Up to this point we have considered the natural landscape as something to be observed, as in some of our larger parks, for example, or along scenic parkways, or at the better resort hotels. In such cases a person becomes a microvisitor, permitted only to enter an area inconspicuously, observe respectfully, and leave unobtrusively. But there are relatively few areas that can be preserved in their pristine state or developed solely for the display of their natural beauty.
Use
We generally consider land in terms of use. At this point one is quite likely to ask: “What’s all this talk about beauty and landscape character?
What I want to know is, how can this property be used?”
But the hard, cold fact of the matter is that the most important factor in considering the use of land is a thorough understanding of its landscape character in the broadest sense. For the planner must first comprehend the physical nature of the site and its extensional environment before it is possible to:
• Recognize those uses for which the site is suited and that will utilize its full potential.
• Introduce into the area only those uses which are appropriate.
• Apply and develop such uses in studied relationship to the landscape features.
• Ensure that these applied uses are integrated to produce a modified landscape that is functionally efficient and visually attractive.
• Determine whether or not a project is unsuited and would be incon-gruous not only on the immediate site but in the surrounding envi-rons as well and thus appear to be misplaced, unfit, and (by definition) ugly. Such an improper use would be disturbing not only aesthetically but practically, for an unsuitable use forced upon an unreceptive par-cel of land generates frictions that may not only destroy the most desirable qualities of the landscape area but preclude proper function of the development as well.
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Mont-Saint-Michel, France, surrounded by its rushing tides and reached only by causeway, is an ingenious and powerful adaptation of structure to natural forces and forms.
Underwood and Underwood
Suitability
Since we are repelled by disorder, the discordant, and that which is ugly, since we are instinctively drawn to that which is harmonious and well formed, and since most artifacts and developments are designed to please, it follows that resultant beauty is a highly desirable attribute.
It is compatible; it seems well suited to its place. It works well; there is an efficient arrangement of all the parts. It looks good; it is beautiful; I like it.
Anything planned in the landscape affects the landscape. Each new plan application sets up a series of reactions and counterreactions not only about the immediate site but upon its extensional environment as well.
This environment may extend a great distance in any direction and may include many square miles.
In considering the development of any area of the earth’s surface, we must realize that this surface is a continuous plane. A project applied to this plane affects not only the specific site but all flow past it.
Each addition or change, however minute, imposes upon the land certain new physical properties and visual qualities. It can thus be seen that the planner is engaged in a continuing process of landscape modification.
Harmony
The untouched landscape is in repose, a repose of equilibrium. It has its own cohesive, harmonious order in which all forms are an expression of geologic structure, climate, growth, and other natural forces. In the primeval forest or upon the open plain, the human is an intruder.
If one penetrates the wilderness by trail or road, one may either roll with the topography and develop expressive harmonies or buck the terrain and generate destructive frictions. As human activity in an area increases, the landscape becomes more and more organized—agreeably if the organization is one of fitting relationships, disagreeably if the rela-tionships are chaotic or illogical. The development of any area may entail a concentration of its natural landscape character, an integration of nature and construction, or the creation of a wholly built complex of spaces and forms. In any case, the commendable plans are those that effect a resolution of all elements and forces and create a newly unified landscape of dynamic equilibrium.
We are all familiar with humanized landscape areas in which everything seems to be working well together. We recall pleasant stretches of New England farmland, western ranch territory, or Virginia plantation coun-try. In or near such areas, we experience a sense of well-being and
plea-80 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
sure. We say that a certain town or region is quaint, delightful, or pictur-esque. What we probably mean is that we subconsciously sense certain qualities of compatibility that appeal to us. These we like. Other places of disorder, confusion, pollution, bad taste, or poor planning, are dis-agreeable and bother us. If we were traveling, these would be bypassed.
We would prefer not to live in or near them.
The negative qualities of such places are those we would attempt to eliminate in any replanning process; the positive qualities are those we would strive to retain and accentuate. It would seem to follow as a guid-ing principle that to preserve or create a pleasguid-ing site character, all the var-ious elements or parts must be brought into harmony.
We make much of this word harmony. Do we mean to imply that every-thing should blend with or get lost in the landscape as through protec-tive coloration or camouflage? No, but rather that the planner, in addressing a land-water holding, from small plot to vast acreage, will so integrate the structural and topographical forms as to produce the best
Esthetic impacts influence us at all moments.
Consciously, or in most cases subconsciously, they provoke friendly or hostile reactions. . . . Their impacts on . . . decisions reach into even the most practical problems, into the shaping of things of daily use—cars, bridges—and above all, of our human environment.
Siegfried Giedion
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Structure in harmony with surroundings. Crosby Arboretum, Picayune, Mississippi.
Barry W. Starke, EDA
possible fit. If the completed project seems to blend with the landscape, it is the happy result of an inspired design rather than the mistaken aim of an uninspired designer.
Contrast
It is known that the form, color, or texture of a handsome object can be emphasized through contrast. This principle applies as well to planning in the landscape and is exemplified by the bridges of the brilliant Swiss engineer Robert Maillart. All who have seen them marvel at the light-ness and grace of the white reinforced-concrete arches that span the wild mountain gorges in Switzerland and Bavaria. Surely the lines and mate-rials of these structures are foreign to the natural character of the craggy mountain background. Are they right for such a location? Or would the bridges have been more suitable if constructed of native timbers and stone?
In our national parks, bridges have usually been built of indigenous materials. Although some may quarrel with this policy, it has produced many bridges of high design quality and spared the park-using public from more of the typical fluted and fruited cast-metal or balustraded cast-stone monstrosities that clutter up so many of our American river crossings.
