The joining together of landscape with urbanism is sometimes compared to the combination of two extremes. While this may be useful from a rhetorical point of view, this lecture will suggest that far from being polar opposites landscape and urbanism are in fact very similar. Borrowing from the field of landscape ecology we can see that both landscape and urbanism deal with complex networked systems arranged over kilometers wide areas. While in the popular imagination landscape has the edge ecologically and environmentally, urbanism has a focus on economics, infrastructure and political structures. The two joining together is a coming together of allied, rather than opposing, disciplines.After reviewing some of the key concepts of landscape urbanism, the lecture will focus on examples in Bahrain, Brazil, Ireland and UAE to put forward the case for landscape as more than just beautification of urban spaces. The lecture will present landscape as an essential component of the city, and will outline some of the techniques and strategies that a landscape approach offers for urban architecture.
Frdiay 11th January, 18:00, Studio 1, Architectural Association
