Reading List: Healing Spaces

In an attempt to give back to all of the fine publishers that send me review copies of books, I'm striving for a couple of weeks of posts in the spirit of the 'Overdue Book Report'. First on the list is a great book that I just finished this morning, "Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being" by Esther M. Sternberg, MD (published by Harvard University Press).



I have a keen interest in the healing dimensions of space, and in particular the role of landscape architecture and exterior spaces to provide this function. This comes from doing a lot of work and research in the realm of therapeutic garden design over the years in hospital, hospice, and eldercare facilities. I first became interested in the phenomenon while doing my undergraduate final project related to a cemetery design that utilized physical space design to aid in the bereavement process, and was fascinated by the connection between environmental design and health. There is an innate connection between space and health - but sometimes the connections, both physiologically and spatially, are a bit fuzzy. There are a number of successful examples in literature and design, but often there is either dismissal of designs as unscientific by the medical community, or by inadequate application and understanding of scientific concepts and mechanisms by designers - resulting in poor or partially realized applications.

That's where Ms. Sternberg's book shines. It is not neccesarily a 'how-to' (there are a growing number of resources out there in this genre), but more aptly a bridge between the scientific research of the concept of healing and how this work in the design of spaces. The book spans the available research, starting with some of the more intuitive architectural concepts of Wright, Aalto, and Neutra, touching on the pioneering work of Ulrich, and expanding on the growing design-science connections being made by collaborations between space design and health research, and looking specifically at both the microcosm of hospitals, and the macro-scale of cities, and the range of designs that this thinking can inform.

Discussing the intimate connection of space and physiology, Sternberg summarizes the interactions: "There are many things that can influence the release of these chemical signals from the brain, and our surroundings play a very important part. How we percieve the world around us, its features of light and dark, sound and smell, temperature and touch, feed into the brain through all our senses and trigger the brain's emotional centers, which make us react. These emotional centers release nerve chemicals and hormones that can change how immune cells fight disease. In turn, through this communication, our awareness of space and place changes when we are ill, and changes yet again when we begin to heal." (p.20-21)

By examing the physiology (loosely constructed in chapters 2-4 aligned with the senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste) - we gain a medical understanding of the body's cause and effect relationships between disease, medical intervention, and space. I found this at times more difficult to understand, but it was in no way overly technical - just requiring a bit of slowing down to soak in the information. This is really the meat of the book, and offers a valuable resource to return often for review.

The next sections discuss more spatial related connections, including mazes and labyrinths (the ideas of both confusion/stress vs. meditation/relaxation. This continues into the concepts of how our brains work in relation to memory and wayfinding of place - including imprinting of patterns and landmarks - and investigates the loss of this ability in patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The concept of topographic memory was an interesting concept - and the ability to visualize and represent a space, even when not being able to physically navigate one, being a powerful idea of the brains connection to space.

The most interesting chapers, for me at least, were those discussing 'Hospitals and Well Being' (Ch. 10) and 'Healing Cities, Healing World' (Ch.11) which discuss the worlds of evidence-based design in medical facilities, and looks at the connections between urbanization and public health. Both of this tracks of inquiry discuss both historical underpinnings and modern usage, offering both background and inspiration of how this can be applied. From a hospital specific perspective, the work of Roger Ulrich, the idea of Fable Hospital, and the integrated Pebble Project amongst other examples all will be familiar to those interested in the concept - and offer a good primer on design concepts for healing and therapeutic environments that can guide designers.

From a city-scale there was an interesting conceptual framework that included the dual interesting ideas of the 'urban penalty' (issues associated with poor city conditions on health in early urban zones) and the subsequent 'rural penalty' (issues associated with suburban form and and how they impact public health due to sprawl). There is also interesting work on urban epidemics and the search for causes in both the water and air.

There are definitely some strange examples and quirks - such as using Frank Gehry as an example of an architect that is tapping into these mechanisms of biophilic design (i'm not buying that one bit), the constant and annoying (to me!) descriptions of people, or references to Harry Potter (ugh) to describe certain points. These are more than made up for with a wide range of interesting case studies, including some of my favorites, the healing properties of Lourdes, Charles Jencks and the work dedicated to his late wife, the transformation of musician and recording engineer Daniel Levitin into a neuroscientist , and the CDC evolution of obesity trends maps over time.

