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Journal of Landscape Architecture

ISSN: 1862-6033 (Print) 2164-604X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjla20

Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for


landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’

Martin Prominski

To cite this article: Martin Prominski (2014) Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for
landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’, Journal of Landscape Architecture, 9:1, 6-19, DOI:
10.1080/18626033.2014.898819

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2014.898819

Published online: 14 Mar 2014.

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Andscapes:
Concepts of nature and culture for
landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’
Martin Prominski, Leibniz Universität, Hanover, Germany

Abstract
The effects of human activity have reached every square metre of the earth Nature, ecology, and landscape are important reference concepts for land-
and beyond, such as through carbon or nitrogen emissions, which has led scape architecture. Traditionally, all three have been considered polar op-
Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen to propose a new geological age, the ‘Anthro- posites from culture or humanity, in a dualistic relationship. With regard
pocene’. In parallel to many contemporary philosophers and scientists, this to the latter two, this position has changed_ecology has been conceptu-
notion declares that the traditional, dualistic Western understanding of alized as something cultural that can be designed by humans (e.g. Corner
nature as something independent from human influence is obsolete. The 1997; Johnson and Hill 2002), and a similar shift has occurred with the tradi-
‘Anthropocene’­ needs new, unitary concepts of nature and culture. This tional understanding of ‘landscape’; for example, with recent definitions
article­discusses two inspiring unitary concepts from Japan; Imanishi’s by J. B. Jackson as a man-made, artificial system (Jackson 1984: 156), or by
seibutsu no sekei (world of living things) and Watsuji’s fudo (milieu). In a re- the European Landscape Convention as ‘the result of the action and inter-
flection on two landscape architecture projects, this article comes to the con- action of natural and/or human factors’ (2000: §1). A like integrative un-
clusion that the profession is already capable of designing in a unitary mode, derstanding of ecology and landscape has also been proposed in landscape
beyond simple dichotomies of nature and culture. This asset should be cul- architectural theory (as well as in philosophy) for some decades now (e.g.
tivated, and for this the correct usage of terms is quite important. However,­ Meyer 1997), serving as the foundation for new movements, such as land-
this is difficult due to the fact that the traditional meaning of nature is scape urbanism or ecological urbanism. Yet nature, the most far-reaching
still very influential in professional communication, and that the terms of of the three concepts, is still mainly understood in the traditional way.
the inspiring Japanese concepts are either too complicated or too abstract. Nature is seen as a counterpart to human culture, as something inde-
Inspired by Kandinsky’s idea of ‘and’, the unitary concept of ‘andscape’ is pendent from human influence_a concept that has dominated the West-
proposed to integrate the ideas of both Imanishi and Watsuji. By using the ern world since Aristotle. But, is this a problem? It would be if this type of
term ‘andscape’, a dualistic, divisive understanding of nature and culture nature_something independent from human influence_no longer exist-
becomes impossible_instead, the focus is on the dynamic relations between ed, which is precisely what many philosophers or scientists propose today.
humans, animals, plants, stones, water, and all other elements in the world. ˇ ˇ
According to philosopher Slavoj Zizek, ‘Today, with the latest biogenetic
developments, we are entering a new phase in which nature itself melts
Concepts of nature and culture / Anthropocene / non-duality / Watsuji / into air: the main consequence of the breakthroughs in biogenetics is the
Imanishi / Japanese landscape architecture end of nature. Once we know the rules of nature’s construction, natural
organisms are transformed into objects amenable to manipulation. Na-
ture, human and inhuman, is thus “desubstantialized”, deprived of its
ˇ ˇ 2008: 49).
impenetrable density’ (Zizek
Proceeding from a similar conception, Paul Crutzen, the 1995 Nobel
Chemistry Laureate, coined the term ‘Anthropocene’, characterizing a new
geological epoch to succeed the ‘Holocene’. Mankind has become the dom-
inating force on the earth; even the planet’s most remote areas and its at-
mosphere have been impacted by elements like carbon or nitrogen emitted
from human-driven processes (Crutzen 2002). This radical notion of a new
geological epoch is increasingly gaining acceptance; [1] one thought-pro-
voking outcome is the ‘Anthropocene Project’, a trans-disciplinary inter-
national project that has run for several years at the Haus der Kulturen der

6 Journal of Landscape Architecture | 1-2014


M artin P r o minski / C h ristiane K ania
Figure 1 The traditional concept of nature and culture in the West:
nature is something beyond human influence, humans and culture
are external_a dualistic concept.

Welt in Berlin. The introductory statement of the curators explains their


motivation to develop a new, non-dualistic concept of nature and culture,
appropriate for the age of the ‘Anthropocene’: ‘Nature, as we know it, is a
concept that belongs to the past. No longer a force separate from and am-
bivalent to human activity, nature is not an obstacle nor a harmonious
other. Humanity forms nature. Humanity and nature are one, embedded The first factor is Shintoism, Japan’s ancient religion in which everything
from within the recent geological record’ (Scherer/Klingan 2013: 2). can become a deity (kami)_an animal, a tree, a mountain, a stone, or a hu-
This article aims to contribute to this development of a new concept of man being. There is no hierarchy, or any other qualitative difference be-
nature in relation to landscape architecture. It begins by analyzing, and tween these things (Shimada 2008: 63). It is also possible that humans turn
discussing, two inspiring unitary concepts of nature and culture from Ja- into animals and vice versa. In Shintoism, there is no heavenly God who
pan, an industrialized country, which does not have a dualistic under- created man in his own image and set him the task of subduing the earth
standing of these terms. Adopting the perspective of these two unitary and dominating all living things (Bible, Genesis 1: 27, 28), thus separating
concepts, two recent landscape architectural projects are discussed, one God, man, and other living things. Instead, the order of things is seen as
in Japan and one in Germany. Finally, a proposal is made about how the characterized by flow and transition among them.
ability of landscape architecture to design in a unitary, synthetic way can Japanese art is the second factor. Since the Heian period (794–1185), we
be supported by a new term, one allowing easier communication of the find an intense reflection on nature that led to a cultivation of it. The cap-
main elements of the Japanese ideas within a Western context. ital was moved to Heian (present-day Kyoto) and many aristocrats had
to leave their rural estates to live in the city. They became detached from
Japanese concepts for the relationship of nature and culture the land, yet the socio-economic system freed them from working and of-
According to Augustin Berque, the French cultural geographer and Japan fered plentiful time for reflecting on the elements of nature, and they did
expert, ‘Japanese anthropologists would willingly agree with the notion so, especially through poetry. According to Berque, a cultural codification
that Japanese culture, like certain South-East Asian cultures, and in con- of nature took place: ‘All the aspects of nobility’s life at the court_poetry
trast to China and Greece, does not oppose the human realm to that of na- contests, clothing and the gardens_had their part to play; for example, the
ture’ (Berque 1997: 56). To illustrate the origins of this overlap between the contests often centred on the skill of “associating things” around a given
realms of nature and culture, I would first like to address three specifically­ theme. And so, almost automatic connections developed between a partic-
Japanese factors in religion, art, and cultural landscapes. ular season, a plant and a particular sentiment’ (Berque 1997: 83). Through

