Landscape and strongInfrastructurestrong in the Late - Modern Metropolis.pdfVIP

Chapter 6 Landscape and Infrastructure in the Late-Modern Metropolis Matthew Gandy Introduction If we extend our understanding of landscape to encompass the interconnectedness of space and of infrastructure to encompass the experience of space it is clear that these two domains are closely related. The spaces that have emerged from the inter- section between landscape and infrastructure range from designed spaces such as parks or gardens to an array of incidental spaces that co-exist alongside utilitarian structures such as canals, power plants, and railroad tracks. Added to this range of material intersections we also encounter a diversity of imaginary or virtual explora- tions of urban space. Both landscape and infrastructure are now the focus of a renewed wave of urban analysis marked by themes such as the adaptive capacity of cities to climate change, the application of ecological ideas to urban design, or the reuse of former industrial spaces. Yet much of this emerging literature lacks historical perspective: an overriding emphasis on “policy relevance” has ironically precluded many possibilities for critically rethinking the role of landscape and infra- structure in the contemporary city. The term “landscape,” derived from the sixteenth-century Dutch word land- schap, was originally used for the demarcation of land but has subsequently become associated with a way of seeing space from a distance. This sense of landscape as a visual panorama – developing initially through landscape art – has subsequently expanded and diversifi ed in the modern era to include a variety of urban and indus- trial spaces and their representations in art, cinema, and literature. In analytical terms there has been a shift from an emphasis on the relationship between landscape and t