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Landscape planning: To be or not to be
Landscape Planning, 3 (1976) 359--362
359
© Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands
Introduction
LANDSCAPE PLANNING: TO BE OR NOT TO BE
J. VERKOREN
State Forest Service, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
This is the first time in The Netherlands t hat an international sym posi um has been dedicated to the new art of landscape planning, and I am very happy that I have the o p p o r t u n i t y to welcome participants of nine nationalities. We are particularly delighted that Professor Olschowy, Professor Hackett, Professor Vr o o m and Ir. van der Poel have accepted our invitation t o address this meeting. We have organized this meeting because we feel for several reasons t hat the y ear 1976 is a landmark in the history of landscape planning. The first reason is that after 33 years of service Mr. R o e l o f Benthem will retire. We h o p e that this symposium may help him to look back on the developm e n t in which he played such an i m p o r t a n t role. The second reason is t hat the Forest Research Station "De D o r s c h k a m p " has recently adopted a new task and the new name: "Institute for F o r e s t r y and Landscape Planning". Discussing landscape planning at an international meeting is a precarious enterprise. In this rather new subject the meanings of several words and expressions have n o t y e t crystallized into definite forms; there are distinct differences in the meanings of the words " l a n d s c a p e " in English, "L andschaft" in German and "landschap" in Dutch. Neither in the days when Hamlet was Prince of Denmark, nor in the days when Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, did landscape planning belong to those professions for which one could be trained or in which one could make one's living. It was not until much later that this activity came to be considered as a separate discipline, and lately an acceleration in this development has taken place. A problem that presents itself here is that landscape planning is strictly speaking an inter-disciplinary activity, in which people of different disciplines jointly work at one task. Borrowing a term from mineralogy this could be called a " c o n g l o m e r a t e " . In itself this n e e d n ' t be a drawback, g i g h t now, it is widely concluded that in the development o f scientific thinking, the overspecialization in separate disciplines has been disadvantageous. These separate disciplines have their own distinguishing subjects, t h e y follow their own dogmas, t h e y speak their own languages and t h e y are insufficiently capable of surveying the whole. Also in the disciplines of forestry and nature conservation, practised by
360 our service and our research-institutes, the wish for b e t t e r c o o p e r a t i o n is more and mo r e clearly expressed. D o n ' t we like to talk nowadays a b o u t the " m u l t i f u n c t i o n a l aspects" of woodland and d o n ' t we t ry to c o n n e c t ecological, ethological and economic aspects in nature conservation as much as possible? Th e fact that the discipline of landscape planning employs the services o f various other disciplines n e e d n ' t prevent us f r o m looking u p o n it as a separate discipline. After all in mineralogy, a conglomerate is also looked u p o n as a separate specimen. What a b o u t the concept of landscape? I have already pointed to the fact that the word gives rise to various interpretations. Strictly speaking the concept has two aspects. On the one hand there is the concret e one: a threedimensional environment in which man works, lives, finds his recreation and moves about. On the ot her h a n d there is an abstract one; it is no m ore than th at which our senses register: sounds, such as traffic noise, the chugging of a ship's engine, the rustling of the wind in the leaves or the call of a lonely bird high up in the sky. It is also the smell of oil smoke and the fragrance of briny sea air or of pinewood. But it is especially the projected image on the retina of our eyes and the reactions this evokes in our consciousness. We thus experience landscape like a painter who paints it on his canvas the way he sees it, a picture t h a t often differs widely from reality. It is like scenery on the stage which we experience as real when we are looking at it. Abstract experience of landscape is at least as i m p o r t a n t as any concrete reality. A landscape is subject to continual changes. First there is the natural growing process. The various elements within the landscape develop, grow old or b eco me weather beaten and die off. Biotopes develop and make r o o m for others. Strictly speaking we can distinguish three aspects: the geological aspect, the ecological aspect and the cultural-historical one. The ecological aspect relates to the complex system in which the flora and fauna in a landscape are interwoven with the biotic and abiotic environment. We are dealing here with the results of what is usually a very long process. In the genes of the various species a n u m b e r of hereditary qualities is present representing a certain value. If this is lost through the interference of man, we have as a rule an event which is irreversible. Also when we look at the cultural-historical aspect, we can speak of p h e n o m e n a that have a certain history behind them, but they are always the work o f man. We often find similar p h e n o m e n a in ot her parts of the c o u n t r y and sometimes the p h e n o m e n o n is repeatable. In this case it is less correct to speak o f an irreparable loss. The harm to mankind can only be guessed. In saying this, I do n o t want to underrate the value of cultural-historical elements; on the contrary, in The Netherlands h u m a n activity dates back tens of thousands of years and there is n o t one single square metre t hat can be denied cultural-historical importance in one form or another. The question of whether older elements are valuable or n o t is oft en influenced by various fashions. Much wisdom is needed -- this also holds good
