Reciprocal landscapes: material portraits in New York City and elsewhere

Abstract

The material assemblies of constructed landscapes generate ecological, economic and social conditions in situ, yet are embedded with the relations of their own production, concealed through the processes of commodification. Material specification for the design of new landscapes inadvertently and invisibly transforms other landscapes. The author argues that the sites and people associated with the production of construction materials are an overlooked yet critical dimension to understanding and intervening in the material cycles of designed landscapes. Case studies identify reciprocal relationships between landscapes of production and consumption in terms of material displacement, ecological change and labour relations. Cases focus on materials used in three public landscapes in New York City over the past century and a half: granite block from Maine to Central Park in the late nineteenth century, structural steel from a company town in Pennsylvania to Riverside Park in the 1930s and hardwood lumber from northern Brazil to the High Line in the early twentyfirst century.