景观规划思想发展史(下)
派特里克·盖迪斯(Patrick Geddes，1854～1932)(图37)不仅是一位哲学家、生物学家，而且还是一位规划师。他提出了两个重要思想，其中一个就是他所提出的“流域垂直分区”思想(图38)。作为一名进化论者和宏观思想家，盖迪斯对于人的行为与周围环境的相互关系非常感兴趣，他用“流域垂直分区图”来表达这些种关系。这个分区图根据海拔从山顶一直延伸到海滨，在海拔最高的地区，通常是矿工工作的地方；在次高的地区分布着森林，那里是伐木工人工作的地方；再往下则是猎人和牧羊人工作的环境；靠近低地的地方则是农人和园艺工作耕耘的地方；海拔最低的海岸附近则是渔民的生活场所。盖迪斯认为如果不遵从这种人地关系，其最后结果要么是失败，要么就是将花费大量的能量并且冒很大的危险。盖迪斯曾环游世界，在很多地方做过项目，尤其是在英联邦国家。他的第二个重要思想曾影响了他所做的很多规划，他在他所作的题为《城市开发：园林绿地和文化设施研究》的规划中阐述了这个思想。他认为城市的最基本结构是受到园林绿地和文化设施的设计的影响而形成的(图39)，而工业区、商业区和居住区则是次重要的。
图37 派特里克·盖迪斯
图38 流域垂直分区图
图39 “城市开发：园林绿地和文化设施研究”中的规划图
图40 埃比尼泽·霍华德
图41 雷蒙·温翁
图42 花园城市
19世纪，英国正处在工业化时期，埃比尼泽·霍华德(Ebenezer Howard，1850～1928)(图40)、雷蒙·温翁(Raymond Unwin，1863～1940)(图41)以及其他一些人开始对当时恶劣的居住环境不满。那时，穷人和工人阶级的居住区往往是拥挤、危险且污染严重。许多知识分子认为人不应该居住在那样的环境中。他们为此提出了很多主意，其中最著名的当属霍华德提出的花园城市概念(图42)。其主要想法是要减小主要城市规模，降低主要城市的人口密度，而以郊区环带包围中心城市，并将人口安置在小型的近郊区新城镇里。所有的这些地区用高效的公共交通系统连接起来。20世纪的早期，花园城市概念是影响英美及部分欧洲国家的城市开发的最重要思想。随着时代进步，这个思想促使了对建设近郊区的重视，今天，这个“新城市主义”再次得到体现。花园城市思想对那些生活在城市近郊区的人们来说是个很好的思想，但也造成了中心城市的衰退。
沃伦·H·曼宁(Warren H.Manning 1860～1938)自己开业之前，一直为F·L·奥姆斯特德工作。大约在1910年，美国开始普及用电，人们发明了最初只是用来方便描图的透射板。1912年，曼宁首次使用它进行地图叠加，作为一种分析手段，这与我们今天的分析方法非常相似。他将一些地图叠加起来，以获得新的综合信息，最后为马萨诸塞州比勒里卡(Billerica)做了一个开发与保护规划(图43)。在当时，美国正在绘制可以供大众使用的国家资源地图。曼宁收集了数百张关于土壤、河流、森林和其他景观要素的地图，将其叠在透射板上，基于这样的方法，他做了一个全美国的景观规划，并发表在1923年6月的《景观设计》杂志上(图44)。他规划了未来的城镇体系、国家公园系统和休憩娱乐区系统，还规划了我们今天所使用的主要高速公路系统和长途旅行步道系统。这个规划包括了今天一个完整的景观规划所需要的所有内容，而曼宁则是在20世纪初就为全国做了这么一个规划。因此曼宁的这个规划可以说是我们这个专业历史上最重要、最大胆，也是最具独创性的规划。
在这次演讲的开始，我引用了杭州的例子，古人在那里创造了一个闻名于世的水景。而荷兰则正好相反，那里的人们从15世纪开始就将水排干以获得土地(图45)。荷兰拥有典型的低海拔地区景观，其英语名称“Netherlands”的意思就是“低地”。这个国家经常受到洪水困扰，为此他们做出了两个关于景观规划的重要决定，一是要沿河流修筑堤岸，二是要填海造田。使整个国家的景观成了这两个决定的产物。杭州西湖的景观虽由人作，宛若天开，而荷兰则丝毫不掩饰其机械制造的痕迹。如果你是荷兰的景观设计师，你就应该学会尊重这些方格状土地和笔直的线条(图46)。由于这些直方格形成了高度结构化的景观，如果加上不规整的线条或曲线型的设计就会与现状冲突。(在中国，许多景观是由不规则的弯曲的线条构成的，在这种情况下，直线则会突兀出来。)荷兰对大面积新开垦土地的需要是通过机械和景观规划得以满足，这样的景观规划不仅要考虑社会经济目的，同时还要考虑视觉效果的一致性。
1935年，美国建成了从波士顿到纽约的第一条全封闭高速公路。这条被称为“Merritt Parkway”的专用道路是专门为提高交通效率而修建的，却被称作“Parkway(风景道路)”。这条道路的设计尽量与景观相融合，不破坏周围景观(图47)。整个公路中很少有桥梁，隧道也仅有一个。这条公路的设计不是由工程师，而是由景观设计师完成的，其设计过程中不仅考虑到交通，还考虑到舒适性。因此这条公路被称作“Parkway”，而不是被称作高速公路。
图43 马萨诸塞州比勒里卡的一个开发与保护规划图
图44 曼宁所作的全美景观规划
图45 荷兰将水排干以获得土地
图46 方格状土地和笔直的线条
在20世纪20～30年代，景观规划的方法发生了重大变化。这场变革是由英国学者G·E·赫特金斯(G.E. Hutchings)和C·C·法格(C.C.Fagg)领导的。他们并不是景观设计师，而只是测量师和地理学家。他们编写磷钏D贡献在于认识到景观是一个由许多复杂要素相联系而构成的系统(图48)。如果对系统某部分进行大的变动，将不可避免地影响系统中的其他要素。景观规划师不能仅仅是某方面的专家，他必须拥有广博的知识，以做出一个理想的规划方案。
同时在那个年代，现代意义的规划运动开始了。这时出现了专门为培训规划人员而写的教材。如今教育系统中的学生们已经很少有人阅读当时学生们所读的教材。L·B·埃斯克里特(L.B.Escritt)所写的《区域规划(Regional Planning)》一书于1943年出版，这本书不过1cm厚。如果我的那些刚入门的学生们阅读完此书，他们将会理解很多我所教的东西。例如他们将会学到如何叠加图层，如何利用它有针对性地分析景观等(图49、50)。这些技术手段是非常简单有效的。1947年，英国选举产生了左翼领导的政府，开始对全国土地进行国有化管理。因为拥有用来培养规划师的教材，英国可以迅速建立一套良好的规划系统。
图47 风景道路
图48 景观是由许多复杂要素相联系而构成的系统
图49 利用叠加图层分析景观
图50 图层叠加
图51 盖瑞特·埃克博
图52 州际高速公路设计图
盖瑞特·埃克博(Garrett Eckbo，1910～2000)(图51)是20世纪最重要的景观设计师之一，他不仅是一位具有影响力的园林设计师，还是一位多产的作家。而对我来说，他最重要的时期是二战后他在洛杉矶市从事住宅设计的时候。那时，他以一种特殊的对景观的敏感进行设计工作，而且常自发改造景观。当你看他的住宅规划图时，你可能会感到困惑，因为埃克博并不在图纸上设计而是直接在场地上决定住宅的位置以及怎么改造景观。他写了一本非常不错的书——《生活景观(Landscape for Living)》，于1950年出版发行。其中最有意思的是第十五章，他描述了设计“从艺术走向规划”。在这一章中，他阐述了一个重要思想，即艺术与规划是等同的，只不过它们采用了不同的表达手段而已。
20世纪50年代，美国总统艾森豪威尔认为美国需要有高速公路连接各州的首府，他将州际高速公路的设计任务交给了工程师(图52)。这个主意既有好的一面，也有不好的一面。一方面我们拥有了快速安全的笔直的高速公路，但另一方面它们却不怎么美观，而且经常破坏了所经过地区的景观(图53)。
J.·B.·杰克逊(J.B.Jackson，1909～1996)(图54)，是一位曾在加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校和哈佛大学从事文化景观研究的教授。他不是一个景观设计师，实际上是一位景观地理学家，并创办了一份极具影响力的小刊物《景观(Landscape)》。他向美国人民介绍了日常景观的价值。当时许多景观设计师、建筑设计师等只关注一些特殊地段，而低估了普通人日常活动对景观的影响。杰克逊开始推动一场重视并保护文化景观——具有独特性的日常景观的运动，如今这个运动已经具有很大的影响力(图55)。该杂志创办于20世纪50年代，当时的美国与今天的中国非常相似，到处发生翻天覆地的变化，但却不注意保护工作。杰克逊从那个时候起就开始推动他的工作，但是直到1986年，美国才建立一整套系统来保护文化景观。如果中国政府来咨询我的话，我将会建议他们努力确定其重要文化景观并保护它们。
我的老师凯文·林奇(Kevin Lynch，1918～1984)提出了一个非常重要的思想。他认为规划师应该理解普通人认知他们周围环境的方法。林奇就很多主题写了大量书籍，但他第一部著作，同时也是他最重要的作品便是《城市的意象(The Image of the City)》(图56)。规划师第一次与普通人直接交流，以了解他们理解城市的方式。林奇曾说过，设计应该使一个城市具有更明晰的结构，以方便普通人理解。他所认为的一个好的城市应该具有一个可让人理解的结构及意象，而且这种结构意象并非规划师强加的，而是从那些使用者的感知中获得的(图57)。
图53 高速公路经常会破坏所经过地区的景观
图54 J·B·杰克逊
图55 具有独特性的日常景观
图56 城市的意象
图57 设计应该使一个城市具有更明晰的结构
劳伦斯·哈普林(Lawrence Halprin)(图58)是美国最著名的景观设计师之一。他在开始设计项目之前，首先要查看区域的景观，并试图理解形成这片区域的自然过程(图59)。再通过设计来反映这个自然过程，其中一个很好的例子便是著名的滨海农场住宅开发项目(图60)。
图58 劳伦斯·哈普林
图59 区域自然过程的分析
图60 滨海农场住宅开发项目
图61 菲利普·路易斯
图61 菲利普·路易斯
图63 安·L·麦克哈格
图63 安·L·麦克哈格
图65 不同污水排放方式下的四种可行方案
威斯康星州立大学的菲利普·路易斯教授(Phlip Lewis)(图61)长久以来投身研究美国中西部的北部地区，这是一片大约有1600km2的土地。他曾为这片地区作了很多规划，其中最著名的可能是他为威斯康星州做的公园系统规划。他通过分析表明，沿着州内河流分布的廊道地区是最需要保护的地区(图62)。他是第一位以环境廊道概念为核心进行景观规划的规划师。
安·L.·麦克哈格(Ian L.McHarg.1920～2001)(图63)写了著名的《设计结合自然(Design with Nature)》一书，这本书可能是在景观规划领域最具影响力的书。在书中，他描述了自然过程如何引导土地开发。书中还包括了在不同尺度上的几个实例。20世纪60年代，巴尔的摩市希望扩展到凡利斯地区(Valleys)做的规划。20世纪60年代，巴尔的摩市希望扩展到凡利斯地区(图64)。麦克哈格和他的同事们认识到有多种开发模式，于是研究了不同污水排放方式下的四种可行方案(图65)。他们知道规划师应该做出不只一个方案，最好可以有多个方案比较，以决定哪个是最佳方案。由于城市发展用地不能在河边洼地，农业因此得到了保护，同时开发用地也不能在陡峭的山坡地和山顶，于是城市开发呈组团分布在缓坡地和一些高地上(图66)。由于麦克哈格理解景观、工程、科学和开发之间的关系，所以凡利斯规划成为了一个杰出的景观规划(图67)。
在20世纪60年代中期，还有另一场重要变革。霍华德·菲舍尔(Howard Fisher 1903～1979)(图68)发明了第一个具有实用价值的计算机图形软件SYMAP(图69)。1963年他在哈佛大学建立了第一个计算机图形学实验室。我当时成为在该实验室工作的第一批人员。1965年，当我刚开始任教时(图70)，四个研究生与我一起使用计算机完成了第一个区域规划——德尔玛瓦(Delmarva)规划。这个区域靠近华盛顿特区，包括了整个特拉华州以及马里兰州和弗吉尼亚州的一部分。这是一片非常大的区域，工作非常艰巨。我们用计算机绘制的图纸质量并不如手绘的好，因而饱受批评，但计算机完成的分析工作则不在批评之列(图71)。在此过程中，学生们认识到了计算机运用于景观规划具有的巨大潜力。
图66 城市开发项目成组团分布在缓坡和高地上
图67 凡利斯规划
图68 霍华德·菲舍尔
图69 用计算机图形软件SYMAP制成的图
图70 1965年时的卡尔教授(左)
图71 用计算机完成的德尔玛瓦规划
到了1967年，我们已经具备绘制地形图、植被图和建筑图的技术，我们还能用计算机画透视图(图72)。然而这些图纸再次受到批评，因为一个普通绘图工就可以比计算机画得更好，但我们知道计算机技术会越来越先进。在60年代后期，我和我的学生们完成了另外几个景观规划研究，并出版了《城市化与变迁的系统分析模型(A Systems Analysis Model of Urbanization and Change)》。今天，我仍认为有五项内容值得认真考虑：系统、分析、模型、城市化和变迁。
其中的一个研究生杰克·丹杰蒙(Jack Dangermend)(图73，右二)随后成立公司开发出了第一个商用的计算机制图软件(图74)。今天他的公司ESRI已成为该领域最大的公司。通过设计让他人使用的软件，丹杰蒙可能已经对景观规划学做出了其他教授和规划师难以比拟的贡献。
希尔维亚·克劳(Sylvia Crowe，1901～1997)(图75)是英国最出色的景观设计师之一。她从事景观设计多年，拥有丰富的工作经历，而且提出了一个重要的思想。克劳在她的职业生涯中花费了很多时间就林业为英格兰政府作顾问。她试图避免单一树种以及方块状的种植方式。建议采用自然形态种植混交林。她写了一份题为《林木景观(The Landscape of Forests and Woods)》的报告。在报告中，她举例如何从生态价值、经济价值、娱乐价值和美学价值的角度出发进行重新造林(图76)。
在20世纪70年代早期，加利福尼亚大学的R.·伯顿·利顿(R.Burton Litton)(图77左)和美国森林管理处的爱德华·斯通(Edward Stolle)(图77右)拟定了一项重要的新法律——国家环境政策法案(NEPA，the National Environmental Policy Act)。美国国会要求大项目必须进行环境影响评价，以评估诸如大气、水质和生物等受到项目的影响。这其中还包括了美学评价。这项法律引发了一个重要的问题，即：如何研究环境美学质量的影响？美学评价不应成为简单的个人意见，而应该成为系统的方法论。受这项法律影响，每个州的土地管理部门必须研究采用一定方法进行视觉影响评估。第一个完成的是美国森林管理处，在1974年，他们提出了视觉管理系统(the Visual Management System)(图78)。土地管理部和其他机构随后拥有了各自的视觉管理系统。虽然最后产生了几套不同的系统，而且经常令人糊涂。但重要的是，在美国每个重要项目都进行了视觉影响评价。
