Architecture Open Lecture Series 2010 /11
- University of Greenwich
- School of Architecture & Construction
- Mansion Site, Avery Hill Campus
- Bexley Road, Eltham, London SE9 2PQ
- Norbert Singer Lecture Theatre (M055)
Wed 10 November 2010 18.30
Juan Manuel Palerm
ARCHITECTURE AS LANDSCAPE
Abstract
We conceive of landscape as an individual experience, we feel the environment that surrounds us, we experience space-territory in a personal way, loaded with meanings and memories, with commonplace moments; but at the same time we need the public gaze of a social landscape capable of validating the meaning of our personal development.
This essay has taken as its starting point the concept of “silence”, a word derived from the Latin “silere”, meaning to keep quiet: to be silent in order to hear better, in order to listen to the sound of the world. Silence in the sense of a space capable of accommodating sounds and absences in this dual appreciation of a social and a personal landscape, the absence of international sounds (John Cage). “Silence” is also understood as the boundary between growth and development, between production and consumption (collective “silence”). “Silence” as an initial premise for making a pause, for perceiving differential elements, for listening to what is usually missed what goes unnoticed. “Silence” as a necessary prerequisite for a perception of the transformations of territory. “Silence” to delight the senses and to justify a whole series of multidisciplinary projects. The sphere of silence is replete with sounds that we can discover. The world is an increasingly noisy place, of growing contrasts, where it is more and more difficult for man to relate to nature. It therefore becomes necessary to understand that distancing oneself from “silence” can be dangerous and devastating.
“There is no doubt that we have succeeded in dominating nature to an undreamed-of degree, but we have not been capable of dominating our dominion over nature” (Marshall D. Sahlins).
“Silence” as a place where we can project a series of questions, where we can explore the patient capacity of human beings to listen to the music of the landscape, to perceive and extract from “silence” the harmony or conflicts in its composition and projects and to discover the forms of silence. We can see these forms throw the projects: Espacio Expositivo Fundación César Manrique (Teguise, Lanzarote), Biblioteca Pública del Estado (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Parque García Sanabria (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) y Barranco de Santos (Santa Cruz de Tenerife).
Juan Manuel Palerm Salazar holds a PhD in Architecture and is Professor of Architectural Design at the School of Architecture of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He participated in the European programmes Erasmus and Tempus Phare and he currently lectures at the Laboratory of Landscape Architecture at the Institute of Architecture of the University of Venice. He has been a guest lecturer at Spanish and international universities.
In 1986 he founded the studio Palerm – Tabares de Nava Arquitectos in partnership with Leopoldo Tabares de Nava y Marín. Since 1986 they have developed architecture, city planning and landscape projects in the Canary Ilands and internationally in the United States, Italy and Spain.
Palerm has published extensively on on the concept of Landscape and Architecture has held posts as a cultural officer and manager in a number of institutions including Colegio de Arquitectos de Canarias, Cabildo de Tenerife (Tenerife Island Government), Círculo de Bellas Artes and the School of Architecture of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, organising and directing exhibitions and cultural events. He is a member of the Executive Board of Uniscape (European Network of Universities for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention) and directed the second Biennial of the Canary Islands titled “silencio” in 2008-2009. He is currently organizing the third Biennial of the Canary Islands for 2011.
http://www.bienaldecanarias.org/bienal3/18/index.php?I=I