This book should be required reading, and remain close at hand, for any designer attempting to delve into the difficult terrain of healing spaces. The ability of Sternberg to connect research, physiological response, and spatial concepts will provide designers not necessarily with ideas for implementation, but an understanding of, and justification for, the design concepts that they propose. It's imminently readable and engaging - meaning short-attention span designers won't lose interest in too much technical jargon - but get an education in the process.

As a bonus, a video of Sternberg discussing the book in her own words.

Soundtrack for Spaces?

A brief lull in posting due to a visit from family, and a kick-ass barbecue last weekend - which culminated in the inaugural usage of the new backyard fire pit. As an aside... this past Friday, we took a short half-day trip to a popular hiking spot in the Columbia River Gorge, with the route passing through the Historic Columbia River Highway. This scenic and windy route is a must-see both for the route itself, and for the multiple trailheads to waterfall hikes throughout the gorge.

So yes, soundtrack... as my passengers dozed on the slow road, I cued up the I-Pod with the fabulous Seattle band Fleet Foxes, which btw is fabulous driving music. As the road twisted, turned, slowed and sped up, and moved from light to dappled sun to dark - the music stayed sycopated perfectly... with lyrical and musical ebb and flow that seemed choreographed by some unseen hand.

:: image via Travel Oregon

:: image via Wild Nature Images

A video of the Fleet Foxes (if'n you don't know them) is below... and check out their tunes on their MySpace page.

Fleet Foxes


One thing that this made me think of what the idea of purposeful insertion of music into the idea of the narrative of the city, such as GPS-enabled smart phones and portable music devices that play particular rhythms or artists based on location, time, and activity - or better yet, are connected to traffic speed and the myriad ebbs and flows of city life. Perhaps an antidote to the obvious disconnect from reality that technological devices seem to elicit.

Directed back to Landscape Architecture, there are precedents in the idea of Halprin's RSVP Cycles and the conceptual framework of producing 'scores' of spaces.


:: image via google images

It also got me thinking about other sountracks to places both urban, wilderness, linear or static... such as my propensity to listen to Band of Horses while biking home from work, or the strange and short lived jogging to Elliott Smith. Anyone have the specific soundtrack to your urban life?

Escape to Book Mountain

As a self-professed bibliophile... I was excited by the recent visuals fo MVRDV's Book Mountain - the coolest library I've seen since the Seattle Public Library by Koolhaas . Check out more from World Architecture News, with some description of how the project "...will feature the literal translation of 'a mountain of reading' by creating a transparent layer around the book stacking system. With a surface of 10,000 m² the library will use a glass membrane, referred to as the 'bell jar', to make a feature of the contents creating an evolving picture from the outside when books are borrowed, replaced and moved."




:: images via WAN

Reading List: CPULs

This is one of those densely packed and overpriced small volumes that make you think twice a few times in the bookstore - until you get your hands on it and unlock some of the potential of Andre Viljoen's thoughts on Continous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities.

:: image via Transition Culture

I just had to have this finally as the parallel tracks of urban agriculture and landscape urbanism have skewed slightly to intersect at the idea of adaptive landscapes, CPULS, or whatever you wanna call it - un-static landscape design... which I know is an oxymoron, but functionally is revolutionary. Stay tuned for some highlights of the text, and for some more info, check out the following links:

:: Transition Culture

:: Culiblog

Wilderness, Continued...

Book Review continued from Part I: Reading List: Wilderness and the American Mind

Aldo Leopold's ideas of a 'land ethic' and 'ecological conscience' offered a touchstone for a new movement - giving birth to the idea of instilling Americans with a love and respect for their land. While mostly known for the amazing work 'A Sand County Almanac', it's interesting to see how Leopold came up through the ranks of the government system through US Forest Service in New Mexico and other locales. The ideas of working within the system (for the 'man' if you will) to expand the National Parks and Wilderness Area designations is novel. It was a struggle but eventually succeeded in developing an expanded and official role for wilderness protection. Leopold's influence expanded to others such as the pioneering planner Benton Mackaye whom among other victories was responsible for the Appalachian Trail.