图72 计算机画的透视图
图73 杰克·丹杰蒙(右二)
图74 杰克·丹杰蒙开发的第一个商用计算机制图软件
图75 希尔维亚·克劳
图76 林木景观
图77 R·伯顿·利顿(左)；爱德华·斯通(右)
20世纪80年代早期，理查德·福尔曼(Richard Forman)和米切尔·戈登(Michel Godron)合作完成了一本意义深远的著作《景观生态学(Landscape Ecology)》。整个80年代是生物学家和地学家与规划设计师紧密合作的年代。一般来说，地学家理解景观，同时也知道景观可以进行改造，但他们不知道如果改造以改善景观。而现在，景观生态学能通过观察空间结构帮助人们理解景观改造的作用(图79)。这对于景观规划来说是非常有用的工具。福尔曼与我的另外两个学生合作编写了《景观设计和土地利用规划中的景观生态学原则(Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-use Planning)》。这本书可以帮助我们从环境科学角度认识到影响景观规划的一些原则(图80)。
1986年，美国政府第一次提出了评估乡村历史景观的导则。政府认识到乡村文化景观应该被记录并保护下来。现在在美国已经形成了声势浩大的运动，来推动认识和保护具有区域特色的景观。这里所强调的不是具有美国特色的景观，而是具有浓郁地方风情的景观。
1993年，我组织其他五个组织的同事们通过互联网合作完成了一个项目。这是我们第一次采用电子方式有效地共享数据、思想和方案。我们大约每四个月聚会一次共进晚餐，以保持相互间直接交往，并共同做出一些决定。从此，我的研究伙伴再也不局限于我任教的哈佛大学了。在这个项目中，我可以和俄勒冈州、内华达州和华盛顿特区的同仁们一起工作。即使参加项目的人居住很遥远，也不再是个问题。
图78 视觉管理系统
图79 对景观空间结构进行的分析
图80 景观设计和土地利用规划中的景观生态学原则
图81 加利福尼亚州潘德尔顿营位置图
图82 六个问题构成的框架
图83 不同方案的规划图
图84 潜在影响的比较(1)
这个项目是一个为期三年的研究项目，研究对象是加利福尼亚州的潘德尔顿营(Camp Pendleton)，一片包括洛杉矶和圣地亚哥之间所有未开发土地的区域(图81)。我们要研究其未来的发展情况。这个项目由我分六个问题构成的框架组织起来，这六个问题是：(1)景观该如何描述？(2)景观是如何运作的？(3)景观运作是否良好？(4)景观可以作如何改变？(5)这些变化将会产生哪些不同后果？(6)景观是否要作改变？这六个问题中的每一个都是要解决问题和方法论的某个方面(图82)，因此仅仅问其中的第四个问题是没有用的，所有这些问题都必须得到回答。在这个项目中，我们采用计算机模型模拟各种不同的景观过程，其中包括土壤、水文、火灾、植被、景观生态模式、野生动物栖息地和视觉质量等模型。我们做了几个不同方案(图83),利用这些模型来比较潜在的影响(图84；图85)。因为我们工作的对象是一个复杂的景观，这就需要更复杂的景观规划方法，其结果就是最后形成更复杂的规划(图86)，以最好地符合实际情况。
我和同事们刚完成了一个位于墨西哥州和亚利桑那州的沙漠地区开发项目(图87)。那里的滨河地区是非常重要的鸟类栖息地，而且受到国际公约的保护(图88)。但在那里，作为重要野生动物栖息地的河流正面临毁灭。当地居民抽取地下水使用，致使含水层水量难以维持河流水位。生物学家认为如果地下水位降低5米，树木就会死亡，河流随之消失。但在未来，该地区的人口数目却将要翻一番。因此该地区面临的一个严峻的问题是：“如果在不破坏河流的前提下，为新的居民们提供舒适的居住环境？”
我们的研究队伍对这个复杂的问题作了深入广泛的研究。但问题是如何来表现我们的研究成果？如何向公众说明将要作出的抉择能否对河流生存产生重要影响？所幸我们现在已可以利用计算机技术把分析模型与动画联系起来。在这个项目中，每个方案都用动画表现，而不是采用文字或静态画面(图89)。我们可以演示不同规划决策造成的地下水位下降情况。
图85 潜在影响的比较(2)
图86 最终景观规划图
图87 土地利用图
图88 滨河地区的鸟类栖息地
图89 采用动画演示项目方案
我相信，随着我们对所规划的景观有着越来越深入的理解，但政治也越来越复杂，我们作的规划也将会变得越来越复杂。这就造成普通人既不知道我们在做什么，也不知道将来会发生什么。但如果存在潜在的危险，我们很有必要让普通人知道这些情况，否则他们将不会做出改变以避免危险。
这可能是我们面临的下一个挑战，即我们要使一个复杂的规划更易于让人理解。这样做不仅可以促进公众参与规划，而且还可以改善决策过程，以创造一个更平等和可持续发展的未来。
致谢
在此，我要特别感谢苔丝·康菲德(Tess Canfield)为本文的编辑所做的大量工作，感谢黄国平翻译完成了该论文的中文版。我还要感谢俞孔坚教授以及北京大学景观规划设计中心、中国风景园林学会的同志们组织了这次讲座。最后我还要向所有为本文做出贡献的人们，以及那些我未经他们允许就引用其作品的人们表示感谢。
Landscape Planning:A History of Influential Ideas
Carl Steinitz
Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning Harvard University Graduate School of Design
My work as landscape planner, teacher and researcher is influenced by both European and American ideas, but part of my studies as a graduate student included Chinese and Asian culture. I know enough about the world to know that European and American ideas were not always first. Furthermore, I am not an historian. I am a landscape planner who looks toward the future. Even so, I know that most of the ideas that have shaped my work are old ideas.
Two years ago I decided to prepare a lecture to pay respect to people who have influenced me.I am happy to be able to share a version of this lecture.I will not include many pictures of famous projects. For each of about thirty influential people, I will show a portrait and an illustration of an idea. Most importantly, I will summarize the central idea that motivated their work. This is, of course, a simplification. Each person produced a complex body of work, but each did one or two things that have had great influence on me, and on many others. I have included some of my own work. This is risky, because my work should be judged by other people over time. But I have included some work in which I have had a role, because I think presenting an indication of the current state of landscape planning ideas and their application to real situations is useful.
The best definition of what we do was made in 1968 by Herbert Simon in a book called The Science of Artificial. He wrote, "Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing conditions into preferred ones". But scale and size matter in how we act as designers. We can work on a small project, such as a house on a difficult site, or we can work on a medium sized project, such as a new urban development or a new urban park, or we can work at a large size, for example a new city or a regional conservation strategy. Just because you can design at one size does not necessarily mean you can design at the others. I am particularly interested in the design of large landscapes of natural and cultural significance. I think small projects are important, but I think landscape planning is more important, so I will focus on examples from large landscapes.
My first two examples are from China during the Southern Song Dynasty. Why is the West Lake of Hangzhou (Figure 1) so important? It is important because a thousand years ago, a decision was made to design and build a large landscape that is artificial, but has become natural. It is important because it was a deliberate act to change the landscape at a large size. Too many people believe landscape planning is only conservation and reaction, but the West Lake proves that landscape planning includes action with foresight. This landscape was made for reasons of defense, water supply and agriculture. From the very beginning, it became a place of great scenic beauty and cultural importance. The West Lake landscape became the focus of art and poetry (Figure 2). This great landscape has both usefulness and spiritual character, but now it faces new issues. (Figure 3) shows how it is presented to tourists. The view shows three fourths of the landscape is the lake itself. But this (Figure 4) is the reality. The lake is almost overwhelmed by tourism and its location adjacent to a major city undergoing substantial growth and change. These pressures could destroy the quality of the West Lake. So here we see a landscape designed for practical reasons and transformed over time into a cultural one that is assumed to have been an act of natural processes. Now it must be part of a larger regional urban policy, otherwise the qualities that make it important will be lost. The West Lake demonstrates that large purposeful landscape design was possible long before the advent of heavy machinery, and that a designed landscape can be valued as a natural and cultural resource.
