Naturally. Designing for the landscape

Dominika Drozdowska

25 of October '21

energizing landscape, collage by Natalia Budnik

...

Dominica:You happen to participate quite actively in various educational activities: workshops, panel discussions, festivals. Do you want to popularize the field of landscape architecture through these activities?

Natalia: It would be great if that happened. I came back from Copenhagen to Warsaw with a bit of this attitude. When it comes to landscape architecture, Denmark and the Netherlands are the leading centers in this field, and many studios were established twenty, thirty years ago. I was aware of where I was returning to, and I considered my return as an opportunity.

Dominika:You felt there was a lot to do.

Natalia: Yes. In Denmark, the work is of a different kind - it's more about what can still be improved and enhanced. In Poland, on the other hand, there is a question of popularizing the field, developing understanding and working at the grassroots. At the same time, I don't think we should be ashamed of something, feel inferior or compare ourselves to Western countries. Public spaces are certainly underinvested or need to work on deconstructing them, but there is so much potential and content to be discovered! Above all, understanding what is peculiar to us and discovering our own language of landscape. Returning from Denmark to Poland after six years, I had to change the established patterns and switch from the Copenhagen landscape to the Warsaw one, you can't just move your way of thinking and working to another place. The funding is different, the perception of various social issues is different, the climate is a bit different.

Dominika:Speaking of different - what would you do differently in Warsaw?

Natalia: For example, fencing ourselves in. I understand that this stems from our past or experiences, the conviction that in the Polish context common means nobody's. However, some of our very interesting spaces in Warsaw - the Filter or Gasworks areas - are tightly fenced and inaccessible. I understand the sanitary or security aspects, but I know that in Copenhagen such huge green spaces would be adapted so that residents could use them. So I would turn "can't" into "can".

Establishing a waterbed, the exhibition "More Green! Projects by Alina Scholtz"

Photo: Tomasz Budnik

Dominika:The same is true of the greenery designed by Alina Scholtz on the grounds of the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw, which can only be seen from behind the fence. Coming back to the heroine of the exhibition you co-created - did anything surprise you about this character or her work? Or did you learn something new?

Natalia: The first thing is, of course, how little we know about her. It was a gradual discovery of Alina Scholtz's achievements and the creation of a map of her places. Even though her entire professional life was tied to Warsaw, her approach evolved over the years while remaining consistent. She started with an architectural approach, as with the Służewiec horse racing track, and developing this idea in the creation of the Saxon Garden or the Central Park of Culture, she was able to skillfully adapt her methods and narrative to the context of the place. For me, it was amazing that using simple language, you can bring very different meanings to the landscape. On the other hand, when I think about Alina Scholtz's recent projects located in Warsaw's housing estates or in the Botanical Garden in Powsin, I get the impression that instead of shaping the space by introducing new elements, she thought about what is already in between. In the landscape of the Żoliborskie Orchards, she focused on the orchard and the small scale to which everything was subordinated, while in Powsin the main idea was to emphasize the way the ravines cut into the escarpment, the large-scale landscape spine of Warsaw.

Dominik:Alina Scholtz was a landscape architect. You, on the other hand, present yourself as an architect for the landscape. I understand that this preposition between means that not only the landscape should be for the people, but also the people for the landscape.

Natalia: Yes, you have defined it well. This includes my personal ambition in my professional work on a daily basis, because I don't like to authoritatively say how something should be done. I believe that in this field it should work both ways. We know that nature gives us oxygen, microclimate or food, among other things. If we want to maintain balance in the urban landscape we need to consider what we ourselves can offer nature. That's why I'd like my work to focus not only on aspects of the landscape as seen from a human perspective, but also on what nature would do and how it can be helped.

Dominika:What can we do for nature in the city?

Natalia: The matter may not be easy in urban areas - but give it some space. Adapt what we already have. If we plant a new tree - give it the right soil, give it access to air, even under the paved surface we walk on. Because of overly compacted soils, trees in cities suffer from a notorious lack of oxygen. It's also worth considering the materials we use. How about replacing smooth glazing with rough plaster in some places? I'm also thinking about gated neighborhoods, through which I as a human being have to make up my way, let alone other creatures whose lives are also hampered.

Dominica:Finally, please tell us more about your most interesting collaborations.

Natalia: One of the collaborations that gave me a lot to think about and influenced me to want to come back and work in my hometown is the work with the Centrala Design Group, which is already many years old. A big role in this was our joint participation in a competition related to the revitalization of the forgotten sports grounds of Warszawianka. I love Centrala's sensitivity to local contexts. Their attempts to understand and look at things from many different sides. Their approach has given me hope that...

Dominika: ...something good can happen?

Natalia: Yes, Central's approach taught me to appreciate the assets of the Warsaw landscape. Working with them means seeing the qualities of undiscovered or forgotten stories. What is important here is the ability to connect the past with the potential for the future, often involving an attempt to change the way of thinking and giving room for discussion, speculation. Such architectural archaeology combined with futurology. I realized that with our better understanding of local cultural conditions, our design sensitivity also grows, and the reality we design will be tailor-made and simply better. Of course, a very important and formative period of my practice was the time I spent at the SLA office in Copenhagen. It's a rather funny story that has come full circle. When I was in my late teens, I watched a video of skateboarders riding skateboards in a fantastic public space that looked like an urban sand dune. For me it was a shock that the space between buildings could look like this - not only beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, but also a lively, open space. SLA studio was behind the project. And it was only during my master's studies in Denmark that it came back to me - that this was the office. I started working at SLA from an intern position, and for five years I worked quite closely with various people in the company, including founder and creative director Stig L. Andersson, which was made possible by the lack of a rigid hierarchy. I am particularly pleased with a recent project I worked on with the office's founder and his creative director. Stig has been invited to do an author statement on the role of Chinese gardens at the 2019 International Garden Culture Expo in Beijing.

{Image@url=https://cdn.architekturaibiznes.pl/upload/galerie/60297/images/original/0f41240befd76d0b7a368b0b321605f6.jpg,alt=Master Garden Stig L. Andersson, International Horticultural Expo 2019 in Beijing, collage by Natalia Budnik,title=Master Garden Stig L. Andersson, International Horticultural Expo 2019 in Beijing, collage by Natalia Budnik}

Stig L. Andersson's Master Garden, International Horticultural Expo 2019 in Beijing, collage by Natalia Budnik

The project we created drew on Eastern language and culture, but in a contemporary, anthropocentric way. This direct collaboration taught me a lot - I was happy to follow Stig's way of thinking and working, to observe how he translates his philosophy into the language of landscape. It's also interesting because Stig previously studied quantum physics and now runs a landscape architecture office, which shows that goals and approaches to the world are important. An important thought Stig conveyed to me was the complementarity of architecture and landscape. This is our basic mistake when we don't treat the two fields together. It seems to me that it is important to work on making the relationship between architecture and landscape as coherent as possible. I think landscape has something of the cloud in it. When you look at a cloud floating in the sky, you can't tell about it that it has a certain shape, that it is about to be in a certain place. It's the same with architecture and landscape, which reflect different factors and styles popular at a particular time, but it's all constantly flowing on and changing with the times.

Dominica:Thank you for the interview.