Renee's Keywords

 “From parks to empty lots gradually reclaimed by vegetation, from water management to urban agriculture, nature represents, to the contrary, a fundamental dimension of urbanization.” (Pg. 520 Picon)

While reading this section of the book I continued thinking about the circumstances for our method of integrating nature within our urban environments. In most cases these areas are introduced to the leftover or abandoned property after development.  I go back to thinking about the process of design and do we think about nature just as much as we consider the humans movement within the space? After all nature should and will inhabit or design in one-way or another. Today, I would say that we do make a better attempt to include wilderness and nature to some degree in our designs, however, is it a top priority? While I continued reading the essay explained that some uncultivated land near freeways has become a dwelling place for endangered species… although this is an extreme situation it also concerned me. For one, that’s scary in the sense that, are they inhabiting that area because there is no other undeveloped areas for them? And for two, next to a freeway? We all know it’s a matter of time before they become completely extinct. We often squeeze nature in areas between the emerged developments if we can find space of course for all the other needs of the urban environment. Our priorities are often the opposite direction of the title of this essay which really should be… Urban Condition, Infrastructures and then Nature. 

Point Source Purification

“ Inside we sit and stand on, walk past and under, and sometimes even place our faces on the sources of pollution that contaminate the air we breathe.” (Edwards, 299.)

Us as Landscape Architecture students often exclude the indoor toxic substances with the outdoor landscape, however, much of the outdoor pollution is caused from the building, indoors and its emissions. We have all heard that saying consider the source right? This is important as we consider purification in cities indoors and out. It was interesting as well that the common air filtration indoors was the usage of plants, however, there wasn’t much of a connection between the two. There are many air filtration systems that exist but how much of it can be cleansed before we are so engaged with the sources of pollution inside. Stagnant air is a red flag indoor and out and the solution is to constantly move the air with circulation of clean air through filters. As mentioned in our book the NASA researchers approached this problem and have been successful at creating a system that works effectively and at a low cost. What I benefited from this section was, although I am a landscape architect the future needs to engage all aspects of the areas within the cities. Indoors and out working to create an effective system that will work together to create a cleaner environment. 

The. Emergence. Of. Landscape. Architecture.

“The emerging practices surrounding landscape urbanism offer many lessons for urban designers waiting to link structures to specific flows of populations, activities, construction materials, and time. The greatest strength of these practitioners lies in a determination not to accept the readymade formulas of urban design, whether “New Urbanist” or “generic” urbanist megaforms” (65)

In this area we were given insight about historical origins of theory about the industrialization of the last century. We are now evolving in a new direction and the change in urban form and dynamics through the present time are explained as decompressed, which had evolved from the ideas of post-Fordist modes of production, deindustrialization that are leading to shrinking cities. As a result we created this postmodern organization, which became extremely obvious in the 1990s. “1990s with the proliferation of sprawling cities, gated enclaves, residential communities, megamalls, and theme parks.” (59) We have seen the effects of the urban sprawl through the periods of history, we see the evidence but what we rarely see is a connection to the landscape. We see no linkage to the main elements in cities with large urban sprawl. It is important for us as professionals to analyze our site, the activities, populations, etc. and connect it with time not only for the present… but also for the future. 

Blocks of pine trees planted during the revegetation movement. Trees were planted on contour lines in straight rows on the island of Sardinia, Italy. 

“These were ecosystems dominated by pine, a nonnative species. He had been trained to expect that what was growing beneath the pines-the understory-would be less productive and vigorous, than an understory beneath native trees.”(Marris, Pg. 113)

In this situation this nonnative species was functioning more efficiently than the native. There was more above ground biomass and the understory was richer in species. Although this nonnative ecosystem flourished there are locations that have not experienced the same results. I am working on a project on the island of Sardinia, Italy. Porto Conte is a park that attempted to re-vegetate the area with rows of pines. The pines thrived in the area and even solved the problem of the swampy ground plane. Today the pine trees are still flourishing, however, the botanist of the park is unsure if it is still a positive ecosystem. They have data keeping track of the native species and animals that once inhabited the island and they have see a dramatic decrease throughout the years. The main reason according to the botanist was that it is nearly impossible to grow anything underneath the pine canopy, and as a result most native plants are unable to reproduce.

Most people and professionals think that this reason is because the pine needles drop which makes the soil too acidic for most things to grow. However, the actual reason is because the roots of evergreens are so numerous and shallow that they outcompete other plants for water and nutrients. They also end to create an extreme dense shade, which is difficult for most plants. So… what is your opinion of what we should do when the introduction of these nonnative species are not benefiting the past or any present ecosystems? 

Okay for my first object I would like to start out with the scratcher. I find a relation between this scratcher and the keyword institution from the scratcher being a sense of addiction in which causes many people to end up in institutions. There are many people that are addicted to not only gambling, but to alcohol and drugs and in such cases most of them end up being in prison or in jail because they cant break their addiction. I have heard multiple stories about people with gambling addictions and it does not lead them in a good path, most lose everything and then end up either with nothing or doing everything they can to try to WIN something. My aunt is was a black jack dealer at casino morongo and she explained that she saw regulars in their daily that started out playing and had tons of money, but after years of being there she couldn’t tell me how many told her they were losing everything. Its an addiction and this is the cause of most people being in an institution either on lock down or trying to get better and get over their addictions.