Paloma
Student Dissertation
ABSTRACT
‘Faire du paysage, c’est entrer dans une conversation’
‘Designing the landscape is starting a discussion’
(Corajoud, 1982, p 145)
The French rural landscape is undergoing a ‘crisis’ of identity. Society is unsure about what it stands for, and this uncertainty has begun to destabilise France’s national identity. The idea that the rural landscape has been shaped for centuries by man on a biophysical and life-requirement basis, allows for cause-effect reasoning in regards to its current condition.
The rural landscape is undergoing rapid urbanisation away from the cities, along motorways and high-speed train lines. There is a growing desire to live in this newly accessible landscape, and this is often based on a nostalgic image of rural life. But an increasing pressure for new developments within the countryside landscape is contributing to a rapid transformation. While in France there is much written about peri-urban landscapes, describing the process of closing the gap between cities and the countryside, there has been little research about the isolated sprouting of towns in the countryside.
There seems to be a contradiction between the need to preserve the past references and the new reality of today’s landscape. The use of old concepts to describe and assess the new urbanised countryside has prevented this emerging landscape from developing a new identity. Based on an outdated criteria, it has become commonly accepted that there is a ‘crisis of rural landscape’ in France.
The future of this rural landscape has become a societal problem. This realisation pushes us to think of new ways to interpret the conditions that now define the current French countryside.
It is critical that French landscape planning policies, urban planners and landscape architects, consider the ‘concept of culture’ within the process of countryside urbanisation. It is necessary to put aside the nostalgic image of the French countryside, and instead explore the contemporary relationship society has with the rural landscape. This could provide the basis for a new understanding of the transforming rural landscape and allows us to recognise it as a new type of landscape with its own identity and values, which could offer a fruitful approach to designing a better and enduring future for these landscapes.
CONTEMPORARY RURAL LANDSCAPES
The changing nature and social identity of the French countryside
Paloma Stott
Dissertation submitted for the degree of MSc in Landscape Architecture
Edinburgh College of Art / University of Edinburgh
ESALA – Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture
2014
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