Therefore:
On all land which slopes—in fields, in parks, in public gardens, even in the private gardens around a house—make a system of terraces and bunds which follow the contour lines. Make them by building low walls along the contour lines, and then backfilling them with earth to form the terraces.
There is no reason why the building itself should fit into the terraces—it can comfortably cross terrace lines.
*£♦
Plant vegetables and orchards on the terraces—vegetable garden (177), fruit trees (170) ; along the walls which form the terraces, plant flowers high enough to touch and smell— raised flowers (245). And it is also very natural to make the walls so people can sit on them—sitting wall (243). . . .
| 170 FRUIT TREES* |
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| 794 |
. . . both the common land (67) outside the workshops, offices and houses, and the private gardens which belong to individual buildings—half-hidden garden (iii), can be helped by planting fruit trees. After all, a garden, whether it is public or private, is a thing of use. Yet it is not a farm. That half way kind of garden which is useful, but also beautiful in spring and autumn, and a marvelous place to walk because it smells so wonderful, is the orchard.
In the climates where fruit trees grow, the orchards give the land an almost magical identity: think of the orange groves of Southern California, the cherry trees of Japan, the olive trees of Greece. But the growth of cities seems always to destroy these trees and the quality they possess.
The fact that the trees are seasonal and bear fruit has special consequences. The presence of orchards adds an experience that has all but vanished from cities—the experience of growth, harvest, local sources of fresh food; walking down a city street, pulling an apple out of a tree, and biting into it.
Fruit trees on common land add much more to the neighborhood and the community than the same trees in private backyards: privately grown, the trees tend to produce more fruit than one household can consume. On public land, the trees concentrate the feeling of mutual benefit and responsibility. And because they require yearly care, pruning, and harvesting, the fruit trees naturally involve people in their common land. It is an obvious place where people can take responsibility for their local common land, have pride in the results, employ themselves and their children part time.
Imagine a community gradually being able to produce a portion of its own need for fruit, or cider, or preserves. In the beginning it would be a small portion indeed, but it would serve as a beginning. There is not much work involved if it is tackled communally, and the satisfaction is great.
TOWNS
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Within each natural preserve, we imagine a limited number of houses—house cluster (37)—with access on unpaved country lanes—green streets (51). . . .
4-0
BUILDINGS
Therefore:
Plant small orchards of fruit trees in gardens and on common land along paths and streets, in parks, in neighborhoods: wherever there are well-established groups that can themselves care for the trees and harvest the fruit.
| fruit trees |
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If you have an especially nice fruit tree, make a tree place (17 i ) under it, with a garden seat (176), or arrange a path so the tree can provide a natural goal along the path—paths
AND GOALS ( I 20) ....
| I 7 I TREE PLACES** |
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797
. . . trees are precious. Keep them. Leave them intact. If you have followed site repair (104), you have already taken care to leave the trees intact and undisturbed by new construction; you may have planted fruit trees (170); and you may perhaps also have other additional trees in mind. This pattern reemphasizes the importance of leaving trees intact, and shows you how to plant them, and care for them, and use them, in such a way that the spaces which they form are useful as extensions of the building.
-h *»* -!♦
When trees are planted or pruned without regard for the special places they can create, they are as good as dead for the people who need them.
Trees have a very deep and crucial meaning to human beings. The significance of old trees is archetypal; in our dreams very often they stand for the wholeness of personality: “Since . . . psychic growth cannot be brought about by a conscious effort of will power, but happens involuntarily and naturally, it is in dreams frequently symbolized by the tree, whose slow, powerful involuntary growth fulfills a definite pattern.” (M. L. von Franz, “The process of individuation,” in C. G. Jung, Man and his Symbols, New York: Doublcday, 1964, pp. 16r, 163-64.)
There is even indication that trees, along with houses and other people, constitute one of the three most basic parts of the human environment. The House-Tree-Person Technique, developed by Psychologist John Buck, takes the drawings a person makes of each of these three “wholes” as a basis for projective tests. The mere fact that trees are considered as full of meaning, as houses and people, is, alone, a very powerful indication of their importance (V. J. Bieliauskas, The H-T-P Research Reviezv, 1965 Edition, Western Psychological Services, Los
Angeles, California, 1965; and Isaac Jolles, Catalog jor the Qualitative Interpretation of the H ouse-Tree-P erson, Los Angeles, California: Western Psychological Services, 1964, pp. 75—97).
I 7 1 TREE places
But for the most part, the trees that are being planted and transplanted in cities and suburbs today do not satisfy people’s craving for trees. They will never come to provide a sense of beauty and peace, because they are being set down and built around without regard for the -places they create.
The trees that people love create special social places: places to be in, and pass through, places you can dream about, and places you can draw. Trees have the potential to create various kinds of social places: an umbrella—where a single, low-sprawling tree like an oak defines an outdoor room; a pair—where two trees form a gateway; a grove—where several trees cluster together; a square—where they enclose an open space; and an avenue— where a double row of trees, their crowns touching, line a path or street. It is only when a tree’s potential to form places is realized that the real presence and meaning of the tree is felt.
The trees that are being set down nowadays have nothing of this character—they are in tubs on parking lots and along streets, in specially “landscaped areas” that you can see but cannot get to. They do not form places in any sense of the word—and so they mean nothing to people.
Now, there is a great danger that a person who has read this argument so far, may misinterpret it to mean that trees should be “used” instrumentally for the good of people. And there is, unfortunately, a strong tendency in cities today to do just that —to treat trees instrumentally, as means to our owm pleasure.
But our argument says just the opposite. Trees in a city, round a building, in a park, or in a garden are not in the forest. They need attention. As soon as we decide to have trees in a city, we must recognize that the tree becomes a different sort of ecological being. For instance, in a forest, trees grow in positions favorable to them: their density, sunlight, wind, moisture are all chosen by the process of selection. But in a city, a tree grows where it is planted, and it will not survive unless it is most carefully tended —pruned, watched, cared for when its bark gets pierced . . .