Open Access

Henrik Schultz

• When reflecting on landscape in flux we want to understand the relationship between the flow of movement and resilient structures like paths – be it trails or paved ways. The way our landscapes are organized depends to a good degree on how people moved through them: the layout of entire cities is based on paths people used to exchange knowledge and goods. These structures seem to be relatively persistent while vegetation or buildings change more radical. Nevertheless these long-lasting paths were made by the seemingly fleeting act of walking – traditionally seen as an antithesis of permanence. A literature search and field studies in European urban landscapes give rise to say: In the act of moving there can be permanence. By walking the same route over and over again we perform a line of a landscape and we co-produce the spatiality of the path. Through walking we are able to structure the landscape, permanently contributing to a meshwork. While doing that we perceive and change the landscape as well as generate knowledge and ideas. Thus, walking can be a practise of path-making that is fleeting and constitutive at the same time. It brings together processes of landscape performance and landscape design. These findings suggest the need to reflect our concept of landscape. We also have to incorporate performative elements in it and thus extend the still dominant concept of landscape as built, static environment. In order to understand and deal with performance and its effects on the landscape, landscape architects have to broaden their knowledge on the patterns of movement and path-making. And they have to understand the pro-cesses of continuous enrooting and anchoring into the spaces we enter.