Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism - Essay Example

The resulting phenomenon is that the architectural features within the region are gaining new exploitations as tourist destinations and mediums of cultural preservation. For many cities in North America therefore, the culture of architecture is being exploited as a means of creating a brand synonymous with destination travel, themed cultural entertainment and tourism excursions. With more and more residents moving out of the cities and into the devolved suburban environments, the importance of landscape is becoming more glaring as it is essential in the creation of environments that the urban contemporary population deem preferable for habitation.

The preferred surroundings of residence are a fusion of massive vegetation and built environments with minimal density and room for the utility of automobiles. As a result, landscape is a fundamental element in the development and maintenance of the multifaceted natural surroundings, the management of post-industrial locations and planning of communal infrastructure (Waldheim, 2002). Key Concepts in Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism In his article, ‘Terra Fluxus,’ James Corner metes out an in-depth analysis into some of the concepts of landscape urbanism.

One of the concepts emphasized by Corner is that of the importance of processes compared to that of time in landscape urbanism. Corner states that “the processes of urbanization are more significant to the shaping of urban relationships than the spatial forms of urbanism” (Waldheim, 2002, n.p.). Such processes include the protection of the physical environment, deregulation, the process of globalization, and the accumulation of capital. This concept dispels the impression that the process of socialization can be redesigned by the construction of new physical structures.

This is not to say that the spatial element does not contribute to changes in urbanism; but rather to imply that the relationship between the spatial frame and urban processes is one that entails urban processes streaming through the spatial frame in order to manipulate and protract it. This shift emphasizes the systems that acclimatize the dispersion and density of urban structures, rather than the material properties of space. This poses the greatest challenge to designers and planners (Waldheim, 2002).

The implication of this development on the spatial planning of cities and their regions is that their structuring has to borrow more from a comprehension of the processes that urbanism involves as opposed to an insight into the concept of form; that is, an understanding of “how things work in space and time” (Waldheim, 2002, n.p.). According to Corner, in this respect landscape may act as a propellant for the formation of cities. A case in point is the development of the Olmsted Central Park in Manhattan, which was initially envisioned as a space that could provide a respite to the city residents from the unremitting nature of life in the city.

The effect of the construction of the park however turned out to be more than just that, as it acted as a catalyst for massive real estate development within the region (Waldheim, 2002).