Open Closing Remarks

The land, so heavily charged with traces and with past readings, seems very similar to a palimpsest. To set up new developments, to exploit more rationally certain lands, it is often necessary to modify their substance in an irreversible manner. But the land is not a throw-away wrapper or a consumer product which can be replaced.

Every land is unique, whence the need to ‘recycle’, to scrape clean once more (if possible with the greatest care) the ancient text where men have written across the irreplaceable surface of the soil, in order to make it available again so that it meets today’s needs before being done away with in its turn(…).                                                                       The land as a palimpsest,   Andre Corboz 

LESSONS TO KEEP ON LEARNING 

First of all, this is an open piece of closing remarks. It is under construction, and I hope to keep on adding lines. I will need time to revisit the topics we have touched, to finish and add more readings, to apply all of that, hopefully, in the future. 

Looking back to the semester I think it has been all in all a very good experience.From day one until a couple of weeks ago we have been approaching Nature and City from different disciplines and perspectives.

If defining Nature was a challenging task for the first day, I remember even more vividly the intimate atmosphere in the second class when each of us introduced him/herself to the group. I was fascinated with the diversity of the people sited around the table, but even more, I was astonished with the paths that each person in the class had followed to reach this place. I had never before done such an exercise,  and it was really exciting. 

Agenda for the future. The need of

-   Reading the history of the site and be aware that our intervention is adding a new layer in that process.

-   Designing processes: phasing is not a linear process, so we need to consider transitions and loops.

-   Reading all the scales our intervention is affecting. Considering management.

-  Stop separating nature from city. The challenge is to integrate them both, and we need to start training all the different constituencies involved in the process of defining what the urban environment in the future is to be.

-  Promoting environmental awareness, using education in traditional and new ways, media, and any new way helping to reach the wider number of people possible.

-  Including humans in the ecological processes as another component able to produce major changes, changes for good and for bad.

-   Considering the importance of communicating our work to the broader audience possible.

-   Reflecting on the interpretation of what we read, learn, design. Educating perception. 

If anything, our time calls for integration of knowledge and all disciplines to face local and global challenges. We all agreed that the class was beneficiating from a unique mixture of people with diverse backgrounds. That means wider and deeper understanding of all the issues involved in the definition of our environment. Generalists and specialists have come together in this class, all at different points in our respective careers, all with a promising future to help reinventing the structures that we have inherit and are not working properly well. The education of individuals to promote interdisciplinary professional practice builds the promise of a better future. 

SUGGESTIONS

Assignments:I discover this class because a few years ago a professor recommended me the book The Granite Garden; the book took me to the author and then came the class. The book is a reference for me any time I explore the relationship between city and nature: city Design is all about it for me.

When I first looked at it, one of the things I found extremely useful was the way the bibliography was organized. It is a sort of annotated bibliography organized following the chapters or major issues developed in the book. It offers a key to later navigate through a wider set of references. I thought, and still think, that this is a great resource. 

Well, here my suggestion. I think it would be great to collaborate in updating the bibliography of The Granite Garden. The aim would be to incorporate two new entries per student during the semester [the readings currently in the course are worthwhile keeping]. The idea is that each student could elaborate a short entry with the specificities of the new source. As we have talked in class, some areas have not evolved that much since The Granite Garden was written, other have. Anne could guide the choice of books to be added.Ideally, at the end of the next semester the bibliography would include updated entries: all class would be collaborating to update The Granite garden. And why not, Anne could decide to include it in the website… It is a superb resource for scholars.  

Weekly class structure:

As other colleges have suggested I will suggest ‘maximizing Anne as a resource’. A short lecture at the beginning of the class will help framing the topic or, on the contrary, widening the scope of the readings to be discussed. Given the duration of the class this could happen at the beginning in the first case, or at the end of the class in the second.The discussion-based class structure works really well, that is something great about this seminar. 

