The Notion of Heterotopia in the Practice of Landscape Architecture. The Garden of Education - Alnarp

Abstract: Nowadays the interplay between the natural and human environment create various bound upcombinations. The landscape is full of hierarchical oppositions between the individual andgeneral, local and global, natural and industrial, ancient and futuristic etc. It all makes learning landscapes rather difficult. I shall try to study landscapes with the help of the concept of„heterotopia“.According to my notifications and wonderings through various fragments of landscape,oppositions are primarily creating the perceivable space and the intertwined texture of thesurface. From my own experiences oppositions are enkindling huge interest to go further from thebrief understanding what might be considered as the landscape in some particular region. That iswhy I would like to recommend Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopias. Heterotopia, the theory‘Of Other Spaces’ represents a learning lesson of one side of an opposition – otherness.Heterotopia introduces exactly that kind of a place which could be noticed, but rarely understoodbecause it exists behind the general identity of a region. It is a place which only appears to aperson after a longer, intensive learning process and a more caring attitude towards thelandscape. Knowledge of this actual theory teaches not only to notice oppositions and observethem, but also to explore places in spaces through 4 dimensions; through atmosphere; through“texts” of landscape.