Chapter 12

BOSCHPLAN A MS T E RD A M

VERKl ARtNG

vrHl S^,7H

RljW H<iN

HOCFOfiCUTfeS

BIJZONDERE aESTJSMMINGEN

I N ' H E T BOSCH
U -SPf f-tW E TO?'

^ tW.NUfO^ KfcAU*
V -jPiiiN C.BA ^N

tS STAU*tt Hf T

MN F A FO

1* 70NNE W f' H
d HfcUVKl

v f<,onn.fi aan CAfM^'sTAUR.AN'^ 11 WfftiUIN i; r>oouio

JO M * A ?1 f1* 2 r>> A T *! A S 22 ttCJ *DUiJ n HUGDHf&m. **r kampei;^ rtftpfiN

74 AK80ftt-*UM

KWUUMj

T h e A m sterdam Bos: T h e M odern Public Park and the C onstruction o f Collective Experience Anita Berrizbeita

T h e u rb an p ark has b een tra d itio n a lly u n d ersto o d as th e p lace th a t m itigates the d e b ilita tin g effects o f congested u rb a n life. T h is m itig a tio n is typically achieved by tra n sp o sin g certain characteristics o f th e ru ra l an d n a tu ra l e n v iro n m e n t into th e city, e s tab lish in g th e p a rk from th e o u tse t as th e city s co u n te rp a rt. In P u b lic P ark s a n d th e E n la rg e m e n t o f T o w n s, F red erick L aw O lm ste d proposed th a t extensive w oo d s o u g h t to su rro u n d the p ark , d eep e n o u g h to com pletely sh u t o u t th e city fro m o u r lan d scap es an d so achieve th e g reatest possible c o n tra st w ith th e re stra in in g a n d c o n fin in g c o n d itio n s o f th e to w n .' T h u s , as a place to escape from the o v e rra tio n a iiz a tio n o f the ro u tin e o p eratio n s o f the m o d e rn m etro p o lis, th e p ark offers the o p p o rtu n ity to restore a n d p ro tect the in d iv id u a ls subjective an d sp iritu al iife ag ain st the im p erso n al forces th a t s u r r o u n d th e m . T h e n in e te e n th -c e n tu ry p u b lic p a rk w as largely conceived as b ourgeois te r ritory. T h is w as a p lace w h ere the in d iv id u al could exercise th e in tellectu al and social freed o m s afforded by liberal political th o u g h t. T h e very form s o f th e p ark su p p o rted th e p u rs u it a n d cultiv atio n o f in d iv id u alism : its n atu ralistic c o m p o si tio n o flay ere d , tra n sp a re n t spaces o p en to a m u ltip lic ity o f readings, its aesth eticized re p re se n ta tio n o f n a tu re , a n d its c o n cep tu al d istan c e from the city a ro u n d it. F o r th e m o st p art, in d iv id u als en g ag ed in th e passive, reflective c o n te m p la tio n o f scenery, en jo y in g m o m e n ts of q u ie t so litu d e th a t served to restore a sense o f self. T h u s , a lth o u g h a p u b lic space, th e experience o f the p a rk w as essentially private, d o m estic a n d se c lu d e d *in n a tu re . N estled w ith in a m etro p o lis d o m i n a te d by s ta n d a rd iz a tio n , th e public p a rk o f th e 1800s m ark ed a d isju n ctio n b etw een everyday u rb a n life a n d aesth etic practices, b etw een a society th a t was ru le d by m ass p ro d u c tio n an d its m o d es o f c u ltu ra l th in k in g in h e rite d from e ig h te e n th -c e n tu ry E n lig h te n m e n t cu ltu re. In w h a t follow s, I p re se n t a m o m e n t in th e h isto ry o f th e p u b lic p a rk w h en th is d isju n ctio n ceases to exist, w h e n th ere is no lo n g er an an tith etical

Fig. 1. Plan of the Bos Park. Cornells Van Eesteren and Jacopa M ulder, 1 9 3 0 . Source-. RIBA, vol.

Anita Berrizbeita

relationship betw een the idea of the park and the idea of the city. T h e Bos Park, an 875-hectare forest-park built in A m sterdam betw een 1929 and the 1950s, breaks w ith the tradition of the nineteenth-century bourgeois p ark (Fig. 1). Its designers, the architect C ornelis Van Eesteren and the landscape architect Jacopa M ulder, adopted a program of productivism proposing landscape architectural design as technique (or a set of techniques) rather th an as inspired aesthetic creation. Moreover, they m ade the productive program for the park explicitly visible in its physical form, connecting it to the processes of the in d u s trialized city around it. R econccptualizing the relationship between the park and the city necessar ily results in fundam ental aesthetic and social shifts that both recover and tran s form the traditions o f the urban park. It also restructures the relationship between the perceiving subject and the park itself (the object), and between the object and its creator. T h is is a m aterialist interpretation o f the m odern public park that looks for signification not in an aesthetic idea! achieved through m im etic representation but in the relationships am ong m odes o f m aterial pro duction and evolving social and political structures.^ T h is view moves from an em phasis on aesthetic experience as an isolated, abstract, and autonom ous instance in individual experience to one in w hich those experiences are funda m entally rooted in the realities of m odern life.1

The Bos Park

In 1929, w hen the city council o f A m sterdam approved the beginning o f the Bos Park project, C ornelis Van Eesteren and Jacopa M ulder had two precedents to consider: the picturesque park, represented at that tim e by O lm sted and the E nglish exam ples, and the vol/(sparJ(s {peoples parks) built in G erm any during the first two decades o f this century. Van Eesteren and M uider traveled to E n g land and G erm any to study exam ples of each type. T h ey also had the recom m endations o f the exceptional report produced by the B oschplan C om m ittee, w hich included images of landscapes that were desirable m odels for the Bos Park.6T hesc were a sw im m ing facility in H anover, Germ any, a playground in Berlin, a forest in Breda, and another in the H ague. T hese pictures suggested a rem arkable synthesis o ftw o as yet unpaired landscape types: the athletic facility w ith the native forest.1 Even before the park was finished, it was lauded as a rem arkable innova tion. T h e author of an article published in the Journal o f the Royal Institute o f British Architects in 1938, seven years after construction began, openly adm itted

