will yield a diverse range of site impressions, anecdotes, and recollections. A designer’s major aim while visiting a site should be to spend a short period of time “in the shade and lighting”, and to engage in reading and conversation in order to determine the micro-scale of a site, and find the perspective that gathers the views of all visitors. His experiments combine people, place, and things that make sound, sights, and scents. By doing these studies, Lassus can learn about the unseen forces at work at a site.
Personal attitude towards the design process, how to access and communicate appreciative feeling John Wolseley, as well as Bernard Lassus, had a profound impact on the way I design. They follow similar practices when approaching landscapes which includes John Wolseley’s practice of immersing himself to remote regions and Bernard Lassus’ pattern of doing multiple site visits in various environments. During the design process, I want to stress the crucial need of conducting a thorough site exploration. I believe that landscape architects and other design professionals’ awareness of the landscape’s social, cultural, environmental, and political structures, as well as their interconnections, is critical to the success of their projects’ design outcomes using the old technique of drawing and field sketching. The crucial functions of drawing/field sketching in landscape architecture and design, landscape representation, and addressing the sensory and sensorial components of the site are all areas in which I am always attempting to define and investigate, giving it a central role in the design process.
CONVEYING DEPTH
One example is within a bushland setting, defining depth is essential. Making interactions between trees, the canopy overhead, the waterway, and the foreground more straightforward and distinct. The creek’s textures and forms are highlighted in the foreground, while the tree forms are reduced to silhouettes against the distant features. The representation of mass and space allows the viewer to perceive the landscape in a simplified manner. Drawing and wandering in the site, I believe, is an effective method of exploring and navigating my way through design problems and challenges. Most of the time, we look at the landscape from a distance, working with detached studies and observations of places that we are a part of, and we forget how important it is to read the sensuous essence of the location. While the final product will be a visual representation, the process involves the participation of all five senses: sight, touch, imagination, sound, and smell, as well as additional nuances that our senses pick up on during the process.
References Crawford, A. (2002). Explore the work of Australian artist, John Wolseley. [online] Explore the work of Australian artist, John Wolseley. Available at: https://www. vizardfoundationartcollection.com.au/the-nineties/explore/john-wolseley/. Grishin, S. (2016). John Wolseley and his collaborations with nature. EarthSong Journal: Perspectives in Ecology, Spirituality and Education, 3(3), 8–11. https://search.informit. org/doi/10.3316/informit.452761012828599
Defining depth within a bushland setting. Simplifying and identifying relationships between trees, canopy overhead, creek and foreground. The foreground highlights textures and form of the creek, as tree forms become silhouettes against the distant elements. Mass and space are represented to to perceive the landscape in a simplified form.
Lassus, B. (1998). The landscape approach . University of Pennsylvania Press. Dalgamoni, Nermeen. (2014). Reading Sites: A Framework toward Comprehensive Site Analysis Teaching Strategies. www.bernard-lassus.com. (n.d.). Bernard Lassus - Accueil. [online] Available at: https:// www.bernard-lassus.com/ [Accessed 13 Sep. 2021].
MILESTONE 3: REPRESENTING Kim Joseph Villanueva s3755649
Giles Baths
Ross Jones Rockpool McIver Baths Wylie’s Baths
The Site The ocean suburbs of Sydney are graced with a unique array of ocean pools, which were founded in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. These pools are nested on the end of Sydney’s spectacular coastline with beaches, rock walls and platforms. There are more coastal pools in New South Wales than anywhere else in the world. They allow for close experiences with nature and reflect the significance of the area to our national identity.
Ivor Rowe Rock Pool
As such, the pools become more and more visible and popular for a broader audience, as a bath and recreational option to the beach and the freshwater pool. How can these pools develop in order to fulfil the city’s growing demands, the changing climate and the new function they have found in a changing green infrastructure network? The Mahon Pool in the coastal suburb of Maroubra will be the main site of the project. The project will review the location of the building, the layout of the park and the insertion of an all-ability access path to the pool, shade, and any measures to mitigate the projected sea level rise.
