Commoning the Landscape

Building on the understanding of Urban Commons, the lens of investigation stememmed from two overarching recognitions. Firstly, the occurrence, erasure, and importance of commons (with a focus on common property resources) and secondly its distinction from regularly defined ‘public ’undefined ‘community’ spaces. Given this foundation, the studio was an enquiry into the role of Landscape Architecture to both recognise and strengthen the role of ‘commons’ in today’s lived context. The methodology emanated from the understanding of the concept of commons through the historical tracing of a chosen geography to reveal its socioecological attributes. While this investigation formed the basis, the studio focussed strongly to evolve policies (spatial) and design level interventions, by equating current day challenges as well as global imperatives such as climate change. By doing so, students were able to reimagine ‘commons’ to exercise a new spatial ‘vocabulary’ that can address social and ecological imbalances of today’s society