In his bridge design, however, Maillart has simply and forthrightly imposed a necessary function—a highway crossing—on the natural
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Robert Maillart Bridge.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salginatobel_Bridge
It is not yet conceivable that a well-designed and well-placed building, a bridge or road, can be an addition rather than a menace to the countryside?
Christopher Tunnard
landscape. He has expressed with logical materials and refreshing clarity the force diagram of his structures. Moreover, by sharply contrasting his elegantly dynamic bridges and the rugged mountain forest, he has dram-atized the highest qualities of each. The gorges seem more wild, the bridges more precise, more eloquent.
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Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania. The precision and lightness of the concrete forms contrast bodily with the natural forms, colors, and textures of the site. Yet the structure seems at home here. Why? Perhaps because the massive cantilevered decks recall the massive cantilevered ledge rock. Perhaps because the masonry walls that spring from the rock are the same rock tooled to a higher degree of refinement. Perhaps because the dynamic spirit of the building is in keeping with the spirit of the wild and rugged woodland. And perhaps because each contrasting element was consciously planned to evoke, through its precise kind and degree of contrast, the highest qualities of the natural landscape.
John O. Simonds
To me the quest of harmony seems the noblest of human passions. Boundless as is the goal, for it is vast enough to embrace everything, it yet remains a definite one.
Le Corbusier
As another application of the principle of contrast, we may recall in color theory that to produce an area of greenest green, a fleck of scarlet may be brought into juxtaposition. To make a spot of scarlet glow with fire, an artist brings it into contrast with the greenest possible background.
It follows that before introducing contrasting elements into a landscape it would be well to understand the nature of the features to be accentu-ated. The contrasting elements will then be contrived to strengthen and enrich the visual impact of these natural features. Conversely, to empha-size certain qualities of the structure or component introduced, one will search the landscape and bring into contrasting relationship those fea-tures that will effect the desired contrast.
A further principle in the use of contrast, as illustrated by the work of Maillart, is that of two contrasting elements one must dominate. One is the feature, the other the supporting and contributing backdrop. Other-wise, with two contrasting elements of equal power, visual tensions are generated that weaken or destroy, rather than heighten, the pleasurable impact of the viewing experience.
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Lines of movement give shape to the built environment.
Maricio Luzuriaga
Gary Knight & Associates, Inc.
We have said that to create a pleasing character for an area all components must work together in harmony. We find striking examples that seem to violate this precept: Maillart’s bridges, for instance, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater at Bear Run. At first appraisal, these structures would seem to be completely alien to their surroundings. Yet with study, one senses in each a quality of fitness—of spirit, purpose, material, and form.
Construction
We have considered natural landscape elements and their importance in the planning process. Constructed forms, features, and lines of force are major planning factors, too.
As we look at any road map, we find it crisscrossed with lines of various kinds and colors that we recognize as highways, minor roads, streets, railroads, ferryboat routes, and even subways. These lines seem innocu-ous enough on paper. But those of us who have zoomed along with the streaming traffic of a turnpike, or stood by the tracks as the Limited roared by, or tried to maneuver a catboat through the churning wake of a ferry will agree that the map lines tracing their path indicate powerful lines of force. Such lines are essential to the movement of people and goods, but unfortunately they may also be disruptive, sometimes lethal.
Every few minutes someone in the United States is killed by a moving vehicle, and the incidence of serious injury is much higher. It must occur to us, if we ponder these facts, that we planners have as yet failed to treat transportation routes with the proper respect, or else we have not yet learned to design them with foresight and imagination.
There are countless other features of the built environment that, if per-haps less dominant, still have great effect on our planning. To under-stand their importance we might list a few that deserve investigation in project siting. For openers the list will include:
Peripheral streets Walkway access
Adjacent structures to remain Structures to be demolished Subsurface construction Energy sources and supply Utility leads and capacities Applicable zoning
Building code and regulations Easements
Deed restrictions
This sampling may in itself seem formidable, but it does not include such additional considerations as neighborhood character, general site aspects, mineral rights, amenities, public services, and so forth. Any one
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Site character preserved and enhanced.
Alan Ward
Development compatible with landscape character.
© D. A. Horchner/Design Workshop
The ultimate principle of landscape architecture is merely the application and adjustment of one system to another, where contrasting subjects are brought into harmonious relationship resulting in a superior unity called “order.”
Stanley White
of these features might well spell the failure or success of an enterprise.
The list will differ considerably, of course, with projects of such varying types as a residence, school, shopping mall, or marina.
If our plans are to respond to a wide variety of contrived and natural givens, how do we proceed? It is proposed that, starting down the list, each item in turn will be studied with regard to where the problems and possibilities lie. We will then maximize all possible benefits and reduce or eliminate, insofar as is feasible, any negative aspects. An ingenious solution has often converted liabilities into assets.
Compatibility
The most constant quality of the landscape is the quality of change.
Aside from the processes of growth and the changing seasons, we are for-ever tugging and hauling at the land, sometimes senselessly, destroying the positive values and sometimes intelligently developing a union of function and site with such sensitivity as to effect an improvement.
Whenever constructions are imposed on a site, its character is thereby modified.
Landscape evolution is a continuing process. At its best it is an ongoing exercise by which compatible uses are brought into harmonious interac-tion with our natural and built environs.
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7
TOPOGRAPHY
T
opography is defined as the art of showing in detail on a major map the physical features of a place or region.Land areas and the bottoms of water bodies are seldom level. They slope up or down; they undulate; they sometimes pitch precipitously to great heights or depths, and are often creased with streambeds, ravines, or seismic faults.