Further contact:

Could there be any way to track the group in the future? A kind of collective blog where we all could participate with links to the rest? I know that not all of us will be the same active in updating the data, but it could remain as an easy device to place our future contributions to the field…

class presentations 4th w

4^th week

Molly [Fire Mitigation]

The presentation was really well structured and pointed out very interesting issues. I found especially interesting the maps you showed of the sensible areas regarding fire, and the fact that they do not seem to inform development. I think it would be very interesting to show one example about that that you find relevant. I am also curious about the reforestation policies, if any, contributing to the recovery of the affected sites and impeding the urban/suburban development of those areas. At what level are these issues legislated? Municipal, State, or Federal?Another issue you mentioned was the need of designing buffer to help protecting both the residences and the environment. In this case, the same you went into detail with small scale issues it would be very interesting if you could show some suggestion of how these buffers operate, one best practice case at least.                                 

Dough [Coastal Restoration after disaster]

Your presentation was very detailed and a very good example of how to deal with processes in the urban environment. Scale and time were again important parts of the proposal.I enjoyed particularly the fact that you included historical maps in your research, looking at the original state of things always reveals important clues to look at. You pointed out some of the challenges you are facing in your professional practice, and in a way you brought together research and implementation of ideas, something very stimulating when in School. Good luck. 

Jonathan [Wind Turbines]

Your topic brings together two important aspects: the visual component of landscape as a cultural construction, and the ways that landscape is also valuable in terms of production.The cases you chose were all interesting, I will encourage you to look at Holland as a place where mills are linked to the very process of construction of the land- the polders. This case could help you to explore an extreme case of engineered landscape, and the way these elements could help to create a sense of place.In addition, as I told you, it would be interesting to show a very simple diagram about the way wind mills operate. Apart from the visual elements we can see I guess they create a physical network to transport the energy that happens underground. Which is the impact of that?  

Julianne [Resident Canadian Geese]

I must confess I have never thought about the issues you brought to the class. Far from focusing on the Canadian Geese I think you were reflecting, as Anne pointed out as a way of conclusion, in a very serious problem in urban environment: how we manage pests. The way you frame the problem was very instructive and easy to follow, and I would like to know what other species could be considered in a similar situation. It was clear that we only like from nature the part that we can control, what is clean and predictable. Again education is key to inform people about the right way to deal with animals in urban settings.                                                                                                                                                                                             

Abstract Final Paper

waste – scape

mumbai / curitiba: solid waste management and recycling opportunities, the urban  challenge  

The management of the solid waste and the subsequent recycling policies are highly relevant topics regarding the most basic concerns about environmental protection and public health in cities.

In developing countries, the continuous rural exodus towards urban areas is exhausting the carrying capacity of cities that were planned and designed for a much more contained growth. The inability of these cities and their structures of governance to handle this massive arrival imply the overcrowding of people living in unsanitary conditions, and lacking access to the most basic facilities.

In this sense, the absence of a basic network of waste management and recycling contributes to the severe pollution of soil, water, and air, and causes illnesses and death to the population, and the as well irreversible damage to the already fragile urban ecosystem.

This research works together with the explorations for the design studio ‘Mumbai, the margins’ in the fall 07, and aim to reflect on the implications of solid waste management for the health of the urban ecosystem and the promotion of urban biodiversity. 

The research outlines the solid waste management networks in the city of Mumbai, the current recycling initiatives and the future challenges trying to involve both ‘formal and informal’ population in the process.

The main focus will stay in the most fragile points in the network, the slum areas evenly spread all over the city. This feature, far from being a problem, should be seen in its potential to drastically improve the environment of the city if different initiatives were worked out at different levels.

As the pledge of a possible better future the research explores the case of Curitiba. The waste collection programs and recycling initiatives implemented in the 80’s and 90’s are a successful model serving as inspiration to other cities throughout the world.

Addressing the main differences between cities, their scales and structures of governance, the paper builds on the promise that some of the strategies implemented and doing well in Curitiba could be reinterpreted in Mumbai in the future to come.

In addition the following lines should serve to address the need for planning and design strategies to offer urgent and durable solutions, and to foster the interactive citizens’ participation.

Weekly Journals

3^rd week

Moises: ”The Qanat Cistern System”

The project you presented, the Qanat system, is simply amazing. Only following the traces of the intervention was fascinating, the map was not able to say without your help… 

As you were presenting I thought it would be really interesting if you could add some other variation on a similar prototype that can help us to understand the potential for it to be implemented in New Mexico.  I know you brought the concept of the “acequias” and the “aqueduct”, but they are quite aerial projects.

