In an effort to continue to increase the interface between the NC State’s Landscape Architecture Department and the professional practice community, the department is hosting seven local firms’ work on display now through April 15th in the Brooks Hall Gallery. Additionally, a video essay of Assistant Professor Andy Fox’s Design Build Studio’s work will be projected alongside these firm’s boards. For a listing of firms featured, please see the poster above.

Hi SHIFT blog!

My name is Roxanne Nichols and I am the Outreach Manager for LawnCare.net, a website about all things lawn care & maintenance. We launched a brand new scholarship on February 12^th for a student pursuing a career in a field related to horticulture, landscape architecture, or environmental studies I came across your blog and wanted to reach out to you to see if you’d be able to post our new scholarship opportunity so that some NCSU landscape architecture students can be in the know. I am handling the application process and would love our inaugural year of this program to be a success so that we can continue to offer it in future years! Here is some basic information about the scholarship:

Sustainable Lawn Care Leaders Scholarship

• $500 scholarship to be applied to fall 2013 semester tuition
• Applicants must be undergraduate students, US citizens or legal residents, enrolled full-time, and be committed to pursuing a career in horticulture, landscape architecture, or a related environmental field
• The ideal applicant will display a passion for sustainable practices in his/her industry through experience, field of study, and/or the written response
• Application period is February 13-July 1, 2013
• Details & application instructions can be found at http://www.lawncare.net/scholarship

Please let me know if you are willing to help us get the word out to students on your website. I am attaching a one-page info sheet about the scholarship that can be distributed to students, hung in the hallways, etc, as well. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or Erin Devine, Assistant Website Manager, at 404-475-0735, or just email me back.

Thank you!

Roxanne

Roxanne Nichols

Content & Outreach Manager

Kulturpark is a project focused on the investigation and artistic intervention of an abandoned amusement park in Treptower Park of East Berlin, Germany. Kulturpark, originally named Kulturpark Plänterwald, was built in 1969 by the GDR (German Democratic Republic), socialist government of East Berlin. This was one of the few sites built for recreation and amusement for the people of East Berlin. Since the park’s abandonment the site has remained relatively untouched, allowing the natural environment to gain a foothold and begin to retake ownership of the landscape. Fenced off around its perimeter, with guard dogs and security guards trying to prevent the relentless infiltration of “jumpers,” individuals who climb over the fence to paint graffiti, photograph, or just experience this fantastical landscape frozen in time.  The park’s landscape, reminiscent of a post apocalyptic movie set, is filled with an assortment of unique amusement park elements, creatures, rides, and structures.

In June 2012, artists and designers from around the world collaborated in a series of charettes, interventions, think tanks, and events to envision potential futures for the site. The project culminated in a temporary public opening that featured the works of a number of Berlin-based visionaries. This intervention was designed to serve as a catalyst to inspire interest in the preservation of this cultural time capsule. As a collaborator my research focused on historical site mapping, ecological assessment, graphic communication, and examining the post-apocalyptic-like relationships between this constructed amusement park and the natural environment. It is these complex relationships, intersections, and unpredictable happenings in the landscape that have intrigued me the most.

The following essay was originally written by Ben Roush, an NC State landscape architecture masters student as a chapter of an online publication documenting the Kulturpark, history, process, and interventions. This essay along with the rest of the publication will be available summer 2013 and at which time a link will be posted on SHIFT:Blog. A documentary is also currently in production.

For additional history, background, updates, information, photos, and more please visit the following:

www.kulturpark.org                   Kulturpark Facebook               Kulturpark Kickstarter

PARKITECTURE…

Kulturpark provides us with a chance to reflect on our position within the landscape and the ways in which the environment absorbs the impacts we impose upon it. Since the park’s abandonment in 2001 the site has remained relatively untouched, allowing the natural environment to gain a foothold and begin to retake ownership of the landscape. The park’s position at the intersection of built and natural environments, and the unique period of time when nature begins to take over the built environment, allows us to reflect on our relationship with or within the natural environment. In this unique cross-section we are able to observe as much about human nature as we can observe about the nature of the environment.

This landscape reflects the tension that exists in its surrounding context; human desires versus environmental health, human desire to control and the environment’s constant efforts to maintain equilibrium. One of the ways I have observed this landscape manifesting the tension surrounding it is by analyzing the unique ecological communities that exist in this landscape. A landscape once filled with neatly manicured ornamental species has been infiltrated by the native species of plants. Where this intersection is illustrated, beautiful scenes are created such as the red blossoms of hybrid tea roses (Rosa x hybrida) blooming against a backdrop of native species of grasses. Plants and ecological communities of species have also used this lack of human intervention to their advantage and have begun to create “improvised microclimates,” in other words, repurposing the built landscape or elements of the landscape in order to propagate themselves. This is observed in the cattail(Typha angustifolia) plant’s adaptive reuse of the abandoned swan boats as a growing medium.

