Propositions for a study of Architecture with Landscape Methods

Could innovative design methods lead to Sustainable Spatial Development?

by
Daniel Jauslin, Dipl. Arch. ETH
Researcher and PhD Candidate
TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture,
Chair of Landscape Architecture Prof. Dr. Ing. C.M.Steenbergen

Contemporary architecture has been strongly influenced by the concept of landscape in recent
times. The landscape analogy that accompanied architecture for a long time in tectonics or
ornament is now transforming the concepts of form and space. The landscape analogy has
moved from marginal subjects to the core of the discipline. We are looking for principals of
architectural theory, which can not be derived anymore from an big predominant ideology.
What framework for architecture do we still need in the more or less lucky freedom of our
time? We might want to use the proposed exercise of knowledge transfer to rediscover some
basic principles. A study of landscape as a means of architecture could lead to such a basic
theory, not derived from any ideology nor adopting philosophical terms to a practical field.
We prefer looking in our own backyard, enjoying the freedom of thoughts about our own
subject matter.

To introduce the subject we will summarize some observations about landscape that are
important to our research. Then this article evaluates the potential and ctitical position of
some selected projects. The goal is to establish a theory about landscape methods in
architecture. We will explain how some projects using landscape are proposing a completely
new approach towards the making architecture. This landscape oriented approach leads to
very innovative designs which implies fundamental critique towards some of the established
rules and habits of architecture. In the conclusion our propositions should illustrate the use or
relevance of that emerging theory for the practice of architecture and urbanism in our time
and how a emerging field of work could change our profession.

The scope of our research is a series of buildings that would like to be landscapes. A number
of architects use landscape not only as a metaphor but as a method to design buildings. A
theory in architecture could ideally be established as “an analytic work that related what I had
learned to see” [1]. So we first want to take a closer look to the projects to try to derive some
rules. This is opposed to the mere import of a theoretical concept (be it from sciences or
humanities) into the discipline of architecture.

In classic architectural theory we would oftentimes see nature as a reference for architecture.
Most famously this is illustrated in the frontispiece [fig.1] of Marc-Antoine (Abbe) Laugiers’
Essay sur l’architecure [2] Architectura on the right foreground. While leaning on fragments
(or ruins?) of classical architectural decorum, she is showing a hut build on trees to the
Genius on the left foreground. The Genius is inspired from nature and classical architecture is
derived from some mythic source in antiquity. Although this could easily be used as a good
defence for contemporary greenery in architecture this is not quite were our theory is heading
towards. Landscape architecture is more that the green outside the red.

Landscape architecture has always understood itself as a separate discipline from architecture.
Even if we call it paysagisme - in 18 century French context of Laugier- there is always an
opposition. Paysagisme is defending it's way of taming nature with it’s own methods differing
to the methods of architecture. In the frontispiece [fig.2] of Jaques Delilles Les jardins ou
l’art d’embellir les paysages [3] we see a debate of the allegories of the landscape style (left)
and the geometrical style (right). We find quite similar attributes like those of Laugiers’
Architectura and even more buildings in the background. The debate of the two beauties
 Fig.2
Fig.1 Genius and Architectura in the Frontispice of Marc Fig. 2 Allegories of the natual and architectureal style in
Antoine Laugier Essay sur l’architecure op.cit. 2 the Frontispice of Jaques Delilles Les jardins ou l’art
d’embellir les paysages op.cit. 3

seems quite intense. Just befor the French Revolution, in a period of the decline of the French
formal garden and at the rise of the English landscape garden, we can easily imagine
passionate quarrels of the anciens and the nouveaux. One could almost tell that the two
allegories of Geometrical Style and Architcture on the right side of each etching in Delille’s
and Laugier's books are sisters or one person. We might even recognize a resemblance of the
faces - or it is their idealness that makes them look similar? In any case the next step of the
development of landscape was away from the architectural towards the imitation of nature.
Paysagisme was emancipating itself from architecure and we could fix that moment in history
quite precisely to the appearance of this etching.

Very briefly, the evolution of landscape and garden design is one from architecture related
geometry and elements in the renaissance to a romantic imitation of nature in the late 18th
century. The development of this art is closely related to the development of the term
landscape. The word landscape was first used to describe a type of painting and only later for
a designed or natural landform. Thus landscape always involves a pictorial quality – the
picturesque. The landscape garden is the imitation of nature with the ingenious artistic
intervention (nowadays we would call it design) that not only simulates but frames, relates
and intensifies the natural experience of man. The romantic perception of nature and the
establishment of the picturesque are key elements to the development of the landscape
garden. Whilst in landscape architecture the actual design of the natural landform is essential
it is only a very select number of historical buildings that actually fully integrate landscapes.
Architecture up to modernism (and beyond), in fact, has even intensified the opposition
between landscape and the architectural object. Even many of the most important works of
modern architecture express a very significant distinction between it, being an object, and ‘the
landscape’.
In the history of famous architecture-landscape relations the presupposed opposition – despite
all the correspondences and interactions - would remain predominant. This opposition would
count for the main periods. The opposition can be seen as predominant despite some
convergence in examples of the three periods: at Villa Emo, Versailles or Castle Howard.
There is a basic duality between the formal systems of the garden or landscape and the
architecure. This opposition counts for the Renaissance garden, the French formal garden and
the English landscape garden. The disciplines remain separate in modernism in both
architecture and landscape architecture. This could be illustrated by the iconic Farnsworth
House of Mies van der Rohe, for example. Some rare exceptions would only confirm the rule.

