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The Dissolution of Dualisms in Landscapes: An Image

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This image of Paddington Reservoir might at first glance highlight the natural-manmade dualism of the built environment, where trees sprout from concrete sidewalks and bushes adorn rooftops. However I would argue that it instead assists in the abolishment of such a dualism.

In this image of Paddington Reservoir, living organic matter shares space with non-living inorganic matter. Both have been constructed to exist in harmony with the other, but we see trees and plants growing beyond the borders the reservoir, along the street, beside distant buildings. This suggest that Paddington Reservoir is a dramatic re-enactment of the relationship between the manmade and the natural.

With this in mind, the divide between natural and manmade begins to dissolve. Humans require plants to survive just as much as we require housing and infrastructure, if not more-so. We depend on the plants around us to recycle our carbon dioxide into oxygen; we depend on wood and brick, concrete and glass to give us shelter and safety.

The manmade and the natural, the living and the non-living, are inextricably linked through human mediation. A tree planted next to a building is just as much an object of the built environment as the building is.

This is also true of the opposite. Humans are naturally occurring entities, and therefore it is possible to posit that all we create must also be natural. In this way, a building is as much a product of nature as a tree.


 

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