Who is James Corner?
He
is a landscape architect and theorist whose works exhibit a focus on
“developing innovative approaches toward landscape architectural design and
urbanism.” His theories focused on the revitalization of landscape architecture
as a critical cultural practice and the future of landscape architecture. Some
of his most notable works include the New York Highline and Fresh Kills Park in
Staten Island.
Defining
Critical Thinking
-Critical
thinking
began in early 17th
century, against authoritarian state to seek individual freedom and choice. Led
to criticism of gardens, English gardens.
-It
is defined as the
objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.
Types
of Criticism
-Primary:
masters are performers. Doing and making authentic experience through practice
of one’s own discipline.
-Secondary:
autonomous, focused on self. Abstract and external based on mental concepts and
structure. Theory of a theory.
Secondary
suffocates
the original.
James
Corner believes
critical thinking is needed as primary.
Fundamentals
of Criticism
-Extends
on
social and political forms
-Criticizes
all
domains together (interdisciplinary), judgment based on collusion of diff
topics of every day life.
-Rules
of
criticism based on discussions and opinions, dialogue instead of authority
-Criticism
emancipatory
and conservative (rupture within regulation of practice)
Emancipation and Interdisciplinary
-Emancipation
- the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political
restrictions; liberation.
-Interdisciplinary - involves the combining of two or more academic disciplines into one
activity. It is about creating something new by crossing boundaries, and
thinking across them.
Case
Study – Chiswick
House
Location:
Burlington Lane, Chiswick
Owner:
Lord Burlington
Architect
& Landscape
Designer:
William Kent
European
Gardens
- In
the late 17th century, European concepts of nature were still informed by the
Church and by strict political systems (Louis XIV and his gardens and palaces
at Versailles).
- During
the 18th century, new ideas about nature resulted in radically varied views,
and in extraordinary representations of the natural world in the visual and
performing arts.
- These
new ideas were based on scientific discoveries, geographic explorations,
agricultural experiments, political developments, and philosophical
speculations.
-During
the 18th century, new ideas about nature resulted in radically varied views,
and in extraordinary representations of the natural world in the visual and
performing arts.
-These
new ideas were based on scientific discoveries, geographic explorations,
agricultural experiments, political developments, and philosophical
speculations.
-The
gardens at Chiswick
were an attempt to symbolically recreate the gardens of ancient Rome, following
the form of the gardens of Greece.
-During
the 1730s, Lord Burlington decided to open up and unify the setting of the
house, on the advice of William Kent.
-Kent
had a 'pictorial’ approach to garden design. Unlike previous
designers, he conceived gardens as semi-naturalistic pictures.
-New
‘informal’ or ‘irregular’ style in contrast to the previous formality of rigid,
geometric gardens with their typical use of topiary and formal avenues.
-The
gardens at Chiswick are the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement and
have inspired countless gardens including New York's Central Park.
Case
Study – The Infinite Bridge
-Location:
Denmark
-Studio:
Gjode &
Povlsgaard
Arkitekter
-Diameter:
60m
Interdisciplinary
-”Walking
on the bridge you experience the changing
landscape as an
endless panoramic
composition and
at the same time you enter a space of social
interaction with
other people
experiencing the
same panorama.” -Gjode
-The
deck of the bridge rises between one and two meters above the water surface
depending on the tide.
The curvature
of the bridge follows the contours of the landscape as
it sits at the mouth of a small river valley extending into the forest from the
beach.
Emancipation
-The
architects let
go of the rules restricting
them to the norms of bridge architecture and designed an infinite loop that challenges
the traditional “logic” of a
bridge taking you from one place to another.
-Instead,
the bridge was used as a platform that allows the user to experience the shore in a panorama.
Authors:
Tina
El Chaer
Yasmina
El Khouri
Yasmina
Zakhem
Leila
Zeenni
Group 6 Critique of "Critical Thinking" by Group1:
ReplyDeleteThe presentation's discussion on James Corners' methods of critical thinking and the effect of this approach on the field on Landscape Architecture was interesting. It was interesting to understand the evolution of critical thinking in Landscape Architecture over time. Presenter's focused on explaining the process of critical thinking transforming from conservative to emancipatory; however, the group did not go into depth concerning the steps of applied criticism: starting with skepticism, going through speculative contemplation and eventually leading to thinking culminations.
While the presentation mainly focused on James Corners' concepts of critical thinking, it would have been significant to review some critics of James Corners' approach with application to case studies. Furthermore, investigating procedures of applying critical thinking in the design process would have contributed to the presentation. For example, relating and comparing James Corner's critical thinking approach and Jala Makhzoumi's theories would be interesting to understand the differences between Western and Arab design approaches. This could have been further elaborated with case studies from both designers(It is understandable that the group did not realize that they were analyzing more than one article since they were the first group).
Concerning the chosen case studies presented, the suitability of the projects to the Critical Thinking reading was evident. However, a proposed topic related to the readings was not clear.
Furthermore, based on the briefly elaborated topic of emancipation, I would recommend the Red Ribbon Project in China as case study to compare with the circular Infinite bridge project. The Red Ribbon Project consists of minimum intervention that integrates several functions and demonstrates how a minimal design can achieve dramatic improvement to the holistic landscape. Based on this suggestion, I would question the group whether they think that the geometry of the Red Ribbon bridge differs from that of the circular Infinite bridge in terms of representing the process of being set free, as the term emancipation indicates.
Overall, the interesting point that they made is that criticism mediates rather than simply acting as rational thought. In general, taking into consideration that it was the first presentation and the aim of the presentation was still unclear, the group did an efficient job in covering James Corner's thoughts on criticism with relatively clear explanation.
Rim Hazimeh
Raya Rizk
Joanna Sabra
Yasmina Yehia
14/9/2015