© vzw ‘de Rand’
SPRING STUDIO 2021
POST-COVID19 FOREST & WATER URBANISMS
Dijle Watershed & Senne Watershed, Belgium
Master (of Science) Human Settlements & Master (of Science) of Urbanism, Landscape and Planning Faculty of Engineering and Department of Architecture Teaching Team: Viviana d’Auria, Bruno De Meulder, Kelly Shannon, Pieter Van den Broeck Guest Teachers from Practice: Annelies De Nijs (Atelier Horizon), Nina Reyntjens (BUUR)
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© Copyright KU Leuven Without written permission of the thesis supervisors and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication. Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to Faculty of Engineering and Department of Architecture, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 box 2431, B-3001 Heverlee. A written permission of the thesis supervisors is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 STUDIO CHALLENGE
06
02 SITE DOCUMENTATION
18
03 FIELDWORK
132
04 CASE STUDY RESEARCH
198
05 STRATEGIC PROJECTS
358
Senne Watershed
4
Sculpting Water- Forest-fronts in the Senne’s Mosaics Imraan Begg, Raquel Jerobon, Sebastian Oviedo, Cecilia Alejandra Quiroga
362
Intertwining Water & Urbanisms of Molenburg Carlijne Lelièvre, Donglin Liu, Tlhabi Shubane
388
Worlding Sint-Genesius-Rode’s Slopes Leander Baeke, Giulia Devis, Raya Rizk, Xenia Stoumpou
414
Dijle Watershed Down to the River: Necklacing Ijse Valley Agnese Marcigliano, Carlos Morales, Haifa Saleh, Tien Tran
456
Resetting Edge Ecologies in Duisburg & Eizer Camille Hendlisz, Cécile Houpert, Sara Semlali, Lucie Van Meerbeeck
508
Upper Voer Valley Transversals: Forest / Agro / Water Urbanisms Pebri Try Astuti, Ying Li, Valerian Portokalis, Arthur Stache
544
Quilting Earthworks: Requalifying the Voer River Valley Daniela Cobo, Philippa Lankers, Jennifer Saad, Yentl Wulteputte
580
Settling the Hillsides of Oud Heverlee Ariane Cantillana, Yifan Hu, Caroline Thaler, Yidnekachew Yilma
598
Figuring Thresholds in Neerijse & Florival, Dijle Valley Gemma Annear, Ermioni Chatzimichail, Simon De Boeck, Elena Giral
624
Choreographing Patch Dynamics on the Slopes of St. Agatha Rode Bing Du, Laetitia-Nour Hanna, Izzah Minhas, Bridget Nakangu
646
06 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
660
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© Imraan Begg
01 STUDIO CHALLENGE 7
STUDIO CHALLENGE
DIJLE WATERSHED & SENNE WATERSHED
CONTEXT & CHALLENGES Post-Covid19 Forest & Water Urbanisms in the Senne watershed and Dijle
domain of the Sonian Forest (as with the Heverlee and Meerdaal Forests) was
watershed develops urban design research for a new reality. The present crisis
originally under the care of the Dukes of Brabant, which passed into the hands
has accentuated a number of tendencies and strongly articulated a number of
of the dukes of Burgundy, then to Austrian custody and ended up as patrimony
problematic issues concerning urbanization. It is clear that structural changes are
of the Dutch king. Heverlee and Meerdaal Forest ended up as a domain of the
necessary in the built environment. In that sense, the crisis also offers a moment
Dukes of Arenberg before it became a public domain in the 20th century. A large
of radical new thinking and innovation. Necessity has always been the mother
part of the Sonian Forest was transferred to the Societe Generale during Dutch
of invention. The Senne watershed and Dijle watershed, the Heverlee, Meerdaal,
occupation, as a kind of guarantee fund of the financial holding that would finance
Zonian and Haller forests are simultaneously monumental ecological assets and at
the industrialization of the region. At the end of the day, the Societe Generale
the heart of the ever-expanding metropolitan area that literally envelopes them. The
allotted and sold out its guarantee fund, which catalyzed the urbanization of Uccle,
valleys, forested slopes and agricultural plateaus and diffuse settlements are under
Watermaal-Bosvoorde, St. Lambrechts-Woluwe, etc. In 1830, the remainders of the
intensive stress and in dire need of a shared vision, strategic operations and a variety
Sonian Forest became property of the Belgian state which in turn, at the end of the
of actions and measures to guarantee their mutual sustainable development. Their
20th century, split its administration amongst the three regions of the country in
relationship urgently requires clarification and the reconciliation of contradictory
which it is embedded: Brussels Capital Region, Wallonia, and Flanders.
conditions: accessibility with conservation, urban development with ecological restoration, new programming with stewardship, consumption with reproduction.
