Formless accident: a happening towards the fall

My research explores the relationship between nature and artefacts in unstable territories, taking as a site of experimentation the Middle Paraná Delta in Argentina. The purpose of the research is to build a theory of design generation from conceptualization of and speculation about that specific site, to apply that theory to pedagogy, and to imagine its contribution to professional practice of design in landscape architecture. The Middle Paraná Delta is characterized by its dynamic physical condition, in which the forces of nature make evident the irrelevance of Biblical and Platonic paradigms through which many contemporary landscape architects still understand the relationship between nature and artefacts. To ensure the authority and transcendence of the designer, Biblical and Platonic paradigms inform systems and methods for producing artefacts based on composition and determination, both characterized by their detachment from natural processes−including social processes as part of nature−and their ability to replace those processes with fixed forms. My research introduces an alternative paradigm–the jungle; a model to operate on it–formless accident: a happening towards the fall; and a series of procedures based on indeterminacy. Paradigm, model, and procedures propose a dissonant subject-subject relationship between artefacts and nature and a process of design as a sequence of finding-transformation-becoming. In this context, the purpose of artefacts is to reveal and allow the manifestation of processes over the time under which there is neither total control nor prediction of final configuration. Ultimately, my hope is that such contributions will positively impact the way humans relate with the rest of nature as well as with other humans.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.L.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Landscape Architecture

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Valderrama, Ana Maria

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hays, David L.
• Robert, Riley B.
• Claudio, Vekstein

• Nature
• Artefacts
• Indeterminacy
• Landscape Architecture
• Design
• Jungle

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Ana Maria Valderrama

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44223

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F44223