This does not mean that there was no relation or interference between landscape and
architecture throughout history but only that each defended the autonomy of their realm and
that such simple differences as inside and outside, or red and green, seem to be perpetual. So
incorporating landscape methods into architecture is a major conceptual shift (some authors
already called it a revolution [4]). Buildings that start to become landscapes are establishing a
new paradigm for architecture and this is definitely more than a fashion. The structure of
landscape has become a model of thought about space that sometimes proves to be more
effective or more adequate than other models (like for example syntax, the structure language
as the predominant inspiration for architecture since the late 1960’s). Landscape has become
important to architecture in understanding the temporality of experience, the contextual
relations and the spatial and material development of individual buildings and the city. In
innovative design practice methods and concepts that are traditionally used describing
landscapes have been applied onto the architectural space such as mapping, folding, morphing
and other process oriented morphological concepts. The temporality of space – always
inherent in landscape – has become increasingly important for architecture. Natural elements
like topography, routing, horizon, picturesque, planting or even growth and genetics have
established important roles in the theoretical discourse. These concepts from nature are used
mostly in a cultural and theoretical approach and thus tamed or filtered by landscaping. Not
only do we see various imitations of landscapes or adoptions of landscape metaphors in many
projects but there seems to be a more profound underlying current of strong (possibly even
epochal) significance.

To try to understand the architecure of landscapes Clemens Steenbergen and Wouter Reh
have established a set of layers - basic form, spatial form, metaphorical or image form and
program form - and explained the composition designs out of a overlapping of these layers
[5].
For our purpose we could define them like this : Basic form is the way in which the natural
landscape is reduced, rationalized and activated. Spatial form is about the experience of the
landscape space, including routings, framings and picturesque compositions. Metaphorical
form is the use of iconographic and mythological images of nature, always connected to the
other layers and mostly represented in one of the others. Programmatic form is the division of
functions and organisation of their relationships influencing the composition. The
programmatic form incorporates the tension between business (negotium) and contemplation
of nature (otium) in a constant search for balance from the classical landscape up to our times.

Steenbergen and Reh derived this architecture of landscape from the architectural theory of
Frankl [6]– so if we use it back in architecture we have to make an important methodological
distinction first. We will not use the terms of Steenbergen and others to defend the presence
of landscape elements in architecture. Such an exercise could easily be unmasked as a self-
fulfilling prophecy or be academically worthless. The fact that these buildings we propose are
landscapes is evident. In practically all of the cases the architects have been using the term
landscape to defend or explain their building and/or the wish to create a landscape is obvious
in the design process. If we use the layers of Steenbergen and others it is only to identify the
elements in connection to the layers, to better understand the composition of the landscape
into the architecture and how actually similar compositional relations between the layers are
being used in indoor and outdoor design. We will apply these distinctions into layers on our
selected buildings, analysing architecture with landscape methods. This should clarify if and
where the landscape analogy is influencing the architectural form of selected projects.

In this article I will propose a short selection of five projects of the last fifteen years to
illustrate the relevance of a phenomenon. An in depth analysis is still to be started and this is
why this is only a proposition of methods and a series of observations. In the next step a
profound and structured analysis of these examples should lead to deeper understanding of
the phenomenon.

This short selection contains examples that best illustrate the spectrum of architecture with
landscape methods. It is limited to buildings that want to be landscapes and that are
intentionally imitating certain aspects of landscapes mostly to develop typologically
innovative interpretations of various public programmes. Even under these quite closed
criteria the list of relevant projects would be much longer than the format of this article, but
this is no complete anthology nor catalogue but just a selection of most relevant choices.

One of the most striking and pure adoptions of landscape principals into architecture is the
project for Two Libraries at the Jussieu University Complex in Paris by OMA 1992-1993
[fig.3]. Here they have used the integration of a sloping plane. A folded landscape is used in a
programmatic change from the multidirectional and limitless; in a “vertical intensified
landscape” the surfaces are “urbanized” [7]. The intensified landscape is a direct answer to
the parvis in the adjacent complex of the existing Jussieu University Campus. The parvis was
a huge surface on a plateau, slightly above ground level. It should be an all accessible and
communicating platform in the original concept of the university building by Albert that was
left unfinished (and also fenced) after May 1968. It is now a dull and windy space under
buildings lifted on pilotis devoid of any qualities as a public space. The project is deriving an
action plan for a new type of building from a critique of the existing. They pinpoint the places
where the relation of the parvis to the building goes wrong, question the whole concept of the
elevated plateau as a separation to the urban space and criticize the inner circulation system of
endless hallways in a grid, indifferent to space, position or direction. The actual process of
folding a plane into a landscape was illustrated by a series of photographs and related as an
opposing concept to the existing building. For the images the actual existing parvis is
transformed into a landscape. The densification of the endless plane into a landscape is
proposing a different sense of orienting a routing through a landscape or as a “Baudelairean
flaneur” [8] in the urban scenario. This is a remarkably strong conceptual shift. OMA is
introducing landscape into architecture as a remedy for late modernist architecture- a counter
concept to Jussieu Univerisity’s opposition of ground plane and building. Actually the entry
to the two libraries is situated in the centre of the section, Science is sloping into the ground
and Humanities are moving upwards. By integrating the landscape into the building the
object-landscape or figure-ground opposition is dissolved and integrated into one continuous
from. But an other opposition is dissolved by one simple move as well: the design is
associating the landscape experience with a particular way of urban experience. The flaneur –
who is exploring

the urban space like a wanderer would explore a landscape is of course connected to Paris, the
city of the flaneur of Charles Baudelaire and the derives of the Situationsists. The seaming
opposition between urban and landscape is deliberately abandoned. The inside building is
composed following scenarios of flow and the endless strolling through a city of books on a
single trajectory. The Building becomes an architecturalized route or promenade
architecturale in a size and complexity that has not been seen before. Although unrealized this
project could be seen as one of the keys to our question and certainly was very a influential
trigger for a number of later inventions in architecture. Interestingly enough the Landscape
metaphor is deliberately chosen by the architect. It seems to be the most appropriate term to
describe a continuous surface that can be experienced as one space.

The full reduction of all four layers into one element comes with a conceptual price: there is
an outside form and, just like the very big library project for Paris, it is a simple box. And the
structure is simply a grid of columns. One advantage of this pure abstract elements is, that the
main element – the plateau folded into a landscape – gets clearly visible and each facade is a
display of the most interesting feature of the building: it’s section.

If we use the distinction into layers of landscape architecture according to Steenbergen and
Reh we can see the reason for the conceptual dominance of the folded plane it is unifying the
basic form and spatial form into one. The folded plane is depicting a landscape in the
metaphorical form – and also including the programme form of the composition - the
arrangement of books in an urban landscape for flaneurs. Basically, this one thing unites all
the aspects of landscape while other needs are reduced to unframed glass and minimized
columns. Endless furnishing that appears like a miniature city on the endless plains of the
artificial ground is colonizing the landscape.
This project of OMA although not built has made a big impact on other projects – in our
opinion it marks a period of change in architecture. The change is even more apparent if we
think that Koollhaas as always cherished urbanity as a sort of maximum contrast between
programmes and promoted cross-programming to establish urban qualities with pure
horizontal layering or other forms of serial staking. With the continuity of the spatial system
within a building he makes a new proposal to deal with the conflict of building and city. The
tension between architecture and urbanism was always a big concern of Koolhaas. Landscape
as universal spatial system is importing urban qualities into a building.

th.
Fig. 3 OMA Two Libraries Jussieu Paris Fig.4 MVRDV Gwangyo Poxwer Centre near Seoul

Seeing Villa VPRO in Hilversum 1993-1997 of MVRDV only as a postcard greeting to the
master, as Ilka and Andreas Ruby [9] put it, is not quite adequate. Sources studied by the
author at the OMA archive in NAI [10] showed that Jussieu was a very fast competition
project and that Jacob van Rijs and Winny Mass (the later founders of MVRDV with Nathalie
de Vries) where strongly involved into it’s creation as part of a compact team with later
support of their mastermind. This is opposed to the long and carefully prepared design of
Villa VPRO which as an early MVRDV work got all the care of a first project. Also the
Jussieu project is much more of a short and linear design (assumedly due to lack of time) than
other OMA projects that are emerging out of endless series of different concept models. So
Jussieu can be clearly explained as born from an original idea within OMA. It would be
adequate to see Villa VPRO together with some of the late 1990ies buildings of OMA (and
with other members of the Jussieu Team like Christophe Cornubert in Educatorium Utrecht
1997) as one possible realisation of the Jussieu concept. The VPRO design started in the year
1993, the same year that the Jussieu Project was not further developed. So there is a clear
continuation of the main idea which is “the landscape is the building” [11]. But Villa VPRO
is much smaller than the Jussieu project (and still more complex). So the strong formal ideas
are slightly too big for the size of the building. The idea of landscape involves bigness and the
risk of reducing it to postcard size (that would fit) is not only that the slopes are then too steep
to become spaces but also that the picturesque becomes weak. To express that kind of
landscape grandeur MVRDV first had to grow above that scale. The landscape analogy is one
of the constant elements in a wide range of work of MVRDV. In the late 90’s up to now
projects like Metacity Datatown [12] or even their latest vision of Rotterdam at the Venice
Biennale 2008 have put up a lot of questions as to how far the landscape metaphor can go.
Some of the work did not struggle with any limits of size (like VPRO did) but it became
uncertain if some of these oversize projects are really something we would like to happen.
But in our subject we can just assume that they have been consciously using landscapes to
design architecture for fifteen consecutive years now.
No wonder that the latest strike of MVRDV is to the point: The Gwang Gyo Power Centre in
South Korea near Soul (Competition Design 2008) is a project for a new city centre with high
density mixed programme [fig.4]. It is sited in an interesting scenery of green hills and lakes,
being under high pressure of urban development with redoubtable quality. MVRDV proposed
to insert a highly artificial landscape, the size of six or seven Manhattan Blocks, into the
relatively large site. Landscape is playfully designed, the kind of landscape interesting for the
site is derived from a series of comparisons. To bridge a gap between two hilly ridges (the
valley) a third mountainous ridge is added. Skyscraper high Dutch Mountains look like on a
historic Korean landscape painting ‘Mount Kumgang Viewed from Danbalryomg Peak’ by
Lee Byeong-yeon [13]. The landscape seems very stylized and it's phallic appearance
becomes almost surreal reminding of Meret Oppenheims famous Fury Cup or Pelztasse. The
surreal technique is quite powerful in establishing desirable qualities in undesirable
circumstances. The green artificial insert with huge programme is like a life saving act for the
urban landscape that would definitely be overwhelmed by the pure size and density of the
inserted centre. If we seriously want to defend our landscape from urban sprawl such a green
high density centre is a very interesting urban model. Could we not use this as a model for
urban development? A new typology could prevent at once the collapse of centres with a
artificial green heart and the surrounding landscape with introducing high density green
instead of low density sprawl.
In the design the basic form is filling the whole competition site to the maximum extents – the
architects know now that landscapes need more space than the size of a villa. The spatial form
is a refined composition of mountains with a valley and a series of grottos. Of all layers the
metaphorical form is predominant through the strong image of the landscape in its analogy to
the Korean pictorial tradition. This is one truly original cultural connection via imagery. The
client's programme is distributed in a quite pragmatic manner though grottos inside the hills
endless balconies with green framings. The sky-high rooftop parks are another innovation.
Still in this design the strength of the image is more important than the strength of the
typological answer to the question.
The mere size and exaggerated heights make the design also look like a caricature. Strong pop
art imagery of MVRDV is not always sustainable in the sense that the humour will be strong
enough to become a timeless cultural achievement. So the critical impact and ability to
change our profession is still uncertain. Although declared a sustainable building, the project
will have to prove the sustainability in terms of people's acceptance, spatial qualities and
social impact. There is no doubt that the realisation process of this design will be one of the
most thrilling stories to be continued in the near future.
A third important project to our subject was developed very shortly after Jussieu in the time
where Villa VPRO was still in planning phase. The competition design and building of the
Yokohama International Ferry Terminal 1995-2002 by Foreign Office Architects [fig. 5] was
probably one of the most striking and influential projects of the 1990’s [14]. A series of
planes interwoven to continuously build surfaces and walls – actually dissolving that
opposition – could only be described as a landscape. Not unlike Jussieu many other elements
are subordinated to that continuous landscape as if they where furniture. The constant flow of
space is articulated through many elements to underline the dynamics. The programme of the
transitory space is translated into a park like public space on the roof – which a landscape
with spatial references to the movement of the sea and detailing references to a ship deck. If it
had to be compared to garden history the French formal garden would fit. Not only because if
the playful symmetry and axiality but also because of it’s repetitive forms of (in this case very
innovative) folds in space and structure. The key difference to the Jussieu project is, that here
that the primary construction and skin of the building are not detached from the landscape
concept but integrated. Further separation between inside and outside is reminiscent of
brutalist spatial experience like the Aula of TU Delft by van den Broek and Bakemaa, 1959 -
1966.
All the layers of a landscape composition are present. The basic form of Yokohama is still a
rectangle but since it is laid down as a peer in the harbour this is clearly a full occupation of a
existing (even if man made) landscape element as land in the sea. Also the distinction here
between topographical ground plane and topographical design is blurred – the most intensely
shaped topography on top becomes the public passage across the roof. The spatial form is
connected to the axial flow from land to sea and from underlining it with its symmetry,
dynamics and long stretched spaces. The imitation of landscape shapes instead of vertical
walls and horizontal floors is m ost strongly influencing the space. The metaphorical form
consists very strong images of waving hills that could be land or water using inclined
furnishing, ship detailing and greenery to increase the metaphor into a kind of dazing spatial
composition, in an approach of total design all elements even structure, glazing, lightning,
shades, steps, seating are related to the spatial principal of the continuous dynamic planes
with one or another metaphorical design. The programmatic form is also fully integrated into
that total concept. The hoping-on and -off ferries is basically a constant flow of people and
goods on different vehicles or foot that has to be channelled separated and filled up. The
separation is laid out into spaces – the flow from city to boat becomes the leading element for
forming a space with landscape means. The programme of the transitory space becomes fully
integrated into it’s Gesamtkunstwerk composition.
This project certainly has influenced many architects since it’s first publication from the won
competition. It has been followed with great attention because it applied some principals of
continuous space into a large-scale building concept with a strong and clear agenda to alter
our perception of architectural space. Not unlike the Jussieu project it crated a completely
new typology, even though it’s programme might have been more apt to such a spatial
intervention than others. The purity and radicalism of creating landscape space with a strong
orientation to pictorial qualities might also be connected to the consequent use of 3d-cad-
simulations, which already where present in the very first presentation. Their power was not
only suggestive but they integrated the spatial and sensorial experience. Working with
landscape as a means of spatial communication with humans to create orientation in a highly
functional environment was giving the landscape method a strong impulse to become a ruling
force in architecture.
 .
Fig. 5 FOA Yokohama Ferry Terminal Fig. 6 Eisenman City of Culture Galicia

