Making Places

This article builds upon research conducted during my doctoral and post-doctoral research (1998-2005) working with architects and landscape architects at Snøhetta’s office in Oslo (1998), and then continuing this dialogue with two of Snøhetta partners, Craig Dykers and Jenny B. Osuldsen (2002-2003) through a series of workshops carried out in various sites in Scotland. Integral to this research, I foregrounded the skills of architectural and landscape design practices and their relation to physical landscapes, and the transformations that ensue while involving computer aided design technology within such practices. At the same time, I offered a dynamic approach to understanding the relation between movement and gesture, ways of knowing, and forms of inscription and description and the relations between creative movements and forms they generate. Addressing the idea that construction of meaning within an environment exists within dialogic contexts of intra-action 2: engaging with an ongoing activity or dialogue among skilled practitioners, the question is at what point are you aware of this intra-action? For skilled practitioners, such as Craig Dykers, Kjetil Thorsen, Jenny B. Osuldsen and Elaine Molinar from Snøhetta, then designing is not so much about imposing as relating to, or engaging with the constituents of the landscape in a particular way. Taking as a starting point Leroi Gourhan’s (1993) notion that intelligence lies in human gesture itself, as a synergy of human being, tool and raw material, it becomes apparent that the interrelationships between perception, creativity and skill are fundamental while studying how a person undergoes growth and development within an environment. How an individual perceives the environment and how this perception informs a way of being in the world raises the question: What does it mean to perceive an individual as moving and actively engaging within an environment that is continually changing?