Testing Grounds, Challenging Boundaries - Georgette Bakeer

LINEAGES + LEGACIES CONFERENCE PAPER 2021 APPROACHING TESTING GROUNDS CHALLENGING BOUNDARIES LANDSCAPE CONFERENCE

G. BAKER THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS 03 2021 ASSIGNMENT 03 Written subbission for the conference

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

LINEAGES + LEGACIES 2021 APPROACHING LANDSCAPE CONFERENCE

CONTENT

BACKGROUND Approaching Landscape is a student conference. This year the conference examines Landscape architectural ‘Lineages and Legacies’.

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

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CONTENTS

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GRAPHIC ESSAY

KEY TERMS

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PROJECT DRAWING

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

RESEACH AND IDEAS

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KEY QUESTION What contemporary practices are being developed in Landscape Architecture or associated disciplines that offer forms of practice that navigate between multiple histories, communities and agendas?

SUB QUESTIONS

HOW BIG IS YOUR UMBRELLA? CHANGEMAKERS OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH CRITICAL PRACTICE BYE BYE BOUNDARIES

VISUAL COLLECTION

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To what degree are the tools and techniques of landscape architecture in the west derived from frameworks of colonisation and capitalism?

In what ways could this legacy be acknowledged or reckoned with?

CONFERENCE THEMES The conference is organised around three themes that provide critical frames to connect multiple narratives and explore processes of un-

RMIT University Last Edited: 26-09-2021

derstanding and organising the world that are embedded within the discipline. + Classification + Extraction + Institution

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TESTING GROUNDS CHALLENGING BOUNDARIES IF AGENDAS DICTATE THE BOUNDARIES OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE, HOW CAN DESIGNERS FIND TESTING-BEDS FOR CHALLENGING THIS LINEAGE?

KEY TERMS

AGENDA The objective or driving force behind a project. It is also identified as the reason for changes and the evolution of landscape architectual practice overtime.

BOUNDARIES Landscape architectutral boundaries are considered to be the extents of what landscape architectural practice is in a theoretical sense. It implies a distinction between what landscape architecture is not; and therefore dictating what LA practice cannot be.

CHANGEMAKERS Discussing landscape architecture as a vessel for change.

CRITICAL PRACTICE Practices which challenge disciplinary conventions. This process of a critical practise places critique as the cornerstone for the generative approach to a design. Whereby the design becomes the vehicle for criticism.

DISCIPLINARY CONVENTIONS The standards and protocols generally followed within landscape architecture.

EXTRACTION A process of refinement and ‘drawing out’ particular elements.

INSTITUTION The body of estsblished landscape architectural disciplinary conventions.

Also considered in relation to legal requirements, the established laws, that interplay with landscape architectural practices.

LINEAGE Landscape architectual practice overtime.

PRACTICE A firm or individuals interpretation of disciplinary conventions.

PROJECT A planned undertaking with an intended outcome usually embodying a particular LA practice.

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HOW BIG IS YOUR UMBRELLA?

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There are various contemporary practices being developed in landscape architecture and associated disciplines that offer forms of practice that navigate between multiple histories, communities and agendas.

In order to see this development it is necessary to acknowledge that what landscape architectural practice is is only ever what it has been. That is to say that what is included within the definition of ‘landscape architecture’ as an umbrella term are practices that have been deemed landscape architectural after their initial inception. This phenomena can be extracted from studying the lineage (practice overtime) of landscape architecture. Consider, a road might once have just been the least impassable route from point A to point B and now they are essential network systems that have been carefully curated to optimise communal connectivity and efficiency. Prior to institutionalisation, the road was not designed it was merely a product of inhabitance; once institutionalised it is planned, designed, engineered, standardised, built and maintained. What this anecdote shows that boundaries of landscape architecture practice have consolidated overtime; therefore boundaries of practice are set by those that precede the current.

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A landscape architectural boundary is considered to be the extents of what landscape architectural practice is in a theoretical sense. It implies a distinction between what landscape architecture is not; and therefore dictating what landscape architectural practice cannot be. As boundaries are set by those that precede the current, precedents are the definition and directors for the lineage of disciplinary conventions.