I know it is not exactly the same kind of intervention, but the wells to get water for agriculture in Arizona set an interesting network that you could find revealing exploring.The first challenge in your proposal could be the complex system of land ownership that you would be required to address, and that without considering the enormous infrastructural effort implied. In this sense, only the security regulations for the workers will make really difficult such a project.So, I would say you have to challenge the regional specificities and offer a plus, more than the Iranian project was offering at its time of implementation.

Again it is a different project, but when A. Siza took a few years ago the idea of using an aqueduct in la Quinta de Malagueira, he was adding to the traditional ‘carrying water’ the delivery of other services. In addition to that, the aqueduct is the backbone of the intervention and a landmark for the city. Could a redefinition of the Qanat Cisterns offer a plus to your city?  

Becky: “Architecture and Climate”

I really enjoyed your presentation; it was a great trip some decades back in the ‘residential American panorama’. I am still thinking if I could find in my country a similar case. Thanks for your insight!

In addition I will like to share with you some thoughts that came to my mind during your presentation.I am curious about how widely distributed were both magazines. When skimming the House Beautiful number you brought, I thought it was targeting a middle-upper class audience given the size and decoration of the houses. Maybe there were the examples in this number, but I wonder if the low-class could access to it.

As we discussed in class, I missed more graphics showing the incorporation of the immediate surroundings, it was not easy to read the site in the designs. This is a common practice for architects that respond with their buildings to their own obsessions, and not to the site they are intervening in.

The same, you could add more examples in which the active role of vegetation and water contributes to a better natural climatic control [I think there was no Landscape Architect in the magazine committee you presented us].

The discussion around the creation of an ‘American’ style out of climatic design was really interesting: as in many other aspects, to define a common feature to all the American Geography remains quite challenging, even more in climatic issues.  Related to this or not, during your presentation I could not avoid thinking about the theory of the Critical Regionalism by K. Frampton and how this understanding of the vernacular in architecture keeps being a central issue not always addressed in our professional practise.  

Abby: “Taking over the farm”

Great topic! You posted a challenging question about the role of this kind of farms in future; far more than being financially successful, I thought in the ways they should be redefined and marketed. Of course they offer a valuable set of issues related not only with production, but with education and other social assets.

I did enjoy your comment about urban parks and farming: I do believe it has a lot of potential. More than preserving the existing farms, this would address the opportunity to find areas available to implement new programs of this type. The question of scale is again important, which is the optimum acreage for them? In this scenario, other issues like the volunteer labour could be thought positively. I think our society will have to face an increasing amount of leisure time to be programmed [our lives span longer every time]; this kind of activities will be key to keep us active but without the 8 hour of work/day.

Other issue that came to my mind during your presentation was the utility of creating a network of existing farms of this type to reach a bigger community of potential users. How did you find the one you go to? Are they on the web? Maybe this network does exist already, if so, I encourage you to include it on your webpage.

We revisited other issues that are worth mentioning in your webpage: agriculture subsidies and tax system, the compatibility with other land uses, the marketability of the products … 

2^nd week

Amy: “Community Based Agriculture”

I enjoyed your presentation because you brought a new topic for me. I knew about projects dealing with agriculture or farming techniques being implemented in developing countries, about immigrants finding their niche in farms all over the world, but I knew nothing about programs of this kind for refugees. Thanks for that.

Of course, we discussed in class the limitations of this kind of programs in an increasingly urbanized world where everything is measured in terms of economic profitability.

Said that, I will focus in some issues I thought could be of help. First of all, I find interesting the concept of transition, and I will like to know more about the temporality of that transition for the refugees to spend in these farms. In addition, it would be interesting to know what other abilities they are trained in while they are following the program. Since farming is a production oriented activity, maybe other social issues take a less important role in their everyday activity. If so, that would be wrong.

Another issue that should be reconsidered is that, in some cases, they are forced to commute long distances to work everyday. This for sure isolates them from their close environment.I wonder if these projects are developed all over the North America or they are only placed in regions with bigger agricultural tradition. If the data is available, could you map or locate them?

And finally, after Abby’s presentation, do you see any possible connections or possibilities emerging from a new understanding of urban farming? 

