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Niall G. Kirkwood Professor and Chair Department of Landscape Architecture |
Courses
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Plants and Technology II Plants and Technology II addresses the interdependence between technology and design in landscape architecture. The purpose of this course is to develop a broader understanding of conventional and emerging technologies in landscape architecture and how this can result in more progressive and creative design work. In addition the course material is intended to cultivate in class members a more critical interest in technology in landscape architecture both as a design medium as well as a future research topic at the GSD. Through a sequence of lectures, workshops, assignments and field visits, the class explores the processes of landscape technology as they inform the physical production of built landscapes. Three integrated areas are addressed; the physical and biological aspect of soils, the soft engineering of built landscapes and plant materials, an introduction to the range and types of remediation technologies to address polluted soils and groundwater and finally implementation approaches and techniques used in design practice for constructing small and large landscape projects. Each class meeting is organized into two parts, the first through lectures introduces fundamental techniques and builds the tools needed for design studio activities for each student, and the second part through workshops and field trips considers the application of these tools and techniques in landscape design development practices, including landscape assemblies and their applications and operations on site. There is however a focus in this class on the means required to address contemporary sites and "legacy landscapes," particularly where the repair and reclamation from past industrial uses or excessive abuse require a mixture of conventional and innovative landscape technologies. The execution of landscape projects within the procedures and practices of the construction industry are also introduced through illustrated case studies and field trips.
The course is organized into two parts, the first introduces the fundamentals of detail and examines their character and expression, the second considers details practices, including applications and operations on site.
Class exercises further an understanding of detailing, design development, and landscape construction, through literature and field research, the drawn resolution of formal and technical detail problems, and the exploration, craft, and documentation of detail design. The detail development and execution of landscape projects within the procedures and practices of the construction industry are introduced through illustrated case studies and field trips. Brownfields Practicum - Sustainable Redevelopment of
Brownfield Sites in Somerville, Massachusetts Brownfields remain of the highest priority in the regeneration of the inner city. Defined by the US. Environmental Protection Agency as an “abandoned, idled or underused industrial or commercial facility where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination” these derelict sites can at once ease urban land shortages as well as release pressure on rural greenfield sites. In addition they can redirect growth to areas and sites passed by due to liability concerns and clean up costs, and create more balanced regional and local growth patterns. In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting office estimated 450,000 brownfields to be found in the nation, listing 7,733 in the State of Massachusetts and 395 within the City of Boston. Brownfields redevelopment presents a unique opportunity to unite environmental, economic and social goals within a single problem-solving strategy or set of design and planning strategies, and to join diverse constituencies such as environmentalists, planners, designers and community developers in the process. The class first examines the economic, environmental, community, regulatory, engineering and development conditions surrounding brownfields. This include lectures and discussions with stakeholders from federal, city and community agencies, as well as other professionals from the legal, financial, planning, engineering, and environmental risk assessment professions. Through a rigorous practice component, student teams apply their general brownfield knowledge to particular challenges in the field on behalf of a local-based city authority and gain hands-on experience in applied environmental and economic development research and analysis, community practice, and sustainability planning and design. In this way class members are exposed to brownfield challenges and constraints alongside creative inquiry and innovative design opportunities. Our client in the spring 2005 semester is the City of Somerville through the Office of Housing and Community Development. Professional visitors to the class include Carol Tucker, brownfields coordinator, US.EPA Region 1, Catherine Finneran, brownfields coordinator, Massachusetts DEP, Rosanna Sattler and David Li, Environmental Lawyers, Boston, Dr Kurt Franzen, Environmental Engineer, CT, William Penn, brownfields finance consultant, RI, John DeVillars, Managing Partner, BlueWave Strategies, Boston and William Shutkin, environmental author and lawyer. Enrollment is open to all students in graduate standing as well as undergraduates from Harvard College. In the last three years the class has included designers, planners, environmental scientists and policy students from the Harvard Design School, MIT and Harvard College. MLA I AP and MLA II Proseminar This course provides a forum to discuss and explore contemporary questions and issues in landscape architectural design. In addition it prepares students to develop research interests and to formulate positions upon entering professional study in the field of landscape architecture. Individual and collective critical inquiries into the landscape discipline are structured upon readings, field trips, analysis of landscape architectural projects, and presentations given by the faculty of the Department of Landscape Architecture and guests. Through assigned papers the course seeks to deepen the student's understanding of the cultural context of the landscape architectural project, and it provides a platform from which the student may pursue advanced levels of research and design in studios and other course work. The course combines entering students from the MLA I AP and MLA II degree programs.
