Hierarchy

The brief looks to explore how the practice of Desvigne and Dalnoky is constructed through their experiences of people and places. Desvigne and Dalnoky have developed a style over a number of years that reflects their life experiences. The practice has evolved from early experiences at their landscape school at Versailles to a major development of the right bank of Bordeaux, France (Desvigne M, 2009). However the impact of their experiences does not appear on the surface to conform to any discernable hierarchy. Therefore what is their methodology of inclusion? How having worked with Michel Carajound, who is interested in the idea of creating a design from the lost lines of a landscape, Desvigne and Dalnoky explored this concept in their design of an urban park in Issoudun District, France (Hucliez M 1999).

My intention is to identify if there is a hierarchy in Desvigne and Dalnoky’s work and to demonstrate how this informs their practice in specific projects over an extended period of time. Underpinning this investigation is the belief that you use your experiences to shape the core ideas for a design. Then by exploring and exploiting these themes you may achieve a greater self awareness of practice. This can then be translated into my own practice development.

A core belief in this project is that however complex the influences that affect an individual practice maybe, there is a pertinent descriptor. A critical review of the work of Desvigne and Dalnoky will attempt to test this theory and will explore a number of different models to demonstrate the complexity of influence, such as ‘a mixer board’ model or at the other extreme, chaos theory. To understand the hierarchy or lineage of idea development will include understanding the definitions of experience, people and place in the context of the discourse of Desvigne and Dalnoky.

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Bibliography

Desvigne M, Dalnoky C, Desvigne & Dalnoky : the return of the landscape, Whitney Library, 1997

Desvigne M, Intermediate Natures The Landscape of Michel Desvigne, Basel ; Boston : Birkhäuser, 2009

Chemetoff A, Visits: town and territory: architecture in dialogue / Alexandre Chemetoff, Basel ; Boston: Birkhäuser, 2009.

Architectes de jardins et paysagistes de France = Garden and landscape, architects of France,Publisher:Oostkamp : Stichting Kunstboek, 2006.

Hucliez M, Contemporary parks and gardens in France, Paris: Vilo Pub., 1999

Imbert D, The modernist garden in France, New Haven Yale University Press, 1993.

Image credits

01. Jacobs A, Great Streets, MIT Press, 1993

02. Chaufourier J, Arizzoli-Clémente, The gardens of Le Notre at Versailles and plans; introduction and commentaries Pierre Paris: Alain de Gourcuff, 2000

03. William Byrne, The butterfly effect diagram