In the postmodern era, landscaping is stepping further than aesthetic or as scenographic screening for environments engineered and instrumentalized by other discipline that tends to be irrelevant to global urbanization. Landscape is called to take on greater responsibility, particularly in addressing the environmental and social challenges of urban environments by helping to “clean up” and rejuvenate the post modern cities and industrial sites.
In the concrete jungle we are living in today, natural landscape is a new organizing medium of the contemporary city ecologically, socially, and economically which claims to be more efficient, cheaper, and flexible than buildings / large-scale hard infrastructure) It is capable of identifying opportunities for ecologically responsive design to address the rigidity of the existing urban form as well as the lack of environmental consciousness in formal urban design. In Landscape Urbanism, Weldheim claims landscape as a remediating practice, a more critical and responsive strategy today, a band-aid that is overall more efficient to heal the wound left by industrialization. A catalyst for reviving the city from different aspects.
Start off with… landscape as the remediating practice for the wounds of the industrial age, retrofitting into existing (often leftover) urban environments to rejuvenate new spaces…
Social Impact
Duisburg Nord Landscape Park in Germany (Figure 10) is a striking example of adaptive reuse and industrial heritage preservation. The design approach was to integrate, shape, develop and interlink the existing patterns that were formed by its previous industrial use, and to find a new interpretation with a new syntax. transforms the former industrial site of a steel mill into a public park while retaining key elements of its industrial past. The existing fragments were to be interlaced into a new “landscape”. Created collectively as an artwork by engineers, and cautious vegetation management with the help of the gardeners.
Figure 9 : Gas Work Park in Seattle Figure 10: Duisburg Nord Landscape Park in Germany
Gas Work Park in Seattle, Washington, is also a prominent example of landscape architecture that transforms an industrial site into a public park, blending historical remnants with natural elements. Designed by Richard Haag in the 1970s, the park is build on the site of a former gasification plant that operated from the early 1900s until 1956. (Figure 9) He described his work there as “thinning the forest,” a reflection of how he edited the conglomeration of industrial towers, stacks, pipes, and sheds. Unused industrial equipment is turned into a picnic shelter and play barn, housing a maze of brightly painted machinery for children. It is considered revolutionary for its reclamation of polluted soils using the natural processes of bioremediation.
Cultural Impact
Looking at a urban (larger) scale, natural landscape could serve as a mean of stitching of infrastructure into urban fabrics as reflected in the Barcelona peripheral road project, These project shows how landscape could intervene softly and create such big impacts in different context, from agriculture reservation in Trinitat Park, Tram Park (Figure 1,2) in reorganizing the existing transportation infrastucture in multiple layer, Ciutadella (Figure 3) Park that manage to preserve the remnants of the old fortress walls, thereby recovering various historical layers of barcelona city. The proposal of Central Park (Figure 4) that manage to consolidates an important access axis to the city as a green corridor and social connector, combines leisure with biodiversity & ecological restoration, managing water runoff and enhancing local ecosystems.
Figure 1 to 4 , from left to right
Environmental Impact
NBS unarguably has the most prominent effect in the environment among all aspects, project around the world have approached NBS over large infrastructure as a solution to overcome the environmental issue, and a few projects referenced from Nature-based Solutions Initiative (NbSI) based in the Departments of Biology and Geography at the University of Oxford are listed as below:
- Reimagined Vacant Lots (Detroit, USA)
- Green Watershed in Yunnan,China. (Figure 5)
- The Eddleston Water project, funded by the Scottish Government (Figure 6)
- Stormwater management in Norway’s abandoned airport
Figure 5 : A participatory and integrated river basin management in China. By advocating for social and environmental assessment it hopes to influence decision-makers, thereby preventing or reducing the volume of large hydropower dams constructed along the Yunnan’s rivers resulting in the displacement of the Naxi communities.
Figure 6: NFM tools such as river re-meandering, tree planting, and the creation of new wetlands, to slow the speed and impact of floodwaters and create new wildlife habitats such as improved spawning for salmon. Flood risk downstream has been reduced by 30% by planting trees and cross-slope hedgerows in the upper catchment, building log dams across side streams, re-meandering the river, and removing embankments to reconnect it to the floodplain.
Economical Impact
Projects that apply NBS in a smaller scale + city centre
- Uptown Normal Circle and Streetscape
This streetscape retrofit project incorporates stormwater management and public recreation into a vibrant gathering space that also encourages economic development (Figure 7). Researchers’ communication with the Bloomington-Normal Marriott hotel indicated that there had been four professional conferences held in Normal because of the completion of the traffic circle (AIA Illinois Chapter, Illinois Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management, Illinois Association of Wastewater Agencies, Illinois City/County Management Association, and Illinois Chapter American Planning Association).
Figure 7
Designed by Arup, it provided local residents, employees, and visitors with a new high-quality temporary space, demonstrating subtle landscape intervention with high adaptability to accommodate endless purposes. Monitoring the results of FitzPark in the pre-and post-evaluation study showed that: enhanced walkability and seating opportunities generated a 41% increase in self-reported well-being; 70% positive impact on business; 23% more users came to the street; biodiversity increased immediately, with rapid colonization of wildlife; and general enthusiasm for the improved ambiance for the street – with 100% local-business support. (Figure 8)
Figure 8: Economical progress on NBS project in London town
Compared with environmental benefits which may be predicted in the design phase, many economic benefits (e.g., visitor spending, increased tax base/revenue) are not easy to predict at this phase. (Chris,2016) It takes time for a project’s economic benefits and fiscal impacts to become observable and measurable. However, it is evident in the projects mentioned above that subtle natural interventions can enhance their surroundings, and address environmental issue while implicitly driving economical development.
The “Solution” not the “Manifestation”
There are so much can be done by NBS!! It undeniably plays a significant role, particularly in reviving post-industrial sites or addressing urban sprawl. So to conclude, what is NBS? NBS involve working with nature, as part of nature; is the rejection of reproducing a pastoral image of nature without intervening in their ecological surroundings to address societal challenges, supporting human well-being and biodiversity locally that include the protection, restoration or management of natural and semi-natural ecosystems. They are actions that are underpinned by biodiversity and designed and implemented in a way that respects the rights, values and knowledge of local communities and Indigenous Peoples. (NbSI, n.d.)
Despite the goodness, it is important to identify the capability to achieve equilibrium with built forms. NBS has a relatively limited influence in shaping entirely new settlements as compared to the potential of actual built forms/architecture, looking into the argument brought up by Weldheim’s approach of overly manifesting for landscape. In my view, the landscape should complement the architecture, hand in hand rather than overshadow it. Looking at Atlanta as his study model, it becomes clear that many rapidly growing cities may struggle to afford the spatial demands of a landscape-dominated approach. With the risk of criticism, such as accusations of greenwashing in mind, I firmly believe that landscape has the strongest potential to be a solution (work with the existing) rather than a bold manifesto (build for new) with all the qualities mentioned above. Attempts in overtaking the role of architecture and urban planning by Weldheim to me is absurd, especially with the situation we are in today. Nature can always thoughtfully complement the build form and vice versa to achieve optimal results.
