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| HULG0345-2 | Landscape Theory
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| Duration : | 24h Th |
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| Number of credits : |
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| Lecturer : | Axel Fisher |
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Language(s) of instruction :
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| French language |
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Organisation and examination :
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| Teaching in the first semester, review in January |
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Course contents :
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| Can we really speak about a landscape theory? One should then first define the notion of landscape: alternately perceived space and observation spot, a section of space lived by a defined population or a form of government, is the notion of landscape overlapping that of environment, territory, ecosystem or nature?
Besides, the conscious apparition of this notion in the realm of architecture dates back only the early 19th century. Is landscape as a playground for spatial design only a recent invention, and the more ancient landscapes only the result of coincidence and not of intention?
Beyond the polysemy of the word itself, it is also its sphere of activity that is largely mobile. Indeed, "landscape architecture", at first identified with the noble art of gardening, has extended its influence in only two centuries from the private garden to the public urban park. Moreover, the challenges raised after WWII by ecology, Land Art, the criticism of modernist urban planning, have altogether contributed to widen the horizons of "landscape architecture" to the global environment.
Lanscape is thus a moving target. Designers, protectors, users of the landscape have a different conception and perception of its materiality and meaning. Often invoked as the "place of the best", as a positive category per sé, landscape can also be a device to naturalize social conflicts or to carry totalizing ideologies.
The course is concerned with some historical moments when a peculiar and relevant landscape theory was conceived, read through texts, literature and physical examples, as if it was a fragment of a landscape architect's ideal library.
The course shall attempt to insinuate some doubts among the students. Landscape would be first and foremost a view of the mind, a social construct produced by urban civilizations: a compensation and consolation, a device of escapism and retreat from the social and collective sphere, an antagonist to the very same urbanity which produced it.
Today, beyond the declared ambition to make landscape the founding concept of a disciplinary renewal of urban and regional planning, one shall easily acknowledge it's unconfessed use as a device of erasure/naturalization of socio-economic power balances and of greeenwashing old style practices.
One shall then have to recognize in the history of landscape theory the elements of progress and emancipation and the deviated used made of it, to unveil the transformation of mindsets that are hiding behind its evolutions, while keeping in mind that it is this very same history of words and forms which represents the primary material for any future thinking about landscape theory and design whatsoever. |
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Learning outcomes of the course :
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| This course is at first an introduction to the plurality of existing landscape theories, to their formal imagination and their conceptual vocabulary. Rather than dispensing a practical and specialized knowledge or know-how, the course is organized as a "philological" journey within the history of the idea of landscape. Such a journey cannot but be rooted AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to sources: texts, drawings, realized works. Before even formulating a theoretical hypothesis, it is more about acknowledging the similarities and differences between a limited but representative number of historical and contemporary approaches to the issue of landscape and of the role of design within it, in order to learn to position oneself towards the many forthcoming challenges in a debate which has only recently been raised. |
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Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :
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| Prerequisite courses:
HULG0290-1 Concept de nature - HULG0263-1 Histoire de l'art des jardins et du paysage - HULG0264-1 Esthétique des paysages - HULG0270-1 Géographie...
Corequisite courses:
HULG0356-1 Histoire de l'art des jardins et du paysage - HULG0343-1 Histoire de l'art
General prerequisites: Good capacity of oral expression in French, English or Italian; correctness and appropriateness of speech and vocabulary ; aptitude to abstraction and to manipulate concepts within an articulated thought ; notion of general history ; elementary notions of epistemology (theory of knowledge of philosophy of sciences). |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
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Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
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| Attending classes and taking part to collective discussion is highly recommended as it shall ontribute to assess the student's progress during final examination. However, upon explicit demand at the starting of the semester, alternative forms of preparing the course's final examination could be considered. |
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Recommended or required readings :
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| The course's bibliographical references (required readings) shall be explicitated and made available during the lectures.
There are no course notes.
No lectures slides shall be made available.
Recommended readings: Jean-Pierre LE DANTEC, Jardins et paysages: textes critiques de l'antiquité à nos jours, Larousse, Paris, 1996; Editions de La Villette, Paris, 2003; Pierre DONADIEU, Les Paysagistes, Actes Sud, Arles, 2009; Emilio SERENI, Storia del paesaggio agrario italiano, Laterza, Bari , 1961 [16ème édition, GLF editori Laterza, Rome-Bari, 2010; éd. française, Histoire du paysage rural italien, trad. par Louise Gross, René Julliard, Paris, 1964]; Norman T. NEWTON, Design on the land: the development of landscape architecture, Belknap press of Harvard university press, Cambridge (MA), 1971; Geoffrey and Susan JELLICOE, The landscape of man: shaping the environment from prehistory to the present day, Thames and Hudson, Londres, 1975 (1987, 1995); Simon SWAFIELD, Theory in Landscape Architecture: A Reader, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia (PA), 2002; John DIXON HUNT, The Picturesque Garden in Europe, Thames & Hudson, Londres, 2003; Clemens STEENBERGEN, Wouter REH, Urban Parks and Landscapes, Thoth Uitgeverij, Bussum (NL), 2011; JoLA - Journal of Landscape Architecture (http://www.jola-lab.eu/); Les Carnets du Paysage (http://www.ecole-paysage.fr/site/publications_fr/carnets_paysage.htm) |
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Assessment methods and criteria :
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| Oral examination.
Assesment methods and criteria communicated in class. |
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Work placement(s) :
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Organizational remarks :
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| The course is organised in thematic lectures, for each of which a number of bibliographic references is indicated a made available to the students.
During the whole semester, each student is expected to prepare ahead at least once the reading of the lecture's references. The list of "student-readers" for each lecture shall be established from the very first day and during the course of the semester. The "student-reader(s)" for each lecture shall thus be held responsible for animating the collective debate with questions, doubts, and critical attitude towards the chosen readings. They shall also aim to play a role of constructive counterpoint to the teacher's "authority".
The readings of each lecture represent the course's bibliographical references and the material upon which students shall prepare their examination. |
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Contacts :
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| axel.fisher@ulb.ac.be |
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| Items online : |
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| www.ecampus.ulg.ac.be |
| L'ensemble de la bibliographie par leçon est mise à disposition des étudiants, en format PDF ou assimilable, sur la page dédiée du cours. |
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