Sophie: “9 Mile Run and Ruhr Valley”

Opportunities to learn about the topics you brought to the class are really unique. In my opinion, these are examples of the main challenges that the post-industrial era places for us. Far from more theoretical debates, we have to be prepared to face the challenges of recovering the land in our professional practice.

The two projects are quite different in scale and scope, but they both offer important lessons. I would like to point out some issues regarding the German case that is the one I know better. I hope to be of help.

What is fascinating about Duisburg Park is that it only represents a small bit of the overall intervention called Emscher Park. I agree with you that the scale is huge, but perhaps, in order to compare two cases with more similarities you could have picked up some of the residential interventions close to brownfields that are part of the project.

Among the social aspects of the German case, one issue that is not that well known is the fact that Duisburg Park is widely contested by the close inhabitants. The history of the site is not one of happiness for the former workers and their families. So, the success of the intervention is seen with distrust for those who lost their job and have not been included in the new scenario.

The park includes also more natural areas that are being monitored and are not open to public. In these contaminated sites human intervention is kept minimal in order to evaluate natural succession of the species found there. 

Zach – “Post Industrial Wilds”

Your images and maps were extremely useful to understand the scale of each intervention and a sense of the broader surroundings. The historical images added very interesting clues on the site, and the traces of the past. The fact that you chose two projects in Berlin was also interesting. This way we will be able to compare easily in the future how each of them evolves.

We broadly discussed the cultural issues of legacy and tradition; in this respect I would like to recommend you a beautiful piece of reading about the traces that human interventions have left in the land throughout history: “The land as a palimpsest”, by A. Corboz.

We also brought the role of art in these parks. This links your presentation with Sophie’s one: the art was widely used too in Emscher Park to attract the visits of more people to the somehow remote destinations proposed. In the case of the Ruhr Area, well known artists like Serra were commissioned important interventions, at the same time, young German artists were offered the possibility to exhibit their work by a minimal economic wage: that way the authorities kept the expenditure minimal, and the artists got the widest potential audience…I

 share my interest with other bloggers about a further definition of the terms you introduced [Retrospective and Prospective nature]; they were really interesting. The same about your diagrams… It would be great to explore the differences between an accessible site for people and a non accessible one.

And finally, the million dollar question, how much design is needed?

About the case in NY… I am not sure… 

Jay – “The Awareness of Nature in the City”

Your presentation was a very personal exploration about the Awareness of Nature in the City, issues of nativeness and attachment to the site. Perhaps due to the nature of the topics and the uniqueness of your presentation, one of our main issues was how to translate all your emotions into a web page…

The challenge remains for you on how to give structure to your exploration; here some thoughts. Try to structure the case using the possibilities of the webpage. One first suggestion would be to be clearer about your research topic and how do you plan to face it. Introduce the characters, be precise.

You could even start advancing some conclusions that could catch the interest of the reader. In this sense, to highlight the most important issues using text could help you to develop a narrative easy to follow by the audience.

About the actual content, I would encourage you to be more explicit about your own understanding of nativeness and how to transcend education. Do you have a plan for that? Tell us.

1^st week

Shutsu: “Planning for Sustainable Cities”

The title of your presentation is a challenging one. First, I will invite you to create your own definition of sustainable city, set up the elements you consider important, and challenge other definitions.

Being said that I would encourage you to develop one chart comparing the features that you find more relevant when addressing both plans. What are they lacking? Are citizens involved? Are they stating where are the main difficulties they have to face? Are realistic defining objectives? Are these plans aim to attract international attention as part of a marketing game? How are public and private initiatives being targeted in each city?Do you find both websites targeted for the same kind of audiences [citizens, developers, planners, international investors, other cities,…? 

I would challenge a little bit the plan for Portland, is there any room for improvement? Which are the weakest areas?

In addition, you could include more images to help giving a sense of the place, comparing the scale of both cities, the main urban features, densities and trends in housing and other economic activities.

Regarding the website, to reduce text to the maximum try to provide the links for further data for those interested, and offer a general summary of the key issues in the different areas. 

Jase: “Urban material flow analysis”

Your presentation was really inductive; it was growing little by little. I was fascinated with some of the bits you showed, but I had also some difficulty to build something more overall consistent.

