A Confrontation with the Sublime — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

By Shaun Rosier

Landscapes of extraction are the undeniably baneful result of a global resource-exploitation economy, yet they are readily denied by policymakers and governmental bodies as having value beyond being ‘green-washed’. Quarries and mines become the leftover landscapes from these exploitative processes but, unlike their lifetimes coming to an end, there is far less certainty in what comes next.

The processes of remediation are most closely controlled at the local government level through the inclusion of mandating remediation processes in their ‘quarry management plan’. If we look at Kiwi Point Quarry in Wellington, we can see that there is significant attention paid to views of the final, extracted landform, largely focused on the visibility of benching and covering bare surfaces with vegetation. This focus ultimately comes from a requirement in the Resource Management Act 1991 to maintain natural character or remediate disturbances to it. However, there is no clear – or arguably appropriate – definition of “natural”, which has led to an unfortunate binary opposition of nature/culture that doesn’t address any of the inherent complexities. Likewise, the recently publicised Mikonui Valley mine in Hokitika shows that neither quarry operators or governmental bodies are ready or willing to seriously address this issue.

Landscape Architects are strategically poised to respond to this issue so that new socio-political relations can be established between ourselves and the world we inhabit. Critically, there is a need to move beyond this nature/culture divide that permeates planning policy and, to a degree, design thinking.

What might this look like? Currently, designers (largely Landscape Architects) are involved in the remediation process at the end of a quarry’s lifespan where there is often minimal budget or political energy willing to be spent. What if we were involved during the processes of extraction itself? What opportunities might emerge that empower better outcomes in the remediation process? Perhaps most importantly, in doing so how can these designed post-extraction landscapes allow for encounters that confront us with our relations to the world?

The lower half of the Horokiwi quarry showing the extent of extraction. The original topography has been altered since the 1930s, accelerating in the 2000s. (Image credit: Shaun Rosier)

My ongoing doctoral research at Victoria University of Wellington has been grappling with these questions and in the process has posed several more about landscape architectural design techniques. Working with the Horokiwi Quarry in Wellington, my practice-led research has developed a design approach that fundamentally embeds the landscape architect within the extraction mechanics of a quarry. Instead of being engaged at the end, landscape architects are a part of the entire process so that the economics of quarrying are continually working towards the final form of the post-remediation landscape.

Benches and berms can be cut in different forms that may not be as economically efficient upfront yet don’t require cost to be invested afterwards. Tailings (left over rock) can be used to create novel landforms instead of filling in on-site depressions or being left as uninspired mounds. These require the designer to have an acute awareness of the techniques of quarrying, which in a sense is not dissimilar to other forms of landform manipulation that are already embedded design practices for landscape architects. This also requires designers to experiment within an envelope of spatial possibilities, and to pay close attention to what is special or powerful about that landscape so that the process of designing doesn’t ultimately hinge on moral preconceptions of what “good design” is.

The base of an excavated slope at the Horokiwi Quarry showing the traces of machinery and quality of the rock material. (Image credit: Shaun Rosier).

These landscapes are typically extreme in some sense (their form, lack of ecology, sense of scale) and often outside our habitual understanding of our environment. It is not uncommon to have these landscapes described as sublime – an encounter that seems overwhelming or beyond thought and representation. Since its conceptual emergence in the 18th century, encounters with the sublime have been thought to create change within those who experience, a disruptive shock making it clear how our being relates to the world.

Given that landscape architects work with a site as the material they literally design with, a challenge presents itself here: how can we design with an encounter that seems to escape thought, is disruptive or disturbing, or struggles to be represented?

It isn’t enough for designers to engage with these post-extraction landscapes as a technical problem-solving exercise at the expense of actually engaging with how they move us. This requires significantly more rigour via fieldwork – using drawings, photography, or text to recreate the sublime experiences often found in these distinctive sites. Designing ecological services is certain to remediate issues in a technical sense, but we now know that this isn’t enough. We must design these sites to move us, to shock us, to make clear our relations to the environment: to rock, to the sky, to processes of consumption and production, to our future and past.

Creating a truly sustainable future requires an approach beyond science. It requires us to be moved.

Shaun Rosier is a New Zealand native Landscape Architect, originally from the Wairarapa and has made Wellington home. He teaches at Victoria University of Wellington in the Landscape Architecture Programme, and has recently submitted his PhD in Landscape Architecture for examination where it will be defended in December. His research on quarries, the sublime, and design technique is the first practice-based PhD in Landscape Architecture to be completed in New Zealand. The research focuses on developing design techniques that give expression to how landscapes move us through close attention to fieldwork, aesthetics, and design rigour.