One of Kulturpark’s greatest values is this landscape’s capacity to function as a cultural time capsule; preserving artifacts of past human intervention that allude to the cultural context in which they were implemented. The insight provided by this experiment in human interaction with the environment, and its ability to inspire contemplation for those who observe it warrant the careful preservation of this site. However, the preservation of this landscape must be implemented as an adaptive process of curation rather than a single, dictated solution. Rather than preserving this landscape as it is currently or how it was originally, the site must instead be allowed to continue its natural evolution as it continues its process of restoring ecological equilibrium. It is fitting that one of this site’s greatest challenges to redevelopment comes from the fact that it is surrounded by a densely vegetated, protected national forest thereby preventing direct vehicular access. In this way, the park is utilizing its surrounding natural capital as a forcefield to resist change. As the constructed elements of this site begin to deteriorate, the natural environment will respond by filling the voids left behind. Eventually this land will be absorbed by its surroundings and will return to its natural state once again. Rather than viewing this land as an object that will eventually be lost, we must instead understand this site as a constantly evolving performance of which we are only participants.

Ben Roush, Associate ASLA

MLA Candidate 2014

www.benroush.com

Kulturpark Visionary Supporters:

476 Kickstarter Backers, The Artmatters Foundation, James Alefantis, The Mikesell Family, and Rene Tettenborn.

Affiliates:

Goethe-Institut-DC, Betahaus, Kunstrepublik, Spreestudios, Urban Culture Institute, Forcast Public Art, Dirty-Mag.com, Elsewhere Collaborative, Spinello Projects, Artstars* and Arte TV, Plus Null, and Supermarket Creative

Curators / Producers:

George Scheer, Stephanie Sherman, Anthony Spinello, Agustina Woodgate

Educational Partners:

Charles Waldheim

Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Christina Lanzl

Urban Arts Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Collaborators:

Dieta Sixt, Christina Lanzl, Natalia Zuluaga, Andrew Persoff, Chris Lineberry, Juliet Hinely, Ben Roush, Ben Boyles, Valerie Wiseman, Jess Weos, Paris Furst

See links to videos below hosted by Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/62301981

http://vimeo.com/62301980

http://vimeo.com/62301979

What follows is an example of the writing piece assigned to students afterward.

Your assignment for this class is to take notes and write a one page reflection piece about how the three guests reinforce what you have been learning so far in the class, about different point of view on learning, practicing, or approaching drawing, and how you have will adjust your drawing habits due to the different presentations.

“The presentations yesterday were very valuable in their different approaches and points of view on drawing. There were several answers to the “why and how do we draw” question. First and foremost, everyone would agree that we draw to communicate. However, we can also draw to remember, observe, visualize/conceptualize, and think.

Our first presenter, Patricia Morgado, believed there to be a difference between drafting and drawing in that drafting would be for construction or presentation, while drawing is thinking. However, Bong-Il Jin believes that drawing and sketching are the same thing; sketching; and that drawing is only a tool (a pre-planned, mathematical tool). According to Bong-Il, “everything is a communication tool.” Therefore, a pencil is no different to him than a computer program; everything is a “sketch” until it is finalized into the product. However, there are rules that come along with sketching something; things like combining geometries (which aid in proportioning and volume), realizing where the vanishing point(s) is/are, and shading are important. The way he teaches drawing is not to look at the object and draw it at the same time, but to carefully and fanatically examine the object, measuring it with your hands (if you can touch it) and memorizing each detail. This develops hyper-sensitive observational skills, building a shape-dictionary of how objects are formed. I think this is also useful in the landscape; we have common shapes that exist in the real world (trees, paths, walls) that are re-combined in new ways to form new landscapes – just as these basic forms and functions are re-combined in industrial design to form something new. Another idea he espouses is copying and tracing. It is almost as though a mechanical memory needs to be built up about objects. His drawing process is more than “object to paper” but to observe, understand, memorize, and then sketch. Our brains are the mediators. Designers create things that never existed before, things that are an improvement upon what already exists.

Going along with drawing being a tool, the type of media used conveys what type of object it will be. Choosing a particular type of media can tell what type of scene, object, mood, etc. the designer is trying to communicate. This in some ways can be a “lie” or a “cheat” as Bong-Il would say. When selling an idea… “if the car looks better with bigger tires… draw it with bigger tires!” However, one cannot lie too much as this will produce some unhappy clientele as the final product is completed.”

In a public lecture on February 25, 2013 as part of the NCSU Landscape Architecture Lecture Series—architect-come-landscape architect and chair of the landscape architecture department at The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (referred to throughout the lecture as “The GSD” [with a capitol “T”])—Professor Charles Waldheim spoke on the expanding role and importance of landscape architecture in city planning and building. Waldheim’s work and research in this area—branded “landscape urbanism” in contemporary academic architectural parlance—synthesizes diverse theories, ideologies and practices regarding the role of landscape in city-building (as opposed to buildings-first models of urban planning, growth and development).