The Amsterdam Bos

the im possibility of n am in g the style of the park. It is described as n e ith e r... Beaux A rts.. .nor even the gen u in e English landscape sty le...a n d the roads, rivers an d canals do not ru n in snaky lines, returning on them selves in form ally inform al curves o f tiresom e and u n n atu ral sym m etry. T h ere is also n o trace o f th e new G erm an fo rm s.... " T h e author goes only so far as to say th at the scale o f the m eadow s rem ind him of a R eptonian landscape and that the landscape forms the lin k betw een the various com ponent p a rts__ All these are plainly [my em phasis] Jinked together by long stretches o f m eadow of irregular contour an d generally happy proportions.'1 It is interesting th at the critic was not able to describe the park according to established stylistic categories. Clearly, the appearance o f this new park was qu ite different from th at of its predecessors. Indeed, Van E esterens and M u l d e rs conception o f the design and construction o f the park as a process rather th an as an aesthetictzcd com position dem anded th at a critic understand its value less in term s of how it looks and m ore in term s of how it w orks. It is precisely this conceptual shift from com position o f form to process of pro d u c tion th at negates" the traditional idea o f the public park and connects the park to the city by p resenting it as just another o f the city's m ultiple productive opera tions. Ultim ately, this shift in the conceptualization o f landscape redefined the psychological space o f the park as one that is not private and subjective b ut civic and public. B uilt u n d er the aegis o f unem ploym ent relief, the Bos P ark was constructed entirely by m en an d horses, w ith little or no aid from m achinery.'0N evertheless, the adoption o f a series o f rational design and construction techniques m eant th at there was a high degree of in stru m en tah zatio n o f natural processes co m m ensurate to th at o f any other industrial procedure; the conceptualization o f processes, such as drainage and p lan t grow th, as productive entities allowed the p ark to be conceived as a site of production. T h e first operation entailed dism antling the existing structure o f orthogonal dikes and rectilinear drainage channels (Fig- 2). T hese had been laid 50 meters ap art an d com partm entalized the site into a series o f rectangular agricultural fields typical o f the D utch polder landscape.1 O ne dike was retained the park 1 b o u n d ary at the Schinkelpolder in order to protect the site from surface

drainage from the southw est.1 T h e elim ination o f the original grid of dikes and 2 channels was followed by sm oothing out the terrain. T h is was necessary because the polders th at constitute the site were form ed and de-peated1 at different tim es betw een 1858 an d 1925, m eaning that their elevations varied (Fig. 3)

Anita Berrizbeita

R egularizing t he topography allowed the restoration o f a con tiguous ground plane on the site, unin terru p ted by channels and earthen walls. T h e second operation dealt w ith the m anagem ent o f w ater on the site, w hich averages 4,5 meters below sea level. T h e establishm ent o f a forest rendered the w indm ill technique for elim inating excess w ater from the site ineffective. M ore im p o r tantly, program m ing the site as a forest required a concept for draining the soils th at w ould allow for the planting and growth of a new forest. T h u s, a massive drainage operation involving two separate systems was u n d e r taken. T h e first system com prised a netw ork o f pipes laid betw een 1,5 and 2 m eters below grade. T h is system co n tin u

ously lowers the w ater table and thus enables the roots o f the for est trees to develop, T h e second system com prised a series of canals evenly dispersed across the site. T hese canals gradually convey the w ater to the northeast corner o f the site, w here a sluice p um p releases it into a lake, the N ieuw e Meer. T h e n u m e r ous watercourses visible on the site are n othing o th er th an an efficient drainage system. T h e third operation involved the adoption o f a p lan tin g system for the co n struction of the forest. T h e designers used a w ell-established practice o f in d u s trial forestry th at is entirely dependent on a process o f vegetational succession. R andom ly distributed in a grid, two forest types w ere planted; a provisional pioneer forest of fast-grow ing alders, willows, poplars, and birch, and a p erm a n en t forest o f the slower-grow ing ash, m aple, oak, and beech (Fig. 4). In addi tion to helping further drain the site through evapotranspiration, the pioneer forest provided the necessary shelter tor the seedlings o f the p erm anent forest,

Fig. 2 (top). Plan of existing conditions. Source: Rapport van de Coirirmssie voor tie t Boscbplan {Amsterdam, 1931), Fig, 3 (bottom). Site sect ion. Source: Rapport van de Cotnmissie voor tie t Boschplan (Amsterdam, 1931).

The Amsterdam Bos

w hich require shade d u rin g their initial years. After fifteen years o fgrow th, the pioneer forest, wit:h the exception o f the alder, was cu t dow n, allow ing the established p erm anent forest to grow. T h e rem aining alder was pollarded to produce a horizontal b ranching habit an d provide shade on the forest floor to prevent u n d ersto ry grow th. Finally, the landscape elem ents were distributed across the site in a spatial stru ctu re that is nonhierarchical, open-ended, an d reiterative. Forest, open lawns, and w ater are distributed evenly across the site in a m osaic-like pattern th a t is m ore accu rately described as a fabric. O f the total 2,23.5 acres, 775 are devoted to w oodlands, 625 acres to open lawns, an d 835 roads an d w ater.'4 T h a t is, they exist in a m ore or less 1:1:1 rela tio nship w ith each other.1 T h is even 5 b ut interm ingled d istribution o fla n d scape conditions recalls the spatial dis trib u tio n in D e Stijl paintings, w hich typically give eq u al w eight to all ele m ents o f th e p ain tin g while filling the spacc of the canvas evenly all the way to its edges.,fl Similarly, at the Bos Park, the forest, law ns, and w atercourses spread across the site all the way to its perim eter. T h ere is no spatial differentiation betw een a center and an edge condition on the site, reflecting the continuity of the g round plane (Fig. 5). T h re e areas o f the site were treated differently th an the overall strategy described above. T h e so u th ern third o f the B uitendijksche Buitenvc.ldersche polder, w hich is adjacent to densely populated neighborhoods, was devoted to gam e courts. T h e n o rthern edge of the site, along the N ieuw e Meer, and the southeastern corner of the site, know n as the Poel, were existing w etlands that the com m ittee feit should not be forested. It w ould have been too costly to alter the soil and drain th e w ater in these areas; in addition, their ecological value, as

Fig. 4 (top). Planting diagram. Source: Alan Ruff, Holland and the Ecological Landscapes (Man chester: Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Manchester, 1979). Fig. 5 {bottom). Diagram showing the distribution of landscape elements. Drawn by Mitch Rasor.

