UE:EU
STUDENTS: SEAN SAVAGE CRAIG MITCHELL TUTOR: IAN FISHER MA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE CHATHAM BUILDING LOWER CAVENDISH STREET M15 6BR CONTACT: i.fisher@mmu.ac.uk 07801258917
UE:EU In a Mediterranean climate there is a delicate relationship between the physical resource of water and the pattern of human activity. Historically, territorialisation of the land relied on the availability of this resource and the regularity of its recharge. This supported a largely devolved urban morphology, reliant on an intricate and stable network of physical and cultural relationships. However, the rapid collapse of this system in the last 50 years has combined to expose its vulnerability. A combination of dynamic social, political and environmental factors reflected its minimal capacity for adaptability and change. This has lead to physical and human desertification and the collapse of the urban network, which structured the landscape in the interior of many Mediterranean countries. This project seeks to address how water resources in a period of climatic unpredictability can be reprogrammed as a catalyst for an emergent urbanism. It has been developed in conjunction with MA students in Landscape Architecture, Cristina Rodrigues Architects, the local authority and Centro Cultural Raiano. The damaged and derelict urban systems in and around Idanha-a-Nova municipality in central Portugal, have been used as a laboratory for idea making and testing. The theoretical discourse of landscape urbanism has been utilised as a means of providing a potential vehicle for staging opportunities for emergent “hydrologic” urban prototypes. The requirement for an approach, which is embedded in to the interrupted and currently unpredictable anthropocentric/biocentric relationship is essential if an ecologically dynamic re-urbanisation of the land is to be successful. This approach needs to adopt a multi disciplinary agenda, which is adaptable and resilient and operates with maximum flexibility in a multi time scale environment. The intention is create new spatial and temporal patterns of inhabitation in which human activity is in a positive ecological relationship with water. Project one This seeks to establish an emergent urbanism on what is at present considered an inhospitable terrain of topographical extremes. However, these extremes have the potential to maximise the value of water as a “collectable” resource. They also have the advantage of connecting with the River Tagus, which could act as future transport infrastructure. Various water retention systems are proposed, which retain water within a number of parallel valleys. Dependent on gradient, these systems develop intensive agriculture or water storage. The emergent urbanism is directly linked to the “productivity” of these systems and evolves as a suspended three dimensional grid, in which various sub structures for living, processing etc can be inserted. The grid itself is an organic system, sucking up water, recycling waste and acting as a frame for vegetative and algae production. Project two As the relationship between agriculture and resources collapsed, it was replaced by a monoculture of forestry plantations. This project utilises the degradation of the land, following plantation felling as the stage to introduce systems, which will recharge the soil/water complex as a first stage in establishing a new devolved urban system, which is resilient and adaptable. The key component is the establishment of a series of “land bowls”, which through the use of water retaining polymers and artificial seeding mats aim to re-establish the complex Iberian woodland system, which in the past provided food and materials. Overlaid and interwoven in to this structure is a secondary system of highly productive plants, which will supplement the Iberian woodland complex. This is a multi-scale approach, with initially the “cabin in the forest” as the first stage of an emergent urbanism, which will evolve in time to develop production, processing and selling nodes as part of a re-emergent urbanism.
The collapse of an ‘Urban Framework’
Location and Context:
Castelo Branco Portugal
Idanha a Nova Castelo Branco
Idanha a Nova
Small scale subsistance farming
Despite being situated between three major European cities, Lisbon, Madrid and Porto; Idanha a Nova has minimal connectivity with them and feels geographically isolated in the interior of the Iberian penisular. This project utilises the Municipality as a ‘laboratory’ for testing ideas on emergent urbanism, which could act as a model for future projects, throughout the Mediterranean.
European Union Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)
Large scale wheat production
Scale of “industrial” agriculture impacts on previous delicate balance between humans and the landscape
Introduction of single specie plantations
In a Mediterranean climate there is a delicate relationship between the physical resource of water, soil, microclimate, indigenous vegetation and the pattern of human activity. Historically, territorialisation of the land created a symbiosis between resource exploitation and renewal, which could support a level of productivity commensurate with sustained economic activity. A combination of social, political and technological factors in the last 50 years have combined to change this relationship between humans and the land, leading to a collapse in the urban framework, human desertification and the exploitation of non renewable resources.
The decline in available moisture:
25 20 15 10
10 8 6 4 2
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2011
2012
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
0
1998
Year of rainfall
0
1997
2012
2011
2010
2009
5
2008
2007 Lack of data
2006
2005 Lack of data
Amount of fog in days
585mm
Year of rainfall
2004
2003
2002 Lack of data
1999
1998
0
1997
2011
2010
2009
2008
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
0
200
2007
20
600 400
2006
40
800
2001 Lack of data
60
30
2000 Lack of data
Rain in mm
80
2005 Lack of data
Amount of rain in days
35
2001
1000
12
2000
100
40
1999
1200
Annual average wind speed (days) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]
1998
120
Amount of fog (days) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]
1997
Amount of rain (mm) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]
Annual average wind speed kmph
Amount of rain (days) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]
Year of wind speed
Year of rainfall
Sampling Infrastructures: Poorly developed and fractured anthropocentric infrastructure has had a profound effect on land use, settlement and transport networks.
