Landscape Augmentation

The capitalist society in which we presently live in has heavily influenced the natural landscape that we live amongst. It is now characterised by seemingly

endless bitumen car parks, soaring sky scrapers, smog filled industry sectors, etc. Our capitalistic way of life includes an over-availability of products that

created a society of mass production and an unhealthy globalisation. Part of the human condition requires that we must possess a car and own a house as

this is a measure of our success, our happiness. However, the concept of real estate in a post-capitalist society is in question. In order to move towards a

localised system perhaps we need to shift from the idea of privately owned property towards an idea of common land. We need to shift from over-

consumerism to consuming only what we need. To do this we must undergo an attitude adjustment, a change in how we live within a community. Our

happiness must no longer be measurable by a wage and a bank account. Our priorities must become renewing a lost localisation, a local pooling of ideas,

resources, energy, education, etc. This new localisation and rejection of globalisation will tilt the unbalanced capitalist system we have now and redirect us

to a new social happiness.

In order to move towards this localisation perhaps we look into the past and adopt a feudalist approach to how we live, a system where people in a

community live off a common land instead of getting our daily needs from large grocery/shopping chains. The globalisation of the planet has not just

deformed our natural landscape through over industrialisation but through the means of transportation of the products. An example of this is the mud

plains in Chittagong, Bangladesh that now homes hundreds of decommissioned oil tankers. Other examples of how industry has transformed our landscape

is the vast oil fields of California (largest collection of oil extractors in the world), the kilometre long textile factories of the Chinese industrial sectors,

Australia’s Olympic Damn and mining sector, the Three Gorges Dam in China, etc. So perhaps a reinvention of our landscape is required, an urban retrofit. A

new system where people within a community work the land instead of driving to work will in turn take cars off the road. Less transportation of

good/services will also take cars off the road and out of car parks and make room for possible community gardens, crop plantations, water reserves, etc. By

recognising what our basic needs are and reducing our production and distribution to the satisfaction of these needs will create a new way of life. With a

reconnection to our immediate landscape and a rejection of globalisation, this will transform our local communities.

With the unavoidable expansion of our cities, retro fitting our current cities with crop fields and water reserves is not suffice. When we reach the inevitable

construction of new housing, out-dated aesthetics must now come second to the production of food and energy. In a way, humans must inhabit the land

itself. A habitable augmented landscape will provide a reconnection to the landscape and allow for the habitants to live within close proximity of their food

resources. A system in which the occupants of a shared housing system maintains and harvests its own food production will not just move us closer to a

localisation but reinforce a sense of community by working towards a common goal.