Anita Berrizbeita

well as their beauty, was recognized as an aspect of the site to be preserved, espe cially given its im m ediate vicinity to the city. T h e com m ittee also suggested the preservation o f several of the existing farms on the site. Presently, one o f these rem ains near the m arshland to the north, by the N ieuw e Meer. Over the fabric of w oodland, water, and open lawns were superim posed the exceptions to the system: the row ing course, die sailing pond, and the bobsleigh hill, form ed with the fill obtained from digging for the w ater bodies on the site.
T h u s , although the construction o f the p ark was systematic, it is evident

that existing and new conditions w ere overlaid upon, or em bedded into, the overall system. T h is is less an indication o f a concern for the genius o f the
192

place, w hich derives from a visual and an experiential interpretation o f the site, and m ore of an interest in objectifying the landscape as living m atter and in intensifying the raw m ateriality o f the varying conditions o f die site: the soft, spongy forest floor, its cycles and scents; the irreversible wetness o f the marsh- b ut not of the fields; and the sense o f sky and w eather th at is fundam ental to D utch landscapes. Previous, traditional construction techniques in landscape architecture were subsum ed u nder the stylistic intentions o f the designer. T h e production o f a scene that had integrity as a visual com position was of utm ost im portance. From the sim plest technical innovations, such as the h a-h a,iJ to the m ost elaborate schem es of w ater control, the picturesque landscape was underlaid w ith m yriad works of engineering, silently and secretly contributing to the production o f an aesthetically naturalized view. Similarly, Frederick Law O lm sted resisted the introduction o f program and utility into his parks and, w hen it became inevitable, program was folded into the internal, autonom ous necessities o f his aesthetic, picturesque agenda. Program , he argued, dim inished the contem pla tive function o f the park and im poverished its spiritual value for the individual.!S Conceiving landscape as program , or ascribing functional value to p ark land, is the first radical break from a pictorial conceptualization of landscape. But in its inception in the G erm an volfysparfys of the first decades o f the tw entieth century, functionalism did not provide the freedom from established rules o f com position in landscape that, say, architectural functionalism allowed for buildings. In L ebereght M igges and M artin W agners / agendpark on the Pichelsw arder peninsula in Berlin, for instance, the plan is organized in a traditional m anner: around a central axis for m arching youth form ations, w ith a sym m etri cal distribution of program on either side, such as open lawns for m ilitary exer cises. W agners radical contribution, though, was to elim inate the traditional

The Amsterdam Bos

conceptual distance betw een w ork and leisure by incorporating both in equal terms: as productive, functional aspects o f the city. For him , the health benefits that parks provide for people had an econom ic value akin to capital generated by other productive functions o f the city.*0T his interpretation o f parkland in the city was later adopted by C lA M s 1928 D eclaration o f La Sarrax and again in its 1933 C h arter o f A thens.1 H ow ever, while reconceptuaSizing a landscape strictly 1 in term s o f its functional value displaced the prevalence o f scenic approaches to design, it had not yet provided new techniques of design and construction. T h ere w ere no new technologies in nature, so to speak, only new ways o fp u ttin g natu re to use. in its provision o f a dense program m atic plan (row ing, canoeing, w ater skiing, speedboating, equ estrian sports, cycling, trails, w inter sports, and court gam es such as hockey, football, and cricket), the Bos Park is clearly the offspring o f th e G erm an volktspari{, but it represents a break w ith that tradition in its expression o f th e landscape as functioning biological m atenal. T h e strategy at Bos Park concretizes the differences am ong die elem ents in term s of the specific contribution o f each to the overall ecological structure o f the landscape, and am ong their functions (w ater for drainage, for exam ple, is expressed differently th an w ater for sports). T h is constitutes, in effect, a division o f labor, understood in its w idest sense to include the division o f production, the differentiation of w ork processes an d s p e c ia liz a tio n .D ra in a g e , forest p roduction, and the open law ns are highly specialized operations, carrying out objectively prescribed tasks th at enable h u m an use of the site: drainage for reclam ation, forest lor w ind protection, an d open lawns for play. T h e differentiation o f landscape types is also carried through to the p ro gram . T h o se aspects o f th e program th at require specific dim ensions, such as gam e courts, are not blended into the form of the forest. O n the contrary, they are densely laid out, extending the organization o f the adjacent neighborhood into the park. T h e 2-kilom eter row ing course (originally 72 m eters wide, expanded to 92 m eters in 1964), on the n o rth o f the site, is sited p erpendi cu lar to the direction o f drainage flow, im m ediately d istin gu ishing itself functionally from the other w ater bodies on the site (Fig. 6). Likewise, p ark buildings, traditionally rustic in * ,, * ? I ...... ,.... '''

Fig. 6. Bos Baan study. Cornells Van Eesteren and jacopa Mulder, 1930. Source: Rapport van de Commissie voorhet Boschplan (Amsterdam, 1931).

Anita Berrizbeita

order to blend in w ith n a tu re, are here m ade o f concrete, steel, and glass. All elem ents are show n to be simply w hat is dem anded technically of them . T h e ir function resides prim arily in their m aterial properties rather th an in any aes thetic value or quality. Perhaps the m ost m eaningful break that the Bos Park m akes w ith the picto rial tradition is, then, the proposition th at design itself is the establishm ent o f a wording m ethod, a system o f operations inform ed by scientific analysis (hydrol ogy, forestry, social sciences) and aim ed toward concrete applications (reclam a tion, shelter, recreation). W hat is significant here is th at the w orking m ethod and the technical m eans themselves are unveiled and incorporated into the final appearance of the park, giving it its artistic logic and m eaning. C om position as a passive practice is rejected in favor o f construction as an active p rocess/5 T h e park is the result o f the conditions o f its ow n m aking.

