Group B Reflections on Readings, LED Seminar 2016
Your reflections
The human essence that it is embodied in people give sense to the environment that surrounds us. In particular, the landscape where our lives takes place is perceived in differents ways, assuming various roles. It could be interpreted as pure nature, as human habitat, as an artifact made by man, as a complex system of mathematical equations or formulas, as a problem to resolve with human interventions, as a great economical wealth but, also, as an ideology formed by man’s minds or as a result of the historical events that signed the territory. The space where we lives could be read as a mix of these different interpretations. We want to live in a good place and therefore the relation between the social and the ecological aspects of landscape are very important, but they are in a very fragile equilibrium. To maintain this balance, there is the necessity to establish an ecological democracy where natural biodiversity and local community are protected. The democracy could be used as an instrument to improve the inhabitant’s awareness of community. Usually the deliberative form of government gives to the people the right to express their opinion through the method of the vote, but men ( we are referring to seniors, children, women ecc…) have to be involved in many others decision’s process that are often taken by politicians. Usually the decision’s makers (local authorities) decided how have to be plan a specific place and give the concrete task to designers. This is the classical top down approach but there are others ways to plan in which local people and stakeholders take part in a collective process of decision-making. When people are involved in the process they become aware of their needs and of the desires of the others, trying to find a compromise or a point of contact. In this context, the designer has to change its role, transforming himself in an expert ready to help the locals to understand their potentialities. Local knowledge, represented by citizens, and professional knowledge, embodied by planners, have to converge in a deeper understanding of the situation. Through the known of people’s behaviors, sociological patterns, environmental justice and everyday life features, we build maps of the voids of towns that are full of the social life of community. People become active and take part in the planning of their environment. In this way, the democracy could become concrete in different ways by the vote system, and one of these alternative methods, that we want to suggest, it is the participatory design of the landscape.