UC BERKELEY LAEP landscape architecture lecture series: 2022
Landscape Medicine
clam garden construction
What is a Landscape Medicine Colloquium?
Landscape medicine is the design of health outcomes. This requires understanding systems of embodiment: how edge conditions channel psychosocial phenomena on a local basis. Psychosocial phenomena are registered as seams of apparent difference - a set of tensions that create between them a social topography. Landscape medicinal practice works to collaboratively improve outcomes by adjusting perceptions and narratives within these tensions, allowing social topography to change through collective perception.
Each of the speakers covered in this class describe particular boundaries of separation: racial segregation, gang loyalties, reservation borders, communities gated on the basis of socio-economic and “meritocratic” exclusion, corporate allegiances, etc. These seams allow an awareness of health disparity.
It is precisely inside this boundary, in the space between the walls, that the garden of embodiment exists simultaneous with an awareness of that embodiment. The medievals called this “the garden of love” - where a space of difference and separation is unified. Here, design operates in “real time.” The act of drawing, living, digging, singing is danced out at the human scale. This is the chora, the cipher, the feast. In this space, the edge condition, the silver lining, we ARE the garden, and our consciousness of our lives in a physical lived reality is our landscape architecture.
(This differs from, conversely, a lack of awareness of health problems when one is completely enmeshed in a homogenous context. An example of this would be a “Disney Land”- like space in which struggles and disease are removed from view, discussed by Brooks.)
What makes each of the speakers in this series practitioners of landscape medicine is that they are able to build on this awareness of disparity through projects which transcend the boundary - allowing a topography of disparity to shift.
Abdul-Mutakallim challenges racial segregation through lunch counter protests and ends - radically - a cycle of trauma and wanton murder by embracing, with the hope of life, the family and killer of her son. In her Flower Pot Project, she takes local business and civic capital to sites of extreme loss, sites of homicide on the street, to change the way these spaces are cared for.
Morningowl transcends the boundaries of the CTUIReservation by engaging in projects to restore landscapes in Usual and Accustomed areas, despite their being ceded to the United States. He also often works with American citizens and foreigners, with English language as a medium, to care for large and small landscapes across the area.
The Umatilla place names atlas he has made, along with other language work, demonstrates a lasting legacy of indigenous care across the region from the period prior to cession and into the future. This care is carried forward in softening stream channels to cool waters, create a diversity of habitats, increase salmon spawning grounds, and create space for pedestrian enjoyment rather than industrial production. In this way, powerful reserved treaty rights become a design tool for the benefit of everyone.
Hjort and Marshall present themselves as a duality, European and American, White and Black, film maker and subject; but actually completely transcend these divisions. The film, like the Melting Pot culinary project also discussed, offer a social process, even if sometimes they fail. As the material comes and goes in the cipher of Brownsville, the ultimate value, as described by Marshall, is educational.
Becerra discusses the duality of the AbundanCity and ScarCity. Admitting this division is prevalent, even fostering a greater awareness of this condition, presents the opportunity to develop a novel hybridity at many scales and in many areas of practice. His projects operate at the scale of the bio-material brick derived from waste algae, to the locally produced civic spaces built from local materials with local craftsmanship, to the careful organic growing of informal neighborhoods collaboratively with designers, to urban design and regional adaptation of infrastructures; and emphasizes constantly working across these scales. The result is to, even slightly, improve the living conditions of the disadvantaged while emphasizing local capacity and avoiding the paternalism of top down solutionism.
In the Urban Rhythms project Waxman shares how residents of Brownsville, subject to the locality of territorial gang violence, map emic spectrums of risk within which to make place based landscape interventions. Then, by using artistic skill sets which participants care about and wish to improve in, from freestyle poetry, dance, to painting and place making, we build on personal and local skills to critique urban design. In the Urban Rhythms Marcus Garvey project, participants critique the housing and landscape designed by Kenneth Frampton, finally having a charrette at Columbia where they discuss the layout of the project in terms of existing embodiment and risk due to gang violence. The participants then design a community center, which was built as a political promo piece by local politicians and developers, unfortunately ignoring the realities of gang violence which gave credence and power to the design.
