boo-hoo

While I am unclear as to how to relate the readings for this week to our design project for/study of the median strip, they do raise some interesting issues and bring to light some critical problems with the pursuit of sustainability in architecture. Problems of execution and public perception plague and hinder even the best of intentions; as Ingersoll says “the common conclusion that a ‘sustainable’ architecture… will also be more beautiful has rarely been supported by evidence”. I simultaneously agree with this statement and am maddened by it, but a discussion of these frustrations isn’t particularly relevant, so I’ll omit it here.

These readings bring to the forefront the question of the definition of “natural”. Is a natural system one that is completely untouched by man (a state of being that Bright calls into question at the most fundamental level)? Or is it the prevailing ecosystem of the future the forgotten space of the city, as discussed by Hough, the dirty in-between spaces where colonies of scrappy plants and animals manage to eke out a living? Perhaps this is the ugly face of the landscape urbanism of the future—the unmanicured and questionably natural spaces at the edge, wherever edge has managed to persist in spite of our expanding efforts to eliminate it and keep on pushing out. Perhaps this is all we can hope for, and perhaps it is all we deserve. Sigh.