Urban Nature Flashcards
Give two examples of futuristic art/literature about cities.
- Ballard Drowned world (1962)
- ‘I am legend’ (Dir. Francis Lawrence, 2007)
- Also book by Matheson (1954)
What does ‘I am Legend’ (2007, Dir. Lawrence) suggest about the urban condition?
- Urban nature pervades Manhattan in this (unlikely) apocalyptic future
- Yet makes it look as though nature could only reclaim the city once people are gone
- Reinforces an ‘urban realism’ (cf. Fisher 2008) devoid of nature
Who has commented on the agoraphobia aspects of cities?
Vidler 2000 - warped space
What did the “Ideal city” painting (c.1475) depict the city as?
A place devoid of people, industry and nature. Geometric
What is ironic about Garden Cities in the UK?
Actually rational and car-dominated!
How can different public spheres in the city be represenred?
- Private spaces for some activities (e.g., Warm Rooms in St Petersburg - Petri 2022)
- Public houses (drunkenness) vs cafes (civilised)
What was one of the first truly PUBLIC parks?
Birkenhead park (1847)
What is a good essay on gendered experiences of London?
Woolf 1930
Is there such a thing as inherently urban problems?
No, really the consequence of capitalism (e.g., Engels “And yet there is a great deal of money made here; good day, sir”
What did plants historically (and today) represent?
Represented geopolitical power
- The more ornate the plants = the more regional power dominance
What is significant about the Louisiana Sculpture park in Denmark?
People can access the art and nature
- est 1958
Is central park really nature?
No, it is as much an engineering feat by Olmsted
Was central park originally planned in NCY?
Not in the “grid-iron plan” (1811)
How did central park affect surrounding areas?
- Concerns initially (tax and disorder)
- Yet caused rent rise - speculative capital invested in surrounding properties
How many entries were there for central park?
31 entries for the design
- Olmsted’s pastoral landscape winner
- Features ‘the Ramble’, a simulacrum of a natural landscape
- Also formal elements - water features etc
What were Olmsted’s ideas of central park?
- TO create a pastoral landscape for romanticism-inspired improvement of city lives
- A city for the public + mass migration
- Yet technocratic, no consultation
FIND CITATION
What happened after central park opened?
- Elite playground (by 1859 according to photos)
- Millions of visitors by 1870s
- Complaints in 1930s “Let ‘em play”
- After ww2 a political space for civil soc movements and protest (cf. Nissen 2008)
What happened to central park from 1980s onwards?
- Disrepair in 1970s
2.Central Park conservancy from 1980s - Became semi-privatised, funded by philanthropic donations
.
What did Moses and Olmsted have in common?
- No consultation
- Simplified complex issues
What has Koolhaas (1978) highlighted about central park?
- A form of taxidermy
- A fragment of an original nature
YET ONLY A SIMULACRUM!
What is Gilles Clement’s “third landscape”?
That the landscape should be left alone - it is a space of resistance
(Clement 2015)
What is ironic about non-design?
Design is needed for it!
- There are intentionalities in the “Third Landscape” (Clement 2015)
- Parks are “in movement”
IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER
What is interesting about Parc Henri Matisse, Lille?
It is a refuge for a nature in a park…
- Yet parks are often considered refuges for nature…
- What is natural and what are remnants??
-
What is an “urban arcadia”?
A place of escape and solitude
What typology did Matthew suggest re urban nature?
- Systems-based approach [scientific]
- Observational paradigms [ethnographies of nature?]
[also scientific “problems” of urban nature/ecosystems] - Urban Pol Eco (UPE) [Marxist / metabolism - could itself be split]
- Ecological Pluiverse [assemblages / ANT]
NOT SET IN STONE [own additions in brakets]
Who is associated with the systems-based approach to urban nature?
Paul Duvigneaud
- Trained in tropical ecology
- Sankey diagrams of urban metabolism
Who has devised a focus on “urban problems”?
Alberti 2005
- Built environment considered to be detrimental to urban nature and ecosystems
Does Alberti (2005) break down urban-rural dualism?
