| Barry Lupton reviews the recent Irish Landscape Institute Conference “Sustainability is increasing in relevance and urgency” said Trevor Sargent TD, opening the 5th biennial Irish Landscape Institute conference. Held in the renowned Brooklodge Hotel and entitled Sustaining Interest: achieving sustainability through landscape architecture; the day long event promised to illustrate how landscape architects can make meaningful contributions to achieving genuine sustainable development.
Setting the tone for the thought provoking day was Larz Gemzøe, Architect and senior lecturer at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, with his talk entitled People and Public Spaces. Utilising a variety of often-humorous slides, Larz illustrated how societal change, and particularly mass communications and the rise of sedentary lifestyles, have altered use patterns in public space. “Public space was historically used out of necessity. When a family of eight share a two-room home, there is no option but to be outside. Now we live in lower density environments and are becoming increasingly more isolated. There is a growing need for more informal contact and we can address this by creating spaces focused on human needs” said Larz.
Throwing a spotlight on the diverse interpretations and definitions of sustainability and offering the attendees a number of specific environmental remediation solutions was, Maria Helena Farrall, of the School of Science and Technology at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Extolling the virtues of culverts, over-passages and viaducts, Maria cautioned that remediation interventions would only succeed where they are continually monitored, evaluated and maintained. While Maria provided many specific examples of remediation techniques, Ann Buttimer, Emeritus Professor of Geography at UCD, drew back and presented a macro view of development, exploring the broader factors of scale, socio-political and functional contexts in respect to transforming use and interpretations of landscape.
With the morning session and a fantastic dinner under their belts (many thanks to An Bord Bia for providing sponsorship) the delegates returned to their seats to be inspired by, Davie Philip and Bruce Darrell, both active members in the Cloughjordon sustainable village initiative. Outlining the background to the project Davie said, “The world is changing; in the near future we will have to continue to develop but with less and less. At Cloughjordon we are creating a cooperative, self sufficient community that will evolve from the bottom up.” The plans for the 67-acre development in North Tipperary include, 132 households, community allotments and an extensive area for woodland. Design and planning is undertaken in consultation with all members and is guided by permaculture principles. “Cloughjordon will explore the reintegrating of human habitation and food production. While it will certainly be productive it will also be a place where people want to stay rather than feeling that they need to go to somewhere nice for their holidays” commented an enthused Bruce.
“To whom does Water Belong?” said Gerhard Hauber introducing his talk entitled Waterscapes – Creative and Sustainable use of Water in Public Space. Principal Landscape Architect with Atelier Dreiseitl, one of Europe’s most innovative Landscape Architecture offices, Gerhard has worked on a range of waterscapes aimed at maximising the opportunities presented by stormwater.”Of all the water that falls on our cities only 20% ever recharges our aquifers. Finite, indispensable and under threat, water, not oil, is our most valuable resource” said Gerhard. In addition to opening the audiences’ eyes to the benefits of exploiting storm water, Gerhard also illustrated how adopting a multidisciplinary design approach can produce truly successful sustainable results.
Continuing Gerhard’s aqueous flow and holistic approach was, Mario Schjetnan, founder partner of Grupo de Diseno Urbano in Mexico City, with his talk entitled Parks as Expressions of Contemporary Urbanism. Using a number of international projects, Mario demonstrated how the environment, history, culture, economics, art and modern concepts of living can be interwoven to produce layered, sustainable habitats, which respond and evolve to enhance increasingly complex urban lives.
Drawing the day to a close and capturing its central message in a few short words was Declan O’Leary, Vice President of the ILI. “It makes good economic sense to make good environmental choices”.
For further reading check out www.irishlandscapeinstitue.com Gaia's Revenge;Why the Earth is Fighting Back - and How We Can Still Save Humanity by James Lovelock Waterscapes : Planning, Building and Designing with Water: by Grau, Ludwig Dreiseitel Life Between Buildings: by Jan Gehl Related Articles
|
Creative Solutions For Leisure, Business and Training.