The Wall Street Journal interviewed Adriaan Geuze, founder of West 8, an innovative interdisciplinary urban design and landscape architecture firm based in Rotterdam. West 8 won notice with the design of a public square in Rotterdam in 1991, and most recently, for the Spadina Wavedeck in Toronto. Now, West 8 is working on the massive new park planned for New York City’s Governor’s Island (see earlier post), Pier 57 (see earlier post), and Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank.
The Wall Street Journal asked about the differences between architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture. Geuze said: “With architecture, there is a client, there is a brief, there is a budget, and there is a location. Normally with a park, after you have been chosen to design it, there are still a lot of questions. What is the aim? Where are the entrances? How will people use the space? Sometimes there isn’t even a location. In landscape architecture and urban planning, we deal with a larger scale than architecture and design, however the real difference is that architecture is more influential. If you’re an architect, you can determine the final result. In landscape architecture and urban planning, that’s not the case. You might influence the outcome, but that’s about it.”
Climate change is expected to lead to higher water levels around the world, impacting low-level countries like Holland the most. On climate change, Geuze added: “Holland will be heavily attacked. Sea levels will rise, and we will need to build higher dikes, and even give up some of the land. In the future, we will be confronted with extreme drought — there won’t be enough water in the Rhine River, even to have boats. When there is not enough river water in the Netherlands, the influence of the sea — under the dunes, under the dikes — will kill all the vegetation. And then there is the problem that, due to climate change, the Dutch landscape needs more pumping. The historical effect of pumping has been that organic soil declines, so Holland is literally sinking. Without question, Holland will have serious problems. But there is good news. There are only two Dutch skills: making land and, when it’s done, to paint it. That’s Dutch culture. We don’t have big writers. Holland is not a country for good music. Our position on the planet is that we make land and we paint it.”
Read the interview and see more images of the Spadina Wavedeck project.
Image credit: West 8 and DTAH