This course is intended to present examples and methods for landscape medicine. Hopefully these presentations have begun to lay out the theory of understanding health disparities that exist within the embodiment of psychosocial phenomena, and a few techniques for adjusting these shifting topographies.
- October 11, 2022
Yoshimura Design, Kyoto, on the UO Kyoto program with Myoshinji monastery and the City of Kyoto.
Yoshimura shares several projects in Kyoto in which neighborhood charrettes and student work have had significant impact.
November 9, 2022
Daisuke Yoshimura is an adjunct professor of landscape architecture at Kyoto University of the Arts, as well as a practicing landscape architect and urban designer in the USA and Japan. His firm Yoshimura Design Inc has operated since 2000, prior to which he worked for Design Workshop in Aspen CO, and Yoshimura Masonry Inc, in Kyoto Japan. He has a BLA from UO and a BS in Civil Engineering from Kinki University, Osaka. He has taught with the University of Oregon; helping to lead the Kyoto Program for twenty some years; doing collaborative projects including the Horikawa Canal, built, and numerous community projects. His landscape work includes the Sophia University Campus Plan; Kyoto Station South District Fukushima Kokoro Medical Center; Downtown Redevelopement Plan; Glenwood Springs, CO; Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo; Mito City Hall; Kansai University Campus, Osaka; and many others. He is a registered landscape architect in Colorado.
Brownsville Community Justice Center, Center for Court Innovation NYC
Speaks on the Marcus Garvey Village and place based strategies for violence prevention
November 2, 2022
Being a Brownsville native and having a strong passion for the advancement of low to moderate income communities, fittingly Ionna Jimenez currently serves as the Project Director of the Brownsville Community Justice Center where she oversees day-to-day operations, manages partnerships with city agencies and resources, oversees the development and execution of various programs, mobilizes stakeholders, and develops strategies to improve public safety. In her capacity she also oversees the coordination of BCJC’s economic empowerment initiatives including neighborhood incubation, retention and expansion of services (scaling), and youth workforce development strategies.
Environmental, Language Educators, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Quintasket and Cook present the 13 moons environmental health pedagogy for traditional foods and community gardens
October 26, 2022
Joe Quintasket is an enrolled member of the Colville Tribe of Washington, also of lineage from the Songese and Esquimalt First Nations of Vancouver Island Canada. Growing up in Eastern and Western Washington, and spending time in Canada, he grew a fond appreciation of traditional native foods. Joe worked in construction and wood industry jobs for a few decades, has been employed by the Swinomish Tribe for over 12 years, and currently enjoys working from the tribe's Community Environmental Health Program's 13 Moons Harvest Garden and Gather Program. He is a native language speaker/teacher, of Lushootseed (Puget Sound Salish) with knowledge of Interior Salish Languages.
Anna Cook is a Swinomish tribal member and works for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Environmental Health Program as an associate and outdoor youth educator. Anna also works for the didgʷálič Wellness Center located on her reservation as an art therapy instructor and cultural coach. She graduated from The Evergreen State College with a bachelor’s degree and focus in Native American Studies. She lives on the Swinomish Reservation and continues her work to promote food sovereignty and helps bring awareness to climate change and its impact on Indigenous peoples. In her work she focuses her practice on promoting health and wellness to the Swinomish community and beyond. Anna helps maintain the 13 Moons community gardens; teach Swinomish youth lessons on traditional foods and harvesting methods; helps conduct workshops based off of the 13 Moons curriculum; and distributes fresh produce and plant medicines to her community.
Takala discusses programs of the Yakama nation to address health issues through stewardship of the sacred foods.
October 19, 2022
Jeremy Takala, known as Pax’una’shut in the Yakama Nation hails from the Kahmiltpah Band (Rock Creek) located on the Columbia River, while also a proud descendant of Hopi. He was nominated in 2020 to serve as a Tribal Councilman for Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Currently chairing the Fish and Wildlife, Law and Order, and Legislative Committees keeps his schedule quite eventful. Prior to his time in office he worked 12 years for the Yakima Klickitat Fisheries Project (YKFP) at the Klickitat River Research Monitor Evaluate as a fisheries technician. His hands on training and Washut upbringing has contributed to his skillset as a CRITFC Commissioner with the Nez Perce, Umatilla and Warm Springs Tribes. He is compassionate about upholding up his tribes Treaty Rights with the federal government and protecting resources for those yet unborn.
