7 Days in NYC: Exploring Contemporary Landscapes
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Yichao Kang & Shuai Yan

5/22/2014

1 Comment

 
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        For the final film, we want to talk about the relationship between the person's activity and the landscape in New York City. When people mention the New York City, they will always talk about the skyscrapers, the busy traffic, the dirty streets and etc. The landscapes which are survived in this environment have such different characteristics with others. Some have done a change in elevation, some rebuild the original field and some have attractive and delicate detail in really tiny space. Each park has its unique way to solve the problem it faced. Actually, all the problems thelandscape have matter the people's activities. According person’s activity and what they really need in this area, the landscape architect design these parks. On the other hand, the creation have influenced person’s activity. It’s the process of impacting on each other.


      At the beginning of the video, we show a clip of the Green Roof of Metropolitan Museum. It is a roof garden at the top of Metropolitan. From the video, we can see people are having a rest, chatting or watching the whole view of Manhattan. The roof have been taken full advantage of. It’s the success for the city, and also the success for the designer. The designer noticed that people in the museum really need a place to have a rest and touch the environment at the same time. However, the fact is no more land resource for the museum. The roof become the best choice. This garden is carpeted with the “grass”, making people feel free to sit and enjoy the garden, even forget that we are on one building’s top. And it has become true. We think it’s really a good example to explain the relationship between the landscape and the person’s activities. The activity chooses the landscape, and the landscape influences the activity.

      Central Park is the second part for our video. Central Park is indeed the most famous one in the New York City. It’s like a lungs for the city, remit the heat island effect and improve the environment around. Actually, people just hope to keep a green space for the busy city at the very beginning. However, it has played a more important role than the hope. As time passed, more and more interesting design were added to this park. The activities happened in this huge area become more colorful and various. And people really enjoy in it. It is not only a park now, but also a place to keep the important memory (you can see a couple were taking wedding photos), a place to have the family time, a place to do social and a place to do sports.

      It seems to have been a mixture of activities which are all hold in this large area.

      Teardrop Park is the most impressive one. Although it is a small park among the residence, but it is so useful and fit the environment well. In this park, the designer use elevation changing to separate the space and make the park more interesting and private. The people who live beside love to go there is most point. Second is the material it had chosen. It seems be rough, however the “rough” makes the park to be one part of the environment and close to the human at the same time. We really have a happy time there, playing the slide, chatting on the wooden stairs and watching the child playing in the sand poor. All these are fresh evidence for this park which consider the relationship between the activity and the landscape.

      The Floyd Bennett Field is the most special one. It once was an important New York City airport, part of Gateway National Recreation Area. But now it has been rebuilt to a park for people to do sports, know the history and other outdoors. The park provide the wide space, leading to the activities. The square in front of the museum is another example to explain the different landscape leads to different activities.

      This course is really good, teaching us so much about the landscape. The knowledge is so useful and fresh. It must will help us in the architecture field in the future.
1 Comment
Kamila
5/22/2014 12:55:33 pm

At many of the sites, I found myself struggling to take a photograph or video without getting people into the frame. I'm happy you two actually focused on documenting human activities AND the landscapes because it made me realize how important it really is (and how it's almost impossible to separate the two!) After all, it is the people using the landscapes and interacting with them that determine their success!

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