Eppur si muove. Nature, miti, progetti | And yet it moves. Nature, myth, design

Abstract

Awareness that our relationship with the world has profoundly changed has become increasingly widespread; among its effects is the recurring presence, in public debate, of discourses on nature, both within and beyond academic and cultural circuits of landscape architecture. This proliferation of reflections, while generating a wide range of visions and positions, nevertheless often appears to polarize around certain maximalist and simplified interpretations. These include, for instance, nostalgic readings that advocate a ‘return to a good and beautiful nature’; interpretations informed by a form of multispecies thinking that would erase any distinction between humanity and nature; and, finally, reassuring regulatory and procedural responses, mostly oriented toward performance-based or conservation approaches.

In this context, through the call that gave rise to this issue, we considered it useful to promote a collective reflection on the open and controversial theme of the relationship between humanity and nature, with the intention of highlighting its critical nodes in contemporary debate and situating them within operative perspectives for landscape architecture design. The lens proposed here is that of myth, recognizing its epistemological value as a narrative form capable of accounting for worldly phenomena and expressing the relationship between humanity and what is conventionally called ‘nature’. On this topic, the contributions collected in this issue reflect a wide range of positions and trajectories. Together, they offer a fertile multiplicity of perspectives, providing insights on the genealogies of myth, on the myth as an operative tool in landscape design, and, eventually, on the prospects for new contemporary myths.