I must confess you that I have no idea about what you meant by “urban material flows” at the beginning of your presentation, a clear definition of that will be of help for people like me…

The potential of abstracting environmental data to be easily accessed by designers, planners and a broader audience is enormous. But in this wide availability remain also the limitations: how the data is interpreted? I would recommend you to start from the conclusion and state clearly the value of your findings and the potential of having all that data available for a diverse audience.

What is the lesson for you?Regarding the web page, how could you make it really interactive and show how to participate in the sharing/posting of information? 

Justin: “Eco Suburbia, the case of village homes”

One of the issues I think you could address in your final conclusions is why this case remained isolated in the wide amount of examples we have about suburban developments given that it brought a good case to look at.

You talked about continuity and the future scenario this community is facing, and the maintenance of some of the features that made this community unique. I thought your reference to the kind of people that can allow buying a house here was key. One of my main concerns with suburban developments is always about social exclusion: the mix of housing does not guarantee the mix of social classes. I do not see this development targeting diversity among its objectives.

Other interested issue raised in the class was the sustainability of this kind of developments that rely on everyday commuting to work.

As other people mention in their blogs, scale is a key factor to ensure the success of this kind of developments with a very specific mission. And it is also important in determining the need of a planner/designer in addition to a well informed citizen.

In this sense, I would like to add another case study you might find revealing at some point in the way natural processes were considered in the design: The Woodlands by Ian McHarg et al. [http://www.thewoodlands.com]. 

Tran: “Restoration of Urban Waterways”

The first issue I would like to comment is the diversity of the cases study you brought to the class. I though the three cases were raising interesting issues; and I would like you to reinforce those differences from the very beginning. If they are aimed or not to bring nature to the city, the issues of maintenance, the agency of each project and the role of the public authorities are of relevance too.

It was very interesting the discussion about the Cultural vs Environmental role of these interventions, and the overall phasing of the projects.

Another interested issue mentioned was the need of improving the quality of the water and the challenges it represented for the cities.

As I mentioned to you in class, some of the measures under development for the Muddy River Restoration Plan could be of help to you. I hope you find useful some of the data from the city of Brookline and the Army Corps of Engineers that we shared. When I researched for that project last year I was surprised of all the difficulties a master plan has to face in terms of Environmental permissions, and how it affects the actual implementation of an urgently needed plan. In addition the case of the Emerald Necklace brings another interesting issue, the one of maintaining the original design when the environmental conditions of the surroundings have change; to restore, to rehabilitate, or non of them?

[Reading] Wind

Two Decades of Urban Climate Research, by J. Arnfield.

Better Air Quality at Street Level: Strategies for Urban Design, by AW Spirn.

Battle McCarthy website: www.battlemccarthy.com  

The set of readings this week ranges in focus and style from a descriptive scientific paper, to a manual for urban design strategies, or a consulting firm website. All of them deal with climate and its interaction with urban form, but they frame it in very different ways. The first one presents some scientific measurements aiming to establish a common methodology for urban climatology, the second offers a catalogue of design possibilities to cope with air pollution in streets, and the third one presents a line of work and research in environmental building systems in a consulting firm.All three approaches seem necessary to develop a more cohesive body of knowledge that allows us to answer effectively to the climate processes in urban settings. 

Arnfield’s paper aims to summarize the major advances in two aspects of the Urban Climatology field: the urban atmospheric turbulence and exchange processes for water and energy in the urban environment, and the urban heat island effect.Given the precise scope of the topic and the intended scientific audience, the review is hard to read -or even frustrating- due to the terminology and to the multiple case studies presented that always probe themselves somehow not valid for general agreement.  Despite this and the lack of a more propositive set of conclusions, there are some interesting issues to be highlighted. For instance, there is a lot of attention paid to the need of considering the different scales and forms in an urban setting: ‘As spatial scale increases spatial variability is likely to be reduced; that is, there is probably less difference among two land use zones in a city than between the north and south facing walls of an individual building within one of them […] Urban climatology is required to come to terms with this heterogeneity and complexity […]’.

Professor Spirn mentions a similar concern on the need to read the diverse urban fabric in order to analyze the air quality at the street level.‘The degree to which winds penetrate the city at street level is influenced by the orientation and continuity of open spaces, their dimension and shape, and the topography of buildings’.In contrast with the first article, this one is easy to read, and the graphics help to illustrate each issue/case presented. The article offers a  comprehensive analysis of the urban air quality and serves as a framework for design strategies to cope with air pollution and to reduce human exposure.