Landscape as System of Production

In traditional mim esis, m eaning is generated by isolating som e aspect o f the world and expressing that reality in the art object by m anipulating the conven tions o f the m edium . But w hen the im pulse o f the w ork is not about representa tion o f outside reality b ut the articulation o f its system of production, the w ork induces w hat M ichel Foucault called a condition o f exteriority. By this he m eant that the perceiving subject does n ot focus on discerning a hidden content m anifested in the work but, instead, his or her attention is directed tow ard the external conditions o f its existence. T he m eaning o f the w ork, norm ally lodged in an aestheticized, m im etic representation o f a previously understood reality, is now relocated to the outside, in the nexus o f relationships that derive from the process and system o f production. I draw five im plications from this relocation o f m eaning from object-as-representation to object-as-system -of-production:

Loss o f Form. T h e distribution of forest, open law n, and water in an all-over p at tern that fills the space o f the site results in a loss o f form th at is, in a loss o f figuration o f the voids (open lawns) against the m ass (forest).2 Instead, there is a 6 superim position of four systems-w oodland, lawns, water, and elem ents that equally contribute to and reiterate the spatial experience. N o layer is subordi nate to the others; each is coopted to have equal presence in the landscape.

M ultiple Meanings. A nother form al im plication is the absence of spatial n arra tives (as at R ousham , for instance) and o f processional spaces th at m ay culm i

The Amsterdam Bos

nate in a m o n u m en tal clim ax (such as the sequence from the Mali to the Ram bie in C entral Park). Instead, the visitor moves from area to area w ith the im pression of' never having q u ite arrived. T h e p ark is understood th ro u g h the accum ulation o f reiterative experiences in tim e and space. T h is spatial strategy im pedes the possibility of aesthetic contem plation from a distance an d of a private, personal engagem ent w ith the park.

Anti-Aesthetic, As a corollary to this, the p ark does not fall into any o f the aes thetic categories o f landscape we know; it is neither beautiful nor pictur esque n o r sublim e {Figs. 7, 8, 9). It resiscs all attem pts at aesthetic categorization-a radical conceptual shift in itself, given the pervasive b u r den o f having to be b eau tiful th at has historically been placed on lan d scape. Instead, the park asks to be understood as a transcription into form of a program that has been determ ined according to a set o f scientific and social criteria.

Reciprocity o f Par/? and City. T h e park is stripped o f m etaphorical content and spiritual intention. It is dem ystified. T h e em phasis on m ateriality and the unveiling o f the technical m eans of construction elim inate the transcen dental in the park and invalidate the conceptual separateness of the park from the city. R ather th an being presented as isolated and protected from technology and capitalism and, in tu rn , offering the individual shelter from these forces, the p ark is understood as one o f m any productive entities w ithin the m etropolis. Like the subway system or the stock exchange, the park is a piece o f a system that contributes to and strives for m axim um p r o ductive efficiency. In its m ultiplicity o f functions, organized rationally according to function an d production, the p ark is akin to an overlay o f activ ities o f the city. It no longer stands against the w orld but is one w orldly thing am ong oth ers.2 7

Index. Because m ean in g does not depend on the park as a symbol for a refer en t b u t on the congruence of the system o f construction and existing stan dards of production in society at large, the park is not a fully resolved object.

Fig. 7 (top). View of park forest interior. Photograph by Kate Orff. Fig. 8 (middle). Vsew of park meadow. Photograph by Kate Orff.

Fig. 9 (bottom). View of park canal, Photograph by Kate Orff.

Anita Berrizbeita

Instead, it operates as an index. As Rosalind Krauss notes, indexes w ork differ ently from symbols in th at they relate to their referent along an axis o f physical relationships. T hey are the m arks or traces o f a particular cause, and that cause is the th in g to which they refer, the object they signify Into the category o f index, we w ould place physical traces (like footprints), m edical sym ptom s "u As an index, the park becom es a trace o f a specific procedure rather than a com pleted, static, totalized object. T h u s, the presence o f the forest points to the co n tin u ously lowered w ater table, the trees them selves to ongoing succession, and the hill, an atypical land form in this landscape, to the massive digging operations that were necessary to construct the w atercourses and the lake. T hese are regis tration m arks, records on the site o f those procedures and m odes o f production used for the p ark s construction.-As a result, the engagem ent ofth e subject w ith the park is not predicated on the aesthetic com prehension o f its forms but on thinking through the processes th at are at w ork behind those forms.

Object/Subject^
A reconceptualization of the landscape object is, by necessity, accom panied by a reconceptualization o f the subject w ith w hich it is engaged. M ore specifically, the renunciation of formal com position in favor o f an em phasis on the system of production induces a change in the relations betw een the designer and the w ork and between the perceiving subject and the park. At the core of a m aterialist critique o f social relations u n d er capitalism , the theory o f com m odity reification provides a fram ew ork for u n d erstan d in g the transform ations in the conceptualization o f objects du rin g m odernism . Reifica tion is a process th rough w hich h u m an activities becom e dim inished as a resuit o f their analysis and fragm entation into rational com ponents, conceived solely as a dialectic o f m eans and ends. A ccording to Fredric Jam eson, w hat is im por tant about reification is th at its instrum entality foregrounds the organization o f the m eans themselves over any particular aesthetic en d .1 Seen through this 1 fram ew ork, the elem ents o fth e Bos Park landscape are not invested with q u a li tative values in them selves but only insofar as they can be used.5' In other w ords, the differentiation and specialization o f procedures at the Bos Park transform ed each landscape elem ent into a means to a particular end, and they are therefore stripped o f subjective value. T h e park is thus transform ed into a system o f production th at is inherently reproducible in any given context. Moreover, because the system of production prevails as the basis for design and for achieving signification, the designers role is transform ed into one in

