EMILA Symposium September 9th 2011, Amsterdam

 Download Symposium Poster

p e o p l e s l a n d s c a p e

Our most appreciated cultural landscapes are the creations of many individuals, like farmers and landowners. A multitude of private initiatives resulted in beautiful and
coherent landscapes.

But big organizations are taking over; they create impersonal landscapes because they only have a functional approach. In order to make these landscapes work again we need new
initiatives and participation.

During our excursions we will look for new initiatives. W e are going to speak to farmers, entrepreneurs and landowners that have created change in the landscape. And we are going to find out how we can turn a multitude of small initiatives into big scale transformation.

Let us start creating personal landscapes again. This is imperative to the realization of landscaspe architecture.

Landscape identity research

Our method consists of making an inventory of physical attributes and spatial patterns resulting from observation, fieldwork, and historical material, on the basis of which a systematic typological overview is constructed.

Using the overview we can build an extensive detailed taxonomy in order to identify differences and similarities between diverse characteristics of the landscape.                          The consideration of context-linked architectural and urban planning characteristics in future developments is of central importance to the spatial quality and identity of landscapes in the Netherlands.

New chances for old landscapes

Our cultural landscapes have to transform from Resort to Resource; landscape is our life support system. Our cultural landscapes are mainly kept alive with European subsidies.

We have to make the landscape ‘work’ again.
These landscapes suffer under too many rules and regulations.
We have to liberate our landscapes first if we want to create chances. But if we say that everything is then possible, in what directions will landscape grow?

If we don’t want to loose our beautiful cultural landscapes…
If we want to create a new future for our cultural landscapes…
We need to know what’s valuable enough to keep.
How can we identify qualities we can build on?

Develop and preserve at the same time… preservation through development.

Workshop 2011: the future of cultural landscapes

Cultural landscapes are at a critical point in their historical development.

These invaluable resources are under threat from climate change, changing agricultural methods, recreational development and economic instability.

In this summer workshop strategies will be developed to safeguard valuable cultural landscapes while guiding them through processes of rapid transformation.

Cultural landscapes are beautiful landscapes, but we have to reinvent them to keep them alive. In this workshop we are going to design transformative processes in order to create new spatial, economic, and social potentials.

EMILA