How (not) to Design a Landscape

Abstract

The article describes some methods of water regulation and the impact that dykes have on the landscape. In the paper, the process of planning the Gabčikovo Waterworks is outlined together with the various solutions for the regulation of the river Danube, and the pros and cons of these variants. The paper aims to report the process of planning from the perspective of the authors, engineers, architects and landscape designers.
For this article, archives were searched for published papers and journals to find the older versions of the regulation proposed for the river Danube. Later, the authors were interviewed about their part in the planning process. The paper seeks to answer the question: To what degree was the impact on the landscape was taken into account?
Where the landscape was dealt with only from the biological and geological point of view, there was no demand for the image or design of the landscape. The result of this process is a drastic change, and it is upon our generation of architects, urban and landscape designers to learn from the past processes of construction and to improve any future changes in a more collaborative and socially oriented way.