Following the Kali Gandaki to the Roof of the World

Abstract

Nonmodern landscape has been almost entirely neglected as a subject of study within the professional and academic pursuit of landscape architecture. This work intends to reverse this trend through the proposal of methods for observation and documentation of the world’s few extant nonmodern landscapes. Upper Mustang, located in the highest reaches of Nepal’s Kali Gandaki river valley, is presented here as a methodological case study. Observation and documentation on foot lie at the foundations of this methodological exploration: this work confirms that texture, materiality, cultural consciousness, and individual perception equal or surpass the relevance of data gathered through digital, off-site analysis in building a narrative of nonmodern landscape. Representation also plays a critical role in the study of these landscapes neglected by our field: evolution of project representation illustrates movement between scales, points in time during project research, and the interface between tangible materiality and almost imperceptible vastness in a landscape where sacred cairns, painted with vivid earthen hues, rise from the primordial earth.

Keywords

Nonmodern Landscape / Vernacular Landscape / Cultural Landscape / Himalaya / Representation

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press