According to author what is the value of landscape to urbanism today?

Landscape is the medium on which humans build and live their lives. Its nature is horizontal and sprawling and ever changing. It is a unique medium that is able to respond to transform and adapt to meet the ever evolving needs of man. It is thus the goal of landscape urbanism to use the properties of the landscape – geological, climatic, and spacial – in order to construct urban environments that are both livable and meaningful. Landscape should be of primal importance to the architect and urban planner when developing an urban area. Humans react to their landscape with a primal call, and wish for it to not only meet their needs on a spiritual level, but also on a practical level. Humans have a deep bond with nature and when viewing the landscape, they will connect with one that reflects natures plan, and resist one that is foreign and contrived. Thus, it is the job of the landscape urbanist to take into account not only what is economically viable in urban planning, but what is also ecologically sound from an environmental and societal level. The value of landscape, according to Waldheim, is in its infrastructure, on which ecological processes both now and in the future must pass. Design with landscape in mind will allow urban evolution to ensue uninhibited, to ebb and to flow to meet demands, both known and unknown.

Discuss some of the projects illustrated. One of the earliest examples of landscape urbanism was the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France. The 125 acre site was once home to Paris’s largest slaughterhouse. Its transformation into an urban park was envisioned by landscape urbanists who conceived the landscape as a complex medium capable of articulating relationships between urban infrastructural, public events and indeterminate urban futures for large post-industrial sites (Waldheim 40).” The plan for the park was one of interchangeable strips of land, which could be manipulated in the future to meet the demands of society, without compromising the overall design on the park itself. It was a revolutionary design that focused on the ever changing nature of landscape, and not simply on present circumstances. Fresh Kills, the site of an old landfill on New York’s Staten Island, has also been given a makeover using landscape urbanism. This once dead and useless space has been transformed into a meaningful urban environment, integrating a waterway, wind turbines and open spaces that can be utilized both today and in the future in ways that have not yet been imagined.

Your own opinion on landscape and urbanism. In the past it has been the prevailing philosophy that the job of the architect or urban planner was to reshape nature in order to conform landscape to a human ideal. Or, adversely, to leave nature in its raw state, untouched and unusable by urban society. This has often resulted in contrived spaces that are unable to evolve with changes in civilization and ecology. Landscape is inherently a fluid medium that conforms to meet changes in the environment, climate and wildlife. Mountains grow and weather, rivers change their course, deserts become rain forest. Landscape is change. Urbanism is no different from nature, as it too must be able to conform to the ever changing needs of human society. Design that is motivated by this idea will result in a space that is not only beautiful, but useful, natural and fully integrated into its surroundings, a synergistic mix of man and nature, instead of man versus nature. The advent of landscape urbanism harks a new day in the age of man, one in which we begin to work with nature, and our nature, instead of against it. Creating spaces that are multifunctional, flexible, and environmentally sound seems like simple common sense. Landscape urbanism allows residents to live and work in an environment that meets their needs both physically and emotionally. It is a field of design that incorporates the past, present and future and will pass onto future generations a space that is not only beautiful but ever functional.