Mahon Pool
What?...Who?...When?...Why?...How?...
What?...Who?...When?...Why?...How?...
There are several systems at play on the site that the project must consider while deal with its consequences and implications. These include urban runoff, recreation and connection, ocean activity and habitat, and climate change. The site’s present shape is a result of a lengthy history of interference and change. With the growth of the suburb the infrastructure was built, the pool erected, and the grassland park was built with improper polluted fill to even the rocky ground. The project must take these latent conditions into account, while at the same time being aware of its location within a network of open spaces and pools along the shoreline of the eastern suburbs.
Rock pools have played an important role in Sydney’s beach life for more than a century, providing a meeting spot for neighbors, fostering lifetime relationships, and providing a safe swimming environment. The pools are popular not only with the residents, but also with tourists from all over the world. Ocean pools are, at their heart, quiet and unassuming features in the environment. They allow us to get up and personal with the water’s edge while being safe and comfortable. It is important for ocean pools to continue to communicate the tale of our relationship with the shore.
Because of climate change, coastal management and conservation will be more difficult in the future. As sea levels rise, ocean pools will be increasingly vulnerable to damage from strong storm systems and may be completely submerged. The first substantial renovations to many of these structures will be necessary to future-proof them against climate change. The project will speculate on the opportunity to revitalize this special sort of infrastructure in a thoughtful, lively, and long-lasting way. Maintaining a natural character while providing a secure and reliable public amenity is critical to this strategy.
This is My Pool will recognise the history of the Northern Beaches rock pools from an Indigenous perspective and depict the natural beauty of the area.
What?...Who?...When?...Why?...How?... The goal is to be carbon neutral in 2050. A significant international agreement to restrict global temperature rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels was reached in Paris, France, in 2015. GHG emissions must reach their maximum level by 2020 and then decline to zero by 2050 in order to fulfil this objective. This is a huge undertaking, but one that is doable. Landscape architects are playing a key role in the transition to a carbon neutral world. We need to use sustainable materials, construction processes, and more to make the built environment more energy and carbon efficient. All of these initiatives also help communities become more resilient to climate change and better adapt to it.
What?...Who?...When?...Why?...How?... It’s easy to take the rock pools on Sydney’s Beaches for granted because they’re so commonplace. As a result, the goal is for locals to rediscover why they adore them and use this to raise community awareness on climate change and rising sea levels. To design a space for locals and visitors to connect with the landscape and providing amenity and facilitating easy access to the ocean. To question existing ideas about what ocean pools could become and how they could connect with our communities, natural landscape, and built environment in an adaptive and resilient manner. Within this is the possibility of converting the pools into protective structures that would serve to screen portions of the waterfront while also offering swimming spaces that were not exposed to the elements. Each rock pool has its own geological features, history and design.
What?...Who?...When?...Why?...How?... Coogee Beach
Drawing is used as a generative approach to capture information such as site qualities, dimensions, relationships, and particularities. It is also used for speculating and testing new ideas, solutions, suggestions, details, and qualities. The cornerstone for an iterative design approach is rigorous repetition and rapid formulation through drawing of solutions to the problems.
Beachgoers are protected from the elements by a rocky island known as Wedding Cake Island, which makes it an excellent swimming beach for families and a more tranquil alternative to nearby Maroubra Beach.
Throughout the process, I want to emphasise the critical importance of thoroughly exploring the site. Awareness of the landscape’s social, cultural, environmental, and political structures, as well as their interconnections, is critical to the success of their projects’ design outcomes.
G I L E S B AT HS & COOG E E B E AC H
Ross Jones Rockpool The Ross Jones Memorial Pool, located at the south end of Coogee Beach, was built in 1947 and retains its vintage appeal. Two adjacent rectangular lakes, protruding out geometrically from a curving rockface, have a lovely design.