Once upon a time, the forest harbored in its clearing’s convents and castles, farms, and the like. The tenure successions went hand-in-hand with both the
Existing green and blue systems need to be reinforced and new ones created in
selling of forest parcels and radical deforestation caused by logging necessary to
order to develop tangible connectivity of the Heverlee, Meerdaal, Zonian and Haller
settle war bills, lucrative agricultural development and, by suburbanization that
Forests. In short, the main question could be how to reconcile the safeguarding of
was triggered by rampant speculation. Deforestation and massive reforestation
essential components of nature and their regeneration where depleted, with the
(including the 18th century restoration by the Austrian landscape architect
increasing pressures of urban development? As said, it is clear that a radical new
Joachim Zinner that gave the Sonian Forest the reputation of a beech cathedral)
approach is urgently required. Neither urbanization, consumption, nor production
turned it into both a monumental and richly layered patrimony. It is clear that the
can continue as they have for the last decades. Systemic changes are required.
forest development, from its earliest days until today, has been closely intertwined with the development of Brussels (since the 16th century nobility used to have a
The Sonian Forest is, more or less, equal in size to the Brussels agglomeration, while
castle as summer residence in the fringes of the forest, beside an urban residence),
Heverlee Forest and Meerdaal Forest are together a few times larger than Leuven.
and that it functions simultaneously as the central park of the metropolitan region
In the west, the Haller Forest is larger than the city of Halle. The once much larger
that completely surrounds and grows around it, as a foundation of the (remaining)
8
© vzw ‘de Rand’
ecological structure of the region, and as the main spatial structure of the
ecological connections between the Haller Forest, Sonian Forest and Heverlee and
metropole that contains its main crossroads. Surely since the Second World War,
Meerdaal Forest and turn this reconnected forest domains into a national park
massive suburbanization waves encircled the residual forests and a half suburban,
‘Brabantse Wouden’. It is evident that the ‘Brabantse Wouden’ would become the
half forested interface between countryside and forest emerged. More than half
main ecological structure of the (Flemish part of the) heavily urbanized province
of the residential development of Brussels (and Leuven and Halle for that matter)
of Brabant in which the urban forms one—be it formless—continuum. It is also
actually encircle the forests. One could say that they constitute the 20th century
evident that intense coordination with the Walloon part of Brabant and the Brussels
city. The Sonian Forest is in that sense center and complement of the city and as
Capital Region should be envisioned.
well functions as compensation of the city. As the Brussels metropolitan region merges into a larger urban territory that covers most of East Brabant, it becomes imperative to consider the Sonian Forest as essential patch of a forest system that inevitably interacts intensively with the urban system. It delivers countless services to the urban system, while being simultaneously self-dependent for its natural reproduction. What is true for the Sonian Forest and Brussels, also applies—same same but different—for Leuven and Heverlee and Meerdaal Forest and for Haller Forest and Halle. The government of the Flemish Region plans to restore the
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STUDIO INTENT
ORGANIZATION & RELATION TO ON-GOING POLICIES
The studio investigates how the interplay between forest and city, nature and
The studio was co-organized with Omgeving (the Flemish Department of
culture so to say, can be restructured sustainably and equitably. In short, the studio
Environment and Spatial Development) and in close interaction with all relevant
is on the outlook for new forms of urbanity of the 21st century.
stakeholders and is intended as a catalyst for rethinking the region’s fundamental nature/ culture relationship. Important recent programs and policies on the level of
The on-going crisis has revealed the necessity for new projects concerning mobility
the Flemish region that resonate within this nature/culture relationship have been
(redistributing space for cars to more room for alternative movement, shifting
addressed, amongst others, the program of:
from pure technocratic approaches of infrastructure to more sensitive approaches
1. de-sealing that aims to restore water balances (level of watertables and their
that have an eye on quality of experience and sustainability), commerce (with
replenishing) that is crucial given the increasing problems with drought,
various modes of delivery and small scale-short chains that replace current forms
ecological disruptions, etc.
of retail facing a crisis in the midst of the pandemic), work (telecommuting as a
2. ‘betonstop’ (the policy to radically stop further consumption of greenfields and
new normal and the end of industry-zones, a renewed interest in make-industries,
a transition towards only reuse and restructuring of existing urbanized land,
etc.) housing (with home-work and important linkages to outside space and in
brownfields and others).
general with sociological changes in household composition and expectations)
3. an ambitious program of reforestation (4,000 hectares in a period of 4 years,
and recreation. The on-going crisis revealed the necessity to fundamentally rethink
while the structure plan of Flanders of 1996 foresaw 10,000 ha of extra
urbanity and, in this case also its de facto intertwining with nature.
forestation).
The structural transformation of the suburban continuum around the Zonian,
Besides this regional programs and policies, there are of course also policies of
Haller, Heverlee and Meerdaal forests is strategic in this respect. Having accumulated
municipalities, cities and the province of Vlaams Brabant with which the studio
the vast majority of housing investment in the region since the Second World War,
assignment resonates. Surely noteworthy here is the plan of Leuven Klimaatneutraal
it is also the most problematic and urgently requiring substantial re-investment,
(climate neutrality).
as the housing stock is technically outdated, socially and culturally ill-adapted to current housing aspirations of the millennium generation and economically no longer attainable for a vast majority of the population. Simultaneously, densities are currently rather low, which would allow, thinking in terms of pooling and transferring of development rights, to radically restructure the housing stock and intensify the urban, while systematically handing over place for ecology (in the first instance to forestry). Caught in between this urban and forest dichotomy is the challenge to rethink productive uses of the territory, be it for emerging forms of urban agriculture, fruit production, etc. At the end of the day, the studio is on the outlook for a novel 21st century trialogue between forest, agriculture and the urban and the various overlaps or combinations between them such as urban forestry, urban agriculture, agricultural forestry, etc. The studio has been structured by two parallel foci: one on the transformation of urban tissues and another on strengthening systems logics at the territorial scale. The goal was to investigate the valleys, slopes and plateaus as potential places of multiplicity and develop projects and scenarios that couple ambition with applicability, ranging from regional to micro scales, and combine ecology with urbanism and water management and forestry with urban design.
