FOR-SITE FOUNDATION

Professor Walter Hood
Department of Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley
LA 203, Fall 2003 (Graduate Course)

Shaping the Public Realm: Landscape Architecture And Environmental Planning
What happens if we take the approach of Smithsons Nonsite? What does it mean to be confronted with the absence of the Site? Does the Nonsite free us from the Site to focus on specificity or a limited concept as we move towards designing at the site context? Or to focus on that which is meaningful and beneficial, understanding all of its sides? Can the Nonsite facilitate a different way into the site, forcing us to develop a procedure that is more active, subjectively and objectively. These are a few of the questions to ask as we critique and work within the context of the Nonsite.

We will not visit the site initially. First, you will compose a Nonsite that will introduce us to the Nevada County landscape. The Nonsites will be composed of objects, mapping, and narrative (defining procedure). The site plans and deed restrictions for the property are available. As a point of beginning you should use other resources on campus and off (map room, GIS, Forest Service, etc.) to facilitate your procedure.

Develop a procedure based on an interest you may have for the site, the information used to understand sites, or other mapping procedures (GIS grid, geology, zoning, vegetation lines, etc.). Your procedure is a vehicle and critique for you to understand the sites environment, ecologically and socially. Remember that the Nonsite is an analytical tool that will set the procedure for later design explorations.

Smithsons interests and experiences inform his Nonsites in particular ways, from his interest in cartography to the fabrication of objects (banding of steel boxed that he observed in his many industrial landscape sojourns). You are to examine your own interest and experiences and use the personal to inform the fabrication and mapping procedures. You are not imitating Smithsons Nonsites, but are using his procedures as a framework in which to formalize your own.

The mappings should be no larger than 18 square and the fabricated objects should not exceed 24 square. Photoshop, computer renderings and other technical methods for production are prohibited. Use other means, such as transfer, typography, weaving, joinery, etc. to attach and copy. The fabrications should use the shop and resources in the college. Be imaginative, but remember craft.

Your Nonsite is a personal distillation of information and specific interest. More important, it is an intellectual journey.

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