"Shades of Green" or the glories and shadows of landscape architecture. "Shades of Green" is a podcast about interdisciplinary landscape architecture hosted by Joanna Paniec and Maja Skibinska - landscape architects.
landscape architects. Welcome to the fifth episode of the Shades of Green - Sensual Landscape Architecture - Part Two - "Feel It" podcast.
We are interested in interdisciplinary landscape architecture that combines multiple themes and issues to create environments that support well-being. In the previous fourth episode of the podcast, we talked about how many senses we have and focused on the senses of sight, hearing and echolocation in the context of landscape architecture. Today we continue the conversation about the role of the senses in the perception of space and how to design sensory spaces - both public spaces and your own gardens or balconies.
Majka: In this episode, we will focus primarily on the so-called matter-related senses, namely - touch, smell and taste, and the lesser-known senses of temperature and balance.
Joanna: So let's look at the sense of touch.
Majka: OK, with the sense of touch, the important things will be materials their texture. Smoothness, roughness, hardness, naturalness.... For example, feeling whether a material is natural or artificial. This is important in the age of plastic mimicry, when artificial materials are trying to pretend to be natural, and are doing so in an increasingly successful way. These concretes, plastics pretending to be wood or stone. In many cases, a dozen years ago it was already obvious from a distance that it was a "fake," a few years ago it was visible up close. Now you often have to touch to figure it out. Touch is hard to fool, much harder than sight.
Joanna: Yes, sight is subject to illusions, spatial tricks, touch perceives reality mostly as it is. It comes out that touch is a sampler of quality.
Majka: That's me again going back to the book "Eyes of the Skin", Pallasmaa explains in a very interesting way the popularity of plastics, glass and metal in design - you can't see wear and tear from them, they remain a long time without age. Natural materials, on the contrary, you can clearly see the passage of time from them, they change, they wear out.
Joanna: But wait, plastics fade, and some age ugly, steel rusts, which just in the case of corten has a great aesthetic value.
Majka: Well, yes, but it's about comparing durability. For example, rattan already changes after one season outdoors, while technorattan doesn't care. Pallasmaa points out another theme, people often prefer materials that do not show the passage of time, because the changeable, natural ones remind people of aging and trigger the fear of death. Although, all in all, this is an important theme....
Joanna: Oh yes... Touch is the possibility of direct contact with the outside world. Only the sense of taste trumps it. Movement, touch are such primal, natural building activities. In many cultures, buildings made of clay, mud are the result of feeling, touch, movement, they are not connected to sight, aesthetics are not paramount, ergonomics are the most important, feeling, building as a process built by the body....
Majka: Right. We touch different materials, experience texture, hardness, elasticity. Even just being in the city is a series of touches - buttons, handles, handgrips, surfaces, surfaces. Well during the pandemic we try to limit them and some appreciate gloves. I still remember what kind of a scolding one preschooler got in the fall a year ago for touching the playground fence. The teacher did not have disinfectant liquid and specifically chastised the toddler....
Joanna: Oh, the pandemic has strongly affected our behavior and being in the space. And kids, after all, love to touch, that's how they learn about the world. All in all, you can learn from them such openness to explore space freshly, with different senses, for example, licking different surfaces.
Majka: ...yes, especially since small architecture encourages touch, sometimes even requires touch - all vending machines, seating areas, bicycle racks, etc. Oh, and apps, for example, reduce touching the city to some extent.
Joanna: This is in general an interesting thread of how new technologies use and influence the use of the senses and the use of space. But going back to touching, there is also a lot of potential in feeling nature through touch. Plants have a variety of textures, they can be soft, rough, sharp, smooth in hundreds of different ways. The variety of materials, textures strongly affects people.
Majka: Yes, material textures are also an interesting issue in terms of sensory integration. It seems important to enable, to facilitate touch, to commune with nature in such a tangible, direct way. For example, through elevated plant pots, accessible water, etc. Sometimes it's worth encouraging touch, because some people have resistance to it, and it's worth daring them to interact in this way. This is where the habits of a traditional museum space come out, such with "do not touch" signs and a person watching over them to make sure they don't accidentally touch anything.
