The design examples described here show a new readiness to experiment with the dynamics of vegetation. The designers look for strategies for integrating, working with and manipulating the development processes of plants. Their goal is not only to protect nature, but to enrich it through ecological understanding. At the same time, they create space for […]
Category: Wild Urban Woodlands
A lot of woodland, but not only woodland
Reforestation measures, planting for nature conservation, as well as spontaneous processes of succession in declining regions such as the Ruhrge- biet are leading to increasing forestation of developed areas. Even if the increase of wild woodlands in urban-industrial areas is unquestionably valuable, they do not have to be protected at any cost, their natural development […]
A mosaic of different dynamics: the Natur-Park Schoneberger Sudgelande
In the near future, ongoing succession would have led to the complete reforestation of the Schoneberger Sudgelande (Fig. 8). Instead, the decision was made to maintain the rich diversity of form through maintenance and development measures. In certain areas, a few “ruderal woodlands” are to be given over entirely to succession to represent “urban wilderness”. […]
Strategies of the “green guerrilla”: the Schipol airport
On the expansion site of the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, the landscape architects of the planning firm West 8 have planted 800,000 birches (Fig. 7). They chose the plants based on ecological expert opinion from the state forestry institute because birches are particularly suitable for the greening of airport grounds. None of the birds of […]
A landscape for the future: the Thomsen plant in Guyancourt
In a very similar way, Desvigne & Dalnoky have created a concept for the Thomsen plant in Guyancourt near Paris. The project required them to prepare an inhospitable landscape for the construction of a factory and a parking lot for a thousand cars in a very short time at minimal cost. Factories generally have a […]
More a manifesto than a plan: the grounds of the Millennium Dome
The French landscape architects Desvigne & Dalnoky make use of a similar method in their concept for the Greenwich Peninsula Park. They consider the permanence and the transformability of the landscape to be solid principles from which to react to the imponderability of the urban development. In this way, the concept for the London park […]
Using design to work with processes: Oerliker Park
In their design for Oerliker Park, the planning group Zulauf, Seippel, Schweingruber, Hubacher & Haerle uses the ability of spaces to adapt to changing needs as their central idea. The park is intended to be realized in phases in order to accommodate the growth of "Central Zurich North", a new part of the city. Because […]
Idealization of natural images as an inhibition of creative design
Until now, the dynamic properties of plants have played a relatively subordinate role in the designs of landscape architecture. Toleration of dynamic processes in the history of gardens was usually linked with an image of intact and undisturbed nature. This idealized vision made it difficult for the designer to use the dynamics of plants creatively […]
Space for dynamic processes
The prerequisite and, at the same time, goal of designing with dynamic processes is a sensitivity to and a respect for the beauty of that which arises spontaneously (Von-Selbst-Entstanden). A well-informed and careful shaping of spaces to allow the self-development of vegetation is required. At the same time, a helping of courage and a playful […]
A plant is not a stone
A prerequisite for innovative design with plants is the rediscovery of their specific qualities. With unprejudiced perception, free from preconceived ideas, one is in a position to recognize the exceptional and to pursue new avenues of development. A comparison of materials makes clear that plants differ from other media less through their outward form and […]