A natural rock pool (Giles Baths) is located near the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, while a man-made rock pool (Ross Jones Memorial Baths) is located near the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club. Two of Sydney’s most stunning ocean baths, McIvers Baths (for women and children only) and Wylie’s Baths, are just a few minutes walk south of the beach along the Coastal Walkway.
W YL I E ’S B AT H Wylie’s Bath Sketches On two sides of the pool, a high noticeable timber boardwalk supported on timber poles wraps around the rock face and is readily visible from Coogee Beach. From the boardwalk, three sets of timber stairs lead down to the water and rock shelf. Men’s and women’s locker facilities, as well as a kiosk and a store, are available. The northern and eastern edges of the pool are surrounded by a steel fence that prevents access to the rocks.
Wylie’s Baths is located on the rocks near Coogee Beach’s southern end, with access via Grant Reserve off Neptune Street. The pool is a 50 m (160 ft) by 30 m (98 ft) rock and concrete pool with concrete walls on four sides, set on a natural rock shelf below the high tide mark. It is 50 metres (160 feet) long and 30 metres (98 feet) broad (to offer a 50-yard (46-meter) Olympic swimming length), with a depth ranging from 0.5 metres (1 foot 8 inches) in the south-west corner to 1.6 metres (5 feet 3 inches) in the north-east corner. Tidal movement flushes it twice daily.
The Site
MAHON P OOL
The Mahon rock pool is located at the base of Jack Vanny Reserve, just north of Maroubra Beach. It’s a stunning location because of the exposed granite outcrops and cliffs above it. From a parking lot on Marine Parade, steep steps lead down to the ocean pool. On the cliff overlooking the pool, there is a toilet facility, showers, and changing rooms. Mahon Pool Site Plan
spatial units plan proportional size plan- scale plan understorey planting plan tree plan texture/ material plan relationship to the beach
Site Plan
circulation plan level changes site section
MAH ON P OOL
Mahon Pool isn’t tucked into the corner of a wider beach like other Sydney rock pools. It’s carved into a rock flat at the base of a steep hill, a few hundred metres north of Maroubra Beach, and it’s its own entity.
Site Section
Site Section sketches showing the landform and vegetation in Mahon Pool.
MAH ON P OOL
The finest feature of this 30-meter pool, which was built in 1932, is how during high tide, waves smash all the way over the edge, giving the ocean bath its own small surf. Swimming becomes dangerous in really high seas. The water is quiet at low tide, and the only clue that it is occasionally possessed by the ocean are the numbers of fish that stay after the sea retreats.
Site Sections • landform - paying careful attention to site detail, aim to convey the site character • texture/material - paying careful attention to site detail, aim to convey the site character • vegetation - paying careful attention to site detail, aim to convey the site character
MAH ON P OOL
Site Sketches
The pool and rock shelves The access to the pool The Park
MAH ON P OOL
The site’s current structures, which date from the 1950s and 1970s, contain male and female restrooms, change rooms, and winter swim club facilities and storage. The buildings have degraded and need to be replaced due to their age and exposed location. The structures do not comply with modern building rules and do not satisfy the community’s needs.
Site Sketch
Pool and rock shelves view from the loose rocks in the northern part of the site.
Site Sketches
Park view sketch from below showing the rock shelves and access to the pool.
MAH ON P OOL
It’s wider than most ocean pools, making it ideal for swimming laps while little fish dart about beneath you. You can glance up at the jagged rocky crags that emerge from the dark rich cliff face, gaze out across the open water, or look back to the wide length of Maroubra Beach as you plunge into the blue-green waters — it’s a beautiful view whichever direction you face.
Pool Sketch
A spectacular view of the pool above the rock shelves in Jack Vanny Reserve.
PRE CE DE NTS & S E A L E V E L RI SE
Ocean Pools Study Analyzing the size of amenity buildings in public parks associated with ocean pools.