Joanna: For those in need of sensory stimuli, just walking barefoot is a cool topic, grass, sand, special sensory paths, working in the garden, touching plants and the earth. Oh, and here I immediately have before my eyes the sight of people walking barefoot along the seashore, after all, this is the quintessential sensory perception of the landscape. Through the touch of bare feet, we feel the roughness of the sand, its siltiness, sometimes the sharp, stinging had from the shells, the softness and frothiness of the waves washing over our feet.
Majka: And the kids and adults running around the sand playground. Mmm...pleasant...but it's worth remembering that some sensations can be difficult to bear, for example, for people on the autism spectrum with high reactivity plant shoots or leaves touching their skin as they walk along the path, tall grass touching their feet as they walk on the lawn.
Joanna: ...these are always big design challenges, and it's worth keeping this diversity of users in mind....
Majka: You know, and I'm still thinking that building and strengthening relationships between people is based on touch, and here landscape architecture also has something to say. Depending on whether we arrange spaces for individuals, couples, small or large groups, whether they are sheltered - more intimate, or exposed - public depends on how much of that touch there will be.
Joanna: Accidental touch - this is something we rather don't want, that is, it is worth providing such space and such width of paths, alleys and sidewalks to avoid it.
Majka: Yes, touch, or rather the lack of it in this case, is responsible for the feeling of safety in the space.
Joanna: But there is also a strong need in people for wanted touch - here, places to sit, secluded spaces fit the need, to hug, hold a hand, feed a child....
Majka: Yhm...cool, such a warm, closeness theme has surfaced for us here...and this is a good time to mention a rather obvious sense related to the skin so, in a way, also to touch, i.e. the sense of temperature, which, however, is outside the famous iron five....
Joanna: You see how complex reality is...and often we don't realize it at all! And yet, the sensation of the temperature of the environment or specific objects is a very basic sensation... Here I will again return to the example with walking along the seashore, where we very clearly feel and pay attention to whether the water is currently warm or cold....
Majka: Yes, but even the very humidity of the air influences the feeling of temperature and also strongly connects with landscape architecture design. Dry air is not good for us, humidity around 50% is felt as favorable, comfortable. The larger the area of greenery, and the richer and more lush it is, the higher the humidity and the lower the temperature.
Joanna: And this is also a lifesaver in the context of urban heat islands, i.e. greenery and all the benefits associated with it. You can feel it strongly when moving around the city on a hot day, the differences in the perceived temperature can be as much as a dozen degrees, and this is also related to humidity. The easiest way to feel it is to walk from a heated street into a green park shade....
Majka: Or moving from the paved, heated parts of the city into greener areas. I've experienced this myself over the years, moving back home. And I live in a block of flats, so it wasn't related to detached houses and gardens just a large area of wild, unmanaged greenery and proximity to the river. It was super noticeable for about 1 km, cycling from heat to quite pleasant temperatures. The eldorado is over, the area has been built up and it's as hot as anywhere around.
Joanna: I feel it very clearly when I go for a walk in the summer and walk from the housing development to the park. The difference in temperature and humidity is very clear. This is a good example of how design knowledge is practically used in landscape architecture - shaping the microclimate through the use of plants, using the knowledge of the ecophysiography of the area, using the natural potential resulting, for example, from the relief of the land, the height of groundwater, the availability of water, the directions and forces of winds....
Majka: With such knowledge, it is possible to achieve very good results, to improve the comfort of staying in a place. In such places you will simply want to stay.
Joanna: Yes, here you can also add arranging sunny or shady spaces, control over the sun line, that is, knowing where and when the shadow will fall are also important issues, not only when designing the development, but in general in the context of the whole space.
Majka: And we won't achieve this by using water curtains on hot days.
Joanna: Those curtains are terrible! That precious drinking water poured by liters onto the concrete and flowing into the drainage wells...good that you mention it.
Majka: Oh yes, great results can be achieved simply by systematically deconstructing cities, introducing greenery, these curtains are some kind of prosthesis. Sometimes, when there is no other choice, foggers operating in a closed circuit can work.
Joanna: And in general, fog is a brilliant theme in terms of the senses. Misty landscapes, tranquility... poetry... well it works on a number of our senses.
Majka: Being on the subject of temperature and moving away from water for a moment, here we also have materials and their physical properties regarding heat absorption and heat transfer.
Joanna: A wooden bench will heat up differently from a metal bench. These seemingly minor matters are important issues that make up the design techniques, for example, the proper orientation of the slide of the slide so that it does not heat up during hot weather....