1- 2014 | Journal of Landscape Architecture 7


Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’ Martin Prominski

M artin P r o minski / C h ristiane K ania


Figure 2 The world of living things (seibutsu no sekei)
by Imanishi: humans, animals, plants, rocks, water,
etc. are all part of a dynamic web of relations; an exclu-
sive role for humans is not possible. The world of living
things is structured by sociality_a unitary concept. art and literature, these relations between human emotions and natu-
ral elements gradually spread to all levels of society and became an estab-
lished aspect of popular culture. This culturalization of nature is still evi-
dent today, for example in the ‘flower card game’ (hana fuda) popular with
Japanese children, where associations between plants, animals, and sea-
sons have to be made.
Also contributing to Japan’s culturalized perspective on nature is the
third factor, the satoyama landscape. Satoyama ‘denotes mountains, wood-
lands, and grasslands (yama) surrounding villages (sato) in Japan’ (MEJ/
UNU-IAS 2010: 3). Because in Japan a relatively small proportion of the
land surface is suitable for agriculture and settlement, these areas had
to be intensively cultivated, from the rice fields to the woodlands at the
nearby mountain slopes. Over the centuries, this has been the environ-
ment for most Japanese people. Berque characterizes these satoyama land-
scapes, which are the result of intense, long-term human intervention, as
built environment, and concludes that ‘it is these landscapes which hu-
man beings could see before them and which have had the greatest influ-
ence on the Japanese vision of nature’ (Berque 1997: 75).

8 Journal of Landscape Architecture | 1-2014


J un ' ic h ir o I tani
Figure 3 Kinji Imanishi (1902–1992)

These are just three of many factors contributing to a specifically Japa- Thus, one foundation of his concept is the inextricable relationship be-
nese, unitary concept of nature and culture. They illustrate the mind- tween living things, e.g. humans, and their environment. The term ‘en-
set for two major theoretical works from the first part of the twentieth vironment’ becomes questionable in the light of such a close connection;
century, which formulate a Japanese perspective of the relationship be- environment suggests a separate world that surrounds a living thing but,
tween nature and culture_one in clear opposition to Western scientific according to Imanishi, the two spheres are inseparable. Due to this con-
and philosophical concepts. Regarding this concept, there are two books ceptual inconsistency, he introduces the concept of ‘field of living’ as a re-
of particular importance, which should be discussed in detail; one is by a placement for ‘environment’, stressing that ‘the field of living does not
biologist and the other by a philosopher. mean merely a space for living but is a continuation, a living extension,
of the living thing itself’ (Imanishi 2002: 27). Each living thing, be it plant,
Kinji Imanishi´s The world of living things animal, or human, extends into a field of living, which in turn also be-
Kinji Imanishi, born in 1902 in Kyoto, had a wide spectrum of interests. comes part of the living thing_a reciprocal relationship. This is a radical
He was a biologist by training, a passionate mountaineer, and a visitor to thought, rendering a dualistic understanding impossible. It has funda-
the circle around philosopher Kitaro Nishida at the Kyoto School of Phi- mental consequences for such basic relations as that of humans and their
losophy. All these interests were formative influences in his seminal book, food, as illustrated in the following reflection by Imanishi: ‘If we are cou-
The world of living things (2002; Japanese original version: Seibutsu no rageous enough to regard food candidly as an extension of our body then
Sekai, 1941), for which the editor of the English translation, Pamela J. As- it is not at all contradictory to think that there is an extension of life in
quith, chose the title A Japanese View of Nature. Imanishi wrote his book in the food. [...] The relationship between food and living things is not one
1940 as a fairly young man_decades before he founded Japanese primatol- of biology or taxonomy, but of direct affinity of body to the living things.
ogy and later became a famous anthropologist_because he was afraid he Because food is an extension of their own body, living things recognize
would die in World War II and wanted to leave a kind of record of his ideas. their own food; this means they, in fact, recognize themselves’ (Imani-
Imanishi conceives of the world of living things as a unified whole shi 2002: 28–29). Such an understanding of a close physical and emotional
of discrete living things, such as humans, animals, or plants. [2] For him, connection between ourselves and our food is highly relevant today_it
the relations between the living thing and its environment are very im- could serve as an urgent call to rethink our contemporary relation to food,
portant, and he concludes that organisms and environment are, on the where plants or animals are often produced by an industrialized agricul-
one hand, different and, on the other hand, the same_something quite ture with questionable ethical standards.
difficult for a Western intellect to grasp: ‘Although an organism is an After proposing this general relationship between individual living
independent­system, in order to live it must first take in food from the things and their field of living, Imanishi develops the concept of several
environment and find mates there. Thus, it is clear that living things can- layers on which individual living things are organized. He calls them, in
not live apart from the environment. In this sense, living things are not order of growing complexity, species society, synusia, synusial complex,
self-contained independent systems that can exist on their own, but if and, finally, the whole community of the world. These layers need not be
we think of one system that includes the environment, now for the first explained in detail here; the main point is that life is shared in, and in be-
time living things can be understood in a concrete form of existence. Liv- tween, these layers. This leads Imanishi to his crucial conclusion: all life
ing things that are considered apart from the environment are not living is social life and sociality is the structural principle of the world (Imani-
things in their reality. Here again I would like to stress that the outside shi 2002: 42–46). He sees the world as an ‘ultimate society, composed of the
world or environment does not precede the genesis of living things. Even individual, species society, synusia and synusial complex’ and concludes
these environments are part of this world and have grown and developed that ‘this kind of territorial community of all living things is nature as we
from one thing together with living things. In this sense, living things see it, […] it is the only whole community of living things’ (Imanishi 2002:
and the environment are originally of the same kind. […] Our world is 60ff). Within this integrative, societal understanding there is no possibility­
such that we cannot conceive of the existence of living things without of separating a human realm from the rest of the world, such as animals
the environment, nor can we conceive of environment alone without pre- or plants. Thus, our focus should shift away from differences toward­the
supposing the existence of living things. This must be our world’ (Imani- relations within a unitary world of living things structured by sociality.
shi 2002: 25).

1- 2014 | Journal of Landscape Architecture 9


Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’ Martin Prominski

M artin P r o minski / C h ristiane K ania


Figure 4 Fudo by Watsuji: the world consists of an unlimited number­
of milieus in different dimensions. The foundations of a milieu are
not the objects, but their relations. Each milieu is an open web and
overlaps with other milieus. Isolation of humans from a milieu is
impossible because of its relational character. Thus, Watsuji propos-
es ‘in-betweenness’ (aidagara) as a central characteristic of human
existence_a unitary concept.

Watsuji describes the possibility of two different points of view regard-


ing the relationship between humans and their natural environment.
The first sees the natural environment (or climate in the broad sense) as a
Tetsuro Watsuji´s Fudo: An anthropological reflection set of objective circumstances in relation to humans, who are external to
A second important Japanese book arguing for an integrated concept of it, and thus, both are discrete entities. This is also the traditional under-
nature and culture is Fudo by Tetsuro Watsuji (1935), a philosophy profes- standing of ecology, as Berque points out: ‘Ecology, a modern natural sci-
sor with an extremely broad range of interests. His many publications on ence, made environment its object of study. It made it so as an object, that
the subjects of art, literature, theatre, and history exposed him to contem- is, something out of which human subjectivity is abstracted. Even if this
porary charges of dilettantism, which he shrugged off with the ironic re- object is by essence relational (ecosystems, trophic links… ), it is as much
ply that he was not a specialist scientist (Fischer-Barnicol/Ryogi 1992: VIII). as possible independent from the point of view of the observer; in other
Many people today consider Fudo a work of literary art (Ibid.: XV). words, detached from our existence; and it is so inasmuch as it is scientif-
Fudo means ‘wind and earth’ and is often rendered in English as ic. For ecology, the environment is something objective, which exists in
climate_a far too simplistic translation. In the first paragraph of the itself and which can be measured.’ (Berque 2011).
introduction Watsuji starts with a definition comprising ‘the climate, This view of objects as detached from humans is inappropriate in Wat-
weather, geology, soil, relief, landscape, etc. of a land’ (Berque 2004: 394) suji’s view, and the rest of the book is entirely devoted to a second possible
and continues that these aspects could be called the ‘natural environment perspective_fudo integrates humans and their environment and express-
of man’ (Watsuji 1988: 1). Yet, his scope then becomes much broader and es a dynamic unity in space as well as time. If we translate fudo as just ‘cli-
he uses the whole first chapter (‘Basic theory of fudo’) to explain that fudo mate’ this is almost impossible to understand, because climate too easily
is not only the natural environment, but rather the complex relationship suggests an exclusively natural, meteorological factor. Thus, I will follow
between natural and cultural elements. Augustin Berque, who translated fudo as ‘milieu’ (Berque 1997: 40; Berque

10 Journal of Landscape Architecture | 1-2014


E dici o nes S í gueme
Figure 5 Tetsuro Watsuji (1889–1960)

2004). Humans, animals, plants, stones, rain, etc. exist in a certain milieu_ Confucius emphasized that the correct use of terms is of highest impor-
not the objects themselves but their relationships are the foundation of a tance_language has to be in accordance with the truth of things (Confu-
milieu. Human beings, and all other things, are the producers and, at the cius 1893: XIII). Yet, even if ‘world of living things’ and ‘milieu’ express the
same time, the products of a specific milieu. Each individual is important; new truth of things in the ‘Anthropocene’, it is highly unlikely that these
nevertheless, if it ceases to exist, the milieu changes but continues (Watsu- terms will make it into everyday professional discourse, particularly in
ji 1988: 7ff). Because of this relational character of our temporal and spatial the West. Augustin Berque proposed ‘milieu’ twenty years ago in France,
existence, Watsuji proposes the concept of aidagara (in-betweenness) as a for example; and, although he is widely read by French landscape archi-
central characteristic of human existence (Watsuji 1992: 9 [3]). tecture academics [6] ‘milieu’ has not become an influential term. [7] If we
In summary, the meaning of fudo is not man or culture on one side imagine the term ‘milieu’ in English or German, it is also unlikely that
and nature or environment on the other; together they create a continu- it will have the power to serve as a guiding term for landscape architec-
ously changing milieu. For Watsuji, this condition of ‘being in a milieu’ or ture because it is too abstract. Similarly, ‘world of living things’ is too un-
‘milieu-ness’_fudosei, translated by Berque as ‘mediance’ (2004: 389)_is so wieldy. Russian painter and Bauhaus teacher Vasily Kandinsky addressed
central for us as human beings that he proposes fudosei as ‘the structural an inspiring alternative in a short article from 1927, which he called ‘und’
moment of human existence’ (Berque 2004: 389 [4]). In other words, the dy- (‘and’ in English). Being ahead of his own time, he considered the pre-
namic relations between us and the other elements of the world are the ceding era as dominated by ‘either–or’ thinking and argued for a new era
foundations and drivers of our lives, and these relations happen in a mi- characterized by ‘and’. He criticized the specialization and separation of
lieu, i.e., fudo. professions, and approaches, in the nineteenth century, arguing for an in-
tegrative perspective: ‘A new beginning consists of recognizing relations.
A unitary concept for the relationship between nature and culture More and more it becomes evident that there are no ‘special’ questions
Both Imanishi’s and Watsuji’s concepts offer a unitary perspective on that can be recognized and solved in isolation, because everything is con-
the relationship between humanity and nature. The decisive impulse of nected and interdependent. Moving onwards from this beginning means
each is to shift attention from the opposing pairs to the relationship(s) discovering further relations and using them for the most important task
between them. The milieu or fudo is both natural and cultural, both sub- of humankind_for development.’ (Kandinsky 1927: 107ff; translation M.P.)
jective and objective, and both collective and individual (Berque 1997: 116f; His hope was for a synthetical approach in theory and practice that would
emphases M.P.). This means that the poles are still there, not completely­ lead to the creation of synthetical works.
blurred as in a hybrid. [5] It is not about opposing, but about connecting.­ In making a case for synthesis and integration, Kandinsky is very close
The same is true for Imanishi’s world of living things, in which the vari- to the ideas of Watsuji and Imanishi. Transferring Kandinsky’s meaning
ous things have an independent existence, but the distinctions are not as of ‘and’ to a new conceptual term suitable for landscape architecture and
important as are their relationships in the field of living (Imanishi 2002: beyond, I would like to propose the term ‘andscape’ as capable of integrat-
1; 27). In fact, we can say that the central ideas of Imanishi and Watsuji ing the main ideas of Imanishi’s and Watsuji’s unitary concepts of nature
are almost identical_they differ on their key terms, ‘sociality’ and ‘in-be- and culture, for example their non-duality and emphasis on relationship.
tweenness’, but both terms emphasize the focus on relations. These con- Regarding content, it does not add anything new, compared to fudo or
cepts are useful for determining the character the ‘Anthropocene’ Age_ seibutsu no sekei, yet the term ‘andscape’ has two advantages: it is less ab-
from their perspective we can never speak exclusively about nature, or stract and complicated than the ‘world of living things’ or ‘milieu’, and
natural elements, but must consider the whole milieu or field of living its consonance with ‘landscape’ easily connects the concept of relational-
things, including human beings and much more. ity to landscape architecture.
The profession of landscape architecture could also be inspired by The word ‘andscape’ has the potential to serve as a conceptual term,
these two Japanese terms. Fudo and seibutsu no sekei, and their transla- addressing and communicating the synthetical, integrative character of
tions might serve as an alternative to the outdated traditional concept landscape architectural design, while also transcending out-dated dual-
of nature, which is simply no longer valid in the new context of the ‘An- isms. Two landscape architectural projects_one in Japan and one in the
thropocene’. It is also important to use terms correctly; 2,500 years ago, West_illustrate how we can understand ‘andscapes’.

