Relationship between Nature and Infrastructure.
There aren’t natural lands where people can just build without any alteration or adaptation to the landscape. So in that way, whether one is building around the landscape or completely wiping it for a state of tabula rasa, the consideration of nature and the landscape will always exist. In line with some of the articles, I believe that humankind's ambition and drive for a mastery over nature has conceived breakthroughs in technology and infrastructure, but as the innovation and resources slows down, we realize that we were left with lackluster design and a negligence to environmental concerns.
One of the examples mentioned in the “Infrastr” article was the concrete channels that supply some of the major cities in California with clean water, and I think it draws a very interesting parallel to the gas-rich shales of our first lecture today where companies are hurriedly constructing pipelines. Both of these infrastructure projects are built with either an excess in supply or in demand. Projects like these which fall more under civil engineering rather than planning and design happen all the time across the world. If we can convince governments to enhance these project with local green space or educational facilities along its route, then we not only become more environmentally friendly, but can also provide opportunity for the communities that these projects disturb/enhance.
On the other hand, for infrastructure that we build above ground albeit buildings, ports, or airports, I believe that we have gotten better in mediating the relationship between structure and nature. As mentioned in the article “Nature as Infrastructure”, we realized that cities cannot infinitely expand and continuously destroy natural areas so a myriad of regulations and policies from governments around the world now dictate boundaries in which developments have to respect.
In the same way, I believe that with the looming problem of global warming, people are becoming a lot more aware of climate issues and the importance of nature on our lives. Garden City Lands, in my hometown of Richmond, British Columbia in Canada, was private land bought by a family centuries ago. Recently, it’s made headlines in the local papers when it was sold back to the government under the condition of the owners that it had to be developed into natural, public space instead of real-estate or infrastructure. Now, they have turned it into a park with a majority of it being restored bog ecosystems and is a place where many including myself enjoy afternoon jogs.
