MLA/MA Landscape Architecture Graduate Catalogue 2020 by ESALA.ECA

MLA

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

ESALA 2020

INDEX -

G A R N O C K VA L L E Y A N D A R D E E R P E N I N S U L A

NORTH C OAST L ANDS CAPES

O S LO ST U D I O

204

ACKNOWLED GEMENTS

275

CHRIS RANKIN, HELEN WILLEY & SHEENA RAEBURN

ELINOR SCARTH & ANAIS CHANON

L I S A M A C K E N Z I E & C H R I S T O P H E R G R AY

KILBIRNIE

DA L RY

K I LW I N N I N G

RIVER GARNOCK

ARDEER 01

09 07 08

F I R T H O F C LY D E

IRVINE 03

0 4

4 km

RIVER IRVINE

N AV I G AT I O N (EXTRA)ORDINARY L ANDSCAPES OF THE G A R N O C K VA L L E Y & A R D E E R P E N I N S U L A

A R D E E R L A N D S C A P E R E M E D I AT I O N

F LO O D I N G T H E L A N D S CA P E

ARDEER ECO-ISLAND RESORT

T H E R E J U V E N AT I O N O F P I T C O N PA R K

I R V I N E N E W T O W N 2 .0

# R E W I L D I N G G A R N O C K VA L L E Y

THROUGH THE RUINS THEY ARE FORGED

E X P LO S I V E P OT E N T IA L

C E L E B R AT I O N O F S O U N D

G L E N G A R N O C K S T E E LW O R K S

WA K E U P B E F O R E I T ' S T O O L AT E

CHRIS RANKIN, HELEN WILLEY & SHEENA RAEBURN

JAC OB BR OWN

VICTORIA JOHNSON

DANIEL LE BOURHIS

MARGAUX LE QUELLEC

VEGAS LI

KAISA MIKKOL A

ISABELLE MILNE

N O R A N A N O VA

JOY R E I D

SARAH SHU

B R YA N S I N

The study area for the MA4 Landscape Architecture students was the Garnock Valley in Ayrshire, south-west Scotland. The study area follows the River Garnock and its tributaries for 25 km from the Muirshiel Hills in the north to the confluence of the river with the River Irvine where they flow into the Firth of Clyde at Irvine Harbour. The study area takes a wide variety of landscapes both ‘ordinary’ and extraordinary; including Irvine New Town and smaller towns of Kilbirnie, Dalry and Kilwinning, the former Nobel Factory site at Ardeer Peninsula, the designed landscape of Eglinton Estate, agricultural land, former industrial docklands, SSSIs, grouse moors and country parks. The resultant projects coming out of the studio reflect the broad range of issues, both local and global, that landscape architects can and must understand and engage with. These include; designing resilient public spaces that can absorb flooding and re-engage local people with their local landscapes, the socially conscious regeneration of derelict brownfield land, imaginative engagement with former industrial sites, strategies for rewilding and the celebration of the ‘everyday’ in urban and rural landscapes. Overall the work is diverse, imaginative, individual and taken together presents an alternative vision of how the landscape of Scotland could evolve to meet challenges of an uncertain future.

C H R I S R A N K I N , H E L E N W I L L E Y & S H E E N A S H A E B U R N | G A R N O C K VA L L E Y

(EXTRA)ORDINARY L ANDSCAPES OF THE G A R N O C K VA L L E Y & A R D E E R P E N I N S U L A

1 | figure name and description - including credits

01 A R D E E R L A N D S C A P E R E M E D I AT I O N G A R N O C K VA L L E Y JAC O B B ROW N

The design is founded on an exploration (site visits and research) of the historic traces and context of the landscape. One of the key characteristics of the Garnock Valley is water. This element runs through the entire valley, but is often overlooked or not utilised to its full potential. The historic uses of water provide a precedent for shaping the valleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future. New water networks are implemented by using the historic water traces as the basis. This forms the strategy and a framework for the more detailed design and site selection. The site is the Ardeer peninsula at the southern end of the valley, between the Irish Sea and the River Garnock. The important historic traces are the former Stevenston Canal used to transport minerals and coal to the port in nearby Saltcoats and the Nobel explosives factory. The design uses these to create a new canal network for the mitigation flooding in the area and for the ecological remediation of the landscape over time. Through establishing a new housing framework it makes possible living alongside and using water for recreation, which then improves the way people perceive water in this part of the Garnock Valley.

1 | Spatial masterplan and the surrounding landscape

JAC O B B R OW N | A R D E E R L A N DS C A P E R E M E D I AT I O N

2 | Detailed masterplan 3 | Central canal 4 | Looking north along the central canal. 5 | The rectangular basin: recreational use defined by planting. 13

02 F LO O D I N G T H E L A N D S CA P E R Y E WAT E R , D A L R Y VICTORIA JOHNSON

The Flood River runs parallel to the River Garnock and collects excess water during high water levels, relieving pressure on the towns of Kilbirnie, Dalry, Kilwinning and Irvine. At the end of the Flood River, in the northeastern part of the site, the water collects in a final flood plain, just outside of Dalry. The landscape is already prone to flooding but the design aims to do this in a more controlled manner, increasing the capacity for holding and slowing down the water. The design project uses four main interventions to deal with the flooding. The topography is modified by extracting soil to create floodplains and then using that soil to build up mounds to the north of the site to hold water and connect to the Flood River mound that enters the site from the north-east. Two gabion walls on each end of Rye Water help hold water as they work as barriers that create pools at different levels. The porosity of the material allows water to seep through, controlling the flow of it. Check dams are built to slow down the water before it enters the flood plains. They are made from single rows of gabion walls that, again, allow the water to slowly seep through. Tree planting provides an extra level of flood prevention as the trees help soak up water. They also help improve biodiversity at the site that is currently heavily grazed and help restore the landscape to better withstand flooding.

Flood River

River Garnock

Dalry

1 | River Garnock catchment with the site

V I CTO R I A JO H N S O N | F LO O D I N G T H E L A N DS C A P E

Camphill Reservoir

V I CTO R I A JO H N S O N | F LO O D I N G T H E L A N DS C A P E

2 | The design at high water 3 | Mound of the Flood River reaches the site 4 | Viewing platform made from gabion steel cages 5 | View down towards the flood plains during low water conditions 19

Stopping point Main pathway Alternate path / high flood path Exploratory path

03 ARDEER ECO-ISLAND RESORT T H E PAT H T O C O A S TA L R E S I L I E N C E DANIEL LE BOURHIS

The Ardeer peninsula once consisted of a tidal river. However, since the 1860s, significant morphological changes caused by the human use of the landscape and the ICI explosives factory resulted in the river eventually disappearing. The project brings the river back to life, creating a unique biodiversity worthy of a biosphere reserve. The site is split between a small resort in the biosphere reserve and a centre for education in coastal resilience. The landscape embraces the existing and new ecosystems in order to optimise resilience. The whole site is pedestrianised. A series of twelve eco-lodges are carefully placed in order to accommodate the different environments that the island offers. The Big Idea science centre remains as part of the project and acts as the hub for the educational operations as well as the reception and other amenities in the resort. The pier is restored. Over the 30-year time span of the project, different site-specific interventions are implemented to encourage ecological succession and a use that complies to sustainable planning approaches and resilience of coastal ecosystems.

1 | The site in 2050

DANIEL LE BOURHIS | ARDEER ECO-ISLAND RESORT

2040

2038

2036

2034

2032

2030

2028

2026

2024

2022

2020

LEXICON

CONIFER FOREST

CHANGING FEATURES

FUNCTION 2025

TIDAL RIVER

ecosystem disruption

BLUE DUNES

FUNCTION 2022

gradual inundation

BOG FOREST

ecosystem disruption

DUNE REINFORCE

gradual inundation

erosion

FUNCTION 2041 erosion

salinity intrusion

FIXED FEATURES

FUNCTION 2044

ARMOUR BIOHUT

FUNCTION 2048

TIDE POOL

FUNCTION 2049

FRUIT TREES

salinity intrusion

FUNCTION 2046 ecosystem disruption

ecosystem disruption

DUNE BLOWOUT

erosion

FUNCTION 2037 erosion

ecosystem disruption

SEA GRASS

FUNCTION 2032

ecosystem disruption

erosion

FUNCTION 2042

FUNCTION 2027

gradual inundation

MUDFLAT

salinity intrusion

FUNCTION 2038

BUILT WETLAND

gradual inundation

EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES

EMRBYO DUNE

salinity intrusion

FUNCTION 2033 gradual inundation

SHRUBLAND

gradual inundation

FUNCTION 2031 salinity intrusion

flooding

FUNCTION 2047

ecosystem disruption

TIDAL LAGOON

SALT MARSH

gradual inundation

FUNCTION 2028 ecosystem disruption

FUNCTION 2030

ecosystem disruption

OYSTER REEF

ecosystem disruption

RESORT ACTIVITIES

GREY DUNES

ecosystem disruption

FUNCTION 2028

ecosystem disruption

salinity intrusion

FUNCTION 2023

ecosystem disruption

TIDE FLATS

salinity intrusion

FUNCTION 2040

WHITE DUNES

ecosystem disruption

WATER BASIN

erosion

FUNCTION 2026

gradual inundation

ALGAL SCRUBBER

DECIDEOUS FOREST

flooding

FUNCTION 2043

FUNCTION 2021 gradual inundation

flooding

FUNCTION 2024

salinity intrusion

BIO SWALE

SAND ENGINE

FUNCTION 2020

MARINE MATTRESS

FUNCTION 2047 erosion

ecosystem disruption

REST AREAS

USE 2033

HIKING

USE 2040

VIEWPOINTS

USE 2031

ZIP LINE

USE 2036

CLASS

USE 2037

EXPLORE WILDLIFE

USE 2042

SEMINAR

USE 2047

FISHING

USE 2048

MASSAGE

USE 2041

BIKING

USE 2038

HORTICULTURE

USE 2046

KAYAK

USE 2044

WIND SAIL

USE 2043

HORSE RACE EVENTS

USE 2050

DANIEL LE BOURHIS | ARDEER ECO-ISLAND RESORT

04 T H E R E J U V E N AT I O N O F P I T C O N PA R K BUILDING A PL ACE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY MARGAUX LE QUELLEC

Pitcon is a private estate defined by its industrial past. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a designed landscape covered by over 98 acres of woodland 20 of which is mature coniferous woodland. Although this landscape and the Pitcon manor have been largely defined by the mining past, their character has been influenced by the multiple identities through history: industrial, pastoral, timber production. Apart from its beauty, the estate has large parts of unmanaged land that makes it difficult to access. How could it evolve into an ecological and socially productive landscape? The project uses heritage to reimagine the Pitcon estate. It focuses on revising the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accessibility and social exclusivity, and taps into its potential to become a community park. The design strives to also address contemporary environmental issues like flooding, sustainability and biodiversity.

