7.3 LANDSCAPE AS INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE GARDEN AS MACHINE
Seen in relation to the discussion in Section 7.2, one might wonder whether the current discourses on landscape urbanism and ecological urbanism and the promotion of landscape as infrastructure is just another and perhaps more sophisticated chapter in the history of modern pastoralism? The combination of the terms ecology and urbanism certainly evoke the kind of harmony between man and nature that can be associated with the pastoral ideal, and the idea of landscape as infrastructure implies some kind of utilitarian and technological approach to the natural environment. However, landscape as infrastructure might as well involve the kinds of new interpretation of the aesthetic and the utilitarian that Braae calls for. Whether the current promotion of landscape as infrastructure is an extension or a rejection of modern pastoralism seems an interesting and important question given the fact that the promotion of landscape as infrastructure is often linked to the idea of revealing and solving environmental problems caused by a predominantly utilitarian and technological approach to the natural environment.