从“疏离”到“参与”：人地关系的当代重构——阿努·马瑟的Mapping动态设计语言 析读

From "Alienation" to "Involvement": The Contemporary Reconstruction of the Human–LandRelationship—An Analysis of Anuradha Mathur's Dynamic Design Language of Mapping

关键词:  风景园林  阿努·马瑟  Mapping  人地关系  动态设计语言

Key words:  landscape architecture  Anuradha Mathur  Mapping  human-land relationship  dynamic design language

摘要:

随着城市化和技术的快速发展，人与场地的关系逐渐从“亲密”走向“疏离”，现代设计亟须探索新路径以重建这一关系。阿努·马瑟的Mapping方 法作为一种“动态设计语言”，通过揭示场地的隐性特征与动态规律，打破了以静态制图为主的传统营造范式。Mapping方法深度融合人体尺度与多感官感知， 全方位强化设计中的身体参与，并在此基础上“再现”场地的多维特征，实现了从传统测绘工具到动态设计语言的转型，深化了设计教育与实践中的场地认知和 互动深度。Mapping为现代设计提供了全新的视角和方法，帮助设计师应对复杂的生态与文化挑战，从静态分析走向动态感知，从技术抽象回归身体体验，最终 推动人与场地关系从“疏离”走向“参与”。

Abstract:

With the rapid acceleration of urbanization and technological development, the relationship between humans and sites has gradually shifted from the "intimate" symbiosis of premodern society to the "alienated" abstraction of the modern context. Under the prevailing paradigm of cartography, which prioritizes measurement accuracy and rational schemata, sites are often reduced to static symbols and data models, thereby diminishing the role of bodily perception and everyday experience. This transformation exposes a fundamental dilemma in contemporary design: how to reactivate profound interactions between body and site and reconstruct human-land relations with renewed participation and ethical engagement under the dominance of technological logic. Against this backdrop, the Mapping approach proposed by Anuradha Mathur, landscape architect at the University of Pennsylvania, has emerged as a crucial pathway for rethinking human-land relations. As a "dynamic design language", Mapping transcends the static, singular, and abstract characteristics of conventional cartography by revealing the latent features and dynamic processes of sites, thereby reconstructing the cognitive chain between designers and landscapes. Unlike traditional approaches that privilege drawings as the dominant medium, Mathur's Mapping emphasizes bodily scale and multisensory perception as core mechanisms of site exploration. Walking, touch, sound, smell, and even embodied memory are integrated into design practice, enabling designers to gradually construct immersive forms of site cognition. This approach not only enriches the dimensions of spatial understanding but also transforms Mapping from a mere recording tool into a generative, critical, and practice-oriented design medium. Operationally, Mathur introduced methods such as "sequential photography" and "photo-walks", using bodily trajectories and sensory records as instruments of site interpretation. These practices allow designers to capture subtle variations and hidden characteristics, generating spatial knowledge rooted in dynamic interaction. Meanwhile, techniques such as light-shadow layering and narrative sectioning integrate topography, hydrology, vegetation, and human activity into multidimensional visual representations, thereby surpassing surface appearances and revealing the ecological processes and cultural semantics embedded within sites. The common feature of these methods lies in the principle of "site as experience, perception as intervention", transforming design from a passive act of representation into an active practice of participation. In the realms of education and scholarship, Mathur positioned Mapping as a core component of design pedagogy, particularly in the Penn Design 501 course. Through sectioning, photographic recording, and drawing, students are encouraged to approach sites with openness and exploratory engagement, moving back and forth between bodily perception and graphic representation to uncover hidden logics and relationships. This experience-oriented teaching philosophy not only expands the depth and breadth of design thinking but also establishes Mapping as a vital tool for cultivating spatial sensitivity and critical awareness. Importantly, such pedagogy is not confined to technical training; it fosters a new mode of design thinking that enables students to integrate ecological processes, cultural memory, and embodied experience when addressing complex environmental challenges. Therefore, the significance of Mapping extends beyond a design methodology - it represents a paradigmatic shift in reconstituting human–land relations. It responds to the limitations of contemporary design dominated by technological abstraction, emphasizing instead the reconnection of humans and sites through bodily experience and sensory pathways in the face of complex ecological and cultural challenges. Mapping propels design from static analysis toward dynamic perception, from technological abstraction back to embodied experience, ultimately enabling the transition from "alienation" to "involvement" in human-land relations. This study not only offers a systematic review and methodological enrichment of Mapping theory but also provides new insights and value orientations for the advancement of landscape architecture education and practice, contributing forward-looking perspectives to contemporary cities and landscapes in an era of increasingly urgent ecological ethics.