LAND/MOTION:A Regrounding of Practice
While Landscape Architecture’s current practice of quantitative analysis through digital workflows has brought a level of scientific rigor to the discipline never seen before, other more experiential, qualitative, and emotional readings of landscape have unfortunately been lost due to remote analysis and unilateral use of toolsets. LAND/MOTION seeks to reground landscape design, the designer themself, and ultimately the intervention within dynamic landscapes and systems. Building off the idea of the processual landscape (Menatti and Rocha 2016) in which the body is no longer an observer but immersed in the processes and affordances of living systems, a methodology for scoring and designing landscape will be developed that is based in both scientific rigor and grounded by a body in motion through space. As a result, the embedded body will be the catalyst for thoughtful and meaningful design intervention that can be an equally powerful partner when collaborating with analytical approaches and disciplines.
PHOTO: HELENA OAKS
ALBEDO ENHANCEMENT: Speculative Logics of a Climate Resilient Memphis
Speculative futures for Memphis, TN were imagined through the lens of albedo enhancing geoengineering. Albedo analysis was performed and revealed a need for dual systems of enhancement for both drought and flood conditions present in Memphis. Pigment Pillars explosively coat the exposed riverbed with native plant derived albedo enhancing powder while modular tree nurseries assembled from excess scaffolding raise the next generation of the urban tree canopy. During high waters, barges carrying soy derived biosurfactant pump the river with microbubbles increasing reflectivity and as a result enhance albedo. Through these multiple systems a future vision of a climate resilient Memphis begins to take shape.
PHOTO: CHAD MANLEY
Video: Faye Nixon
Photo: Faye Nixon
THE FINEST THAT MONEY AND SCIENCE COULD PRODUCE
The project re-imagines the history of a former dry-cleaner and current superfund site in the heart of downtown Knoxville. An alternate history of the site was detailed, designed, and developed which largely references a 1933 unimplemented city planning document, developed by Bartholomew and Associates, in which the Knoxville streetcar system not only survived but thrived. Experimental representational strategies including Unity game design in virtual reality, A.I. non playable characters, filmmaking, photography, and animation were utilized to imagine the opening of a grand streetcar station in the heart of downtown Knoxville, TN. The station would provide equitable, accessible, and affordable transportation options to the city of Knoxville.
