Conference
Sponsor
Conference &
2006 National Sponsor
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The
conference theme is TIME,
in recognition of both the positive and
negative impacts of change, on both contemporary
society and the landscape.
It
will suggest that change must not
just be embraced, but used. Particularly
it will examine the pivotal role
of time and change in landscape
architecture, through three themes:
• TIME as
Catalyst
• Designing
with TIME
• TIME and
Technology
As
an event, the conference will have
international speakers, including
practitioners from within the Asian
region, as well as Australian practising
landscape architects and academics,
together with thinkers from outside
the discipline to provide a broader
context for discussion.
The
conference will publish refereed
proceedings and will have an associated
design competition, both delivered
by UNSW.
Whether
you consider time to be relative or absolute,
it is always associated with change. Circadian
and circannual rhythms provide the base
structure for all life. Time is productive,
but also destructive, weathering things
away. Its relentless, consistent progress
is both an objective measurement of us – age – and
also the central condition of our own subjective
lives.
Technology
dramatically affects our sense of time.
It has revolutionised communication and
transport so that the distances measured
by time has been largely lost, creating
an artificially compressed world. With
the advent of capitalism time has become
a commodity that people trade for wages
and where “time is money”,
people use technology to make the most
of their own time.
With
time compressed and distance removed technology
has obliterated the last frontiers of (and
barriers to) the environment, creating
an ecological crisis that will be felt
within the next human generation. And “nature” -
a physical construction in the city and
a cultural one in the wilderness – has
become a vital, if sentimental, tool for
registering some form of indigenous time
or slowness, beyond the fickleness of human
civilisation – a green time machine.
Time
and landscape architecture are interdependent.
A site accepts all the effects of time
and feeds back consequences of differing
intensity and type. Processes and interactions
create an archaeology of layers, all
the while accreting, growing, evolving.
This condition of growth, or of change,
distinguishes landscape architecture
from other design disciplines, because
it uses living, dynamic, rather than
static, materials. “Things” begin
to degrade through weathering as soon
as they are completed while the landscape
grows, creating a dialectic of productive
growth and destructive decay.
This
simple connection between design proposition
and natural processes is important to
landscape architecture philosophically
and is consistently cited throughout
the history of the discipline. While
aspired to, few designers or projects
really use this medium to its potential.
However, if they are to be most valuable
to a society and world that is now experiencing
the greatest changes in the shortest
time in its history, landscape architects
must come to terms with time and change
or face irrelevance.
If
we accept the assertion of landscape
architecture’s connection to time
and change, then its potential relevance
and efficacy increases substantially.
The physical environment becomes the
setting for the events that constitute
daily life. By designing this environment,
landscape architects are participating
in the rhythms of human existence, encouraging
a more open, performance-based view of
design. One of the central impediments
to the potential engagement of landscape
architecture with time is in its practises.
The utilisation of an architectural model
of practice, based on the production
of drawings for a single, final construction
outcome does not favour the changing
nature of the landscape.
On
the other hand, from its root in gardening
it has a rich model for care in the landscape
which should provide the basis for maintenance
practices. Considering the role of spreadsheets,
schedules, specifications and the like,
all which engage with time in one manner
or another, it may be worthwhile to examine
other seemingly non design modes of representation
for their potential for engaging time.
Considering
the impact of technology, landscape architecture
is well placed to engage creatively with
time. Computers are allowing greater
speeds of project delivery, so more new
projects of diverse types are being produced
than ever before.
Through
increased computing capabilities and
innovative software, it is now possible
to visualise both a landscapes change
over time and the forces that cause that
change, rendered and interactive. Development
intervals are shorter, so projects are
also turning over in a shorter time.
Many landscapes in these situations will
never mature so landscape architects
must design creatively for shorter time
spans. Landscape is a major factor in
a whole range of economic areas, from
housing to banking, not to mention politics.
The
landscape project is therefore active,
catalytic in the process of economic
development. Landscape architects can
exploit this quality to give their projects
more positive effect, changing the focus
of landscape architecture to the performative,
and allowing it a broader design capability,
potentially seizing back “urban
design”.
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