As was made evident with the aforementioned road, it is by tracing these lineages that moments when boundaries change can be extracted, uncovering how the boundaries have been expanding and there is a growing number of practices under the ‘landscape architecture’ umbrella.

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Drawing parallels between the theoretical understanding moments of change to landscape architectural lineage, Terremoto’s practice is dissected to show how it is possible for contemporary practices, and associated disciplines, to re-mold what landscape architectural practice can become.

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Above: Extracxt from A2 project drawing, refer to page 12. ­

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CHANGEMAKERS

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Above: The environmental restoration effort implemented by Terremoto’s Test Plot project.

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Above: Extracxt from A2 project drawing, refer to page 12.

[Images 8, 17 and 11]

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Understanding landscape architects as ‘changemakers’1, it is possible to consider architectural practice as having the potential to ‘challenge disciplinary conventions’2 or boundaries. This is contextualised by

Test plot as the standards and protocols generally followed within landscape architecture are trivialised

by Terremotos rejection of ‘any kind of signature firm style’3. Like most, if not all contemporary projects, Test plot intends to create change through design. The site for the plots facilitates the engagement of the the Los Angeles community and environmental context of Elysian Park. The plots at Elysian Park navigate

the design territory between communities and agendas as a way of creating both social change and

environmental change. With an ambition to embed ongoing restorative ecological change, the project involves community volunteers in order to ‘build a stronger land ethic’4. ­ ­ ­

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Test plot highlights how certain agendas are embedded within projects; whether it is political, environmental, socioeconomic or speculative. Test plot’s agendas become a lens for critique and critical practice, which in turn challenge design conventions and change the lineage of landscape architecture.

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The project is forced to pivot around its ecological agenda through semantics. While it is evident that the practice is undertaking an ecologically restorative project, in text and statements Terremoto is only legally permitted, by the Department of Park and Recreation, to pursue the project so long as is it called “temporary” and explicit not a called “restoration” project in order to be able to go ahead. This project highlights the role of institutional boundaries to design and politically binding semantics that inhibit design potential. It is Terremotos agendas that set the premiss for challenging the binding disciplinary conventions and potentially change the lineage of landscape architecture.

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Above: Extracxt from A2 project drawing, refer to page 12.

Not to scale. ­

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OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH CRITICAL PRACTICE

BYE BYE BOUNDARIES Test Plot successfully reinterprets areas of practice which sits outside the institutional boundaries of practice - simply put, they found a semantic loophole. Terremoto attests that they ‘will use whatever words we are told to as long as we can do it’8. This challenge to institutional boundaries divulges associations between bureaucratic agendas, that of the Department of Parks and Recreation, and contemporary landscape practices. In doing so it encourages reflection on how designers can “make change” by finding testing-beds which demonstrate a transgression from the lineage of design conventions. As well as demonstrating how by challenging the understanding of how an agenda, such as ecological restoration, is perceived it is possible to observe many of the practices and conventions that exist today as modern boundaries.

Above: Martha Schwartz’s Bagel Garden The more recent changes to landscape architectural lineage are driven by the changing agendas of contemporary practices that are, as seen in Test plot, challenging disciplinary conventions. Consider how Martha Schwartz’s Bagel5 Garden challenges disciplinary conventions by critiquing practices which place plants as the primary material composing gardens. This process of critical practice places critique as the cornerstone for the generative approach to a design. Whereby the criticism becomes the vehicle for design. Critical practice ‘should not simply be commentary but rather should divulge unexpected associations and encourage reflections which impact how you understand the world’6. Like the Bagel Garden, the experimental project Test Plot critically engages with institutional boundaries by identifying the ‘ineptitude’7 of bureaucratic agendas as boundaries which impede potentials for practices. As alluded to earlier with the anecdotal road, the role of institutional boundaries in contemporary practices are the body of established landscape architectural disciplinary conventions that become inhibitors for design.