Penha Garcia
Medelim
São Miguel de Acha
369 27.1/Km2
Aldeia de Santa Margarida
Aldeia de Santa Margarida
São Miguel de Acha
Monfortinho Alcafozes
Alcafozes
Toulões Salvaterra do Extremo
Idanha-a-Nova
Ladoeiro
560 13.6/Km2
Monfortinho
Zebreira
Ladoeiro
Segura
Zebreira
BASIC AMENITIES
LOW/NO AMENITIES
608 11/Km2
202 3.6/Km2
Salvaterra do Extremo
SUFFICIENT AMENITIES
Rosmaninhal
79 3.8/Km2
355 12.9/Km2
Toulões
Idanha-a-Nova
1345 7.4/Km2
224 3.9/Km2
Idanha-a-Velha
Oledo
237 6.4/Km2 170 2.1/Km2
2352 10.4/Km2
Segura
1028 98/Km2
1290 20.4/Km2
176 2.4/Km2
PREDOMINANCE OF MUNICIPAL ROADS
Rosmaninhal
748 5.8/Km2
272 8.9/Km2
Monsanto
Proença -aVelha
Idanha-a-Velha
Oledo
Penha Garcia
Medelim
Monsanto
Proença -aVelha
PREDOMINANCE OF TERTIARY ROADS
PREDOMINANCE OF TRACKS
537 2/Km2
HIGH POPULATION DENSITY
MEDIUM POPULATION DENSITY
LOW POPULATION DENSITY
Water catchment systems
Green Infrastructure
Urban Infrastructure WATER CONSERVATION AND HARVESTING:
FULLY ESTABLISHED FLEXIBLE FRAMEWORK STRUCTURES :
SPATIAL:
FOOD PRODUCTION:
creating a stage for an emergent urbanism is to capture and harvest precipitation which is normally concentrated in two months of the year, but which has recently become more unpredictable in its timing and volume�
Vegetation encorporated as a spatial tool in emergent urban structures Living Walls, Vertical and Hanging Gardens
Multiple cycles of agricultural production, to achieve self sufficiency
THREE STAGE URBANISM: Stage 1: A flexible framework of 3D grids is proposed, which manifest themselves lightly on the ground and above the valley bottom on a set of fixed points. This reduces to a minimum the land take of level terrain so as to maximise vegetation production, as the most cost effective solution in finding a staging for integrating anthropocentric and biocentric systems. Stage 2: The grid acts as a mediator, providing shelter and shade, passive cooling, energy, transportation conduits for water and waste, recycling of materials, support for vegetation growth, frames for public/private space, spaces of transaction and permanence. Stage 3: The aim is for the framework to act as a prosthetic for an emergent urbanism. The 3D aggregation of space and form, containing multiple activities, but in intimate dialogue with physical resources will gradually adapt and grow in order to colonise the heterogeneous topography.
1.3 - Multiple Gradient Intervention “The key operation in CONTOUR SWALES:
WEIRS:
RAINSAUCERS:
SILT TRAPS: RESOURCE[FULL]:
Vegetation structures create humidity and shelter and reduce evaporation
PROJECT_1
Valley Type 1.2 - Shallow Gradient
Upcycle vegetation - Reed Beds, Algae Tubes and Ponds, Capilary Transfer, Bio-Fuel and Compostable Materials
UPCYCLE:
Valley Type 1.1 - Moderate Gradient
Valley Type 1.0 - Steep Gradient
Monocultural Forestry Planations *plantation forestry
Environmental Impact
Establish vegetation and enrich soils
120
3.47M hectares 38%Total Forest Cover
100
Forestry [Portugal]
Less labour intensive employment [Portugal, 11,000 employed in forestry]
Land Bowls
Lack of data
Amount of rain in days
40
20
Increased scale of industrial plantations [Portugal]
Lack of biological understory [increased evaporation]
2011
2010
2009
2008
Rain statistics [Castelo Branco, Portugal]
Duel system of Iberian woodland complex and multi-productive plantation sub grid
Natural colonisation in interstitial spaces
2007
Year of rainfall
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
2005
1999
2000
1998
0
Incubator system -Mycorrhizza fungi -Water absorbing polymer, -Seed mat of Iberian woodland as incubator vegetation system
This project utilises the degradation of the land, following plantation felling to introduce sustainable systems and a loose grid of highly productive plants, which will recharge the soil/water complex as a first stage in establishing a new devolved urban system, which is resilient and adaptable. Through the use of water retaining polymers, soil enhancing fungi and Iberian woodland seeds embedded within a hemp matting system, a sustainable ecology will be created improving humidity levels and availability of water.
60
1997
1990
1,234,000 ha
5.37M hectares
1,034,000 ha
80
550,000 ha
As the relationship between agriculture and resources collapsed, it was replaced by a monoculture of forestry plantations. These type of plantations have increased significantly over the past 40 years. In the same time period water availability and employment has decreased. This proposal addresses physical social and cultural issues by introducing a new urban morphology, which replaces the plantation system to create a sustainable infrastructure whilst biologically in dynamic equilibrium.
Increased fire risk [Portugal, 2002-12 average 141,356 ha forest destroyed]
Utilised on previous forestry plantations After harvesting, the land has the greatest potential for change.
Unsustainable plantation economics are replaced by the economics of sustainability through the ‘land bowl’ system Secondary grid of productive plants
‘Cabin in the forest’
PROJECT_2
Establishing sustainable industry
First stage of emergent urbanism
Plantation forestry
Ref
Ref
Vegetated ‘land bowl’ Ref
Site specific structure ‘Node’ of activity
As the multi layer forest matures, transient seasonal harvesting will require permanent structures to process, manufacture and trade, leading to an emergent devolved urbanism in tune with the rhythms of the forest productivity cycle
Ref
Ref
Connections between grids Developing Infrastructure
Isolated ‘land bowl’ situated within a plantation forest with a site specific structure.
Separate grids of ‘land bowls’ interconnect creating ‘nodes’ of access/activity/trade etc.
Grids and localised industries expand improving levels of infrastructure and further development.
Grids expand further creating numerous ‘nodes’ of activity developing the infrastructure, beginning the process of reemergant urbanism.
Individual grids evolve into a complex system that can self sustain ecologically and economically.