How can we understand landscape as complex, ever changing object without simplifying it or isolating aspects? How can researchers understand particularities and ephemeral aspects of landscapes? To these questions I proposed answers in my talk at ECLAS-Conference in Rapperswill. For the participants of the Doctoral Colloquium I try to specify what design research could look like.
Category: Allgemein (page 4 of 7)
Teaching at summerschool “Update Wolfach”: Students from different disciplinary backgrounds met in the lovely black forest Kirnbach-valley for 9 days and found designs for landscapes of the future. I contributed with my experiences on walking and designing. The summerschool was organised by Prof. Gothe (KIT), Prof. Antje Stokman (Uni Stuttgart), Prof. Dr. Küster (LUH, Hannover), Prof. Dr. Voesgen (FH Potsdam) and Hardy Happle (Architect). Have a look at the publication!
Walking the rural landscape is an important element of research on villages. Sigrun Langner invited me to design and lead a walk through the rural landscape north of the German city of Weimar. The walk and the following workshop are part of the interdisciplinary research project “Experimentierfeld Dorf”, sponsored by Volkswagen Foundation.
The Swiss journal anthos has published a review on my book “Landschaften auf den Grund gehen”. Read Marie-Anne Lerjen thoughts on my research!
Review anthos Landschaften auf den Grund gehen
For those who haven´t had the chance to join the conference „Let´s walk. New pathways in Design Research” of Studio Urbane Landschaften: My talk “Why walking? Engagement and ideas” is now online. For more talks and findings of the conference see http://letswalkurbanlandscapes.urbanelandschaften.de/
Why Walking? - Engagement and Ideas: Dr. Henrik Schultz
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Read the precise review by Saskia I. de Wit on the symposium “Let´s walk Urban Landscapes. New Pathways in Design Research” published in the current issue of Journal of Landscape Architecture (JoLA). De Wit reflects on walking as a tool that can be used in all stages of the design process and that had been formative for the design of the symposium of Studio Urbane Landschaften itself. “The mix of lecturing, creating, discussing and reflecting, and particularly walking, dissolved the dichotomy of speakers and audience.”
The European Landscape Convention states that landscape protection, management and planning should be a task for all sectors of civil society. A key challenge is to enable different groups to identify their own landscapes. But how can we identify such complex process of transformation together with people of different backgrounds? The spatial visions designed by Stein+Schultz demonstrate the benefits of expressing landscapes through maps, images and words. There is a special focus on large-scale visions as elements of informal plans fostering creative transdisciplinary dialogue. Find a summary of the Top 5 spatial visions that help to capture the complexity of landscapes:
Not everybody attending the conference „Planung in der Status Quo Gesellschaft. Ist Wandel möglich“ (by ARL and DASL, 22.1.2016 in Dortmund) was convinced by Prof. Heinz Bude´s contribution to the debate on changes in society and how planners can influence processes of transformation. I found his talk on atmospheres intriguing, because Bude presented a way to frame the complexity of change. His definition of atmosphere (German: Stimmung) differs from what Gernot Böhme would call atmosphere, but one thing they have in common: Atmosphere is fluid, sometimes unpredictably and planners and designers of urban landscapes are well advised to sense these atmospheres carefully.
How do resilient structures of future cities look like? In my article I discuss ways to reframe those structures. The German city of Freiburg is an enlightening case study, because it has accomplished a turn-around: After years of focussing on developing new neighbourhoods like world-famous Vauban, it started a process of rethinking the structures of the whole urban landscape, including inner city areas, neighbourhoods and villages, infrastructures and forests. The goal was not to turn the whole city upside down but to find a spatial vision, hotspots for restructuring and spatial strategies all striving to operate as inspiring guidelines for the process of transformation. For the success of such an endeavour it is crucial to develop new housing areas and new open spaces in one go. Each new building project has to be associated with a new park, an improved public square or a new sports ground. This might seem impossible in an urban landscape that becomes denser, but the restructuring of a city generates new spaces: Former parking lots can become a park if the new houses incorporate the carports. Unused roadside greenery can become open green spaces if new sound-proof buildings are added along the street.
The ECLAS conference 2015 in Tartu again demonstrated the wide spectrum of landscape research. I found it encouraging seeing that there is a growing effort in doing research on landscape as a performative process of transformation. Laurel McSherry gave a great insight in her observations along River Raritan, presenting the method of line-walking as a profound way to experience and value sameness. I presented my thoughts on path-making as a way to produce landscape both as an unconscious act of movement and as a consciously applied methodology of design research. Because it helps to dissolve the dichotomy of static and dynamic and because it causes an intertwining of space and time, path-making can become a catalyst of landscape understanding and design. It promotes the fleeting act of moving as a constituent element of landscape.