1 | Historic mapping

M A R G AU X L E Q U E L L E C | T H E R E J U V E N AT I O N O F P I TC O N PA R K

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

05 I R V I N E N E W T O W N 2 .0 U R B A N E X PA N S I O N V E G A S L I Z H I H UA

The project is an urban expansion that aims to enhance the connectivity between Irvineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban side and the coastal landscape by establishing a new focal point for the town. This New Town 2.0 programme consists of a mixed-use development with housing, offices, new industries and retail, and a park in a landscape with existing industry and modified woodland. The mobility network is developed on the existing path system that is reworked to serve both cyclists and pedestrians. The residential settlement is defined by the paths and gaps in the woodland, and designed in a way that prioritises walkability. Great volumes of greenery in form of courtyards, urban forest, patches, corridors, buffers and barriers is used to enhance the experience of the area.

VEGAS LI | IRVINE NEW TOWN 2.0

1 | Layout of the new urban development

2| 3|

VEGAS LI | IRVINE NEW TOWN 2.0

06 # R E W I L D I N G G A R N O C K VA L L E Y C OMMUNIT Y WILDWO ODS FOR AN AGE OF EMER GENCY KAISA MIKKOL A

“The existing model is about the past: keeping ecosystems in a state of arrested development. Rewilding is about the future: an open-ended process that will continue to produce ecological surprises that fill our world with wonder.” — George Monbiot The project #rewildinggarnockvalley aims to restore the wildness of the land in order to build resilient communities that maintain function in the face of climate breakdown. Moving from a place-based to a time-based definition of “native”, the restoration of natural processes is supplemented by the introduction of “future natives” — species that could thrive in a Scotland ridden by rising temperatures, floods, storms and new pests and diseases. The Garnock Valley is among the most deforested areas in Scotland, but by combining three approaches to restoring native woodlands (natural seed dispersal, tree species (re)introductions, and community woodland planting), the tree cover of the area could be increased by 60% in 100 years. The project framework then focuses on making this wild or “self-willed” land accessible to all in order to inspire a sense of respect and responsibility towards the living systems that continue to support life on Earth.

1 | Viewpoint near Dalry

K A I S A M I K KO L A | # R E W I L D I N G G A R N O C KVA L L E Y

2 | Proposed riparian corridor with restored woodlands, wetlands and a community hub. 3 | Before and after. A section of the River Garnock near Kilbirnie with wetlands that help mitigate flooding. 4 | Hiking trail through trial plantations of â&#x20AC;&#x153;future nativesâ&#x20AC;? on the hillside. 5 | Community orchard at the ruins of Kilbirnie House, situated at the edge of the wildwood. 43

07 THROUGH THE RUINS THEY ARE FORGED THE UNFORGETTING ISABELLE MILNE

Finding its genesis in the theories of place attachment and biophilia, this project aims to encourage a sense of stewardship towards the Ardeer peninsula, the former site of the Nobel dynamite factory in Ayrshire. Since the factory’s closure in the late twentieth century, the landscape has become subject to great hostility and stigmatisation as it symbolises the decline of the local economy. The project approaches this head on by exploring the experiences of the local community through memory mapping exercises, using them to build a framework that aims to use the negative emotions to inform positive reattachment and integration with the landscape. This idea is explored further in ‘The Unforgetting’ — a landscape-led therapy programme that encourages participants to overcome their prejudice towards the landscape through a four stage programme based upon a psychotherapeutic relationship. The focus on memories is not only relevant to place attachment, it is essential in understanding the patterns of neglect in the relationship between the community and the peninsula, and how to break these patterns. One way to do this is to reinforce a sense of understanding and reciprocity within the relationship, which is portrayed in this project as the creation of an empathetic landscape. The selected work highlights some of the key elements of the project which uses both theoretical and physical design interventions to create empathy within the landscape. This is done mainly through the flooding of the peninsula, using industrial ruins as vessels in which water is held, moved, meandered, and released. 46

humanity

1 | ‘The Horror’ climbs a mountain of memories, while giant squids frolic in Irvine town centre

ISABELLE MILNE | THROUGH THE RUINS THEY ARE FORGED

lose ur

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;...Imagine the endless sky filling with hues of pink and orange as the sun casts its final rays upon the salt marsh. Insects buzz between tall grasses climbing through the muddy water to reach the surface. Friendly monsters roam the landscape, walking its floating paths and staircases, gazing out in awe at the vast but silent screws which bring river water up into the landscape. The marsh is peaceful, thriving, changing...â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

ISABELLE MILNE | THROUGH THE RUINS THEY ARE FORGED

2 | The Marsh. Imagining the rise from damnation: Archimedes screw x praxinoscope. 3 | The Horror: character development. Using a monster to represent the neglectful relationship between the Ardeer peninsula and the local community. 4 | Ghoul Town. Making friends with the ruins. 5 | The Unforgetting. Advertisement for landscape therapy. 6 | (em)brace. Embracing the future of landscape. Bracing the wind. 7 | Landscape typology exhibition. The landforms originally created as defences against accidental explosions get a new life as flood interventions. 49

08 E X P LO S I V E P OT E N T IA L R E V I V I N G LO S T R E L AT I O N S T H R O U G H P O S T- I N D U S T R I A L A D A P TAT I O N N O R A N A N O VA

Focusing on the former Nobel Explosives Factory on the Ardeer peninsula, this project aims to find the potential in a polluted, hazardous and neglected post-industrial landscape while adapting it to human use. The factory employed more than 13,000 people from surrounding towns, had its own train station, facilities and commercial zone. It served as a local hub for both employment and social life and still has historical and cultural value for the residents in North Ayrshire. However, the closing of the factory and the negligence that followed it have resulted in a lost identity within the local community. The old structures of the factory, its inaccessibility and the nature reclamation processes that occur within it, further widen the mental and physical gap between the locals and the site. In order to revive the sense of identity, community and connectivity, the site is cleaned and adapted for development before implementing humancentred design interventions. The project takes place in two phases. The first phase includes the development of different bio-remediation typologies specifically adapted to explosives post-industrial sites. The second phase includes matching certain human-centred cultural and recreational activities to each one of the remediation typologies.

1 | Finding new uses for the industrial landscape

N O R A N A N OVA | E X P LO S I V E P OT E N T I A L

Land Use

Remediation

Human Use

N O R A N A N OVA | E X P LO S I V E P OT E N T I A L

2 | Land use to remediation to human use: Typologies for the site. 3 | Masterplan 4 | Explosive Train Ride, a post-industrial exhibition on wheels between the mounds. 55

09 C E L E B R AT I O N O F S O U N D ARDEER PENINSULA, IRVINE J OY R E I D

Ayrshire has been home to many famous poets and musicians: Robert Burns, Nicola Benedetti, Biffy Clyro. The proposed park is a celebration of past and current creatives and designed to inspire the next generation. It combines music with food production to make an unusual coupling of themes that both reflects on the past and provides for the future. As we face the present climate emergency, local food production becomes increasingly important, with each piece of land used to its maximum potential to provide for the population. This project is an experimental look at how to combine food production with other land uses — in this case recreation. The site is Ardeer peninsula, the former Nobel Explosives factory that was also used for sand quarrying. The past has created a unique topography which lends itself perfectly to small-scale interventions. A similar approach was used to protect the site’s ecology which has been allowed to regenerate since the factory closed in the 1980’s. This has provided a habitat for a variety of rare insects. The playground, one of five interventions, is located in a quarry pit whose existing character is kept by retaining the existing brick tunnel, sandy floor and trees. The steep sides are supported by terraced raised planters that are used to grow produce. The music theme is manifests itself in the solar powered foot piano, drums, and percussive vegetation such as bamboo.

1 | Playground masterplan

JOY R E I D | C E L E b R AT I O N O F S O U N D

3| Area for older children (6-12) Area for younger children (1-6) Musical area (all ages) Productive area (Food) Resting Area

JOY R E I D | C E L E b R AT I O N O F S O U N D

2 | Looking south-west over the playground 3 | Different areas and flow of spaces 4 | The Echo Tunnel, entrance to the playground 5 | Musical area and raised platform 61

10 G L E N G A R N O C K S T E E LW O R K S E N G A G I N G W I T H A P L AY F U L , P O S T- I N D U S T R I A L S I T E SARA SHU

“Only by engaging with a space can one begin to develop a relationship with it. Meanings are what transform spaces into places.” This project aims to rediscover and create new meanings for the site of Glengarnock Steelworks through the themes of engagement and playfulness. The site was chosen because of the prominent place it used to—and still does—hold within the hearts and minds of the local people. By designing playfully with the younger population in mind, the project addresses the local priorities of economy, community-building and sustainability by giving the younger population incentives to stay and contribute to the future of the area, rather than to relocate to industry hubs such as the nearby Glasgow. As post-industrial sites exist in all corners of the world, the project also aims to deal with current issues of contamination, while looking towards future issues brought by climate change.

1 | Meaningful places of engagement

S A R A H S H U | G L E N G A R N O C K S T E E LW O R K S

Scan for an animated walkthrough of the project

S A R A H S H U | G L E N G A R N O C K S T E E LW O R K S

2 | The Rolling Mills play area 3 | Habitat species studies: flower-rich grassland, mixed woodland, wetland & swale, residential 4 | The fluid-flooding residential area 67

S A R A S H U | G L E N G A R N O C K S T E E LW O R K S

11 WA K E U P B E F O R E I T ’ S T O O L AT E DRAKEMYRE ECO-RESIDENCY MASTERPLAN B R YA N S I N

The initiatives of this project come from the United Nations’ yearly review on trade and environment, titled “Wake Up Before It Is Too Late” in 2013. The review underlines the fragile food distribution system in the current landscapes as well as the trend of migration being reversed. In compliance to Scotland’s net-zero emissions goal by 2045, the post-industrial landscape at Drakmyre Industrial Estates has been proposed to become a testing ground for a new residential typology that contains small-scale, locally sourced indutries and working spaces. Tree planting is a main feature in the landscape strategy alongside with renewable energy usage and climate resilience design e.g. rain gardens. The masterplan is developed alongside with a planting plan on the south along the Rye Water, where flooding is predicted to incresingly occur in the current age of the Anthropocene. Rain garden designs are developed in the detailed design stages as one of the many measurements in this new means of residential typology.

