Not many people can envision a landfill as anything but a heap of decomposing, rancid trash.

However, Miriam Engler, associate professor of landscape architecture, has the ability to see beauty in not-so-beautiful places — particularly a garbage dump in Israel.

Engler, who has been at Iowa State for 10 years, was chosen as one of 20 international designers to create design possibilities for a closed dump site in Tel Aviv, her hometown.

She’s been working on four concepts for more than a year and will be returning to Israel for an exhibition of the designs on Nov. 16.

“This is not a competition,” Engler said. “It is intended to spur public dialogue, to dispel negative feelings about these places.”

Beautifying places viewed as disgusting is the philosophy Engler uses in her research on marginal landscapes, a term she coined as places of no or negative value where undesirables accumulate, such as industrial ruins, landfills or sewage plants.

Engler heard of the Tel Aviv exhibition founded by the Beracha Foundation and wanted to be part of it.

She is interested in explorable and hidden land sites and claims her interest always has been there, but has grown with her research on marginal landscapes.

“Landscape architecture is a peculiar profession,” Engler said. “It’s more than just parks and gardens. It’s not just what we make but how we relate.”

Hiriya, the dump site outside the city limits of Tel Aviv, is unique because it is very visible and looks like a mountain, she said.

“It’s more than just a place to bury garbage — we shouldn’t push it away,” Engler said.

Engler created four possibilities for the Hiriya design.

The first, “Mausoleum of Entropy,” is like a burial house for all the garbage.

Objects thrown away decompose, but juice that emanates from garbage, called “leachate,” can contaminate the ground water or cause fires if not properly filtered. She proposed that a marsh system be built at the foot of the mountain to prevent leachate from soaking into the ground.

The plants in marshes can clean toxins in the water and filter the run off, Engler said

The second concept, “Museum of Rejects,” contests the societal stereotype of museums by proposing a museum of garbage where people can view garbage specimens, she said.

“It can be done so beautifully, aesthetically,” Engler said. “It is geared toward changing perceptions. The things we put in our garbage cans are ours, we need to take responsibility for them.”

She also proposed that representatives from museums in neighboring cities come to the dump and take garbage back to their museums to leave out for display.

“Coming back to take a piece and bring it back to your city, you have to confront it,” Engler said. “It’s not the devil you thought it was.”

The third idea, “Archive of Subconscious Depositories,” involves the study of rejected goods people don’t want to face.

Engler proposed that archaeologists study what is buried in Hiriya’s 35 years of layers.

Each year, the garbage is covered with a layer of dirt, which helps stabilize the mountain, but also makes it a historical archive, she said.

Finally, “Monument of Unpleasant Necessities” connects Hiriya with the urban systems around it, including telescopes pointing to neighboring skyscrapers.

“Make connections, walk on the mountain and skyline promenade, see all the other built features, and the dump is no different,” Engler said. “[Hiriya is] becoming one of the family, not hidden, it has a purpose. There is not many open spaces in Israel.”

Ingrid Lilligren, associate professor of art and design, said she is excited about marginal lands research because it allows people to look at the environment and themselves in new ways.

“It’s interesting that we treat these areas like we do. Waste and filth and dirt are cast off, pushed away,” Lilligren said. “It’s a little different than an abandoned lot or alley. It’s a sign in our world today because we produce so much waste.”

Marginal lands have become more of an issue in the last 20 years, Engler said, and that is being taught in landscape architecture courses at ISU.