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GUEST LECTURES
Brabantse Wouden Bart Meuleman, Agency of Nature and Forests
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The Forest as Habitat Jitse Massant, plusoffice
Strategic Projects Jo Decoster, horizon +
Introducing Walden Gert Van de Genachte, INTOE
Zennevallei - Strategic Issues Elyn Remy, Vlaams Brabant
Friend or Foe? - Three water landscapes in Flanders Annelies De Nijs, Atelier Horizon
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Chances for Continuity Nina Reyntjens, BUUR
Understanding River Systems by Looking at the Past The Dijle Vally as case study Nils Broothaerts, KU Leuven
Wood(s) Julie Marin, KU Leuven
Typology & Transition Federico Gobbato Liva, KADERSTUDIO
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Forest Management Source of the Timber Cycle Geert Bruynseels, Natuurinvest
Cities & Pandemics - Towards a more just, green and healthy future Raf Tuts, UN Habitat
Urban Forests - Moving from nature-based solutions to nature-based thinking Cecil C. Konijnendijk, NBSI
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
Building Resilient Communities Amy Chester, Research By Design (RBD)
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WORKSHOPS
DIJLE WATERSHED & SENNE WATERSHED
Planning Assignment & Reflection with Pieter Van den Broeck, KU Leuven
CHALLENGING AGRICULTURAL LAND INTENSIFICATION IN LEMBEEK How does t’GroenteHart Community Supported Agriculture make it work?
The goal of the planning workshop was to stimulate students to connect to analysis,
paid professional labor is limited to one owner/worker
LAND LENT BY AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPANY
think about stakeholders and the mechanisms these are embedded in, consider
€
3 ha = 0€/year
process and implementation, and reflect on their position and the socio-spatial meaning of design proposals. The planning workshop started from issues that students came up with during fieldwork or preparing design proposals. These included the mechanisms of urban sprawl, how to implement afforestation, land
30’000€/year subsidies for intensive farm
50% of costs are covered by non-monetary exchanges self-picking by members replaces half of farm-running costs and makes membership more affordable
“in 1995, land here costed [the equivalent of] 10’000€/ha ... nowadays 60’000€/ha is a good price” 3’000€/year subsidies
tenure, mechanisms of agriculture, conflicts between car and soft mobility, changing
$350
120 members pay upfront for the whole year
(online) work and commercial practices, redefinition of housing and recreation. Students were requested to explore these issues a bit further in depth and bring in actor-institutional research, leading to findings on actors and mechanisms
greenhouses for year-round production
regarding this issue. Students for example questioned how the peri-urban fabric is produced, by whom, why there is deforestation, how nature conservation works,
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water harvesting and former quarry secure free water rain or shine
2015
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what is the role of agriculture and why does it tend to take over nature, how it is affected by urbanisation, what the ideal typical family mean in peri-urban areas, what the impact is from land speculation, why there is a problem of affordability of housing, what about the politics of all this? Students produced infographs and
intensive monocrop use
30 years of rent-free land for CSA
affordable housing
interview transcripts presenting their key-findings. © Group S1: Imraan Begg, Raquel Jerobon, Sebastian Oviedo, Cecilia Quiroga
16
€ shared risk and independence from market fluctuations
Urban Forestry with Cecil C. Konijnendijk, NBSI In the working sessions with Cecil Konijnendijk, students zoomed in on the urban forest part of the site, looking e.g., at the potential of forests and trees for providing ecosystem services and nature-based solutions. As a first step, a mapping of relevant stakeholders and the possibilities for strategic alliances was discussed by the groups. Special emphasis was placed on the presence of actors who potentially could serve as ‘scale brokers’ in governance and planning. Next, an effort was made to develop a vision for each site, also expressed in a brief statement of ambition. For many of the groups, it became clear that the forest component will be an important ‘backbone’ for their plans. The workshops then also focused on a more detailed assessment of current urban forest resources (e.g. canopy cover, tree diversity) and ecosystem services, to identify the potential for further development. Finally, groups were asked to think about longer-term implementation and management aspects of their visions and plans.