1 Hou, J. (2021). Landscape Architects Can Become Changemakers, But First We Need to Change How They Are Taught. ASLA. https:// dirt.asla.org/2021/04/19/landscape-architects-can-become-changemakers-but-first-we-need-to-change-how-they-are-taught/ 2 Herrington, S. (2017) Landscape theory in design. Routledge.

3 Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto La. https://terremoto.la/project/test-plot 4 Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto La. https://terremoto.la/project/test-plot 5 Schwartz, M. (1979). Bagel Garden. Martha Schwartz Partners. https://msp.world/bagel-garden-boston-ma-usa/# 6 Silvetti, J. (1977). The Beauty of Shadows. Oppositions 9, 43-61.

7 Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto LA. https://terremoto.la/project/test-plot 8 Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto LA. https://terremoto.la/project/test-plot

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

RESEACH AND IDEAS

TERREMOTO TEST PLOT OVERVIEW AND STATEMENT OF AGENDA Direct statements from Terremoto overviewing what Test Plot is and how it operates as an ecological restoration project. Of note, the agenda to challenge the “bureaucratic ineptitudes” toward ecological practice. Also of note, intentionally avoiding referring to their work explicitly as “ecological restoration”.

Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto LA. https://terremoto. la/project/test-plot

Hou, J. (2021). Landscape Architects Can Become Changemakers, But First We Need to Change How They Are Taught. ASLA. https://dirt.asla. org/2021/04/19/landscape-architects-can-become-changemakers-butfirst-we-need-to-change-how-they-are-taught/

ELYSIAN PARK [IMAGE 1] Very insightful resource covering the immediate context of Elysian Park, one of the sites for Terremoto’s Test Plots. Covers history, monitoring of site, relationship with Southern California University, and drawings/photographs of site conditions being monitored over time. Helpful to gain rich understanding of day-to-day goings on.

CRITICAL DESIGN Text book used for cross checking and referencing online materials. Utilised to uncover critical design concepts.

Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). ELYSIAN PARK. TestPlot. http://testplot.info/ site/elysian-park

BAGEL GARDEN Precedent for critical landscape practice. Martha Schwartz’s Bagel Garden challenges disciplinary conventions by critiquing practices which place plants as the primary material composing gardens.

ARTICLES RE. TERREMOTOS PRACTICE These articles reiterate much of what is covered in Terremoto’s website statement. However emphasising the lineage and importance of community to their ‘ongoing’ practice format.

Toy, J. Jones, J. (N/A). TEST PLOT: an ongoing ecological enhancement experiment. Audubon. https://debspark.audubon.org/news/test-plot-ongoing-ecological-enhancement-experiment Toy, J. Jones, J. (2021). USC + Terremoto TEST PLOT project University of Southern California. https://sites.usc.edu/landscape-justice-initiative/2021/01/12/usc-terremoto-test-plot-project/ Landezine International Landscape Award (2021). TERREMOTO. Landzine Award. http://landezine-award.com/terremoto/

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CHANGEMAKERS Discussing landscape architecture as a vessel for change. Consider how agendas mentioned might reflect the overarching changes in design lineages.

Herrington, S. (2017) Landscape theory in design. Routledge.

Schwartz, M. (1979). Bagel Garden. Martha Schwartz Partners. https://msp. world/bagel-garden-boston-ma-usa/# CRITICAL DESIGN THEORY Critical practice ‘should not simply be commentary but rather should divulge unexpected associations and encourage reflections which impact how you understand the world’ - this assertion marries in with the Bagel Garden precedent to exemplify effective critical practice.

Silvetti, J. (1977). The Beauty of Shadows. Oppositions 9, 4361.

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SITE CONTEXT: COMMUNITY [IMAGE 2] Elysian Park is a neighbourhood in Central Los Angeles, California. It is a predominantly low-income community, and has a population of more than 2,600 people.

RESEACH AND IDEAS CONTINUED

Wikipedia. (2020) Elysian Park, Los Angeles. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysian_Park,_Los_Angeles SITE CONTEXT: GEOLOGY [IMAGE 3] Sandstone; hard and well cemented with very hard calcareous concretions; local thin interbeds of shale and siltstone.

