In landscape architecture, history was invoked as a means to create specificity and uniqueness, especially on postindustrial sites, an early example being Seattle's Gas Work Park (1971-88) by Richard Haag, where the relics of a gasification plant were preserved. By drawing on the past uses and materials of a particular place, landscape was conceptually understood as a cultural palimpsest - as one layer among many - rather than a tabula rasa, as had been the case during industrialization. Even on sites where all previous material traces (both natural and cultural) had been erased, history became a way to engage place as designers took inspiration from a site's past (such as previous geometries or materials) to inform their designs.
(Karen M'Closkey, Unearthed. The Landscape of Hargreaves Associates, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2013)
(source: wikipedia)
http://richhaagassoc.com/studio/projects/gas-works-park/
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