Urban Policy & Community Engagement with Amy Chester, Research By Design (RBD) The students were given a presentation on the importance of conducting a political analysis to include stakeholders' feedback as an essential component to a planning project, as well as why, and how, we seek their feedback. Using a real example from a successful effort in New York State, the students were taken through the steps of a political analysis to understand the various groups that would have a stake in the example issue such as government, NGO, residents and industry - and the best ways to communicate with each group. The students were then charged with creating a stakeholder map which identified the necessary individuals and
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN • • • • •
organizations within their project site, and were asked to prioritize this outreach. The effort continued with the students drafting letters to two stakeholder groups, asking for participation in the project to demonstrate the considerations that must be made when you present your work to different audiences. Lastly, the students developed a stakeholder input events targeting one priority stakeholder group. Students were asked to create a one-page flyer which communicates their message. The events ranged from pop up farmers market, to a baking competition, to a tree planting event, demonstrating the diversity of methods to reach stakeholders.
• • • •
Analysis of All Stakeholders Government Agency Meetings Meetings w existing coalitions Forming new coalitions Creating unusual events (bike tours, dance parties, movie screenings, parade) Design Charrettes Brainstorming sessions Site tours Wholesale Presentations at existing meetings
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© Leander Baeke
02 SITE DOCUMENTATION 19
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SENNE WATERSHED 23
S1a
Challenges and opportunities
Senne river running through industrial site
www.linkedin.com
channel Brussels-Charleroi with industries and windmills
- Lotbeek area as open green space enclosed by the channel, industrial sites and the Bergensesteenweg - Industrial site with meandering Zenne as opportunity for revitalisation - Scattered residential areas - Buizingen and Huizingen station areas Jan Baptist Bosmansstraat: between industrial site and Lotbeek area
google.com
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Brussels-Charleroi channel as carrier of industrial activity - Senne river - dispersed development of industrial sites, residential allotments and scattered green spaces - Kesterbeek and Molenbeek (streams) - Lotbeek (stream) - Beemd water bassins - E19 Highway - waterfront windmills - stations of Buizingen and Lot on the lines Nivelles-Brussels and station Huizingen on the line Halle-Mechelen - brewery ‘3 Foteinen’ - Breedveld business park
sint-pieters-leeuw.eu
Characteristic elements
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Lotbeek stream channel Brussels-Charleroi brewery ‘3 Fonteinen’ Lotbeek open area industrial waterfront
skatepark
Senne river Lakenberg allotment
Catala site biking highway F20
Breedveld business park
Beemd water bassins LIP Land van Teirlinck
station Huizingen station Buizingen Molenbeek Alsembergsesteenweg Kesterbeek Eisingen allotment
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S1a Existing projects Catala site reconversion
Reconversion of old paper factory into a site for small businesses and a park.
Landinrichtingsproject Land van Teirlinck - plan Neerdorp Reconversion plan for the Neerdorp park surrounding the Catala site.
Catala site waiting for new development
hln.be
Actors: POM & VLM Theme: Industrial reconversion
Actors: VLM, lne Theme: Ecology
Zennevalei Lot
Study for the Zenne valley area and strategic projects around Lot.
New biking highway along the channel Brussels-Charleroi Actors: Province Vlaams-Brabant Theme: Mobility
Zennevallei Lot by BUUR
buur.be
biking highway F20
Lot station area
New biking highway along the channel Brussels-Charleroi Actors: BUUR, 1010, Province Vlaams-Brabant Theme: Ecology
Lot station area by BUUR
buur.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: BUUR, 1010, Province Vlaams-Brabant Theme: Ecology
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pomvlaamsbrabant.be
Catala site Molenbeek reconstructed
fietssnelwegen.be
Sashoek, biking highway F20
pomvlaamsbrabant.be
Catala site Molenbeek reconstruction
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skatepark Lot
Breedveld business park
google.be hln.be
Goutstouwerstraat, allotment Lakenberg
google.be
Senne natural area
google.be
Heideveld, between railroad and industries
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Tuinwijk, allotment Eisingen
google.be
S1a
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Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
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S1b
Challenges and opportunities
Malakoff domain with Malokoff tower
flickr.com
Senne river at the Zenneweide
- Lembeek Noord: scattered industrial site
Lembeek noord industrial site
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- channel Brussels-Charleroi as carrier of industrial activity - Senne river - Maasdal forest - Maasdal stream - Berendries natural domain - Mollebeek stream - Vijverbeek stream - Lembeek castle park - Warande Park - Malakoff domain - Vogelweelde and Essenbeek residential areas - Lembeek station - E429 Highway Brussels -Tournai/Lille - Bergensesteenweg and Nijvelsesteenweg as regional connections