1 | Problem scope mapping in the Garnock Valley

B RYA N S I N | WA K E U P B E F O R E I T ' S TO O L AT E

+ North

6°W

5°30’W

5°W

4°30’W

4°W

3°30’W

3°W

ORKNEY ISLANDS Hoy

Bay

South Ronaldsay

Bro

ugh

Stroma

rso B Thu

Sandside Bay

Strathy Bay

0 4Thurso

Gills Ba

et B

nic

ay Freswick Bay

Ky le

Melvich Bay

Armadale Bay

e ngu

of T o

Dounreay

Tongue

Sinclair Bay

58°30’N

Loch

Hope

Loch Inchard Lo ch La xfo rd

ISLE OF LEWIS

Loc hE

Sandwood Bay

Naver Bay

ribo ll

58°30’N

Kyle of Durness

Cape Wrath

Wick

Scourie Bay Badcall Bay Eddrachilles Bay

10 08 02

07 09 11

58°N

ste

L oc hA

Lochinver

b Ly

Bay of Stoer

Achmelvich Bay

ssyn t

17 14

Helmsdale

Loc Cam hV Loc eyat h ie

Loc hU

rigi

Brora

58°N

Loch Kennort

Gru

Isle Martin

Ullapool

roo

h Ew e Loc

15 18 19

B och

ina

Lit tl e

room

Loch Gairloch

Loc ha

’B

Red Point

hra

vin

Firth Cromart y Loc Loch h A Cu cha len na lt

Loc hD

ven

0 3 Inverness 06

B ea u ly Firth

ill

57°30’N

ch Ne ss

C ch

n sho Ki

a rr

Raasay

ISLE OF SKYE

Loch Carron

Loch L

Loc hS

ch Damh Lo

Applecross Bay

Loc hG

irt h

sg Loch a' Ch r oi

ra yF

ri d

h ui c

To r

Rona

57°30’N

ir th

Tain

re e

F Dornoch

Scalpay

6°W

5°30’W

Loch Sunart

5°W

4°30’W

4°W

3°30’W

3°W

N AV I G AT I O N NORTH C OAST L ANDS CAPES WEST C OAST DREAMING

T H E WAT E R H O R S E P R O J E C T

CARBON WORK

BACK TO THE L AND

102

N O T I M E WA S T E D

108

PLANTING AND HARVESTING

114

REBIRTH

120

DARK AND LIGHT

126

W I T N E S S & E N J OY

132

TURN BACK

138

FUTURE CROFT

144

T H E N O R T H C O A S T WAY F A R E R â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S T R A I L

150

A JOURNEY OF HOPE

156

ELINOR SCARTH AND ANAIS CHANON

STEVEN ANDERSON

LAURA ESPLIN

W E N H E FA N

SOPHIE GRAEFIN VON EINSIEDEL

JIAMING HU

HUIJUN LI

X I AOY U L I U

X I AOY I M A

S H U Y U PA N

A N N A WA L L A C E R E I D

MENA SHAH

RUNKUN SUN

K I N LO C H B E RV I E F O O D TO U R I S M V I L L AG E

162

B E YO N D P I C T U R E S Q U E T R AV E L

168

U L L A P O O L G R E E N WAY PA R K N E T W O R K

1 74

ENGINEERING FOR THE FUTURE

180

INTO THE LANDSCAPE

186

S HA R E T H E LO C H S I D E

192

THE SHORELINE AND THE COMMUNITY

198

J A M I E TA M

WA N G Z H E WA N G

Q I N Y U WA N G

SHEUNG GI WONG

EPPIE WRIGHT

Z I YA N G Y E

CHEN ZHANG

The ‘Outer Hebrides’ by Arthur Geddes, 1955 (Linoprint copy by Elinor Scarth, 2017)

Applecross Bay (Image: Elinor Scarth, 2017)

Actants and assemblages of an Atlantic coast Within the overarching framework of the north coast landscape studio, between September 2018 and June 2020, a total of forty one landscape architecture students studied and explored the landscapes in proximity to the North Coast 500 tourist route in the North West Highland region of Scotland. This landscape context has provided a rich and varied basis of design for a diversity of graduate studio projects. The studio premise took the recently promoted and controversial 500-mile tourist itinerary as a starting point, the successive studio explorations investigated landscape architecture and related concerns by means of design-led research and through an array of investigative lenses. In year one (2018-19) of this two-year series of studios, students focussed their research and design invention in relation to landscape sites influenced by the North Sea coast. This academic year (201920), students predominantly examined the landscapes of the west coast of the North West Highland region, a coastal context under the influence of the Atlantic Ocean and the associated inner waters and sea lochs of that spectacular coastline.

ELINOR SCARTH & ANAIS CHANON | NORTH COAST LANDSCAPES

NORTH C OAST L ANDS CAPES WEST C OAST DREAMING

(1)

(2)

In his forthcoming book, journalist Vince Beiser traces the black market of sand, noting that the seeming ubiquitous substance is actually under threat, disappearing, and often controlled by organized crime. Sand, he notes, is the most used natural resource in the world: Sand is the thing modern cities are made of.

Many beaches now have to be maintained, as human impact has undermined the natural life cycle of beaches. Dams on rivers, industry, building, and so on have all impacted beaches, such that many have to be resupplied with sand, often termed nourishment sand.

The Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Disappearing Sand, New York Times, 82

June 23, 2016

en route to Applecross, photo by Elinor Scarth, 2017

TUTOR NAME | TITLE OF STUDIO

What is a beach actually? It is marginalia, a footnote to the essay that is the ocean. Beaches are many things and can range from rocky outcrops to lush vegetation. But the sandy beach of popular imagination is made up of sediment, of particles coming from eroded coral reefs in the ocean, sediment from the sea floor, eroded sections of the continental shelf, or weathered and eroded rocks from nearby cliffs (1). In Hawaii, volcanic basalt sometimes contributes to the mix, creating black beaches of small-to-tiny particles that are eroded by the constant, lapping wave action of the ocean. Beaches are far from sedentary. They are in constant motion, as wind and water wear away at rocks, coral, shells, and other matter. They also stretch across time as certain minerals, such as quartz and feldspar, are chemically stable and strong enough to last well through erosion, often forming the base of beaches millennia old (2). When plastics are released into the ocean, they join this process, being broken down into smaller and smaller parts and adding to the sand mixture on almost all coastal beaches. Note: an archive of pure sand is an impossibility. No wonder that sand is often seen to flow through time, through the glass timer, to ebb and flow, to move liquidly across the face of the Earth. - Plastiglomerate, Kirsty Robertson, 2016

The tour of Doctor Syntax, in search of the picturesque (Images: William Combe & Thomas Rowlandson, 1817) 84

Ulva lactuca and Sea lettuce, Cyanotypes (Images: Elinor Scarth and Leonie Mhari, 2018)

The highly speculative individually authored projects consider landscape conditions and design provocations across a range of scales. The diverse scope of the projects presented in this catalogue are reflective of the independent positioning and critical thinking of the postgraduate MLA students: conceiving future forms of tourism in the region and designing for the increased pressure diverse human activities exert on the landscapes, studying unique fragile habitats such as montane scrub and Celtic rainforests and developing integrated restoration and conservation schemes within landscape-led frameworks, exploring agricultural practices including the exploration of approaches to urban agriculture, envisaging alternative food-production networks, imagining the future of traditional crofting landscapes, considering the cultural and tangible implications of changes in land use practices such as investigating the potential for afforestation or even the reintroduction of the Lynx.

ELINOR SCARTH & ANAIS CHANON | NORTH COAST LANDSCAPES

It could be argued that the landscapes of the Highland regions and in particular the west coast landscapes embody a romantic perspective that permeates landscape architecture to this day. However, the widely accepted picturesque beauty of the Highland landscapes dissimulates multifaceted contemporary realities and complex social, ecological and political histories. The projects undertaken as part of this studio explored different contemporary landscape architecture questions; for example, examining the shifting coastline, investigating conservation challenges, considering climate change impact as well as imagining anticipated socio-ecological transitions and related environmental concerns.

The studio projects are clearly diverse; however, we may identify shared threads of design enquiry. Within the studio projects there is an emerging studied rejection of the picturesque which is manifest in part through the project representation techniques; the proposals rarely make use of perspective visualisations and there is a tendency to depict processes of landscape transformation as opposed to final project images. Many students chose to explore as a central strand of their enquiry the potential for future socio-ecological transition, focussing upon a specific habitats, ecologies or cultural-environmental relationships. All over the world there is an increasing recognition of the potential and necessity for acknowledging and responding to dynamic changing relationships between humanity and the planet; in the hypothesised era of the Anthropocene and in acknowledgement of the climate emergency, landscape architects have an ever-increasing role to play in reimagining this relationship at all scales of design practice. With this in mind, many projects within this studio aimed to develop inventive modes of observing the landscape; many proposals explore ways of generating shifts in perspective that aim to prompt new means of engaging with a particular site and to provoke alternative ways of viewing oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s place in the world. Invitation to different perspectives in the proposals presented include taking the nocturnal landscape as a point of departure, exploring underwater landscape conditions and the imagining of landscape conditions from more-than-human perspectives.

Jellyfish at Eilean MhĂ rtainn (Image: Elinor Scarth, 2017)

It’s Atomic, active reconnaissance (Images: Elinor Scarth, Indlandsis, GRAFT 2017)

ELINOR SCARTH & ANAIS CHANON | NORTH COAST LANDSCAPES

In this time of increased awareness of climate emergency, creative modes at the intersection of environmental activism and landscape architecture intervention emerge. A number of projects seek to combine modes of artistic intervention with environmental survey and landscape restoration, other proposals focus upon ways in which landscape architecture might manifest as a form of environmental monitoring in which landscape transformation is nurtured through carefully supported stewardship. Many of the propositions endeavour to create conditions which see beyond the Scottish Highlands as a romantic ‘wilderness’ or a space of timeless conservation and recognise that these landscapes rich with cultural heritage and harbouring fragile habitats are also spaces of potential and change. Time-based approaches are indispensable in the work of any landscape architecture practice, and in these projects there is a sense that process presides over image and that temporal approaches take precedent over any notion of immutably ‘finished’ projects in recognition that humans are not the sole authors of the landscape and no landscape is ever ‘complete’.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weathering, then, is a particular way of understanding how bodies, places and the weather are all inter-implicated in our climate-changing world. Weathering describes socially, culturally, politically and materially differentiated bodies in relation to the materiality of place, across a thickness of historical, geological and climatological time. As that part of speech known as a gerund (an -ing word that functions as a noun), weathering also names a practice or a tactic: to weather means to pay attention to how bodies and places respond to weather-worlds which they are also making; to weather responsively means to consider how we might weather differently.â&#x20AC;? - Weathering Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Mae Hamilton, 2018

Dune grasses at Sandwood Bay Beach (Images: Elinor Scarth, 2017)

ELINOR SCARTH & ANAIS CHANON | NORTH COAST LANDSCAPES

All the studio projects this year were significantly interrupted and disrupted by the closure of the school during the COVID-19 related lockdown in March, April and May 2020 and we must congratulate all the students whose work is presented in these pages on their ability to successfully complete their projects in the far from ideal context of physical distancing and isolation. That this be just one point on a fair weather journey and that all the 2020 graduating students weather well whatever the future climate may bring.

