Valley landscape management: the context of a ‘river contract’ in the Semois valley,Belgium

A trans‐boundary and multi‐disciplinary approach to the river contract project for the Semois valley in Wallonia (Belgium) is described that provided the opportunity for a landscape‐scale focus during actions to restore the watercourses and the associated valley area. A trans‐boundary landscape survey was carried out under the context of the Interreg III European programme. This resulted in the rediscovery of lost views and viewpoints within the landscape and in the implementation of actions leading to the opening up of the valley, which provided opportunities to re‐establish lost landscape features, such as hay meadows. The gathering of many partners in the negotiation process of this project can be seen as an example of ‘landscape democratization’ or participative management of landscapes in a trans‐boundary and trans‐disciplinary context and as such this project is a concrete realization of the aims of the European Landscape Convention (ELC).     

‘Gentrification is not improving my health’: a mixed-method investigation of chronic health conditions in rapidly changing urban neighborhoods in Austin,Texas

Though there are extensive studies on neighborhood effects on health, this relationship remains elusive and requires continuous empirical evidence to support existing findings. Gentrification is a process of neighborhood change that affects most longtime residents. This study examined the health impact of the rapidly changing physical and cultural environment using oral history interviews, electronic interviews, and a quantitative structured survey. The study draws on the social determinants of health framework to explain the self-reported chronic health conditions (SR-CHCs) among 331 residents in Austin, Texas. The study employed non-linear techniques suitable for Poisson distribution to estimate the association between gentrification and SR-CHCs and complemented by direct quotes from in-depth interviews (IDIs). Perceived gentrification score significantly vary by marital status (p?<?0.001), educational attainment (p?<?0.001), and gender (p?<?0.01), while SR-CHCs only significantly varies by educational attainment, p?=?0.015). Multivariate results show that gentrification was positively associated with SR-CHCs, after adjusting for socioeconomic variables. Compared to the Hispanics, blacks were 97% more likely to report multiple counts of SR-CHCs (IRR?=?1.969, 95% CI 1.074–3.608), and participants with high household income were 8% less likely to report multiple CHCs (IRR?=?0.920, 95% CI 0.870–0.973). Drawing from the empirical findings, this study recommends both area-based and individual-level policies to mitigate neighborhood change's impact on residents' health. Finally, this study further adds to the understanding of social determinants of health in understanding chronic health within the changing urban physical and socio-ecology systems.

     

Virtual enclosure,ecosystem services,landscape’s character and the ‘rewilding’ of the commons: the ‘Lake District’ case

Abstract

It is paradoxical that, while there is a generally increasing recognition of the scientific and cultural importance of conserving ‘semi-natural’ pastoral environments, and the negative effects of their widespread abandonment and overgrowth, British ‘rewilding’ activists and environmental managers are effectively advocating policies that will have a similar negative effect on the character of the semi-natural pastoral commons of places like England’s iconic Lake District. This situation, it will be argued, owes to the mindset of ‘virtual enclosure’ whereby the character of landscape is pre-defined by an assumed, behind-the-scenes, Euclidean/Ptolemaic spatial logic that leads to the comprehension of nature as a bounded scenic property; an (e)state of nature with its own economic system and services. This mindset is antithetical to both the practice of pastoral commoning and much contemporary natural science and conservation policy. It fits well, however, with older teleological ideas of nature, as well as modern ideas of privatisation, private property and management control.     

Landscape and the philosophy of aesthetics: is landscape quality inherent in the landscape or in the eye of the beholder?

The paper proposes that landscape quality assessment may be approached on the basis of two contrasting paradigms, one which regards quality as inherent in the physical landscape, and the other which regards quality as a product of the mind – eye of the beholder. These are termed, respectively, the objectivist and subjectivist paradigms. These paradigms underlie the surveys of the physical landscape and studies of observer preferences.Examination of these paradigms through the approaches taken by philosophers from Plato to modern times demonstrates the ubiquity of the paradigms in underlying human perception of landscape. Until recent centuries, the objectivist paradigm provided philosophers with the basis for understanding beauty, including landscape beauty. However, the philosophers Locke, Hume, Burke and particularly Immanuel Kant identified beauty as lying in the eyes of the beholder rather than in the object. The parallels between Kant's aesthetic philosophy and contemporary theories of landscape quality based on an evolutionary perspective are examined. Most philosophers over recent centuries have adopted the subjectivist view of aesthetics.The paper concludes by proposing that only the subjectivist model should be used in research of landscape quality.     

Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising ‘upon the Cliffs about the Pharos’ in Genoa,March 1664

This paper uses approaches derived from historical ecology to show how knowledge can be gained about the historical and cultural value of neglected urban landscapes. We study the area around Genoa’s lighthouse and consider the long-term survival of individual plant species and some implications for landscape conservation. We examine topographical representations over the last 500 years to establish the landscape context of the lighthouse. We then analyse the records of plants collected by two English naturalists of the seventeenth century, John Ray and Francis Willughby, and demonstrate how the plants were identified and documented. We survey the current vegetation to establish whether any species identified in 1664 still grow at the site. This exploration of botanical ancestry at a local scale makes it possible to demonstrate cultural–historical values of the lighthouse rocks and their vegetation which should be considered as part of the cultural heritage of the city of Genoa.     

‘This place feels authentic’: exploring experiences of authenticity of place in relation to the urban built environment in the Jewellery Quarter,Birmingham

Discourses about authenticity of place have gained relevance in recent years and are of increasing importance for urban designers. The paper discusses notions and experiences of authenticity of place in relation to the urban built environment and analyzes concepts of ‘experiential’ authenticity in the form of three key dimensions: the experience of origins, the experience of continuity, and the experience of potentiality and actuality. Drawing on qualitative informant interviews in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham (UK), the paper examines how business representatives experienced authenticity of place in relation to architecture and urban design, with a particular focus on individual identity constructions.     

From urban beautification to a holistic approach: the discourses of ‘landscape’ in the Arab Middle East

The English word and Western idea of landscape was introduced during the colonial restructuring of Arab cities in the early decades of the twentieth century. Thereafter, landscape came to be understood predominantly in the context of urban modernity, associated with the Western picturesque tradition adopted in landscaping municipal parks and public urban spaces. The formal conception that prevails today precludes a broader appreciation of landscape as a source of livelihood, the fabric of lived-in experiences and collective identities, just as it reduces the scope of landscape architecture, an emerging profession in the Arab Middle East, to urban beautification. Inspired by the integrative and community-centred conception advanced by the European Landscape Convention, this paper argues for a holistic landscape approach that contributes to development while responding to regional environmental and ecological constraints. The methodology of ecological landscape design is applied to secure a holistic reading of people and place and to engender integrative solutions that address socio-economic, environmental and heritage concerns. A selection of projects are cited to demonstrate the potential of a holistic approach in changing current limited perceptions of landscape and in expanding the discourse of landscape in the region beyond the current focus on appearance and beautification.     

‘The imaginary texture of the real …’ critical visual studies in landscape architecture: contexts,foundations and approaches

In this paper I examine potential for critical visual research studies in landscape architecture and related disciplines. The reasons for a neglect of imagery in research publications and the gap between landscape architectural practice and theory are considered, and the ways in which this restricts understanding are explored. I argue that visual studies can be used to bridge the practice–theory divide and enable investigations which are currently limited or absent in text-based methods and dissemination. To this end, five kinds of visual study are defined and their philosophical and methodological underpinnings and potential discussed. I conclude with an examination of the relationship between critical thinking and visual processes and the role of the viewer. The overall aim is to provide openings for future visual research studies and the development of critical visual discourses.     

The ‘landscape scale’ in planning: Recent experience of bio-geographic planning units in Britain

Landscape-scale mapping is becoming more widely used as an approach to identifying ‘characteristic’ units of countryside for information gathering and policy delivery purposes. A number of innovative approaches currently being developed and applied in Britain are reviewed. The justifications for producing these methods, as reflected in published sources, are analysed. Interviews with selected professionals, who identify various benefits for more effective policy delivery, integrated planning, partnership formation and public engagement, are reported on. Most of the approaches also override administrative boundaries, which enables a more naturalistic reflection of environmental systems, whilst also creating some political difficulties. Other problems are associated with cost and subjectivity. Overall, the methods are likely to improve joined-up rural decision making, but further research into their effectiveness is needed.     