The Amsterdam Bos

w hich they set in m otion the processes that will com plete the construction of the park. In the case o f th e Bos Park, Van Eestercn and M ulder relinquished control o f the final form to processes of succession and hydrology. As a result, the park bears few, if any, traces o f the subjectivities of the designer, resisting the appear ance of having been m anipulated or m ediated by a particular artistic personality.i( T h e fu n d am en tal shifts in the conceptualization o f the p ark explained ear lier and, no less im portant, in the role o f the designers, are supported by changes in the co n ceptualization o f the perceiving subject. W ho is, then, the subject that the m odern park seeks to address P A dem ocratic social agenda m otivated the Bos P ark project from its incep tion an d appeared frequently in the Bos P ark C o m m ittees report, w hich states th at the park is intended for the p roletariat in its new em ancipated status.'"* M ost notably, the rem oval o f the dikes is explained iti ideological term s: leveling the site releases it from th e tyranny o f the rectilinear dike structure, w hich makes people w alk in straight, confined lines. A site o f continuous ground, not discon nected by th e dikes earth en walls, allows the individual to roam freely th ro u g h out an d across the site. M ovem ent is here endow ed w ith signification because it represents social m obility and the em ancipation o f classes from old social and religious bonds as a result o fth e rise o f capital. T h e pairing of this kind of loose b u t system atic spatial stru ctu re w ith a shift away from m im etic representation suggests th at m ean in g in th e p ark is no longer contingent on the passive co n tem plation ofscenery h u to n the construction of open social practices. T h e p am p h let published on the occasion of the opening o f the park reiter ates these shifts.1 O n its cover is depicted an array o f activities offered at the park 5 and no sense o f its physical appearance at ail. At the bottom of the cover, an assembly line of m en, trees and shovels in han d , reiterate the forest as construc tion. N o t show n is the introspective, m editating subject of the traditional park. Inside the pam p h let, sketches show individuals engaged in various form s of social exchange an d physical activity. T h e park is presented as a place w here the individual can share in collective public life. T h ere is not, however, a com plete rejection o f contem plation in the park. T h e pam p h let features several sketches, draw n by M ulder h erself o f w hat seem to be views of the w etlands from the forest edge, suggesting the possibility of contem plation an d solitude in the park. Van Eesteren and M ulder describe the p redicam ent o f the m odern subject, one w ho is form ed as m uch by an instinct for cultivating individuality as by the requisites of the n e w collective nature of m o d em life .^ T h e Bos Park proposes the em ancipation of private individuals by

Anita Berrizbeita

giving them a pubiic role. It introduces the possibility o f new form s of shared civic life in the park, w here the private individual exists in a dialectical relation ship w ith the social. H ere, one may reconcile his or her existence as individual subject w ith the larger collective, shifting from one to the other, existing w ithin and yet retaining the possibility o f m aking purposeful interventions in society at large. It is in accom plishing this shift in the status o f the landscape vis-a-vis the subject that the Bos Park can be understood as a negation o f the picturesque park tradition and o f its associated ideas o f representation, o f authorial m e d ia ' tion, and o f the p ark as auratic, transcendental space.7

Landscape as Process
Landscape as process is one of the paradigm s o f postm odern practice in lan d scape architecture, supported by theories o f phenom enology and herm eneutics, am ong others. T hese theories, as w ell as the landscapes they inspire, value once again the individual over the collective. In landscape, these values are expressed through a system of open-ended design th at is also largely based on setting up a biological process, such as erosion by w ind or water, or p lan t succession, and let ting the process, through tim e, show its effect on the site, constructing its land scape. Desvigne and Dalnoky in France and H argreaves Associates in the U nited States are two o f several practices th at take on this agenda in their work. H ow is the idea of landscape as process different in contem porary practice than it was more th an sixty years ago, at the tim e o f the construction of the Bos Park, w hen practitioners such as Van E esteren and M ulder also took a stand against pictorialism? T h e difference can be found at the level o f representation.5 T im e and 6 process, and their corollary o f open-endedness, are taken on as the subject m at ter of these practices. Yet, specifically in the w ork o f H argreaves Associates, process is aligned w ith an aesthetic and expressive agenda that does not entirely originate in the biological and the program m atic b u t in the form al. Hargreaves sculpts and m anipulates form u n til it achieves congruence w ith a predeter m ined m eaning, such as invoking aeolian forces on the lan d ." In its inception, the w ork is concerned w ith form for the sake o f form , at least to the extent th at this represents ecological processes. T h is representational agenda reintroduces subjective values and narratives into the w ork and recovers the subjective, in d i vidual vision o f landscape. In term s of relations betw een subject and object, then, this w ork is closer to the nineceenth-century ideal o f the u rban park than the project for the Bos Park.

The Amsterdam Bos

At the Bos Park, the idea o f process derives its m eaning specifically as it relates to production. T h u s, w hereas tim e and process are often invoked as aes thetic dim ensions o f landscape in contem porary practice, they w ere m ore tech nical and m aterial dim ensions o f landscape at the Bos Park. Process at Bos was understood as technique, as a way o f u n d erstan d in g and articulating a project in term s of its m aterial d eterm inants. T h is em phasis on those physical aspects o f co n structing urban landscape th at had rem ained secondary in the realm of eighteenth- an d n in eteen th -cen tu ry landscape aesthetics becam e, for the m o d ern ist v anguard, a strategy to expand the polem ic beyond representation and to focus on questions o f the collective reception of the w ork, to address a newly constituted mass c u ltu re /9 In other words, a logistical concern for process as a way o f objectifying the m aterial in landscape, stripping it o f narrative and m im esis, can be construed as a m echanism for p ursuing the collective and en h an cin g shared social relations. U nlike the aesth etid zatio n o f process during p ostm odernism , invoked to engage subjectivity, the Bos P ark redirects attention beyond the individual subject and toward those processes that undergird m o d ern life, th at generate the social conditions o f its m aking. T h e w ork o f con tem porary D u tch designers O M A /R em K oolhaas and West 8/A driaan G eu ze continues to engage process and m ateriality in landscape in the sam e conceptual way th at Van E esteren and M ulder did for the Bos Park. T h e ir proposals are strategies specific to site and program rather th an designs th a t are th e p ro d u ct o f form al, aestheticixed visions.4 Rut, unlike bland func 1 tionalism , w here the logistics of a project com e across as habitual, unexam ined aspects o f a site, K oolhaas an d G euze redirect the rational dem ands o f a project tow ard a creative end. Logistical issues such as zoning and program become driving forces for innovation and transform ation in design. In their work, land scape em erges as a m atrix or fram ew ork for developm ent, as living m aterial in the functional sense, as site o f production, as structural tissue th at supports often contradictory program s, and as a territory th at is indistinguishable from the city. Signification in these w orks is found in their m odes o f production, espe cially those th at deal creatively w ith the identities, lives, and necessities o f indi viduals participating in collective hie.*'

Notes
1 F rederick L aw O lm ste d , P u b lic P arks a n d th e E n la rg e m e n t o f T o w n s (1871), rep rin ted in D o n a ld W o rk e r's Am erican E nvironm entalism ( N e w a r k : John W iley & Sons, 1973), 111-132.