1- 2014 | Journal of Landscape Architecture 11


Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’ Martin Prominski

N o ri h isa Y amam o t o / A i - s h o k o butsu


0 10 20 50 100 km

0 100 200 km

Figure 6 Location of the Old Fisheries Experiment Station in


Mizumoto Park (plan upper right) and the situation before
(plan bottom left) and after the transformation (centre)

Old Fisheries Experiment Station, Mizumoto Park, Tokyo


Located on the northeastern margins of Tokyo in Katsushita ward (one ‘Nature conservation’ was the main, and programmatic, goal of the client
of Tokyo’s twenty-three districts), with 92 hectares (228 acres), Mizumo- for the transformation of the Old Fisheries Experiment Station. The term
to Park is one of the city’s largest parks. It is laid out along the Koaidame might be surprising, but it shows that there are also Western, dualistic­
flood control basin, which was dug 280 years ago to protect Edo (Tokyo’s influences in Japan, despite its unitary traditions described above. After­
name until 1868), but which has lost its function today. Before the area Japan opened to the West in 1868, the beginning of the Meiji period, the
became a park in 1965 it consisted mainly of rice paddy fields, and the country absorbed many Western ideas. Most of them were so different
name of the park (mizu-moto, meaning ‘water source’) comes from the fact from Japanese culture and language that new words had to be coined.
that the spring served as water supply source for irrigation (www: TMPA). This was also true with regard to the Western understanding of nature
Water is still a dominant feature of the park and many people (as well as something opposed to culture, and the word shizen was invented, [9]
as birds, such as kingfishers and great egrets) fish along the water edg- exactly in the Western sense; the primary goal of the park was expressed
es. For our discussion on unitary design concepts integrating nature and as protection of shizen. Nevertheless, the following project description
culture, we concentrate on a site in the eastern part of Mizumoto Park will show that although this dualistic word is used, the reality is not an
called the Old Fisheries Experiment Station. This area, covering 9.5 hec- ‘either–or’, but an ‘and’ proposition. This becomes evident in the three key
tares, was built after World War II to conduct research on freshwater fish concepts of the design:
farming and contained many rectangular concrete basins. In 1997, the re- 1. To preserve and cultivate endangered wild life, both plants and animals,
search facility was moved to another ward in Tokyo and the land became in a waterfront environment.
part of Mizumoto Park. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government invited five 2. To create a waterfront landscape in which every visitor can feel and ex-
offices­ to present ideas for the site, and Ai-shokubutsu Landscape Plan- perience changes of the seasons.
ning Office,­led by Norihisa Yamamoto, was chosen to be the designer. [8] 3. To build a system in which every visitor can interact with, experience,
and learn about riparian life’ (JILA 2008: 18).

12 Journal of Landscape Architecture | 1-2014


N o ri h isa Y amam o t o / A i - s h o k o butsu
Figure 7b xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

N o ri h isa Y amam o t o / A i - s h o k o butsu

Figure 7a, b Situation at the western edge of the Old Fisheries Experiment Station
before (above) and after the transformation (below)

1- 2014 | Journal of Landscape Architecture 13


N o ri h isa Y amam o t o / A i - s h o k o butsu Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’ Martin Prominski

Figure 8a, b Situation at the centre of the Old Fisheries Experi-


ment Station before (above) and after the transformation (below).
N o ri h isa Y amam o t o / A i - s h o k o butsu

At the bottom, we see the quadrangular area of 40 x 40 metres,


covered by a net, where small, elevated concrete basins from the
former station have been kept and are used for breeding gold-
fish. Above comes the area with newly constructed concrete basins
which have different depths of water to present a broad variety
of water plants and fishes, followed by the two rice paddy fields
created for educational purposes. To the right is the channel with
lotus flowers which demarcates the fenced-off area (left) from
the area with unlimited access (right).

Only the first might be related to shizen, while the other two also include which is hugely popular in the rest of Mizumoto Park but not conducive
the human perspective (the second one is a typically Japanese motivation, to a high diversity of fish life. In the area inside the fence, there is a for-
because the seasons play a very important role in the human–nature re- mal and functional differentiation from west to east; in the western sec-
lationship); thus, a separation of nature and culture was never really an tion the former concrete basins have been completely removed and their
issue. On a tour with Yamamoto through the project, he did not speak of edge replaced by different forms of gabions. In order to increase biodiver-
shizen but rather used the term han-shizen (‘half nature’). Thus, this nature sity, a range of riparian zones have been created, in which the plants grow
conservation project is half nature and half culture_quite paradoxical in organic shapes; however, most of the visible constructed elements, such
from a Western perspective. Analyzing the project, we will see that Yama- as the gabions, are set in straight lines. When asked, Yamamoto explained
moto does not place ‘half nature’ and ‘half culture’ in opposition but in- that he did not use an organic form because the pre-fisheries situation was
tegrates them, so it is reasonable to call the design an ‘andscape’. The use a flat landscape with rice paddies in rectangular shape, and thus, straight
of han-shizen as an alien appropriation of the Western concept exemplifies lines were appropriate for those types of landscapes. In the middle of the
the lack of appropriate terms for synthetic designs, even in contemporary fenced zone, a quadrangular area of 40 x 40 metres, covered by a net, sets
Japanese landscape architecture. a strong contrast; small, elevated concrete basins from the former station
The design of the Old Fisheries Experiment Station is characterized by have been maintained and are used for breeding goldfish, for sale at certain
fine differentiations on many levels. In terms of access, almost half of the events. This is followed by an area to the east with newly constructed con-
area is fenced off and only open for visitors during the day, with a guard crete basins, designed to create situations with different depths of water
at the entrance. This is necessary mainly to protect the area from angling, to present a broad variety of water plants and fishes. These basins are con-

14 Journal of Landscape Architecture | 1-2014


Figure 9 An example of a small detail
that expresses the attitude of ‘sociality­
among all living things’ (Imanishi):
in the central area of the project where
only native species are allowed, climb-
ing plants grow close to a guardrail.
Members of the site’s volunteer group
have supported them by sticks and
weeding around the base. This human
‘impact’ on the growth of native species
in a nature protection zone would be
unimaginable in the West_here, such
native climbers would be expected to
grow ‘naturally’: either they make it by
themselves or they are crowded out by
stronger plants.

structed for easy accessibility and serve for educational purposes. Directly­ other­groups are responsible for the management of the rice paddies. This
adjacent, two small rice paddies show how rice can be grown without us- public-spirited involvement shows how well the new park is integrated
ing artificial fertilizer and pesticides. The final elements in this row, in into the surrounding communities.
the eastern corner, are six concrete basins of the Old Fisheries Experiment There is a rich interplay between water, plants, animals, and humans
Station, kept in their original state as a historical reference. Because they with this project; the designers created diverse situations that allow for
are neither beautiful nor have a high ecological value, they express how different degrees of biodiversity, emotional contact, or open space use. In
strongly cultural factors are also valued in this transformed landscape. some areas, plants and animals have priority and human access is limited,
The fenced area is also demarcated to the south by a canal in which sometimes by clear demarcations such as fences, sometimes by more sub-
lotus­ plants grow. Outside the fence, we find another transition of dif- tle design measures. There are also areas where features resembling the-
ferent park elements. In the west, there is a wildlife area where direct ac- atrical stages have been designed to better enable visitors to study plants
cess has been made difficult. Instead, comfortable viewing platforms with and animals, especially fish. Finally, there are other areas where species
wooden screens and viewing holes at different heights have been designed life is less diverse and open space use by humans has priority.
for watching birds, including kingfishers. South of this, in an area directly Within a fairly small site, we find a highly diverse ‘world of living
adjacent to a sports field in Mizumoto Park, six former basins have been things’. The Old Fisheries Experiment Station is an ‘andscape’, where re-
transformed into a ‘pleasure lake’ with paths and wooden decking, in or- lationships between humans, animals, plants, and other things, rather
der for visitors to be closer to the water. The pleasure lake adjoins the than the objects themselves, are decisive. You cannot separate them_the
central area with a new parking lot and visitor centre. East of that, is a plant and animal life benefits from the human maintenance activities
100-metre stretch of three formally straight basins, in which lotus plants that sustain a high biodiversity, while, conversely, humans enjoy emo-
are to grow. The final two basins, to the east, contain the endangered spe- tional and physical contact with real, living things.
cies of Euryale ferox (fox nut). Interestingly, this plant had already started The Old Fisheries Experiment Station is a successful expression of the
to grow in the Old Fisheries Experiment Station, due to the ideal water unitary Japanese concepts of nature and culture as fudo or seibutsu no sekei.
depths, so the basins have not been changed in the new design. This integrative approach can be seen in a very small ‘andscape’ in the
Construction work on this new part of Mizumoto Park lasted from central area of the project where only native species are allowed (Fig. 9).
2000 until 2006. Concurrently, a complex management and maintenance Here, climbing plants grow close to a guardrail. While in a comparable
structure for the site was established within which the Mizumoto Park nature protection zone in the West, such native climbers should grow
Authority, several citizens groups, and the landscape architecture office ‘naturally’_either they make it by themselves or give way to stronger
of Norihisa Yamamoto as coordinator formed a committee. In terms of plants_members of the site’s volunteer group support them by sticks
maintenance, for example, a volunteer organization controls the some- and weeding around the base: a wonderful expression of sociality among
times excessive growth of plants like Typha angustifolia, or catches all the living things.
fish in one basin every few years to sort out non-native species, while

