KARELIA: Cultural Landscapes, the evolution of landscapes

The studio course “Cultural Landscapes: the evolution of landscapes” was organized by the Aalto University Landscape Architecture programme in the spring term 2016 and explored the concept of cultural landscape, not as a particular type of designated and delimited landscape, but as the cultural dimension of any landscape. The concept of Cultural landscape is therefore perceived as the evolving expression of the interaction of the human being with the environment and the traces, physical patterns, social structures, productive systems and cultural meanings that the individuals or the collectives create as a consequence of their activity and presence in any given territory. The course was activated with a very simple analogy and with a set of questions: Can two close places with similar natural conditions and similar human backgrounds evolve into different landscapes?, How does it happen?, What remains and what stays?. In order to answer those questions it was decided to work on both sides of the Karelian border to assess how the division in 1945 and the subsequent social, economic and political transformations affected the character of its urban, agricultural, natural, industrial and infrastructural landscapes. That exploration would help us to understand the “cultural” factor behind the landscape by approaching the landscape as a human construct in which human decisions determine its evolution and by exploring new possibilities for its management