ABSTRACT
The past decades have been marked by a profound shift in our understanding of the relations between nature, infrastructures and cities. Part of the success with which a project like the New York High Line was met is linked to the fact that it offers a striking expression of this shift (Figure 11.1). Before the rise of the environmental crises we now face, nature served as the support for infrastructures. Roads, bridges and canals were generally located in natural settings. They exploited the productive power of nature to the benefit of mankind. In our contemporary technologically driven world, nature increasingly appears as a fragile entity that is itself in need of infrastructural support. This new and ambiguous condition is among the meanings conveyed by the High Line. Nature is literally on its deck like a superficial layer that needs to be tended as if it were some sort of ornament.
