90
C. Ronzani and A. Freytet
Keywords Landscape designer · Semiology · Perception · Scenography · Mediation ·
Indicators · Nature reserve
7.1 Introduction
Landscape study is an art of immersion. This belief underpins our methods and ethics
as landscape designers—a term we will explain below—and has led us to explore the
new dimension of our profession as it expands into underwater landscapes. The first
issue relates to natural spaces and their management. Today, marine area management
policies have yet to recognise the sensory, “aesthetic” dimension and the concept of
landscape heritage as full fundamentals, on a par with the environment. Current
protection measures and frameworks (reserves, parks) lend little weight to landscape
as the prime raison d’être, and often overlook the powerful lever it can be as a
showcase, a medium and a scenography, for cultural mediation with the public in
natural spaces. The second issue concerns landscape designers and landscape in
general. From metaphor, we move to reality. We naturally sense that the shift from
terrestrial to marine landscape research and design impacts both the theory and
practice of our profession. Our profession has in fact hitherto largely ignored the
underwater landscape, or even denied it landscape status full stop, perhaps because
with underwater landscapes the difficulties inherent in landscape study and work
increase tenfold. Or maybe because conventional landscaping methods and concepts
are put to the test? We nonetheless view the link between a landscape designer’s
specific art of sensory immersion and actual immersion in the underwater landscape
as an opportunity to successfully adapt landscaping practices and concepts to the
underwater world. The magnifying mirror of underwater landscapes may well reveal
the definition, ideal or future transformation of “landscape” and landscape design,
including on dry land. We will attempt to answer these questions in two stages.
Before addressing the question of the underwater landscape, we will first explore
the landscape designer’s epistemological stance in relation to landscape on land and
in general. We believe this is primarily based on “landscape reading”. This prior
journey through sometimes arid territories of theory is necessary to understand the
vision with which a landscape designer tackles the novelty of the underwater world,
and the disorientation and questioning the process engenders. We will then turn
our attentions to this confrontation, and the solutions to be found, through concrete
examples of studies and action.
C. Ronzani and A. Freytet
Keywords Landscape designer · Semiology · Perception · Scenography · Mediation ·
Indicators · Nature reserve
7.1 Introduction
Landscape study is an art of immersion. This belief underpins our methods and ethics
as landscape designers—a term we will explain below—and has led us to explore the
new dimension of our profession as it expands into underwater landscapes. The first
issue relates to natural spaces and their management. Today, marine area management
policies have yet to recognise the sensory, “aesthetic” dimension and the concept of
landscape heritage as full fundamentals, on a par with the environment. Current
protection measures and frameworks (reserves, parks) lend little weight to landscape
as the prime raison d’être, and often overlook the powerful lever it can be as a
showcase, a medium and a scenography, for cultural mediation with the public in
natural spaces. The second issue concerns landscape designers and landscape in
general. From metaphor, we move to reality. We naturally sense that the shift from
terrestrial to marine landscape research and design impacts both the theory and
practice of our profession. Our profession has in fact hitherto largely ignored the
underwater landscape, or even denied it landscape status full stop, perhaps because
with underwater landscapes the difficulties inherent in landscape study and work
increase tenfold. Or maybe because conventional landscaping methods and concepts
are put to the test? We nonetheless view the link between a landscape designer’s
specific art of sensory immersion and actual immersion in the underwater landscape
as an opportunity to successfully adapt landscaping practices and concepts to the
underwater world. The magnifying mirror of underwater landscapes may well reveal
the definition, ideal or future transformation of “landscape” and landscape design,
including on dry land. We will attempt to answer these questions in two stages.
Before addressing the question of the underwater landscape, we will first explore
the landscape designer’s epistemological stance in relation to landscape on land and
in general. We believe this is primarily based on “landscape reading”. This prior
journey through sometimes arid territories of theory is necessary to understand the
vision with which a landscape designer tackles the novelty of the underwater world,
and the disorientation and questioning the process engenders. We will then turn
our attentions to this confrontation, and the solutions to be found, through concrete
examples of studies and action.