The incredible scale of Peter Eisenmans’s City of Culture of Galicia 1999-2012 [fig. 6] was
illustrated in the competition-design with a scale comparison of the project to the size of the
whole existing city of Santiago de Compostella. Not only did Eisenman Architects use the
image to show the scale, they literally took over the structures of streets and houses from that
operation. The design of a landscape seemed to be an adequate response to gigantic ambitions
of two museums, two libraries, a music theatre and visitors facilities with a bus terminal and
shuttle service to keep the masses of pilgrims in a controlled flow. The architectural design is
much more approached in a conscious composition of layers than any other exaple. The
Design process itself is described as the adding up of layers [15]. A shell form is imported
from the Icon of Santiago introducing flow lines of pilgrims streams, a mapping of the city
centre structure onto that first layer, a filling in of the program into a seemingly arbitrary form
and finally a deformation of the existing topography in formal manipulation of a
topographical model to design the envelope. Eisenman uses the concept of the Palimpsest
[16]: Ancient manuscripts, which has been written and overwritten many times to illustrate
the design process could also be understood as tectonic layers or architecture. In a sort of
reverse erosion, a summing up of new layers, the architect generates form. Just like in the
MVRDV design, the landscape approach is a generated in a sort of surreal panic reaction of
the architect facing an enormous multiplex program that represents outrageous ambitions of
the local authorities. One can imagine mountains of square meters piling up on the drawing
board threatening to destroy the site. But the composition is deeply worked over –
arbitrariness is a deliberate move to not impose strong order where unnecessary and display
the constant duality between strong and weak forms so typical for Eisenman's work. Besides
the theoretical framework – to honour it this whole article would not be long enough – the
formal composition is one of the most interesting landscapes in architecture. Through
layering and transformations, chance encounters, shifting operations and mutual deformations
of each of these processes the design is reaching a kind of epic quality, underlined with the
constant presence of orderly structures, grids and tiling that seem to be following divergent
rhythms but introduce an architectural syntax with the virtuosity of a master. Not only does
it's natural stone cladding make this building appear like a rock – it's the deliberate insertion
of time related design and processes that are introducing parametric design analogous to
geomorphological forces.
So in terms of composition the architecture of Peter Eisenman is integrating landscape not
only as a willingly applied form but as a willingly applied process – designing
transformations (into landscapes) rather than forms (of landscapes). The aim of leaving things
to chance is establishing significance by interpretation. One could almost compare it to a
process as the emergence of landscape from nature – architecture like a second nature derived
from a revered erosion process.
The basic form of a shell is overlaid by several other forms: the town map, the flow lines and
the deformed topography. All are integrated to build up to the spatial layer or rather a
multilayered space. The metaphorical form of landscape is of course represented with the
image of topography and the natural stone cladding but most importantly this whole process
in it’s density and petrifaction of processes is a landscape in itself. The programme form is
more inspired by urban situations but creeks become streets, and creek-crossings become
squares. The architectural programme is filled up into shapes that result from land forming
processes – which is an almost archaic way to treat functions. Form and space are the essence
of architecture as opposed to function or technique. This could shortly describe the
programmatic intentions of this composition.
It is not disputable that the theoretical work of Peter Eisenman has had a great influence on
contemporary architecture. Eisenman is known for his, sometimes quite specific
interpretations and adoptions of contemporary philosophy for architecture and for eloquent
critique of modernism. His build work is always strongly related to theoretical concepts .The
mind-driven structures might even lack a relation the human body. The City of Culture of
Galicia might become Eisenman’s most powerful work, creating a whole landscape out of
one’s mind might overcome the gap to the human experience. It seems like landscape
metaphor is introduced in the design not only in relation to the site bit also to give visitors a
clue to understand the complexity of the enormous composition. We can hope that the
visitor’s experience will not only be one of scale and monumentality but also touch the
viewer’s soul.

