A Third Skillscape

Gilles Clément is a renowned landscapist at the Ecole Nationale Superiéure pour le Paysage in Versailles. In his Manifesto of The Third Landscape, he defines it as “the sum of the space left over by man to landscape evolution – to nature alone.” He further explains: “Compared to the territories submitted to the control and exploitation by man, the Third Landscape forms a privileged area of receptivity to biological diversity. The variety of species in a field, cultivated land, or managed forest is low in comparison to that of a neighbouring unattended space.”

There is an interesting connection between The Third Landscape and a political pamphlet written in 1789 by Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès titled What is the Third Estate? (Qu’est-ce que le Tiers-État?)

What is the Third Estate? Everything.
What has it been hitherto in the political order? Nothing.
What does it desire to be? To become something…

Sieyès argues that the third estate—the common people of France—constituted a complete nation within itself and had no need of the “dead weight” of the two other orders, the first and second estates of the clergy and aristocracy. From Clément’s perspective, a place that is neither in light or shadow is not governed by the rules applicable to the other two. It came to life from his observation of the Limousin region in France and, specifically, a landscape analysis of Vassivière prepared in 2002 for The Centre d’art et du paysage.

The Third Landscape consists of the spaces in which man gave up to nature in the evolution of the landscape. It regards urban and rural forgotten places, spaces for transit, industrial wastelands, swamps, moors, bogs, but also the sides of roads, rivers and train tracks. Gilles Clément is probably most known for The Planetary Garden concept. If you compare Garden and Landscape – garden is what you design, with all the details and plans. The landscape is not. It is unpredictable. Natural forces govern it. The etymology of the word gardening refers to the enclosure – an area that is protected and controlled. The more control we have, the less diversity is allowed.

Now, let’s imagine, a factory was planned and built. Workers begin coming and going working in shifts. A line of products starts to leave the plant. Everything is organized. To the smallest detail. Production increases and new workers arrive. Day after day. From the employees’ perspective, a good job, good salary and stability continue. However, available options for the product and the people involved decrease over time with the optimization of the work processes and competition. Then one day, the factory is shut down. There was no line up at the gate. People left. Some machines were taken away, and some left in place. Silence took over the production halls. But at the same time, suddenly, the possibilities start to shift. The old factory could become a fancy shopping mall or an art gallery. Or a sports facility. Or the land could be cleared for new development. Meanwhile, it becomes a magnet for graffiti artists and performers. Tall grasses start to take over the pavement. The dynamic of the abandoned space is far more significant than when it is used exactly as planned. An idea of space exemplifies the possibilities.

There is something magnetic about those empty spaces. Places that are not anymore and, at the same time, that are not yet defined. All there is is a thought, a possibility, a dream, a space for open to opportunity. Many directors selected an abandoned warehouse or factory as the setting for the climax scene in their movie — Japan’s abandoned Hashima or ‘ghost island’ where James Bond’s Skyfall was filmed. Or, think about The London Docks closed to shipping in 1969, and now it is one of the most dynamic areas of the planning and new development.

“Watching wasteland, I am not only fascinated by the energy of nature’s reclamation, but I also want to know how to insert myself in the midst of this powerful flow.” ~ Gilles Clément

At TeamFit, we often refer to Skill Architecture, Skill Maps and Competency Models. Those concepts draw heavily upon the notion of physical spaces. I wonder how much reference there is in what Gilles Clément describes and the landscape of skills? Are jobs, roles and behaviours similar to the light and shadow spaces? Can we see a similar dynamic of the fine-tuned skillsets in a Competency Model to a controlled landscape of the urban park? And if the answer is yes, what about the neither-nor areas? A moment when the old is no more, but the new one is not there either. These are sites for human potential. Will we see bursts of energy, possibilities and unpredicted connections between complementary and associated skills within these forgotten places?

For sure, learning new skills carries the same powerful feeling. I remember very well staring at the monitor attached to Mac Quadra 650 in the lab of Vancouver Community College learning ActionScript in Macromedia Director. It was the summer of 1994. What future will it bring? What job, if any, will I be able to land? Will I be able to use any of my existing skills? Will they help? Should I list in my résumé Architecture or Design? A lot of questions run through my mind. The energy and possibilities seemed endless, especially connecting the past with the not-yet-existing future.

There was another moment I vividly remember. I was standing with Kasia Tarczyńska in front of a wall plastered with panels of our Masters Project. We decided to work as a team on our final dash before leaving school. For our thesis, we selected an abandoned and turned to ruins palace in Słobity, Poland, along with its vast and barely visible park and formal garden. A Third Space, so to speak, but it was before Clément wrote his manifesto. It was a fascinating place, a place visited by Napoleon and by Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia. Until 1945, when the Red Army plundered and burned the palace, it contained the largest private library in Europe containing over 55,000 titles. It was the most significant Baroque palace build in Eastern Prussia.

For several months we had to master many skills not connected to architecture. There was a lot of landscape archeology. Looking from a distance at a relatively young forest and trying to recognize the rhythm of several old trees which marked the long-forgotten main road. During the virtual reconstruction and recommendations for the park, we had to learn and understand the natural cycles of trees and shrubs and their co-existence to propose sustainable and rich vegetation, which will take decades to grow. There was something powerful in this forgotten place, which gave us the strength to find as much as we could about the pre-war Słobity. In 1986, people did not want to answer our questions.

I sometimes fear that in the quest to perfection, with job descriptions asking for exactly right levels of expertise in precisely ten skills – not seven or twelve, ten and only ten, we may lose a lot of potentials. LinkedIn will tell you that for this job, “your application is among 50% of top applicants and that you have six of ten required skills.” If you activate Premium Mode, LinkedIn will tell you which four skills are missing. Later, the application will be reviewed by an AI reader, and if the exact number of skills doesn’t match the job description, your application will be dismissed. It doesn’t matter if you have a very rich skill profile. We need to make sure the full potential is saved, and apart from the direct skills required, we are also able to zoom out from this skill landscape to see more. TeamFit is well-positioned to provide precisely this type of assessment.

For Gilles Clément, the Third Landscape “encourages biological diversity. It is a source of wonder and our guarantee for the future.” We want to do the same for the Third Skillscape.

Ibbaka Posts on Competency Models and Competency Frameworks

Competency models as learning plans