:: image via Wikipedia

The dual ideas of planning and ecology definitely opened a new thought for looking at wilderness and it's benefits in new ways. "The science of ecology came of age during Leopold's lifetime. In rapid succession a series of breakthroughts revealed the way in which land and the life that shared it constituted a complex organism functioning through the interaction of its components... Ecology enabled him to concieve of nature as an intricate web of interdependent parts, a myriad of cogs and wheels each essention to the health operation of the whole." (p.195)

Others joined Leopold on this fight in the 20th Century, including Robert Marshall, Sigurd Olson, Howard Zahniser and notably, earth-day founder David Brower - along with a number of official organizations that continued and expanded the fight for wilderness across the country. While the New Deal worked for progress, proponents such as Marshall looked at the inevitable issues facing a wilderness ethic. Quoted in 1935, Marshall concluded: "What makes wilderness areas most susceptible to annihilation, is that the arguments in favor of roads are direct and concrete, while those against them are subtle and difficult to express." (p.204)

The Echo Park Dam became the new fight in the mid-1900s - centered around part of the Colorado River Storage Project which would dam multiple wilderness areas, including the Dinosaur National Monument, a significant area of fossil concentrations. This again became the touchstone of the movement, with references to Leopold. MacKaye referred "...to Leopold's notion that wild country provided 'an exhibit of normal ecologic process.' Dinosaur National Monument and other wildernesses... constitute 'a reservoir of store experiences in the ways of life before man.'"


:: Dinosaur National Monument - image via National Parks Traveler

The Echo Park Dam was deafeated, which was a new rallying call after the defeat at Hetch Hetchy earlier in the century, and language was added to preclude National Park lands from water system projects for the Colorado River Storage Project. Those areas not so lucky were outside of the boundaries, and including the famous Glen Canyon Dam - which always makes me thing of Edward Abbey for obvious reasons. The next target was a big one as well - and much more known... dams within the Grand Canyon.

For the Grand Canyon the stakes were definitely high, and the national prominence of this feature made it easier to win the hearts of the public. The rhetoric changed somwhat, but continued to include the spiritual, the historical, and most important, the health and wellness of our society. Zanhiser, quoted in 1964 - summed up beautifully the position: "Out of the winderness has come the substance of our culture, and with a living wilderness... we shall also have a vibrant, vital culture, an enduring civilization of healthful, happy people who... perpetually renew themselves in contact with the earth." (p.233)


:: image via Wikipedia

These references back to Thoreau, Muir, and Olmsted were used often and continued to carry weight in the fight for wilderness, and was ultimately successful in removing dams from the Grand Canyon. Although thousands of acres of other wilderness were flooded in the search for water in the west, the victory was a big one for the Wilderness movement, and has influenced the environmental ethics of our modern society.

Another aspect of the book references some of the counterculture ideas of wilderness as we grappled with our desire to inhabit metropolitan areas, our love of the pastoral middle ground, and the desire to visit wild nature - all in conflict with one another. MacKaye folds this idea into the idea of our evolution, in three centuries, from "...the implantation in human nature, especially that of Americans, of a desire to be simultaneously "the pioneer, the husbandman, [and] the townsman." He further this into the field of environmental planning, showing that it "...must permit man to indulge the 'three sides of [his] inward nature.'" (p.243)

The idea of biophilia continued to be used as a reason for wilderness protection - with pyschologists lauding the stress-relieving qualities of interaction with nature. As our cities continued to expand, this tenet in which Olmsted based much of his work continued to be included as a vital aspect of our burgeoning urbanism. Another aspect that continually was used and gained additional rigor was the idea of ecology. "Wilderness played an important role in, and was a major beneficiary of, this new ecology-oriented conservvation. In the first place, the concept of wilderness was a pointed reminder of man's biological origins, his kinship with all life, and his continued membership in the biotic community." (p.253)


:: Forest Park (Portland, OR) - image via Travel Portland

The made it more difficult to rationalize our long-standing idea of the dominance of nature for many reasons - as we had become folded into the idea of wilderness - not removed from it with economics, religion, or politics. "From this perspective of dependency on the environment came a view of man 'as part of the system of nature, not demigods above or outside it.' This idea of a continuous web that includes man was, of course, the essence of the ecological perspective." (p.253)

The final section of the book, the Epilogue entitled 'The Irony of Victory' is another interesting historical evolution of wilderness. The sum of this chapter is that the success of wilderness protection and education has created such increased visitation to our National Parks and other areas that they have essentially been 'loved to death.' Gear, guided trips, and information made it possible for many to access these areas - seen by many as our rights due to their inclusion in the public trust. This parks-for-people vs. loving-to-death is something we still grapple with, and its interesting to see this in the context of the late 60s... roadless areas, hotels, viewsheds, and other issues that continue to threaten our parks - even airborne pollution and poor fire management - all degrade the idea of wilderness and public access.