Majka: Ha! Minor issues, it's no fun to slide down a slide that is steaming in the bottom.... is also the realization that composite boards will heat up more strongly than those made of natural wood, it is important how much and for how long the sun will shine on them.
Joanna: Here it is also worth mentioning the issue of albedo, or the ability to reflect rays from a given surface. An example of such a deliberate action using this factor could be, for example, painting roofs white, as in New York a few years ago....
Majka: Or painting streets white, as in Los Angeles, for example. All these treatments make sense as long as they are applied on a large scale, for example, in New York it was 275 hectares, more than 4 times the area of Pole Mokotowskie Park, the largest in Warsaw, or more than 24 times the area of Oliwski Park in Gdansk. At such a scale, the use of albedo can noticeably reduce the temperature.
Joanna: Although the results of studies on the surface are not conclusive. Some indicate that in some cases they can increase the perceptible temperature. That said, maybe we should stay with our favorite color and recommend green, natural vegetation-covered roofs, climbing walls.
Majka: I support this proposal! Still in the context of the knock-down summer heat, an important topic is the right to shade. For example, I think early on in Spain, and as far as I know they have something like this in Krakow, an application was created that allows you to traverse the city by a shade route on hot days. In our climate, the right to sunshine, the right to light, taking into account that there is a lack of sunshine for much of the year and any opportunity to be in the sun between September and April is an attraction.
Joanna: Oh yes here the right to choose is extremely important, one likes the sun, the other the shade, the important thing is to have a place for it. And then there's the consideration of seasonal variation, that is, the need to warm and illuminate oneself with the sun in winter and to protect oneself from its excess in summer... And here a short break to advertise... greenery, of course. And specifically deciduous trees, which perfectly meet these needs, providing shade in summer, and in winter, in leafless state, letting a lot of sun through.
Majka: Yes! The second such example, which I personally like very much, are vines that shed their leaves in winter. For example, such a grapevine clings to the wall and forms a green wall, which in summer moistens the environment, improving the microclimate, and in autumn it turns a fiery red color... very strong and contrasting. And then, when it sheds its leaves, it reveals a wall that can heat up when the sun shines. Or, for a change, we'll give evergreen ivy, which doesn't shed its leaves, but protects the facade super all year round.
Joanna: ...no more advertising! Then maybe now we'll get down to the next sense, which is taste.
Majka: I like this sense. Eating in the city, eating out, picnics, collecting food from wild plants to freeganism. Strong topics. Across the board, I don't think we'll talk about freeganism.
Joanna: Although the topic related to food production and non-waste is a very important topic. And I'm very happy to see that for the past decade or so there has been a strong pull towards urban gardening, urban farming in cities. This has been a strong trend since the 2008 crisis, vegetables, fruits and herbs grown in cities. Anyway, all crisis moments in history have favored this. Where there is crisis there are gardens....
Majka: Hence the popularity of community gardens, the introduction of useful plants. Educational walks and thematic workshops, eating together what can be grown and harvested in the city. A few years ago, wild edible plants were in vogue, urban maps were created in grassroots meetings or organized classes. In parks, on housing estates, for example, people are increasingly and willingly collecting apples, pears, plums, nuts, mirabelles.
Joanna: Yes they are even picking the not-so-obvious fruits, for example, watercress, rosehips, elderberries, topinambur. For several years now, the fashion for allotment gardens has been coming back in a big way also as a source of healthy food, an economic alternative and a drive for self-sufficiency in increasingly uncertain times. Also worth mentioning is the popularity of growing vegetables and herbs on terraces, balconies and windowsills. Anyway, see how much here the sense of taste is connected with the sense of touch.... The smooth skin of a plum, the firmness of an apple, the roughness of a pear.
Majka: Yes, and on top of that, the rise of alternative gardening in all its manifestations is probably an attempt to be outside the corporate system at least for a while, it's an ideological choice, related to ecology, caring for the climate, appreciating localness. Taste gardens, utility gardens, cultivated gardens, or the broader term edible landscape, call it what you will, the important thing is that it's all about food: fruiting trees and shrubs, vegetables, herbs, wild edible plants and all sorts of unusual things like Polish capers, edible flowers are still on the rise, it's their time.
Joanna: Urban gardening also builds a sense of empowerment, integrates people, allows them to live according to the seasons, learn about this rhythm, appreciate the value of nature. This is what socio-gardening is based on, re-socialization through the garden, this whole process from the seed to the dish prepared together from the harvest. Being together.