Fig. 7 Diller & Scofidio Blur Building Expo.02 Yverdon-les-Bains

For the ‘cloud’ or Blur building of Diller + Scofidio for Expo.02 Yverdon-les-Bains 1997-
2002 [fig.7]. the design process could certainly not be qualified as q quick linear process like
Jussieu. In an almost 400 page monograph ‘blur: the making of nothing’ [17] the architects
themselves give an insight into the long story of this ephemeral building. Various artificial
landscapes with hills dripping off the ceiling, tilted water planes or landforms moving on and
off the water. All of these where issued out of an interdisciplinary team Extasia [18]. The role
of Diller + Scofidio in that team was initially named “immaterial design” only for the
paperwork of competition procedures. The Blur building – finally- was an artificial cloud
hovering above lake Neuchâtel and becoming the objet du desir in a theme park about
sexuality and sensuality. For the visitors of the exhibition the Cloud would not only represent
an ideal paradise inaccessible for earthlings. They would be able to access the Cloud. The
building would actually be the climax of the sensual experience for visitors dazed and
confused by a psychedelic flower-hill landscape beforehand.
The basic form in this design completely dissolved. The long process only illustrates that Blur
is the negation of occupation of the lake. The initial competition brief asked all architects to
build onto the lake as the muddy coast was too weak to bear the necessary surface loads. So
lifting up the basic form into the sky is a nihilist approach to the basic form. With the
detailing of the Blur building, the architects are also deliberately loosening the control of the
spatial form. While using a quite technical language of construction, the sensational water
dust itself is steered by a system of nozzles. The most impressive spatial experience was
actually fisrt being inside a cloud and then hovering above the lake on that cloud – looking
back onto the exhibition and towards the other three sites framed between the Jura Mountains
and the Alps. The metaphoric form is very clearly the cloud in the sky any admirer of
landscape painting especially in a context of Dutch masters like Jacob van Ruisdael would
agree that the clouds are probably the most important element of sublime in the landscape –
designing clouds is actually the most original invention with only a few, much smaller,
mostly ground related and less iconic precedents in landscape or architectural design [18].
The program form is pure otium – the business is only sponsoring. There is no other program
that the experience itself.
The building of nothing (though very poetic) is the most radical intervention an architect
could ever propose. It seemed almost like a complete negation or as if the authors where
saying to their client or team partners that architecture does not make sense for this situation.
Still Diller + Scofidio approached it like an architectural task and not like a piece of land-art.
Of course a cloud is not a landscape. But in a painting of a landscape the sky is essential to
the composition. The horizon is introducing the relation of human eye and the landscape. The
Cloud is transforming its surroundings be they buildings or hills into a landscape. Of all
designs discussed here this one is most radically changing spatial experience. Although
extremely popular and appreciated by critics this piece also provoqued some irritation –
especially among architects. It’s radical opposition to any kind of shaping or wrapping for the
purpose of exhibitions left everybody else in a quite ridiculous position.

If we sum up the possible classifications of landscape elements in architecture into basic

form, spatial form, metaphorical form and program form we first realize that architects are
mixing up a lot of these distinctions. We also can see that there is a huge variety of using the
layers within the wide field of landscapes imitated by architecture. It seems like the landscape
composition is a pure play in a ideal space of almost infinite possibilities extending to the
horizon where as architecture is struggling with increasing complexity, constraints and
limitations with earthly frustration. Landscape seems to be a trigger for imagining ways to
think out of the box. All examples are redefining the typology of their programme with
radically new design approaches.

This article is only a starting point. We are describing in words and illustrating in pictures
what will have to be done from now on. Several ways to improve our method need to be
followed. Firstly, there should be drawings made – analytical drawings, de-compositions and
re-compositions to fully understand the mechanics of each of the designs. Secondly, the layer
model should be tested against other models, at least in some cases, to see if there might be
better models (although it is very comfortable for the author to be involved in a whole group
of researchers working in one coherent terminology). As a third point, the drawings should
attribute their elements to different landscape elements but should also clarify what is clearly
‘not-landscape’ (like the facade and the bearing structure at Jussieu for example). It might be
good to use two colours (green and red) for this purpose. Also, the landscape references need
to be named more precisely and attributed to each element. Analysis should help refine the
tools of each project by constant comparison and feedback. Through this kind of
comprehensive research and structured results we hope to be establishing a more profound
knowledge and to sum up our findings into a theory of use for both disciplines.
This will lead us to a theory about why and how (and by what means) landscape is
influencing architecture and how the human experience of space in landscape is influencing
the making of space through the means of architecture. That is, if our hypothesis of a coherent
phenomenon can be proven.

Landscape should not be equated with nature. If we regard the concept of landscape as an
ideal notion of human living space, it can also be transferred to the city: we can read the city
as landscape. This approach has many advocates, but some of them seem to lack a deeper
understanding of these cityscapes. Nowadays many people use the term ‘urban landscape’ or
‘cityscape’ as a pretext for spreading rapidly informed architecture at high speed over the
landscape like butter on a slice of bread. Or the urban landscape analogy is taken as an excuse
for erecting immense buildings.

It is not our aim to simplify the landscape concept in this way. We rather propose to expand
both urban and landscape space by shifting our perspective. Instead of looking down at the
map (or the slice of bread) from above, this approach requires an atmospheric and intellectual
position in space. Our perspective of landscape is a human perspective. It relates to the
perception of the real living space. People perceive landscapes and cities from their individual
perspectives.

We do not promote the landscape theme as a universal solution: But we can combat urban
sprawl with densification and urban densification in the wrong place by overcoming the
theoretical boundaries between landscape and architecture. The integrated approach to
architecture, urban planning and landscape is the subject of careful consideration, not a
panacea.

