Keys to heterotopia: Ana actantial approach to landfills as societal mirrors
Abstract
75
Keys to heterotopia
An actantial approach to landfills as societal mirrors
In a reflection on two landfills Fresh Kills, a
wetland area belonging to New York City, and
Spillepeng, an artificially constructed peninsula
in the Öresund region in Scandinavia and the
reshaping of dumping sites into programmed
landscapes for recreation, this paper addresses
the notion of heterotopia. It is claimed that the
capacity of heterotopia as an alternate place
functioning as a social mirror, could apply
meaningfully to the domain of landscape and
urban planning, providing that this somewhat
vague and overly general concept is supplied
with a contribution from actant theory, a contribution
that would bring a multiplicity of influential
forces into the picture.
Re-shaped garbage dumps (like Fresh Kills,
New York and Spillepeng, Malmö) have an
exemplary heterotopian character, since they
are geographies materialised by the need to find
a place outside of normal urban fabric, and artificially
constructed by remains from the surrounding
social space. It is here suggested that
the study of landfills, especially the ones programmed
into recreation areas or in other ways
furnished with a public agenda, could be done in
an approach where not only the expected partakers
of urban/regional planning appear, but also
those unexpected owners, visitors, and authorizers
that could be found as having an interest.
What follows is above all a theoretical investigation
into advantages, limitations and extensions
of the notion of heterotopia, and to what extent
this notion helps viewing the multiplicity of partakers
and their influence on access to space.
Eventually, a method is suggested for the investigation
of the influential conditions of places in
general. In this methodological model an analytical
tool for urban/rural studies as well as for
the practicing architect the recognition of
unforeseen as well as expected actants will help
visualising the ongoing formation of public and
semi-public space, the determination of which
may otherwise be destined to a much more closed,
or arbitrary, design process.
Keys to heterotopia
An actantial approach to landfills as societal mirrors
In a reflection on two landfills Fresh Kills, a
wetland area belonging to New York City, and
Spillepeng, an artificially constructed peninsula
in the Öresund region in Scandinavia and the
reshaping of dumping sites into programmed
landscapes for recreation, this paper addresses
the notion of heterotopia. It is claimed that the
capacity of heterotopia as an alternate place
functioning as a social mirror, could apply
meaningfully to the domain of landscape and
urban planning, providing that this somewhat
vague and overly general concept is supplied
with a contribution from actant theory, a contribution
that would bring a multiplicity of influential
forces into the picture.
Re-shaped garbage dumps (like Fresh Kills,
New York and Spillepeng, Malmö) have an
exemplary heterotopian character, since they
are geographies materialised by the need to find
a place outside of normal urban fabric, and artificially
constructed by remains from the surrounding
social space. It is here suggested that
the study of landfills, especially the ones programmed
into recreation areas or in other ways
furnished with a public agenda, could be done in
an approach where not only the expected partakers
of urban/regional planning appear, but also
those unexpected owners, visitors, and authorizers
that could be found as having an interest.
What follows is above all a theoretical investigation
into advantages, limitations and extensions
of the notion of heterotopia, and to what extent
this notion helps viewing the multiplicity of partakers
and their influence on access to space.
Eventually, a method is suggested for the investigation
of the influential conditions of places in
general. In this methodological model an analytical
tool for urban/rural studies as well as for
the practicing architect the recognition of
unforeseen as well as expected actants will help
visualising the ongoing formation of public and
semi-public space, the determination of which
may otherwise be destined to a much more closed,
or arbitrary, design process.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.