VIRTUAL London Heritages Conference
Abstract
Drawing on tangible and intangible heritage, landscape architects are reinterpreting the footprints of lost historic features to add authenticity to new design interventions, using heritage and memory to build a sense of place in an ever-changing urban landscape. The term ‘resurrected footprints’ was coined to describe this observed approach. As an act of remembering, this approach relies on cartographies of the past being drawn up through subsequent layers of urban development into the contemporary public realm with new palimpsest-interpretations of lost or destroyed features. Illustrated with a range of case studies, this paper examines how effective and appropriate this is as a way of acknowledging heritage in contexts where material remains have been lost or destroyed by subsequent waves of development. Frequently cited as a way of establishing a sense of place, this design approach is thought to lend legitimacy because the design decisions come ‘from the site’. Drawing on landscape architectural theory and practice, the paper suggests this approach is a professional reaction to late twentieth century placelessness, but notes that there is little evidence to show that it contributes to a sense of place in practice. Resurrected footprints are, by design, often undecipherable in their built form. With little or no interpretation, many resurrected footprints remain obscure. Are they crude references to old maps with tenuous links between past and present, or subtle invitations to discover a place’s story? This paper invites clients and designers to examine why and how lost heritage is incorporated into contemporary urban landscapes.
Alex Albans is a research fellow at BCU College of Architecture where he is a founding member of the West Midlands National Park Lab research cluster, and lecturer in landscape architecture. His PhD research examined the factors that influence design decisions at a site-level in landscape architecture, including the identification and examination of ‘resurrected footprints’ as a specific approach to creating a sense of place. With a background in historical geography, mapping and conflict-transformation, Alex is currently researching reconciliation as a way to re-connect people with the land.
Kathryn Moore is Professor of landscape architecture at Birmingham City University and Director of the West Midlands National Park Lab. Kathryn is past president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and Landscape Institute. She sits on the Natural England Landscape Advisory Panel, and is IFLA special envoy to United Nations Habitat Professional Forum. She has published extensively on design quality, theory, and education and consults on landscape strategy internationally.