**1. Introduction**

Soil is one of the most complex biomaterials on Earth [1] in continuous exchange with the terrestrial systems that together with the pedosphere make up our planet: lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere [1].

It behaves as an open, thermodynamic system highly responsive to inputs and outputs of chemical elements and energy [2]. It is divided into 'horizons' having their own physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Soil formation, the so-called pedogenesis, is the result of long processes of interaction between the elements that compose and interfere with it. As a result, soil is defined as a non-renewable resource in reasonable time [2].

Along the pedogenesis dynamism, the environmental conditions that determine the development and soil properties are climate, lithological substrate, morphology and relief, biota, time and also human activities. This last is described as the Sixth Soil-Forming Factor1 [3, 4].

Echoing Logan's words, we suggest that 'A soil was not a thing … It was a web of relationships that stood in a certain state at a certain time' [5].

### **2. The soil as a palimpsest in reading and writing the Landscape**

In western culture, the term landscape is the subject of several semantic discussions and interpretations. The erratic meanings refer to the terms which are treated by the numerous disciplines that affect the landscape and the aspects that make it up [6–14]. In the common and most widespread terminology, it refers to a portion of territory as it appears embraced by the gaze of a subject2 [15–17]. In this establishment, it assumes a high degree of subjectivity, and hence, the landscape is perceived as a phenomenon [17].

Although they cannot give an univocal definition, the various interpretations of the term lead to the description of a place and to the interaction between the elements—anthropic and environmental—that compose and characterize it.

The sustained hypothesis is that this relationship is intrinsically linked to the soil shifting, creating ever new landscapes.3

This statement does not deny the approaches described above and finds support in the short essay drafted by the Austrian pedologist Peter Finke [18]. In 'Soil and Landscape' he affirms 'Soil is the part of the landscape that is less easily observed because it is below the surface. There exist however strong relations between the landscape that we see and the soil below. These relations exist because soil and landscape are affected by the same processes, and also because soils and landscape influence each other' [18]. In fact, these alterations define the spatial heterogeneity and the peculiarities. Therefore, the landscape is perceived in its diversity, even if this does not happen in a conscious way (**Figures 1**–**4**).

The discontinuity of edaphic factors contributes to the intriguing diversity of ecological patterns found in nature (**Figures 1**–**3**). Perception and spatial transformations are mutually linked and related to spatial arrangement in a symbiotic connection with soil shifting (**Figures 4** and **5**). They all combine to define the framework in which the discipline of landscape design stands and operates.

<sup>1</sup> Already at the beginning of 2000, Daniel Richter, a prominent soil scientist part of the Anthropocene Working Group, argued 'Humanity's expanding systems of food fiber, and water production are now entirely dependent on the management practiced on several billions of hectares of soil.' The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) is an interdisciplinary research group dedicated to the study of the Anthropocene as a geological time unit supplementing the Holocene as first suggests by Paul Crutzen in 'Geology of Mankind' [4]—in which human activity shapes our planet more than nature itself. <sup>2</sup> Art. 1 European Landscape Convention: "'Landscape' means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors" (Council of Europe, 2000). <sup>3</sup> This relationship between landscape and soil transformation can also be traced backwards by following the evolutionary trajectory of the term, which ethimologically meant an action operated on a site—characterizing it—through soil manipulation. In the Latin matrix 'pays-age' the term 'pays' derives from the Latin 'pango', with the meaning of delimiting by sticking pegs. In the Germanic root, 'land-schaft' refers to 'land schaffen', with the meaning of transforming a terrain. Over time, the literal relevance has charged with cultural values, which basically denote an identifiable tract of land influenced by human activities (even if it is simply the act of viewing). As such, in this approach, landscape literally describes the state of altered land as distinct from virgin land before human influence, rather than referring to the subject matter of physical transformations operated on the ground.

*Moving Horizon, Design Praxis through Soil Transformation: A Landscape Manifesto DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110176*

**Figure 1.** *Soil in natural condition at 2000 mt high, Brenta Dolomite (Italy), 2020. Source: author.*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Portion of non-cultivated field in Ravenna (Italy), affected by soil salinization, 2020. Even if the visual effect can be suggestive, salinization is considered a degradation factor in terms of soil health. Source: author.*

#### **Figure 4.**

*Valli del Mezzano reclaimed land, Ferrara, Italy. This satellite view shows the geomorphological element (sandy ancient alluvial meander) beneath the surface, in contrast with agricultural field pattern, in relationship to different soil texture. Source: Google Earth.*

By putting the soil shifting at the center of the design scene, soil becomes a matter that moves over time and space under the action of environmental flows and anthropic agents.

The re-thinking of soil shifting as a primer for landscape design praxis toward a more open-ended and dynamic conceptualization, does not only affect our understanding of landscape on a speculative way. It also calls for a revision of the very

*Moving Horizon, Design Praxis through Soil Transformation: A Landscape Manifesto DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110176*

#### **Figure 5.**

*Critical coastal area (actual situation); design arrangement for dynamic shoreline stabilization. Source: author, from SECAP 2020 Ravenna Authors. SECAP Ravenna 2020.*

methods and procedures, we use to plan and design the territory4 [19–22]. From being a 'background' for the built environment, soil transformations become the 'foreground' or primary order both in landscape design praxis and in theoretical implications, by embedding the soil as a palimpsest<sup>5</sup> [23, 24] in reading and writing6 [25] the landscape.

<sup>4</sup> The concept of 'grounding morphology' emerges as the foreground, and the shaping praxis comes to define a common denominator between fundamental design aspects on several scales approaching territory to design. The most influential practitioners and theorists—in articulating and spreading the ideas of shaping landscape as a fundamental practice—are Charles Waldheim [19], James Corner [20] and Cristophe Girot [21, 22]. They do not directly refer to the word soil. They rather use 'terrain' [21], 'ground' [19, 20] and 'canvas' [22]. In many ways, these three concepts represent an extract of the original proposed research themes. Girot suggests to using a formal mathematical concept to think and design the landscape, by translating threedimensional information into a two-dimensional surface (topology) [22]. For extension is reported a Girot's quote: 'Landscape is the canvas of multiple successive changes, and present-day modeling relates to this culture of change through sets of conventions and signs that eventually enable better choices on the terrain.' [22] <sup>5</sup> Literary a 'palimpsest' is a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing. The term comes from the Greek 'palin psaomai' and means scraped again. This word has been borrowed in other areas to allegorically express the act of rewriting and reprogramming something. According to Paolà Viganò [23] 'The metaphor of the palimpsest alludes to the meeting/clash between different times, endless modifications and transformations.' There is great convergence on the figure of the palimpsest. Architects, urban planners, landscape designers, sociologists and naturally historians of the city all seem to agree on the usefulness of the metaphor of the territory (or land) as a palimpsest [23, 24]. <sup>6</sup> In Ref. to James Corner suggestion in 'The Landscape Imagination' [25] "Landscape remains a profoundly imaginative project, requiring both a creative 'reading' and 'writing' of sites. […] Here one might cite a movement from theory to practice, but it is more precise to recognize that both the writings and the designed works are in themselves projects, and they therefore share the same impulse: to project new possibilities for the field."

To make this effective, it is essential to have a systemic vision — made of visible and invisible connections — linked in an osmotic and symbiotic relationship that passes through soil envisioned as: a diaphragm, an environmental matrix, a project matter.

By proposing a critical rereading between theory and design praxis, the present investigation aims at improving the real impact of our disciplines on the topic.
