Choosing to consider built form relative to unstable conditions requires a recalibration of the metrics used to evaluate material performance in terms of resolution, durability, and longevity. The work included here rejects the Vitruvian virtue of firmitas, which has guided material practices toward firmness, durability and strength for centuries. Instead it embraces more emergent processes such as degradation, re-composition, accumulation, and growth. This shift from the making of site assemblies that resist natural processes to the making of those that anticipate and support them inspires the development of new materials and construction methods. The 13 projects included here are first responders to a call for Landscape Surfaces.
FX SURFACE
Landscape Surfaces; such as paving assemblies, drainage structures, retaining walls, and erosion control systems, occupy a potentially dynamic boundary between the ground and human habitation. In this position they have the unique capacity to simultaneously influence biologic process and sensory experience. This report documents a series of prototypical Landscape Surfaces that embrace this dual capacity toward the making of unique places through greater legibility of landscape process and the coupling of social and biological agendas. Surface FX are the combined performative effect and experiential affect of these assemblies.
SURFACE FX 2013
Katherine Jenkins Gwendolyn McGinn and Brian Osborn (eds.)