Amidst Things
Nonhuman things, such as plants, soils, asphalt surfaces, animals, heavy construction equipment, maintenance plans and various technologies are profoundly and actively involved in the dynamic sociomaterial and -spatial processes of the landscape metropolis. However, despite the crucial role of nonhu...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Stichting OpenAccess
2020-05-01
|
| Series: | Spool |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ojs-libaccp.tudelft.nl/index.php/spool/article/view/4924 |
| Summary: | Nonhuman things, such as plants, soils, asphalt surfaces, animals, heavy construction equipment, maintenance plans and various technologies are profoundly and actively involved in the dynamic sociomaterial and -spatial processes of the landscape metropolis. However, despite the crucial role of nonhuman things in the continuous formation of the metropolitan landscape, their existence and agency are widely overlooked. Furthermore, in this age of the Anthropocene, we are witnessing an unprecedented humancaused mass extinction of non-human species (Ceballos, Ehrlich, & Dirzo, 2017; Grooten & Almond, 2018). While unnoticed by most humans, such nonhuman species can, and do, still reside among us, even in the most constructed and densely built areas. How to encompass and become more attentive to the things and nonhuman species, amongst which we live, is a challenge. Gardens specifically for human and nonhuman encounters, where the landscape metropolis’s unnoticed animals and plants can reside, could be one solution. Not only can small gardens help to compensate for the negative effects of urbanisation on biodiversity (Fontaine, Bergerot, Le Viol, & Julliard, 2016; Goddard, Dougill, & Benton, 2010), they also have the capacity to make hidden qualities in the metropolitan tissue perceivable (Wit, 2013). A vital approach to developing such gardens is to investigate how things, humans, and the many other species occupying the world, are dynamically involved in the continuous formation of sites within the metropolitan landscape. This visual essay follows the steps of making a new secluded and experimental garden for animals, plants, and human beings deep within the brutalist development known as Farum Midtpunkt, built in the 1970s. A densely built housing estate in a thoroughly human-made and constructed landscape, Farum Midtpunkt comprises 1650 dwellings that house 4000 people, and is located in the town of Farum in the northwestern part of the metropolitan area of Copenhagen, Denmark. I use digital collage-drawing to unpack the actors and processes that are involved with a small secluded space tucked away between two apartment buildings in Farum Midtpunkt. I examine the space’s material origin, its initial design as a children’s sand and water playground, as well as its current material state and use as a dog park for Farum Midtpunkt’s smallest dogs. Local residents recently suggested that the space be thoroughly renewed with no attention paid to the site’s legacy and pre-existing qualities. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2215-0897 2215-0900 |