BEYOND SERVICES: DESIGN WITH DREDGE

Abstract

Landscape architecture is in the midst of a renaissance. For the first time, a landscape architect was awarded the McArthur Foundation Fellowship. Large professional service contracts are being tendered to practitioners to reimagine urban parks, waterfronts, and downtown development districts. The scope and scale of these projects are significant, as are the impacts these commissions are having on the social, ecological, and economic fabric of the cities in which they are taking place. However, inasmuch as the client-driven professional service model through which these landscapes take shape is essential to the financial health and prestige of landscape architects, it represents only one model of landscape practice. The Design with Dredge program seeks to expand beyond services and into a model of professional practice that proactively collocates research, design, experimentation, activism, and adaptive management with community and strategic partnerships. The model does not attempt to supplant or undermine the business of landscape architecture. What it does do is to widen the aperture of possibilities and extend the field of action for landscape architects who wish to engage more directly with the medium of landscape and specifically with anthropogenic sediment processes including large- and small-scale dredging operations. This broadened professional nexus creates opportunities for practitioners, community members, academics, regulators, and industry experts to advance shared conceptual frameworks, planning priorities, and applied landscape strategies for resilient dredged material management in the Baltimore-Chesapeake Bay region, providing a precedent for others who may wish to explore new modes of practice and emerging landscape infrastructure issues facing port cities and coastal communities.

Keywords

Sediment / Design Research / Landscape Infrastructure / Professional Practice / Resilience / Service

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2019 Higher Education Press