Jeremy was raised in Goldendale, WA and is a proud member of the Rock Creek Longhouse. Learning to drum and provide for the longhouse at an early age is a tribute to his elders who have passed on their traditional educations. He continues to carry on old-style values with his wife Kim, their two sons Tyler and Clint, daughter Nena, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and extended community participants. When time allows between his son’s baseball and basketball schedules he finds time to display his Round Bustle style of dance on the Pow-Wow circuit, with his boy’s right behind mimicking his every move. He has lead students to national conferences as part of the Big River Council and has been an instrumental presence in local schools and parent committees as a voice for native representation.
Jeremy’s passion has always been in the mountains gathering traditional foods and medicines, hunting, fishing and practicing the ways of time immemorial. He resides as a stewardship for future generations to understand and defend natural foods, streams and animals. Striving to carry out the visions of past leadership while embarking on ways to preserve natural laws in the contemporary world. Jeremy attributes his large family and Longhouse gatherings as a reason for his achievements and for preparing him to be a team player, “it takes a village”. When called upon by the elders to take the helm, he graciously accepted their words of encouragement and stepped into his governance role.
Pediatrician, Redwood City, Professor, Stanford,
Envisions the future of pediatrics and children’s drawings in the doctors office to address and prevent childhood trauma through place based strategies
October 12, 2022
Chethan Sarabu, MD trained in landscape architecture, pediatrics, and clinical informatics has focused his career on designing, developing, and implementing technologies that empower people to better participate in healthcare. He is currently faculty in Pediatrics and Clinical Informatics at Stanford Medicine and the Director of Clinical Informatics at Sharecare. He leads novel research in collecting real world data from virtual clinical trials using smartphone sensors and integrating this with traditional forms of healthcare data to understand longitudinal outcomes as well as implement personalized predictive models. Another area of his research and implementation work is in using digital health tools to connect community and clinics. Finally, he is a founder of Olmsted.health working on a range of initiatives that connect landscape with healthcare such as park prescriptions.
Dean, School of Architecture, University of Michoacán,
Shares ongoing work by his territorial research lab in civic and socially responsible design.
October 5, 2022
Axel Becerra is Dean of Architecture, University of Michoacán. He did his PhD in architecture at Sheffield, UK, post doc research in urbanism at Harvard GSD, and is now providing extensive space for students to work on PhDs, post doc, masters, and undergraduate research in collaboration with countless locales and communities across MICH, Mexico, and the world. He has designed numerous buildings around Mexico, integrating materiality and process tectonics through social process and refinement of aesthetic sensibility. Born and raised in Morelia, Michoacán, he also has done extensive work with the government of Michoacán in terms of participatory planning. One of his agencies in the University, the territorial research lab, is pushing novel ways of seeing urbanism across space and time, often innovating traditional and local technologies in modeling, site and community understanding, and global systems. They are working on global migration, health, alienation, and critique of notions of landscape and urbanism “developed” and “undeveloped.” He is one of the world's thought leaders in design and the University of Michoacán is the first to offer a Doctor of Design in Latin America.
Thomas Morningowl
Linguist, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Speaks on sovereignty and rights in the Columbia Basin
September 28, 2022
Thomas Morningowl is a linguist at the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation where he helps run classes in Ichishkiin language. He has been involved with the politics, health, and educational capacity of CTUIR for much of his life; he was one of the youngest people on Council and has taken an active lifelong role in language work. He has even collaborated on language with the California Language Archive at the University of California Berkeley. He speaks several languages along with Ichishkiin and English, and has collaborated on “Cáw Pawá Láakni / They Are Not Forgotten” Ichishkiin place names atlas, and the Umatilla English dictionary with his mother, another linguist, and a team of collaborators. He is an actor, composer, and MC; his work includes the theatrical work “Ghosts of Celilo” as well as countless productions around arts and medicine in the traditional way. In 2019 he led an interdisciplinary team (including film makers) to revitalize a traditional earth oven process and teach plant digging ways to scores of youth.