Majka: Kindergarten and school educational gardens also use this. It was popular during the communist era, and now some institutions also conduct biology, nature lessons this way. School gardens with edible plants are very popular in Germany, the US, France and beyond.
Joanna: I have a feeling that in Poland we are getting back to this more and more, too! I myself have participated in several such projects and initiatives, and I still associate others. Taste and integration is an important theme when arranging city spaces. This is shown by the popularity of foodtracks, coffee rickshaws, mobile food stands. It is worthwhile to provide space for them in streets, squares, squares, parks, neighborhoods. They attract people, create meeting places.
Majka: But also non-commercial places conducive to eating: picnic fields in parks, picnic shelters in public spaces, even an ordinary street bench can be conducive to a hungry person. Oj Aśka, by the way, to us everything is conducive to eating, and when we meet, it's even more so [laughs].
Joanna: Oh yes... surely in a podcast dedicated to culinary we would have something to talk about... [laughter]. But coming back to "taste in the landscape," I would mention even more broadly the renaissance of markets, market halls, regular, cyclical or seasonal food bazaars, that's an important thing. These are very city-forming places. Anyway, here a very interesting example is the project carried out by the organization City Initiative on the development of a strategy for the regeneration of marketplaces, in which urbanity, participation and, of course, the theme of access to fresh, local food resonates strongly. For those curious about this topic, here is a link with a description of the project in the recommendations.
Majka: A few years ago, breakfast markets held in parks, squares, plazas made a furor in cities....
Joanna: Yes I remember, it has dimmed a bit, but you know, a few days ago I went for a walk in the park, some snow fell, and in a clearing with picnic tables some couple is taking out provisions and warming up the grill.... Well poetry! And hmm, I assume I know what you're going to say when I ask you what is the most important thing in landscape architecture field work?
Majka: Knowing what will be eaten, when and where. And also with whom. Greetings to Alexandra.
Joanna: Oooo, I think we can also salute the wider industry in this topic!
Majka: Yes, we definitely say hello!
Joanna: To me, still in the context of taste and snow, too...such a magical image comes to mind - children sticking their tongues out to snowflakes - a sense of taste, temperature and touch all in one. Wonderful! But perhaps we can smoothly move on to the next sense, I mean smell, olfactory.
Majka: I like the word smell, it firmly places us in such a human-animal structure. It's the oldest of the senses supposedly millions of years old, it's older than mammals.
Joanna: This is an interesting theme. Meanwhile, landscape architecture design is precisely about influencing smell as well. It matters so much from where we start. The site visit is important, and it's worthwhile to go through it with all your senses. With the sense of smell, too. For example, it may turn out that something smells in the place we are going to design.
Majka: And here the question is what smells and why. How long will it smell, maybe it's temporary? Because if not it's a bad thing.
Joanna: Well, yes, because it could be a temporary problem, because something just broke down, I don't know some sewer failure for example. They'll fix it and it's over.
Majka: But it could be that this thing stinks permanently or it stinks in a given wind direction. And now what?
Joanna: With help come all kinds of obscurations, fences, shaping baffles with plants, so as to direct the air in a particular way.... And then there's smog, that time when the air stinks because it's polluted.
Majka: You guys over there in the Tri-City have it good in this respect.
Joanna: It depends when, but actually living by the sea we have good ventilation here.
Majka: It can also smell nice. I still remember my elementary school near the candy factory, it was a lot of fun when the smell of candy wafted to us on the playground. And do you remember the smell of donuts at our university? Well, just "and you remember", the smell is evoking memories....
Joanna: I don't remember the doughnuts, but the taste of poppy seed cake with marzipan from that candy shop just now...mmm... but definitely yes, the smell evokes memories. For example, the smell of flowers, here macchia for some people can be such a time machine, the smell of wet earth, freshly cut grass, the smell of spring...the smell of olives growing on a busy street in Gdansk, the smell of lilacs, roses, hot sand....
Majka: This is great to use in design. Phytotherapeutic spaces, the use of aromatic plants, plants that smell intensely after rain or in the sun, steaming earth as a carrier of fragrance. Wonderful design themes.
Joanna: But here again, an important point to keep in mind is that for some people this may not be tolerable. It's always worth remembering to take into account the variation in the area being designed. Here intense smells, but there a space free from them.