1- 2014 | Journal of Landscape Architecture 15


Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’ Martin Prominski

Old Nidda-Meadows Airfield, Frankfurt


Germany is good example of a country where the binary opposition of na- tion processes in the surrounding areas. Even so, GTL was able to avoid a
ture and culture continues to predominate. This is manifested, for exam- monofunctional opposition of nature conservation areas without humans
ple, in German ‘building law’, which differentiates between ‘built’ and and open spaces for people without ecological significance. Three areas,
‘unbuilt’ areas. The built area (i.e. ‘culture’) comprises cities, towns, and which create interesting milieus of humans, plants, animals, stones, and
villages where the ground is organized by land use and zoning plans. If water, are of particular interest.
something new is built here, natural elements need hardly be considered The first, at the western end of the former runway, is a narrow strip
(except for trees in some cities). By contrast, if something is to be ‘built’ in of asphalt, which was kept as a path, while the rest was partly broken up
an ‘unbuilt’ area (i.e. ‘nature’), it is always evaluated according to its ‘im- and removed. Plant succession was allowed to start, and in the beginning
pact on nature and the landscape’, which has to be compensated by impact goldenrod and other perennials came up. Since 2010, poplars, birches, and
mitigation measures in compliance with German nature conservation law. willows have dominated, while the next succession phase is still unknown.
An illustrative example: if a city wants to extend into the surrounding ‘un- This area is very accessible through asphalt paths and reused concrete
built’ area with a new residential estate of 10,000 square metres, then first slabs, stacked in some places as elevated viewing platforms where park
the ecological value of the impact area is assessed by a specific method to users can experience the dynamic plant processes at close hand. Nearby
quantify the loss. The compensation thus calculated could result, for exam- is the second area_the former helicopter parking area, a huge expanse of
ple, in a requirement to design an area of 2,000 square metres with a very concrete. This site was chosen as an experimental site where plant succes-
high ecological value, which could be on the site or somewhere else. On a sion could be studied by the scientists of Frankfurt’s Senckenberg Insti-
practical level, this compensation might be a grove of native shrubs along tute. Together with the GTL landscape architects, it was decided to crush
the northern edge of the proposed residential area, utilized as a buffer zone the concrete into different fractions and sort them into square areas ac-
to an adjacent small brook. To guarantee a long-term ecological gain, the cording to fraction sizes. There are squares with very fine material, as well
grove is fenced off, and any crossings between the new residential estate as squares with larger slabs. The area is also shaped by water. A former
and the brook are forbidden_a strict separation between a natural and a brook, which was piped during the airport years, runs beneath the park
cultural area. The same principle of eco-calculation is applied in Germany surface. The pipe was accidentally broken during construction of the park,
for anything built in the ‘unbuilt’ area, be it a road, a railway track, wind but it was decided that the damage should not be rectified, resulting in
turbines, or pigsties. This law has many positive effects_it impedes urban a deliberately unmanaged spill of water into the area. In combination,
sprawl and supports biodiversity. Yet, there is also criticism because those these various design elements set the stage for an unforeseeable develop-
new ‘natural’ areas are mono-functional and exclude humans. Some ecolo- ment of biotopes. Here, as well as in the adjacent asphalt area described
gists already warn that this approach might lead to a decreasing acceptance above, no maintenance is allowed. The area has become popular with
of nature conservation (Hoekstra 2013). Thus, there is a search for more in- biology teachers, who often conduct guided school excursions there.
tegrative design solutions, where the funds appropriated for impact miti- Resorting to a synthetic approach, the third area is the huge ‘Butterfly
gation might also be used to create multi-functional open spaces that in- Meadow’ along the River Nidda. For most of the year, it is heavily used by
clude nature conservation areas. The Old Nidda-Meadows Airfield, which people for sports and leisure. Access is, however, not allowed during the
we researched as a best-practice project in an ongoing research project on breeding season of meadow birds. To increase the number of plant and
this subject, [10] is an excellent case in point. animal species, the meadows are mown only twice a year.
The Old Nidda-Meadows Airfield (a former U.S. military airport on the This project is an ‘andscape’ in its best sense. It has turned a former
northern fringe of Frankfurt) was transformed into a park by GTL land- airport with very low biodiversity into a place with many new man-made
scape architects [11] and opened in 2003, serving as an important step- biotopes. The relationship between people, animals, plants, water, or soils
ping stone in Frankfurt’s green belt system. Nature conservation was are guided by the landscape architects, on a sliding scale from intensive
an important consideration in this park because a large proportion of to extensive, and with different foci on perceiving, learning, neglecting,
its construction funding was made available through impact mitiga- or playing.

16 Journal of Landscape Architecture | 1-2014


Figure 10 Only a narrow strip of the former runway has been kept as
a path. The rest of the asphalt has been crushed and the surfaces are
left for succession processes. In the back, concrete slabs are stacked to
form a viewing platform.

Figure 11 In the former parking area for military helicopters, the con-
crete was crushed to different sizes. Together with a water spill origi-
nating from a broken pipe underneath and left deliberately uncon-
trolled, a framework of different site conditions was provided to allow
for an unforeseeable development of biotopes.

Figure 12 Many school classes visit the park to learn about ecological
processes and relations.

Figure 13 Adjacent to the remaining runway, which is used for


cycling, skating, etc., extends the ‘Butterfly Meadow’. An important
connection for pedestrians and cyclists is designed as an elevated path.

1- 2014 | Journal of Landscape Architecture 17


Andscapes: Concepts of nature and culture for landscape architecture in the ‘Anthropocene’ Martin Prominski