‘A University is a society’: an environmental history of the METU ‘campus’

The formation of a ‘society’ was the major goal of the founders of the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey, which was established in 1956 and became a significant source of intellectual, ideological and architectural capital for its region. The university was designed as a total entity, a three-dimensional modern grid spread over the barren Anatolian prairie, and, in half a century, succeeded in transforming its immediate environment into an ‘ideal landscape’. There has been no publication to date documenting the formation processes of the institution, nor its impact as an environmental revolution. In opposition to the consensus that the development of this university was rooted in the United Nation's programmes for higher education in the developing world and the United States' post-war policy in the region, this paper suggests that the METU Project was rather indicative of the Turkish Republic's desire for modernisation in all of its social and ideological programmes. This paper examines the METU Project in a bid to understand how the Anatolian prairie was transformed into an urban environment, and the unique ways it is perceived in the surrounding political contexts of institutional and everyday life. By compiling an environmental historiography, the intention is to find answers to the questions of how, and to what extent, the ideal landscape was influential, and how it was presented with architecture through social and political practices.     

“This is for the Children,the Grandchildren …”: Houses of Moroccan Immigrants in Metropolitan Tel Aviv

The meaning of migrant housing materiality has not been adequately researched, especially when compared to the meaning of the home for immigrants, a matter of extensive discussion in the past two decades. This paper focuses on the meaning of housing materiality for 12 immigrants who migrated from Morocco to Israel some 60?years ago. Drawing on qualitative data gathered in 2007 and 2008, the paper develops a theoretical framework considering “house as community” and “house materiality” as two interrelating explanations for the migrant housing materiality. Through this framework, and with the concepts of performance and performativity, the paper first explores former houses of participants in Morocco and then presents current houses in Tel Aviv, Israel, to establish links between the two housing forms and reveal the meanings of objects in the homes. It is argued that as a reaction to the dominant Israeli society, housing materiality enables participants to educate successive generations and Israeli society at large about the rich cultural life of Moroccan-Jews that existed before their migration to Israel.     

Bringing design back: resetting liveability of a ‘near but not in the city’ housing environment in Sydney

Using an inner urban area of Sydney city as a case study, the paper puts forward that overall residential satisfaction is related to three sets of factors: objective characteristics of environment, objective characteristics of residents and their subjective perception. Three hypothesized models by regression are tested to empirically examine which of the attributes of the residential environment and of the individual have either a direct or no relationship with overall residential satisfaction. Findings suggest that perceptual response to dwelling design aspects and neighbourhood features along with neighbourliness and objective indicator of age are among the strongest predictors. The discussion contributes to an understanding of the importance of ‘good design’ which to some extent may help to attenuate the potentially adverse effects of higher density living.     

Where is the ‘Social’ in Constructions of ‘Liveability’? Exploring Community,Social Interaction and Social Cohesion in Changing Urban Environments

Ongoing changes in the urban environment have renewed interest in the transformation of cities and suburbs as liveable places. This article examines the limitations inherent in a functional (objective) notion of liveability that commonly underpins government policy directions. Through an examination of key debates in the literature we consider how the delivery of the social (subjective) dimension of liveability, linked to community, social interaction and social cohesion, poses unique challenges for policy makers, urban planners and developers. We argue for a deeper understanding of the social constructs of liveability that acknowledges the complexity of changing urban environments in contemporary society.     

‘Baltimore does not condone profiteering in squalor’: the Baltimore Plan and the problem of housing-code enforcement in an American city

In 1941, the Baltimore City Council passed a law, the Ordinance on the Hygiene of Housing, declaring that all property in the city should be ‘maintained in good repair by the owner or agent, and fit for human habitation’. The campaign of housing-code enforcement that followed, known as the Baltimore Plan, made the city famous. When historians write about American housing-reform efforts during the mid-20th century, they tend to focus on big-ticket federal policies; by contrast, the Baltimore Plan seems too small to be significant. But it is more than a curiosity. First in Baltimore and then across the country, the neat cause-and-effect it posited between good stewardship and good housing crowded out more challenging ways of thinking about the problem. Eventually, the Baltimore Plan turned into a policy tool that reinforced the interests of the real estate industry at the expense of poor people. In that regard, the Baltimore Plan laid the foundations for federal disinvestment in the provision of decent housing and the midcentury tragedy of urban renewal.     

