in defense of topography
ACCESSIBILITY FOR A MULTILEVEL WORLD
Human beings function best on flat planes. Buildings and the cities they form are essentially stacks of level layers. Level sites are the most efficient to transverse, build upon, and park cars on. There is a force toward flatness present on any site that is intended to be useful.
Conversely, topography is one of the greatest determinants of landscape experience with level changes being one of the most effective ways to define exterior space. An elevated landform affords long views appealing to our most primeval need to see approaching danger. Slopes suggest the forces that shaped the environment including the upheaval of the earth’s plates and the erosive force of water. Topography tells the story of a site and is the underlying structure forming any landscape.
Buildings have level floors while no site is perfectly level. Those floors also tend to be elevated to lift the living zone and floor structure up out of the dirt and dampness of the earth and to improve the visibility of the surrounding environment further increasing the disconnect between the building and site.
Since the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 accessibility has become a driving factor in design. As landscape architects, access is an issue at the forefront of every public and semi-public project we do. Carefully configuring site plans to provide subtle access, without obtrusive ramps, is a primary aim in all our projects. Site access for people and vehicles is not new, but landscapes where access is required to be provided at no steeper than a 12/1 slope presents a challenge in a multi-level world.
A primary challenge of contemporary landscape design is to create functional accessible sites and buildings while preserving the shape of a site’s underlying landform. Landscapes with buildings must provide the transitional zone that fits the building to a particular topography and lifts the inhabitant up to a building’s floor level.
As technologies enable us to move greater and greater quantities of soil more economically, landscape architects become protectors of topography encouraging less site disturbance to accommodate habitation. An important aspect of design is the preservation of the site’s underlying landform so that the essential character and drama of a place remains and is not erased in the pursuit of greater convenience, utility and economy.