We are familiar with the idea of ramification from botany: in the case of the tree, aboveground elements like limbs and twigs visibly branch out in order to enlarge the overall leaf surface and thereby maximize processes of photosynthesis. The principle of ramification can also be seen in the realm of larger systems: for example, in the case of a watershed, where small tributaries flow into ever-larger rivers before reaching the sea.
Ramifications can cover larger areas without eliminating, or pushing out, what is already there, and can thereby connect otherwise isolated entities. And ramification is also a conceptual tool that offers insight— not only into the anatomy of a plant but also onto connections within and between landscapes. This publication presents the innovative perspectives of a select group of landscape architects, urbanists, and biologists whose practices share a forward-looking understanding of their disciplines and who have—knowingly or unknowingly—adopt- ed the metaphor of ramification to think about landscape and make it possible, thereby, to design more sensitively and with a greater orientation toward the future.
With contributions by Céline Baumann, Jana Crepon, Julie Delnon, Georges Descombes, Hilar Stadler, and Paola Viganò. Projects by Altitude 35, Paris; Inside Outside, Amsterdam; StudioPaolaViganò, Brussels and Milan; Superpositions, Geneva; Sylvie Viollier and Cyril Verrier, Geneva; and mavo Landschaften, Zurich.

View PDF

Many of the ornamental plant species with which we share the domestic space, taking care of them daily without wondering too much about their origin, were imported to Europe from exotic climes, generating what Céline Baumann defines as a “cognitive dissonance between the decorative aspect of potted plants and a brutal colonial history”. The artist and landscape architect sheds light on the origins of those species and the journeys they have had to make to intertwine with our lives. This small yet invaluable collection of stories will prove useful for at least two reasons. On the one hand, it will help us to better understand that our way of relating to nature has profound political and ecological implications, even when we are at home. On the other it will make clear, yet again, that the notion of “home sweet home” is a cover – and has been for centuries – for much bitterness and countless daily abuses: expressions of the habitual domination of one gender over another and of one species over others, which today are no longer sustainable.