Ecology again proved vital, in determining the 'carrying capacity' and the ability for wilderness to handle the impacts by visitors, and what was the threshold where ecosystems would collapse. Half of this was functional, as the impacts degraded wildlife and ecological function - but the social aspect was just as important - how many people can inhabit 'wild' lands before it ceases to be wilderness.


:: image via Picassa

So is it quotas, more area, better education, more services...? None of these is the silver bullet - but looking at the rich and varied history of the American experience of wilderness gives us something to apply to both urban and wild nature - and continually look to this history to see what mistakes we've made and avoid repeating it over and over. I'm curious to see how Nash has modernized the text, and hope to read the new material to see how it fits into our modern world - but as it's own piece of work - the 60s era version of 'Wilderness and the American Mind' is necessary reading for anyone claiming to have a green bone in their body.

Read Part I: Reading List: Wilderness and the American Mind

Reading List: Wilderness & The American Mind

Taking a break from the computer and the endless array of blog posts gives one an opportunity to reconnect with the written word in a different way. (For full disclosure, I hate reading on the computer - so really have to slog through text heavy posts and articles...) A couple of interesting books that I've worked through in the past month couldn't be more different - but somehow, in the very Gaian way, are related. The first - which I picked up after hearing the amazing Paul Stamets speak, is his great book Mycelium Running. Second, which I picked up for a steal in a used bookstore on a recent trip to Mt. Shasta, is 'Wilderness and the American Mind' by Roderick Nash.


:: image via Yale Univ. Press

While my copy was not the much sexier and updated 4th edition seen above, it is sometimes nice to read the original, being able to place the thought in the context of publication - in this case the 1967 version. While not necessarily breaking any new ground, this is one of the most comprehensive studies of the history of our relationship with Wilderness from the uniquely American perspective, and offers insight into our cultural baggage that influences our relationship with nature and the world even today.

Encompassing an arc of history from the early settlers to the 1960s, it's fascinating to see the linear narrative of Wilderness and our shift of ideology from fear, to celebration, to exploitation, and finally to our current state of tension that still exists today. Starting with our European ideas of wilderness expressed by early settlers - the fear of the dark primeval forest and it's dangerous denizens is shaped by an utter lack of true Wilderness that these people had to experience in settled Europe. This is contrasted by Nash in the views of Eastern cultures that had a more subtle and less binary view of wilderness.

The shift from pilgrim fear to pioneering domination shaped the next era, as wilderness was meant to be dominated as an expression of our growth and western expansion. Civilization was countered with a desire for escape to the surrounding pastoral areas. The western push opened up a view of untouched scenery that amazed the viewers with it's rugged beauty and became a defining element of the 'American' wilderness as like none other in the world.

Following such writers and explorers such as the transcendentalits Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, the explorer and wilderness fighter John Muir, wildlife watchers such as John James Audubon, and also the defining guidance of Frederick Law Olmsted in his support of the protection of Yosemite in the 1860s. Building on the work of urban parks as places of the respite in cities to restore the health and vigor of residents, the large parks provided a national analog in being able to provide a counterpoint to development and need protection from the mental stress that results from our industrious society. His report on Yosemite in 1865 included the declaration that: "the enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet enlivens it; and thus, through the influence of the mind over the body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system." (p.106)

:: Yosemite - image via PD Photos

The continual wilderness preservation movement followed Yosemite and included Yellowstone, spawning the National Park movement and a serious approach to significant protection of large areas of land that had both regional and national significance. With Muir at the helm, a rampant public movement was instilled in the American social experiment with a tangible value of the places within our growing country. A duality emerged: "The schism ran between those who defined conservation as the wise us or planned development of resources and those who have been termed preservations, with their rejection of utilitarianism and advocacy of nature unaltered by man." (p.129)

This 'schism' created some of the polarity of wilderness vs. development that persists to this day. While it is inevitable that the pendulum of wilderness protection would swing towards the 'cult-like', this binary approach to wilderness protection, while providing a strong movement for protection, created an equal and vibrant opposition in the form of those who put people and progress above nature in all aspects. Again, Olmsted comes out of the fray as a mediator (like a good landscape architect), straddling both the preservation ethic as well as lobbying for more parks and wilderness areas in and near cities. Olmsted and fellow landscape architect Charles Eliot: "... proposed that in additon city parks patches of 'wild forest' be preserved close to metropolitan areas... Olmsted felt the current surge of interest in natural landscapes was the result of many Americans' perceiving that 'we grow more and more artificial day by day.'" (p.155)

