Landscapes of Housing: Design and Planning in the History of Environmental Thought

321 Pages·2021·37.524 MB·English

by  Jeanne Haffner

LANDSCAPES OF HOUSING
In the twenty-first century, housing has become a site of ecological experimentation
and environmental remediation. From the vantage point of contemporary
architecture, conservation concerns and emergent building science technologies
support one another, with new processes and materials deployed to reduce energy
usage, water consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Landscapes of Housing
examines this trend in historical perspective, arguing for a more considered
environmental vision that includes the organic, social, and cultural dimensions
of landscape. By shifting the focus from architecture, the book highlights and
critiques the relationship between dwelling and landscape itself. Contributors from
a wide range of international perspectives propose a more integrative ecology that
includes history, culture, society, and materiality, in addition to technology, within
contemporary ecological housing programs. This book will be a resource for upper-
level students, academics, and researchers in landscape architecture interested in the
social and political implications of ecological housing.
Jeanne Haffner is Director and Chief Curator of the Jones Beach Energy & Nature
Center. She is the author of The View from Above: The Science of Social Space (2013)
and has written for Arch+, BBC Radio 3, The Guardian, Urban Omnibus, Landscape
Architecture Magazine, The Hudson River Valley Review, and other publications. She
was the inaugural postdoctoral fellow in urban landscape studies at Dumbarton
Oaks Research Library and Collection (Harvard) and has held visiting positions at
the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and the Center
for Metropolitan Studies at the Technical University in Berlin. She has taught at
Harvard and Brown Universities and holds a Certificate in Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) from the Harvard University Center for Geographic Analysis.

LANDSCAPES OF
HOUSING
Design and Planning in the History
of Environmental Thought
Edited by Jeanne Haffner
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Jeanne Haffner; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Jeanne Haffner to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Haffner, Jeanne, 1973– editor.
Title: Landscapes of housing : design and planning in the history of
environmental thought / edited by Jeanne Haffner.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021019545 (print) | LCCN 2021019546 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138504394 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138504400 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781315145983 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Housing—History. | Housing—Environmental aspects—
History. | Housing policy—Social aspects—History.
Classification: LCC HD7287. L297 2022 (print) | LCC HD7287 (ebook) |
DDC 363.5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021019545
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021019546
ISBN: 978-1-138-50439-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-50440-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-14598-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781315145983
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my mother.

CONTENTS
List of figures ix
List of contributors xiv
Acknowledgements xix
Introduction: housing and/as landscape 1
Jeanne Haffner
PART I
Shaping society 11
1 “This Scene Is Itself Living”: human geography and the
ecologies of dwelling, 1870–1970 13
Peter Ekman
2 The Chicago alternative: vernacular forms for the garden city 39
Daniel Bluestone
3 From ecology to pathology: the landscapes of midcentury
public housing and the shifting grounds of environment
and health 59
Sara Jensen Carr
4 From garden settlement to cooperative economy: housing,
labor, and socialization theory in Vienna and Berlin, 1920–1925 77
Sophie Hochhäusl
viii Contents
5 Environmental speculations: landscape suburbanism
between housing and planning, 1920s–1940s 100
Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago
PART II
Shaping individuals 123
6 “Not Just Barberry”: a political ecology of the Swedish
“Concrete Suburbs,” 1960–1981 125
Jennifer Mack
7 Expanding Danish welfare landscapes: Steen Eiler
Rasmussen and Tingbjerg housing estate 146
Ellen Braae and Henriette Steiner
8 Letting the dust settle: the landscapes of open space
in the model housing developments QT8, Milan, and
Hansaviertel, West-Berlin 168
Sonja Dümpelmann
9 French housing and the environment, 1945–1975: from
public health to private space 195
Nicole C. Rudolph
PART III
Shaping the environment 213
10 Reciprocal interaction: architecture and landscape in the
early work of Ian McHarg 215
Kathleen John-Alder
11 Roberto Burle Marx and the modern gardens of Brazilian
social housing 239
Catherine Seavitt Nordenson
12 Supermeasurement for Superarchitecture: rethinking
landscape, building technology, and dwelling for the
twenty-first century 269
Terri Peters
Index 292
FIGURES
1.1 An abandoned single log pen in Rabun County, in the Georgia
Blue Ridge 22
1.2 Vernacular housing in the cities of Hupei and Anhwei, China 22
1.3 Composite sketches from Fred Kniffen’s work on folk housing
with Henry Glassie 23
1.4 La Cienega, Chapel of San Antonio, 1982 25
1.5 Jackson sketch of two motorcyclists 29
2.1 Illustration from Robert Hunter, Tenement House Conditions
in Chicago 40
2.2 Wilhelm Bernhard, Entry to City Club of Chicago Competition
for a 160-acre Subdivision, Chicago, 1913 46
2.3 Edbrooke & Burnham, The Mecca, Chicago, 1891–1892 48
2.4 Chicago courtyard apartment buildings built in the 1910s and 1920s 49
2.5 Paul Gerhardt, The Chateau, Chicago, 1905–1906 52
2.6 John R. Fugard, Plymouth Court Apartments, Chicago, 1912–1913 53
2.7 David E. Postle, Pattington Apartments, Chicago, 1902 53
2.8 Frank Lloyd Wright, Non-Competitive Plan for City Club of
Chicago Competition for a 160-acre Subdivision, Chicago, 1913 55
3.1 Model of the Radiant City (La Ville Radieuse), 1930–1935 64
3.2 Courtyard Mall of Lockefield Gardens, Indianapolis, Indiana 66
3.3 Williamsburg Houses in Brooklyn, New York by Richmond H.
Shreve and Associates 67
3.4 Children playing together in Willert Park, Buffalo, New York 69
4.1 Martin Wagner and Bruno Taut, Siedlung Britz (The Horseshoe
Settlement), Berlin, 1925 78
4.2 Martin Wagner, Bruno Taut, Hugo Häring, and Otto Salvisberg,
Siedlung Zehlendorf, Berlin, 1930 79