Abstract

Architecture is always about showing itself off, accentuating things or issues purposely, bringing them to presence so that occupants can engage with them. No one wants to hide his/her architecture in the background. There are different ways and tactics to foreground architecture, or to highlight certain issues by utilizing the artistic aspects of architecture. This article explores the ways in which landscape architecture might highlight the necessity of sustainability, foregrounding it in a way that engages people. Such engagement with an issue brings it to the forefront, makes us more conscious of it, and causes us to think about it more deeply and responsibly. The High Line Park in New York City, formerly a railway but recently transformed into a park, was chosen to examine this possibility. The relevance of the High Line project to this research is not just its status as a green project in New York City, but rather its ability to represent the indispensable need for such spaces in cities and its capacity to foreground sustainability by critically revealing new aspects of the relationship between nature and culture.