Theory and practice in architecture are interlocking. The constant flow of ideas, concepts and
methods between the theoretical and the built can sometimes be confusing for even the most
scientific of all approaches will never have complete objectivity - there is no exception made
by the author. But isn’t it just that very relation, that architecure is about“building ideas”,
which makes the discussion so interesting and probably life-long.

Looking into the position of the five projects shows us, that the landscape metaphor is always
used as a means of changing the discipline of architecture by bringing it closer to the human
experience. We are looking at two or three generations of architects that grew up with radical
criticism of modernism (if they where not even part of the critics). They would certainly
refuse any ideological premise in their own work. The landscape method is not about
criticism – we are witnessing the raise of a new humanism in architectural design. Not an
ideologically driven humanism but a artistically driven one. New designs seem to seek their
rules from an internal order but are extremely willing to communicate with a wide public. The
use of landscape as a method seems to be new means to relate spatial architecture to
experience again – to design the very living environment in a time of freedom, without
didactic or regulatory interventionism.

An emerging theory of architecture with landscape methods might put the human perspective
back onto our agenda. The condition humaine is revealed in the appearance of landscape. The
city is still the biggest human civilizing achievement in space. To develop it in a human way,
to regain the grip on the city that our disciplines have lost, we propose designing architecture-
as-landscapes as a method. We are convinced that the human perspective will survive any
crisis – including the crisis of urbanism.
Research Questions

To address the main Question of my PhD “What is Architecture with Landscape Methods?” I
would like to propose the following three questions to discussion:

What are the landscape architectural elements (or layers) in a series of buildings?

What is the meaning of Landscape as a concept to Architectural Design? now and in the near
future?

What impact could Architecture with Landscape Methods have on urban or regional
developement?

Notes

1. Peter Eisenman, The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture (Cambridge 1963 / Baden: Lars Müller Publishers
2006) Afterword p.379
2. Marc Antoinne Laugier, Essais sur l’architecure Paris 1752 for a detailed bibliographical study of the
frontispiece see Fabio Restrepo, Ceci n'est pas une cabane ..., Zeitschrift Scholion Nr. 4 (Einsiedeln: Bibliothek
Werner Oechslin May 2006)
3. Dellile Les jardins ou l’art d’embellir les paysages 1782 is quoted here after Christian Bertram, Erik de Jong,
Michel Lafaille Landscapes of Imagination Designing the European Tradition of Garden and Landscape
Architecture 1600-2000 (Rotterdam: NAI Publishers 2008)
4. Francesco Repishti Green Architectur Beyond the Metafor in Lotus 135 2008 p. 34-41
5. Clemens Steenbergen and Wouter Reh, Architecture and Landscape The Design Experiment of the Great
European Gardens and Landscapes, Revised and expanded edition (Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser 2003)
6. Paul Frankl, Principles of Architectural History (Massachuetts, The MIT Press 1968) translated from Die
Entwicklungsphasen der neueren Baukunst (Wien 1914, reedition Berlin: Gebrüder Mann Verlag 1999)
7. Rem Koolhaas ed altera, S,M,L,XL (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers 1995) p.1316-1317
8. op. cit. p.1323
9. Ilka & Andreas Ruby, Groundscapes: The Rediscovery of the Ground in Contemporary Architecture
(Barcelona: GG 2006 )
10 OMAR archive at NAI Rotterdam
11 MVRDV Villa VPRO, (Barcelona: Actar 1999)
12 Winy Maas, MVRDV, Jennifer Sigler. Metacity Datatown (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers 1999)
13 for a deeper discussion about the korean term punggyeong and english landscape see SPACE 480 Pursuing
Landscape Soul: Space Magazine 2007) The image is discussed in Kang Young-jo When Encountering
«Landscape» p38-41.
14 Albert Ferré, Tomoko Sakamoto, Michael Kubo, FOA/Farshid Moussavi-Alejandro Zaera-Polo (ed.), The
Yokohama Project: Foreign Office Architects, (Barcelona: Actar 2002)
15 Cynthia Davidson (ed.) CodeX City of Culture of Galicia(New York: Monacelli Press 2005).
16 op. cit.
17 Diana Murphy ed. Diller + Scofidio blur: the making of nothing (New York: Harry N. Abrams 2002) p.8
p.288/289
project credits (to be completed)

Two Libraries at the Jussieu University Paris 1992-1993

Paris 6ème/7ème Arr., France (unrealized competition winner)
Client: Ministere de l`Education Nationale et de la Culture, Academie de Paris_
Program: library humanities 8.000m2 library sciences10.000m2 student facilities 4.000m2_
OMA: Rem Koolhaas, (in order of apperance) Christophe Cornubert, Xaveer de Geyter, Rene Heijne, Markus
Röthlisberger, Yushi Uehara, Hernando Arrazola, Siebe Bakker, Gary Bates, Gro Bonesmo, Arjen de Groot, Jerry
Kopare, Markus Lüscher, Peter Oudshoorn, Jacob van Rijs, Roland Stuy, Anne Mie Depuydt, Rene Heijne, Winy
Maas, Matthis Bauer, Frans Blok, Partcik Cosmao, Michael Hsu, Ray Maggiore
Arup and Partners (engineering): Cecil Balmond, Rory McGowan, Crispin Matson. Sean Billings,
Coyne Bellier (engineering) DA&DU_(program cunsulting) Jean Attali_ (advisor) Daan Bakker, Rene Heijne, Ad
Kliphuis, Markus Lüscher, Gijs Niemeyer, Stein Vossen, Ronald Wall (model)

Gwang Gyo Power Centre MVRDV 2008

Client: Daewoon Consortium and DA Group, Seoul, Korea
Location: Gwanggyo, 35km south of Seoul
Program: 200,000m2 housing, 48,000m2 offices, 200,000m2 mix of culture, retail, leisure and education and
200,000m2 parking
MVRDV: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries with
Youngwook Joung, Wenchian Shi, Raymond van den Broek, Paul Kroese,
Naiara Arregi, Wenhua Deng, Doris Strauch, Bas Kalmeijer,
Simon Potier, Silke Volkert, Marta Pozo, Francesco Pasquale
Engineering: Arup
Local Architect: DA Group

Yokohama International Port Terminal Foreign Office Architects (FOA) 2007-2011

Clients: Port and Harbour Authority, City of Yokahama
Porgram: 48’000 m2 including 17’000m2 passenger handling zone, 500m2 shops, 3000m2 restaurants, 500m2
conferende space and parking for 600 cars
FOA Team: Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera Polo with (in order of apperance) Ivan Ascanio, Yoon King
Chong, Michael Cosmas, Jung-Hyun Hwang, Guy Westbrook, Felix Bendito, Victoria Castilllejos, Dafne Gil,
Jordi Mansilla, Kenichi Matsuzawa, Oriol Montfort, Xavier Ortiz, Lluis Viu Rebes, Jose Saenz, Sabtiago Trignier,
Julian Varas, Thomasine Wolfensberger, Kensuke Kishikawa, Yasuhisa Kikuchi, Izumi Kobayashi, Tomofumi
Nagayama, Lluis Viu Rebes, Keisuke Tamura, Shokan Endo.

City of Culture of Galicia, Eisenman Architects, 1999-2012

Location: Santiago de Compostella,Spain
Client: Fundacion Cidade da Cultura de Galicia
Programme: 90’000m2 Museum: 16’000m2_New Technologies Center: 12’500m2_Music Theater: 20’000 m2_
Library:11’000m2 Periodicals Archive: 8’000m2_Central Services: 4’500m2
Eisenman Architects Team: ...

Blur Buidling. Diller & Scofidio. 1997-2002

Client: Association Expo. 02
Location: Yverdon-les-bains, Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland (demolished)
Program: Exhibition Pavillion, Water-Bar,
Elisabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Dirk Hebel, Charles Renfro, Eric Bunge and others
Competition Design and Masterplan Arteplage Yverdon-Les-Bains: Team Extasia
(Other Offices in alphabetical order, Designers in order of apperance)
Morphing Systems Tristan Kobler project leader Forum Hard, Mondial, Bar Rouge, srt director Team Extasia
Vehovar + Jauslin Architekten Mateja Vehovar, Stefan Jauslin project leaders Forum Soft
West 8 Landscape Archietcts and Urban Planners, Adriaan Geuze, Daniel Jauslin, Jerry van Eyck, Marc Lampe
project leaders expoparc,
Techdata Bern Stephane Maye Quantity Surveyor, Team Extasia project manager
Sturctural Engineers: Charly Gärtl, Emch+Berger: Herman Mumprecht
Anton Riesen, Aquarius Blaise Zaugg
For Full Credits see Diana Murphy ed. Diller + Scofidio blur: the making of nothing (New York: Harry N. Abrams
2002) p.000
 DRITTES INTERNATIONALES DOKTORANDINNENKOLLEG
NACHHALTIGE RAUMENTWICKLUNG (DOKONARA 2009)

3. Kolleg
„Globale Krise – regionale Nachhaltigkeit“

27. bis 30. September 2009, Evangelische Akademie Hofgeismar

Programm

Sonntag, 27.09.2009
15:00 – 16:30 Begrüßung durch die Organisatoren und Vorstel-
lung der Teilnehmer/innen
16:30 – 18:00 Einleitungsvortrag: Krise und Contested Terrains
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Brand (Universität Wien)
ab 18:00 Abendessen mit „Open End“

Montag, 28.09.2009
09:00 – 10:30 3 Präsentationen (je 15 min), anschließend
gemeinsame Diskussion (45 min)

Ida Pirstinger: Die Aufstockung des Grazer Grün-

derzeitblocks. Eine Chance zur inneren Stadterwei-
terung.
Michael Pfleger: Gibt es einen Zusammenhang
zwischen dem architektonischen Raum und dem
sozialen Raum? Eine empirische Studie über
Raumproduktion am Beispiel dreier Objekte der
Innsbrucker Innenstadt.
Daniel Jauslin: Propositions for a Study of Architec-
ture with Landscape Methods. Could innovative
Designs lead to Sustainable Spatial Development?

10:30 – 11:00 Pause

11:00 – 12:30 3 Präsentationen (je 15 min), anschließend
gemeinsame Diskussion (45 min)

Knut Petzold: Multilokale Identifikation – Empirische

Befunde zur Entstehung und Wirkung mehrfacher
Ortsbindung.
Markus Löwer: Angewandte Strategien zur Stabili-
sierung europäischer ‚Entleerungsregionen’.
Birgit Thöni: Alpenpark Europa - Vision 2030.

12:30 – 14:00 Mittagessen

14:00 – 18:00 Exkursion zur hessischen Staatsdomäne Beberb-
eck (geplantes Freizeitresort), in den Reinhards-
wald und nach Bad Karlshafen
Führung: Hermann-Josef Rapp / Ulf Hahne

-1-
 DRITTES INTERNATIONALES DOKTORANDINNENKOLLEG
NACHHALTIGE RAUMENTWICKLUNG (DOKONARA 2009)

18:30 – 20:00 Abendessen

ab 20:30 Film: Henners Traum (Dokumentarfilm von Klaus
Stern zur Planung des „Ferienresorts Beberbeck“)

Dienstag, 29.09.2009
09:00 – 10:30 3 Präsentationen (je 15 min), anschließend
gemeinsame Diskussion (45 min)

Henriette Horni: Räumliche Stadtentwicklungspolitik

als Bestandteil der Konfliktbearbeitung in geteilten
Städten.
Christiane Molt: Soziale Auswirkungen von Stadt-
entwicklungskonzepten im Hinblick auf die Faktoren
Öffentliche Mobilität und Erreichbarkeit in schnell
wachsenden Regionen von Mega Cities: Verglei-
chende Studie von Stadtwicklungskonzepten am
Beispiel Hanoi/Dong Anh.
Stefan Werner: Steuerung von Kooperationen in
der sozialen Stadtentwicklung. Verständigung über
Handlungsmöglichkeiten und Beteiligung im Pro-
zessraum.