Anita Berrizbeita

For a description of the private n a tu re of th e early pu b lic park, see R ich ard S en n ett, T he Fall o f Public M an (N ew 'fo rk : A lfred A. K nopf, 1987), especially ch a p ter 4, P u b He Roles," 64-88.

See U m b erto B arbaro, M aterialism an d A rt, in M arxism and A n : Writings in Aesthet ics and Criticism, eds, Bexel L an g an d F orrest W illiam s (N ew York: D avid M cKay, 1972), 161 176. See also L a n g an d W illia m s in tro d u ctio n to th e book.

In fo rm u latin g this view and others in this essay, I am p articu larly in d e b ted to K, M ichael M ays's M odernism and the Posthumanist Subject (C am b rid g e, M ass.: M IT Press, 1992).

Rapport van de Com mtssie voor het Boschplan Am sterdam (A m sterd am , 1931). T h e co m m ittee was established in Jan u ary 1929 an d p ro d u ced its rep o rt m o re th a n two years later, in M ay 1931. T h e list o f consul tan ts co n trib u tin g to th e rep o rt is extensive, and in clu d ed subcom m ittees on hygiene, sports an d relax atio n , soil, an d flora an d fauna, am o n g oth e rs, an d experts o n b ath in g and sw im m in g installatio n s. T h e re is also extensive discussion in this rep o rt a b o u t th e significance o f th e parks. T h is d o c u

200 7

m e n t is available from th e D e p a rtm e n t o f P u b lic W orks in A m sterd a m . C la u d ia S w an, P h .D ., tran slated this d o c u m e n t for th e au th o r. A lthough all forests in H o lla n d are m a n -m ad e, th e D u tc h have a tra d itio n o f forest m a k in g th a t is at least five centuries long. By n ative forests I m ean those th a t are c o m posed o f species th a t existed in the N e th e rla n d s before th e w aters o f th e A tlan tic rose. See IR .T .W L S ch ch cm a, " H o lla n d s M an -M a d e F orests, in Am erican Forests 50 (N o v em b er 1944): 540-541. 8 T h e A m sterdam B o sch p la n , in Journal o f the R oyal In stitu te o f British Architects 45, scries III (M ay 1938):681-689. See also A n to n io C erd e n a, A ttre zzatu re verdi di A m sterd a m , Casabella 277 (July 1963): 34-4 9 . A n ex c elle n td escrip tio n o f the p o liti cal and legal events th a t led to the approval o f the pro ject is Sergio P o lan o , T h e Bos Park, A m sterdam , and U rb an D ev elo p m en t in H o lla n d , in T h e Architecture o f West ern Cardens, eds. G eorgesTeyssot a n d M o n iq u e M osser (C am b rid g e, M ass.: M IT Press, 1992): 507-509. F or this paper, I derived m ost o f m y in fo rm atio n directly from th e Rapport van de Com mtssie m a r k e t Boschplan Am sterdam , w h erein a g reat d eal o f site analysis and technical in fo rm atio n appears. 9 O n negation: it is co m m o n ly held th a t th e em erg en ce o f n ew ways of co n c ep tu alizin g objects (their role in society as w ell as th e ir ap p earan ce) is p ro m p ted by a reactio n against th e n o rm . W h e n a society can n o lo n g er justify th e in evitability of its artistic practices, new an d m ore ad e q u a te ones arise fro m a critiq u e o f th e in stitu tio n s th a t had th u s far provided th e social base for those practices. In m o d e rn ism , this critiq u e is called \hc practice o f negation. W h a t th e m o d e rn ist v an g u a rd rep u d iated w ere tw o fu n d am en tal assum ptions ab o u t the in stitu tio n o f art th a t h a d beco m e en tre n c h e d in n in e te e n th -c e n tu ry bourgeois society. First w as th e a ssu m p tio n th a t th ere is a n in d i vidual a u th o r w ho is the o rig in ato r o f m e an in g , w h o engages in the activity o f design in te n d in g to inscribe in its form s his or h er ow n subjectivities. S econd was th e b elief th a t th e p erceiving subject enters the realm o f th e w o rk seeking a space ap a rt from life in w h ich the m in d is free to develop its ow n subjectivities, free to m ake tts ow n c o n nections. See T.J. C lark, M ore on the D ifferences B etw een C o m ra d e G reen b erg and O urselves, in M odernism a n d M odernity, eds. B en jam in H .D . B ochloh, S erge G ilb a u t, an d D avid S olkin (H alifax; U niversity o fN o v a Scotia P ress, 1983). In d u s tr i alized m ass p ro d u ctio n , already a fact of life by th e end o f th e n in e te e n th century, lay at th e core o f th e m o d e rn ist critique o f bourg eo is art. T h e m a ss-p ro d u ced object, devoid o f traces o f au th o rsh ip , o f claim to u n iq u e n ess, an d , therefore, o f au ra, naked o f any rep resen tatio n al cloak th a t m ig h t h id e its genesis in repetitive, stan d a rd ized , m ech an ized p ro d u ctio n p resents itse lf to th e v an g u ard artist as th e locus for th e c ri tiq u e o f the auratic w o rk o f art. To engage in an aesth etic p ractice th a t used te ch