Complexity in urban agriculture: the role of landscape typologies in promoting urban agriculture’s growth

This research identifies the potential shortcomings of local initiatives to encourage urban agriculture projects by comparing citywide efforts with existing community projects. It investigates how more effectual policy might be developed to accommodate a fuller range of urban agriculture projects, and how urban agriculture stakeholders might use clearer promotion processes to meet stated goals. It hypothesizes the important role of clear urban agriculture definitions, typologies, and links to associated benefits towards meeting the stated goals of policy-makers. Utilizing San Francisco in California as a case study, this paper investigates recent efforts at citywide urban agriculture promotion.     

When ‘knowing what’ is not enough: Role of organised simulations for developing effective practice

A decade on from the Rethinking Project Management (PM) network, concerns about the relevance gap continue with a number of multinationals looking explicitly to alternative strategies and forms of PM staff development. The literature is light on how project simulations can help the development of experienced managers as reflective experts. Few have examined the link between intended learning outcomes and real-time performance. Posing the question of “how easily is knowledge developed in the classroom transformed into effective practice?” the paper presents a chronological account of a 3-day simulated project by 25 experienced managers. Despite their prior experience and learning from shared problem-solving and structured reflections, participants struggled to deliver their projects as planned. Analysis referencing the knowledge epistemology and ambidexterity literatures yielded a number of design improvement opportunities and the insight that closing the knowing-doing gap requires courses to incorporate the ‘soft’ perceptual and attitudinal aspects underlying why people fail to convert their learning into effective practice.     

‘Filling the mattress’: Trust development in the governance of infrastructure megaprojects

The development of trust is a major challenge for the governance of public private infrastructure megaprojects. Contractual pre-arrangements should provide a blueprint for collaborative behavior and trust development but the characters of megaprojects challenge such arrangements. This longitudinal study explores practices of trust development in the collaboration of commissioner and contractor consortia in the Dutch road infrastructure megaproject ‘Schiphol, Amsterdam and Almere’ (SAA). The findings show that six different types of workshops have been used to intervene in the collaboration of project partners in order to develop trust. The study contributes to the debate on governance in megaprojects showing how governance arrangement are enacted in the daily practice in megaprojects. To buffer the potential loss of trust through conflicts, project partners negotiated for a balanced reciprocal relationship, which is the simultaneous exchange of equivalent resources without delay.     

THE ‘WHOLLY OTHER’: On the Spatiality of the Holy in Islam

Most architects and planners are familiar with the failings of Modernist high rise housing constructed in die 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps the most symbolic was die Pruitt Igoe housing development in St Louis which was demolished in 1973. It would come as a surprise to many, however, that in 1997 the NSW Department of Housing is planning complete demolition of a housing development known as die Villawood estate. More surprising would be die fact that Villawood is not a high rise development, but a medium density housing scheme completed as recently as 1981. Post-occupancy evaluations at Villawood have indicated that most residents have few complaints regarding the individual dwellings. One such study found that the internal dwelling design was actually ‘a redeeming feature’.¹ Instead, many of their problems stem from die spatial organisation of the dwellings, associated open space, pedestrian and vehicular circulation and community facilities. This article will examine the ideology which influenced the design of Villawood and explain why the spatial organisation has contributed to producing an unsatisfactory residential environment. Most importantly, it will demonstrate the importance of spatial organisation in Australian urban housing.     

Developing the untapped wealth of Britain's ‘Celtic Fringe’: Water engineering and the Welsh landscape, 1870 – 1960

This paper focuses on the development of water engineering schemes in Wales in the late 19th and 20th centuries, concentrating mainly on water-supply schemes promoted by large English municipalities such as Birmingham and Liverpool, but also discussing hydro-electricity. It is argued that the first water engineering projects in Wales were informed by certain perceptions of the Welsh landscape and wider discourses regarding Britain's ‘Celtic Fringe’, and that such concepts were used to promote ideas of water purity. Ideas of ‘progress’ and ‘modernity’ surrounding the changing of the landscape through water works are analysed, and how such notions were challenged in the 20th century is explored, particularly from conservationist and nationalist perspectives. In the second half of the 20th century, it is argued, a paradox emerges, whereby different ways of seeing or perceiving the landscape of Wales led to a divergence in the political dynamics surrounding water-supply projects and hydro-electric schemes.