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Alice Labadini Alice Alice Labadini IMMATERIAL LANDSCAPES What is the space-shaping potential of immaterial entities? This thesis aspires to foreground the immaterial as a valuable domain of investigation and of design experimentation for the practice of landscape architecture. Through a critical reading of different theories of space and their juxtaposition with actual design works, it aims to lay out an original theoretical foundation for approaching the immaterial in design. LANDSCAPES IMMATERIAL The thesis explores the possibility of formulating concepts in conversation as a method for conducting research in the field of design. The format of the conver- sation mobilises a relationship between research and design that is at the same time analytical and inventive: in conversation, design works are discussed in light of existing design theory, while new theoretical intuitions are produced by the exchange of ideas between the interlocutors. The generative energy of the thesis’ conversations and their rich theoretical outcome are conveyed in a number of concepts, which are organised in a glos- sary. The glossary can be regarded both as the ultimate theory outcome of this research, pointing in the direction of a thorough inquiry into the immaterial in design theory, and as a possible inventive prompt for practitioners, supporting new forms of design thinking among landscape architecture professionals. Alice Labadini (1981) graduated in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, before joining the Oslo School of Architecture and Design for conducting research in the field of landscape architecture. She has been lecturing in landscape architecture and urbanism programmes at AHO, the Tromsø Academy of Landscape and Territorial Studies and the Technical University of Munich. She has been invited editor of the book series Landscape Architecture Europe and since 2016 she is editor of the land- Alice Labadini scape architecture journal JoLA. Currently, she is managing a EU-funded research project on Alpine ecosystems and landscapes at the European Academy of Bozen/ Bolzano. IMMATERIAL LANDSCAPES Formulating the Intangible in Northern Landscapes PhD 86 ISBN 978-82-547-0302-1 ISSN 1502-217x PhD thesis 86 PhD thesis Alice Labadini Immaterial Landscapes Formulating the Intangible in Northern Landscapes $OLFH/DEDGLQL ,661[ ,6%1 &217(;7 3K'WKHVLVQU $GRFWRUDOWKHVLVVXEPLWWHG WR7KH2VOR6FKRRORI $UFKLWHFWXUHDQG'HVLJQ 38%/,6+(5 7KH2VOR6FKRRORI$UFKLWHFWXUHDQG'HVLJQ &29(5,//8675$7,21 /XLJL*KLUUL5RQFRFHVLJHQQDLR )RWRWHFDGHOOD%LEOLRWHFD3DQL]]L±5HJJLR(PLOLD,WDO\ (UHGLGL/XLJL*KLUUL±5HJJLR(PLOLD,WDO\ 35,17('%< $NDGHPLNDIRUODJ$6 '(6,*1 %05 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Projects, like journeys, originate somewhere, proceed through many places and develop across many conversations. Though this work may begin in an obsession that is my own, its progress would have not been possible without the support of many individuals, who contributed to it, each in their own way, and to whom I would like to express my gratitude. In particular, thank you… … Janike Kampevold Larsen, for your continuous support throughout, your patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. … Jenny Osuldsen, Jorunn Sannes, Stig L. Andersson and Jan Gunnar Skjeldsøy, for your enthusiastic engagement with my work and for your invaluable insights, without which this thesis would not exist. … Frederik Tygstrup, for the reflected feedback on my first draft. … Decio Guardigli, for instigating my curiosity and passion for the immaterial. … Knut Eirik Dahl, for believing in me when I didn’t. … my fellow colleagues at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, for the stimulating discussions and challenging questions. … my students at AHO and at the Tromsø Academy of Landscape and Territorial Studies, for motivating me with your eagerness and persistence. … the administration at AHO, for the practical help and assistance. … the AHO library, for all the books and the articles. … my friends, for all the fun we have had in our free time. … my dog, for his unconditional love even when I was far away. … my mum and dad, for encouraging me to follow my intuitions and backing up my struggles with all possible means. … Michael, for being there all the time, for untangling my confusion with your pragmatism, for your love and the wonderful cakes. iii IMMATERIAL LANDSCAPES | CONTENTS Contents Acknowledgements iii Introduction 7 An Atmospheric Vision 23 The Legacy of Perspective; The Synoptic Overview; Repositioning the Subject; The Agency of Matter; An Atmospheric Vision Notes on the Immaterial 55 Is the Immaterial (what Architects would call) an Atmosphere? ; Why Immaterial?; Milieu; From Landscape to Milieu; The World at the Level of a Person’s Environment; Im+material; Deleuze