Land, M., Trenham, P.C., Ponti, D.J., Reichard, E.G., Tinsely, J.C., Warrick, J. and Meyer, R.W. (2005) Geological, hydrological, and biological issues related to the proposed development of a park at the confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco, Los Angeles County, California. United States Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2004.

PRECEDENT: NOGUCHI STONEWORK [IMAGE 7] Japanese-American sculptor. His work reconnects us to natural rhythms and cycles geology and time.

Frank, J. (N/A) Stone House. Cereal. https://readcereal.com/stone-house/ PRECEDENT: MONO-HA MOVEMENT [IMAGE 4] Japanese art movement. 60s-70s.Natural and industrial materials presented together in reaction to industrialisation.

PRECEDENT: GILLES CLEMENT [IMAGE 6] French garden designer. “Third Landscape” landscape theory. Sees degraded landscapes a a feild of vast potential.

N/A. (2020). Mono-ha. Monoskop. https://monoskop.org/Mono-ha

Landscape Theory. (2021). Not Absolute Control. Wordpress. https:/landscapetheory1.wordpress.com/tag/gilles-clement/

PRECEDENT: JAPANESE ART [IMAGE 8] Japanese art covers a wide variety of styles and mediums. Distinctive styles, patterns and symbology is characteristic.

Clament, G. (2003) The Third Landscape Manifesto. Saint Germain.

unknown. (N/A) Japanese Art. Wall Art Prints. https://www.wallartprints. com.au/japanese-art/page-3/

PRECEDENT: JULIE BARGMANN [IMAGE 5] Landscape architect. USA. “Parks are not the answer” landscape theory.

Landscape Theory. (2021). Parks are not the answer. Wordpress. https:// landscapetheory1.wordpress.com/tag/julie-bargmann/

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VISUAL COLLECTION

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH [IMAGES 20 - 21] Graduate students from the University of Southern California are heavily involved in the project. They monitor plot progress on a bi-weekly basis, taking visual surveys, timelaps photos, soil testing, esponse to seasonal change and change in mircoclimactic conditions.

Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). ELYSIAN PARK. TestPlot. http://testplot.info/ site/elysian-park

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Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (N/A). TEST PLOT. TestPlotInfo. http://testplot.info/

VOLUNTEER COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT [IMAGES 15 - 19] The project unconventionally relies on volunteers to implement the planting plan however this involvement is part of the design. The inclusion of community volunteers aims acts [ANGENDA] to build stonger land ethic and educate the Los Angeles locals about ecological restoration.

Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto La. https://terremoto. la/project/test-plot

TEST PLOT SITES [IMAGES 8 - 14] Collection of images showing different test plot sites. Highlighting the unconventional circular shape dictated by the use of sprinkler, the controlled maintainence of mulching and weeding within the plots and the process of community involvement through planting.

Images 1 - 7 Sited and annotated on previous page.

PROJECT STRATEGY - ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION THAT ISN’T “ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION” [IMAGES 22 - 24] Test Plot pivots around its ecological ambition through semantics, while it is evident in the drawings and images that there is ongoing works and that Terremotos practice does weight ‘ecology over design’ yet in text and statements Terremoto is only permitted, by the Department of Park and Recreation, to persue the project so long as is it called “temporary” and explicity not a called“restoration” project inorder to be able to go ahead.

This project highlights the role of boundaries to design and politically binding semantics that inhibit design potential (or at least inhibit them in a written format).

UNCONVENTIONAL PRACTICE - SPRINKLER METRICS Terremoto’s uses sprinklers as the primary component which the rest of the plot is then situated around. This challenges the convention whereby plantings are the material component which the irrigation system is fitted to.

Landezine International Landscape Award (2021). TERREMOTO. Landzine Award. http://landezine-award.com/terremoto/

Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto La. https://terremoto. la/project/test-plot

Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). TEST PLOT. Terremoto La. https://terremoto. la/project/test-plot

Jones, J. Vonlehe, D. (2019). ELYSIAN PARK. TestPlot. http://testplot.info/ site/elysian-park

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