Urban Landscape Manifesto

Idea description:

Urban landscape does not definitely mean an omnipresent vegetation, where a green idyll creates a single context of the existing architecture as an endless panorama of vegetation replacing the city. Also, these are not parks that get public character just because of being the final goal for escape from the city.

Urban landscape is a counterweight to buildings in terms of its public function. It is constantly compromised despite the fact that it is the only claim that we have towards the city. Its expediency provides a basis for the system of streets, squares, parks and gardens and their nature moves on the border of pragmatic urban values and hedonism.

Urban landscape is an infrastructure. It must be multifunctional. Gardens, parks and squares, such as buildings, must also meet more than their secular, existential meaning. To be defined on the basis of their potential area, nature, availability. We need cityscape constructed within the city and the real functioning, acting infrastructure supporting a healthy mood of the city. By creating a hierarchy of urban spaces, we can effectively deal with parts of the city that are not primarily intended to generate profits.

Stagnation of landscape architecture can be seen in the process of organizing the soil to surface patterns of colorful plants that are blinding and satisfactory for spectators, but in fact they are only a result of a lack of arguments when deciding about the real purpose of the landscape to human. There is no need to invest in so-called greenery, but effort should be put in projects that are relatively easy and provide us with aesthetic and environmental satisfaction.

“…As soon as we begin to take Central Park New York as a preservation process, we can go further and see it as a series of project transformations for saving its nature. Trees in it are (re)planted, man-made lakes, natural deterioration are technically treated and events are monitored and supported by a network of invisible infrastructure. List of natural elements out of context is restored to the greenery system, whose planned informality is as formal as squareness of shopping centers.Central Park is a synthetic Arcadian carpet.“

– Rem Koolhaas; Delirious New York

  • Author: LABAK
  • Michal Marcinov, Andrej Badin