Land/escape II: Georges Descombes, Klára Salzmann
Land/escape II: Georges Descombes, Klára Salzmann
**No Ideas but in Things / Rivers do not flow around us, but through us.** Swiss architect Georges Descombes will present his approach to landscape regeneration and public space in a lecture titled No Ideas but in Things. The title references the poet William Carlos Williams and reflects a focus on process and tangible outcomes. Using the Aire River restoration project in Geneva as a case study, Descombes will discuss his Double Component approach. This project combines the former canal with the new riverbed, creating a public space that serves as an open-air laboratory and a stage for public debate. The aim is to move beyond discussions limited to specialists and engage a wider audience in observing and questioning the ongoing experiment. A central element of Descombes’ work is the concept of Process-Based Design, which views design as an evolving process informed by continuous observation and interaction with the site and its context. Czech landscape architect Klára Salzmann will present her approach to the systematic regeneration of water in the landscape as a fundamental prerequisite for our lives, biodiversity and public space in a lecture entitled “Fascination with river landscapes”. The lecture follows on from the legacy of Prof. Štěrba, who revealed and named the significance and complex of river landscapes in the Czech lands. In her lecture, she will point out the phenomenon of water, which is perceived more as a resource of our life and activities. At the same time, water is a coexistence part and co-actor in the formation of our Planet and defines precisely routes of its movement. Our efforts to change these axioms without listening to the concert of sounds, shapes and relationships proved not to be very successful in the past. So what are our options for survival in our landscape without threatening the very essence of our existence and spirit? The subject of Klára Salzmann’s work is to seek and find models that will enable our mutual coexistence with the living world around us.