Brownfields Practicum - Sustainable
Redevelopment of Brownfield Sites in Dorchester and East Boston,
MA Brownfields remain of the highest priority in the regeneration of the inner city. Defined by the US. Environmental Protection Agency as an "abandoned, idled or underused industrial or commercial facility where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination" these derelict sites can at once ease urban land shortages as well as release pressure on rural greenfield sites. In addition they can redirect growth to areas and sites passed by due to liability concerns and clean up costs, and create more balanced regional and local growth patterns. In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting office estimated 450,000 brownfields to be found in the nation, listing 7,733 in the State of Massachusetts and 395 within the City of Boston. Brownfields redevelopment presents a unique opportunity to unite environmental, economic and social goals within a single problem-solving strategy or set of strategies, and to join diverse constituencies such as environmentalists, planners, designers and community developers in the process. The class first examines the economic, environmental, community, public health, regulatory, engineering and development conditions surrounding brownfields. This includes lectures and discussions with stakeholders from federal, city and community agencies, as well as other professionals from the legal, financial, planning, engineering, and risk assessment professions. Through a rigorous practice component, student teams apply their general brownfields knowledge to particular challenges in the field on behalf of the two local community development corporations (CDC) and gain hands-on experience in applied environmental and economic development research and analysis, community practice, and sustainability planning and design. In this way class members are exposed to brownfield challenges and constraints alongside creative inquiry and innovative design opportunities. Our clients are the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) based in East Boston and The Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (CSNDC) a community development corporation that focuses on affordable housing, economic development and community organizing in the Dorchester section of Boston. Enrollment is open to all students in graduate standing as well as undergraduates from Harvard College. In the last two years the class has included landscape architects, architects, urban planners, environmental scientists and designers from the Harvard Design School, MIT, and Harvard College. Rebuilding Devastated
Landscapes: Sustainable Landscape Development in the 21st Century Rebuilding Devastated Landscapes concerns the conception, production and management of sustainable landscapes from both an ecological and design perspective. The content of this applied lecture and workshop course takes a fresh look at the repair and reconstruction of disturbed and derelict urban environments within the realities of current environmental conditions, models, regulations and design practices. The current application of ecological principles to devastated landscapes is challenged and discussed including the analysis of sites and disturbance ecology and the potential models for reconstructing sustainable vegetation communities. Seminar presentations and class discussions with the instructors and invited guests focus on the interdependence between science, technology and design in addressing degraded landscapes that threaten human, community, and environmental health. An emphasis of this class is on the physical and environmental realities, challenges and opportunities of post-industrial land including brownfields, landfills, superfund sites and their ecological systems. Emphasis will be placed in the early part of the course on the historical, regulatory, ecological, public health, technological aspects of devastated landscapes. The pedagogy of the course is supported by class field visits to a variety of disturbed landscapes in the surrounding Greater Boston Area. The locations include a section of rail yard and industrial land owned by Harvard University in Allston, Boston, vacant urban lots and inner city brownfields in Somerville, a municipal landfill near a national historic resource in Concord, and a site with construction fill at the Arnold Arboretum. Local experts, stakeholders and officials accompany the class and instructors on site. The seminar is intended to act as a broad introduction and overview to the subject of the adaptive reuse of post-industrial landscapes. It also acts as a bridge for students between earlier basic core courses in planning, design and environmental studies and more advanced individual research topics, including independent study, thesis preparation and option design studios. PREREQUISITES: Brownfields
Brownfields remain of the highest priority in the regeneration of the inner city. Defined as an "abandoned, idled or underused industrial or commercial facility where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination" these derelict sites can at once ease land shortages. In addition they can redirect growth to areas and sites passed by due to liability concerns and clean up costs, and create more balanced regional and local growth patterns. In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting office estimated 450,000 brownfields to be found in the nation, listing 7,733 in the State of Massachusetts and 395 within the City of Boston. The central objective of this course is to survey the changing climate of Brownfield reuse and to explore potential planning and design agenda's where private and community development concerns are replacing regulatory and economic factors as a driving force. The class examines economic, environmental, community, public health, regulatory and development conditions surrounding Brownfields, including discussions with stakeholders from federal, city and community agencies, as well as other professionals from the legal, financial, planning, engineering, project management and risk assessment industry's. Class trips visit brownfields in located in Somerville and surrounding communities near Boston. Land Reclamation and Remediation Technologies This seminar provides an in-depth study of the technologies and tools of environmental cleanup and reclamation used to remediate and regenerate polluted and impaired sites. The technologies to be examined include current established industry methods for the treatment of soils and groundwater (removal, encapsulation and pump and treat), innovative technologies (thermal absorption, vapor extraction, asphalt batching) and emerging insitu techniques and tools currently under review by federal and local environmental agencies (phytoremediation and bioengineering). The course focuses on the application and comparison of these technologies and tools on three types of contaminated land: urban brownfields, derelict waterfronts and closed waste landfills. Presentations from the instructor and invited guests take place followed by class discussion. There are local field trips to visit remediation and reclamation engineering activities on site. Case study assignments require class members to select and apply established, innovative or emerging technologies to studio design projects and sites and prepare a short technical research paper based on the results. PEDAGOGIC OBJECTIVES:
Brownfields This course concerns the relationship between site technologies and design in the post-industrial landscape. The subject matter addresses recent advances in the remediation and engineering of despoiled land, soil, water and natural vegetation systems in a manner that reclaims and redevelops these landscapes for future productive use. Of interest to the instructor is how these advances can inform more progressive and creative design work in the remaking of contemporary landscapes. Under consideration this semester are urban 'brownfields'. Defined as an "abandoned, idled or underused industrial or commercial facility where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination"* these derelict sites remain of the highest priority in the development and regeneration of the nation's inner cities. In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting office estimated that there were 450,000 brownfields in the nation, listing 7,733 in the State of Massachusetts. It could not have escaped designers and planners in recent years that an increasing focus of their work is now centered on these sites, and that a range of new skills and site development models will be required in addressing environmentally compromised and toxic land, groundwater and building structures. Of significance to this course is the changing climate for the reuse of brownfields where economic factors are replacing regulatory factors as a driving force. The class initially surveys the current economic and regulatory conditions of brownfields, including relevant community, planning, engineering and remediation issues. Individual research is carried out by class members using the current Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot sites located in the New England region. Class site visits are carried out to brownfield sites located in Somerville and Boston. * Source: EPA, 1995 Landfill
End Use: Fresh Kills Landfill Regeneration, Staten Island, NY
This seminar provides a product-based research course that focuses on the review, critique and further elaboration of technical, design and site documents related to the enduse of the Fresh Kills Landfill. The products of the seminar are incorporated into the preparation of professional competition materials for the reuse of the landfill. These materials are disseminated internationally in the early part of 2001. An in-depth study of existing documents related to the briefing, design charge, programming and regulatory background is carried out. In addition, information is gathered on the perceptual, physical, environmental and ecological background to the site and context area. Strategic testing by the way of short design charettes is carried out to examine the scope, content framework of this topical and complex post-industrial site. Faculty and Visitors Siteworks
This course introduces landscape technology and practices in site design and engineering. The basic methods of site operations in project design will be covered through the following topics: landform grading and circulation, cut and fill, drainage systems, stormwater management, and site erosion control. This course identifies the methods and operations of contemporary landscape engineering as they inform the physical production and execution of built landscapes. The course examines the medium and constructed form of site applications and operations as a way not only to address natural processes, but as a means of developing site design work in the field. This course is intended to be an introduction to the subject of landscape technology for those entering the field of landscape planning and design, and a short fundamentals course in landscape site design for those who are pursuing studies in other related fields, including architecture, urban design and planning, civil engineering, and environmental design. Advanced Seminar on Landscape Technology:
Brownfields
This seminar concerns the relationship between landscape technology and design in the post-industrial landscape. The subject matter addresses recent advances in the remediation and engineering of despoiled land, soil, water and natural vegetation systems in a manner which reclaims and redevelops these landscapes for future productive use. Of major interest to Professor Kirkwood, is how these advances can inform more progressive and creative design work in the remaking of contemporary landscapes. Landscapes for consideration under this topic include former or existing landfills, brownfields, extraction fields (quarries and mining), constructed wetlands, railroad yards, heavy or toxic manufacturing processes, former chemical and oil storage facilities, decommissioned military bases and commercial airfields, industrial waterfronts, waterways, and redundant wastewater and sewage treatment facilities. CASE STUDIES
Site
Planning
This course provides an integrated approach to site planning through the study of landscape systems. A basic introduction to programmatic and engineered changes which occur on the land is introduced with an overview of the spatial and functional systems employed in the creation of project scale landscapes. These include vehicular and pedestrian circulation, servicing, parking, utilities, and open space. The later part of the module examines the integration of these systems through case studies for large and complex landscape environments. The principles and methods of site planning and landscape systems are presented through weekly short lectures, supported by class workshops. Thus the course moves each week between general approaches and applied procedures. Short weekly assignments and a final class project focus on the spatial and dimensional relationships of residential, institutional and commercial site planning and their integration into existing landscape forms. |