Conclusion
The notion of the ‘Anthropocene’ calls for a change in our understanding consider the full complexity of ‘andscapes’, instead of relying on conven-
of nature, implying that the human influence has reached every corner tional conceptualizations as exemplified in phrases like ‘This is a natural
of the earth and beyond; there is no nature left in the sense of something area’, or ‘This is kept in a natural state’. We should always address the spe-
uninfluenced by humans. New ideas are necessary for a unitary concept cific elements of an existing, or proposed, open space_the oak, the skylark,
of nature and culture to replace the outdated, dualistic understanding. the child, the granite, the goldenrod, the immigrant, the clouds, etc. This
Japan offers some inspiring concepts in this quest. Due to specific condi- makes the understanding and description of a milieu much more precise
tions in terms of religion, art, or cultural landscapes, Japan never devel- than ways of thinking that follow the lines of a simplistic binary oppo-
oped a dualistic concept of nature and culture like in the West. From this sition of nature or culture. Addressing the elements of a milieu, however,
non-dualistic foundation, Watsuji and Imanishi developed their sophis- is only the first step, because we have learned from Watsuji and Imanishi
ticated concepts of fudo and seibutsu no sekei in the first half of the twenti- that it is the relationships between the elements that are decisive_their
eth century. Both argue that the world should not be seen as an opposi- sociality or in-betweenness (aidagara). Thus, as landscape architects it is
tion of natural and cultural elements, but as an intricate web of elements our task to consider, for an ‘andscape’, the elements as well as their rela-
in dynamic relationships. This integrative conception of the previous an- tionships_in fact, we could interpret landscape architecture as designing
tagonists, nature and culture, could not only prove productive for the ‘An- an adventure of relationships.
thropocene’ in general, but also for landscape architecture in particular.
It should motivate landscape architects to design complex relationships Acknowledgements
between all project elements, keeping in mind Imanishi’s dictum that The research for this article was made possible by a long-term fellowship
sociality among all living things is the structural principle of the world. from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). I would like
In the West, this is still difficult to realize because the word ‘social’ belongs to thank my colleagues at Chiba University: Toru Mitani for introduc-
to the human realm. Sociality in Imanishi’s sense comes close to Kandin- ing me to contemporary landscape architecture projects and offices; Isami
sky’s proposal for a synthetical approach_where ‘and’ replaces ‘either–or’. Kinoshita­for helping me understand satoyama and the Japanese approach
Built on this notion, the term ‘andscape’ is proposed here, a term that is of dealing with environmental impacts; and, especially, Makoto Akasaka,
able to highlight integration and relationships especially with regard to my host professor, for our intensive discussions on Watsuji and Imani-
landscape architecture [12]. shi, our tours through Mizumoto Park and other sites, as well as his warm
The discussion of the two projects from contemporary landscape archi- hospitality throughout my four-month stay.
tecture has shown that the profession is already fully able to operate from
a unitary perspective and to design ‘andscapes’. Although the Japanese
project goes deeper in terms of sociality among all living things, as shown
in the detail of the actively supported native climbing plants, there is no
Notes
fundamental difference in terms of a unitary perspective between East
1 ‘In 2008, the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological
and West_both projects express an extraordinary capability. There are
Society of London decided, by a large majority, that there was
many more projects that could be identified as ‘andscapes’_Lower Don merit in considering the possible formalization of this term:
Lands in Toronto by MVVA, Fresh Kills Park in New York by Field Opera- that is, that it might eventually join the Cambrian, Jurassic,
tions, Parque del Agua in Zaragoza by aldayjover/Dalnoky, Qunli Storm- Pleistocene, and other such units on the Geological Time Scale.’
(Zalasiewicz et al. 2010: 2228) This process will take many years
water Wetland Park in Haerbin City by Turenscape, etc. This performance
and its ambitiousness makes the outcome uncertain.
of a unitary approach to nature and culture is an asset in the ‘Anthro-
2 Imanishi includes also non-living things in the world of
pocene’, where scientists and artists are still searching intensely for new
living things: ‘If you are concerned with differences, then
concepts to replace vanished nature. Landscape architects should promote mankind, animals, plants and non-living things are all dif-
these efforts by using the correct terms in their reflections and commu- ferent. However, if you look at the similarities, then these are
nication. This entails at least two changes in the professional debate, as all part of this world and exist by the same basic principle of
existence.­There is then no reason to confine “life” only to liv-
well as in design practice. Firstly, the word ‘nature’, in its oversimplified
ing things, but we can say that there is nothing without life
meaning of something independent from humans, should no longer be and wherever things exist there is always life.’ (Imanishi 2002:
used. This will be difficult to get used to and can only be a long-term goal, 20) Thus, non-living things are alive_a idea hard to under-
especially because nature has so many positive connotations, and we use stand from the perspective of Western philosophy and science.
Yet, it is obvious that minerals or water as non-living things
it very often in our professional communication (a search for ‘nature’ on
feed living things and that they cannot be separated from
the website of the American Society of Landscape Architects alone turns the relational community of the world of living things.
up 4,300 hits, and for ‘natural’ 6,200 hits). However, the disappearance of
3 In certain instances I have referred to the German trans-
the traditional concept of nature is not only unavoidable if we accept the lation because the English one is not accurate. Berque, who
notion of the ‘Anthropocene’; it might also lead to advantages if we per- translated Fudo into French, goes so far that he recommends
form a second change. Once the monolithic notions of nature and culture avoiding the English translation by Geoffrey Bownas
(Berque 2011).
have fragmented into several elements, we shall have an opportunity to

