Landscape Design: Rhetoric and Argumentation - Hyperbole

HYPERBOLE AND RHETORIC

• Hyperbole is an extreme form of expression that goes beyond the truth to convey excess or deficiency.
• It is not justified or prepared but fired with brutality, aiming to give direction to thought and guide it towards a favorable evaluation.
• Hyperbole has a generative function similar to metaphors, constructing simulations and stressing possible extreme future consequences and outcomes.

OPERATIVE CONCEPTS AND TOOLS

• Hyperbole can be used to raise attention and awareness on issues, threats, or opportunities that are not evident to a specific or general audience.
• Extreme simulations can be improbable or almost impossible, but they have validity in terms of cognitive support for researchers and designers.

EXAMPLES FROM ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING

• Rem Koolhaas' "S M L XL" book deals with the subject of density in the Dutch territory, imagining two extreme settlement models: Point City and South City.
• MVRDV's "Farmax" book proposes an exercise called "Windscape", which is about the possible location of areas for infrastructure to produce wind energy.
• MVRDV's "Pig City" project tackles the subject of density from a unique point of view: the population being considered is not humans but swine.

EXTREME SIMULATIONS

• Extreme simulations prefigure a negative future very far and different from the reality we currently live in.
• They can look and sound weird or close to fiction, like disaster movies or horror movies.
• Extreme simulations can be constructed not only by researchers, designers, and institutional actors but also by non-institutional actors arising from society.

BEYOND PREPAREDNESS: A NEW VISION

• The Netherlands is a low-lying country with a lot of water, and the Delta Programme protects the Netherlands against high water and flooding.
• A new vision for the Netherlands of 2120 specifies opportunities for the economy, biodiversity, and liveability, giving leading roles to nature and natural processes.
• Hyperbole is implicitly at the basis of a particular type of image of the future: the Vision, which is a complex image of a preferable future constructed and shared by various actors.

HYPERBOLE AND VISIONS

• Hyperbole does not play a role only in envisioning negative futures but also in envisioning positive futures, such as visions.
• A vision is a proper rhetorical construction aimed to persuade actors/people to cooperate toward a common and shared preferred future.

HYPERBOLE AND RHETORIC

• Hyperbole is an extreme form of expression that goes beyond the truth to convey excess or deficiency.
• It is not justified or prepared but fired with brutality, aiming to give direction to thought and guide it towards a favorable evaluation.
• Hyperbole has a generative function similar to metaphors, constructing simulations and stressing possible extreme future consequences and outcomes.

OPERATIVE CONCEPTS AND TOOLS

• Hyperbole can be used to raise attention and awareness on issues, threats, or opportunities that are not evident to a specific or general audience.
• Extreme simulations can be improbable or almost impossible, but they have validity in terms of cognitive support for researchers and designers.

EXAMPLES FROM ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING

• Rem Koolhaas' "S M L XL" book deals with the subject of density in the Dutch territory, imagining two extreme settlement models: Point City and South City.
• MVRDV's "Farmax" book proposes an exercise called "Windscape", which is about the possible location of areas for infrastructure to produce wind energy.
• MVRDV's "Pig City" project tackles the subject of density from a unique point of view: the population being considered is not humans but swine.

EXTREME SIMULATIONS

• Extreme simulations prefigure a negative future very far and different from the reality we currently live in.
• They can look and sound weird or close to fiction, like disaster movies or horror movies.
• Extreme simulations can be constructed not only by researchers, designers, and institutional actors but also by non-institutional actors arising from society.

BEYOND PREPAREDNESS: A NEW VISION

• The Netherlands is a low-lying country with a lot of water, and the Delta Programme protects the Netherlands against high water and flooding.
• A new vision for the Netherlands of 2120 specifies opportunities for the economy, biodiversity, and liveability, giving leading roles to nature and natural processes.
• Hyperbole is implicitly at the basis of a particular type of image of the future: the Vision, which is a complex image of a preferable future constructed and shared by various actors.

HYPERBOLE AND VISIONS

• Hyperbole does not play a role only in envisioning negative futures but also in envisioning positive futures, such as visions.
• A vision is a proper rhetorical construction aimed to persuade actors/people to cooperate toward a common and shared preferred future.

Extreme Simulations and Future Scenarios

• Extreme simulations can broaden knowledge by considering improbable or almost impossible scenarios, providing cognitive support for researchers and designers.
• These simulations can help raise awareness on issues, threats, or opportunities that are not currently evident to a specific or general audience.

Examples of Extreme Simulations

• Rem Koolhaas' "S M L XL" (1995) explores two settlement models, Point City and South City, with varying density levels, testing the effects on the Dutch territory.
• MVRDV's "Farmax" (1998) proposes an exercise called "Windscape" to locate areas for infrastructures to produce wind energy, envisioning vertical farming structures.

Extreme Simulations as a Warning

• Extreme simulations often aim to "shock" an audience about possible negative outcomes, prefiguring a negative future that may seem weird or close to fiction.
• However, some extreme hypotheses can occur, and it's essential to be prepared, as seen in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preparedness and Collective Action

• Extreme simulations can foster preparedness for possible future critical situations, encouraging collective action from various actors, including researchers, designers, institutional actors, and non-institutional actors.
• Examples of extreme simulations for preparedness include The Netherlands' climate change challenges and Amsterdam's possible future sea levels.

From Extreme Negative Scenarios to Preparedness

• The Netherlands' Delta Programme protects the country against high water and flooding, ensuring fresh water and climate-resilient planning.
• A vision for the Netherlands in 2120 specifies opportunities for the economy, biodiversity, and liveability, giving leading roles to nature and natural processes.

Hyperbole and Visions

• Hyperbole, the rhetorical figure of exaggeration, can also be used to envision positive futures, such as in the construction of a vision.
• A vision is a participatory creative imagination process, outlining a general framework for actions and specifying strategies to achieve a shared preferred future.
• Visions act as positive utopias, addressing resources and energies toward a horizon of meaning, implicitly acknowledging that what matters is the actual improvements gained during the process.