PREFACE Climate changes are affecting cities all over the world. One of the results of climate changes is increaing amounts of stormwater runoffs in the cities. Precipitation rates are increasing, more stormwater runoffs is produced, which leads to polluted water bodies, and has become a common problem in the urban environment. Human relationship to water is a paradox since we wish to be close to water, e.g. by development projects at the waterfront. Nevertheless, in a time of climate change, the awareness of water as something intimidating has increased, and we tend to treat water as a problem instead of a resource in our urban environments. This phenomenon has lead to an interest to work with stormwater management as a potential to make cities greener, add aesthetic value and contribute to a more sustainable city development, human well-being and livability. The thesis investigates and proposes a design solution using the urban landscape for stormwater management and recreation, and investigates how the combination of these may create syngergy effects that serve the city, it citizens and other co-habitants. The proposal, ’Rörsjö Canal Park’ in Malmö, combinesstormwater management with recreation. The proposal uses natural techniques in the landscape to manage the stormwater runoffs from a large catchment area, received from the city, before it is discharged into the canal. The vegetation and the water serves as aesthetic performers, and create attractions and experiences in the landscape.
towards stormwater as a resource - a design proposal for a multi-beneficial landscape along the canal in Malmö
The analytical framework of the thesis is based on an interdisciplinary approach. The role of the landscape architect and urban designer in a climate change adaptationand urbanization perspective demands an extention of the knowledge base to ensure sustainable solutions for the future. A way of rethinking the city structures is by designing multi-beneficial solutions, aiming to serve more than one purpose, believing that combinations of aspects in a design create potential synergy effects. Also, in a time where urbanization leads to densified cities, the aspect of nature as an aesthetic performer becomes even more essential to keep both cities and humans healthy. The design proposal ’Rörsjö Canal Park’ combines these aspects as a reflection of the challenges and potentials that the urban landscape holds.
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malmö canal analysis sweden
malmö
Section Slottsparken Malmö canal is located in the city core of Malmö on the South-East coast of Sweden, as illustrated above.
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Section the eclectic harbor
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2015 canal coherency
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The space that makes the ‘canal room’ consists of the two sides or edges along the canal and the water surface. There is a lack of coherence in some parts of the canal, especially along Rörsjö Canal, where the open landscape is dominated by the car.
Section the Rörsjö Canal
canal transitions The canal has gone through numberous changes through the history, but has always been a central part embracing the city core. The ’golden days’ where the canal was part of the city defense shaped it, resulting in the triangular forms and the clear lines that has been part of the canal’ identity ever since. After the canal lost its function as part of the city defense, it became a central place for recreation and represented a green oasis in a rather dense city structure. This is illustrated on the images to the left, which shows a canal space consisting of trees and lush vegetation. Since the car became part of the city structure, the canal has lost its identity as a historic remnant and as a central green public space. In an urbanization perspective, the value of the canal space will increase with a densified urban struture. The canal represents a central blue-green public space situated in parts of the city where there is a lack of parks and green connections, while also representing a strong identity potentially linking the past, present and the future by unfolding the existing potentials.
catchment area 20km2
the water situation Approximately 800 million litres of water flow in the canal and consists of a mix of salt water from the sea and of contaminated fresh water from the city’s sewers. The canal is also affected by a constant shifting water flow. Due to an old, combined sewer system, all the water from the catchment area is led into the same pipes, including water from rain. The system is built from the centre of the city and outwards, meaning that all the water have to pass the centre before it reaches the treatment plants in the north. This creates a sewage funnel effect, where high pressures in the pipes result in frequent discharges of contaminated water in the canal. The catchment area that the canal function as a recipient for, is approximately 20 square kilometer, as shown in the illustration to the right. The canal is situated in the lowest point, and the water flows are led naturally towards the canal. The highest pressure is on the southeast side of the canal, where the catchment area is largest.
MINIMÆLK 1 liter
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rörsjö canal analysis atmosphere The atmosphere in the part of the canal called Rörsjö Canal distinguished itself from the rest of the canal; the long, monotonous stretches dominated by car traffic affets the experience of the canal space adversely. The trees along the south east side of the canal are sick, the benches directed towards the road and the condition of the spatial components in general poorly maintained. See pictures below.
edge analysis
The layout of the edges determines the physical and mental access that humans have to the canal. Analysis show that there are long stretches where the physical contact to the canal is impossible, the edges are unaccessible due to their ratio of slope. Along Rörsjö Canal, the layout of the edges was significally less accessible than the rest of the canal, and was perceived as a vertical barrier. A redesign of the edges so that they become horizontal connectors would add value to the canal space along Rörsjö Canal.
new pedestrian connection
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Rörsjö Canal was a place for strolls and social gatherings 200 years ago, and there is still a strong interest for these activities today. Walking, jogging, bicycling, being social, walking the dog are activities that are poular along the canal today as well. In the Rörsjö canal, the long linear stretches remains from this period, but the car is dominating today. The car
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metamorphosis
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ap was given space, and the vegetative structure and the existing paths were abandoned. The historic remnants and the contemporary needs should represent the Rörsjö canal, contributing to a new meaning and identity for the canal and the citizens.
