Vernacular Landscapes and the role of Landscape Architects

vernacular landscapes and the role of landscape architects

what do you perceive in this image? sketch your thoughts and ideas. 

                 

time and movement rather than place and permanence 

J.B Jackson, a pioneer in the field of landscape architecture and writer of " A sense of space, a sense of time",  examines how our surroundings reflect important changes in our culture. 

The new vernacular landscape of trailers, parking lots, roads, and shopping malls reflects the emphasis on motility: he redefines roads as places, rather than means of transportation and as a scene of leisure, work and social interaction. 

1. vernacular landscapes 

According to the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a vernacular landscape is a cultural landscape that evolved through use by the people, whose activities or occupancy shaped that landscape. Through social or cultural attitudes of an individual, family or a community, the landscape reflects the physical, biological and agricultural character of those everyday lives. 

Jala Makhzoumi, an Iraqi landscape architect and author of " Landscape in the Middle East: an inquiry", adopts an ecological planning approach mediating community needs, and focusing on biodiversity, health, and landscape heritage conservation. 

In her book, she reviews the development of the "landscape" as a cultural concept, and examines the meaning of landscape architecture along with vernacular culture. 

" Vernacular landscapes exemplify the meaning of landscape as a holistic entity, because they are responsive to the geographic, environmental and cultural context " 

Case Studies

1.  acoma pueblo 

west of Alburesque, new Mexico  20 acres

The lands of Acoma represent one of the few environments in the US.                    .    that retains its inseparable ties between the people and the land

2.  qiayuan park 

tianjin, china  22 hectares

2. vernacular landscape as an expression of culture 

      Ana town in the Upper Euphraties                                                                            a desert oasis

       vernacular rural landscapes exemplify the holistic meaning 
         of  landscape

A vernacular landscape is a type of culture, whereby people's values and attitudes toward the land are reflected through the patterns of settlement, use, and development over time. 

Cultural landscape, a term used by American geographer, Carl Sauer, describes landscapes that are shaped out of the natural environment by a society at a specific time and place, creating modifications through time as an expression of a vernacular culture. 

3. transition of vernacular landscape into contemporary design

Years of colonial domination and recent integration into global systems have contributed to the collapse of traditional  social structures and cultural values (Barakat, 1993).

Twentieth-century population increase in the regional landscape replace traditional, vernacular patterns, both rural  and urban, with homogeneous, contemporary ones.

view from the Phoenician ruins of Byblos, in Lebanon, lo oking towards the old settlement and the contemporary development beyond

the community’s reaction

people as critical thinkers  

tactical urbanism

What is the role of a landscape architect in designing a space while maintaining its vernacular culture?

participatory design as an approach in the landscape architect’s design strategy 

the  twisted valley ,              grupo aranea

Elche, Alicante, Spain 

references

Jackson, J. 1( 984) Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven, CT, Yale University Press).  Makhzoum,i J. (2002) Landscape in the Middle East :                                                   an inquiry