Rukiye Abdul-Mutakallim
Founder, the Musketeer Association,
She speaks on reducing violence in America through monuments of care and mourning for the fallen of violence in high risk public spaces.
September 21, 2022
Rukiye Abdul Mutakallim is a mother, activist, and inspiration. The story of the loss of her son has had 44+ million views on youtube (now recirculated, 37 million views), and her documentary "The Power of Forgiveness" won the 2019 Webby Award. She and her nonprofit - The Muskateer Association - are currently working on a place based project to promote healing by honoring those wrongfully slayed in our communities and thus, igniting a beacon of hope and goodwill across our city and nation. The proposal is to create stewarded flower pots promoting healing to stand forth as a reminder, bring light and beauty, and unify and honor.
In addition to running the Muskateer Association, she is Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and Prokids Volunteer; Spokesperson and Instructor for Islamic Affairs for The Crescent Moon Association; Disaster Relief, 2nd boots on the ground; Trained Volunteer of IRUSA; Advocate Coordinator for Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice; and is Advocate Volunteer for Moms Demand Action. She has lectured at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Main Headquarters of Abukir Main Campus; Director of ISU Islamic Seminary of Understanding; with guest appearances on the Tamron Hall Show, USA, and the Mustafa Hosny Show, Khalik Ala Tarik Allah in Cairo, Egypt.
Sheryl Steinruck
Director of Education, Smith River Rancheria,
Speaks on working for health equity through landscape stewardship and cultural revitalization.
September 14, 2022
Sheryl Steinruck is a citizen of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, formerly known as the Smith River Rancheria. She is from the village of Nii~-lii~-chvn-dvn located along the Smith River in northwestern California. The ancestral homeland of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation expands from the Sixes River in western Oregon to Wilson Creek in western California to the Applegate River watershed in southern Oregon. The peoples of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation suffered the second largest recorded massacre following the Pequot Massacre of 1639 at the village of Yan’-taa-k’vt, the center of our World / Creation, during our 10-Night Nee-dash ceremony in 1853. Steinruck is the second daughter of four siblings born to progressively-minded parents, James and Eunice Bommelyn, on January 25, 1954. She has conducted linguistics study at the University of Oregon and the Northwest Indian Language Institute, among various other places; and currently works as Director of Education in the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation. Steinruck will share about resilience and landscape repair with culture and language revitalization in place.
Nyshia Brooks,
Founder Black Butterfly Societé,
Speaks on community health, social responsibility, personal power, Mansfield OH
August 31, 2022
Nyshia Brooks is a community health organizer and founder of the Black Butterfly Societe, a non-profit breaking ground and barriers in cultivating empowerment, education, and self-care in the garden of personal growth. She is currently providing community organizing coordination, program development, and operations management for The NKB Lab, LLC, Principal Consultant., experimenting with creativity and creating solutions by connecting assets and talents within communities. She is consulting for the Minority Health & Wellness Project, Board Coordinator of Community Services & Programming, dedicated to the overall health and wellness of communities by centralizing community partners and reconnecting them to local residents they are committed to serving. She provides consulting for Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, Chapter Coordinator - Mansfield, Ohio, advocating for survivors of crime and the communities they live in, bringing awareness to the system barriers that prevent the services and resources needed to allow victims of crime to heal. Nyshia is developing a legacy to change her life and the lives of others for the better...especially her children.
Lea Hjort and Tameel Marshall
Director and Poet, Brooklyn,
Speak on film making and culinary activism in Brownsville Brooklyn
September 7, 2022
Hjort and Marshall position their work in Brownsville Brooklyn which has had the highest incidence of violence and chronic disease in NYC since the neighborhood’s inception prior to the 1880s. However, Hjort and Marshall focus primarily on practice: the use of film and art to understand the landscape atmosphere of affect, meaning, and embodiment. With causal factors are often obscured, risk is embodied due to colliding issues of place and person, and affect is often one of the most powerful tools in changing narratives of landscape, and subsequently, disease incidence. How can theory and understanding of ecological context - such as the likelihood of embodiment of social and societal issues in terms of disease and violence outcomes - become materialized on the physical and intimately experiential scale of a landscape? How can personal art practice relate or change atmosphere and narratives in society as a whole that channel and concentrate disease in certain areas and in certain people?