Ethics and Aesthetics of 'Poor Art' in Landscape Design

Dietmar Straub (University of Manitoba)

We live in times where the massive consumption of resources and the constant production of waste can no longer be tolerated. Designers of built environments have a responsibility to find and implement creative responses to this self-destructive exploitation of limited resources.

A series of pilot projects in Winnipeg, Manitoba highlights gardens, schoolgrounds and open spaces as an archetypal conception of humans coexisting with and sustaining urban natures. These projects prove that ‘pleasant landscapes’ do not need to use vast resources or have budgets of millions of dollars.

Lessons inspired by Arte Povera and Bricolage provide a theoretical design philosophy to build a base of expertise that can be applied at every scale of urban design. Literally Arte Povera means ‘poor art’. The word ‘poor’ here refers to an experimental situation in which the simplest means, found objects, ‘poor’ materials and new processes are used to create narrative and social spaces. Bricolage, implies a practice where the protagonists meet everyday needs by using locally available resources.

‘Building materials’ for the projects are leftovers that the city produces and throws out every day. The controlled re-use, upgrading and transformation of materials into a new context is the key to these spatial design experiments. Processes of aging and decay, speculative projections, uncertainties, and the deliberate integration of the uncontrolled play crucial roles. This forces a radical paradigm shift for designers of built environments towards a building culture of improvisation, repairing and recycling.

It is imperative to change peoples’ predilection toward throwing things away when they are old or out of fashion! Treating the urban ground with reverence upholds a magnificent union of human work and nature. This design philosophy values the worth of the worthless, the aesthetics of the ‘poor’ and the invention of humble projects that produce innovative insights, knowledge and practices.