ringtv.be
Characteristic elements
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Vogelweelde channel Brussels-Charleroi
E429
Bergensesteenweg
Lembeek noord industrial site
Essenbeek Nijvelsesteenweg
Zenneweide
Vijverbeek stream
F20 biking highway
Senne
Warande park
Berendries
Lembeek station Lembeek castle park
Maasdal stream
Malakoff domain Maasdal forest Mollebeek stream
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S1b Existing projects
construction of bridges connecting both sides of the channel and reconversion of the riverfront
Actors: De Vlaamse Waterweg, Stad halle, Provincie Vlaams-Brabant, departement mobiliteit en openbare werken Vlaanderen Theme: Mobility, Waterfront reconversion
Zenneweide reconversion of business park into a swampy natural domain along the Senne river
Zenneweide plan
omgeving.vlaanderen.be
Reconversine of the Brussels-Charleroi channel waterfront
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
F20 biking highway and bridge Malheide bridge
Renaturalisation of Alsmebergse Beemd (contributing to water storage in centre Alsemberg) Actors: Haviland, Stad Halle, Provincie Vlaams-Brabant, departement mobiliteit en openbare werken Vlaanderen, De Vlaamse Waterweg nv Theme: Mobility
Malheideweg, F20 biking highway
fietssnelwegen.be
Actors: Stad Halle, Resolve, provincie Vlaams-Brabant, Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos, Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij, Vlaamse Waterweg, Plan Boommarter en Regionaal Landschap Pajottenland en Zennevallei. Theme: Ecology
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De Vlaamse Waterweg connections over the Brussels-Carleroi channel
halle.be kanaalnaarcharleroi.be
Zenneweide
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Berendries
Channel Brussels-Charleroi and Malheide bridge
google.be natuurpunthalle.be
Debusscherstraat, Vogelweelde residential area
google.be
Lembeek castle park
natuurpunthalle.be
Maasdal forest
ontdekpajotzenne.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Nijvelsesteenweg
google.be
S1b
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Buildings
Orchard
Water
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Agriculture
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S2a
Challenges and opportunities
view from the Kesterbeek promenade
wandelknooppunt.be
entrance Gasthuisbos
- Scattered forestry - Agriculture and pasture landscape with picturesque roads - Network of pedestrian routes
Beersel castle
tripadvisor.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Gasthuisbos - Begijnenbos - Laarheide residential area <-> agriculture landscape - Kesterbeek stream and swamp - Herdendijk ponds - recreation domain - Oud Beersel Brewery - Le Lift - orchard? - Beersel castle - The Classic Domain - Cuvry farm: biological pig farm - Watersilo Beersel - Korean church Beersel - formation centre Hanenbos
google.be
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orchard? Herdendijk Le Lift
Beersel castle
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Laarheide allotment
Oud Beersel brewery recreation domain old Cuvry farm Kesterbeek The Classic Domain Gasthuisbos
Cuvry farm
watersilo
allotment
Hanenbos
Begijnenbos
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old Cuvry farm
Meigemheide
google.be google.be
Alsembloemlaan, allotment
visitbeersel.be
Hoeveweg, country roads
randkrant.be
Oud Beersel Brewery
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
het houtem, allotment Laarheide
google.be
S2a
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Buildings
Orchard
Water
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Agriculture
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S2b
Challenges and opportunities
Molenbeek
google.be
Solheide
google.be
- Molenbeek stream - Solheide & Rilroheide - Kapittelbeek stream - Zevenborrebeek stream - Duvelsborren - Heidebroek - Gildenhuis - Sint-Goriks Pastorie with garden - Dworp cemetery - De Duling: marshy natural reserve - Hallerbos - Destelheide formation centre and park - Alsembergsesteenweg as main connection - castle Gravenhof - stable ‘Hemel op (P)Aarde’: Horse riding school - Papermill Herisem
- Enclosed green pockets in residential areas
Herisem papermill
bedouk.com
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Characteristic elements
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Solheide Herisem papermill
castle Gravenhof
Duvelsborre
Kapittelbeek
Zevenenborre flooding area
Molenbeek
Gildenhuis Pastorie with garden LIP Kapittelbeek Vroenenbos
Heidebroek
Alsembergsesteenweg Zevenborrebeek Destelheide
Dworp cemetery
Hemel op (P)Aarde
Rilroheide De Duling
Hallerbos
27
41
S2b Existing projects LIP Land van Teirlink - Kapittelbeek Renaturalisation of the Kapittelbeek area between Dworp centre and Hallerbos. Depaving and naturalising squares of the Geer quarter next to the kapittelbeek
Vroenenbos allotment Construction of 15 new housing units Actors: DB Architect, Everaert-Cooreman Theme: Housing
Zevenborre area - Destelheide plan
vlm.be
Actors: VLM Theme: Ecology
LIP Molenbeekvallei - Zevenborre area Reanturalisation of the area surrounding the Zevenborre stream with interventions at the Zevenborre mouth and Destelheide domain
Vroenenbos allotment