Drawings showing ocean pools and the arrangement of facilities for shade, amenities, seating, access and reducing wave impact Research and summary of tidal range, height datum, wave action, size and direction for Sydney coast Sea level rise predictions
Sydney Coast
Tides:
Low Tide (0.5m) - High Tide (2.1m) Twice/day = 6hrs (average 0.914m)
Waves: Usually from NE-SSE direction A highly variable wave action generated by 3 cyclonic sources: 1. East coast lows affect coast equally 2. Southerly swell 3. NE - summer tropical low Sea Level Predictions: - Highest emission of GHG: 52-98cm - Significantly reduced emissions: 28-61cm - Particularly in summer, the thermal effect creates a prevailing onshore breeze, typically in the afternoon which can bring wave chop Average 1.5-1.6m Predicted Inundation Scenario 2100 Highest Tide +2m
Swell:
Highly variable and can range from 0 to predictions being 4.3m at Maroubra Beach
BA SE PL AN & SIT E CO NTEXT
Site context shows the coastal walk from Giles bath to Maroubra Beach with some ocean pools that we visited including Ross Jones Rockpool, Wylie’s bath and Mahon Pool.
Distinctive Aspects of Site • Vegetation adapting to the environment and wind conditions • Honeycomb weathering in sandstones • Rock pools and associated marine life
DE S IGN T E S T ING
Plan options for locating the building, the path, the shade and the measures for mitigating sea level rise
Schematic Site Plans
5 plan options were made in consideration with proper acces, shade and mitigating sea level rise.
CONCE P T S KE TCHE S
Sketches of different Schematic plans with 3 different views: Overall site view Access view Pool view
C O NCEP T S K E TCHES
Sketches of different Schematic plans with 3 different views: Overall site view Access view Pool view
FI NAL PL AN
FINAL PR OP OSA L
References
THAN K YO U .
Works Cited Ball, Andy, and Hannah Izzard. “Water Worlds: The Magic of New South Wales’ Ocean Pools.” The Guardian, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2020/ jan/21/water-worlds-the-magic-of-new-south-wales-ocean-pools. Accessed 5 Oct. 2021. CLIMATE COUNCIL. “What Does Net Zero Emissions Mean? | Explainer.” Climate Council, 7 Sept. 2020, www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/what-does-net-zero-emissions-mean/. Digital Earth Australia. “Sea, Ocean and Coast | Digital Earth Australia | Geoscience Australia.” Www.dea.ga.gov.au, www.dea.ga.gov.au/products/sea-ocean-coast. Accessed 5 Oct. 2021. Larkin, Nicole. “Art, Architecture and Ocean Pool Design.” Nicole Larkin, www.nicolelarkin. com/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2021. ---. “Australians Love Our Ocean Pools – but They Are Increasingly under Threat | Nicole Larkin.” The Guardian, 20 Jan. 2020, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/21/ australians-love-ocean-pools-but-they-are-increasingly-under-threat. Accessed 5 Oct. 2021. NCCARF. “Sea-Level Rise and Future Climate Information for Coastal Councils | CoastAdapt.” Coastadapt.com.au, 23 Apr. 2017, coastadapt.com.au/sea-level-rise-information-all-australiancoastal-councils#NSW_RANDWICK. Accessed 5 Oct. 2021. NGIS. “Coastal Risk Australia.” Coastalrisk.com.au, coastalrisk.com.au/viewer. NSW Government. “Coasts and Sea Level Rise.” Climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au, climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/Impacts-of-climate-change/Coasts-and-sea-level-rise. Office of Environment and Heritage. ACHIEVING NET-ZERO EMISSIONS by 2050. The Climate Action Tracker. “Australia Can Move to Net-Zero Emissions by 2050, and Would Benefit from It - New Report | Climate Action Tracker.” Climateactiontracker.org, 10 Nov. 2020, climateactiontracker.org/press/australia-can-move-net-zero-emissions-2050-and-wouldbenefit-it-new-report/. “THIS IS MY POOL | Documentary | Northern Beaches Rock Pools NSW Australia.” Nbrockpools, www.northernbeachesrockpools.com/filmproject. Accessed 5 Oct. 2021.