Majka: Yes, 100% right. In addition to the issue of neurodiversity, it is also worth keeping in mind allergy sufferers, but with the comment that moderate exposure to the allergen can sometimes help. Well, and air pollution is strongly linked to the topic of allergies. Again, the answer to everything is green areas.
Joanna: I remember we already mentioned shinrin yoku, or forest baths, in which scents and aromas have a therapeutic function. After all, natural oils for aromatherapy are extracted from plants....
Majka: Well, yes phytotherapy, phytoncides, phytohormones are an important theme in outdoor spaces. Large areas of aromatic plants give a cool scent effect.
Joanna: Roses! And the famous rose oil... here a small digression and a movie recommendation with a rose oil distillery in the background. If you haven't had a chance, it's worth watching "Bulgarian Rose," an interesting film about the adventures of a man who follows his passion after the fall of the regime and opens the first independent distillery in Bulgaria and makes Bulgaria one of the largest producers of rose oil in the world.
Majka: Well, I'll also throw in the smell of other people in terms of scent, this may sound like a line from "Silence of the Lambs," but the smell of other people in designing a space is also important, whether you want to arrange a place where people stay close together in a larger group, or rather in smaller groups, in pairs, individually. It's all a matter of the size of the space, its furnishings, the activities we envision....
Joanna: Wait, health paths and outdoor gyms are rather safe topics from the sense of smell....
Majka: ...and a good time to move on to the sense of balance, which controls the position of the body in space, guards our verticality.
Joanna: That is, a sense outside the iron five, not so obvious, but still very basic. As you mentioned it in the context of landscaping, I immediately have in front of my eyes one of my favorite devices on playgrounds and health paths, the balance beam, and its natural counterparts such as fallen logs or walls.
Majka: Here, designing for the elderly is also an important topic - taking into account that they need stable paving, thoughtful landscaping, as this sense may be less functional in them.
Joanna: Taking into account places to sit, so they can rest, cool down, such as squats.
Majka: Well, precisely squats or squats, which name is correct, because I have encountered both versions? I'm asking you as a resident of the Tricity, I saw the first squats in Gdynia, in Warsaw they appeared a few years later.
Joanna: Yes, I remember how these elements appeared in the space, but I also have doubts about their name...maybe someone from our listeners will share this knowledge with us in a comment on the podcast?
Majka: Also great for the theme of sense of balance are children's play spaces. Landscaping, balance boards in playgrounds, logs, beams you mentioned. Kids like it and need it from a developmental angle.
Joanna: Even a simple colored line painted on the surface is perfect for playing with the sense of balance. And what a huge field for creative designers there is again!
Majka: On the other hand, too much sensitivity to safety, well, because this sense sometimes fails, and it's worth developing an awareness from an early age that when you fall, it's not always soft, rubbery and plush.
Joanna: That's why it's worth making so-called safe surfaces other than rubber. After all, a safe fall on grass or sand can be felt and somehow got over. Fortunately, we are seeing more and more examples of this.
Majka: Although designing naturalistic, wild playgrounds incorporating logs, boulders, natural surfaces and lots of plants is unfortunately still quite a design challenge in Poland. And I think with this accent we will close the theme of sense of balance....
Joanna: Yes, and since the topic of sensory landscaping is a broad topic, so we are planning one more episode on the senses. And in it proprioception, body memory, synesthetic design, intuition... Maybe something else, we'll see.
Majka: And today, thank you for listening to the podcast until the end, and please enjoy the additional material.
Joanna: Thank you for today and welcome to the next sensual episode.
Majka: Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.
Worth reading:
Don M., Sensual Garden, Wyd. Twój Styl, Warsaw 1998
Jurga J., Noise Shack, Niespieszne Publishing House, Krakow 2022
Pallasmaa J., Eyes of the Skin, Institute of Architecture, Krakow 2012
Collective work, Miasto-Zdrój. Architecture and Sensory Programming, Bęc Zmiana Foundation, Warsaw 2013
Rasmussen S. E., Feeling Architecture, Murtor S.A., Warsaw, 1999
Trojanowska M., Therapeutic parks and gardens, PWN, Warsaw 2021
City Initiative Association, Gdansk University of Technology, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, 2022: Marketplace regeneration strategy using the method of social entrepreneurship catalyst, brand repositioning and placemaking as a tool of local development policy, LINK