:: Central Park - image via NYC Architecture

The polar struggle came to a head in the early 20th Century in the form of Hetch Hetchy which pitted a wilderness area against the damming of rivers for the water supply and hydroelectric power for the growing San Francisco metropolitan area. In addition to a media debate, this was a strongly fought political one as well - with the US Government grappling with the difficult task of determining which is more important - the wild lands or the services to our urban dwellers. While one side of the debate argued for progress at any cost, others argued that the value of wilderness was incalcuable in monetary terms. Muir, always the hyperbolist - made it a fight of biblical proportions. "Hetch Hetchy became a sanctuary or temple in the eyes of the defenders. John Muir, for one, believed so strongly in the divinity of wild nature that he was convinced he was doing the Lord's battle in resisting the reservoir." (p.167)

:: Before and After - Hetch Hetchy - images via Wikipedia

Hetch Hetchy, and the eventual crushing blow to the wilderness movement by the passage of the bill in 1913 authorizing the dam and effectively destroying the wilderness in the name of progress. While there were a number of lesser battles, such as the preservation of Muir Woods, this provided a deciding battle for the country. Muir died shortly after in 1914 - and his shoes were left to be filled by a new breed of Wilderness advocate. The one to step up to this was Aldo Leopold.

Read Part II: Wilderness, Continued...

Reading List: Green Roof Systems

My good friends at Wiley sent me a copy of the long-awaited 'Green Roof Systems: A Guide to the Planning, Design, and Construction of Landscapes over Structure' by Susan K Weiler and Katrin Scholz-Barth. At first glance, the book is not remarkably pretty, which is usually a sign of a reference that aims for substance over style.


:: image via Amazon

A quick page through confirmed this suspicion, as this book is loaded with valuable information. Similar to other must-have references, this is not a book you read cover-to-cover, but zoom into tidbits of information, and check on questions related to all facets of rooftop design and construction. The book provides a bit of preface and context of the larger picture of green roofs from concept and planning - but this is not the strong selling point. That comes in the details.


:: image via Green Roof Systems

And there are details. The structure of the book guides a reader through systems, materials, documentation, structure, bidding and construction, and touching on liability and maintenance. This isn't a cursory discussion either but in depth information on a number of issues and the less fun 'essentials' of sucessful ecoroof design, such as specification writing, O&M manuals, and the nuances of structural systems - all the while providing a broad range of project types and components.


:: image via Green Roof Systems

The book does tend to favor the intensive, inhabitable rooftop terrace as opposed to the more extensive 'eco' roof, which is fine as the complexity is much more immense. I believe the evolution of the genre will further the separation of these deeper rooftops from the thinner systems - although the terminology continues to be fuzzy. There is also a reliance on many iterations of Olin projects (HannaOlin, Olin Partnership, and now merely a single word: OLIN, kind of like 'Cher' or 'Madonna') This is a bit limiting in regional scope, but guess is inevitable. I imagine it's a product of the authors experience, which is pretty comprehensive, but it'd be interesting to see how, say, the WaMu center building detailing stacked up to some east coast examples. Perhaps it merely my west coast bias showing through :)

There are some great items worth noting that are absent in other publications - probably best considered a much-needed update to the seminal work 'Roof Gardens: History, Design, and Construction' by Theodore Osmundson, which has long contained the most technical, albeit dated, information. Two sections that I've had to search for in the past for good information, which are covered in detail include roofing membranes and the connection between rooftop weights and the growth of vegetation.


:: image via Green Roof Systems

As I was at our booth recently for the Ecoroof Vendor Fair, I brought along a large stack of some of my favorite Veg.itecture books, which run the gamut from simplistic to visually stunning to essential. I was somewhat dumbstruck when someone asked me what the one book I would recommend for green roof design was - half because I was thinking 'who only wants to buy one book?' and half because I just didn't have the answer. While to sell the idea and provide stunning visuals and idea generation, other books offer much greater visual stimuli, this may be the only one you should probably own if you are serious about building landscape on structure.