The Amsterdam Bos

n iq u e s an d objects o f m ass p ro d u ctio n w as, therefore, to engage in a practice o f n e g a tio n . N o te: I use the term modernism to refer to those changes in the co n c ep tu aliza tio n of objects th a t o ccu rred at the b e g in n in g of the tw en tieth ce n tu ry as a resu lt o f a skepticism th a t developed ab o u t the n a tu re o f rep resen tatio n in art. I adapt: th is d efi n itio n from T ) . C lark, The Painting o f M o d em L ife (P rinceton, N .J.: P rin ce to n U n i versity Press, 1984), 10. 10 1] G e rrie A ndela, T h e P u b lic P ark in th e N e th e rla n d s , jo u r n a l o f Garden H istory 1, no. 4 (O c to b e r-D e c e m b e r 1981): 391. L ik e the m ajority o f la n d in th e N e th e rla n d s, th e site of th e Bos P ark lies several m eters below sea level. H istorically, the D u tc h have d ea lt w ith this co n d itio n by b u ild in g polders, extensive tracts of lo w la n d th a t are reclaim ed from th e sea and rem ain protected from it by dikes. W in d m ills convey th e w ater th a t collects in the ch a n n els w ith in th e enclosed lands u p h ill to sea level in o rd er to d ra in the polder fields. 12 S3 G ro u n d w a te r w as estim ated to be 60 -70 centim eters h ig h e r southw est o f th e S eh in k e ip o ld e r d u e to heavy rain s an d w inds co m in g from the southw est. To d ep e at is to rem ove th e d iick layer o f peat from the surface o f the terrain . At the B os P ark site, this layer w as ab o u t 50 ce n tim eters deep before the conversion o f the site to polders. B ecause p eat is highly acidic an d retains w ater, rem oving it w as neces sary to im prove d rain ag e o f th e soil a n d red u ce its acidity in o rd er to cultiv ate it for ag ricu ltu re. A iso c o n trib u tin g to th e irregularity o f th e terrain w ere p eat ridges caused by p u sh in g aro u n d th e p eat layer an d leaving it piled at the edges o f fields. 14 15 16 H el Am sterdam se Bos: The A m sterdam Forest Pari{ (P ublic P arks Service G u id e ), 48. See A lan Ruff, H olland and the Ecological Landscapes (M anchester, E n g lan d : D ep artm e n to fT o w n and C o u n try P la n n in g , U niversity o f M anchester, 1979), 10. C o rn eiis Van E e steren jo in ed D e StijJ in the 1923 an d collaborated w ith Van D oesb u rg o n m a n y projects. A lthough clearly this is not a p la n th a t recalls th e form o f D c Stiji p a in tin g s o r arch itec tu re, th e strategy o f d istrib u tin g elem ents in a n o n h ie ra rc h ical w ay th ro u g h o u t space is o n e th a t Van E e steren m u st have derived from his w o rk w ith D e Stijl. 17 A h a -h a is a physical bo u ndary, su ch as a ditch or a retain in g w all, betw een tw o p ro p erties designed in such a w ay th a t it is concealed from w ith in , m ak in g the landscape seem physically c o n tin u o u s. 18 A lex ander von H o ffm a n , O f G reate r L a stin g C o n s e q u e n c e : F rederick Law O lm sted a n d th e F ate o fF ra n k lin Park, Bosto n jo u r n a l o f the Society o f A rchitectural H is torians 47, no. 4: 339-350. 19 20 21 22 M arco D e M ichelis, T h e Red an d th e G reen : P ark an d C ity in W eim ar G erm an y , L o tu s International 30 (1981): 111. L udovica S carpa, Q u a n tify in g P ark la n d : T h e S tan d a rd s o f H a p p in e ss in SocialD em o c ra tic B erlin ," L o tu s International 30 (1981): 119-122, Van E esteren w as p resid e n t o f C1AM from 1930 to 1947. G eo rg S im m el, T h e division of lab o u r as the cause of th e divergence of subjective an d objective c u ltu re , in T he Philosophy o f M oney (1900), t.rans. T om B otto m o re and D avid Frisby (L o n d o n : R outledge an d K egan P aul, 1978), 453-463. 23 I borrow this fo rm ulation from B en jam in B u c h lo h s d escrip tio n o f th e Soviet av an tg a rd e s concern for jd k tu r a , the m e ch an ic al quality, the m ateriality, and the an o n y m ity o f the p ain terly p ro c e d u re , in F rom F aktura to F actography, October: T he First Decade, 1976-1986, eds. A n n ette M ichelson, el al. (C am b rid g e, M ass.: M IT Press, 1987), 81. 24 25 M ich el F o u cau lt, T h e D iscourse on L a n g u a g e (1971); rep rin ted in T h e Archaeol ogy o f K now ledge (N ew York: P an th e o n , 1972), 229. H ay s, M odernism , 154-160.

Anita Berrizbeita

26 27 28

Yves A lain Bois, Piet M ondrian, 18721944 (B oston: L ittle, B row n, 1994). I borrow ed this term from B oiss d escription o fM o n d ria n s w ork. H ays, Modern ism, 172. R osalind K rauss, N o tes on th e Index: Seventies A rt in A m erica," in October: The First Decade, 1976-1986, cds. A n n ette M ichelson et al. (C am b rid g e, M ass.: M IT P ress, 1987), 4.

29 30

Ibid. Subject refers to in dividual as w ell as collective consciousness. T h e term is in h e ren tly equivocal because the tw o seem ingly co n trad icto ry m e an in g s d ep e n d o n each other. T h e in d iv id u al self is always u n d ersto o d w ith in th e co n tex t o f a larger ideological or in stitu tio n al fram ew ork. Conversely, a gen e ra liz ed c o n ccp t o f th e subject w ould s u p press di(Terences th a t distin g u ish a n in div id u al from oth ers, differences th a t co n sti tu te a vital aspect o f social practices. Object refers to th e artifacts o f cu ltu re, th e ir form al o rg an izatio n , as w ell as the forces th a t p ro d u ce th e m . B ecause those forces are m a n ip u la ted by the subject, b o th concep ts are m u tu ally d e p e n d e n t an d exist in a