18 Journal of Landscape Architecture | 1-2014


4 Berque gives an interesting further explanation for the word Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainabil- Latour, B. (2004), Politics of Nature, tr. C. Porter
‘moment’. It should be understood as ‘momentum’, as ‘a power­ ity 2012]). The Stockholm Resilience Centre defines resilience (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
of moving produced by the combination of two contrary as ‘the capacity of a system_be it an individual, a forest, a city
Ministry of the Environment Japan (MEJ)/United Nations
(or different) forces, as in mechanics. In Watsuji, this means or an economy_to deal with change and continue to develop’
University, Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), (2010),
the dynamic unity of that which dualism has opposed: (SRC 2012: 3). In dealing with these dynamic systems, one core
The Satoyama-Initiative, http://27.34.156.115/wp-content/
the human subject on the one hand, objective environment aspect of resilience theory is an ‘acknowledgement of “socio-
uploads/2011/09/satoyama-leaflet-web-en-final.pdf,
on the other hand’ (Berque 2004: 391). ecological integration”. Where earlier ecological approaches
accessed 10 June 2013.
tried to separate ecological systems from human influences
5 Edgar Morin has characterized this relation as uniduality,
(viewing the latter as “disturbance”), resilience thinking em- Meyer, E. (1997), ‘The Expanded Field of Landscape Architec-
a fitting characterization for this unity of dual poles.
phasises the connectedness and interdependence at play be- ture’, in G. Thompson and F. Steiner (eds.), Ecological Design
See Morin, E. (1999), Seven complex lessons in education for the fu-
tween humans and nature’ (Erixon et al. 2013: 352). In a case and Planning (New York: John Wiley & Sons), 45–79.
ture (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
study of the Järva area, which is part of the green belt of Stock-
Organization), 23ff. Scherer, G. and Klingan, K. (2013), The ‘Anthropocene’ Project_
holm, Erixon and his co-authors demonstrate how much the
An opening, January 10–13, 2013, www.hkw.de/media/en/
6 Berque contributed to the theoretical discourse on landscape dichotomy of nature and culture still dominates the minds of
texte/pdf/2013-2/programm-6/anthropozaen/booklet-anthro-
as editor of Cinq propositions pour une théorie du paysage (1994) urban planners and how the alternative of an integrated socio-
pozaen-eine-eroeffnung.pdf, accessed 26 August 2013.
and Mouvance II_Soixante-dix mots pour le paysage (2006) and ecological approach can lead to a more resilient design of the
with his book Écoumène: Introduction à l'étude des milieux urban landscape (Erixon et al. 2013) SRC (ed.), Stockholm Resilience Center, www.stockholmresilience.
humains (2009). org/download/18.5004bd9712b572e3de6800017246/
org-src+2010+webb.pdf, accessed 11 November 2013.
7 As a reason for this failure, French colleagues mentioned to
References
me that milieu is not something visual or something you can TMPA (Tokyo Metropolitan Park Association), Mizumoto­
design, it is quite abstract and expresses ‘only’ a specific con- Berque, A. (1997), Japan. Nature, Artifice and Japanese Culture Park, www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park/detail-03.
dition. (Yelvertoft Manor: Pilkington Press). html#mizumoto, accessed 13 June 2013.
8 In 2008, the project received an award from the Japanese Berque, A. (2004),‘Offspring of Watsuji´s theory of milieu (fudo)’, United Nations Secretary_General’s High-level Panel on
Institute of Landscape Architecture. GeoJournal 60: 389–396. Global Sustainability (2012), Resilient People, Resilient Planet:
A future worth choosing (New York: United Nations).
9 It is beyond the scope of this article to trace the complex Berque, A. (2011), Mesologics, http://ecoumene.blogspot.jp/p/
meaning and the history of the Japanese reception of, and de- argument-english-version.html, accessed 26 August 2013. Watsuji, T. (1988), Climate and Culture, tr. G. Bownas
bate on, the Western concept of ‘nature’. Berque (1997: 135ff) (Westport: Greenwood Press).
Confucius (1893), Analects, tr. J. Legge, www.sacred-texts.com/
has written an excellent chapter on this topic in which he
cfu/conf1.htm, accessed 26 August 2013. Watsuji, T. 1992. Fudo. Wind und Erde – Über den Zusammenhang
mentions, that ‘countless studies have already been devoted
zwischen Klima und Kultur, tr. D. Fischer-Barnicol and O. Ryogi
to the subject.’ Corner, J. (1997), ‘Ecology and Landscape as agents of creativity’,
(Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft).
in G. Thompson and F. Steiner (eds.), Ecological Design and
10 The research project is titled ‘Design Guide for Nature
Planning (New York: Wiley), 81–108. Zalasiewicz, J. et al. (2010), ‘The New World of the ‘Anthropo-
Compensation Measures in Urban Areas’. Funding institution:
cene’’, Environmental Science & Technology 44: 2228–2231.
Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (German Federal Founda- Crutzen, P. J. (2002), ‘Geology of Mankind’, Nature 415: 23.
tion for the Environment); project team: Martin Prominski, Zˇ izek,
ˇ S. (2008), ‘Nature and its Discontents’, SubStance 37 (3):
Descola, P. (2008), Who owns nature?, www.booksandideas.net/
Malte Maaß, Linda Funke. 37–72.
Who-owns-nature.html, accessed 11 November 2013.
11 The Old Nidda-Meadows Airfield received the 2005 German
Descola, P. (2013), Beyond Nature and Culture (Chicago: Chicago­
Landscape Architecture Prize, the most prestigious profession-
University Press), (French original: Par- delà nature et culture, Biographical note
al award in Germany.
2005).
Martin Prominski is a professor for ‘Designing urban land-
12 The concept of ‘andscape’ as a proposal of a non-dualistic,­
Erixon, H., Borgström, S., and Andersson E. (2013), ‘Challeng- scapes’ at Leibniz Universität Hannover, a position he has
relational perspective can also be embedded into several
ing dichotomies_exploring resilience as an integrative and held since 2009. He studied landscape planning at the Techni-
ongoing theoretical discourses, from which two should be
operative conceptual framework for large-scale urban green cal University of Berlin and received a Master's degree in land-
pointed out here. First, in the larger realm of philosophy and
structures’, Planning Theory & Practice 14:3: 349–372. scape architecture from Harvard University, Graduate School
anthropology, Philippe Descola´s opus magnum Beyond Nature
of Design, with the support of a DAAD scholarship. He holds a
and Culture (2013) is probably the most far-reaching attempt European Landscape Convention (2000), Council of Europe,
Ph.D. from TU Berlin; his thesis, “Landschaft entwerfen”, was
to describe the existing relations between humans and their ETS No. 76, http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/
published in 2004. From 2003 to 2008, he was assistant profes-
physical environment. He analyzes a huge number of ethno- html/176.htm, accessed 26 August 2013.
sor in ‘Theory of contemporary landscape architecture’ at Leib-
graphic examples from all over the world and concludes that
Fischer-Barnicol, D. and Ryogi, O. (1992), niz Universität Hannover. He co-founded the Journal of Land-
the dualistic Western ‘naturalism’ is only one of four possible­
‘Einleitung der Übersetzer’, in T. Watsuji, Fudo. Wind und Erde — scape Architecture (JoLA) in 2006 and was one of its editors until
ontologies. The other three are animism, totemism, and anal-
Über den Zusammenhang zwischen Klima und Kultur 2010. His current research focuses on theoretical issues of de-
ogism, which all operate beyond the dichotomy of nature and
(Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1992), VII–XIX. sign, landscape, and ecology, the design of renewable energy­
culture (for a short summary see Descola 2008). All four on-
landscapes, and process-orientated strategies in landscape
tologies express inherent contradictions, which leads Descola Hoekstra, J. (2013), What is conservation 3.0?, www.livescience.
architecture­(see, for example, the book River. Space. Design,
to propose an alternative path that combines the demands of com/38481-new-approach-to-conservation.html,
published together with Antje Stokman et al. in 2012).
universal scientific enquiry with respect for the manifold con- accessed 26 August 2013.
ditions of the world and their relativity. He calls this ‘a rela-
Imanishi K. (2002), A Japanese View of Nature: The World of
tive universalism, with relative as in “relative pronoun”, that
Living Things (London: RoutledgeCurzon). Contact
is making a connection. Relative universalism does not stem
from nature and cultures, substances and spirits, discrimina- Jackson, J. B. (1984), ‘Concluding with landscapes’, in Discover- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Prominski
tion between prime and second essences, but relationships of ing the vernacular landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press), Leibniz Universität Hannover
continuity and discontinuity, of identity and differences, of 145–157. Institut für Freiraumentwicklung
likeness and unlikeness’ (Descola 2008). Herrenhäuser Str. 2a
Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture (JILA) (eds.) (2008),
30419 Hannover
Second, resilience research is another area where the dichoto- Contemporary Landscape Design of Japan (Tokyo: San-Yu-Sha).
Germany
my of nature and culture is seen as an obstacle. Resilience is a
Johnson, B. R. and Hill, K. (2002), Ecology and Design Phone: +49-511-762-55-27/-28
concept that has recently gained in importance in the debate
(Washington: Island Press). martin.prominski@freiraum.uni-hannover.de
on sustainable development (as a case in point the title of the
www.freiraum.uni-hannover.de/prominski
most recent report on global sustainability by the United Na- Kandinsky, W. (1927), ‘Und’, in Essays über Kunst und Künstler
tions was ‘Resilient People. Resilient Planet’ [United Nations (Bern: Benteli), 97–108.

1- 2014 | Journal of Landscape Architecture 19

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