Back in the Saddle

Thanks for those whom I had a chance to meet at the recent speaking engagements... I've decided to write that book on Veg.itecture I've been toying with, so any publishers out there, drop a line. And good news, more posts coming soon... for now, visit the flickr page from the fabulous Friends of the High Line... for your veg.itectural fix.


:: image via Friends of the High Line

Fungi Perfecti

Greetings... after a short pause from posting due to conference presentations and work (both paid and yard) - a breather to drop a few lines as a retrospective on the Soak it Up conference from last week. More to post in coming days, but a chance to rave about a pioneer and his book related to a vital and unseen aspect of sustainability. Paul Stamets, founder of Fungi Perfecti finished a fantastic conference with an engaging two-hour presentation on his work regarding the mycelia...


:: image via Fungi Perfecti

Now one might wonder how you may keep a restless conference audience gaping and engaged for two hours to discuss the humble mushroom, but the complexity and scope of the mycelial web that permeates the entire globe is some fascinating stuff. It helps that Mr. Stamets is a witty and talented speaker as well.




:: mushroom/mycelium - images via Fungi Perfecti

And I would be remiss without mentioning the book Mycelium Running, which I am currently devouring and savoring (say like some hand-picked chanterelles)...


:: image via Fungi Perfecti

I'm particularly enamored with the section on mycotechnologies - using mushroom cultures for curing some of our land and water ills, including:

:: Mycofiltration: the filtration of biological and chemical pathogens as well as controlling erosion.
:: Mycoforestry and mycogardening: the use of mycelium for companion cultivation for the benefit and protection of plants.
:: Mycoremediation: the use of mycelium for decomposing toxic wastes and pollutants.
:: Mycopesticides: the use of mycelium for attracting and controlling insect populations.

:: images via Fungi Perfecti

I will post more about the conference and the book as I get ramped up for more regular posting... as a prelude, see for yourself with this video of Stamets from TED... good stuff:

Info from TED: "Entrepreneurial mycologist Paul Stamets seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords. The focus of Stamets' research is the Northwest's native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas. ... There are cosmic implications as well. Stamets believes we could terraform other worlds in our galaxy by sowing a mix of fungal spores and other seeds to create an ecological footprint on a new planet."

Malcolm Wells: Infra Structures

Subtitled "Life support for the nation's circulatory system", the 1994 book Infra Structures by Malcolm Wells offers a chance to revisit the integration of our architecture and infrastructural systems - appropriate for our new found interest in the workings of our society and urbanity. The the juxtaposed pipe/greenery on the cover, the thrust of this book is quite specific from the get-go.


:: image via Malcolm Wells

Wells has a cult following as a purveyor of early ecological design, particularly his notable installations and visuals of underground architecture. The interesting thing about the book is not so much another treatise regarding massive projects and the myriad ways architecture can influence these, but rather how they MUST exert influence to infrastructure in a positive way. The separation of the word into the separates of 'infra' (below) and 'structure' (something constructed) alludes to this architectural dualism.

:: something constructed below - images via Infra Structures

:: Subterranean Shopping Mall - image via Infra Structures


:: green covered boat house - image via Infra Structures

The 'story', if you will, leads us on a tour of future buildings and structures that exist in the not-too-distant-future, strangely enough more a contemporary vision of the early 21st Century. Based on the preponderance of veg.itecture in the world, Wells may have been somewhat prophetic (p.23):

"... I hesitate to make any but the most general of predictions for even the next 50 years. With everyting changing at an ever-faster rate it would be silly to stick my neck out too far. The only thing to do is try to make our buildings adaptable to greatly changed, rapidly changing occupancies. ... Animals and plants will continue to need the out-of-doors in life on earth to be sustained. That means underground architecture for the human species."

Although the words aren't half bad, my favorite aspect of Wells' book is the visuals - a throwback to an era that could've existed anywhere between the 1960s and today - but with a simple pen/ink/watercolor combo that is both illustrative and evocative. While some may bristle at the dated 'look' of the graphics, they are successful in their goal - communicate intent, form, and materials. Call it graphics for veg.itectural non-form. A common theme is ubiquitous infrastructure - such as the highway... snaking through virtually everywhere, the linear path that severs can be re-imagined into habitat corridors and earth sheltered bridges.






:: land bridge - images via Infra Structures

The books' author offers some fun with the text, resorting to comic-book like thought bubbles to illustrate the point, as below (p.21): "It would be nice if animals - as well as plants - could make use of the land-to-land connection bridges offer human travelers. And the all-weather aspect of covered roadways does have a lot of appeal... But an earth-covered bridge? Come on. Next thing you know he'll be proposing underground airports."