202

dialectical relatio n sh ip w ith each other. See T h e o d o r W A dorno, S ubject an d O bject, in The Essential Frankfurt School Reader, cds. A n d rew A rato a n d E ike G eb h a rt (N ew York: C o n tin u u m , 1982), 497- 569. 31 32 33 Fredric Jam eson, R eification an d U topia in M ass C u itu r e /'m Social Text I (1979): 130-148. Ibid. T h e distance th a t develops betw een the object an d its p ro d u cer as a resu lt o f th e d iv i sion ot labor is explained by G eo rg Sim m cl: W h e n ev er o u r energies do n o t pro d u ce som ething w hole as a reflection of the total personality, th e n th e p ro p er r elatio n sh ip betw een subject and object is m issin g __ T h e interna! n a tu re o f o u r ac h iev em en t is b o u n d u p w ith parts o f ac hievem ents acco m p lish ed by o thers w h ich are a necessary p a rt of a totality, b u t it docs not refer back to its p ro d u c e r.. ..Its m e a n in g is n o t derived from the m in d of th e pro d u cer b u t from its relatio n sh ip s w ith p ro d u cts o f a d ifferent o rig in .. ..T h e significance o f the p ro d u ct is th u s to be so u g h t n e ith e r in th e reflection o f a subjectivity n o r in th e reflex of a creative spirit, b u t it is to be fo u n d on ly in the objective achievem ent th a t leads aw ay from th e s u b je c t.. ..T h e b ro ad en in g o f c o n s u m p tio n . . .is d e p e n d e n t u p o n th e g ro w th o f objective cu ltu re, since th e m o re objec tive and im p erso n al an object the better it is su ited to m o re p eo p le __ S uch co n su m ab le m aterial, in o rd er to be acceptable an d en joyable to a very large n u m b e r o f individuals, ca n n o t be designed for subjective d ifferen tiatio n o f taste, w h ile o n the oth er h a n d only th e m o st extrem e d ifferen tiatio n o f p ro d u ctio n is able to p ro d u ce the objects cheaply and ab u n d a n tly en o u g h in o rd er to satisfy th e d em a n d fo r th em . T h e p attern o f co n su m p tio n is th u s a bridge b etw een th e objectivity o f c u ltu re an d the division o f labour. E xcerpted from 'T h e D iv isio n o f L a b o u r as th e C au se o fD iv e rgence B etw een O bjective an d S ubjective C u ltu re in T he Philosophy o f Money, 454-455. 34 T h e re are m any references reg ard in g th e a p p ro p riate uses o fth e p ark vis-a-vis society, especially in p art tw o o f the report, titled G en eral Significance o fth e B osch p la n . In a d d itio n to th e need for extensive k inds o f pro g ram , th e co m m ittee clearly stated th at for the new parks visual c o n su m p tio n is n o t e n o u g h ." Rapport van Comtnissie voor het Bosch plan A m sterdam , 9. 35 36 Bosch-Plan. T entoom telling (A m sterdam : P u b lic W orks D e p a rtm e n t, 1937). In T h e M etropolis an d M ental L ife, G eo rg S irnm ej g u id es us th ro u g h th e h isto ri cal d ev e lo p m en t o f this c o n d itio n . T h e e ig h teen th -cen tu ry b elief in liberty an d equality w as corollary to th a t in a n in d iv id u a ls freedom o f m o v em en t in social an d intellectual relationships. A n o th er ideal arose in th e n in e te e n th ce n tu ry th ro u g h th e econom ic division o f labor, in w hich ind iv id u als liberated from h istorical b o nds now w ished to distin g u ish them selves from one a n o th e r. T h e d ivision o t labor, ce n tral to

The Amsterdam Bos

all capitalist p ro d u ctio n , causes, o n die one h a n d , the disso lu tio n o f th e in d iv id u al as free an d au to n o m o u s an d , o n th e other, the em ergence of a k in d o f in d iv id u alism th a t arises out o f a need to assert o n e s u n iq u e n ess am id the vast m a ch in e o f th e m e tro p o lis. S im m el even proposes th a t the m etropolis o u g h t to provide th e aren a w h ere the stru ggle betw een individualism and collectivity m ay be played out. See G eo rg Sim m cl, T h e M etropolis an d M en ta l L ife (1904); rep rin ted in T h e Sociology o f Georg S im m el, trans. an d ed. K urt W olfF(N ew York: Free P ress, 1964), 423. 37 Aura is d efin ed by W alter B en jam in as a distance th a t exists betw een th e w o rk o f art an d the perceiving subject as a result o f the au th en ticity value placed on th e object because o f its u n iq u e n e s s in the w orld. A ura is d rain ed from th e object th ro u g h its m e ch an ic al rep ro d u ctio n an d th ro u g h th e processes of ad vertising it, d isp lay in g it, an d fixing a price for its c o n su m p tio n . Sec W alter B en jam in , T h e W ork o f A rt in the A ge o f M echanical R eproduction" (1935); re p rin t in Illu m in a tio n s, ed. H a n n a h A rendt (N ew York: Schocken, 1969), 217-251. A ura in term s o f the lan d scap e can also be th o u g h t o f as a distance betw een th e perceiving subject and th e landscape. A lth o u g h it is possible to argue th a t no tw o landscapes can be id entical (anil th a t therefore all landscapes are au ratic), u n iq u e n e s s m ay not be a sufficient co n d itio n for th e defin itio n o f an au ratic landscape. R ather, it needs be fu rth e r q u alifie d in m ore specific term s, as a fu n ctio n o f th e la n d sc ap es contrast w ith its context, w h e th e r physical (i.e., C en tra! p ark versus th e city aro u n d it), o r ecological (an en d an g ered ecosystem ), or cu ltu ra l (the H u d so n River Valley o f th e iu m in ist painters, w h ich does n o t exist any m ore), w h ich ren d ers th a t lan d scap e in som e way u n iq u e an d tra n sc e n d en tal, im b u ed w ith m ysticism . M y p o in t is th a t w h en processes o f m ass p ro d u ctio n arc applied to the m a k in g o f landscape and m ade visible in th e ir form , they also rem ove th e possibility of aura from th o se landscapes an d , therefore, restru ctu re rela tions betw een the perceiving subject an d the landscape. 38 R ep resentation is generally taken to m ean the c o n stru c tio n o f a resem blance of a p re viously existing reality in a w ork o f art. I assum e th ere is representation in all form s o f aesthetic p ro d u ctio n , in c lu d in g in m o d e rn ism , an d th u s I bracket th e term as m im etic representation. By this I m ean o n e th a t specifically seeks to reproduce a n o th e r la n d scape, such as an existing n atu ralistic scene. 39 40 See Process: A rchitecture 128: Hargreaves: Landscape Works (January, 1996). In this sense, the Bos P ark differentiates itself from projects o f the m ore recent eco lo g ical m o v em en t, the advocates o f w hich focus th e ir energies o n th e am elio ratio n o f an external e n v iro n m e n t ra th e r th a n on rep resen tatio n al an d social concern s. Sec Jam es C o rn er, E cology an d L a n d sc ap e as A gents of C reativity, Ecological Design and Planning, eds. G eorge T h o m p so n an d F rederick S tein er (N ew York: Jo h n W iley & 41 42 Sons, 1997), 80-108. F or in sta n ce, the p la n tin g strategy o f K oolhaass proposal for the Parc de la V illetie recalls th e forest m a n a g e m e n t a ttitu d e em ployed a t Bos Park. See B art L o o tsm as essay S ynthetic R eg io n alizatio n in this collection.
203