vlm.be
Zevenborre area - increase flooding area
wpz.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: VLM Theme: Ecology
28
42
vlm.be
Geer quarter depaving of the squares
vlm.be
Geer quarter plan for renaturalisation
vlm.be
LIP Land van Teirlink - plan for the Kapittelbeek
29
43
castle Gravenhof
Pastorie Sint-Goriks
verrassingenomdehoek.be eventnews.be
Duvelborreweg at the Duvelsborre
inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be
Alsembergsesteenweg
vlaamsbouwmeester.be
Destelheide
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Herndrik Conscience path along the Kapittelbeek
green4grey.be
S2b
30
44
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
31
45
S3
Challenges and opportunities
Schaveys park & Kleetbos
natuurenbos.be
Molenbeek ponds
- Demineralisation of Alsemberg centre & introducing new vegetation (place of water accumulation) - Kwadebeek reforestation - Recreative axis Sint-Genesius-Rode centre to the zonien forest (LIP molenbeek) Kwadeplas area and orchard
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- station Sint-Genesius-Rode - Molenbeek and its ponds - Kwadebeek stream - Driesbos with villa quarter - Kwadeplas orchard - Rondenbos domain - Schaveys park & Kleetbos - Zonienwoudlaan - cemetery of Vorst - cemetery Sint-Genesius-Rode - ENGIE Laborelec - Energy research centre - Boesdaalhoeve
google.be
Characteristic elements
32
46
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
Schaveys park & Kleetbos ENGIE Laborelec Vorst cemetery Boesdaalhoeve
Rondenbos
GEN network station Sint-Genesius-Rode Driesbos
Novarode
ponds
Molenbeek
Zonienwoudlaan allotment dreef
Kwadebeek demineralisation Alsemberg Alsembergse beemd
cemetery Sint-Genesius-Rode orchard Kwadeplas
33
47
S3 Existing projects Novarode
Park and new apartments along the uncovered Molenbeek stream Actors: Immpact Ontwikkeling & SumResearch +SumProject Theme: Urban renewal
Renaturalisation of Alsmebergse Beemd (contributing to water storage in centre Alsemberg) Actors: AnteaGroup, VLM, Gemeente Beersel, Provincie Vlaams-Brabant Theme: Ecology
Novarode new development
hln.be
Alsembergse beemd
cemetery Sint-Genesius-Rode
Cemetery as green finger and entrance gate for the Kwadebeek park
new allotment with 13 housing units Actors: Durabrik Theme: Housing
Alsembergse beemd
renaturalisation cemetery Sint-Genesius-Rode by Horizon+
anteagroup.be
allotment Dreef
yumpu.com
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: Horizon+, gemeente Sint-Genesius-Rode, ANB, VLM, Regionaal landschap Pajotteland & Zennevallei, Natuurpunt Theme: Ecology
34
48
allotment Dreef
durabrik.be
durabrik.be
plan Alsembergse beemd
allotment Dreef plan
sum.be
Novarode new development by noa architects
anteagroup.be
noa.wetnet.be
Novarode new development by noa architects
35
49
Boesdaalhoeve
Zonienwoudlaan
google.be ontdekpajotzenne.be
Lindekensweg, allotment
google.be
Kwadebeek
google.be
domain Rondenbos
ringtv.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Winderickxplein, Alsemberg centre
google.be
S3
36
50
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
37
51
52
DIJLE WATERSHED 53
D1a
Challenges and opportunities
Jan Van Ruusrbroec parc and Hoeilaart Castle
weeralweg.be
Groenedaal Zonien entrance
google.be
- presence of grape & glasshouse culture (Kelleveld glasshouses) - Ijse river and ponds - Jan Van Ruusbroec park with the castle of Hoeilaart - stations Hoeilaart & Groenendaal on the line Brussels-Ottignies - Groenedaal station area as entrance for Zonien forest - Arboretum and forest museum - Cemetery Hoeilaart - Area of stables, horse pasture land and riding schools - Terjansdelle communal orchard - Priory Groenendaal - Ringroad R0 - J.B. Charlierlaan connection Hoeilaart-Overijse
- Groenendaal station as area for reconversion
Kalleveld glasshouses
hoeilander.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Characteristic elements
40
54
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
stable and horse pasture area fauna passage Hertenlaan
R0 glasshouses
tree bridge Zonien forest
cemetery Hoeilaart
Den Travoo arboretum Groenendaal Groenedaal station area reconversion Groenendaal station
reconstruction square Hoeilaart J.B. Charlierlaan
Ijse river
Jan Van Ruusbroec park Kelleveld glasshouses
Masterplan Groenendaal
GEN connection
Ecoduct Groenendaal
Hoeilaart station
Terjansdelle
41
55
D1a Existing projects Fauna passage Hertenlaan and tree bridge
Actors: LIFE+ & OZON, Arcadis, Vlaamse Overheid Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, Afdeling Wegen en Verkeer Vlaams-Brabant Theme: Ecology, Biodiversity
Ecoduct Groenendaal
tree bridge, for squirrels and pine martens
zonienwoud.be
Fauna passages crossing ringroad R0 with the Hertenlaan tunnel and a tree bridge for squirrels and pine martens
Ecoduct crossing the ringroad R0 Actors: Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos, Departement Omgeving, LIFE+ & OZON Theme: Ecology, Biodiversity
Masterplan Groenendaal
Den Travoo Housing project in the centre of Hoeilaart for 29 private units and 12 social housing units
Masterplan Groenendaal
zonienwoud.be
Actors: Hozizon+ Theme: Ecology, Tourism
Actors: Bogdan & Van Broeck Theme: Housing
Reconstruction Hoeilaart square Reconstruction of Hoeilaart’s town square with undeground water storage and rudced parking space. Actors: Formanova, ILB architecten and D+A Consult Theme: Urban renewal
boomkruinpad - Masterplan Groenendaal