10:30 – 11:00 Pause

11:00 – 12:30 3 Präsentationen (je 15 min), anschließend
gemeinsame Diskussion (45 min)

Drazana Malinovic: Gegensatz Stadt - Land? Zwi-

schenstadt als Polarität am Beispiel Innsbruck.
Hans-Martin Neumann: Nachhaltige Mobilität im Al-
penrheintal.
Hannes Mitterdorfer: Simulation von Auswirkungen
aufgrund der Implantation von „Attraktoren“ in der
Raumplanung.

12:30 – 14:00 Mittagessen

14:00 – 15:30 3 Präsentationen (je 15 min), anschließend
gemeinsame Diskussion (45 min)

Doris Pick: Gentechikfreie Regionen.

Martin Klement: Regionales Energiemanagement
und raumplanerische Steuerung am Beispiel des
Biomasseanbaus.
Corinne Von der Hellen: Umweltsystemwissen-
schaften an der Schnittstelle Studium und Beruf.
Wachstumspotenziale und Beschäftigungschancen.

-2-
 DRITTES INTERNATIONALES DOKTORANDINNENKOLLEG
NACHHALTIGE RAUMENTWICKLUNG (DOKONARA 2009)

15:30 – 16:00 Pause

16:00 – 17:00 2 Präsentationen (je 15 min), anschließend
gemeinsame Diskussion (30 min)

Brigitte Nolopp: Rechnen mit Ostfriesland - Aufbau

einer wertorientierten regionalen Markenpolitik.
Anja Wollesen: Die Balanced Scorecard, ein geeig-
netes Bewertungs- und Strategieinstrument für Kul-
tureinrichtungen? Eine Evaluation anhand von Fall-
beispielen aus Schleswig-Holstein.

18:00 – 19:30 Abendessen

19:30 – 21:00 Abendvortrag: Zur Überdehnung des space of flows
Prof. Dr. Hans-Henning von Winning (Oberstaufen)

Mittwoch, 30.09.2009
09:00 – 11:30 A: „Kreativwerkstatt Methoden“
B: Textwerkstatt: „Globale Krise – regionale Nach-
haltigkeit“
11:30 – 12:30 Abschlussrunde/Resümee
12:30 – 14:00 Mittagessen

Ansprechpartner Prof. Dr. Ulf Hahne

Dipl. Kulturwiss. Henriette Horni
Fachgebiet Ökonomie der Stadt- und Regionalent-
wicklung
[email protected]
Tel.: +49 (0)561-804-3070
Mobil: +49 (0)

Projektpartner
Universität Kassel
Architektur, Stadtplanung, Landschaftsplanung
Ulf Hahne

Universität Innsbruck
Institut für Geographie
Martin Coy

Hochschule Liechtenstein
Architektur und Raumplanung
Peter Droege

-3-
 Teilnehmer/innenliste DOKONARA 2009
1
Henriette Horni
Räumliche Stadtentwicklungspolitik als Bestandteil der Konfliktbearbeitung in geteilten Städten.
Universität Kassel
[email protected]

Daniel Jauslin
Propositions for a Study of Architecture with Landscape Methods. Could innovative Designs lead to
Sustainable Spatial Development?
Universität Delft
[email protected]

Martin Klement
Regionales Energiemanagement und raumplanerische Steuerung am Beispiel des Biomasseanbaus.
Universität Kassel
[email protected]

Markus Löwer
Angewandte Strategien zur Stabilisierung europäischer ‚Entleerungsregionen’.
Uni Münster
[email protected]

Drazana Malinovic
Gegensatz Stadt - Land? Zwischenstadt als Polarität am Beispiel Innsbruck.
Universität Innsbruck
[email protected]

Hannes Mitterdorfer
Simulation von Auswirkungen aufgrund der Implantation von „Attraktoren“ in der Raumplanung.
Universität Innsbruck
[email protected]

Christiane Molt
Soziale Auswirkungen von Stadtentwicklungskonzepten im Hinblick auf die Faktoren Öffentliche Mobi-
lität und Erreichbarkeit in schnell wachsenden Regionen von Mega Cities: Vergleichende Studie von
Stadtwicklungskonzepten am Beispiel Hanoi/Dong Anh
Universität Kassel
[email protected]

Hans-Martin Neumann
Nachhaltige Mobilität im Alpenrheintal
Universität Kassel/Hochschule Liechtenstein
[email protected]

Brigitte Nolopp
Rechnen mit Ostfriesland - Aufbau einer wertorientierten regionalen Markenpolitik
Universität Kassel
[email protected]

Knut Petzold
Multilokale Identifikation – Empirische Befunde zur Entstehung und Wirkung mehrfacher Ortsbindung.
Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
[email protected]

Michael Pfleger
Gibt es einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem architektonischen Raum und dem sozialen Raum? Eine
empirische Studie über Raumproduktion am Beispiel dreier Objekte der Innsbrucker Innenstadt.
[email protected]

Doris Pick
Gentechnikfreie Regionen.
Universität Kassel
[email protected]
 Teilnehmer/innenliste DOKONARA 2009
2

Ida Pirstinger
Die Aufstockung des Grazer Gründerzeitblocks. Eine Chance zur inneren Stadterweiterung.
TU Graz
[email protected]

Birgit Thöni
Alpenpark Europa - Vision 2030
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
[email protected]

Corinne Von der Hellen

Umweltsystemwissenschaften an der Schnittstelle Studium und Beruf. Wachstumspotenziale und
Beschäftigungschancen.
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
[email protected]

Stefan Werner
Steuerung von Kooperationen in der sozialen Stadtentwicklung. Verständigung über Handlungsmög-
lichkeiten und Beteiligung im Prozessraum.
Universität Passau
[email protected]

Anja Wollesen
Die Balanced Scorecard, ein geeignetes Bewertungs- und Strategieinstrument für Kultureinrichtun-
gen? Eine Evaluation anhand von Fallbeispielen aus Schleswig-Holstein.
Universität Kassel
[email protected]