Waldheim suggested that landscape architecture, as a discrete vocation in the mid-19th century, was manifest as a fulcrum of city planning and design (think Frederick Law Olmsted), but as urban planning gradually was hewn from the profession, “the urban part got away.” According to Waldheim, successful city design strategies now must rejuvenate ecologies’ ability to support density and urbanity by hybridizing new systems with existing hard and soft systems (paradoxically, a seeming reversal of the McHarg model?). In order to address these issues effectively, Waldheim proposed a return to historic precedents for landscape as a primary organizational medium for city planning, building, and development. He asserted that landscape architects are the obvious choice for the job, as they are not only highly skilled design professionals capable of providing effective solutions to complex, nonlinear problems, but also experienced environmental advocates who are specially equipped with ecological and environmental awareness, which is increasingly relevant to market needs. In fact, according to Waldheim, landscape architects increasingly are primary drivers in city-building, and building architects are “looking over their shoulders” as buildings-first models of city planning and design become less culturally and ecologically relevant. Waldheim proposed that landscape architects should, in fact, be the true “urbanists of our age,” as they are equipped with a unique and highly valuable “tool-kit” combining professional design capabilities with the experience and awareness of environmental stewardship and advocation.

Professor Waldheim continued with thoughts on educating landscape architects and presented a slide show of current technological and pedagogical experimentation at The Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He noted increasing trends in cross-discipline specialities in new landscape architects (particularly regarding the arts and building architecture), as well as increased interest in, and need for, brown-field planning. Waldheim concluded with playful speculation on the rapidly evolving tools and technologies of the profession, forecasting a near future where static imagery well may be regarded as “kind of quaint.”

–Paul D. Sayre

Further reading:
Environment@Harvard Volume 3, Issue 1
http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/people/charles-waldheim.html

In a public forum on the NCSU Landscape Architecture Lecture Series on Thursday, February 21, 2013, urban designer and vice president of building and planning in the Americas for AECOM, Mr. Bill Hanway addressed the NCSU landscape architecture and architecture departments with a lecture on his firm’s designed environment for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Mr. Hanway summarized the design process through nine salient points: research, strategic content, establishing key principles, messaging, regeneration, defining principles, legacy, clarity of process, and enjoyment.

Hanway charted the iterative progression of these nine points through theory, development, and implementation in both design and construction—clarifying the process in detail using photographs, diagrams and illustrations. Hanway stressed the importance of researching the successes and failures of prior Olympic games, noting that although may previous Olympic games’ environmental designs may have been characteristically “successful” in real time, in legacy, many must now be regarded as failures. AECOM purportedly aspired to “do better with London” by asking the right question: “How can good design for a single, powerful event be a ‘primary driver for a legacy plan’ ”? In other words, how can the land be protected for return on investment? How can a designed environment for such a singular, temporal event segue to lasting regeneration? How can it provide new schools and new homes, how can it promote healthy lifestyles, and how can master planning accommodate not only the program but also the legacy?

Hanway concluded with ruminations on the application of AECOM’s accumulated experience in undertaking the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic games design, for which AECOM is contracted, and noted important differences between the design needs of the London games and the Rio de Janeiro games (the rapidly changing Brazilian economy and the astonishing physical beauty of Rio de Janeiro among them). Hanway mentioned that in moving forward with Olympic master planning in Rio de Janeiro, AECOM will focus on the pride of the Brazilian people, the growth of the Brazilian economy, and the future of vibrant Rio de Janeiro.

—Paul D. Sayre

http://www.armellecaron.fr/art/index.php?page=plans_de_berlin

Feedback is welcome and encouraged! See the following message for more info.

My name is Peyton Peterson and I am a MLA candidate at the University of Georgia. I wanted to take a moment and introduce you to a free educational resource that some colleagues and I have been working on that pertains particularly to the Landscape Architecture profession. The following website, www.paveshare.org, is an educational tool that promotes the use of interlocking concrete pavers as a building material. This website is for students, made by students, and as a result interactive modules along with videos make learning about this product more enjoyable. From paver basics(color theory, cost estimation, history, available products near you, etc.) to sustainable and innovative uses of pavers this website is the guide to all of your exploration.

As a means to promote the website to fellow landscape architects at schools nationwide we have reached out to you in particular. Since you are an active member within your school’s ASLA chapter we would love for you to tell your peers about Paveshare. In addition, can you please take a few moments to give us feedback. We are particularly concerned with promotion, and therefore we want to know how we can improve our site and better advertise this resource to others, whether that be through internet media, booths at conferences, newsletter/magazine write-ups or some other means.

Thank you for your time and happy holidays,
Peyton Peterson