- Looks at nature in cities
- Yet nature still seen as the Other to the city
- City is always and inherently capitalist
What is important to consider about scientific, systems-based approaches to urban nature (and capitalist research generally)?
- Funding?
- In whose interests?
When were observational paradigms of urban nature predominant? What is an example?
In the 19th century (e.g., Deakin 1855 - Flora of the colosseum)
Good links to ruins, destruction and memory
Who has written about their personal experience of WW2 bomb sites?
Rose Macaulay ‘The World, My Wilderness’ (1950)
What did the Berlin School of urban nature highlight?
Cosmopolitan ecologies of post-war Berlin
(see Gandy 2022)
What do recombinant/ cosmopolitan ecologies highlight?
What nature is welcome / unwelcome in urban space?
- Example = ring-necked parakeets
How does the observational paradigm for urban nature exist today?
Observational science and citizen science projects (scaling up)
- Big Garden Birdwatch!
Who has highlighted how plants in ports are emblematic of colonialism?
Alves 2004
Who highlighted the dialectic between myth and enlightenment?
Horkheimer and Adorno 1944 - the dialectic of enlightenment
- The enlightenment conceals the reality of nature and culture (and presents them as a dualism)
What does PE in the Global South focus on?
The political economy
What is overlooked in UPE?
Neo-vitalism (the agency of matter)
Why are environmental science fictions useful?
- Increasingly read
- Spreads information and galvanises interests
Who has suggested that we expand our horizons to reflect on different perspectives, economies and societies?
Arturo Escobar 2019 - Pluriverse: a post-development dictionary
What is a (albeit minor) problem with discussions concerning re-wilding urban space?
Assumes that urban space is not already wild
- Integrating animals in different ways
- Exploit the invisible animals whilst introducing the non-invisible!?
What film has deconstructed human-animal relations?
‘Wild’ (Dir. Krebitz 2016)
- Wolf becomes domesticated
- Human becomes undomesticated
When considering Rights to the City, how can these be expanded further?
More-than-human rights to the city
How are animals architecturally incorporated into cities?
Human housing and aspects designed for non-humans
What did the ostvaardespladen highlight about the ethics of re-wilding?
When do you intervene?
- Adverts to public generate criticism
Who has recently discussed ruderal natures in the city?
Stoetzer 2022 - ruderal city and natures
What tradition has merged urban ecology with UPE?
The Berlin School
What are 3 emerging challenges for UPE?
- Unify with urban ecology and transect studies (also neo-vitalism and affect)
- What about neo-Lefebvrian complete urbanisation? What makes UPE specific?
- Zoonotic urbanisation and corporeal natures
What is forensic ecology?
cf. Weisman 2019
- City and nature as a palimpsest of crime
- Forensic Entomology (flies at crime scenes)
- A global crime scene during the 6th mass extinction (?)
Who has discussed ‘hostile landscape architecture’, as it could be called?
Mitchell and Staeheli 2006
Lawns replaced with ‘prickly plants and flowers’
What does Nissen (2008) highlight about parks?
Parks “are equipped with rules and regulations that
permit certain uses and prohibit others”
Nissen 2008
Who has discussed the use of “not-for-profit private management companies” control over Bryant park?
Nissen 2008
What is a good case study for parks and private ownership/
Bryant Park, Midtown Manhattan (Nissen 2008)
- Good links to central park too
How is security involved in Bryant Park, NY?
“Uniformed and plainclothes security and police officers patrol the site” (Nissen 2008)
- Consider incorporation into urban space
- Private control and clientele
ALSO ZUKIN 1995
Who discussed the exportation of “urban planning” during colonialism? What are 3 key points?
King 1977
1) Urban Planning ideas trialled in Britain (unilateral flow ideas, they were “imposed” on colonies, ignoring other urban planning systems)
2) Seen as a “solution” to disorder and problems - could link to Biopolitics.
3) Courses on developmentalist planning in the 1960s
Under what principles was Delhi, India designed?
- In accordance with the “garden city” movement in Britain
- The planning ideas were exported
King 1977
