Landscape Literacy

The incentives of this blog are the last discussion of “the crisis of city and the origin of landscape” and the news that the art museum-traditional market” project in Guangzhou was totally pulled down yesterday. The ironic point about this sad ending is that those peddlers are reinvited to a hot restaurant with city nostalgic selling points. A bunch of people are pushed away from their own land but inserted to simply inserted into a new context to serve as actor. I have talked about these issues with Deni on Friday. I believe landscape or green space is an antidote for shrinking or decaying city, most people are still get used to replace old houses with newer buildings to show prosperity. And sometimes, I feel like landscape architects are powerful because our job is to improve a huge system and mechanism to exert influence on people’s routine and every aspects of a city. But the nature of designers that we are the last chain of a city project, what we do is more like a result presentation but not a initial negotiation, which makes our voice less louder. Deni suggested me to read some research about Ann Spirn and maybe I can find some answers. (We also talked about the nuance of green space and landscape, and social ecology which are new but interesting to me. I will look for more research and write mediums later. )

Before&after of the market. credit to Lei Zhang

The hottest restaurant: Super Wenheyou credit to the Internet.

“From 1984 to 1986, Spirn proposed the “Reclaiming Common Ground”, an urban planning and design method, which treats urban wasteland as a resource, and considers the development of the community and the environment in the city. The design of a community open space is a catalyst for community development. This view can help stimulate, maintain, and promote public dialogue, thereby changing the future development direction of the city, and for the green infrastructure that has gradually emerged more than two decades later. The civil society organization movement laid the foundation. Spirn’s planning and design method was further developed in the West Philadelphia Landscape Project (WPLP) and was realized gradually in Philadelphia and other cities in the next thirty years.

1:1843 Philadelphia map © Map Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia; 2:1855 Philadelphia map © Map Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia; 3/4: Comparison of Philadelphia river history map and current status map© Philadelphia Water Department

The mission of the project is to restore nature and rebuild communities through strategic design, planning, and educational programs. Mill Creek in West Philadelphia has always been her main experimental area. The former floodplain of Mill Creek is now buried by the hard surface of urbanization and becomes part of the urban sewer system.

For more than a century, the buried Mill Creek has caused various problems. At that time, the diameter of the sewer pipe used for the construction was about 6m. With the increasing number of residents, it has long been unable to meet the demand for sewage discharge. When the amount of sewage is too large, the sewage will crush the pipe wall and cause the road surface to collapse. In areas where there is no collapse, due to the fact that it is located in a stream flooded plain, there are also problems such as foundation tilt, displacement, or water ingress into the basement. Besides, Mill Creek is in such a poverty-stricken area dominated by blacks. Based on the social conditions at the time, it is difficult to require the government to solve the problem fundamentally. The community has fallen into a vicious circle: a series of collapse events have left the entire community’s fabric riddled with holes. Everyone is at risk, and the lack of funds and social resources has exacerbated poverty, causing more houses and land to become vacant.

In response to the history and current situation of the Mill Creek Basin and community, students from Spirn and UPenn students collaborated with the nearby Sulzberger Middle School to develop themed courses around the watershed and local communities. Spon first taught the children in the community to use their own eyes and imagination and archives including old maps, photos, and tax records to “read” the scenery of the surrounding area. By checking and studying old maps, newspaper articles, and planning documents, the children in the community gradually learned that there was a stream in this area, and it is now buried in a sewer, and there are different degrees of subsidence above the sewer; they also learned about the community open space and the reason for the abandoned blocks around the school. Spoon and her students designed new communities, open spaces, flooding areas, community parks, etc. according to the site characteristics, and designed miniature golf courses, water gardens, and outdoor classrooms on the open spaces next to the community school.

1: The covered clearing on the Mill Creek floodplain© WPLP; 2:Mill Creek Park Design© WPLP; 3:Mill Creek Park design, the design content includes community, open space, flooding area, community park, etc. © WPLP; 4:Penn students Eric Husta and Steve Sattler redesigned the urban drainage system to collect floodwater and reshape the community © WPLP

In addition, in the project, the children in the community also learned about the socio-economic issues of the 1930s and the political decision that caused the bank to stop mortgage loans to nearby small businesses and houses. They are beginning to understand that the face of today’s community is shaped by all the events that happened in the past.

1: Community children and Penn University landscape students participate in the West Philadelphia Landscape Project © WPLP; 2: Local community residents holding a map © WPLP

Before learning and reading historical materials, children have a hard time believing that their neighbors in the community will change, and they are very cynical. However, after learning about the history of the neighborhood community, they began to agree with the concept of “neighborhood changes”, and actively introduced these changes to their families, and even began to think further about what policies and actions could lead to these changes? This is what Spirn calls “Landscape Literacy”.

People can “read” the landscape in-depth to learn more about the ecological and social armature embedded in their community and environment. In this way, they may awake their empathy, take more active actions, or respond actively to some calls. Designers can also get more information with the lens of residents’ observation and put more stakeholders in their consideration. In Guangzhou, every renovation of urban villages goes with dispute and conflict because residents focus more on their present living demand or acceptable compensation, but governors want the construction to be as fast as possible more. Their attention originated from each perspective are different and lack of understanding. Landscape architects and architects in this spiral should be playing designer and mediator roles at the same time to let them know each other’s voices. The Landscape Literacy proposed by Spirn is a challenge from designers to the source of the project chain. This challenge is long-lasting, seemingly subtle but far-reaching. I still cannot sum up exactly what characteristics the anti-gentrified landscape should have and how to restrict my degree of design. But I can more clear that inviting all stakeholders to join the design process and transfer their views understandable, and designing semi-finished projects are practical and effective methods. Improving landscape literacy and changing thinking patterns can lower the barriers for all stakeholders to enter this discussion.