Landscape and the
City
18th December 2015
18th December 2015
Concept
Note
It may not be
incorrect to say that all cities came to inhabit a landscape – a setting that
was a given, a space that was to be tamed and a resource that was negotiated
for productive purposes. The historical response of cities to their natural
settings has undergone many shifts – influenced by the evolving social,
political and economic forces. The relationship of a modern city (as a
phenomenon) with (its) landscape is worth a close examination. Modern processes
lent cities the confidence to reorient the course of nature and landscape.
These “natural settings” were thought of as entities that could be reconfigured
within the imposed logic of the city. Thus, cutting off hills, redirecting
rivers, reclaiming waters, erasing forests, altering terrains and reimagining
geography was merely an exercise in the process of city building. These
aggressive moves were always looked upon as permanent solutions to immediate
crisis.
Landscape’s centrality to growing urbanity has come to be realized and emphasized only in the recent past, triggered by the dissatisfaction in the environmental leveling that urban environment has attained with respect to its natural resources. In the case of Mumbai, this new leveling is seen in several scenarios – whether it be the leopards invading and attacking human settlements, the flooding of the city in 2005 rains, the changing patterns of fishing along the coasts, etc. It is clear that these events have brought to the forefront, time and again our carefree handling of the urban natural settings. We are at a juncture where several physical alterations are being imagined for Mumbai: the proposal of coastal road, the redevelopment of the Eastern waterfront to name a few. The discomfort with the present “equilibrium” has brought us to critically consider these new imaginations, this time, with landscape as priority.
The recent Chennai floods, or the not-so-old Sabarmati overflow hint to us that more or less, every city is now facing an environmental crisis that is embedded in the question of how cities have engaged with their landscapes. In other words, it may be possible to find some directions to reimagining urban life in considering questions interposed within the theme of “Landscape and the City”. This seminar aims to address the mediation of landscape by cities, and vice versa. In this exchange, we aim to contemplate what are the channels through which a landscape practice can be streamlined within city processes? What are the attitudes through which issues of the city can be approached through a landscape perspective? Further, how do we find methods in which such attitudes can be instilled within our everyday living? Through the individual expertise of our panelists, and their past engagements, we aim to gain an understanding about what challenges lie ahead of us if landscape was to become the primary framework through which we intervene within our cities.
Landscape’s centrality to growing urbanity has come to be realized and emphasized only in the recent past, triggered by the dissatisfaction in the environmental leveling that urban environment has attained with respect to its natural resources. In the case of Mumbai, this new leveling is seen in several scenarios – whether it be the leopards invading and attacking human settlements, the flooding of the city in 2005 rains, the changing patterns of fishing along the coasts, etc. It is clear that these events have brought to the forefront, time and again our carefree handling of the urban natural settings. We are at a juncture where several physical alterations are being imagined for Mumbai: the proposal of coastal road, the redevelopment of the Eastern waterfront to name a few. The discomfort with the present “equilibrium” has brought us to critically consider these new imaginations, this time, with landscape as priority.
The recent Chennai floods, or the not-so-old Sabarmati overflow hint to us that more or less, every city is now facing an environmental crisis that is embedded in the question of how cities have engaged with their landscapes. In other words, it may be possible to find some directions to reimagining urban life in considering questions interposed within the theme of “Landscape and the City”. This seminar aims to address the mediation of landscape by cities, and vice versa. In this exchange, we aim to contemplate what are the channels through which a landscape practice can be streamlined within city processes? What are the attitudes through which issues of the city can be approached through a landscape perspective? Further, how do we find methods in which such attitudes can be instilled within our everyday living? Through the individual expertise of our panelists, and their past engagements, we aim to gain an understanding about what challenges lie ahead of us if landscape was to become the primary framework through which we intervene within our cities.
***
This post shall be detailed soon over later posts.
Poster Design: Anuj Daga
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