:: elements of graphic novel - image via Infra Structures

And there is plenty of infrastructure, including highways, bridges, wastewater treatment, sports stadiums, and the aforementioned underground airport... looking much like a storyboard from The Empire Strikes Back zooming over the mood of Endor.


:: underground airport


:: sub-surface sports complex


:: ferry terminal with under greenery parking


:: city-scale living machine for waste treatment - images via Infra Structures

So what can we learn from looking back at some of the work and visuals of Malcolm Wells? While again we can see the vision of this man who looked at infrastructure as both a design problem and environmental solution - leading the way to what could literally be the emergence of figuratively and literally green architecture. Perhaps it's a nudge to pull out your sketchbook and envision a reality beyond what's sitting on your desk, in your computer, or outside your window, but what could be. Finally, it's a call to arms for architecture (and more broadly the allied arts) to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. From Infra Structures, p. 29:

"What a structure does, that is, how it acts upon the world around it, is far more important that how it looks. That would seem to go without saying, but it appears never to have concerned those of us who have built over our rich America land. ...If a building, a bridge, a dock, or a road destroys land, it's simply not doing its job. A handsome structure that kills land is an enemy, and we are only now slowly coming to realize it. If, on the other hand, the structure is kind to the land, chances are that it will be its very appropriateness be both appealing and beautiful."


:: image via Infra Structures

Stats, Kind Words + Aggregation

I've been somewhat busy, and haven't had a chance to see who has actually been reading the blog and commenting on it elsewhere - so a change for some interesting highlights I discovered in a recent search.

Our recent review of the fantastic 'The Infrastructural City' caught the attention of the folks at Varnelis.net and resulted in some kind words ... "A really insightful and beautifully illustrated review of our book [link]. It’s great when reviewers get what we were after. The blogosphere is coming into its own with a better—and deeper—appreciation and understanding of our books than print periodicals. Things are changing in architectural journalism…and they’re changing very, very fast."


:: image via The Infrastructural City

We also received a nice email comment from contributing author Barry Lehrman (who wrote the fantastic chapter on Owen's Lake found in the book as well as taking the eerie pic of the dry lake bed).

Another that I must have missed was a pickup by one of my favorite conceptual aggregators - prss release nabbed one of the L+U posts from November 2008. Materiality and Light led off the issue of prss release #23 with the visual tour of some projects related to building skin that had was perforated to allow for and celebrating light.






:: images via prss release #23

Aside from these features and a good number of readers (many thanks to the 1000+ that register on my counter), there are also some interesting stats I found - in addition to the fact that readership just recently crested over 200,000 visitors and almost a half-million page views in a bit over a year:

:: Google PageRank: 5
:: Google Links: 382
:: Yahoo Links: 5,210
:: MSN Related: 109
:: Technorati Links: 7,743
:: Google indexed pages: 459

What does this mean? I actually have no earthly idea - and probably not much... as I've never been a big one for stats, but obviously it means something to someone (perhaps the same people who like memorizing batting averages or somesuch).

Mostly I tend to appreciate the comments (both direct, sometimes very direct and any other) that expand the dialogue about landscape+urbanism. And it's interesting to find that L+U has appeared linked on a number of sites, on more than one syllabus, a couple of CVs, a few articles, and many posts. Many thanks to all.

Reading List: The Infrastructural City

The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles
edited by Kazys Varnelis (Actar - 2008)


:: image via NetLab

If not for the impeccable timing of the release of this book, and the fact that the content within has inevitably been in progress for some time - I would say that 'The Infrastructural City' was a direct and specific response to the predominance of recent discussion around infrastructure in our urban areas. Instead, I would chalk it up to the vision that Varnelis and his contributors have in previously discussing what is only now becoming a mainstream conversation, leading to the growing piles of money funneled towards stimulating job creation and rebuilding of said infrastructure. Much like the crowd of 'sustainability' writers who led the wave of discussion - this will go down as one of those books that addressed infrastructure before infrastructure was cool.