Finally, the website ‘research area’ focuses on three interesting topics: Double Skins, Sustainable Towers, and Wind Towers. Related to the topic we are covering this week, I was particularly interested in the way they refer to ‘climate’ as to propose new energy strategies [solar and wind] integrated with the building structure. This is the reading from inside the building structure to outside, and it offers a good counterpoint to the previous articles look from outside. Unfortunately, the display of information is quite static and poorly developed for all the potential of a website – it lacks illustrations and a more interactive sharing of information that allows going into more detail in the projects. In this sense, although the incorporation of double skins and wind towers has a lot of potential when integrated in the design of different building typologies, I am particularly curious about the operative conclusions in the exploration on towers. The research aims to incorporate a broad range of issues to enrich the performance of towers in their relation with the environment; however, I feel clueless on how these concerns are going to be shaped. For instance, quoting the authors -Ken Yeang, HTA Architects and Battle McCarthy- we can read:‘The high-rise covers less land area than a low-rise development. This will provide more green areas and reduce the impact of urban sprawl on the environment’. ‘Ecological and environmental benefits can be improved by introducing vertical landscaping on buildings and linking this with the green belts in the city’.‘Tall structures can enhance urban biodiversity. Integration between human environments and animal and plant ecosystems can enrich and add merit to a site […]. Successful high-density urban development must involve choice.

Little is said about how the environment will benefit from unlimitedly increasing the density by high-rise buildings [vertical urban sprawl?], or how the remaining green areas in ground floor are going to be programmed, or how we can link vertically what we fail to link horizontally, or how tall structures will enhance urban biodiversity. These are some of the limits/challenges we can find in the broad definitions of sustainability we are get used to.

[Reading] Earth

Nature to be commanded: Earth science maps applied to land and water management.

The issues of representation and interpretation are central to the everyday work of planners and designers. Maps and plans are the way we present our work, and they are usually based on/constructed from data obtained from other maps and plans. Misreading or even neglecting those sources -consciously or unconsciously- is one of the most common activities we perform in a everyday basis.

Nature to be commanded aims to spread the knowledge about the earth-science among decision makers, planners and designers -‘Earth science within reach’ we could title. The authors’ main concern is to make easily readable the maps containing series of data that could inform the making of urban settings. The style is direct and simple, and every detail is well illustrated. The complexity of the maps increases progressively, from the topographic maps to the geologic ones displayed later in the paper.

The authors introduce a series of maps –topography, land use, geology, hydrology-, and discuss the basic features contained on them. Then, they create a cartography specially crafted for each site, a new set of maps combining the information contained in the original ones. To illustrate the procedure they chose several sites where they highlight the natural conditions of the site and its suitability for being developed, conserved or protected.

In my opinion, the report owes some credit to the work of Ian McHarg in Design with Nature. This book, published in 1969, claims the need to read the natural conditions of each site, designing with nature and not against. The book richly illustrates the proposed methodology following a series of cases study. For example, the research on Staten Island aims to identify a suitable area for all the prospective land uses, and we can read there: ‘Nature is process and value, existing both opportunities and limitations to human use. Therefore, we must identify the major physical and biological processes that operate there now [… ] All the basic data was compiled and mapped- climate, historical, geology, physiography, hydrology, soils, plant ecology, wild life habitat and lands use…  This data are of little use until they are interpreted and evaluated’.

Technology has greatly changed since both the report and the book were written, and nowadays a great amount of data of almost everywhere is easily available. However, no matter how many layers of information we do have if we are not able to properly read and interpret them.

I revisit once and again this method, mapping through the addition of layers, and I always find my own limitations when interpreting the data I get, and pushing further my analysis.

And the same with time and the challenge of depicting change with the traditional techniques of representation. How do you get a map that deals with change and not a fixed state in time? How do you map different times happening together?

Revisiting The Granite Garden we find the concern of time expressed in very different ways, one of them highlights the idea that geological time spans for generations. This is an overwhelming concept for humans who take man as the unit of measure and make an opportunistic use of nature.  In this sense, the chapters devoted to Earth account for all the alterations we make to the environment and the geological hazards that shake once and again human creations, similar to the maps we see in Nature to be commanded -alteration of topography, contamination, the management of mineral resources, the waste disposal, earthquakes, floods.