01 T H E WAT E R H O R S E P R O J E C T REIFF SITE PROJECT STEVEN ANDERSON

“The location would support a dynamic and adaptive socio-ecological environment, akin to a grand, natural outdoor theatre — a venue or locus where immanent and emergent features of the land and the living environment interact.” “The way in which actants in this water mediated ecological or social arrangement are directly influenced by cyclical processes through time holds relevance to the structure and properties of the icosahedron and its innate and proportional relationships with phi and the golden ratio or spiral — a logarithmic spiral. Crucially information flow towards equilibrium within this abstract construct provides form and composition to separate actant inter-dynamics and informs design of the physical landscape.” In this project vital aspects of human care and healing are mediated by means of involved vocational rehabilitation, where ecological synergies, synchronicity with natural processes and positive feedback systems simultaneously create and provide the therapeutic context. The Water Horse Project is an initial speculative model for a larger scale regional approach to the moderation of tourist access to the Scottish Highlands through local energy production. This title is a reference to the latent and potential energy present in all water bodies. Sustainable energy would be produced in direct association with natural cycles and rhythms — including the tide, sun, salinity and biological cycles. This would dictate tourist access to the site protecting the highland landscape, infrastructure and local economies. 90

ST E V E N A N D E R S O N | T H E WAT E R H O R S E P R OJ E CT

1 | Romantic Highland romanticism, emergence and the platonic solids. 2 | Revision of hydrological systems at project site

ST E V E N A N D E R S O N | T H E WAT E R H O R S E P R OJ E CT

3 | Life cycles, natural rhythms, equilibrium, information flow and water 4 | The economics of space and a modern Highland Clearance - short film and interviews 5 | Still from short film: Water and Geometry 93

02 CARBON WORK G E O PA R K A C T I VAT I O N LAURA ESPLIN

Carbon Work is the culmination of a year’s research examining the climate crisis through the lens of the North West Highlands UNESCO Geological park. Here, the landscape is re-worked by civilians towards an active state of carbon sequestration both on land and at sea. A keystone intervention of seagrass restoration is introduced at Achmelvich bay as a pilot study for expansion along the coastline. The project begins with the deconstruction of ‘the UNESCO Geopark’ and leads to ‘Geo-act’, a manifesto to repurpose the park—from passive science and tourism towards an exemplary site of action where humans mindfully address climate change in a landscape context. By relating the Geopark to the Anthropocene, the final proposal addresses the pressing environmental issues of our age that are felt most strongly and invisibly in coastal waters and in turn, linked to the land. Our relationship with carbon and its localised cycles of interaction with ecology are addressed. Alongside such topics of marine plastic debris, seagrass meadows, kelp forests, wetlands, and the diversification of woodlands in the generation of biochar. The project touches on alternate means of thinking economically with carbon and our collective roles and responsibilities in reshaping landscapes.

LAURA ESPLIN | CARBON WORK

1 | Carbon work: Geopark activation

STEROID 2050

ANTIBIOTIC 2019 MOON 4.3 billion years old

EXOSPHERE

EXOBASE

THERMOSPHERE

KARMAN LINE

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)

VITAMIN 2050 384,000km

700-190,000km

700-1000km

80-700km

100km

MESOPHERE

50-80km

STRATOSPHERE

12-50km

OZONE LAYER

20-30km

TROPOSPHERE

0-12km

(FIR) Hebrides flight information region

NATS, Prestwick

ACHMELVICH Foreshore waters

20-30km

SEABED Crown Estate Scotland

SOIL HORIZONS

GEOLOGIC THRUSTS & FAULT LINES

LITHOSPHERE

PLASTIC ASTHENOSPHERE

0-2m

0-5km

0-100km

100-200km

UPPER MANTLE

200-2900km

OUTER LIQUID CORE

2900-5100km

INNER LIQUID CORE

5100-6378km

LAURA ESPLIN | CARBON WORK

03 BACK TO THE L AND E AT LO C A L I N V E R N E S S W E N H E FA N

Agriculture is an important part of the Scottish economy, and agricultural landscapes occupy a large portion of the Scottish Highlands. However, modern urban residents seem to be becoming less and less familiar with the agricultural landscape. The distance from agricultural production gradually causes them to lose their love for the land: the soil and the environment. Could this alienation be reduced through landscape design? The project is a plan for an urban space that seeks to rebuild the connection between the agricultural and the urban. It aims at establishing an ecosystem and generating a sustainable production system to ensure health and food safety. The project contributes local tourism and the NC500 by creating attractive space while giving a chance for people to recognise the uniqueness and value of the agricultural production in the Scottish Highlands.

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WENHE FAN | BACK TO THE LAND

1 | Potential design areas

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WENHE FAN | BACK TO THE LAND

04 N O T I M E WA S T E D L A N D S C A P E S F O R A P O S T- N U C L E A R F U T U R E SOPHIE VON EINSIEDEL

The decommissioning of the Dounreay Nuclear Power Plant near Thurso has drawn attention to the challenges of post-nuclear landscapes. These vast areas covered in concrete and steel are slowly disintegrating and a legacy of chemical and nuclear contamination remains even after hundreds of years. How do we deal with nuclear soil and water contamination? Where do we store our nuclear waste? The project considers the future of the Dounreay site as an opportunity for encounter and engagement of the wider public with the nuclear legacy of Dounreay and the UK as a whole. As we struggle to preserve the ecosystems on our planet, one option would be to combine decontamination and land rehabilitation with habitat creation and species conservation. The project proposes a diverse programme for the vast site ranging from new ecosystems tailored to phytoremediation to productively managed landscapes for mutual human and wildlife benefits. Educational and research facilities will address issues of nuclear waste management and public opinion of nuclear end storage. While some of the site is locked off for the next 300 years due to decaying nuclear contamination, no time is wasted to tackle some of the most pressing issues of the present: restoring the landscape for the future.

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SOPHIE VON EINSIEDEL | NO TIME WASTED

1 | Site inventory showing site history and geology and nuclear power production world wide

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Crofterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lodge

Viewtower

Winter grazing by Scottish Blackface sheep

Pu ins nesting in cli face and rabbit burrows Educational and arts centre

Viewtower

Ha-has keep out sheep

Highly Active Waste (HAW) storage

Ha-ha surrounding the contaminated zone

Natural successio succession on on on rradioactive adioactive brown brown eld eld site

Road access Maintenance HAW Ha-has keep out people

Museum

Restaurant & shop

Research centre Art installation space

Wetland visitor centre

DFR Sphere remains as a landmark

Dounreay Museum for Nuclear Energy

DFR Sphere Viewtower

Viewtower

Willow groves

Bat roosts installed in coastal woodland

Otters resting on broken up foundations

Mill Lad

Dounreay Castle

e Stream

ream

de St

Mill La

Viewtower

Viewtower SUNRISE Woodland visitor centre Brown eld site Viewtower

Dounreay Nuclear Science Park

Coastal grassland

Freshwater wetland Road access

Coastal woodland

Ministry of Defence HMS Vulcan Site

TH PA

SU SUNSET

100m

site proposal

110

_no time wasted

SOPHIE VON EINSIEDEL | NO TIME WASTED

2 | Site proposal including retained buildings and novel ecosystems 3 | Phytoremediation drainage strategy 4 | Contaminated zone, coastal grassland 111

05 PLANTING & HARVESTING INTERACTION BET WEEN C OMMUNIT Y AND WO ODL AND JIAMING HU

Based on the Scottish governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s adaptation policy to deal with climate change, as well as an analysis of local forestry and geography, the project proposes to give people more power to determine land use and more specifically, to create more woodland. Woodlands have the potential to produce not only considerable ecological but also economical benefits. Five different types of woodland are identified to fit different conditions and uses. While helping cope with the challenges of climate change the project addresses health issues, potential flooding and loss of wildlife. This kind of comprehensive use of the land provides people with a better way of life.

1 14

JIAMING HU | PLANTING AND HARVESTING

1 | Woodland typologies: wet, full-sun, upland.

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JIAMING HU | PLANTING AND HARVESTING

2 | Woodland typologies 3 | Designing for various uses and forms of mobility. 4 | Using terrain and vegetation to direct and block wind. 117

06 REBIRTH RESILIENT RIVERINE LANDSCAPE OF INVERNESS HUIJUN LI

The project takes three underutilized brownfields in the old city of Inverness and transforms them as a new urban riverine park. The designed landscape is fully integrated with local ecological species, historical humanities, and social economy to build a multi-functional and multi-scale green ecological network. The project conceives a landscape designed to restore waterways and some terrestrial habitats and to reduce flooding by restoring the edges of river channels and introducing new native plants. The urban riverine park, while coping with climate change, repairs the social structure that lacks culture, transforming ecological sustainability into social sustainability. The bridge and trail exhibition designed along the river reconnects with this vibrant landscape, allowing people to become participants in the dynamic change of the landscape. The design provides much-needed park space for active and passive recreation, and introduces the landscape economy of urban farms, providing a flexible venue for large-scale programming activities. The landscape aims to redefine active and resilient urban life, making it a catalyst for residential, industrial and commercial growth and economic sustainability.

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HUIJUN LI | REBIRTH

1 | Design masterplan

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HUIJUN LI | REBIRTH

07 DARK AND LIGHT E X P LO R I N G T H E P O S S I B I L I T I E S O F N O C T U R N A L L A N D S C A P E X I A OY U L I U

As a famous town along the NC500 tourist route, Lochinver is undergoing the test of the development of tourism. The project proposes a new route to develop the multiple possibilities of the town’s night landscape, and use it to boost the local tourism industry. The start point of the new route is Lochinver’s original public square. A light shelter used as view point during the day and as light installation and stargazing platform at night, becomes a tourist attraction and a symbol of Lochinver. After experiencing the dazzling artificial lights, people follow the route to feel the wonder of genuinely natural darkness. There is a great chance to encounter different nocturnal animals. The endpoint of the route is the starlight lawn with a studio next to it. From the lawn, people have a wide field of view and a unique chance to enjoy the whole starry sky and participate in different activities in the studio. The ambition of the design is to make Lochinver’s nighttime landscapes and event planning one of the highlights on the NC500 and eventually a driver of the development of tourism throughout Scotland. Night landscapes have the potential to catch people’s attention.

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DISCOVER

LOCHINVER

XIAOYU LIU | DARK AND LIGHT

Your adventure awaits, what will you discover?

1 | Explore the new route

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XIAOYU LIU | DARK AND LIGHT

2 | Start of the new route: The square and the light shelter. Daytime and nightscape. 3 | End of the new route: The starlight lawn. Daytime and nightscape. 129

08 THE NEW HUNTER HOW KEYSTONE SPECIES CAN CHANGE L ANDSCAPE X I A OY I M A

Throughout the NC500 and Scottish Highlands, there is a tradition of deer tracking, that has been passed down both as a result of cultural influence and as a way for land owners to control the deer population. Since humans have largely replaced all the predators on the mainland, the impact of large herbivores on habitat has become even more profound. Their proliferation has surpassed the ability of the habitat to regenerate, putting the survival of many small herbivores at risk. The project proposes to bring in a new predator to thin the deer population and kickstart a habitat restoration that would attract many other kinds of new wildlife. New species attract attention and curiosity. An observation system composed of hubs and monitoring stations is established to provide people with short glimpses of these rare wild animals and to witness changes in the landscape over a long period of time. While the habitat restoration benefits wildlife in the beginning, it later allows for community activities, recreation, economic development, cultural communication, and so on. The project provides enjoyment, but also an insight into how keystone species can change the landscape.

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R E C R E AT I O N

RESEARCH

ENVIRONMENT

1 | Trophic cascade

XIAOYI MA | THE NEW HUNTER

ECONOMY

133

134

XIAOYI MA | THE NEW HUNTER

2 | Wildlife crossing, the path that leads to the monitoring stations. 3 | Different types of stations for different habitats. 4 | Seeding the community. The HUB. 5 | Master plan for monitoring stations 135

09 TURN BACK A N E W U N D E R S TA N D I N G O F W I L D L A N D S C A P E S H U Y U PA N

The project uses a â&#x20AC;&#x153;mirrorâ&#x20AC;? concept to explore the relationship between human and nature. It leads from the original coast to the depths of the mountains challenging to adopt new activities like observing wildlife from a distance. Seeing, touching and hearing nature brings both locals and tourists closer to it. Step by step tourism industry replaces logging as the driver of local economy. The tourism that benefits from the return of wildlife brings about habitat restoration in turn. This creates a positive feedback loop. Connecting fragmented habitats with ecological corridors helps restore the ecosystem and enhance local biodiversity. A dynamic landscape installation responds to the changes over time. The wire mesh allows the natural growth of plants. Animal migration constantly changes the experience of visitors. A path network makes the immersive landscape accessible and attractive and builds Lochinverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation.