361 for our landscape planners -- to prevent us from replacing valuable old elements (which are the result of a long-term development) by new ones, even if these old elements are n o t held in great respect by our present day generation. The difficulty people have in discussing the c o n c e p t of landscape also originates from the sometimes enormous differences in "scale" in which people think. During discussions it is perhaps advisable therefore to bear in mind what kind of structure one is talking about; the following distinction could be used: macro-, meso- and micro-structure. Macro-structure is d e t e r m i n e d by the macro-climate, the major geological phenomena, mountains, plains, lakes, rivers and the chief expressions of h u m a n intervention such as towns, villages, roads and waterways. T he mesostructure relates to smaller areas and is det erm i ned by land consolidation, special kinds of building, the road system, afforestation and closed nature reserves. The micro-structure is determined by small elements, such as parks, stately c o u n t r y homes, recreational areas, separate buildings etc. In The Netherlands, with its rapid urbanization in the widest sense of the word, the call for landscape planning and landscape design has grown stronger and stronger of late. This arises from the fact t hat for various reasons people are beginning to feel t hat our c o u n t r y is becoming more and more ugly and is losing its amenity. The rapid increase in p o p u l a t i o n and the const ruct i on o f gigantic high rise buildings have increased people's desire to go o u t into the c o u n t r y , but in its turn the countryside is o f t e n spoilt by second homes, power-lines, a rapidly expanding road system, industrial settlements, caravan sites for recreational purposes and the like. Until some decades ago, the big towns in the densely populated western part of our c o u n t r y were still interspaced by large rural areas with their pastureland, fields, picturesque waterways and d r e a m y villages. For a long time designers in our c o u n t r y were under the illusion t hat things could be kept this way and that t ow n development could be confined to certain definite areas, b u t time has proved t hem wrong. With alarming speed these green belts are beginning to fill up. Undesirable elements penetrate into our count rysi de in an u n ch eck ed flow and we are now convinced that we can n o t leave this d e v e l o p m e n t to chance. We should not be afraid to take up arms and t ry to check it. As y o u may have u n d e r s t o o d , the title of this speech is therefore n o t int e n d ed to question w he t he r landscape planning has the right to exist as a discipline. It is rather a confirmation, which becomes clear from the following q u o t a t i o n from Hamlet: "To be or not to be: that is the question Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them".
362
Ladies and gentlemen, The explicit purpose of this symposium, at which only a limited number of experts is gathered, is to tackle problems provocatively and to offer opinions frankly. I appeal to y o u not to hesitate in this respect, because only by challenging people's opinions, can a new discipline arise. I would hereby like to open this symposium.
359
© Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands
Introduction
LANDSCAPE PLANNING: TO BE OR NOT TO BE
J. VERKOREN
State Forest Service, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
This is the first time in The Netherlands t hat an international sym posi um has been dedicated to the new art of landscape planning, and I am very happy that I have the o p p o r t u n i t y to welcome participants of nine nationalities. We are particularly delighted that Professor Olschowy, Professor Hackett, Professor Vr o o m and Ir. van der Poel have accepted our invitation t o address this meeting. We have organized this meeting because we feel for several reasons t hat the y ear 1976 is a landmark in the history of landscape planning. The first reason is that after 33 years of service Mr. R o e l o f Benthem will retire. We h o p e that this symposium may help him to look back on the developm e n t in which he played such an i m p o r t a n t role. The second reason is t hat the Forest Research Station "De D o r s c h k a m p " has recently adopted a new task and the new name: "Institute for F o r e s t r y and Landscape Planning". Discussing landscape planning at an international meeting is a precarious enterprise. In this rather new subject the meanings of several words and expressions have n o t y e t crystallized into definite forms; there are distinct differences in the meanings of the words " l a n d s c a p e " in English, "L andschaft" in German and "landschap" in Dutch. Neither in the days when Hamlet was Prince of Denmark, nor in the days when Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, did landscape planning belong to those professions for which one could be trained or in which one could make one's living. It was not until much later that this activity came to be considered as a separate discipline, and lately an acceleration in this development has taken place. A problem that presents itself here is that landscape planning is strictly speaking an inter-disciplinary activity, in which people of different disciplines jointly work at one task. Borrowing a term from mineralogy this could be called a " c o n g l o m e r a t e " . In itself this n e e d n ' t be a drawback, g i g h t now, it is widely concluded that in the development o f scientific thinking, the overspecialization in separate disciplines has been disadvantageous. These separate disciplines have their own distinguishing subjects, t h e y follow their own dogmas, t h e y speak their own languages and t h e y are insufficiently capable of surveying the whole. Also in the disciplines of forestry and nature conservation, practised by