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r uli rie .pa ch bar ad t s a ro ur ch for the d nee ards The map illustrates the potentials and challenges along Rörsjö Canal. The tow
potential map
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area holds potential of becoming a new green oasis with a peaceful atmosphere, linking the existing green structures and movement lines in the context. A barrier towards the road would encapsule the canal space, making it more physically and mentally accessible to pedestrians.
rörsjö canal park
Engineered soil layer -sandy loam (where the plants grow) filter media
- towards stormwater as a resource
Rörsjö Canal
Transition layer -coarse sand Drainage layer -fine aggregate / course sand/gravel
design principles
rörsjöpath stormwater runoff inlet point
1+1=3
store,retent, sediment
stormwater management and recreation create added values together
Use vegetation to encapsule the canal space
Create green links to the contextual spaces
Use the historic remnant; linear lines, triangles
Create spatial coherence across the water surface
raingarden filtration
The concept and the design principles for the design proposal are based on the problem definition, and made spatial as a response to the previous analysis.
filter media transition layer drainage layer
The edges along the canal are extended creating a new landscape.
The vegetation serves as multi-beneficial and are the aesthetic performers.
Create niches and movement lines in connection to the canal.
water management
purified water discharged to canal
Manage and purify stormwater runoffs from the city due to 5mm rainevent.
The stormwater runoffs from the city are temporary stored under Rörsjö Path and in triangular retention basins. It flows over to the raingardens, where the water is purified before discharged to the canal, as illustrated above.
northwest side
southeast side
- stormwater management, movement dynamic, intimate
- sunny, longer stays towards canal
South Path
Rörsjö Path Green Mat
Canal front niches Canal
Raingardens
Lush Edge
Existing road
section a scale 1:100
canal park ribbons
green mat Police Department
wooded raingarden
meadow lush edge
Appartments
canal front
Bridge all sm za pla ay lk w on wa necti con
Rörsjö Canal Park is divided into horizontal ribbons that serve different purposes due to the spatial function and character. The diagram above displays the ribbons in a illustrative way.
Museum of Modern Art
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Gravelled path Steel Gittered Walkway
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Lush Edge
Bus Stop
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St Pauli Bridge Gravelled Path
Wooded Pier Wooded Raingarden
The green mat
Rörsjö Park
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Meadow Raingarden Drottninggatan Steel Gridded Walkway
Altona Park
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Water Storage Wooded Platform
Amiral Bridge
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County Administrative Board
an oblong park for new experiences
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The New Latin School
master plan scale 1:1000
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Rörsjö Canal Park is an oblong park of 750 meters, with a landscape on both sides that enables and invites to new movements and stays along and across the canal. The different parts of the landscape that the park consists of form ribbons. The edges have been extended, creating a landscape into the canal with a low slope of ratio making it accessible to humans. On the southeast side, the landscape is extended 10 meters and on the northwest side 3 meters, making the canal surface 38 meters wide. Along the southeast side, the stormwater runoffs are managed and purified using natural techniques. A path and a raised walkway in the landscape along the canal invites to new types of movement, both for recreational and transit purposes. On the northwest side the grasses landscape invites to stays in the sun. In the corner, a bridge connects the two sides of the canal and links the southeast side of the canal and the central city.
flow
meadow raingarden
wooded raingarden
Walking inbetween tall grasses and disappearing a bit with the nature is what the meadow raingarden offers. The shapes, smells and sounds of the insects, wind in the grass, changing flowers and new textures appeals to the eye, the nose, the ears, the fingers. The quiet and embracing atmosphere allows humans to immerse to the space created in the middle of a meadow-like structure, that also purifies the water from the city. Moving on the raised, gridded walkway enables contact with the vegetation and the water beneath, where one is part of the natural processes and their dynamics.
When entering the wooded raingarden, one enters a tunnel of small trees, bushes, grasses, ferns, small flowers where glades frames the view of the canal. It is like entering a small forest in the city, where the wilderness of the vegetation are allowed to form the scene in which one moves. Moving around the water sculptures, one can see and hear the water enter the landscape, and see how the vegetation changes with the presence of water. The vegetation is transformed through the various seasons, making it interesting to enter the wooded raingarden frequently; it is green and flowering, orange, brown, open, dense and embracing.
detail plan a scale 1:200
The Meadow Raingarden and the Wooded Raingarden creates a new movement flows on each side of St.Pauli bridge, where the landscape continues and leans up against the bridge. The start and end point of the raingarden walkways are linked to the existing nodes, and connects to Rörsjö Path. The movement lines are defined by the experience of moving in between the vegetation, through views towards the canal and along the water sculptures where the water enters the raingarden. 0m
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St.Pauli bridge Raised walkway
Raised walkway
Meadow Raingarden
Wooded Raingarden
Water retent triangle Rörsjö Path
Rörsjö Path
Lush Edge
materials
The materials used on the walkways, paths, benches, platforms and piers are in raw tones of grey and warm wood. The raw materials of grey stones, metal and gitter contrasts the organic vegetation and represents the technical function within the landscape.
Exisitng road
rรถrsjรถ path
raingardens
canal front niches section b scale 1:25
The Lush Edge divided the canal space from the busy road, embracing a quiet atmosphere that sets the unique environment along the canal into focus. The eclectic composition of trees, flowering bushes and evergreens contribute to a varied expression, yet following the stong historic landscape lines.
The meadow- and wooded raingarden provides a frame for unique nature experiences where the process and dynamics of the plants and the landscape appeals to the senses by their composition, characters, colors, densities and shapes.
Along the canal front small niches; platforms and piers invites to intimate stays close to the canal with a peaceful atmosphere
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intimate stays by the canalfront
exploring the characteristic meadow
moving between trees and water
viewing the canal on the way to work