Field Operations
From CollabLandWiki
Contents |
Overview
The approach of Field Operations is useful when adddressing damaged landscapes.
James Corner states...
It’s not just scenic,” he says, “but an environment where life can re-root—fish, fowl, birds, crustacean life, new grasses.” In rethinking it, Corner had to deal with the “real constraints” of a landfill, such as soil and drainage problems, and the inevitable sinking of the landscape as methane gas escapes from the trash mountains.
He also wanted to redress its “negative, almost evil, past” and transform it into something that was ecologically positive. That meant not just restoring natural systems, but incorporating wind turbines and solar energy panels. In the level areas that were never filled with trash, his plans include restaurants, museums, art studios and nature facilities
The Field Operations practice biography provides the firm's philosophy, which also shows the potential landscape architecture has to contribute to restoring damaged sites...
Networked practices
As cities grow and change under the pressures of shifting economic, technological and social forces, it is increasingly difficult for traditional design disciplines to adequately address this new complexity. Field Operations embraces complexity in order to synthesize the insights of many related disciplines: architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, ecology,infrastructure and transportation planning, economic analysis, scenario planning, media and communications.
Our aim is to discover novel solutions to the challenges of the contemporary city through new and creative affiliations - new ecologies of creativity.
Ecology
Landscapes and cities today exist within larger and more complex global ecologies. Even the smallest garden or building is an active agent in a large-scale environment changing over time. We view all sites and programs as comprising complex ecologies - never bounded or final, but rather fluid, co-extensive and continually emergent. Our work is informed by the theory and practice of ecology in the broadest sense, encompassing social as well as natural ecologies, thereby supporting projects that are self-sustaining, adaptive and resilient to change.
Design and communication
Through extensive use of diagrams, models, drawings and imagery, Field Operations works to expand the field of public space. Rather than scripting singular narratives of place or program, we seek to create an open matrix that enables users and inhabitants to inscribe their own scenarios of occupation and identity. As a working methodology, this emphasis upon visualization, construction and direct spatial experience fosters communication and dialogue amongst participants and designers alike. We see the role of design as the creation of distinctive public spaces that are in turn activated through those who use them, out there, in the field.
Corner's approach to landscape architecture is clearly reflected in the collaborative approach to the proposal as he believes...
Corner and his colleagues at Penn also emphasize the importance of relating landscape architecture to the city. There’s been a shift, says Corner, from the 19th century, where landscape was the antithesis of the city, to the modern age where landscape is beginning to be seen in concert with modernism, frequently connecting into the city fabric rather than escaping from it. It’s inappropriate, he says, to imagine recreating Versailles or Central Park. “The old models don’t pertain anymore.”
Designs
Awards
References
