Five Minutes with Shelly Johnson
We sat down with Landscape Architect Shelly Johnson from our Cincinnati studio, to talk about how her travel experiences influence her work and how travel can be an important tool for creating memorable spaces.
How long were you traveling?
My husband and I were full time travelers from spring of 2019 to early 2020, we spent time in Europe, South East Asia, and North America.
That’s a lot of area! What kind of changes did you notice about how people think about landscapes?
I spend most of my days thinking through what it takes to create meaningful spaces. A large part of that is examining a client or region’s values and deducing how that can be reflected in physical space. This line of thought is important to any kind of project…this is the kind of thinking that gives places a sense of connection to their community. Sometimes this is most clear in how people treat their wilderness lands.
We had a goal of reaching Vals, Switzerland from Northern Italy. We decided to take a direct, but rougher, route hiking through the alps. The 10 mile hike was well populated, and we came across several fully stocked huts for overnight stays. As we got to the second half of the trip, we started to come across small herds of cows grazing up the mountains. These groups were scattered along the trails with absolutely no barrier between us and them. After settling into our inn for the night, we talked with the owner about the trek. He told us that nearly everyone in the small town of about 1,000 residents owns one or two of the cattle we came across. They are cared for as a collective with residents taking turns to hike up the mountain and move the cows to new grazing land. This system combines the public lands with private interests, resulting in residents either using the cows for their own private dairy supply or an opportunity to sell the product. We found a similar integration of everyday into-the-wild lands across Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Often, we would be out for an afternoon hike and come across a hut offering food and drinks and filled with people, reminding me of a local brewery in downtown Cincinnati on a Saturday afternoon.
Later in the trip, we spent time touring some of the national parks of Croatia. The rural regions of the country clearly show the scars of The Croatian War of Independence that took place from 1991-1995. Many areas of old growth wilderness were damaged or completely wiped out, leaving young pioneer ecologies over large swathes of the landscape. In stark contrast to the countryside, Croatia is home to some of the most protected national parks I have ever visited. We spent time at Plitvice Lakes, Krka, and Paklenica. At the entrance of each park, you were required to pay an entrance fee and quickly park your car. Each one was accessible only on foot or horse back. They let a limited number of visitors in each day (sometimes requiring reservations), and any supplies needed further in the park were packed. Hikes here quickly felt removed from civilization, like you were lost in a pristine wilderness far from any comfort of modern civilization. I can’t say for sure that the strict preservationist attitude of the national parks is a direct reaction to the damaged landscapes across the country. However, the stark contrast makes clear both the toll of the war and the earnest effort of the country to protect the wilderness.
That’s really interesting; but I also wonder about more designed landscapes, how do they fit into the travel experience?
When traveling, I think on some level everyone is searching for a sense of fantasy. And there is something in people to want to create these types of places. We love to build the places that draw people in. Sometimes to show power. Sometimes just because we can. While natural landscape can be really enticing, as a designer at heart I am always interested by those places that are a result of people’s imagination.
Italy is home to some of the most fantastical 16th century gardens. The energy of the Renaissance combined with the extreme wealth of the nation’s elites, resulted in a stunning collection of feats of botany and engineering that are heavily visited by tourists. While staying in Rome, we took a day trip to Tivoli to see the Villa D’Este. This villa’s landscape is a draw for it’s series of water gardens made from an impressive achievement of engineering. The gardens utilize a local water supply, a complex underground series of pumps and drains, and ornate sculptures to cascade, jet, channel, and pool water weaved throughout the gardens. The largest feature jets an impressive 300 gallons of water per second, shot high above a reflecting pool. When all features are flowing, a simple stroll through the garden is a real event. It is pretty cool to think how similar one’s experience is to old world Italian high society guests. It really transports you.
A completely different type of fantasy takes you not to a different time, but somewhat out of this world entirely. The Gardens by the Bay in Singapore are a perfect example of a really modern take on imaginative landscape. Near downtown, it is a massive urban nature park that combines horticultural gardens with the imagination and fantasy of an amusement park. The park extracts elements of nature making them into larger-than-life structures with otherworldly colors and lights. A main feature, The SuperGrove, consists of a collection of giant vertical garden sculptures that tower over the tree canopy below. The park takes strides to pull the visitors into a new perspective by overwhelming the senses with all manner of colors, textures, events, and novelties.