hln.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Touristic entrance for the Zonien forest connecting patches of natural areas and valorising heritage such as the priorij, bosmuseum and arboretum
42
56
Den Travoo
Ecoduct Groenendaal
wegenenverkeer.be
wegenenverkeer.be
Hertenlaan fauna passage
ebema.be
Ecoduct Groenendaal plan
bosrevue.bosplus.be
Hertenlaan fauna passage
Den Travoo
43
57
Terjansdelle orchard
J.B. Charlierlaan
google.be hoeilander.be
Ijse through Hoeilaart
google.be
Groenendaal station
google.be
Jan Lindtsstraat, horse stables and pasture land
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Hoeilaart centre
da.be
D1a
44
58
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
45
59
D1b
- E411: disconnecting both sides of Overijse with minimal connections and disrupting the ijse valley system - Flood risk in centre of Overijse - Water runoff from steep slopes towards the ijse valley - Leegheid as mobility node but lack of spatial quality - foresty valley slopes
Hagaard domain and castle
old station area and new pond
luxevastgoed.be
Challenges and opportunities
Solheide glasshouses
condor-red.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Hagaard domain - Ijsevalley and ponds - presence of grape & glasshouse culture - Ijse river - Ovrijse’s urban centre lies on a steep slope, hence the characteristic S-shaped street and drastic height differences. - Den Blank cultural centre - Solheide: cemetery & Glasshouses - Hagaard: cemetery and sports centre - E411 highway Brussels-Namur(Luxemburg) - Frans Verbeekstraat & Terhulpsesteenweg as regional connections - Reutenbeek open agrarian landscape
toerismevlaamsbrabant.be
Characteristic elements
46
60
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
Solheide Drogenberg allotment
De Kerselaar
S-shaped urban centre
Public space Overijse Frans Verbeekstraat
Mariendal
Den Blank Zuidflank
Ijse valley & ponds
Hagaard domain
E411 Terhulpsesteenweg Hagaard cemetery and sports facilities
Reutenbeek
future business park
47
61
D1b Existing projects Zuidflank Overijse Actors: Gemeente Overijse, Aquafin, de mountainbikeschool Overijse, skaters Theme: Ecology, Public space
Public space Overijse Construction Ijsevijver as water retention pond and renewal of the old station area with improved slow mobility connections
Zuidflank - green steps slowing down water
dbpubliekeruimte.info
multi-use public space countering flooding problems caused by the steep valley slopes
Actors: atelier JPLX, Arcadis belgium, Gemeente Overijse Theme: Urban renewal
Elderly care centre Mariendal
Maleizen business park 49.000 m2 business park for small entreprises at the exit of the E411 highway. Actors: Rameis nv, Guillissen & Roba Theme: Commerce
Zuidflank - skatepark
De Zagerij New development projects next to the station square and IJsevijver Actors: Immpact, M2 architecten Theme: Housing
De Kerselaar Housing project for people with limitations Actors: Archipelago architects, vzm De Kerselaar Theme: Care Mariendal
hln.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: OCMW Overijse Theme: Care
dbpubliekeruimte.info
Elderly care centre with 90 units in the centre of Overijse and linked to park area.
48
62
De Kerselaar
archipelago.be
m2architecten.be
Maleizen business park
De Zagerij
jplx.be
Public space Overijse - Ijsevijver and station square
architectes-prdv.be
jplx.be
Public space Overijse - masterplan
49
63
Overijse S-shaped centre
Terhulpsesteenweg
natuurpunt.be hln.be
Reutenbeek agrarian landscape
google.be
Frans Verbeekstraat
google.be
Kerselarenstraat , Drogenberg allotment
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Den Blank cultural centre
nieuwsblad.be
D1b
50
64
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
51
65
D2a
Challenges and opportunities - High presence of agricultural activity - Heavy through traffic in Duisburg - Network of slow routes (soft mobility) - new links with the military domain
Duisburg centre
military domain
commons.wikimedia.org
Eizerdreef - Arboretum Tervuren
fotoalbum.seniorennet.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Arboretum Tervuren - military domain (sports centre) - military golf club - Grote vaartvijver ponds - agriculture town - Zevenster with dolomite stone - Pachthof Stroykens: cultural centre - ‘Verts de Terre’: open and biological farm - water tower
mapio.net
Characteristic elements
52
66
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
Grote Vaartvijver Zevenster glass window
military golf course military domain duisburgsesteenweg amphibian crossing allotment Kiekenberg Sint-Katharinakerk pachthof Stroykens
Arboretum Tervuren
water tower
Verts de Terre
glasshouses
florist Devos
53
67
D2a Existing projects Amphibian Crossing Duisburgsestraat
Fauna passage under the road for amphibians to cross as part of the OZON projects.
Koesterroute - Zonien glass windows
Glass art at 4 entrances of the Zonien forest in the 4 different municipalities.
Duisburg in Tervuren mobility plan: scenario 1 - park axis
tervuren.be
Actors: OZON, Horizon+, gemeente Tervuren Theme: Ecology
Actors: Kristof Morel, Horizon+ & Privincie Vlaams Brabant Theme: Art
Mobility plan Tervuren by BUUR
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: BUUR, Gemeente Tervuren Year: 2014 Theme: Mobility
Duisburgsesteenweg fauna passage - OZON
nieuwsblad.be
Study analysing and rethinking mobility and public space in Tervuren.
