Unseen Realities

Some amazing architectural visualizations by Nathan Freise have been showing up on a number of blogs recently. These stunning images were part of the "Unseen Realities" exhibition at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2008.

From the press release: "Freise’s series of inkjet prints depict experimental architecture projects. His hybrid illustrations combine multiple forms of media--ink, graphite, photography and marker--with computer graphics. Freise’s representations of utopian worlds question our current conditions of suburban sprawl and urban master-planning."


The original images as well as additional work by the Freise brothers can be accessed on their website.

All images via The Friese Brothers

How a landscape architect can save the world

::Image via lemmy-forum

A few months back the Landscape Institute launched a student video competition on the theme “How can a Landscape Architect save the world?”. Some of my fellow students from the University of Gloucestershire entered and their video can be seen here. I did not have the time to enter the competition, but nonetheless spent some time thinking about what my entry might be.

Answering this question requires first of all identifying the threat landscape architects need to save the world from. For many obvious reasons I decided I would centre my entry on the threat of global warming.

There are many ways in which a landscape architect can “save” the world from climate change: He can help redesign coastal areas which may be under threat from rising sea levels; he can use sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) to reduce an increasing flood risk; he can also design green roofs and parks that will help reduce the heat island effect in cities and the energetic cost of heating and cooling buildings. He can even directly influence the amount of fossil fuels used in transport by designing communities less reliant on cars and where key amenities are accessibly by foot, bike or public transport.

All of these solutions no doubt help in the fight against climate change. However, many of these “technical” solutions do not solely depend on the intentions of the landscape architect alone. Integrating a SUDS system within a sustainable mixed-use development for example, may only be possible once an effective engineered solution such as porous asphalt or permeable paving has been developed. Likewise, there often needs to be political and economic incentive for these these visions to become reality and these technical solutions to arise. To some extent, without them the landscape architect is powerless.

The influential novel Silent Spring is credited to have considerably contributed to bringing environmental concerns to the forefront of the public conscious. The book stemmed from a friend of the author noticing a decrease in the number of birds and the amount of bird song in her neighborhood shortly after the beginning of the intensive use of pesticides. This is a very tangible way of taking stock of environmental change. One key point here, however, is that her friend was only able to identify this issue because she was used to hearing and seeing many birds during spring. I doubt many city dwellers would be able to notice such a change should it take place nowadays. The point is that we can only react to something if we are aware of what it is; if we are aware of what is changing and what we are loosing. It is only once we are conscious of this change that the will and the desire to resist it can arise.

Many of us live detached from our natural environment and are protected from most of the changes in our natural settings. I am currently living in the centre of Brisbane, where there was high rainfall a few months ago. I was initially completely unaware that only a few kilometers away, many roads were cut off because of flooding, as in numerous other areas around Brisbane. For most of us to realize the effects of climate change and it's consequences, we need to be in touch with our natural environment and be able to appreciate what we risk loosing.

By interacting with our natural and built environment, the landscape architect has a key role in accomplishing this. By making us aware of our natural environment and in creating places where we connect to it and marvel at it, the landscape architect has the ability to allow us to appreciate what we have, what we risk loosing and most importantly, make us want to protect and conserve it.

To me, this is where a landscape architect can “save the world”. The landscape architect can help create the context where increased awareness and concern about climate change will emerge and consequently bring about the political and economic change, as well as the technical solutions needed to fight it.

Noise

::Image via PagesPerso-Orange

A few years ago, I remember reading a French survey that found that the nuisance people found the most annoying was noise. An interesting article in Discover by Jennifer Barone describes the sonic experience of walking through New York. She describes an experience that could have happened in any other city around the world, demonstrating how universal the urban sounds we are exposed to are.

The article also highlights the drastic effects that noise can have on our well being. Citing the work of environmental psychologist Arline Bronzaft, she shows how noise can be linked to violence and how it can impede children’s learning:

"Following up on a complaint that a school was near a loud train track, Bronzaft compared the performance of students in the half of the building facing the tracks with that of the children in the quieter part of the school. She found that sixth-graders in the noisy classrooms were about one grade behind their peers in the quieter section on reading scores. The year after the Metropolitan Transit Authority installed rubber pads under the rails to lessen the noise, reading scores at the school evened out. Bronzaft says that more than 30 studies have subsequently documented the impact of noise on learning."

She also points out how less intrusive noises, natural sounds or music are therapeutic and effective in relieving anxiety, improving mood, and lessening pain. This highlights the importance of noise when designing for a place with a quality sensory experience. It also stresses the necessity to identify and take into account noise pollution when designing civic spaces that are to be successful.

How a landscape architect can save the world

This is a competition entry from a couple of fellow students at the University of Gloucestershire in the U.K. The competition brief was to produce a short film for the Landscape Institute explaining how a landscape architect can save the world. Good luck to them.

UN Global Compact Centre

:: Photo via Inhabitat

The Hunter's Point Shipyard has been designated by the U.S. Environmental Agency as one of the most polluted sites in the U.S. As an old naval shipyard it is contaminated with industrial toxins and radiations.

It it sometimes hard to imagine where the funds to rehabilitate such a site will come from, however San Francisco has just announced plans to build the U.N. Global Compact Centre "a world class climate change think tank and green tech incubator" on the old shipyard.

According to the mayor Gavin Newsom, the centre will “serve as an anchor for other sustainable businesses at the Shipyard in much the same way that the University of California and the Stem Cell Institute have anchored Mission Bay’s burgeoning biotech and life sciences cluster.”

Natural Pools

Catching up on a lot of unread blogposts, I came across a couple on Studio G about natural swimming pools and Gerard Gay's luxury pools.

Natural swimming pools are incredibly beautiful and have a charm that traditional pools lack. In my mind however, they were necessarily relatively small affairs, for private use.

::Photos via Studio G

When looking at the designs of Gerard Gay and particularly the pool with the mountainous backdrop above, I wondered if they necessarily have to be small and private; could large public swimming pools not also be "natural swimming pools"?

:: Photo via Gerard Gay

A noticeable thing about the public beach in the Southbank Parklands here in Brisbane is the chemical smell of the water. I have often wondered about this when watching many of the birds drink from the pool. Could such pools, as the one at the Cairns esplanade be designed as a "natural pools"?

Brisbane South Bank Parklands
:: Photo via Foundation expo 88

Cairns Esplanade
:: Photo via Goway

A large public place would no doubt benefit from a chemical free and sustainable natural swimming pool if technically feasible.

The Cove