The second example is Huang Shan. This mountain area is a symbol of diverse poetic and artistic culture(Figure 5). To my knowledge, it is the subject of the first major program for landscape conservation and protection, from perhaps 900 years ago. It is a very important idea that landscape should be protected because of its role as a symbol of a culture. Visitors should realize that they are seeing not just a beautiful mountain area, but also a cultural landscape of great national importance (Figure 6).
In the 16th century, the Medici were the most powerful family in Italy. They had houses in cities as well as sixteen villas in the Tuscan countryside. The Medici villas were decorated with paintings that express the idea that the landscape was the basis of the wealth of the family, and also that it was also a beautiful place (Figure 7). Over the next two or three hundred years the idea that a productive agricultural landscape was a beautiful landscape became very powerful. However, the owners of the villas were not the working farmers. The owners did not directly create the landscape, the peasant farmers did. Unlike the peasant farmer, the aristocracy had the leisure to recognize and enjoy the beauty of the productive landscape. It is only for the past 100 years or so, as education and leisure have increased, that appreciation of the beauty of the productive landscape has been shared by all kinds of people.
Many of the great English landscape gardeners and improvers had the same idea, that the landscape can be both productive and beautiful. A good example is Stowe, a work by Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Lancelot "Capability" Brown (Figure 8). The landscape was productive, with sheep, cattle and deer grazing among scattered clumps of trees. This sort of English landscape has become idealized as a beautiful landscape, and has formed the image that has inspired much of Western landscape design (Figure 9).
Perhaps the most famous English landscape gardener was Humphry Repton (1752-1818) (Figure 10). For the large landscapes I am interested in, he had one very important good idea, and is associated with another, bad idea. His good idea is that each project should be described using two drawings, one of "before" (Figure 11) and one of "after" (Figure 12) the design is carried out. Reptons watercolor illustrations of his designs have flaps that fold over the areas where changes are planned. When you lift the flap, the new design appears. Repton used the only direct way to show the effect of proposed changes to the existing landscape. The second idea, the bad one, is a broad cultural idea. It comes from Burkes idea of the sublime. "Designs that are vast only by their dimensions are always the sign of a common and low imagination. No work of art can be great, but as it deceives. To be otherwise is the prerogative of nature only". (Figure 13) In other words, a design must be artificial: it must deceive. And to plan a large landscape implies a lack of imagination. I do not believe that large size implies low imagination, or that design must be artificial.
At almost in the same time, in France, Jean Marie Morel (1728-1810) (Figure 14) wrote his book, "Theorie des jardins" (1776). His basic position, a very important position, was that design is managing the natural processes of the landscape. He worked on the famous landscape at Ermenonville, near Paris. This is a designed landscape (Figure 15) that respects and takes advantages of the natural processes of the site, its hydrology, vegetation, and drainage. As early as the 1770s, there was a great debate, which survives today in landscape architecture, "Are we creating artificial landscapes or managing natural processes?"
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) (Figure 16) was the third President of the United States of America. He decided that the middle part of the United States should be surveyed and sub-divided by using a square grid. His aim was to encourage settlement of what is now the Midwest. In the 1780s. he needed an inexpensive way to define the boundaries of homesteads for new settlers. His idea, that the landscape should be surveyed as a grid, was extended westward as the country grew (Figure 17). It can still be seen today by anyone who flies over the country (Figure 18). The shaping of the American landscape owes more to Jefferson than to any other individual.
Our German colleagues might claim that landscape planning began with Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817) (Figure 19). In 1740 he inherited one of the many German principalities, and was concerned with its improvement. England was then the most advanced and prosperous nation in the world. English literature, economics, government, and landscape were regarded as the model for most of Europe. Prince Franz made extended visits to England to study English ways, and returned home to introduce English ideas and to remake his lands in the way of the English landscape. The landscape of Worlitz was developed between 1765 and 1817 (Figure 20). It functioned both to educate in the advanced agricultural techniques of England, and to exemplify English liberalism: it was a didactic landscape (Figure 21). Many learned the new social, physical, economic, governmental, and landscape ideas from the Dessau-Worlitz "Garden Kingdom". Prince Franzs great idea was not to copy a style, but to use the landscape to teach. This is very important idea.
John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843), in the 1830s was the most important landscape designer in Britain. He made his reputation by designing parks and gardens for wealthy people and as a thinker and writer on landscape gardening and architecture. Loudon had an extraordinary idea. He made a regional landscape plan for the entire region of London (Figure 22). He proposed that there should be alternating rings of city and countryside, centered on the Palace of Westminster on the River Thames. Loudon made a series of example designs that showed how a garden could be different in the middle of the city, in a suburban area or in the countryside (Figure 23). This concentric diagram was his way of saying that people cannot live only in the city, and they cant live only in the countryside. It was the same idea as Yin and Yang. Both are necessary. This was a very important idea in the 1830s, and it is still relevant today, for example, in Shanghai or Beijing.
Peter Joseph Lenne (1789-1866) (Figure 24) is undoubtedly the most famous German landscape architect. Lenne said: "Nothing can thrive without care, and the most significant things lose their work through improper handling". To design is not enough, and to build is not enough. Without care, a landscape looses its value very fast. Lenne had an extraordinary career, which coincided with a period of political revolution. His most famous works are in Potsdam, location of the most important German royal palaces. Famous architects designed the buildings in this landscape, but Lenne made the landscape structure (Figure 25). His most important contribution was the central axis, a line about three kilometers long. Everybody else attached their projects to that line. Lenne demonstrated that if the landscape concept is clear and powerful at the beginning, it can organize enormous diversity in the future. In 1840, Fredrich Wilhelm IV came to the throne. Lenne submitted a plan for the improvement of Berlin and its surroundings, including the expansion of the Tiergarten. Lenne planned for a new public park system for Berlin, along with the expansion of the city (Figure 26). His earlier plans of 1819 and 1832 had created a peoples garden accessible to all, draining swampy parts and creating winding streams and paths within the earlier geometrical pattern of long straight allees (Figure 27).
Americans consider Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) (Figure 28) to be the founder of landscape architecture, and it was he who first used the name. But Olmsted was influenced by what he knew about Europe. He is perhaps most famous for the design, with Calvert Vaux, of Central Park in New York City (Figure 29). But I consider two others of his many projects to be more important. In the 1860s, John Muir and Olmsted and other people had the idea (similar to the idea for Huang Shan 900 years before) that we should protect the most important landscapes in America. They made the studies to create Yosemite National Park, the first in the nation (Figure 30). And today, because of the work of Olmsted and other people of that period, many important American landscapes have been well protected, such as the Yosemite (Figure 31), Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon. The second idea associated with Olmsted is related to his work at Biltmore in North Carolina, the estate of George W. Vanderbilt, the richest person in America. This house was set in 4,100 hectares of forested mountain land (Figure 32). Olmsted hired a young man, Gifford Pinchot, to head the Estates Department of Forestry Management. Vanderbilt, Olmsted, and Pinchot guided the earliest efforts at scientific forestry in America. They avoided monoculture and clear-cutting and practiced multiple-use of the land. When the United States government created its Forest Service, Pinchot became its first director. He promoted two important ideas that began at Biltmore. First is research into scientific forestry, and second is the multiple use of forests: to sustain animal habitat; provide recreation; protect water and air; and also to provide wood. The Biltmore Estate forest was donated to the government to become Americas first National Forest.
In 1883,the landscape architect Horace W. S. Cleveland (1814-1900) had a very important idea. Cleveland was the landscape architect for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, opposite each other on the Mississippi river. At that time, the cities were small. Cleveland convinced them to buy land to create a regional park system, long before people were living nearby (Figure 33). Because they were planning for several decades into the future, they were able to buy the land at very low prices. Today, the Twin Cities are large, and land is costly, but they have the park system. This is an enormously important idea, but it requires investment of money far in advance. If I have one piece of advice to offer to my Chinese colleges, I will say you should try to do what Cleveland did.
Charles Eliot (1859-1897) (Figure 34) was a very famous landscape architect who lived in my city, Boston. At the end of 1890s, the people in Boston knew that the other cities were building important park systems, but Boston was an older city that was already built up, with little land available. So Eliot had the idea of developing an open space system from the citys leftover land, the land that nobody wanted for development. He took the wetlands, the steep areas, the rocky areas, the unsanitary parts of the city, and used them to design a park system (Figure 35). Other people, including Olmsted, transformed these areas into attractive and valued parks and recreation areas. Today, when you look at the park system of Boston, you see a park system that looks like others, but was made from useless or spoiled land (Figure 36). Eliots big idea was to get control of the land, because it could be changed into something wonderful.
Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) (Figure 37)was a philosopher, a biologist, and a planner. He had two big ideas. The first he called the Valley Section.(Figure 38) As an evolutionist, and a global thinker, he was interested in the interrelationships between people, their activities, and their environment. The Valley Section diagram expressed those relationships. The Section begins in the mountains and falls to the coast. At the highest elevations in the mountains, it is natural and usual to find miners; in less high areas to find forests and woodmen; lower to find hunters and shepherds; still lower, peasant farmers and gardeners; and finally, along the shore, fishermen. Failure to respect these human-landscape interrelationships either doesnt work or requires too much energy and too high a risk. Geddes traveled and practiced all over the world, especially in areas of British influence. He had a second very important idea that shaped many of the plans he made. It is expressed in the title of one of his plans, City Development: a study of parks, gardens, and culture-institutes. He believed that the primary structure of urban form is shaped by the design of parks, gardens, and culture-institutes, (Figure 39) and that industrial, commercial, and residential areas are secondary.
Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) (Figure 40), Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) (Figure 41), and others reacted against the terrible housing conditions in 19th century industrial England. In that period, for the poor and working classes, housing was overcrowded, dangerous, and polluted. Many intellectuals thought that people should not live like that. They proposed many ideas, the most important of which was Howards Garden City concept. (Figure 42) The idea was to reduce the size and lower the density of a major city by surrounding it with a band of countryside, and relocating people to smaller new suburban towns. All the areas were to be connected by efficient public transportation. In the early 20th century, the Garden City became the most important concept for urban development in England, America, and parts of the Europe. The idea developed into a concern for efficient suburban development, and is reflected again in todays "New Urbanism". Garden Cities are a very good idea for the people who live in suburban areas, but may also have contributed to the decline of the central city.
Warren H. Manning(1860-1938) worked for Frederick Law Olmsted before establishing his own practice.In about 1910, there was a very interesting development in America. Electricity had become widespread, and light tables, initially made to simplify tracing, were invented. In 1912, Manning made the first study that used map overlays as an analysis method, much as we do today. He laid selected maps together to produce new combinations of information, and made a plan for development and conservation in Billerica, Massachusetts. (Figure 43) Around this time, national maps of resource-based information about the country were being produced and made available to the public. Manning collected a few hundred maps of soils, rivers and forests and other landscape elements on a light table. By using overlays, he made a landscape plan for the entire country, which was published in Landscape Architecture in June, 1923.(Figure 44) His plan contained a system of future urban areas and a system of national parks and recreation areas. It had all of the major highways and long distance hiking trails that we now have. It contained everything that a comprehensive regional landscape plan would have today. It is remarkable that Manning did this then, and for the entire country. It is one of the most important, boldest, bravest and most creative designs in our professional history.
