Summary of articles about the Theory in Landscape Architecture
The author of the article ‘infrastructural urbanism’, Stan Allen is an American architect and theorist. He is currently working at Princeton University in U.S.A as the dean school of architecture. His work mainly features the organization of urban architecture. He has done extensive research and come up with many urban projects. The projects have been published in a book called’ Pints and Lines: Diagrams and projects for the city’ in 1999 by Princeton architect press. Also, he has written several essays on the same field of study.
In the featured article, he illustrates evolution of technology using three examples. He states that in architecture, there has been a shift from the so called modern architecture to post modern architecture. He says that this shift should not be viewed as modernism failure but a paradoxical success.
He further elaborates what post modern architecture entails. It is all about rediscovering the architecture’s past and trying to use it in a better manner than it was used. In his article, it is clear that:
There is a shift in architecture’s disciplinary frameworks by shifting towards use of images and signs.
Beyond the formal or stylistic issues, infrastructural urbanism offers a way of planning the future of a city.
On the seven propositions, infrastructural facts can be summarized as below.
Infrastructure is not about the buildings but it is the base rock to the site itself.
Infrastructure has very high dynamicity and flexibility on all aspects.
Infrastructure recognizes nature in general and is accommodative to views from different authors.
Infrastructure accommodates all the local aspects and maintains its continuity.
Infrastructure provides means of organizing and managing complicated systems.
Infrastructure is an ecological modifier that makes the natural ecosystem be self sustaining.
Infrastructure forms the basis of architectural approach towards new urbanism. This is by providing guidelines to architecture and design.
The author of the articles ‘Potentials in landscape as infrastructure’ parts one and two is an American architect with PhD and masters degree both from Harvard university and an undergraduate degree from Clemson university. Her interest in this field developed during her practice as an academic at University of Georgia and Virginia University. Her work is as a result of intensive research in the fields of landscape architecture and design.
Among the works she has contributed includes:
Ecology as Content: a Subversive Approach to Landscape Design, (1994).
Context vs. Concept: Reconstituting the generation of form and Content in Landscape architecture, (1994).
Potentials of Landscape as Infrastructure, part I: Six and a half degree of infrastructure (2004).
Potentials of landscape as infrastructure, part II: Evolving Civic Infrastructure (2004).
She has also written many scholarly articles of great relevance to urban design by hydrology.
First degree deals with the relationship between the landscape and municipal architectures. She claims that the two must coexist without crashing
The second degree explains how the municipal infrastructure should integrate with the landscape architecture.
Third degree deals with the municipal infrastructure that is not a direct product of engineering but has some utility and should be considered.
Forth degree deals with the social infrastructure. In this section, the social aspect of the inhabitants is put into considerations. The social infrastructure mainly pertains to recreation places.
The fifth degree addresses the financial viability and infrastructure of the area. If the landscape has some richness more than another, it is facilitated to develop sophisticated design compared to one with less of the monetary power.
The sixth degree involves the formal infrastructure.’ How is education in the area’ is the bone of contention in this section.
Tuning to Part II of Potentials for landscape as Infrastructure, we find that it is a continuation and expository of part I. She addresses municipal infrastructure as a civic architecture meaning that it serves a common good for both the municipal and landscape. In infrastructure, structure and process, she explains that municipal infrastructure is dynamic and not static. She illustrates how a river profile can be modified to ensure good coexistence between the landscape and the municipal. She further explains the difference between a process and a dynamic whereby she claims that a dynamic encompasses a process and other things while a process is just a way of doing things.
The article ‘programming the urban surface’ is a constituent article in J. Corner’s book. It is authored by Alex Wall a professor at Florida international university. His passion for urban design can be attributed to his exposure to the cities in the U.S.A.
In the article, Wall addresses the issue of landscape as the whole space including even where the buildings stand not only the parking yards or space between the buildings. His main theme revolves around the idea that if the landscape of an urban area is well planned and development continues adhering to the plan, the outcome would be friendly coexistence between the urban structure and the landscape. He explains the effects of urbanization and the effects of urbanization. He outlines several effects as follows:
Rise in new urban sites.
Shift in viewing cities as formal places to dynamic places which changes indefinitely.
This calls for more experience and considerations by designers to ensure that no conflict occurs with the landscape architecture. In the article, he features several topics all with the theme of how to program the buildings and the landscape so as to ensure good transport network and drainage systems among the many factors considered when planning an urban site.
Summarizing the content of all articles featured, it is clear that they have a common theme. They all point at the idea that landscape architecture plays an important role in designing the municipal architecture. Allen’s article addresses the idea of post modernism is developed and its effects while both articles from Poole addresses the relationship between municipal and landscape architectures. Wall’s article comes in to explain how the urban surface should be planned or programmed so as to avoid any clash with the landscape architecture as well as ensure that there exists no problems like traffic jams due to poor transport network or even poor drainage systems. Therefore, all the articles are inter-related.
