Sk8ting the Sinking City

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2014_ShirtcliffBA_post_review_Sk8tingSinkingcity.pdf (788.6 KB)
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2014-01-01
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Shirtcliff, Benjamin
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Shirtcliff, Benjamin
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Landscape Architecture
Landscape Architecture is an environmental design discipline. Landscape architects actively shape the human environment: they map, interpret, imagine, draw, build, conceptualize, synthesize, and project ideas that transform landscapes. The design process involves creative expression that derives from an understanding of the context of site (or landscape) ecosystems, cultural frameworks, functional systems, and social dynamics. Students in our program learn to change the world around them by re-imagining and re-shaping the landscape to enhance its aesthetic and functional dimensions, ecological health, cultural significance, and social relevance. The Department of Landscape Architecture was established as a department in the Division of Agriculture in 1929. In 1975, the department's name was changed to the Department of Landscape Architecture and Community Planning. In 1978, community planning was spun off from the department, and the Department of Landscape Architecture became part of the newly established College of Design. Dates of Existence: 1929–present
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Abstract

Hot, humid, cracking, and sinking, the Crescent City seems unlikely for skateboarding. Frequently referenced for being 'up to no good,' unsupervised adolescents seem an unusual candidate to create opportunities for environmental justice. The paper examines how settings afford prosocial behaviours amongst skateboarding adolescents. Young people have a unique capacity to improve settings for play. Using evidence collected from site observation and YouTube videos, sk8ters reveal that supportive places can arise from blight and vacancy. The research has broader implications for sustainability and environmental justice professionals working with vulnerable populations to transform degraded spaces into beneficial places.
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This is an article from Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2015 16(2-4); 97-123. Doi: 10.1504/IER.2015.071016. Posted with permission.
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http://doi.org/10.1504/IER.2015.071016
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https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/52587
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Architectural Engineering
Environmental Design
Landscape Architecture
Urban, Community and Regional Planning
Keywords
unsupervised adolescents, young people, appropriation, interdependence, play settings, environmental justice, cities, YouTube, affordances, New Orleans, skateboarding, phenomenology, urban design, urban planning, sustainable cities, sustainability, sustainable development, USA, United States, vulnerable populations, degraded spaces, beneficial places, environmental improvement.
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Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2014
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