I began with the example of Hangzhou, where a famous water landscape was created. Holland is just the opposite. Here, water has been removed, and new land has been created beginning in the 15th century.(Figure 45) Holland is a landscape at low elevation. The name "Netherlands" means low land. It frequently suffers great floods. Because of the flood danger, the country made two landscape planning decisions. One is to build dikes to contain rivers, and the other is to fill into the sea. The landscape of nearly the entire country is the product of these decisions. Unlike the West Lake in Hangzhou, which was built by hand and looks "natural", this landscape was built by machine, and it looks it. It does not pretend to be anything else. If you are a landscape designer in Holland, you learn to respect flat planes and straight lines. (Figure 46) Because the flat planes and straight lines create a highly structured landscape, a very irregular or curvaceous design can be in conflict with its setting. (In China, where much of the landscape is composed of irregular curves, it is the straight line that becomes special.) In the Netherlands, national needs demanded the creation of large areas of new land implemented by machines, and a landscape plan which has an economic and social purpose and a congruent visual consequence.
In 1935, the first limited access highway in America was built between Boston and New York. The Merritt Parkway was designed for efficient transportation, but it was called a "parkway". It was designed not against the landscape, but with and on the landscape. (Figure 47) There are very few bridges and only one tunnel. It was laid out not by engineers, but by landscape architects. It is used both for transportation and for pleasure. It is important to notice that the word chosen for this road is "parkway"; not "highway", not "speedway", not "expressway", or "thruway."
In the 1920s and 1930s, there were important changes in the methodology of landscape planning. These changes were led by colleagues in England, like G. E. Hutchings, and C. C. Fagg, who were not landscape architects, but were surveyors and geographers. They wrote some of the first textbooks on how to make regional landscape plans. The most important new idea is the recognition that landscapes are systems, with complex elements that they are connected to each other.(Figure 48) If you make one big change, you will inevitably change the other parts of the system. Landscape planners must have broad and complex understanding to make an effective plan. One cannot be only a specialist.
In the 1920s and 1930s, modern planning began. Textbooks appeared to train the people who were responsible for the bureaucracy of planning. Then, students read the textbook, but now, in our education system, very few people read textbooks. Regional Planning by L. B. Escritt, published in 1943, is less than one centimeter thick. If my beginning students would read this book, they would know much of what I teach. For example, they would learn how to make overlays, and how use them to analyze the landscape for particular purposes. (Figure 49、50) The techniques are simple and effective. After electing a socialist government, in 1947 the British nationalized planning control of all land. They were able to implement a very good planning system very quickly because they had the books to teach the planners.
Garrett Eckbo ( 1910-2000) (Figure 51) was one of the most important landscape architects of the 20th century, an influential designer of gardens, and a prolific writer. For me, his most important period was when he was designing housing in Los Angeles, California after World War II. He designed with sensitivity to the landscape, but also with a willingness to change the landscape. When you look at one of his housing plans, you are likely to be confused, because Eckbo did not design in plan on paper. He designed on the land, and while on site, made decisions on the placement of houses, and on major changes to the landscape. He wrote an excellent book called Landscape for Living, published in 1950. The most interesting part is Chapter 15, where he describes design activities "from art to planning". In it, he makes a very important statement of an idea, that art and planning are the same thing, but they are expressed in differing techniques.
In the 1950s, President Eisenhower decided that the United States needed to have limited access highways to connect all the state capitals. He gave the task of designing these Interstate highways to engineers. (Figure 52) It was a good and a bad idea. We have straight highways that are fast and safe. But they are not very nice, and have often caused serious damage to the cities and landscapes through which they pass. (Figure 53)
J.B.Jackson (1909-1996) (Figure 54) was not a landscape architect, but he was a professor of cultural landscape studies at Berkeley and at Harvard. He was a landscape geographer, who founded the small but influential magazine called Landscape. He explained to Americans the value of their ordinary landscape. Most landscape architects, architects and designers focus on special places, and undervalue the usual activities of ordinary people in making landscape. Jackson began what now is a very powerful movement to value and to protect what we call the cultural landscape-- the ordinary landscapes that have special character. (Figure55) He began the magazine in the 1950s, when America was doing what China is doing today. It was expanding so rapidly that it did not take time to protect things that stood in the way. Jackson began his work in 1950s, but it was not until 1986 that the United States established a system to protect the cultural landscape. If I am asked, I would advise the Chinese government to make enormous efforts to identify its important cultural landscapes, and to protect them.
My teacher, Kevin Lynch (1918-1984) had one very important idea. He said that planners should understand and consider the way ordinary people perceive their environment. Lynch wrote many books on many topics. His first important work, and his most important work, is The Image of the City. (Figure 56) For the first time, interviews were done to learn how ordinary people understand the city. Lynch said that design could make the city clearer and stronger and more understandable. He assumed that a good city should have an understandable structure and image which is not an imposition by planners, but derives from the perceptions of the people who use the place. (Figure57)
Lawrence Halprin (Figure 58) is one of Americas most famous landscape architects. Before he began to design a project, he first looked at the regional landscape, and tried to understand the natural process that shaped the area. (Figure 59) He designed his projects to reflect the natural process operating in the area. His well known Sea Ranch housing development is a good example. (Figure 60)
Philip Lewis (Figure 61) of the University of Wisconsin has spent most of his life studying the northern part of the American Mid-West, an area roughly 1600km square. He has made many plans for this area. The most important is probably his plan for a system of parks for the State of Wisconsin. His analysis showed that the corridors along the states rivers and streams were the most important places to protect. (Figure 62) He was the first to shape a landscape plan around the idea of environmental corridors.