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S H U Y U PA N | T U R N B AC K

1 | The “mirror“ concept – A tool to understand the dynamic and multilateral landscape

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original wetland

2mm thinness glass guardrail

Proposed wetland

environment/land/wetlands/

bitat-types/lochs-rivers-and-wetlands/lowland-wetland

140

New succession

S H U Y U PA N | T U R N B AC K

North Coast 500

Lochinver Primary School

Small stone collected in the landscape, the bottom of rock are Plant aquatic grass to rebuild shoreline

support the whole installation and childen can collect other rocks

and introduce fish species

from landscape to throw into Metal wire entanglement

Metal wire entanglement make the view under the water clear. It allows the childen would watch the water glass, the root and the fish which are changing by season.

2 | Dynamic planting and planning for succession in the wetlands 3 | Strategy for activities 4 | Landscape installation along the lochside. 141

10 FUTURE CROFT R E S I L I E N C E I N T H E S C OT T I S H H I G H L A N D S A N N A WA L L A C E R E I D

Crofting is a form of rural land use particular to the Scottish Highlands and Islands. It is a practice that promotes low impact, rotational agriculture that traditionally works alongside the cycles and rhythms of the natural landscape. However, crofting faces significant threats including depopulation, environmental pressure and financial instability. How can we challenge the traditional model of crofting to create a new resilient system for future human and non-human communities? Future Croft builds upon croftingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historical role as a self-sustaining agricultural model to create a resilient crofting township where land-use diversity, non-human storytelling and collaborative social action are key. The project applies three dimensions to the townships of Clachtoll and Stoer in the North West Highlands: Connect Crofters, More-than-Human Crofting and Making Crofting Public. Each of these open up new ways of experiencing crofting within the Scottish landscape. Connect Crofters redefines the role of the croft boundary and introduces public space into the township, while More-than-Human Crofting demonstrates how spatial diversity can work to support the land for human and non-human communities. Finally, Making Crofting Public engages a wider audience through non-human storytelling, interactive pathways and viewing platforms. Together they ensure the township evolves over time to sustain the land for both human and non-human future generations.

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1 | Future Croft community

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ANNA WALL ACE REID | FUTURE CR OFT

146

ANNA WALL ACE REID | FUTURE CR OFT

2 | The croft boundary as a place of exchange. Transformation over time. 3 | Spatial arrangement of Future Croft in section. 4 | The monitoring plan. 5 | Vegetation buffers, drystone thresholds, sheep cameras, machair and workshop. 147

11 N O R T H C O A S T WAY F A R E R ’ S T R A I L RECONCILING A CONTESTED LANDSCAPE MENA SHAH

Landownership has long been an issue in the Highlands, where currently a third of Scotland’s land is in the hands of less than 450 families out of a population of over 5 million. For centuries landowners have intensely commodified the land, leaving it barren and unproductive. Conservationists are concerned for the state of upland habitats and the global effects it may have. Could community ownership lead to stronger relationships to the land and more sustainable land use? Land use becomes tradition and culture as it is moulded, transformed, and becomes embodied habit. It can involve pride and status, and if not that, it is a big investment that needs to see economic return for the survival of a community or family lineage. However, short-term economic gains have long taken priority over long-term social and ecological needs with money as an illusionary primary resource concern for human survival. In order to restore any health and diversity to the land these embodied habits must change. The project looks at ‘wayfaring’ as a way of reconnecting to our real primary resource—the Earth—through the design of a longdistance, 7-day route across the North-West Highlands. Each day ends at a bothy, a minimal shelter, at a site where one can experience the phenomena of nature such as star-gazing or bird migration. On route, the wayfarer will experience not a wilderness ‘getaway’, but an ecologically enhanced landscape that has been actively transformed by rural communities across the Highlands, working together to transform their habits from living in the landscape to living with the landscape. 150

1 | The North-Coast Wayfaring Trail with bothy stops

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M E N A S H A H | T H E N O RT H C OA S T WAY FA R E R â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S T R A I L

152

M E N A S H A H | T H E N O RT H C OA S T WAY FA R E R â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S T R A I L

2 | Mapping site scale characteristics & navigation aids including hill and star navigation 3 | Understanding bird migration for monitoring landscape health, global effects and informing habitat creation 4 | Alternative deer population management: Present and future. 5 | Walking aids: Path proposal and ecologically enhanced wet farm 6 | Walking aids: Path proposal with bio-receptive concrete and a naturally developed diversity of plants due to the reduction in deer 153

12 A JOURNEY OF HOPE THE JOURNEY TO C OL ABOLL RUNKUN SUN

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;A Journey of Hopeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is a project to be realised on the mainland of the Highlands over the next 100 years. The project starts in 2020 when Colaboll is selected as a site for developing forest to restore heather species. The aim is to transform the Colaboll into a liveable, multi-functional, and selfsufficient forest village. Local communities and volunteers are engaged in the development of establishing the village. By 2120, wild animals roam on the site, plants can heal, and local communities can reach their full potential. The design is inspired by ancient Chinese literature, the story of Peach Blossom Spring, in which a fisherman discovers by chance a utopia where the people lead an ideal existence in harmony with nature, unaware of the outside world. In the project this ethereal atmosphere meets the romantic literary culture of the Scottish Highlands to create a harmonious dream landscape.

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1 | Colaboll in 2020

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RUNKUN SUN | A JOURNEY OF HOPE

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RUNKUN SUN | A JOURNEY OF HOPE

2 | Local farm serves locals' daily and educational needs. 3 | Bird observation hideout: A shelter from where to see life in the forest and the wetland. 4 | Loch view lookout: An elevated path through the treetops with a stunning view of the Loch Shin. 5 | Cabin construction 6 | Summer view of the cabin. 7 | Winter view of the cabin. 159

13 K I N LO C H B E RV I E F O O D TO U R I S M V I L L AG E NORTH WEST C OAST OF HIGHL ANDS J A M I E H E U N G YA N TA M

Scotland is known for its quality seafood, with over 60 different species on the menu. At Kinlochbervie, freshly caught fish and other types of seafood from the North Atlantic Ocean and North Sea come to shore to be exported all over the world. A local food tourism centre will change Kinlochbervie from a mere seafood outport into place that brings together the freshest ingredients and a local experience. The project aims to develop food tourism in Sutherland that could later be extrapolated to entire Scotland. It combines the efforts of locals and industryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;fishery, agriculture and tourismâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and responds to local weather and soil conditions. Sustainable farming with a planting strategy that enhances biodiversity is implemented to complement the fishery. The walled, terraced gardens integrate diverse crops with leisure, providing a great place to relax and learn more about the local agriculture.

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1 | Masterplan

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J A M I E H E U N G YA N TA M | K I N LO C H B E R V I E F O O D T O U R I S M V I L L A G E

Step seating

Samphire

Promenade

Restaurant

Seating area

Common elder (Sambucus nigra)

164

Visitor information centre

Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria

Farmer's market booth

Grazing

Privet (Ligustrum vulgare)

Downy birch

Japanese lace fern

(Betula pubescens)

(Polystichum polyblepharum)

Road B801

Blue butcher (Orchis mascula)

J A M I E H E U N G YA N TA M | K I N LO C H B E R V I E F O O D T O U R I S M V I L L A G E

Polytunnel: Mushroom farm

2 | Kinlochbervie Food Tourism Centre 3 | Crops testing place on the 3rd floor terraced garden 4 | Kinlochbervie harbour promenade 5 | Terraced gardens 165

Kinlochbervie community hub

Seafood restaurant

Front garden

Purple loosestrife 'Blush' (Lythrum salicaria 'Blush') Ramp

Blaeberry farm

Tufted hair grass (Deschampsia cespitosa 'Schottland') Swede farm

Ramp

Polytunnel: Blackcurrant & strawberry farm

Ramp

Crops tasting area Kale farm

Ramp Polytunnel: Potted plant booth

Ramp Ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) Leisure garden

14 B E YO N D P I C T U R E S Q U E T R AV E L T O U R I S M A N D W O O D L A N D E X PA N S I O N Z H E WA N G

The project addresses the development of tourism and peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual understanding of the landscape, from picturesque to the modern tourism of self-driven tours. Claude Lorrainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s early landscape drawings used a three-layer technique to frame and define nature, and the Highlands were modified to meet to the visual interests of ruling classes. Nowaday, tourism agencies provide easy travel experiences and cameras lead people to only record beauty and ignore other things. How to understand landscape beyond the visual perception? The image (moving and static), the meaning behind it (habitat type, natural characteristics), the experience of a place (immersive walking in, and ornamental), and location features (unique ecosystems and local history) are used to expand the perspective of tourism and landscape. Finally, a landscape intervention is proposed for the North Coast. Tree planting becomes the major intervention to improve the current landscapeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic, cultural, ecological, and social conditions. It brings benefits to local communities in from of timber production and biodiversity. The woodland expansion challenges the image of the original picturesque landscape of the Highlands.

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Z H E WA N G | B E YO N D P I CT U R E S Q U E T R AV E L

5 year

60 year

1 | Year 3 and year 40 in establishing riparian wood and agroforestry, local community engagement.

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170

Metal mesh surface

55x5mm support leg 50x5x2500mm lateral steel support

50x5x1200mm lateral steel support

Crown layer: downy birch (Betula pubescens), beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Z H E WA N G | B E YO N D P I CT U R E S Q U E T R AV E L

50x5mm outer steel edging

Step risers between 150-180mm Earth

Rock shelf

Bushes: grey willow (Salix cinerea), holly (Ilex aquifolium), common herb aceous (Holcus millis), moor-grass (Molinia caerulea) Ground layer: Bryophytee: Dicranum Scoparium, mountain fern moss (hylocomium splendens), wood-rush (Luzula sylvatica)

2 | Phasing of the productive woodlands from planting to cutting 3 | Phasing of the riparian woodlands - ecological and tourism improvement 4 | Constructions at the River Canaird - materiality and riparian tree species 5 | The three-layer technique and the North Coast 17 1

15 U L L A P O O L G R E E N WAY PA R K N E T W O R K LO C A L D E V E LO P M E N T O F H I G H L A N D S G E O LO G I C A L R O U T E Q I N Y U WA N G

The world we live in is changing, and so is tourism. Visitors are looking for “genuine” experiences. Referring to the rich geological landscapes of the Scottish Highlands, the project proposes to develop along the NC500 a series of campsites in abandoned quarries to give visitors a more diverse experience of the Highlands that goes beyond the romantic image. The Morefield Quarry lays on the Moine Thrust Belt, and in its vicinity is Ullapool, the largest settlement for many miles around as well as the top geological hotspot in Scotland. To integrate the Highlands Geological Route into the local development, the Ullapool Greenway Park Network is proposed within the Ullapool river catchment. Consisting of a riparian wildlife corridor and the Caledonian Pinewoods, the greenway connects Loch Achall to the coastline of Ullapool, not only enhancing the local ecological network and biodiversity, but also leading a way from the village to the lakeside, extending the residents’ and community’s activities across the valley, especially for teenagers and the elders. At the intersection of the Highlands Geological Route, the riparian greenway and the valley park network, the Morefield Quarry Park combines campsite, outdoor sports, leisure, and geological/ecological education, with corten steel cliff ladders to link the top and bottom of the quarry.

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1 | Ullapool Greenway Park Network plan

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Q I N Y U WA N G | U L L A P O O L G R E E N WAY PA R K N E T W O R K

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2 | Section of the Morefield Quarry campsite. 3 | Lakeside activity area: Sunset of the Loch Achall. 4 | Teenager Centre. Playground in the autumn forest. 5 | Quarry Park. A walk through the flowering meadows. 17 7

16 ENGINEERING FOR THE FUTURE C L I M AT E R E S I L I E N T H A B I TAT S I N C E LT I C R A I N F O R E S T S GIGI, SHEUNG GI WONG

3000 hectares of Celtic rainforest once covered the fringe of Loch Sunart before being felled or grazed away. The design is centred upon the remnants of this rainforest around. Habitat fragmentation is an imminent threat to biodiversity as it implies the degradation and loss of habitat areas, and increases the likelihood of species extinction. The existence of Celtic rainforests is heavily dependent on climate stability since they need high humidity and are sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. This project aims to restore and strengthen the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s microhabitats as a means to combat macro-scale challenges. Through employing woodland management strategies at different scales and incorporating intertidal marine agricultural practices, the project helps engineer and shape an ideal microclimate for climate change adaption. Species will be protected and sheltered against the threats imposed by climate change.

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Loch Sunartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s geographical analysis

1km

1km Rare bryophytes species

Plantation within Ancient Woodland

Warm, Moist Soil

Historical Ancient Woodland (1840)

Warm, Wet Soil

SSSI/SAC

Existing Natural Woodland

Brown Soil

Salmon Fish Farm

Rare bryophytes species

Plantation within Ancient Woodland

Warm, Moist Soil

Historical Ancient Woodland (1840)

Warm, Wet Soil

SSSI/SAC

Existing Natural Woodland

Brown Soil

Salmon Fish Farm

Master Plan

SHEUNG GI WONG | ENGINEERING FOR THE FUTURE

Master Plan

1 km

Scot pine

Seed Source (Wind Dispersal- Scotpine/ Birch/ Ash/ Hazel/ Aspen)

Proposed Salicornia Floating Farm

Seed Source (Animal Dispersal- Oak/Rowan)

Mussels Farm (In replacement of sh farms)

Seed Source (Wind Dispersal- Scotpine/ Birch/ Ash/ Hazel/ Aspen)

Proposed Salicornia Floating Farm

Seed Source (Animal Dispersal- Oak/Rowan)

Mussels Farm (In replacement of sh farms)

Seed Source (Water Dispersal - Willow/Alder)

Oysters Farm (In replacement of sh farms)

Seed Source (Water Dispersal - Willow/Alder)

Minimum Intervention

Oysters Farm (In replacement of sh farms)

Assisted Natural Regeneration

Roads

Minimum Intervention Assisted Natural Regeneration

1 km

New segment Forest Road

Roads

Arti cial Regeneration (Transplant from nurseries)

Proposed Coastal Path

Removal of Invasive Conifers

Proposed Boat Services

Enrichment planting & Respacing

New segment Forest Road

Existing Natural Woodland

Arti cial Regeneration (Transplant from nurseries)

Proposed Coastal Path

Removal of Invasive Conifers

Proposed Boat Services

Enrichment planting & Respacing Existing Natural Woodland

1 | Landscape analysis & masterplan

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Usage of the felled timber (Invasive Conifers & Native Hazels )

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SHEUNG GI WONG | ENGINEERING FOR THE FUTURE

Planting Scheme at Town Scale (Strontian Village)

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Micro-climate & Micro-habitat of Scotland’s Celtic Rainforest The Celtic Forest/ Ancient Woodland

Coastline

Main tree species: Oak, Birch, Alder, Ash, Scot pine, Hazel, Will

Clean air for the oceanic bryophytes and lichens to thrive Foggy, stable humdity and temperature.

Tree pipi

High rainfall because the prevailing winds come from the ocean carry a lot of moisture.

Emergent layer Bat Red squirrel Black-eyed Susan This lichen is an indicator of ancient woodland. It can be found on the bark of birch, alder and oak. The black ‘eyes’ of this lichen produce the spores for reproduction.

Canopy layer

Redstart

Understory layer

Forest floor

Different texture, chemistry and acidity of the substrates favor different type of lichen species.

Bluebells Pine marten Rock Outcrop (Saxicolous)

Ancient woodland holds more diversed micro-habitats for these lower plants.

Wild cat Soil (Terricolous) Moss

Prevailing wind from the Atlantic Ocean coming from the South west Sea otter Scotland's west coast where the gulf stream hits land, created mild climate that nurture the temperate forest.

Bogbean

Soil lichens cannot grow if upper vegetation is too dense.

Pine marten

Liche to fu commo ‘Stinky’ sticta

The stictas are lichen, which ca growing on the t or if rubbed, th smell.

Bogbean is a floating aquatic plant found in a coastal temperate rainforest. Bladderwrack Bladderwrack is a seaweed that was used by farmers and crofters in coastal areas to fertilise the soil and feed livestock in winter, due to it being rich in nutrients and minerals.

Dead w

Cudbear

This lichen is an indicator of ancient woodland, but in the 18th and 19th centuries it wa also important in the Scottish textile industry, producing a purple-coloured dye.

Stream/ Ravine

low

Uphill Sitka spruce plantation as threat to native woodland species

Where in a tree can lichens be found?

wood

1. North side of the tree because direct sunlight doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hit the N side so there is more moisture. 2. Bark- to collect sunlight and rain and materials from air.

Tree Bark (Corticolous) Northern emerald dragonfly

Slender mouse-tail moss This moss is very common in the Celtic Rainforest and is found mainly on tree trunks and boulders, forming dense mats.

Heather as threat to rich oceanic bryophyte and lichen floras Boulders

Chequered skipper butterfly Wood anemone

Open glade

en grow rapidly when exposed ull sunlight, thus they are on on dead tree.

Deer grazing (Red/Roe deer)

Layering of lichen can be observed from the top of the boulders Primrose

Gley soil

Western earwort

a type of dark leafy an look more like fungus tree than lichen. When wet hese lichens have a fishy

3. Most lichen found 80-160cm on tree above ground.

Wood warbler

This liverwort is very common in the Celtic Rainforest. It forms compact mats with small rounded leaves. It loves humid conditions and can be found all year round. Dog lichen This lichen most commonly lives near the forest floor.This lichen was used in the Middle Ages and up to the 18th century to treat rabies. It can be found near willows, ash, hazels.

Tree lungwort This lichen resembles green lungs, it was used to cure respiratory diseases in medieval times.

17 INTO THE LANDSCAPE A N A LT E R N AT I V E E X P E R I E N C E O F P L A C E I N T H E H I G H L A N D S EPPIE WRIGHT

In recent decades, there has been an increasing awareness of the contribution of international tourism to climate change. It is predicted that in the future more and more people will choose domestic travel. The popularity of the North Coast 500 route can therefore be assumed to increase. The project explores how Assynt Estates could be developed to facilitate a new model of travel, designed to benefit small communities and ecosystems. The project looks to disrupt the rapid movement along the North Coast 500 and bring drivers into the landscape through a slower means. People are encouraged to leave their cars for a steady paced walk, allowing them to form an emotional bond and get a deeper sense of place than the North Coast 500. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pressure pointsâ&#x20AC;?, where landscape features are found in their most extreme form, are located along the walk as sculptural works. They are intended to accentuate their setting, to make a hill feel taller or a valley narrower, thus increasing the sense of sublime and wonder. The most accessible of these points forms the basic infrastructure for an outdoor community hub and meeting space. The intention is to unite the scattered people living between the more populous Lochinver and Ullapool, giving them a public space of their own, a place for interaction.

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EPPIE WRIGHT | INTO THE LANDSCAPE

1 | The strategy. a path and landscape “pressure points”

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EPPIE WRIGHT | INTO THE LANDSCAPE

2 | Significant viewpoints and their relation to the sun 3 | Light patterns over the landscape: summer solstice, winter solstice, sunrise and sunset 4 | Shelterbelt and wildflower planting 5 | Montane planting with mountain section showing planting variation on slopes 6 | The Beinn sculpture at sunrise 189

18 S HA R E T H E LO C H S I D E D Y N A M I C LO C H S I D E PA R K I N U L L A P O O L Z I YA N G Y E

To increase resilience to coastal erosion caused by climate change, the Scottish government plans to develop a “Dynamic Coast”. Based on this, the project aims to create shared space for all users while adapting to the dynamic lochside environment in Ullapool. Ullapool is located along the NC500 and is the core settlement in its area, its local resources are shared by various groups. In order to create high quality shared space, the design concept breaks “sharing” into four parts: shared space, shared resource, shared facilities and shared emotion. There is a transition from natural to semi-natural to active and the site is divided into five types of waterfront and habitats to create a resilient landscape. Several targeted functional areas respond to the different needs of residents and tourists. The lawn bowling club, a campsite, fishing dock, tide pool and so on provide new activities. The project also has a highly accessible road system to serve different groups.

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Shared Resource

Z I YA N G Y E | S H A R E T H E LO C H S I D E

Shared Space

Shared Facilities

Shared Emotion

1 | Design concept â&#x20AC;&#x153;Four sharedâ&#x20AC;?

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2 | A saltmarsh has both high aesthetic and ecological value 3 | Section of tide pool 4 | Five types of waterfront to meet different needs of users while creating dynamic lochside landscape 5 | Coastal grassland in summer and in winter 195

19 THE SHORELINE AND THE COMMUNITY U L L A P O O L S E T T L E M E N T T R A N S F O R M AT I O N CHEN ZHANG

Ullapool is located at the conjunction of Ullapool River and Loch Broom. Despite its small size, it is the largest and most essential settlement within miles, an important transportation hub and a tourist destination. The environment also provides shelter for hundreds of wild animals. However, due to the specific location and overdevelopment, the community is facing problems such as shoreline erosion, risk of future disasters and a lack of different facilities. There is also an increasingly severe conflict between tourism and residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; daily life. Following an analysis of the different aspects and scales of the site, the project is conceived to connect ecological, economical and social resilience to achieve an adaptable coastal settlement where natural assets are valued and where businesses, the community and nature thrive. Firstly, the project reduces the risk of future disasters by employing barriers and plants. These also improve marine habitats and and mitigate the impact of the current on the coastline. Secondly, the design of different vegetated areas such as lawns, wetland and woodland provides different habitats and enriches the ecosystem. The project allows people to engage with nature and sets an example for ecologically sustainable development. Finally, the project also establishes several spaces with different functions for visiting groups, recreational activities, and education programs to create an inclusive, refined environment for the community.

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CHEN ZHANG | THE SHORELINE AND THE COMMUNITY

1 | A synthesis of the investigations into ecology, community and marine habitats

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Natural riparian edge

Wooden barrier

Living breakwater

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CHEN ZHANG | THE SHORELINE AND THE COMMUNITY

2 | Water edge and barriers: Three different ways of dealing with erosion and flood prevention. 3 | Planting and teaching: Outdoor education for children to learn about agriculture and marine environments 4 | The market square provides community facilities and recreational space. 5 | Wetland: Marshland for wild animals and observation points for people. 201

10 01

03 07 08

N AV I G AT I O N O S LO ST U D I O: S P E C I F I C I T I E S O F PL ACE , SPECIFICITIES OF TIME

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T H E G H O S T O F O S L O â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S PA S T

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R E C L A I M I N G P U B L I C S PA C E

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REIMAGINING URBAN L ANDMARKS

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LIVING WITH THE ABSENCE

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REBIRTH

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HYDROPHILIC COMMUNITY

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FJORD CITY

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CONCEAL AND REVEAL

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A D IA LO G U E W I T H S U N L I G H T

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NEW FUTURE

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L I S A M A C K E N Z I E & C H R I S T O P H E R G R AY

TIMEA SARAH BERGANT

JIAMIN LI

YA N Q I N PA N

HAO PENG

M I N G Y U E YA N G

G U A N G YA N G

L U X I YA N G

Z I YA N G Y U

WENYU ZHANG

RUOCHEN ZHOU

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Inside the U.S Embassy, Oslo. Architect: Eero Saarinen (Image: Lisa Mackenzie)

In the second year of the post-graduate programme in Landscape Architecture, The MLA, knowledge attainment focuses upon discovery, analysis and decision forming. Students devote time to fieldwork, site observation and the pre-conceptual analysis of a given territory. During the two semester journey that the students take with us their work finds meaning through different investigative scales, ultimately settling in a chosen site where they can test their ideas within a specificity of place and also within a specificity of time. Work produced in the studio is necessarily precise but finds meaning through the act of experimentation where bespoke representational methods seek to signify vital relationships between ecological processes, social occurrences and cultural practices. The Invitation

L I S A M AC K E N Z I E & C H R I S TO P H E R G R AY | O S LO ST U D I O

O S LO ST U D I O: S P E C I F I C I T I E S O F P L AC E , SPECIFICITIES OF TIME

From September 26th to October the 4th, 2019, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) and the Oslo Architecture Triennale (OAT) co-organised an Educational forum and workshop on the Triennale theme of ‘degrowth’. As one of the main platforms of the Triennale, the event brought schools from around the world and across disciplines together to tackle this issue as a critical concern for designers ‘in’ and ‘of ’ the urban environment. The Triennale workshop became the starting point of our Oslo journey.

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The Oslo Architecture Triennale - Workshop The workshop compelled students to take and agree a position centred upon the topic of degrowth within small multi-institutional groups. Together and in dialogue, they responded rapidly to the site conditions encountered in a vacant or transitional site within the city. The workshop culminated with an exhibition sited in an empty bank building in the centre of the city.

Exhibition installation - US Embassy student group (Image: Lisa Mackenzie)

Upon returning to Edinburgh, the students took time to reflect upon their new knowledge and unfold speculative enquiries that drew energy back into the urban fabric of Oslo. The workshop had opened up the significance of material explorations and we observed new interest and concern about matter. Matter as ground, matter in the ecosphere and what it means to act meaningfully with materials in space and time.

L I S A M AC K E N Z I E & C H R I S TO P H E R G R AY | O S LO ST U D I O

How to begin, again

Responding to site Momentum in the studio reckoned with the territory scale, a step back out from individual sites and individual buildings into a more expansive field of deliberation. Investigations of topography, watersheds, the fjord, soil, geology and hydrology allowed the students to identify with Osloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bioregion. Multiple interconnectivities and inter-dimensional readings of the landscape flooded back into each of the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; working scope. From this point the search for a site within the territory found limits, and meaning and decisions could be taken about how they wanted to act and significantly where and why their project would touch down in a particular location. Site Inventory (Image: Jiamin Li)

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Hao Peng in the studio - material studies (Images: Hao Peng)

A necessary degree of logic exists in any landscape architectural project but this can only endure in our studio cycle if it is positively disturbed by moments of experimentation and of letting go. To test, reflect upon and find meaning in the unexpected. We gave the students time to think and make indeterminate explorations, anticipating that instinctive unities might begin to emerge and become clear. Mappings, site readings, site inventories: the drawings seeking ways to represent new concerns for the urban landscape beyond those currently sanctioned in our own disciplinary sphere. Three-dimensionality and embedding The studio ethos was that even the most lucid and reasoned concept had to find translation into the reality of the site. The students returned to Oslo in January 2020, four months after they first arrived in the city for the Triennale to undertake a second phase of fieldwork that became implicitly allied to their individual project trajectory. In the field the students sought out clues, tracks, locational anchors and points of reference that would resurface through their remaining design journey. Drawing to a conclusion Drawing a project to a conclusion requires courage and commitment at the best of times. Together, we faced a new situation where our physical contact ceased and we engaged in a virtual collaborative world, still testing the bounds of the project, still translating, still drawing investigative threads together with determination. The students, in an array of complex and challenging personal situations kept working, thinking and responding in ways that was more often than not, remarkable. We will remember the Oslo students for their strength of will and tenacity.

L I S A M AC K E N Z I E & C H R I S TO P H E R G R AY | O S LO ST U D I O

Bespoke drawing and making

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Ground explorations in Vollebekk, Oslo. (Image: Lisa Mackenzie)

An array of student projects emerged across Oslo, each one engaging with the city uniquely. A cemetery, a project working with light, projects dealing with the interface of the earth and the sea, studies of the fjord edge, investigations of the rivers, each body of work positioned in the city with care. The projects hold an array of socio-ecological issues in tension and represent change on the ground and change sited in place. Change that we hope would brighten not only the lives of the people of Oslo but also the lives of our non-human allies in the ecosphere. The Climate emergency Landscape architects are uniquely positioned to advance a binary field of knowledge concerning our planetary landscape resources and mediate between the social and environmental sciences to deliver solutions on the ground. In order to confront the gap that exists between theory and practice in the climate emergency we need to see changes in the landscape that are multi-dimensional, multi-scalar and built from below the ground up. We hope that in the pages ahead you find hope that these issues are being confronted in our studios and that as our students make their way out into the world they will instigate and deliver change wherever they might find themselves on the planet.

L I S A M AC K E N Z I E & C H R I S TO P H E R G R AY | O S LO ST U D I O

Reflections on the work

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01 T H E G H O S T O F O S L O ’ S PA S T M I D D E L A L D E R PA R K E N , N O R WAY TIMEA SARAH BERGANT

For millenia, landscapes have been shaped and reshaped by humans and natural influences, becoming a reflection and recording of our life on this planet. In constant movement, landscapes provoke memories and emphasize people’s sense of belonging and place. And like humans need their space, landscapes need time to truly unfold, thrive and heal, so that we can create new relationships with the spaces we inhabit. Belonging to the derelict and vacant sites of Oslo, ‘Middelalderparken’ has faced difficult conditions of contamination, pollution, abandonment and neglect over the past century. This project aims to develop a more meaningful approach to deal with the issues of the site that is cut off from the city by railtracks and major roads by simultaneously creating a new institution of degrowth. Located in the old town of Oslo, the park exhibits the largest continuous preserved medieval ruins in Scandinavia and pinpoints the beginning of the Norwegian reign. In order to create new opportunities for future urban development and to act as a catalyst for social-ecological systems in Oslo, this project creates new blue and green infrastructures that adapt to the complex changes in the rapid urbanisation process. Actively engaging with community, health and well-being, the park converts into a recreational area and art-hub over a time span of 15 to 20 years. Forested edges, aquatic plants, wetlands, wildlife corridors and grasslands, create new habitats and provide a hospitable microclimate, clean water, and shelter for different animal species. 214

2 | Model study: The perception of a landscape.

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T I M E A B E R G A N T | T H E G H O ST O F O S LOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; S PA ST

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T I M E A B E R G A N T | T H E G H O ST O F O S LOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; S PA ST

2 | City-scale analysis with ecologically important patches and species function areas 3 | Sectional view of forested edge walkways 4 | Masterplan for the new Medieval Park in Oslo. 217

02 R E C L A I M I N G P U B L I C S PA C E R E F S TA D C O M M U N I T Y, O S LO JIAMIN LI

Reclaiming Public Space proposes a landscape-driven approach to renewing the public space in the Refstad community, reclaiming spaces and resisting urban gentrification. Despite being chosen as “the European Green Capital 2019”, Oslo cannot deny uneven regional development and the impact of increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. How to solve this imbalance between social and environmental development and protect the accessibility of landscape and the right of residents to public space in vulnerable areas? From Refstad’s characteristics and the daily life of the residents three themes are developed to be used as design strategies. “Cultivate/cherish”, “harvest/cooperate & share”, and “celebrate/enjoy” aim to revitalize vacant lots and unused space to create an unadorned, sufficient, and living rather than high-end, fancy, and rigid landscape. At the same time, they try to introduce a way for people to live in harmony with nature and create a new balanced relationship between the community and the environment. This set of integrated and continuous spatial transformations uncovers the iconic landscape experiences of the neighbourhood and identifies the economic benefits and educational significance hidden in these public spaces. On an urban scale, beyond building a more inclusive, dynamic and productive community, the project gains significance from reconnecting the fractured ecological corridor from the forest to the city.

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1 | Atlas of place: A site inventory of Refstad

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J I A M I N L I | R E C L A I M I N G P U B L I C S PAC E

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J I A M I N L I | R E C L A I M I N G P U B L I C S PAC E I N O S LO

2 | Natural playground - An opportunity for children to get close to water, observe it and cherish it. 3 | Pollination garden. Different types of flowers attract and sustain different kinds of bumblebees. 4 | View from the footbridge overlooking the winter pond. 6 | The three themes: cultivate/cherish, harvest/cooperate & share, and celebrate/enjoy 223

03 REIMAGINING URBAN L ANDMARKS FUTURE OF THE AKERSNES PENINSULA YA N Q I N PA N

In response to the theme of the Oslo Architecture Triennial “Degrowth”, this proposal for the future of the Akersnes peninsula reflects the change in attitude towards development. In a degrowth society economic indicators are no longer regarded as the main driver of development. Redefining the relationship between landmarks and the urban environment will bring positive value to the city. Development should not be about blindly filling the fjord with new landmark buildings, but avoiding the waste caused by excessive construction. Therefore, the project advocates reducing costs and minimizing the impact on the environment during the development process. Sunlight, water, wind—these “free” natural elements or initiators of natural processes should be taken into account when designing. Slowing down is also important. We should no longer rush to build landmarks in a short period of time but rather create space for nature. When individual or group behavior all aim at slowness, humans have time to establish a close relationship to the environment in the process. Therefore, the project proposes to transform natural processes into new urban landmarks. By breaking artificially established boundaries such as inside/outside, above/underground, and by guiding and allowing natural elements to re-enter the site, humans adopt low-intervention strategies to let nature occur and change the landscape.

