You Will Be Assimilated

The expansion and proliferation of contemporary networks, including digital and physical manifestations of connectivity, increase the effective scale and area of any one location due to its connection to a larger context. This can be seen as part of an expanded nature, of which humans are just one part: “the ecology of dump heaps should be more rewarding for the time spent than the ecology of the grasslands of the Great Plains”. However, while the networked condition may be ‘natural’, and the benefits of increased connectivity are apparent, some of the (after) effects are problematic. Questions being asked of the new landscapes created by networks include how they can be better predicted and programmed, how they can become more socially equitable, and how to reduce their environmental impact. New networks should not be unquestioningly accepted; while they are here to stay, they are simultaneously open to modification, in fact, they are defined by modification. The challenge is to ascertain which modifications are possible, and will have positive effects.

The idea of a landscape as extended and integrated form, where territories are expanded by infrastructural networks, requires consideration of the larger urban scale as part of any intervention. From Landscapes of Exchange, “this new articulation of territories are not formally site specific, but instead encompasses the coordination of material connections via transportation infrastructures and virtual connections through automated transfers and communication systems across larger areas of operation.” However, it is suggested that it is desirable to “predict and orchestrate the progressive accumulation of preexisting collisive sites in advance of the emergence of unintended and reactionary occupation, so that the less intentionally spatial operations – which are often the most spatially provocative… can in some way be more appropriately staged.”

The appropriate staging of the expanded landscape, without detracting from the benefits of the increased flexibility, becomes a question of incremental adjustment. The car and the road can be improved to be more equitable, accessible, environmentally responsible, without being eliminated. As suggested by both Webber and Brinkerhoff, adjustments to the existing network, alternate methods of control, increased transit modeled on the advantages of automobiles, could be the alteration needed to change the system.

However, waiting for technology to advance to a point that will correct previous neglect may not be a strategy for making improvements today. Accepting the certainty of impermanence and increasingly connected, expanding landscapes may be inevitable. Architecture, or landscape urbanism, may only be a reflection of that inevitability. The only possibility may be to understand the environment so that it can be navigated. But design is a manner of manipulating, or reconfiguring material into form and space. The act of design has an impact by its very nature. The impact is guided by the designer, due consideration needs to be applied when engaging the network. Interventions should be deliberate, considering the larger connections, engaging and amplifying opportunities, producing a “net gain in environmental quality and in the overall quality of life”.