Tuesday, February 6, 2007

fauna and flora



As landscape designers/urban planners/architects, there are three main customers we need to take on consideration. Let's be honest, the first ones we care about are humans (for the most part), because they are the ones that make architecture possible. The other two major customers are the fauna and flora that inhabit the site before and hopefully after we are done doing what ever intervention we do. The fauna and flora give us information about the types of vegetation and species we are going to be dealing with during and after construcction. It also gives us information of the types of weather needs that have made life in our site possible. Preserving the life of the site that we plan to work on is extremelly important and we should always find our way around it in a way that we disturb the habitat of our occupants a minimally as possible. As human architects that care about nature we should always design architecture that fits into the landscape and not landscape that fits into our architecture. With this said, when we read our landscapes, we cannot just read shapes and forms, we need to be acquainted of every single creature and plant that shape our site. Fauna and flora need to be taken in consideration also thinking about human safety. In a site where strong winds, tornados, huracanes, and other climatic anomalies are possible, trees must be taken in consideration if a fall is possible. As far as fauna goes, we need to take the necessary precautions towards animals and species that might be harmful in human contact. The preservation of all species is indisputable and necessary. The mapping of these species is important to avoid building or pouring concrete on top of some creature's habitat.

No comments: