Topos 79

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2012

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Small Scale Interventions

Spain Insta ll ations in t he C a p de c reus n at ur a l pa rk · Dutch Waterline re ve a ling historic a l l ay er s · Belgian Coast willow st ruc t ures · Mexico Ephemer a l l a ndsc a pes · Eastern New York State Stone river · China t r a nsforming a work ing l a ndsc a pe · Chile Pa nor a m a of the Coa st · Norway Forest Sta ir · france Pl aces for Discovery in t he a rc ac hon bay · Norway sheltered t rees in G Jø vik · England A Bl a ze of Ligh t · France Roa d wit h a vie w a long t he a rdec he · Special London 2012 olympics

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Cover: Frames. Fragmented landscape, Dale i Sunnfjord, Norway Design and photo: Ivan Juarez . x-studio

V i cto r Té n e z Y b e r n

Tanja Galle nm ülle r

20 Dancing in the Wind

74 Road with a View

Installations in the Natural Park at Cap de Creus

Belvederes along the Touristic Route of Ardèche, France

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At Cap de Creus, Spain, a holiday village gave

L ola D om è n e ch

Juli e tte Bai lly-Maî tr e

30 Roman Forum of Empúries

79 Places for Discovery

entry and serve as signposts.

Accentuating the Roman history of the Spanish coast

Developing the wetlands of La Teste de Buch, France

Turenscape

way to a Natural Park. Corten steel totems mark the

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A skywalk allows visitors to walk through the

M a rt i n K nui j t

83 Arboretum Gjøvik, Norway

A concept for the Dutch Waterline

A global tree garden for young asylum-seekers

Ian McChe sne y

A r i e Hu i sman

restored Qinhuangdo Forest Park in Hebei Province

42 Spherical Bird Observatory

86 A Blaze of Light along the Road

in China without disturbing the wetland.

New function of a bunker of the Dutch Waterline

Aluminium staves at the A66 roadway in Middlesbrough, UK

Ro Kost e r , A d K i l

Fulvi o Rosse tti

44 Moses Bridge

88 Lookout Barbecue Terraces of Seña Vineyards

Crossing the Dutch West Brabantse Waterline

A lookout in the wine-growing district of Central Chile

M a r co C asagr and e

The artistic installation Sandworm is a willow structure on the

Belgian coast that provides a wind protected shady room.

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Belvederes in the Dutch Drentsche Aa area

Wooden paths and a plateau at the Tsunami hit

O li ve r Wai nwr i g ht

Ivan Jua r e z

91 The Games and the City

49 Ephemeral Landscapes

The London 2012 Olympic Park and the fringe projects

Artistic interventions in Norway and Mexico

Pe te r Zö ch

Jon P i ase cki

100 Before, During and After the Olympic Games

54 Stone River

Interview with Jason Prior

A path through the woods in Eastern New York State

coast of Chile are exposed to the natural forces of the

provide an overview of the river basin’s different

spe c ial london 2 0 1 2 olympics

A willow structure at the Belgian coast Mauricio A. Ureta Villagra

Pau Ardèvol

Nikita Wu

46 Sandworm

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Dag ur Eg g e rtsson

36 Sharp as a Knife

wind and the sea.

landscape types.

Ljubi ca H e i nse n

Kongj i an Y u

104 London’s Fresh Outdoors

59 Qinhuangdao Forest Park

Upgraded and redesigned squares, streets and green spaces

Transforming a working landscape in China

M aur i c i o A . U r e ta V i llag r a

64 Panorama of the Chilean Coast

Currents 6 News, Personalities, Competitions, Projects

Experiencing the natural forces of the sea

110 Authors

Todd S aund e r s

68 Forest Stair

111 Credits/Imprint

London 2012

Sti For Øye Sculpture Park in Stokke, Norway

B e r no S t rootman

70 Scenic Viewpoints in a Dutch Landscape

Harry Cock

Belvederes for Drentsche Aa

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The London 2012 Olympic Park is a model

of intelligent ecological planning. The stadiums are conceived as pavilions in the landscape.

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currents

news

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Topos celebrates its 20th anniversary. On this occasion Topos will premier at the 7th Landscape Biennale in Barcelona, where it will host the third day on September 29 and will

Topos Landscape Award 2012 goes to Taktyk – Topos Jubilee Award presented in Barcelona in September

present the Topos Jubilee Awards (www.coac.net/landscape).

goes to Taktyk, a landscape practice with offices in Paris and Brussels led by Thierry Kandjee (above) and Sébastien Penfornis.

The Topos Landscape Award is given annually to a team of landscape architects or a person who has given the profession new impetus and is not yet established in its front ranks. The prize is always exemplary for a specific design approach, idea or interdisciplinary commitment.

The 2012 award goes to the team at Taktyk, a landscape

The “Micro Macro” study by Taktyk explores strategies for existing and future public spaces of the Belgian capital Brussels.

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heit. The huge site used to be a military area, then became an airport. Now its periphery is due for development, whilst the vast emptiness will be laid out according to the proposals of Scottish landscape architects Gross.Max. In Berlin competing claims for the use of a piece of land always entails special consideration of nature conservation, particularly wildlife issues. Be it skylark or sand lizard, the distribution of all species at Tempelhof, and soon Tegel too, will be strictly observed under the directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. Now that Tegel will continue to be operational, many more interesting discussions about its after use are anticipated.

On the occasion of its anniversary Topos will premier at the 7th Landscape Biennale in Barcelona, where it will host the third day on September 29. (www.coac.net/landscape). ­Topos will take the opportunity to span a wide range of topics highlighting the breadth of landscape architecture. The 2012 Topos Landscape Award winner Taktyk will focus on landscape transformations.

Sébastien Penfornis will explore the notion of serendipity through the landscape design process and transformation.

Herbert Dreiseitl will talk about protection and design

receives the first award. The image shows the Trollstig plateau by Reiulf Ramstad Architects.

Call for submissions: Urban Quality Award 2012

of resources, primarily water, and Kathryn Gustafson will consider concept and design by example of her projects.

On the occasion of Topos’ anniversary two further awards will be presented, both of which, together or separately, will draw attention to crucial aspects of our work. The first Topos Jubilee Award goes to the Norwegian Tourist Route project. The initiative was launched by Norway’s public authorities and comprises infrastructure proposals involving landscape architects, architects and artists. Structures in the landscape is the theme, which lends itself to discussions (for more about the Tourist Routes see Topos 74, Topos 57 and www.nasjonaleturistveger.no) The second Topos Jubilee Award goes to Abalimi Bezekhaya for a successful bottomup initiative in Cape Town’s townships in South Africa.

Initially families were taught how to grow vegetables, which

Idem-Network

The Topos Landscape Award 2012

state advisor who is based in Brussels. Sébastien Penfornis is an architect, urban designer and guest teacher and is in charge of the office based in Paris. The work of the Topos Landscape Award winners will be presented in issue 80, which will mark the magazine’s 20th anniversary. (www.taktyk.net) The Award was presented to Taktyk on June 5 in Berlin in the course of the Topos conference on the future of Berlin’s airports. The postponed opening of the new Willy Brandt Airport in Brandenburg has triggered intense debate on the conversion of the existing sites at Tempelhof, Gatow and Tegel. Vast areas will be available for redevelopment. So far the focus was on Tempelhof Airport, which is now called Tempelhofer Frei-

Reiulf Ramstad Architects

Taktyk (2)

The Norwegian Tourist Route project

practice with offices in Paris and Brussels led by two directors, Thierry Kandjee and Sébastien Penfornis. Taktyk’s multidisciplinary work is based in urban environments, in cities with diffuse or compact characteristics of urbanity.

Responding to heterogeneous and complex challenges in the intersection of landscape, infrastructure and the city, the practice acts as a conductor, curator and mediator of complex transformation processes.

Their projects range from the design of public space, urban renewal and post-industrial scenarios to prospective studies. Taktyk engages in citymaking through practice, research, design studios, editing and art installations.

Thierry Kandjee is a landscape architect, lecturer, editor and

was followed by literacy and health programmes, organic micro farming and, finally, ­design of the townships’ public realm. (www.abalimi.org.za) Both projects will be presented and discussed at the Topos conference in Barcelona, and featured in Topos 80, due to appear in September 2012. It is about the relationship of ­architecture and landscape as well as the fundamental requirements for a livable environment, even in difficult conditions.

Robert Schäfer

The second Topos Jubilee Award goes to Abalimi Bezekhaya for a successful bottom-up initiative in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa. The 49th IFLA World Congress will also be held in Cape Town from September 5 to 7 under the topic of “Landscapes in Transition” (www.ifla2012.com).

Since 2006, Eurohypo Bank and Topos Magazine have awarded prizes for successful examples of urban development. This year’s Urban Quality Award (formerly the International Urban Landscape Award) focuses particularly on urban spaces and neighbourhoods that provide public benefits and are regarded as amenities by the population.

The Urban Quality Award will honour urban planning and architecture that positively influences the experience of public space. The competition is open to all buildings, areas, open spaces, squares, ensembles and infrastructure that are not perceived or used solely for private or commercial purposes but accepted and enjoyed by the general population. The judging process will evaluate the extent to which there is a successful interplay between built and open spaces.

The competition is open to landscape architects and architects, private and public-sector developers, investors, planners and other social groups. Projects must have been implemented in the last three years or be close to implementation: in other words, they must be no longer in the conception phase and have proven their feasibility.

The Urban Quality Award 2012 is open to submissions from projects in Germany and France. The languages of the competition are German and English. The award sum is 50,000 euros.

Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2012 Shortlist announced: 15 October 2012 www.urbanqualityaward.com

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Martin Knuijt

Sharp as a Knife The Dutch Waterline, a historic defence system, is nowadays a cultural heritage site which has been developed as an important recreational area. A series of interventions add a contemporary layer to the historic defence features.

Sometimes, a landscape intervention can be almost the same thing as taking a single photograph that explains an entire situation.

Contemporary signs in the landscape contribute to the transformation of traditional, rural landscapes into today’s urbanized, post-productive landscapes. These signs are related to recreational use of historic landscapes like the Dutch Waterline – De Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie – a former defence system.

Small interventions contribute to recognizable and readable landscapes that reveal history rather than function simply as design elements or reconstituted elements.

Dutch Waterline The New Dutch Waterline was constructed in the 19th century to defend “Fortress Holland”, including Utrecht, against enemies from the east. The Main Defence Line of the Dutch Waterline is about 85 kilometres in length and runs through three different types of landscape. The structure was designed to create a resistance zone, taking advantage of the fact that the Netherlands is close to sea level and can be inundated. The Line, which had additions in the 20th century, contains intensively and extensively defended zones. In its totality, it forms a complex system of elements. Spread along it are a sequence of citadels, a great many smaller objects such as sluices and other water-scientific works, and later-added bunkers. The Main Defence Line is special: Hidden and tucked away, in its purest form the Line

Interventions along the Main Defence Line such as cuts, which allow a view of the landscape, give visitors an understanding of the structure. The cut along the Shielded Community Road, designed by OKRA and BunkerQ, demonstrates the original heights and proportions of the defence wall.

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Mauricio A. Ureta Villagra

Chilean Coast

Panorama of the

A wooden plateau and paths placed on the spectacular rocks of the Chilean coast near the small town of Infiernillo are exposed to the forces of sea. The project pays homage to a special type of Chilean, living near and with the sea: the costino.

Estaci贸n Infiernillo is an intervention on the south central Chilean coast near the humble town of Infiernello which was affected by the last tsunami of 2010. The project arises from a personal initiative to reveal a logic hidden within a coastal landscape. It shows how life unfolds and reveals shifts in the scale of time. It attempts to understand the land in relation to the tireless comings and goings of the waves and the spectacle the sea creates, especially through the life of the lonely coastal character, the costino.

A costino is an inhabitant of certain coastal areas; someone who lives near the sea, who can go to the coast for work or for emotional reasons but whose daily life is inland. Ideally, the costino is a small or medium landowner, a farmer in the best sense of the term, who also has a unique

understanding of the sea. The costino may not have seen the sea, swum in it or walked on the sea-shaped architecture of adjacent cliffs. Yet the sea breezes shape his crops and its humidity nourishes his fruit. His knowledge of the sea arises over space and time, and creates possibilities.

But only he knows what it constitutes or creates.

He has no idea of the sea beyond its functional impact on his land.

My search has to do with the loneliness of a sea-site, where the scale of the self is intensified by vastness of the ocean. Here, silence, tempered by the strong sound of the waves, is the faithful companion of the costino and an enduring emblem of stillness. For the tourist, in contrast, the sea is a symbol of his own untiring movement.

Architect Mauricio A. Ureta Villagra initiated the project at the coast of Infiernillo himself, after a tsunami hit this part of the Chilean coast in 2010. The wooden interventions should help to understand the natural power of the sea.

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Todd Saunders

Forest Stair Sti For Øye Sculpture Park in Stokke, Norway

The Forest Stair viewpoint is both a solitary functional object and an artistic installation. The stairway to nowhere lifts visitors of the art park above the trees and forms a vertical element in the horizontal forest.

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his sculptural installation was designed for the Sti For Øye Sculpture Park in Stokke, set amongst the Vestfold oak forest to the south of Oslo. Working alongside landscape architect Rainer Stange of Dronninga Landskap to create a woodland walk past artists’ installations, Saunders Architecture proposed a series of steel and wooden walkways set at the highest point of the site, looking east towards Slottsfjellet, or Castle Rock. The design plays with the idea of an artificially facilitated foray above the forest floor, an elevated viewpoint otherwise unavailable to the visitor.

The design was whittled down from a set of 20 original ideas, a process we call “a form of Darwinism,” an architectural evolution whereby only the fittest concepts survive. The object itself presents a unique experience, with the rusted, four-tone Corten exterior seemingly harsh against the soft landscape, but as the visitor rises, the contrasting wooden cladding of the inner

surface creates a surprisingly warm environment to reflect the forest. The glass balustrade emphasizes the thinness of the structure, and the installation forms a vertical element that visitors must ascend to lift them above the horizontal forest.

One could call this form a “one-liner in the landscape,” a stairway to nowhere that works through the simple act of lifting the viewpoint a few feet in the air. The solitary staircase has a Surrealist appearance or evokes a long-lost ruin, the last remains of which exist in the depths of this remote wood. The site was intensely and thoroughly surveyed, resulting in a contour map accurate to 25 centimetres.

The final structure was flown in by helicopter.

The careful surveying ensured that not a single tree had to be cut to accommodate the new stairway to the sky, and the ambitions of the project were realised. Meticulously observed as a component of its surroundings, the viewpoint is the solitary functional object in the art park.

The sculptural staircase is constructed of Corten steel,

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Forest Stair, Sti for øye Sculpture Park, Stokke, Norway

timber, and glass. Up in the

Client: Stokke Municipality and Sti For Øye Sculptural Park

air, visitors can enjoy the

Architects: Saunders Architecture, Bergen, Norway; Todd Saunders, Attila Béres, Ken

views of the landscape. The

Beheim-Schwarzbach; landscape architect: Rainer Stange, Dronninga Landskap

glass balustrade heightens

Size: 30 square metres, 11 metres length, 1.2 to 3.5 metres width, 4.5 metres height

the experience of standing

Completion: January 2012

above the treetops.