Post on Readings: I did not like the reading from Walter Hood. While I understand that he had valuable information to share with us, and that he spent quality time taking in information about the neighborhood park, I found it undirected and flighty and far too personal to be usefull for planning. The history of the area was more interesting to me. Also, I realize part of the reason we are assigned readings like this is to challenge our way of thinking and expand the input process of site analysis but I felt this swayed farther towards poetry and art than analysis....anyone else? In contrast I fully enjoyed the reading from Kevin Lynch. Lynch refers to the standard method of analysis and then expounds on it to bring in a more full sensory process. He manages to go through the nuts and bolts and somewhat dry process but also stress how more organic leads and ecology mindset must be incorporated into the overall paradigm to make it fully successfull and respect the "genius of the place". He manages to balance the necessity for site evolution with real unforseen consequences and stumbling blocks and unforseen benefits. For example, he reminds us how wetlands used to considered as dumping grounds and usuable only to fill land but now are protected and crucial to whole environmental impact of the area. I found I have highlighted this article prodigiously and will keep it handy as reference for future projects. Photos from Monday night pinup to follow:
1 comment:
T. Duffy comments:
I believe that architecture is art we live in. I further believe that landscape architecture is not as constrained as architecture in that the palette of landscape architecture is more varied, from texture to color to form. Because of that, landscape architects are freer to create art that evokes a mood or feeling to a space. Landscape architecture is three dimensional art, but one that changes, with seasons and age.
Hood's analysis is actually based on Lynch's system, while not written directly, we can see that indirectly Hood has done the research of the area, from the history, to demographics, the land use and the changes to the space. He seems to use this as a take off point. We can see that in the section where he talks about improvisation; here he takes the grid of the area and rearranges the shapes into musical notes. Interestingly, later in the book Hood quotes Lynch. ["We should design for diversity, experiment with new types, open recreational choices, fit opportunities to the real diversity" (Lynch, 1965)] But Hood goes further in his analysis, watching and making notes about the users. While his notes are in poetry form, they still are notes about the users.
All that being said, I don't see myself writing poetry about the users.
TPD
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