Jody Beck's lecture on future landscape design painted a picture of how society and civic life might formally operate when we start the downhill ride from peak oil. He painted several futures, some utopian, some feudal-esque, some relying on a new form of energy altogether.His models focused largely on two important issues - food production and transport. His solutions tended to be small-scale, community based alternatives which would rely on a high degree of trust or a new form of currency.
From his lecture, I understood that his belief was that once oil had run out and our reliance on energy becomes decentralised, so too will our formal social structure. This would equate in more self reliance, and a direct connection between everyone's life and food production. The scenario is basically a scale shift from what we have now, with more emphasis on social responsibility and direct involvement.
How this relates to landscape design is based on the centralisation of productive gardens into our urban landscape. Schemes proposed by his students at Lincoln overtook car-dominated spaces such as wide roads and carparks and turned them into community orchards and bike-repair collectives. Which is nice. But, Beck admitted that the role of the designer is not to get up and say, "we need to do this now," but rather to wait with the solutions if and when society comes and asks for them.
Admittedly, this sounds more rational that Corb's interventionist schemes which disregard the true needs and wants of the people, but how are people going to agree to a beneficial scheme without fully understanding the situation?
Beck looked at some historic models such as the Garden City and FLW's Broadacre City, and medieval society structure. I don't think that these will end up informing how we go about managing future issues, because they failed for some reason or other in the past. We can't just impose a one-size-fits-all social structure.
Right now, I just can't see us gearing down our energy consumption and giving up individual freedoms in favour of weeding the bean patch. Right now I have faith in solar power, bikes, efficient public transport systems and am hoping the Americans manage to pull off a fusion reactor which is actually cost and energy efficient (better on their soil than ours).
Urban design is complex, and no single person has the answer. I think it relies on the involvement of all, education, and some wise wise people. The future is an unknown, here's hoping we make some good decisions.
You can go here and see alittle more about Jody Beck.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cabsr.org/housing-community-bio.htm
So with all this doom and gloom, the world coming to an end, because of the oil crises ....etc. We fin ourselves in the position as designers to design not only urban scale designs but a way to change the way we package products the way we eat and fundamentally the way we live..
ReplyDeleteThe question is do we all move out of the cites to little plots of land grow our own food and survive?
or do we keep the current life style we have spent the last 100 years evolving to and design new solutions to counteract current climate, the doom and gloom feeling which is becoming more and more evident?
I believe through the design of these small consumables we can begin to actually make a change.
Not just sit back and wait but provide urban solutions when we do run out of oil.
I agree sitting back and waiting is not a viable option either. I think the problem with the modernists was their grand plans. That through these massive projects, people will immediately make a drastic change in lifestyle. People however are slow to change so to quote a favorite Bill Murray movie of mine change has to happen with "babysteps".
ReplyDeleteI too however can't see the majority of the population "weeding down the bean patch" anytime soon, but however look at the rise in popularity of the farmer's market as a sign of these babysteps. Driven by economic incentives we are reconnecting with our sources of food, something the 20th century supermarket nearly wiped out in America. In that one loses the value of food. The time effort and cost of produce being "seasonal" all the time. I think in connecting with our sources of food we are making that step to growing ourselves.
While I like more biking and solar power seems nice. I worry about relying too heavily on complex technology like fusion to solve problems. As it gives us an excuse to continue to be as energy wasteful as we are. With an endless supply of energy we can consume as much as we like, and continue to further lose value in the luxury that is electricity.
I seem to think that we need to be questioning our values and luxuries at the moment, and how they fit into a sustainable future. What place do they have for you?
Eric,
ReplyDeleteTrue, the 'babysteps' approach does seem to be the most likely way that things will change. Spencer mentioned a group called 'Transition Towns'
http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/node/1667
An idea initiated by a guy called Rob Hopkins, a permaculturalist, basically it is focused on the localisation of food production etc, which is pretty much in line with what Beck was talking about.
So people out there are taking babysteps. Problem is, they comprise a pretty small minority of the population. The whole population needs to make babysteps in order to make any significant change.
Living in Wellington it's pretty easy to be fooled into thinking that everyone goes to the vege market, no-one owns cars, everybody walks everywhere and are progressive types.
I agree that electricity is no longer a luxury. Is the problem of lessening our dependence on electricity a problem of designers or architects? Maybe something like the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will temporarily raise awareness to the problem.
Transition Towns sounds like a practical smart concept, might have to check out some of the towns over break.
ReplyDeleteYou are right it is easy to think that about Wellington, but three years ago the only market place I was aware of in central Wellington was the one on Victoria Street, now we have the waterfront, and even the more upscale city market. I think that represents a demand for locally grown food. Also the fact that the mayor is threatened enough to announce plans to pedestrianize the "Golden Mile" from Courtney Place down to the end of Lambton Quay represents a questioning of cars not just by the leftward leaning public but also by the government.
I think these signs while not representative of the whole country indicate a shift that which we as architects can design for. And in our designs we can perhaps persuade others to make the switch either due to economics, aesthetics, or other reasons.
I'm part of the TT group up in Brooklyn
ReplyDeletehttp://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/brooklyn
if anyone is interested in popping along to one of our monthly meetings you are more than welcome!
Hey Spennie sorry for the late response, but I would be more then interested in coming to a meeting.
ReplyDelete