Authors:Francesca Mazzino, Isotta Cortesi Pages: 7 - 23 Abstract: La ricerca intrapresa con Terrae incognitae. Comunità vegetali per il progetto di paesaggio ha restituito questa raccolta di saggi utili per approfondire gli studi in territori ancora parzialmente inesplorati, avverando le attese da noi espresse sulle capacità di adattamento, relazione e trasformazione che le comunità vegetali ci offrono come modello dal quale il progetto di paesaggio può oggi, non solo attingere, ma concretamente trovare nuove e solide fondamenta. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-15983 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Monika Sobotik Pages: 26 - 37 Abstract: Over a period of approximately 50 years, scholars (Lore Kutschera, Erwin Lichtenegger, Monika Sabotik) from the research center of the Pflanzensoziologisches Institut in Klagenfurt have carried out excavation campaigns to study the roots of plants. The excavations, even deep ones, were aimed at understanding the morphology, shapes and adaptation capabilities that plants have developed through their roots in relation to climate conditions, temperatures and soil structure and the proximity of other species. The research gave rise to seven volumes with illustrations of the roots drawn up by Erwin Lichtenegger. The drawings, drawn by hand in pencil, represent, following measurements, the complexity of the root system according to a hypothetical section which however portrays the three-dimensional assembly of the part of the plant kept underground, making the invisible visible. The representations offered a specific scientific contribution in relation to the behavior of plants, but also the interpretation of reality through artistic drawing. PubDate: 2024-05-27 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Bianca Bonato, Umberto Castiello Pages: 38 - 51 Abstract: In questo saggio approfondiremo il comportamento di uno dei principali elementi che caratterizza i nostri paesaggi: le piante. La comprensione di un paesaggio non può esimersi da una profonda conoscenza del mondo vegetale e dalle dinamiche che intercorrono tra le comunità di piante che lo compongono. Lo scopo è di andare oltre la visione del verde come mero sfondo e linguaggio compositivo per considerarlo, più propriamente, come il principale attore del paesaggio, con i suoi bisogni, le sue peculiarità e la sua… intelligenza. Dopo un breve excursus sulle straordinarie abilità cognitive delle piante, ci soffermeremo sulle complesse relazioni che le piante sanno tessere al fine della sopravvivenza. Concluderemo, con una riflessione sull’importanza del verde non solo per la progettazione dei nostri paesaggi ma anche per la salvaguardia della biodiversità e gli ecosistemi. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-15752 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Paola Sabbion Pages: 52 - 69 Abstract: Phytosociology embraces a systemic approach, acknowledging the crucial interactions between plants and their surrounding environment. However, this discipline has had different orientations and applications over time, influenced by socio-cultural changes. Some aspects of the discourse around plant communities, particularly those involving the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, can give rise to a historically informed critical perspective. The development of scientific methodologies and the discoveries that have propelled its advancement are intertwined with historical events, artistic and cultural expressions. Consequently, a narrative of continuous evolution has emerged, in which architecture has played a role, employing the landscape project as a tool for articulating its voice. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-14905 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Alessandro Petraglia Pages: 70 - 79 Abstract: Urban green areas, refuges for biodiversity in human-modified environments, offer unique ecosystem services, aesthetically pleasing spaces and sources of psycho-physical well-being. However, these environments, which have been undervalued as a human resource, are often perceived as invisible or useless spaces, only waiting to be filled with buildings, car parks, or roads. In order to highlight their biodiversity it is necessary to recognize their main actors, i.e. plant species. Measures must, therefore, be taken to increase and protect the biodiversity of these spaces, preventing them from being transformed into merely functional areas for human use. The project launched at Parma University Campus aims to mitigate human pressure on lawns by reducing the number of cuttings, a practice which benefits biodiversity. As a result, diverse plant species which, in turn, provide ecological niches for numerous animal species, will repopulate these green areas. In addition – and probably the most important outcome – circular flowerbeds will stimulate curiosity on the part of students and visitors alike, encouraging them to ask questions about what they see, thus revealing the presence of the lawns, freeing them from anonymity and giving them a new role in the conservation of biodiversity refuges in urban contexts. PubDate: 2024-05-27 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Giuseppe Barbiero Pages: 80 - 91 Abstract: Biophilic Design is a design system based on Kellert and Wilson's Biophilia Hypothesis. Biophilia is literally ‘love for life’ – a feeling distinguished by the fascination evoked in human beings for Nature provoked by contact with Nature and by the affiliation that human beings establish with Nature. Biophilia is an evolutionary adaptation consisting of a set of innate learning rules that shape a spectrum of emotions, ranging from biophilia to biophobia. Two exaptations have been recognised in Biophilia, which occurred due to two moments of rupture of humankind from Nature: the first occurred in the Neolithic Age, the second with the Industrial Revolution which led to most humans becoming urbanized, disconnecting them from Nature. Designers following the principles of Biophilic Design seek to reconnect humans to Nature using our knowledge of biophilia as a guide for the design of artificial environments. Today, Biophilic Design is called to move away from empiricism, and instead implement the experimental tests of the Biophilia Hypothesis. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-15678 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Pio De Rose Pages: 94 - 101 Abstract: The contribution describes the photographic project Out of the Blue, carried out by Pio De Rose between 2017 and 2018 along the Anita Garibaldi promenade, Nervi (Genoa). PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-15697 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Dawn Sanders Pages: 102 - 109 Abstract: Through two examples of artworks, both historical and contemporary, water-colour and installation, this article considers possibilities for art-based research to ground new narratives of ‘plantness’ in botanic garden design. In so doing the author suggests that art can open windows on a little-known world; and confront the human viewer with narratives that provoke them to re-calibrate their ideas about, and feelings towards, plants. Thus, questions are also asked of landscape architecture and the ways in which it might respond to such art-based research works and considers emergent questions for design practices wishing to make ‘Life as Plant’ more public and specific. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-15623 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Alessio Russo Pages: 110 - 125 Abstract: The field of landscape architecture is currently undergoing a notable transformation in planting design styles, driven by the imperative to create resilient and sustainable landscapes capable of adapting to climate change. New approaches to planting design have become a fundamental element in the regeneration of urban spaces, as evidenced by prominent projects such as the High Line in New York and the Lurie Garden in Chicago. To investigate this phenomenon, this paper conducts a review of the literature, aiming to analyse the historical evolution of planting styles. Furthermore, this paper presents a series of compelling case studies that exemplify the successful regeneration of public urban spaces through the implementation of carefully designed plant communities. These case studies illustrate noteworthy projects carried out in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Russia, highlighting the positive impact of designed plant communities on urban landscapes. Drawing upon the findings from the literature review and case studies, this paper concludes by discussing future directions and current issues in planting design. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-14888 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Adriana GHERSI, Fabio MANFREDI Pages: 126 - 137 Abstract: Changing climatic and environmental conditions induce a gradual change in the habits and behaviour of plant communities; plants migrate, aggregate and reorganize with consciousness and foresight to regain the conditions of survival. Similarly, landscape design changes and evolves in form and purpose, advocating new and unusual forms of urban spaces that attempt to combine aesthetic and ecological values. Sometimes taming spontaneity, at other times recreating it, the project proposes new and unprecedented habitats and conveys important cultural values: plants are entrusted with the task of narrating the contents most closely related to life and change. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-14893 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Federico Di Cosmo Pages: 138 - 149 Abstract: Putting on a map the whole forms given by humans to plant communities, the result would be a planisphere with an extremely rich geography. The mappae mundi, however, would present some terrae incognitae: white spots, whose existence is hypothesized but its content is not yet known. They would not be located only in the most remote corners of the planet, but on the contrary, they could be closer than we thought, since nature itself has become a hybrid entity, mixing itself with artifice. The article deals with issues such as the application of mycelium-based materials in the building sector, the management of wastewater through the use of cactaceae, marine agriculture. Food for thought on future’s natural capital and ecologies, on new ways of using plants in design, based on principles of ecological coexistence and habitat rehabilitation logics. PubDate: 2024-05-27 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Giovanni Aloi Pages: 152 - 163 Abstract: Not everything is wrong with the idea of botanical decolonisation: science tells us that biodiversity is generally good for ecosystems. However, we need to think harder, longer and in more complex ways about the chains of inference linking our thinking – from plants to animals, peoples, and territories and starting from the meaning and agency of the word “native”. This paper explores the current debate, critically addresses the idea of decolonization in the garden, and untangles the biological and symbolic threads that complicate the ways we think about plants in our backyard. PubDate: 2024-05-27 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Bianca Maria Rinaldi Pages: 164 - 183 Abstract: The strategies for the construction of national identity devised by the Singaporean government in the years following independence as a British colony included the evocation of an ideal original landscape, epitomized both by the tropical forests that covered the archipelago of Singapore and by the productive landscape of rural villages, or kampung in Malay. The idealized representations of these two local landscapes were entrusted to the plants selected to shape the greening campaigns accompanying the massive urbanization process that rapidly transformed Singapore into a high-density metropolis. Evolving from that approach is Kampung Admiralty, a large contemporary multifunctional building crowned by roof gardens designed by Singapore-based architectural practice WOHA, with Henning Larsen Landscape as landscape consultant. The architectural and landscape architectural complex appears as a technological celebration of the rural landscape: while the botanical associations employed suggest the varied spaces and lively atmospheres of traditional villages with their distinctive mixture of agricultural, wild, and ornamental plants species, the introduction of nature-based solutions and plant communities promoting biodiversity adapt the operational role of tropical vegetation in sustaining the survival of the community that inhabited the kampung to the needs of the contemporary city. PubDate: 2024-03-05 DOI: 10.36253/rv-14911 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Francesca Coppola Pages: 184 - 195 Abstract: Plants have always played an essential role in human life, providing food, medicinal remedies, construction materials, and much more. The interaction between plants and humans is studied in disciplines such as ethnobotany and ethnoecology, which examine the use of plants by different cultures and offer an integrative approach to understanding the process of human appropriation of nature (Toledo, 2001). The interconnectedness of biological and cultural diversity is recognized as biocultural diversity, whose conservation plays a crucial role in environmental sustainability and the preservation of community knowledge (Maffi, 2012). In a scenario of transitioning ecosystems and shifting geographies, communities will need to activate new processes of cultural significance towards their own territories, acknowledging uncertainty and changes in the life cycles of cities and regions, in order to explore possible trajectories for the future (Secchi, 2013). PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-14907 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
Authors:Stefano Melli Pages: 196 - 207 Abstract: We attribute to plants roles and capabilities from which we take inspiration to improve various aspects of the human condition, especially in landscape design. At the same time, we consider the plant world a distant, wild, sometimes frightening ‘elsewhere’. This dual sentiment underlies the belief that a marked divide exists between plants and people, nature and humans. It is a separation that many feel limits our understanding of the system of which we are a part. Through the investigation of unusual cultural experiences, such as that of pre-Aristotelian Greece or pre-Westernised Japan, during which plants had a different recognisability, contemporary landscape architecture can draw stimuli and suggestions to orient cultural imaginaries that can reabsorb the distance. PubDate: 2024-05-27 DOI: 10.36253/rv-14908 Issue No:Vol. 21, No. 2 (2024)
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