‘Soil is the crust of the earth in which life is rooted- a porous medium between rock and air. It is neither entirely mineral nor entirely organic; it is composed of sand, silt, clay, air water, and the decomposed remains of plants and animals’.

‘Every city should assess the nature of the earth that lies beneath it’

Los Angeles against the mountains.

‘We should stop buildings things where they do not belong, and leave some room for nature’.

This quotation could serve as a way of conclusion to the stories presented in Los Angeles against the mountains. The author, John McPhee, portraits the endless fight to urbanize the mountains in LA region and the failure to read the natural processes that would otherwise prescribe construction.

Nature is presented as threatening, causing major destruction and human death when ignored. Written more than 30 years ago, I am curious to know how many times the stories will have been rewritten in the same sites by many other people since.

‘The West Philadelphia Landscape Plan: A Framework for Action’

When reflecting on the title itself ‘A Framework for Action’ I read it like noticing a kind of urgency to keep things being done. The title brought together a static word related with structure and orderframework-, and a dynamic one -action-, building a strategy. That is what a plan is aimed to be, a framework for action where the different stakeholders find a common ground to proceed.Quoting the authors we know about the ambition of the plan -‘a landscape plan focuses on the landscape as both a natural and cultural entity’. In this sense the plan is tailored for the site and community living there, offering an understanding of local and city broad scales, and aiming to change and evolve through time. The report is very precise identifying from the very beginning which are the products from the plan – six reports and a digital data base-, and which are the intended audiences – from the residents to other citizens and public agencies or other public or private institutions. It identifies too the sponsors engaged in the implementation of each recommendation. The plan offers to every player a promise and a clear way to proceed.

The websites help to feed that framework. The development of a website is a powerful tool to make a plan reachable for a greater audience than the directly affected. The way the WPLP is documented is really interesting. As I started to navigate through the different documents I got the sense I was travelling through time and place. The different formats in which we get to know a little about the place and its history, the community, and all the project staff, better exemplify one of the main concerns in this course: to read and understand processes and the way our actions can affect them.

Since I do not have any expertise in the design of websites, I can say very little about how easy could result to update one or the other. In the case of the WPLP it is really useful to visit both websites because they belong to different times and they offer a different approach to the project. However, apart from the design considerations, it surprised me that MIT website seems closer in time to people and place than the Penn one. I enjoyed reading the stories from people, that way I imagined and even saw things in different ways; of course the images also helped to give me a more real picture of the place and the people there. On the contrary, Penn’s website focuses more in showing the plan itself; I find it more academic, and the same well structured and easy to follow for different audiences. Perhaps both websites should stay complementing each other. Their differences are part of the process itself, time always help to frame experience and tell another chapter in the history of the site.

And time is important because it always offer a clue for better understand the true nature of the problem to solve. There is a lot of emphasis in the plan about the importance of researching and getting to know the history of a site previously to any intervention. That gives answers about current landscape and urban patterns, and how they fit the site. We learnt from geographers that land can be read as a palimpsest, and we are now part of future layers to be written. That is our responsibility towards next generations to come.

The project has another very interesting feature, it allowed for bringing together professional practice and the academic sphere. I see a lot of power in this kind of symbiotic relationships, a kind of back and forth between theory and practice. A central part of the WPLP is the experience of collaboration of both the university and the school. I am curious about the process of shaping this project as a pedagogic tool for students, and curious too about the kind of feedback coming from them. I wonder if any student has taken his/her explorations further, continuing their collaborative activities with the community, or researching independently on related issues. And I am curious too about how the planner/designer tracks her own actions and feelings throughout the process all this time. I guess this is what I find so special in the discipline and practice of Landscape Planning and Design. Coming from an architecture background one learns to deal with a project in the studio table, then -more or less easilyone gets it built, and that is: a final product to be consumed. You do not track the life of your design much longer, most of the times you do not even get to know who live or use the spaces you designed.

The case of this plan is really special; it proposed to work simultaneously planning, with design, construction and  evaluation of the different parts. I guess this is one of this projects that stay with you your whole life.