The Poetics of City and Nature

Paces place making architecture environment landscape urban design public realm planning design aesthetic poetics Anne Whiston The city has been compared to a poem a sculpture a machine. But the city is more than a text and more than an artistic or technological. It is a place where natural forces pulse and millions of people live —thinking feeling dreaming doing. An aesthetic of urban design must therefore be rooted in the normal processes of nature and of living. I want to describe the dimensions of such an aesthetic. This aesthetic en compasses both nature and culture it embodies function sensory perception and symbolic meaning and it embraces both the making of things and places and the sensing using and contemplating of them. This aesthetic is concerned equally with everyday things and with art： with small things such as fountains gardens and buildings and with large systems such as those that transport people or carry wastes. This aesthetic celebrates motion and change en compasses dynamic processes rather than static objects and scenes and embraces multiple rather than singular visions. This is not a timeless aesthetic but one that recognizes both the flow of passing time and the singularity of the moment in time and one that demands both continuity and revolution. Urban form evolves in time in predictable and unpredictable ways the result of complex overlapping and interweaving dialogues. These dialogues are all present and ongoing some are sensed intuitively others are clearly legible. Together they comprise the context of a place and all those who dwell within it. This idea of dialogue with its embodiment of time purpose communication and response central to this aesthetic.

Concomitant with the need for continuity in the urban landscape is the need for revolution. Despite certain constants of nature and human nature we live in a world unimaginable to societies of the past. Our perceptions of nature the quality of its order and the nature of time and space are changing as is our culture provoking the reassessment of old forms and demanding new ones. The vocabulary of forms — buildings streets and parks — that are often defer red to as precedents not only reflects a response to cultural processes and values of the time in which those forms were created. Some of these patterns and forms sill express contemporary purposes and values but they are abstractions. The artist is a man himself nature and part of nature in natural space. quot Before humans built towns and cities our habitat was ordered primarily by natures processes. The most intimate rhythms of the human body are still conditioned by the natural world outside ourselves： the daily path of the sun alternating light with dark the monthly phases of the moon tugging the tides and the annual passage of the seasons. In contrast to the repetitive predictability of daily and seasonal change is the immensity of the geological time scale.

Making and caring for a place as well as contemplating these laborsand their meanings comprise the aesthetic experience of dwelling. This concept as explored by the philosopher Heidegger has important implications for designers and planners of human settlements. A major issue for designers is how to relinquish control whether to enable others to express themselves or to permit natures processes to take their course while still maintaining an aesthetically pleasing order. The pleasing quality of the allotment gardens of community gardens that are popular in both European and North American cities depends upon a gridded framework of plots. Each garden plot is a whole in itself an improvisation on similar themes by different individuals. Yet all are part of a whole unified by materials structure and the process of cultivation. In Granada Spain allotment gardens lie within the Alhambra and Genera life. The gardens rest within a highly organized framework of walls and terracesand enliven the scene rather than detract from it. They complement the form algardens and courtyards where vegetables and nut and fruit trees are planted among flowers and vines. There is no arbitrary separation in this Moorish garden between ornamental and productive between pleasurable and pragmatic between sacred and secular. It is possible to create urban landscapes that capture a sense of complexity and underlying order that express a connection to the natural and cultural history of the place and that are adaptable to meet changing needs.

Nature and its order， processes， and forms are an important source of inspiration for Lawrence Halprin. He makes a distinction， however， between mimesis and abstraction， between \"copying nature's pictures\" and \"using her tools of composition.\" Halprin's notebooks contain many studies of water movement around rocks and of the planes and fracture lines， ledges， and talus of rocky slopes. In these drawings， he has recorded the progressive abstraction in the transition from mountain environment to urban plaza. At the Portland Auditorium fountain， the progression from small source， to tributaries；

Ultimately， however， the urban landscape is more than a symphony， a poem， a sculpture， a dance， or a scientific experiment. It is the setting in which people dwell， living every day. This aesthetic， as applied to the urban landscape levels： on the level of the senses aroused， the functions served， the opportunities for \"doing\" provided， and the symbolic associations engendered. These multiple layers of meaning， when congruent， will resonate，combining complexity and coherence， amplifying the aesthetic experience of the city.