Conservation

Abstract

If the task of restoration can be mistakenly thought to require a less than vivid imagination, conservation can seem even less creative. Whereas restoration usually implies rebuilding, taking something back to its original state, conservation implies safeguarding, preserving a site or portion of a site in its current state, preventing change. In Ian McHarg’s Design with Nature, one of the key purposes of the overlays of vegetation, slope, hydrology, and so on was to identify the areas that should be off-limits, cordoned off, kept in conservation. Conservation signified a hands-off approach. But conservation can engage the design process in meaningful ways. The delineation of areas for conservation requires planning and design thinking. The principles of conservation—to use little, to minimize waste, to safeguard a landscape that is at risk—can be thoroughly integrated into the design process.