:: image via The Infrastructural City

That is not to say there hasn't been similar endeavors in the past, but this is a book with a singular topic (Los Angeles) and a broad scope (Infrastructure) maybe more appropriately is going to be the one text that actually lauches infrastructure from the mundane to the 'cool'. With a simple enough premise of explorations of infrastructural systems and the new configurations: "...networked, codependent ecosystems of environmental mitigation, land-use organization, and service delivery..." Much like the 2007 publication 'Blue Monday' by Varnelis and fellow AUDC collaborator Robert Sumrell, this book is imminently readable, tangential in a good way, and totally engaging. The short(ish) essays lead the reader to absorb - then continue on with the next chapter and essay - staying up way too late for what is practical in getting to work the next morning.


:: image via The Infrastructural City

Encompassing, in no particular order: water, rivers, oil, gravel, traffic, telecommunications, landscape, cell towers, land use, distribution, and the film industry - along with aerial photo essays from Lane Barden illuminating the nature/artifice that is Los Angeles, the book offers contributions from a wide range of thinkers that gives it a variability of tone and topic that makes for fascinating reading. It is all tied together with common mapping conventions and the main character of the play, the unique City of Los Angeles - a city like no other, but also with elements of commonality to everywhere and everyone.

:: images via The Infrastructural City

Varnelis, formerly with Sci-Arc, and the School of Architecture at the University of Limerick, is currently at Columbia University with the Network Architecture Lab - which is continuing the explorations of the non-profit architecture collective AUDC to address the infrastructural and social in our cities: NetLab: "...embraces the studio and the seminar as venues for architectural analysis and speculation, exploring new forms of research through architecture, text, new media design, film production and environment design. Specifically, the Network Architecture Lab investigates the impact of telecommunications, digital technology, and changing social demographics on architecture and urbanism."

As typical in a compilation of essays, I am able to pick out a couple of stand outs for me personally - mostly due to their relevance to landscape and urbanism - but there is not one dud in the bunch and they all hold together and complement one another. The broad reach of Los Angeles in it's search for water and electricity (well documented) is balanced by the use of the available local resources of climate, oil, and geography that make the city of Los Angeles a technological and cultural city. This triality of local/regional/global is unique to LA, but also a product of our recently flattened world.

A few standouts in the concept of landscape and ecological systems include an essay by Barry Lehrman on the 'accidental preservation' of the Owens Lake basin due to the depletion of water resources as they were diverted to LA. This diversion leads to a fascinating exploration of the LA River Watershed by David Fletcher - the channelized monster snaking through the city and our imagination in movies such as Grease and The Terminator 2. Fletcher, as lead planner on the 'Los Angleles River Revitalization Master Plan' has unique knowledge and insight into this The essay, entitled 'Flood Control Freakology', alludes to the unnatural ecology that exists within the LA River Watershed's (mostly) concrete lined channels - and the additional challenges that come to restore this ecosystem back to some semblance of ecological and cultural function. The term of 'freakology' sums up many mutated ecologies in urban areas that have evolved despite our efforts - redefining what is the appropriate, what we consider weeds, and how this 'river' can be appropriately integrated into the fabric of the City of Los Angleles.


:: Another Urban Freakology - Frankenpine Cell Towers - images via The Infrastructural City

The connection to oil exploration (and the realization that there are working oil derricks hidden within structures in the middle of the city) offers a take on the historical colonization and ability of LA to become a self-sufficient (at least in terms of energy) hub - meanwhile depleting and extracting this black gold, gravel, and in alternatively scenery, place, and people through a variety of subsequent industries.




:: images via The Infrastructural City

A subsequent essay by Warren Technetin investigates the artificial landscape of palm-lined streets that define the landscape of LA - and subsequent efforts to re-establish a more expansive (and shading) urban canopy - as well as how we maintain, live with, and use these trees within urban areas.


:: image via The Infrastructural City

And the aerial tours of the rivers, streets, and other transportation networks by Lane Barden (much popularized in planning and urban literature by Alex Maclean) follow a linear pathway from the air, giving a more expansive overview of context than ground-level photography or total above ground aerials.


:: images via The Infrastructural City

This book is one to be read, then subsequently mined for new methodologies for site and urban analysis that is sorely lacking in our typical processes. I'm intrigued by the approach, and envision a series of companion volumes with similar rigor for a number of urban areas throughout the US and the world - realization of the unique qualities of each city, but also allowing for the ability to compare and contrast each in a more unified way. I'm itching to apply this approach to Portland - as it is sure to yield some of the known, but more importantly, a lot of the unknown infrastructure at work in my community. I only hope that endeavor is half as successful as 'The Infrastructural City'.