Book reference - Composing Landscapses

Composing Landscapes: Analysis, typology and experiments for design

Clemens Steenbergen

This is a book reference from Richview Library which gives details of how landscape images are composed, where information is gathered from and the computer software used.

Jules Spinatsch - Temporary Discomfort IV - Davos

Temporary Discomfort IV

Spinatsch uses surveillance cameras to record the security area of the World Ecomonic Forum in Davos in Jan 2003 . Composed of 1446 single shots, it was fed to Zurich over a number of days, eventually revealing the full panoramic. Those surveying are simultaneously being surveyed.

Common Place

Photographer Eoin O'Conaill's exhibition Common Place examines the landscape of the rural urban divide. Most of the photographs are made at the edges of the day, capturing a mingling of people and time in place.  His work can be seen at www.eoinoconaill.com

Task three - Reference to Beate Gutschow

Beate Gutschow LS series : Gutschow questions pictorial representation of reality by combining the rules of 17th century romantic painting with artifacts and people from the 21st century through manipulated photography.

Midlands

Fiona has suggested checking out the work of photographer Martin Cregg. Above are some of his photographs from his recent exhibtion Midlands, in the Gallery of Photography. His concern is the recording of space in the Midlands over the last number of years, from boom to bust.

Check the work out here:

http://martincreggphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/midlands-topographical-exploration-of.html

Central Statistics Office website on Small Area Population Statistics

http://www.cso.ie/census/SAPs.htm

Drainage info from Wendy Barrett for Emmet

To get information on SuDs and ICWs you can log onto Dublin City website byhttp://www.dublincity.ie/WaterWasteEnvironment/WasteWater/Pages/SustainableDrainageSystems(SuDS)andIntegratedConstructedWetlands(ICW).aspx 

or http://www.dublincity.ie and enter the key word suds in the search box or click on one of the hyperlinks below Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and Integrated Constructed Wetlands (ICW)

The Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study (GDSDS) was completed in 2005 and involved the seven Local Authorities of the Greater Dublin Area.  The study carried out an in depth assessment of the Dublin’s drainage system. In addition to the extensive analysis of the drainage systems and the data collection that was carried out, the output also provided five policy documents.  One of these was an Environmental Policy, a second dealt with drainage of New Developments and a third on Climate Change.  These three documents focused on the design approach and criteria for new drainage.  The objective of these three policy documents was to ensure that any future development did not continue the trend towards increasing flooding in the city and pollution of the rivers.

Drainage design in the past has been extremely simple using a rational method to size pipes to ensure that surface water is removed as quickly as possible to ensure flooding does not take place.  Unfortunately this philosophy is flawed as, in transferring the surface water downstream, it provides the potential for flooding of other areas subject to the capacity further down the system.  In addition the pollution in the wash-off from the urban environment is conveyed into the natural environment. 

To provide an alternative method of drainage which does not have these failings therefore requires a completely new approach. “Best Management Practices” (BMPs) is a commonly used term throughout the world that refers to this new approach to drainage.  For some reason this term is not used in UK and Ireland, possibly because the term “drainage” is not included. In the UK and Ireland this practice is referred to as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). 

SuDS can best be summarised as offering a “total” solution to rainwater management while traditional drainage can be considered as only providing a “collection and disposal” approach.

SuDs also applies in the rural environment. The Water Framework Directive sets out the framework for achieving good status in all our rivers in Ireland. In the Eastern River Basin District 80% of our rivers are below good status. Currently most of the rural pollution comes from underperforming small treatment plants, overloaded communal septic tanks, clusters of single unit septic tanks, farmyard runoff and runoff from slurries spread on land.

In Ireland over the past 10 years, the National Parks and Wildlife Service of DEHLG has been uniquely developing a more robust and sustainable approach to the use of constructed wetlands. Categorised as surface-flow type wetlands they are similar to natural free surface water wetlands. Their holistic approach termed ‘Integrated Constructed Wetland’ (ICW) has been successfully applied to deal with a range of effluent types - farmyard runoff, industrial waste and sewage as well as urban pollution.

The concept is based upon the free surface-flow of water through a series of sequential linked shallow ponds vegetated with a range of emergent plant species. An ICW has often a long retention time of up to 90-100 days and it can be designed in many instances to have zero surface discharge. It’s diversity of plant species facilitates microbial and animal diversity and is generally more appealing for recreation and amenity. Due to the slow movement of water through the ponds suspended matter is deposited, and there is adequate time for both aerobic and anaerobic digestion of organic matter. There is good reduction of nitrates and phosphates which are generally greater than 95%. Reduction of faecal indicators is of the order of 99% due to the long retention times and the complex ecology of the aquatic system. ICWs also remove endocrine disrupters such as oestrogen and testosterone which are poorly removed with conventional wastewater treatment systems. An ICW effectively creates the important nexus between quality, quantity and amenity in a way that no other traditional Sewerage Treatment Works can. 

This website lists a number of articles and papers on SuDs and ICWs. Dublin City Council commissioned HR Wallingford to develop the www.irishsuds.com web site to provide all the necessary information on SuDS and drainage design criteria and to make information as easily accessible as possible. In addition guidance on the application of the design criteria and two on-line tools are provided on the website free of charge. Using this website provides assistance on designing surface water drainage systems. A comprehensive list of hyperlinked web sites are attached to this www.irishsuds.com  web site.

Identity Locality and Townland

(I've put the book on Temporary Reserve in the library - Orla)

Below are some quotes from the above essay, the full title of which is 'That Quintessential Repository of Collective Memory': Identity, Locality and Townland in Northern Ireland,  by Bryonie Reid, which features in Sense of Place: Sense of Time, Ashgate, 2005

"These small pragmatic units are redolent of an attachment to place which is both crumbling and pertrifying in the wake of increasing homogenisation", p53.

'the townland is at the heart of rural thought...the loss will be not only of sonorous beauty and historical sense but also a corruption of the intimate relationship between rural people and the land that surrounds them (McCool, 1993, p8 - quoted in the above, p53)

"a townland is an area, it is not a long thing called a road", p54

"It could be argued that a similar process is occurring in the imposition of linear geography over an already existing spatial mode or orientation; this thick space entails the possibility of resistence to reoganisation from above, as thoroughly enmeshed as it has been with human life and death", p55

"Rooted and tangled memories linger in local places, shaping identity and belonging; perhaps obscured, tarnished through disuse or grief, but awaiting careful excavation, examination and reinstatement in the record of what has gone before" p58

Townland names could be seen as the "index cards upon which memories were stored", p57

suggested background reading and references

Rural, Dominic Stevens, Mermaid Turbulence, 2008

SubUrban to SuperRural, Gandon Editions, 2006

Recovering Landscapes, James Corner, Princeton, 1999

The Other side of Eden, Hugh Brody, Faber and Faber, 2002

Walkscapes, Francesco Carreri, Gustavo Gigi

The Atlas of the Island of Ireland, Mapping Social and Economic Change, Gleeson at al

An Historical Geography of Ireland, BJ Graham and LJ Proudfoot, Academic Press, 1993

Here, There and North of Nowhere, Jeremy Till, Building Material 18, AAI

Among these Stones is Very Sweet Pasture, Mary Laheen, Building Material 16, AAI

Reality – Geometrically Demonstrated, Bea McMahon, Building Material 13, AAI

Neo Rural architecture, Dominic Stevens, Building material 13, AAI

Altas of the Rural Irish Landscape, FHA Aalen, Kevin Whelan and Michael Stout (eds.) University of Toronto Press, 1997

Gordon Cullen: Visions of Urban Design, David Gosling, Academy Editions, 1996

The ConciseTownscape, Gordon Cullen, Architectural Press, 1971

Theory in landscape architecture : a reader / edited by Simon Swaffield, Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2002.

Psychogeography, Merlin Coverley Pocket Essentials, 2006

Unit Project, Laois County Council, www.laois.ie

http://irishhandballalley.blogspot.com/

introduction

TownLand will explore the space between the town and the land that lies beyond it. Changing patterns of how we live, work, travel and play are continuously altering the shape of both these conditions. In particular, changes in commuting patterns, farming practices and suburbanisation of hinterland have contributed to an altered demography.

This group will explore the influence of the political and cultural portrayal of the town and the landscape on our spatial dreams and realisations. We will chart the history of the settlement of the Irish landscape to investigate what clues it may hold for future spatial intervention.

The group will ask the question, what is contemporary townland?