Project Global: Ground


This exploration of our current day metropolitan condition as a system of systems deals with the crust of the Earth as a primary carrying capacitor of human activities, from the extraction of resources deep within the ground, to agricultural operations that barely scratch the surface.

Part 1: Lexicon

Part 2: Atlas

Part 3: Architectural Projects



Part 1: Lexicon index

︎ Formation

    ︎ Kaapvaal Craton
    ︎ Johannesburg Dome
    ︎ Vredefort Dome
    ︎ Topsoil
    ︎ Müggelsee


︎ Measurement    ︎ Schwerbelastungskörper
    ︎ Mining Earthquakes
    ︎ Low-tech Soil Testing
    ︎ Soil Texture Triangle
    ︎ Geologic Time Scale 
    ︎ Stratigraphic Colum
    ︎ Geographic Information System
    ︎ Ecotone
    ︎ Cultural Landscape

︎ Prototype
    ︎ Unter den Linden
    ︎ Zoological Landscape
    ︎ Counterculture
    ︎ Cultural Agency
    ︎ Mine-pit Lakes
    ︎ Parliament of Things

︎ Land distribution
    ︎ 1913 Natives Land Act
    ︎ District Six
    ︎ Eavesdropping
    ︎ Reconciliation Policy
    ︎ Land Grabbing
    ︎ Land Acting
    ︎ The Red Ants
    ︎ #PutSouthAfricansFirst
    ︎ Suburban Enclaves
    ︎ Parallel State

︎ Extraction
    ︎ Cullinan Diamond Mine
    ︎ Platinum Group Metals
    ︎ Zamazamas
    ︎ Gold Rush Inertia
    ︎ Sinkhole
    ︎ Maize Doctor
    ︎ Coal Hands

︎ Infrastructure
    ︎ Gautrain
    ︎ Le-guba
    ︎ Lesotho Water Project
    ︎ Deutscher Wald
    ︎ Arrival City

︎ Production
    ︎ Safari Economy
    ︎ Agritourism
    ︎ Rainfall Line
    ︎ Upington Airport
    ︎ Tiergarten Transformation
    ︎ Pivot Irrigation
    ︎ Allotment Garden
    ︎ Bokoni Terracing
    ︎ Johannesburg Forestation
    ︎ Game Farming Cycle

︎ Waste
    ︎ Trümmerberg
    ︎ Fab-Soil
    ︎ Mining Waste Belt
    ︎ Sanitary Landfilling
    ︎ Soil Structure
    ︎ Biogas Technology

︎ Pollution
    ︎ Dry Stacked Tailings
    ︎ Water Pollution
    ︎ Soil Pollution
    ︎ Uranium Sandstorms
    ︎ Poaching

︎ Remediation
    ︎ European Green Belt
    ︎ Conservation Agriculture
    ︎ Airfield Urbanism
    ︎ Solar Park
    ︎ Gold Reef City
    ︎ Mine Pit Lake
    ︎ Loess Plateau
    ︎ Erosion Control




Cultural Landscape

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Initially introduced by the geographer Otto Schluter in 1908 into the field of geology, cultural landscapes were defined as a term to denote the symbiotic results of human activity and surrounding environments, whether intentional or not. Cultural landscapes were differentiated from original landscapes, which were landscapes that had not yet been changed by human activity: cultural landscapes were produced out of original landscape – the first lasting activity being plant domestication for agriculture. The concept was further clarified in 1927 by Carl Sauer who stated that cultural landscapes are created through alteration of the physical environment by human cultural activity; physical environments are the medium through which human cultures act.1
        Cultural landscapes can be recognized across a wide spectrum – such as human settlements to pastoral fields– that share little commonality in the conventional contrast of the “natural” and “artificial or man-made.”2 Nonetheless, the concept is rooted in the notion that the landscape is the combined product of many processes and actors and is not attributable to only one; its entanglement ensures a richness of its value and implies a complex network of mutual responsibility, interdependency, and collaboration.
        In the disciplines of Architecture and Landscape design, the concept of the cultural landscape was promulgated through the magazine Landscape by publisher J.B. Jackson in the 1950s. Influencing thinkers like Denise Scott Brown, the term’s adoption by the architectural community mirrors the increasing interest in ordinary and everyday features of the built environment.3


Image source: -


References
1.  “Cultural Landscape,” in Wikipedia, December 23, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultural_landscape&oldid=1061679188.
2.    Amos Rapoport, “On Cultural Landscapes,” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 3, no. 2 (1992): 33–47. 
3.   “J. B. Jackson,” in Wikipedia, March 3, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._B._Jackson&oldid=1075041628.