Ian L. McHarg (1920-2001) (Figure 63) wrote Design with Nature. It is probably the single most influential book in the field of landscape planning. In it he outlines ways in which natural processes can guide development. The book includes several projects at several scales. The one that I think is most important is the Plan for the Valleys. In the 1960s, Baltimore was expected to expand into the area known as the Valleys. (Figure 64) McHarg and his colleagues recognized that there were many possible patterns of development. They studied four alternatives shaped by differing patterns of sewers. (Figure 65) They knew that you dont make just one plan. It is better to make several plans and compare them to help decide which is best. Development was not proposed on the bottomland, so that agriculture could be protected, and not on steep slopes or on hilltops. Development was distributed in compact groups on the gentler slopes and uplands. (Figure 66) McHarg understood the relationship between landscape, engineering, the sciences, and development. The Plan for the Valleys is an extremely good landscape plan. (Figure 67)
There was a big change in the middle of the 1960s. Howard Fisher (1903-1979) (Figure 68)invented SYMAP, the first practical and publicly available computer graphics program.(Figure 69) In 1963, he came to Harvard to set up the first laboratory for computer graphics. I was among the first people who worked in the laboratory. In 1965, when I was a junior professor, (Figure 70 left) four graduate students and I made the first regional plan using a computer-the Delmarva Plan. We studied an area near Washington, D.C. that included the entire state of Delaware, part of Maryland, and part of Virginia. It is a very large area, and the task was very difficult. The maps we produced were not as good as maps that could be drawn by hand. They were criticized for their graphic quality, but not for the analysis that created them. (Figure 71) The students understood the potential power of computers in landscape planning.
By 1967, we had techniques for terrain mapping, and for drawing vegetation and buildings. We could draw perspectives using computers. (Figure 72) Again, these images were criticized because an average draughtsman could draw better than the computer. But we knew that techniques would become better and better. In the late 1960s with our students, we made several more landscape planning studies. Our work was published as A Systems Analysis Model of Urbanization and Change. Today, I still think that there are five main things to consider: system, analysis, model, urbanization, and change.
One of the graduate students,Jack Dangermond, (Figure 73, second from right) went on to start the company that made the first commercial computer graphic mapping program. (Figure 74) Today his firm, ESRI, is the largest in the field. By making tools for others to use, Jack Dangermond has probably contributed far more to landscape planning than any professor or any landscape planner.
Sylvia Crowe (1901-1997) (Figure 75) was one of the great English landscape architects. She had a long and varied career in landscape architecture, and was responsible for an important idea. Crowe spent much of her career advising the government of England on its forestry practices. She tried to discourage monoculture and the ugly rectilinear block planting that went with it. She advocated planting a diversity of tree species, in patterns that acknowledged the natural ground form. She wrote a report called The Landscape of Forests and Woods. In it, she gives examples of how to approach reforestation with consideration for ecology, economic production, recreation, and aesthetics. (Figure 76).
In the early 1970s,R.Burton Litton (Figure 77 left) of the University of California and Edward Stone (Figure 77 right) of the United States Forest Service responded to an important new American law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The United States Congress required major projects to have environmental impact statements which should assess things like air and water quality, and biological impacts. It also included aesthetic quality. The new law raised a very serious question. How do you study environmental impact in aesthetic terms? It could not be simply personal opinion.It had to be a methodology. Because of the law, each Federal agency that managed land had to develop methods to assess visual impact. The first agency to produce a methodology was the United States Forest Service, which, in 1974, proposed the Visual Management System(Figure 78). The Bureau of Land Management and other agencies followed with their own versions of a visual management system. As a result, we had several different systems that were often confusing. The important result was that, in America, every major project is evaluated for its visual impact.
In the early 1980s, a very influential book was written by my colleague Richard Forman and Michel Godron, titled Landscape Ecology. The decade of the 1980s was a period when biological scientists and earth scientists began to work closely with planning and design professionals. As a generalization, the earth scientists understood the landscape, and realized the landscape was likely to undergo major change, but they didnt know how to propose changes to improve the landscape. Today, landscape ecology helps to understand the effects of change by looking at the spatial structure of of a landscape in ecological terms(Figure 79). It is an enormously powerful tool in landscape planning. Forman and two of our students wrote a book titled Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-use Planning. It helps us to understand the general principles from environmental science that should shape our landscape planning activities(Figure 80).
In 1986, for the first time, the United States government promoted guidelines for evaluating the rural historical landscape. The government recognized that the rural cultural landscape should be documented and protected. There is now a large movement in United States to identify and protect these landscapes, based on regional character-- not on an American national character, but on local regional character.
In 1993,I organized a project with colleagues from five organizations, working over the Internet. It was the first time that we could efficiently share data, ideas and directions electronically. We met every four months or so for dinner, to maintain personal contact and to make important group decisions.. I no longer consider my research colleagues to be limited to Harvard where I teach. As colleagues in this project, I worked with people in Oregon, Nevada, and Washington, D.C. If the right person is far away, it is no longer a big problem.
The project was a three-year study of the future of the region of Camp Pendleton, California, an area that includes practically all the undeveloped land between Los Angles and San. Diego. (Figure 81) The project is organized using my framework of six questions: "1. How should the landscape be described? 2. How does the landscape operate? 3. Is the landscape working well? 4. How might the landscape be altered? 5. What differences might the changes cause? 6. Should the landscape be changed?" These six questions each address a different aspect of the problem and the methodology.(Figure 82) It is useless to ask only the fourth question. All the questions must be addressed. For this project, we made computer models of various landscape processes, including models of soils, hydrology, fire, vegetation, landscape ecological pattern, wildlife habitats, and visual quality. We made several alternative plans (Figure 83) and used the models to compare their potential impacts. (Figure 84) (Figure 85) We were working in a complex landscape. This required a more complex method of landscape planning.The result was a more complex plan, (Figure 86) which produces a better "fit" to reality.
My colleagues and I have just finished a project in an area of Mexico and Arizona where a desert landscape will be developed.(Figure 87) Its riparian zone is especially important as bird habitat, and is supposed to be protected under an international treaty. (Figure 88) In this study area, the river is at risk of destruction as a wildlife habitat. Local residents get water by pumping it from the underground aquifer. The aquifer also supports the water level in the river. The biologists say that if the water table drops five meters, the trees will die and the river will die. The population
