This blog began as a senior seminar topic in the Landscape Architecture department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. There our class researched, presented, discussed, and wrote in order to determine: what are “accidental landscapes”, and what can we learn from them?
Designers and theorists have used a variety of terms to describe sites such as these. “Informal urbanism”, “emergent landscapes”, and “the everyday” are common phrases. We are using the term accidental - perhaps because it is a bit poetic, or because it highlights an appropriate ambiguity.
We began with the idea that accidental landscapes are sites that are not designed, but emerge of their own accord. By revealing unpredictable processes and qualities, these sites teach us about the natural world and public space. Sometimes they offer insight into political, social, or material forces. Sometimes they provide sublime respite from more defined and controlled environments. Sometimes we simply cut through them walking from place to place and find them beautiful (or weird, or ugly, or…). Sometimes, in their lack of social use, they become loci for unusually abundant ecologies.
Dialogue with us: what do you think of accidental landscapes? Are they accidents, or something else? Do you have a favorite accidental landscape? Tell us all about it. Leave a comment, or submit (see instructions to the right). Hopefully our posts are just the beginning, and this is a discussion that will develop and grow.
