INFRASTRUCTURE AS LANDSCAPE GARY STR ANG
The goal of transforming th e emllronmem may be ancient, bu t our ability to realize thaI goal IS unprecedented. In the late 20th century, our technologies less and less resemble 100is - discrete objects thaI can be conSidered separately from thell surroundings - and more and more resem ble systems thaI are IntertwUled wi th natura l systems. sometimes on a global scale. In 1947 a WPA worker named Harry Granld published Underneath New York. the f,lst book to describe the anatomy of a modern c ity. Working In cooperat ion with representatives from nineteen different public utilities and municipal agencIes. GraniC,," conveyed the wonder of the hidden SHucture wh ich converts nawral resources Into the energy that allows urban culture to be pOSSible. Just as your brain, nerves. heart. lungs. and stomach are hidden from View, so il lS w ith the clly. Its nervous sys tem. the v.tal organs wh ich prOVide It With heat. water. light, and air; ItS intestines. WhiCh, like yours. eliminate its wastes; its great arteries of rapid tranSit. which carry Its stream of life to all ends of Its body; all these and more are out of Sight under the pavements and waterways. The purpose of thiS paper IS to focus a!tentlon on the vast network of hidden and silent technology that pervades our surroundings. ThiS great machine has grown Into an org anizational complex beyond any IndlVIdual"s understanding or direct Influence. The traditional concept of sustainable land stewardshp. which requires the partiCipation of the indiVidual. has been replaced With a centrally controlled delivery system. which transports resources hundreds of miles to urban centers. The contemporary city can be seen as an elaborate plumbing system, transporting resources with a regulaflly and dependability that obscure the variability of nature. I will argue for a teaching and deSign ethiC that accep ts this hidden and Silent infrastructure a an artifac t worthy of seflous consideration. Infrastructure requires realis tiC and understandable expression In the landscape. as opposed to liS denial Ihrough landscape beautification. The purpose of thiS approach is to redefine a basis for understanding
what the contemporary landscape has become. to reest ablish a connection between mdlvlduals and the workmgs of nature; and to acknowledg e Ihe po te ntial for c reatmg ne w myths and meanlnglul spaces by usmg this given Infrastructure as one of the baSIC ra w matenals of landscape deSign I 11'1111 make a case for employing the phySical presence of Infrastructu re to define space to meet needs and deSires, while simultaneously e~poslng enVironmental problems If It were pOSSible to generate meantng through the expreSSion of technology, working In concert with nature. then we would have a Virtually unlimited supply of raw matellal With wh ich to w ork. Grantck's New York. fOI example. rests on a foundation of tangled plumbing as deep as the Chrysler BUilding IS hrgh. On the top lies a three-Inch mat 01 asphalt. undtlrlaln by ten Inches of concre te. Below that. a few Inches of SOil soak up ch emicals from the street. In the next three Inches are the wires - telephone. electriC. streetlight. fire alarm. and television cable. Gas lines puff away another foot below. water mains are at four feet . steam pipes are Sl ~ feet under _Sewer pipes are above the vaults of the subway. which vary from a few feet to eighteen stories below. Water tunnels, running between two hundred and eight hundred feet down, occupy the farthest man路bUllt depths. For anyone who has ever peered Into a New York City street dUring *surgery, ,. there IS no need to explain the difficulty 01 finding an uninterrupted volume 01 SOil large enough to support a tree lor the twenty to Ihlrty years that cons titute ItS average life span (Gr anick 1991 f. If New York offers more opportunities for cultural exchange than any other American city. then the existence of Its complex infrastructure gives meaning to architect Adolph Loos's observation that the plumber. brings civilization (Loos 1898f. His enthusiasm lor plumbers as the pioneers of cleanliness is the result of Loos feeling the weight of the preindustflal age when the earth was swept by vast waves of plagues which traveled thousands 01 miles before their forces were sllent_ At limes, a third of the populc:tlon of the known world was lost to disease_ The plOject of civiliz ati on. as it is curren tly expeflenced depends on a landscape
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techno logy that IS little exposed and understood by those who benefit from control of the random catastrophe of nalure The attempt \0 make nature more predictable - to prot ect ourselves Irom Innumerable natural occurrences such as disease fne, flooding. drought, and even the darkness of nlghtfall- has crea ted a technology that must mediate between ourselves and the Infinite vallablll\y 01 nature. The resultmg urban machine has begun 10 take on some qualilles of nature Itself . It has the cap <ICily to grow and to ca talyze growth, and to conduct resources. water, and energy. as rivers and trees conduc t flUids and nutllents But most Important. perhaps. IS the IroniC fact that the resuiling Infrastructure IS so complex that It presents the same threat of random catastrophe as does nature According to Williams. "The paradox IS that the bUilt envlfonment can Itself become a pflme source of fisk" {1900. 190L " Technology has not so much replaced nature as il has become a second nature With Its own attendant pleasure and hazards." It IS we ll kn own that a Simple broken water main In Manhanan can tllgger what IS known In ecological Circl es as a feedback loop; an environmental alteration tngg ers multip le subsequent alterations. That IS, the problem is compounded by being directed back into the system. resulting In additional an magnified effects. The water main break results In a stalled subway. forcing traff ic to the streets, whIch culminates In gridlock. Commerce comes to a halt and repau ellorts are frustrated . which lead to further flooding and damage. In more extreme cases. such as the recent gas explosions In the sewers of Guadalajara, which leve led twen!y路five square city block. the result of tech nological malfunction can be a catastrophic loss of human lile. I! Callforma was once a land of flash floods and drought. the entire state has, in lifty years. been transformed into a huge ca tch ment basin. where the Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems now function as an elaborate plumbing system. Water flow IS monitored from Lake Shasta in the north to the Mexican border in the south. One of the most celebrated examples {on a scale larger than anything yet conceived by the likes of Smithson, Heizer, or Christo) is the Owens River. It f lows through a pipe on a mesa above its ancient canyon to a larger aqueduct downstream that provides Los Angeles wi th about 25% of its water . In an att empt to deliver water south at uninterrupted levels dUllng dry years. reservoirs have been depleted to unimaginably low levels. Salt water has intruded into the San Francisco Bay delta; the Chinook salmon IS on the verge of ex tinction: and. Ironically, drought and environmental problems 11'1111 likely continue years after norma l rainS return The tentacles of the machine reach far Into watersheds and geologiC layers. to mine resources and tra nsport energy hundreds, some times thousands. of m iles to the City to be metabolized. In 1947, Grantck tells us. the power fr om electriCi ty alone (not to mention energy supplied by gas, steam. and 0111 prOVided every man, woman, and child in New York w ith the power of SIX InVISible slaves working twenty路four hours a day. seven days a week (Granlck 1991 f. transforming the sIxteen-hour workday Into a leisurely eight Although this Infrastructure extends I rom the urban setting far into what wa s once quaintly referred to as "the hinterland." the deSigner 's garden has, In modern history, denied the ubiqUity of the support system - water, light, power commUnica lionS. and waste removal- which makes It pOSSible Presum路 abl y a microcosm of our culture's reialionsh ip With nature, a contemporary garden enga ges pfimailly In horticultural and architectural and beaulilicalion. thereby ref using any direct correspondence be tween the domestication 01 the landscape and the resuiling geologiC Impact and depletion of natural resources .