As more and more natural landscape is erased, it becomes increasingly important to create landscapes that restore, invigorate and inspire. A new idea is often a combination of knowledge and a random event. Knowledge is a concept; the random event can be supplied by nature. A sensory experience combined with a concept often causes one to think or take action out of the ordinary.
Our challenge is to create settings that are structured, yet provide opportunities for randomness and discovery. An architect creates a built environment for people to act or interact. Our purpose adds the component of setting the stage for people to interact with nature. This can give inspiration for new ideas and reveal different perspectives.
This used to be my favorite poem; I thought it described how design/landscape architecture could be used to organize the world around it.
Anecdote of the Jar
I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
Wallace Stevens
This poem talks about how a built form organizes and influences nature. Here’s a paradigm switch, a change of perspective. What if we turned the tables? Instead of a built form that organizes nature, nature is used to enliven our built forms. What if we worked with nature to bring more life into how we see, how we live, and what we do? This is what Sprout is about.
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