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23 Dec 08

"Enhancing city life, one landscape project at a time," by Christopher Hume (TheStar.com)

QUOTE
For the last 50 or 60 years, urban topography has been a largely accidental creation. Although planned in every detail, it adds up to less than the sum of its parts. As a result, we inhabit a terrain of unintended consequences. Little wonder, then, that landscape architecture could be to this century what architecture was to the last.
UNQUOTE

www.thestar.com/556182 - Preview

thestar christopher_hume urban_design landscape parks landscape_architecture

For the vast majority of Canadians, who live in towns, cities and suburbs, the geography of daily life revolves around the man-made environments of work, home and play.
We're starting to wake up to the fact that the world we have created – especially the public realm – leaves much to be desired.
4 more annotations...
- For the last 50 or 60 years, urban topography has been a largely accidental creation. Although planned in every detail, it adds up to less than the sum of its parts. As a result, we inhabit a terrain of unintended consequences. Little wonder, then, that landscape architecture could be to this century what architecture was to the last.
- Conditions on the waterfront make the landscape architect's job easier than it would be in already built-up precincts of the city; starting from nothing allows for a seamless integration of the various urban components that comprise the larger community. In such a case, buildings will have to be fitted into the landscape, not the other way around.
- For the most part, however, the task will be to intervene in existing situations with the idea of using landscape to organize the surroundings and reflect the fluidity both of the city and the natural forces within it.
- As we know from painful experience, the notion that there exists a topology of rationality and certainty no longer holds. Instead, we should be talking about the landscape as a stage that enables an endless variety of activity.
  The new landscapists will need to adopt a more opportunistic approach, taking advantage of the unexpected.