Lawrence Halprin: Nature into Landscape into Art

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and Frederick Law Olmstead, American landscape architect Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009) had a vision to create inspiring and engaging urban spaces. Influenced by the Great Depression, Halprin began his career in the 1940s. At a time when many people were fleeing cities Halprin was determined to improve the lives of urban dwellers, breathing new life into neglected urban spaces.

Halprin was deeply inspired by nature. Published in 1988, his article ‘Nature into Landscape into Art’ comments on the intrinsic interconnection between humanity and the natural world. Fundamentally we are a part of nature, thus we possess an innate ability to empathise with the natural world. Halprin discusses the essential distinction between nature and landscape. Whilst nature is a “raw elementary power beyond human control”, landscapes are cultivated “human handiworks” that use nature as a tool, “as a material for our own enjoyment”.

Whilst we view nature as being “beautiful and right”, landscapes are open to question, like all other artforms they are subject to judgement. Halprin argues that, if nature forms landscapes which we inevitably find beautiful, then they must form the basic source of our aesthetic sensibilities as designers.

Halprin goes on to discuss our primitive emotional response to the natural world. He comments on three elemental human needs which provoke an innate and emotive human response common to all of us...

1. Sense of Shelter

The nurturing quality of protection and privacy is a primordial and pre-natal need shared by all, thus the essence of shelter in landscape is deeply important.

2. Water

The sounds and shapes and feel of water in parks and plazas call up deep emotional responses in us. 

3. Gateways and Entrances

Like the ever changing seasons and the shift from day to night, we must consider how we step through from space to space; the transition from outward to inward lies at the core of deep emotion. 

There is no doubt that these landscape archetypes can be delivered through designed environments. What is most evident from Halprin’s article is his reluctance to imitate nature, his aim instead was to abstract natural processes, arrangements and forms in order to evoke a deep emotional response.  

Halprin is widely recognised for his abstraction of natural form. His cascading modernist landscapes were designed to evoke the natural quality of a cutting mountain stream. Despite his use of brutalist geometric form and concrete, his landscapes encapsulate the experiential quality of standing beside a waterfall. 

Keller Fountain Park, Portland

However, it is Halprin’s avant-garde approach towards movement through the landscape which I find most inspiring. Married to dancer and choreographer Anna Halprin, he drew much of his inspiration from dance. Halprin speaks of “choreographed movement through space” describing how design for movement can evoke similar emotions as a walk through nature. By considering the noises, smells and sounds of flowing water, he was able to create a multisensory user experience, where the visitor becomes both a participant and observer in the landscape. 

Halprin’s design approach has encouraged me to consider my own emotive connection to the natural world. With more people living in cities now than ever before, it is critical that we, as landscape architects, begin to consider how to evoke the natural experience in urban areas. Both literally, through the creation of green urban parks, and allegorically through an abstraction of nature’s archetypes. 

References

Halprin, L., 1988. Nature into landscape into art. Ekistics, [online] 55(333), pp.349 - 354. Available at: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/43620657> [Accessed 27 May 2021].

Sisson, P., 2016. The landscape architect who helped invent modern city parks. [online] Curbed. Available at: <https://archive.curbed.com/2016/11/22/13712802/landscape-architecture-lawrence-halprin> [Accessed 27 May 2021].

Turner, T., 2015. Lawrence Halprin interview: 'I've been a landscape architect, thank God' - Landscape Architects LAA. [online] Landscape Architects Association LAA. Available at: <http://www.landscapearchitecture.org.uk/lawrence-halprin-interview/> [Accessed 28 May 2021].