Student Projects
Penny White Student Projects Fund
All students enrolled at the GSD are eligible for support for any type of project that addresses the broad objectives of the fund. Past awards have ranged from $200 to $2750.
The objectives of the Penny White Student Projects Fund are:
- To promote creative thought by providing students with an opportunity to pursue their own projects,
- To promote the development and dissemination of a land ethic which integrates the preservation and enhancement of natural systems through studies of design, ecology and natural science, and
- To provide opportunities for students to diversify their graduate study into areas which might not be available within the normal academic curriculum, in fields such as geomorphology, microclimatology, and soil mechanics.
RECENT WINNERS
UPPER PARANA ATLANTIC FOREST
World Wildlife Fund lists the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest as one of the world’s most diverse. It is, also, one of the most threatened. At the juncture of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil this sub-tropical forest offers inexpensive land to subsistence farmers, cattle ranchers, and large soy producers. "Colonists understand the ecological function of the forest though they continue to clear land both for profit and survival," explained 2009 winner Charlie Howe, MLA 2010, who recently returned from nine weeks of travel in rural Paraguay.
Charlie visited five of the newest subsistence settlements in Paraguay’s Atlantic Forest. He photographed these frontier settlements, living with the newly arrived colonists. "Life is not easy in new farm colonies, but with rich soil and plenty of raw resources there is a sense of optimism." This investigation comes at a precarious time in the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest with virgin tracts nearly exhausted.
OGALLALA AQUIFIER / HIGH PLAINS
2009 winner Erik Prince, MLA II 2010, proposed to study the transformation of Ogallala Aquifer region from Dust Bowl to Bread Basket to highlight current land use and agricultural practices. He traced the Aquifers impact on the land by way of motorcycle on the National Land Survey gridded roads from Texas through South Dakota . Using J.B. Jackson as a model, he researched, mapped, sketched, photographed and videotaped this region to record. His work added to the Center for Land Use Interpretation Database and intimately furthered the understanding of the critical role that the Ogallala Aquifer plays in relation to conflicting issues between the land, climate, food and people of this region.
The Ogallala Aquifer has transformed the High Plains region from Dust Bowl to Bread Basket at the flip of a switch. Pumps and wells now extract groundwater to a net deficit of nearly twelve billion gallons a day. It is a dead certainty that the Ogallala Aquifer will begin to give out relatively soon; the only question is when. The aquifer's presence, use or lack thereof directly translates and transforms regional economic prosperity, opportunity for public space/recreation at State Parks and ecological heterogeneity.
LITTLE TRAVERSE BAY WATERSHED: ANALYSIS AND SUGGESTED POLICY GUIDELINES
2007 winner Anne Vauterlaus, MLA II 2008, chose to research Little Traverse Bay, on Lake Michigan, and the land surrounding, which lies within Emmet and Charlevoix Counties, Michigan. This area is a resort destination region which has grown considerably during the real estate boom of the past ten years. Nearly all of the lakefront property is now developed and land well inland from the lake’s edge is being converted into residential housing and golf courses.
While low density housing and the accompanying conversion of existing open land into private residential usage can cause habitat fragmentation, corridor disruption, and loss of trees and native plant species, high density housing is not likely to become popular in the rural regions of the Midwest, neither with the summer residents, nor with the year-round. This study highlights areas in need of protection, and outlines a series of policy guidelines that will attempt to negotiate a balance between current cultural land use and the needs of the watershed and bay.
In addition to identifying regions of special concern within the Little Traverse Bay watershed, recommended types of planting within the watershed, solutions for paved areas, and alternatives for plant fertilization are considered in this study.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE VOID: THE RELEVANCE OF PUBLIC SPACE IN VILLA EL SALVADOR, LIMA
The research of 2007 winner Sharif Kahatt, MAUD 2007, looks at the articulation of landscape, public spaces and urban fabric in Villa El Salvador as design strategies that consolidated and improved its inhabitant’s living standards. It is important to recognize that the means by which this former shanty-town has been transformed, integrated and consolidated as an important part of Lima’s ‘formal city’ are the implementation of an urban and landscape design project throughout its lifetime.
Expanded under their own uncertain logic, the shanty towns in Lima, Peru are already the biggest component of the urban landscape and hold more than half of the city’s population.[1] As Jordi Borja[2] has pointed out, that the right to the beauty of public spaces and the beauty of the landscape is one of the best ways of providing social justice to the citizens. Therefore, the efforts to improve the people’s quality of life in these areas of Lima have to encompass landscape and urban design strategies that provide solid frames for further development of these informal city parts.
[1] Lima as of 2005 has more than 8 million inhabitants. It has been estimated that 6 million people live in shanty towns and other kind of ‘informal’ settlements. See, Población proyectada, según Lima Metropolitana (2005), INEI
[2] Jordi Borja, La ciudad conquistada, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2003
SIQINRILAQ TATQIQ (MOON WITH NO SUN): A STUDY OF MID-WINTER ARCTIC LANDSCAPE
Siqinrilaq Tatqiq (moon with no sun) is the Inuit expression for December, when the sun remains continuously below the horizon and the arctic landscape is in a state of frozen darkness. The Inuit have lived in an extreme climate for thousands of years in a landscape that largely consists of snow, ice, water, and rock.
For this study, 2007 winners Matthew Jull, MLA II 2008 and Leena Cho, MLA I 2009 traveled to an Inuit community above the Arctic Circle in the month of December to accomplish the following:
- To study and document the ways in which Inuit perceive and relate to the mid-winter arctic landscape
- To document and research typology, visibility, reflection, refraction, shadow, and texture of arctic light and ice/water conditions
Their goal was to learn the functional and poetic relationships of the Inuit to the arctic environment, the phenomenological nuances they have developed, and to contrast this with the students' own analysis. Matthew and Leena believe this study was timely given changing global climate and new economic development that is significantly impacting the arctic and traditional Inuit ways of life.
Matthew received additional funding from the CSFP - Domestic U.S. for community service projects of varying lengths of time anywhere in the United States.*
ETHNOTOURISM: A CASE STUDY AT ULURU-KATA TJUTA NATIONAL PARK
2007 winner Julia Watson , MLA II 2008, visited Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, an iconic Australian national landscape that is globally acknowledged as a benchmark example for global ethnotourism practice. Her research examines the cultural landscape at Uluru and the problems created by the interface with tourism. Reflecting on the positive contributions made to ecotourism and responding to a shifting awareness toward socially engaged professional practice, the exploration of ethnotourism through the modes of practice in landscape architecture, may offer new innovations for Indigenous communities on the management of ethnotourism landscapes. The ambition of this investigation was to develop a discipline within landscape architecture that can mediate the destructive impacts that forces such as globalization, increased mobility of populations, and tourism bring to bear not only upon the natural resources of the land but also upon the cultural practices of the resident communities.
*CSFP - Domestic U.S. fellowship is not currently being offered as of Fall 2009.
