• The ecological Garden

  • The ecological garden

    "The more an organism is free the more it is complex"
    "The more an organism is free the more it is complex": Guillame Louis Le Roy likes quoting this sentence by François Jakob as a declaration of his poetics: he underlines complexity and, in so doing, the supporter of ecological cathedrals underlines his dislike and distance from any simply ecological attitude, avoiding taking inta consideration any scheme of reduction as the reconstruction of a landscape means to wholly observe the relations which are included in it, the integration and interaction of man and his environment for the creation of vital space. In fact, official ecology has considered man as a destructive force and disturbing element for ecolagical stability; in other words, it has put the artificial and the natural into contrast, in a completely misinterpreted manner.

    As the equilibrium and the variety of habitats are assured just denying human work, the active participation of man to the transformatibns of the landscape is put aside. However, Le Roy replies, these presuppositions are just ideolagical and political, since the varieties which are favoured are the reassuring ones put ahead by present society that is based on them. And present society accepts a very limited number of cohabitation systems between man and nature. The lack in equilibrium ecologists talk about does not spring from the human impact on the environment in itself, from blamed artificial character of things, but from the incompleteness of systems. Incompleteness of human ecological systems is the source of numerous farms of discordance which it is possible to meet, and as we get into the dynamics of town-planning we meet them more frequently. As far as a direct display of discordance becomes evident, man's behaviour is passive and resigned. In the meanwhile, urban organisms develop frenetically. Cities can be considered as gigantic unities, both from the economic and from the town-planning point of view. As a consequence, urban turmoils do nat present themselves as a monotonous culture ta the citizens eyes, since technology puts on the form of decidedly varied expressions.

    To create an ecological environment does not mean ta paint the roofs and the walls of a house in green ar install solar panels
    Therefore, it is not a matter of different systems within the urban construction but, on the contrary, of diversity of expression. To create an ecological environment does not mean ta paint the roofs and the walls of a house in green ar install solar panels. Those are palliatives which only soothe the contradictions of the present age; they do not criticize the condition of things or the causes of phenomena. The proper direction to be followed in order to find out those formulations which are able to re-interpret the phenomena around us is the analysis of the creatian and growth of cities, the observation of free space and the relationship of the city with the territory. Economic and political factors give a reason to present society to be a hinder to the development of individual creative power, during the creative process of the use of free space as well as of time. The plan is the instrument for a technical separation elaborated by specialists, from where the individual and collective contribution is excluded - when its form is not significant. That is the case, for example, of homogeneous participation, a false participation in fact, which takes television as its pattern and works like a strategy to obtain the universal consent in the organization af a scenery. In that scenery freedom of movement is equal to the possibility to choose a limited range of behaviours in a definite context. A plan is a stern instrument, working through standards of categories of time and space, opposite to the evolution of complexity to develop superficial relations and prefixed levels of growth.

    It will never be based upon a genuine ecological concept as it is only interested in the «cover» of a city neglecting its deep structure. The free disposition of creative powers citizens exploit to give a shape to their vital space is ecological. On the contrary, the only forms of participation allowed are those linked to leisure time, a concept which should be the object af a study. Free time is generally considered adequate to perform absolutely meaningless actions which do not involve the abilities of «faber ludens» man. A man who is really free and creative cannot be content with this for he suffers because he cannot use the territory as he best likes. An active man feels his impotence in the development of complementary ecological systems which increase the diversitv. Such a feeling is the result of the fact that man cannot use, in his city, the territory in such a way as to come into contact with fauna and flora. In well-kept public gardens, man in considered a mere passer-by or even a passive spectator.

    A man who does not want to become a parasite must make use of his senses in the daily and annual course
    The concept of energy, of the « murilation » of human abilities in contemporary society, the compulsory character of free time, the interaction between technics and environment have all gat analagies with Rudolf Doemach's biosophy, even with the differences in perspectives and in the application to the climate and to the architecture. An attitude which is favourable to life is not to diminish human abilites but to keep them. A man who does not want to become a parasite must make use of his senses in the daily and annual course, working with the modifications of climate to obtain favourable results. Le Roy stresses the meaning of the complementary ecological system in contrast with the simplifications of the official ecological attitude. What is important to do is ta give contributions to the system in its campleteness and in the meanwhile, to avoid believing that the completion means the achievement of an ultimate stage, a final one, which does not exist. Taking an electric power station as an instance, Le Roy maintains that its unfavourable influence is nothing but an unfavourable influence, which lets the flora and the fauna find an equilibrium if they are able to positively react to higher temperatures.

    In city free spaces in secondary gardens, in deserted lands where these concepts can be applied, collective creative power can develop ecological systems which can determine the regeneration of impoverished lsnds. These experiments where made by Le Roy at Heerenveen, Groningen, Rotterdam, Mildam and have always found a strong opposition from governments. The evolution of such experiments showed how subversive the arrangement of a garden can be when it is made up through uncommon methods which draw inspiration from the aesthetics of transformations and proposing a wild garden in contrast with every fixed image of the city. The, ecological cathedral of Le Roy is a spatial, municipal structure bom thanks to the cooperation of man with plants and animals in space and in time with the aid of free energy. The ecological cathedral is addressed to all human sens es and its aesthetical values cannot be steadily fixed for ever, as it lives in a continual evolution. Secondary gardens are included in a system of ecological reutilization in order to avoid losing energy and wasting materials. The goal is a wild garden acting as space which espresses the meaning af the evolution and as the opposition ta the urban green generally considered as an oasis one must be content with. The ruling passion will be the opposition to the simplification af the present city image.

    Written by louis le Roy