Contemporary landscapes of contemplation
Autor
Krinke, Rebecca
Institución
Resumen
This book has its origins in a seemingly straightforward question: What is a
contemplative landscape? It’s a question that my colleague, architect Randall
Imai, and I asked when we were commissioned to design a contemplative
landscape for a private residential community on Cape Cod. This opening
query soon led to many others: Is a contemplative landscape a place of relaxation, designed to still the mind of thoughts? Is a reductive design vocabulary
imperative? Or is it a place that should prompt new insights to emerge –
perhaps by providing an intense or unique visual focus? And while our project
has been constructed and found to be quite successful by its constituents,
it was difficult for us to find research to help us answer our questions on
contemplative space. This work inspired a larger series of inquiries that I am
continuing to explore: What is the role of contemplative space in a postmodern world? What ideas of nature and culture affect the design or
interpretation of contemplative landscapes? Are there any specific aspects of
physical design that can be found cross-culturally that contribute to a contemplative realm?
To deepen speculation and develop scholarship and practice in this
area, I organized a symposium “Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation” held October 18 and 19, 2002 at the College of Architecture and
Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota. The symposium led
to the essays by John Beardsley, Heinrich Hermann, Lance Neckar, Michael
Singer, Marc Treib, and myself that are collected in this volume. I invited
this group of contributors for three key reasons. They all possess a wealth
of knowledge and insight on the history of designed landscapes as well as
current theory and practice. Second, in addition to their scholarship, many of
these contributors are makers of landscapes themselves, primarily Michael
Singer, who has built many works of art and design that address the idea of
contemplative space. And finally, the depth of experience and thinking this
group can bring to the investigation of contemporary landscapes of contemplation is esp