118
C. Ronzani and A. Freytet
What do we learn from a landscape designer’s visual foray into the underwater
world? That, being difficult to read, underwater landscape demands invention. Not
solely under water, but also on land, for management and mediation of natural areas
through the landscape. The conditions in which we perceive underwater landscapes
compel us to observe from within and temporarily abandon all objective, scientific
vision of space and its ecological functioning. By naturally appealing to the sensitivity of an amateur audience, underwater landscape reveals great potential for fostering
awareness which must not be missed. Our vision as landscape designers also, we
hope, reflects the need for a multidisciplinary approach to managing marine areas
like natural spaces. “At the outset, nature was wild. This first nature has progressively
become ‘second’, through human conquest of the horizontal line. It must now become ‘third’ by reinventing its every layer and exploring its full depth. . . ”, suggests
Bernard Lassus in a foundational publication
42 . In other words, to protect untamed
nature from excessive anthropization, we must now seriously consider what we might
call the ecology of human perception. Lastly, the underwater landscape itself shows
us that a dual effort is required in landscape design. Firstly, successful reading and
immersion in the literal and figurative sense, and secondly effective emergence of
the underwater landscape’s specific features through the graphic choices made. The
underwater landscape brings new horizons in how we conceive and study landscape
in general, including above water. Landscape is a tricky subtle notion, floating on
sometimes disconcerting and as yet unexplored depths. It would thus be perilous
and contemptible to allow routines and methods to take root as automatic procedures. Because the object of landscape design is the human gaze that gives the world
meaning, and we will forever look to new horizons.
42 Op. cit.
C. Ronzani and A. Freytet
What do we learn from a landscape designer’s visual foray into the underwater
world? That, being difficult to read, underwater landscape demands invention. Not
solely under water, but also on land, for management and mediation of natural areas
through the landscape. The conditions in which we perceive underwater landscapes
compel us to observe from within and temporarily abandon all objective, scientific
vision of space and its ecological functioning. By naturally appealing to the sensitivity of an amateur audience, underwater landscape reveals great potential for fostering
awareness which must not be missed. Our vision as landscape designers also, we
hope, reflects the need for a multidisciplinary approach to managing marine areas
like natural spaces. “At the outset, nature was wild. This first nature has progressively
become ‘second’, through human conquest of the horizontal line. It must now become ‘third’ by reinventing its every layer and exploring its full depth. . . ”, suggests
Bernard Lassus in a foundational publication
42 . In other words, to protect untamed
nature from excessive anthropization, we must now seriously consider what we might
call the ecology of human perception. Lastly, the underwater landscape itself shows
us that a dual effort is required in landscape design. Firstly, successful reading and
immersion in the literal and figurative sense, and secondly effective emergence of
the underwater landscape’s specific features through the graphic choices made. The
underwater landscape brings new horizons in how we conceive and study landscape
in general, including above water. Landscape is a tricky subtle notion, floating on
sometimes disconcerting and as yet unexplored depths. It would thus be perilous
and contemptible to allow routines and methods to take root as automatic procedures. Because the object of landscape design is the human gaze that gives the world
meaning, and we will forever look to new horizons.
42 Op. cit.