Engaging with soil to extract landscape identity

In an urbanised society where the built environment is becoming increasingly generic, natural systems are being revalued, restored, and used to provide a sense of place. Despite these emerging changes, soil is still disregarded and mostly thought of in terms of its economic value. The underground remains highly unknown for non-scientific disciplines and is detached from what tends to be perceived as the landscape. Targeting the connection between soil and landscape identity, this research proposes a framework that facilitates an understanding of a given landscape and opportunities for personal exploration. Using a case study approach developed in the Wellington region (Aotearoa New Zealand), this research demonstrates that site-specific identities can be extracted from the underground. The proposed methodology can be adapted to different landscape conditions and sizes, conceiving soil as a material that connects to a specific place with specific qualities. Undertaking personal physical engagement with soil as a key part of the methodology, this study finds that a vocabulary of place cannot solely be extracted through a combination of desktop analysis and soil sample processing. By focusing on soil experiments involving horizons, soil profiles, and their combinations, the historic evolution of a landscape through soil memory can be investigated in terms of colour, structure, texture, and proportion. Ultimately, research findings highlight the connection between the aboveground and the belowground, suggesting that soil holds landscape identities that can be extracted to inform material palettes, site-responsive design strategies, and place-based planning decisions that counter the increasingly generic built environment. • Soil is a material that connects to a specific place with specific qualities. • Personalisation of knowledge and engagement with soil can complement soil science. • A connection between the aboveground and the underground can be found. • Site identity can be extracted when relating landscape properties and soil diversity. • The underground can inform a site-responsive built environment.