and Guattari’s Milieu; Landscape Architecture is a Prism Presence in the Landscape 107 Reading the Landscape; Reading and Making; Presence in the Landscape; A Situated Reading The Conversation as a Method for Research 129 Thinking as a Mode of Practice: The Conversation as Method; The Emergence of Ideas in Conversation; Formulating the Intangible: The Role of Concepts Jenny B. Osuldsen and Jorunn Sannes on the Roof of New Oslo Opera House 147 A Conversation with Jenny B. Osuldsen A Conversation with Jorunn Sannes Stig Lennart Andersson on the open space at Brattøra in Trondheim 175 A Conversation with Stig L. Andersson Jan Gunnar Skjeldsøy on the House of Measurement 199 A Conversation with Jan Gunnar Skjeldsøy Formulating the Intangible: a Glossary 213 absolute; atmosphere; colour; entropy; exposure; ground; immersion; instrument; material(ity); measure; mirror; non- euclidean; performance; poetic; sea; sky; sunlight; surface; volume; walking; /weather/; wonder (A) Tract of Land 279 Cited Literature 281 IMMATERIAL LANDSCAPES | INTRODUCTION Introduction Landscapes are material. They are out there: solid, visible and palpable. They are the topographies we see, and the terrains we travel through. The soils, the waters, and the vegetation. Since the origins of civilisation, landscape matter has been valued as a resource for mankind. In the course of history, we have studied landscapes, tried to understand their functioning, and the potential contained in their material resources. Confidently guided by the rationalities of vision, and empowered by technological apparatuses supporting it, we have observed and analysed landscapes of all scales, from the macro to the micro. By means of reason and vision, again, landscapes have over time been rendered a source of aesthetic enjoyment, primarily in painting and with respect to perspective. Recently elevated into the air, first by the balloon and since by the spaceship, we have ultimately achieved the capacity to survey landscapes from above, and to include their material features in all- inclusive representations.1 As a result of this process, our idea of 1 A visual approach to the world from the air has today acquired a renewed importance in the study of landscapes. Remotely viewed, landscapes’ structures and materials can be easily identified and mapped, and their spatial and ecological relations can be systematically studied and categorised. The cognitive possibilities that remote views of the Earth allow have been foundational for the development of the theory and practice of landscape architecture in the last few decades. The American planner and professor Ian McHarg’s widely read book Design with Nature, published in 1969, could be considered one of the most important references for this development. In the book, McHarg presents a method for environmental planning that makes systematic use of aerial views and thematic maps as tools for deciphering landscapes. Because seemingly objective, scientifically provable and replicable, the McHargian method has over time become a paradigm for the planning of human settlements in accordance with the logics of nature’s ecological processes. The role played by aerial representation in contemporary landscape architecture practices and its implications for design has been widely discussed, and the richness of references defies easy summary. However, some texts more than others have been especially informative for this thesis: James Corner and Alex McLean, Taking measures across the American Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996); Denis E. Cosgrove, “The Measures of America”, in Corner and McLean, Taking measures, 3–13; Denis E. Cosgrove, Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape (1984, repr., Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998); Charles Waldheim, “Aerial Representation and the Recovery of Landscape”, in Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture, ed. James Corner (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 121–140; Nina Edwards Anker and Peder Anker, “Viewing the Earth from Without or from Within,” in Scales of the Earth, New Geographies 4, ed. Jazairy El Hadi (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2011), 89–94; 7 IMMATERIAL LANDSCAPES | INTRODUCTION landscape has over the centuries come to coincide with that of an assemblage of solid, durable, and visible entities. However, landscapes cannot be reduced to what one can constantly see or physically touch. Landscapes are composed of immaterial as much as of material entities, of events and phenomena that are massless, transient, and invisible, and whose presence is made evident only on the scale of the human and in lived experience. Light, sounds, smells, and atmospheric occurrences: all are components of landscapes that do not

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