As I was designing the edible landscaping plot outside of the Sustainability Resource Center, I was thinking about design. Gardens are inherently mutable. They are growing, alive. They need attention. In this way, there is something to be said for designing a water-wise garden with few inputs such as fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, and heavy water use. However, even the most hands-off design needs maintenance. Such is the nature of domestication. As I was setting up meetings with staff at the Sustainability Resource Center, I was thinking about it as product designing. A garden is a highly social product, just as malleable as it is physical form. Gardens need attention and care. Even if that care is minimal: in this case, harvest and pruning.
This is what the landscape would look like without human intervention: sagebrush and sand. I have boiled it down to this: in order to have an aesthetic, intentional landscape used by the campus community, I am trying to design the smallest amount of necessary input in order to achieve the highest and best outcome. Like a native ecosystem, this plot should exemplify self-sufficiency and low water use. However, in order to make the best use of an important, currently unused, public space, implementing some maintenance is acceptable in return for exemplary food security.
No comments:
Post a Comment