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und e gro Abov

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d se k po E x d ro c be

1 | Site inventory

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2 | Tidal Garden: The ever-changing water with an ecologically sensitive border. 3 | Island of the Winds: The landmark shaped by airflows that transport pollen and seeds, water, and mist. 4 | Sunset Theater: The landmark for chasing sunlight. 229

04 LIVING WITH THE ABSENCE THE ENDLESS SONG OF ALNA HAO PENG

The charm of Oslo is its geography, topography, geology. The fjord, the water and forests are the most important features of Oslo’s landscape. Starting high up in the Lillo forest, the Alna river falls 237m while travelling toward the fjord, forming an ecological corridor and weaving blue-green connections in the city. It passes through contrasting landscape strata, from diverse natural areas, to fallows, the railway... Alna was used to dump rubbish and sewage from the end of 16th century until 1850, when the industrial era began, and eventually it was completely buried. For years, Alna was a “forgotten” river. Alna’s disappearing is related to rapid development and urbanization. Oslo is still growing fast. Alna’s reopening could help reduce the pressure on the existing landscape through designing resilient and minimal interventions that can restore the natural dynamics to deal with the uncertainties of climate change in the future. The project aims to explore what kind of landscape intervention it needs to form a sustainable and sensitive landscape with high ecological and cultural value.

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Designed Recreation

Rich Biodiversity

10.8538

10.8638

Education

59.9398 Disconnection

59.9248

10.8122

HAO PENG | LIVING WITH THE ABSENCE

59.9519

10.8521 Rich Biodiversity Education

59.9127

Disconnection

Legend

Green Space

Industrial Buildings Educational Buildings

1 | Alna river

River Alna

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tion

+ Meeting Place

+ SuDs

+ Green Buffer and Community Gardens

+ Accessibility

HAO PENG | LIVING WITH THE ABSENCE

+ Vegetation Layers - Invasive Plants

+ Accessibility

+ Vegetation Fliter Layers

+ Topography Fliter Layers

+ River Hub

+ Accessibility

2 | Upstream masterplan 3 | Observation point 4 | Downstream masterplan and section 235

Riparian habitat

Wetland boardwalk

Forest boardwalk

Islands for birds

Community garden

Stepping stones across Alna

05 REBIRTH B R O W N F I E L D R E S T O R AT I O N M I N GY U E YA N G

Public spaces in urban Oslo are well designed. They extend from the forest to the fjord, forming a relatively continuous ecological corridor, which provides a suitable environment for wildlife. In contrast, public space in the suburbs is very scarce. For example, in the Haraldrud area in eastern Oslo, the broad railway and large industrial areas have caused obstructions of the ecological corridors. Habitats and ecological networks have been destroyed and broken into patches. Brownfields are a waste of land resources. Four brownfield sites were chosen for restoration and reuse. Once the broken ecological corridor is reconnected, it will service residents and wildlife. The site whose soil is not polluted becomes a comprehensive park dominated by urban farming. The users are mainly residents of the surrounding area. The park satisfies the need for different activities and provides users with free spaces for planting that improves the interaction between them and the landscape. On the other three sites where soil is contaminated, phytoremediation is first used to restore the quality of the soil. The park designs respond to the status quo of the sites, for example a ski and grass slope in a very steep slope. It can be used not only in summer but also in winter, providing possibilities for different seasons.

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M I N GY U E YA N | R E B I RT H

1 | Residents participate in the construction of the city farm.

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06 HYDROPHILIC COMMUNITY U P S T R E A M H O V I N S T R E A M WAT E R F R O N T R E G E N E R AT I O N G U A N G YA N G

Reopening the Hovin stream is one of three important river reopening schemes in Oslo. The project attempts to solve the concrete problems of transferring the stream into a central corridor that has both ecological and social value. These problems are complex as the stream flows through one of the biggest low-density residential areas in Oslo. The project explores landscape-led solutions to re-unify to the site—approximately 2.6 km long upstream water course—and its adjacent three communities Årvoll og Tonsenhagen, Risløkka and Økern, in eastern suburbs of Oslo. A series of historical transformations have not only resulted in the building of the low-density housing and challenges in land use, but also left behing bare and boring spaces along the stream. How to regenerate these waterfront spaces? Social demands together with the investigation into the historical background give rise to the ‘Hydrophilic Community’, a design with three main parts: Impression, Opportunity and Realisation.

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1 | â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Jigsawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; regeneration of water forms along the Hovin Stream

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[Detailed Design Site Two]

[Detailed Design Site Three]

G UA N G YA N G | H Y D R O P H I L I C C O M M U N I T Y

[Detailed Design Site One]

2 | Detailed design of site two 3 | Birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s-eye view 4 | Strategic plan and the glimpses of the three sites 5 | Detailed design of site one 247

07 FJORD CITY FLEXIBLE C OASTLINE L U X I YA N G

Oslo is located in between green forested hills and the fjord. Through decades of land reclamation, expansion and planning, the fjord has been transformed into a playground where world-class architects experiment with art galleries, sculpture parks, residential luxury buildings, star restaurants and stylish hotels. The fjord is Oslo’s calling card, but its beauty is not present in the city center. It is limited to a route along the waterfront, characterised by a disordered harbour, hard borders, flat asphalt. The design takes the geometry of the fjord as the inspiration to create a new water urbanism. It provides both residents and visitors a dynamic and unique city experience, while retaining the singularity of Oslo’s fjord landscape. The waterfront becomes a flexible coastline that contains both natural habitats and constructed beaches for recreation. Parks on the water, an ocean of activities and recreational spaces at one with the water, the weather and nature — a new and different urban space. The proposal also restores the intertidal landscape, superimposing it on the obsolete industrial layer as a life support system.

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L U X I YA N G | FJ O R D C I T Y

1 | Masterplan composed of a welcome plaza, a promenade and an eco-park

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L U X I YA N G | FJ O R D C I T Y O S LO

2 | The eco-park - a flooded landscape, mouth of multiple natural watercourses. An ecosystem filled with flora and fauna, which focuses on migrating birds. 3 | Diversity in the eco-park: rhythm of the landscape, floating garden and different species 4 | Detail plan of the creative playground. Differences in height encourage various activities. 5 | Detail plan of the pocket park located at the end of the promenade, adjacent to the eco-park. 6 | The welcome plaza: reproducing hydrological and topographical features. 7 | The welcome plaza: mirrors create an urban forest atmosphere. 253

08 CONCEAL AND REVEAL I N T E R A C T I N G W I T H N AT U R E O N T H E U R B A N WAT E R F R O N T Z I YA N G Y U

Vippetangen is the southernmost tip of the Akershus peninsula in central Oslo and the starting point of the city’s expansion and development. Before any artificial modification of the terrain, the basic form of Vippetangen was determined by water and bedrock. Now the interaction between people and the water at Vippetangen has been blocked by the freight ports that still occupy much of Oslo’s shoreline. Vippetangen’s natural, historical and cultural elements should be excavated and displayed in order to intensify the unique identity of Oslo fjord. In addition to showing the original appearance of the site and bringing back the atmosphere, the integrated green and blue infrastructures will create a resilient coastal landscape. This project aims to break the monopoly of the port on the waterfront and allow people to interact more with the fjord.

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Z I YA N G Y U | C O N C E A L A N D R E V E A L

1 | Historical changes - Coastal sections over the centuries

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Z I YA N G Y U | C O N C E A L A N D R E V E A L

2 | Sluice gate: Summer and winter view 3 | Underground space 4 | Brackish marsh 259

09 A D IA LO G U E W I T H S U N L I G H T I M P R O V I N G T H E V I TA L I T Y O F P U B L I C S PA C E S WENYU ZHANG

Sunlight makes outdoor space visible and more three-dimensional. In landscape architecture the interaction between light and elements such as plants, structures and people can be used to create atmospheres. Natural light evokes human emotions. Thus, designing a dialogue with sunlight is a way to close the distance between people and the environment. The design proposal explores the positive impact of sunlight and uses it for two purposes: ecology and experience. To improve the urban ecosystem and to strengthen the various atmospheres of outdoor spaces in the Oslo city centre. The project seeks to coordinate the relationship between human and nature, slow down the fast-paced life, elicit an emotional response. Finally, it creates a recognisable coastal scenery.

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1 | Site mapping, Oslo city centre

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W E N Y U Z H A N G | A D I A LO G U E W I T H S U N L I G H T

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W E N Y U Z H A N G | A D I A LO G U E W I T H S U N L I G H T

2 | Concept: Concentric circles show daily and annual landscape interests according to changes in sunlight. 3 | Streetscape in daylight and during the night. 4 | Garden: A quiet space for people to contemplate at sunrise and sunset 265

10 NEW FUTURE E X P LO R I N G T H E P O T E N T I A L O F A C E M E T E R Y L A N D S C A P E RUOCHEN ZHOU

People are distanced from nature in their lives: building cities without living matter, using air-conditioners to avoid feeling the weather, using antiseptics and even coffins to separate themselves from natural cycle. This fosters a misunderstanding that human beings are masters of the world. However, we are just a part of nature. The climate crisis is a sign that we need to respect nature and protect the environment. The cemetery is an opportunity to inforce the idea of a positive life cycle and connectivity in nature and to contribute to the urban fabric, identity and use of city spaces. This project explores the potential of a cemetery landscape to reconnect people with nature: finding their place in the world, what their feelings are toward their surroundings in different moments. It uses tranquility to help people reconnect with themselves: meditation and contemplation to find out who they are, what they really want and how they feel.

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RUOCHEN ZHOU | NEW FUTURE

1 | Burial planting with wild flowers

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DRAINAGE SYSTEM

DISABLED SLOPE ACCESS

NIGHT LIGHT DESIGN

MARBLE PAVEMENT

RAMMED EARTH

DARK MARBLE PAVEMENT SHAPE

WALL LIGHTING DESIGN

BIG EGG FOG

SHALE PAVEMENT WITH DOT LIGHT

-Plaza Details-

From left to right the image demonstrates detail design through the plaza walking experience. On the left of photo metaphor the life span through different length of dark marble. Be using pebble to look like stream and to prevent soil splash into road. Apart from that, the light design thinks of night atmosphere. it has small dot light in shale area reminds of stars.

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OUTDOOR SLOPE LAYING CHAIR

BIRCH TREE DECORATION

UNDERNEATH GROUND PEBBLE

WATER POOL STRUCTURE

RUOCHEN ZHOU | NEW FUTURE

BIG EGG DETAILS

G DESIGN

2 | The Plaza. 3 | The path that links together different spaces. 4 | Installations and earthwork. 5 | The Plaza. 271

AC K N O W L E D G E M E N T S Tutors | GARNOCK VALLEY Chris Rankin, Helen Willey and Sheena Raeburn Tutors | NORTH COAST LANDSCAPES Elinor Scarth and AnaĂŻs Chanon Tutors | OSLO Lisa Mackenzie and Chris Gray Other cross studio visiting tutors | Andy Siddal, Paul Morsley, Melissa Orr, Elise Campbell, Daniel Reiser and Ecologists | John Darbyshire and Leonie Alexander ECA Workshop Technicians | Paul Diamond Richard Collins Bryan Park Malcolm Cruickshank Catriona Gilbert Malcolm Hosie Rachel Collie Michael Kay Terence and all the ECA support staff

Catalogue edited by | Milja Tuomivaara Catalogue designed by | Kate Le Masurier and Eireann Iannetta-Mackay The format of the catalogue has been developed and extended from the catalogue series for the ESALA MArch studios 2017â&#x20AC;&#x201C;18, designed by Emma Bennett and Rachel Braude with support from Adrian Hawker Printed by | J Thomson Colour Printers Ltd. Cover Image | Elinor Scarth