CR: If your starting point is that landscapes change and adapt
themselves, then we need the tools that allow for change and
adaptation to happen through the design process itself.
How can data be gathered, not just through digital monitoring
but also through using anthropologists and others engaged
in social and cultural studies, so that learning can be
developed to inform the ways that landscapes can adapt
and shift over time?
We are finding when developing new urban projects that
[innovation] comes from [embracing] a multitude of voices
from diverse social, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic
backgrounds. Different starting points [must be] embraced
and engaged [in order to create] truly open, inclusive,
welcoming, flexible and adaptive urban spaces of the future.
[Today’s] landscape architects are helping solve some pretty
serious social, racial and cultural issues – particularly
important given where we are politically in the United
States today. This is a much bigger role certainly than
many of us in the profession may have originally signed
up for, but it represents the true potential of what this
profession and discipline is capable of.LS and RK: Innovation is necessary on many levels
and at many scales. Innovations in detailing and
technology can help to reduce costs, improve efficiency,
increase performance and enrich human experience.
In our waterfront work we are incorporating new
technologies to address resiliency, from filtration
wetlands at Muscota Marsh in Upper Manhattan, to
light-penetrating surfaces for salmon migration in
Seattle, wave attenuating seawalls in Hong Kong,
geothermal systems at Shelby Farms Park in Memphis,
and large-scale land reclamation, soil compositing and
seed farming at Freshkills Park in Staten Island.0303
Designed by Aspect Studios in
collaboration with Architectus
and Landlab, Auckland’s
Westhaven Promenade
provides a pedestrian and
cycle link between the city
and the previously isolated
Westhaven marina. Photo:
Jonny Davis.061I N T E R V I E W
LANDSCAPE ISSUE 163 060 —