360 our service and our research-institutes, the wish for b e t t e r c o o p e r a t i o n is more and mo r e clearly expressed. D o n ' t we like to talk nowadays a b o u t the " m u l t i f u n c t i o n a l aspects" of woodland and d o n ' t we t ry to c o n n e c t ecological, ethological and economic aspects in nature conservation as much as possible? Th e fact that the discipline of landscape planning employs the services o f various other disciplines n e e d n ' t prevent us f r o m looking u p o n it as a separate discipline. After all in mineralogy, a conglomerate is also looked u p o n as a separate specimen. What a b o u t the concept of landscape? I have already pointed to the fact that the word gives rise to various interpretations. Strictly speaking the concept has two aspects. On the one hand there is the concret e one: a threedimensional environment in which man works, lives, finds his recreation and moves about. On the ot her h a n d there is an abstract one; it is no m ore than th at which our senses register: sounds, such as traffic noise, the chugging of a ship's engine, the rustling of the wind in the leaves or the call of a lonely bird high up in the sky. It is also the smell of oil smoke and the fragrance of briny sea air or of pinewood. But it is especially the projected image on the retina of our eyes and the reactions this evokes in our consciousness. We thus experience landscape like a painter who paints it on his canvas the way he sees it, a picture t h a t often differs widely from reality. It is like scenery on the stage which we experience as real when we are looking at it. Abstract experience of landscape is at least as i m p o r t a n t as any concrete reality. A landscape is subject to continual changes. First there is the natural growing process. The various elements within the landscape develop, grow old or b eco me weather beaten and die off. Biotopes develop and make r o o m for others. Strictly speaking we can distinguish three aspects: the geological aspect, the ecological aspect and the cultural-historical one. The ecological aspect relates to the complex system in which the flora and fauna in a landscape are interwoven with the biotic and abiotic environment. We are dealing here with the results of what is usually a very long process. In the genes of the various species a n u m b e r of hereditary qualities is present representing a certain value. If this is lost through the interference of man, we have as a rule an event which is irreversible. Also when we look at the cultural-historical aspect, we can speak of p h e n o m e n a that have a certain history behind them, but they are always the work o f man. We often find similar p h e n o m e n a in ot her parts of the c o u n t r y and sometimes the p h e n o m e n o n is repeatable. In this case it is less correct to speak o f an irreparable loss. The harm to mankind can only be guessed. In saying this, I do n o t want to underrate the value of cultural-historical elements; on the contrary, in The Netherlands h u m a n activity dates back tens of thousands of years and there is n o t one single square metre t hat can be denied cultural-historical importance in one form or another. The question of whether older elements are valuable or n o t is oft en influenced by various fashions. Much wisdom is needed -- this also holds good
361 for our landscape planners -- to prevent us from replacing valuable old elements (which are the result of a long-term development) by new ones, even if these old elements are n o t held in great respect by our present day generation. The difficulty people have in discussing the c o n c e p t of landscape also originates from the sometimes enormous differences in "scale" in which people think. During discussions it is perhaps advisable therefore to bear in mind what kind of structure one is talking about; the following distinction could be used: macro-, meso- and micro-structure. Macro-structure is d e t e r m i n e d by the macro-climate, the major geological phenomena, mountains, plains, lakes, rivers and the chief expressions of h u m a n intervention such as towns, villages, roads and waterways. T he mesostructure relates to smaller areas and is det erm i ned by land consolidation, special kinds of building, the road system, afforestation and closed nature reserves. The micro-structure is determined by small elements, such as parks, stately c o u n t r y homes, recreational areas, separate buildings etc. In The Netherlands, with its rapid urbanization in the widest sense of the word, the call for landscape planning and landscape design has grown stronger and stronger of late. This arises from the fact t hat for various reasons people are beginning to feel t hat our c o u n t r y is becoming more and more ugly and is losing its amenity. The rapid increase in p o p u l a t i o n and the const ruct i on o f gigantic high rise buildings have increased people's desire to go o u t into the c o u n t r y , but in its turn the countryside is o f t e n spoilt by second homes, power-lines, a rapidly expanding road system, industrial settlements, caravan sites for recreational purposes and the like. Until some decades ago, the big towns in the densely populated western part of our c o u n t r y were still interspaced by large rural areas with their pastureland, fields, picturesque waterways and d r e a m y villages. For a long time designers in our c o u n t r y were under the illusion t hat things could be kept this way and that t ow n development could be confined to certain definite areas, b u t time has proved t hem wrong. With alarming speed these green belts are beginning to fill up. Undesirable elements penetrate into our count rysi de in an u n ch eck ed flow and we are now convinced that we can n o t leave this d e v e l o p m e n t to chance. We should not be afraid to take up arms and t ry to check it. As y o u may have u n d e r s t o o d , the title of this speech is therefore n o t int e n d ed to question w he t he r landscape planning has the right to exist as a discipline. It is rather a confirmation, which becomes clear from the following q u o t a t i o n from Hamlet: "To be or not to be: that is the question Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them".
362
Ladies and gentlemen, The explicit purpose of this symposium, at which only a limited number of experts is gathered, is to tackle problems provocatively and to offer opinions frankly. I appeal to y o u not to hesitate in this respect, because only by challenging people's opinions, can a new discipline arise. I would hereby like to open this symposium.