54
68
tervuren.be
tervuren.be
Duisburg in Tervuren mobility plan: scenario 3 - public transport
pers.vlaamsbrabant.be
Duisburg in Tervuren mobility plan: scenario 2 - lively squares
glass art by Kristof Morel, Tervuren gate
55
69
Glazemakerstraat - network of slow routes
Zevenster with dolmens
google.be google.be
Overijsesteenweg - connection between Duisburg and Eizer
hln.be
water towers Duisburg
derand.be
allotment Kiekenberg
derand.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
church Duisburg
derand.be
D2a
56
70
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
57
71
D2b
Eizer centre
- High presence of agricultural activity - Dispersed forestry - Network of slow routes (soft mobility) - Flooding in the centre of Eizer after heavy rain (LIP IJsevallei)
covered Nellebeek in Eizer centre
Duisburgsesteenweg
vlm.be
Challenges and opportunities
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Nellebeek stream - Marnix forest - scattered pieces of forest - Duisburgsesteenweg as main connection - florist Devos - Ijsebroeken ponds - greenhouses
facebook.com
Characteristic elements
58
72
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
florist Devos
greenhouses
Marnix forest
Eizer core renewal
uncovering Nellebeek
Nellebeek duisbursesteenweg
Marnix residential area
Ijsbroeken
59
73
D2b Existing projects core renewal Eizer
Actors: Horizon+ Theme: Urban renewal
uncovering Nellebeek
uncovering and renaturalising parts of the Nellebeek as part of the LIP Ijsevallei
core renewal Eizer
rapport Horizon+ 2019
Strategic densification and depavement in the centre of Eizer
Actors: VLM, Provincie Vlaams-Brabant, gemeente Overijse Theme: Ecology, Water managment
Marnix water retention and infiltration Depaving and water rtention in the Marnix residential quarter to prevent flooding in Eizer centre
taking Nellebeek out of its concrete straitjacket
vlm.be
action plan to uncover the Nellebeek
vlm.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: Aquafin, gemeente Overijse, Sweco Belgium Year: 2019 realised Theme: Water managment
60
74
rapport Horizon+ 2019
Marnix residential area water retention and infiltration -
blauwgroenvlaanderen.be
Marnix residential area water retention and infiltration - plan
blauwgroenvlaanderen.be
core renewal Eizer - plan
61
75
ketelheide - Marnix forest
Ballingstraat - Nelebeek scattered forests
natuurpunt.be inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be
Ijsebroeken ponds
google.be
productive greenhouse landscape
derand.be
scattered forestry
derand.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Eizer centre and Duisbursesteenweg
derand.be
D2b
62
76
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
63
77
D3a
Leuvensesteenweg
Challenges and opportunities - Britisch school Brussels, proximity to the park and the school’s sport facilities. - Leuvensesteenweg as axis for improved public transport (HOV) - Suburban allotment housing high living standard but stricktly residential - Heavy through traffic in centres of Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel
park and ponds Tervuren
mapio.net
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Park of Tervuren and its ponds - Voer river - Moorsel bos - Sterrebeek golf club - Tree nursery Robeet - Leuvensesteenweg as main connection - Suburban allotment housing quarters - Spaans huis: old millhouse - Museum of central Africa - The Courtyard international school, historical courtyard complex ‘Hof te Oudevoorde’
robtv.be
Characteristic elements
Weeberg forest - suburban allotment Livingstonelaan
64
78
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
E40
Sterrebeek golf club Moorsel bos Keiberg-Vossem
Leuvensesteenweg Courtyard international school suburban allotment model
museum of central Africa
Voer river
tree nursery Robeet
British school Brussels
ponds
Spaans huis
park Tervuren
65
79
D3a Existing projects Mobility plan Tervuren by BUUR
Study analysing and rethinking mobility and public space in Tervuren.
Keiberg-Vossem business and recycle park New business park for small businesses with onsite water retention en reuse.
tervuren.be
Actors: BUUR, Gemeente Tervuren Year: 2014 Theme: Mobility
Mobility plan by BUUR - intersection stationsstraat & kolvenrodestraat
Keiberg business park plan
tervuren.be
Mobility plan by BUUR - green park axis and Leuvensesteenweg public transport
keiberg-vossem.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: BUUR, 1010, Province Vlaams-Brabant Theme: Ecology
66
80
Keiberg business park image
buur.be keiberg-vossem.be
Mobility plan by BUUR
67
81
park of Tervuren
Moorselstraat - edge residential and agriculture area
google.be visittervuren.be
dorpstraat - Vossem centre
google.be
The Coutyard International school and suburban allotments
derand.be
park and ponds Tervuren
derand.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
church Vossem
derand.be
D3a
68
82
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
69
83
D3b
Challenges and opportunities - network of pedestrian pathways (Raffelberg promenade) - upgrade of the ‘slow roads’ for improved slow mobility connections, part of the LIP ‘Plateau van Moorsel’
Tervuursesteenweg
Weeberg forest
google.be
start Raffelberg promenade behind Sint-Lambertuskerk
ernstguelcher.blogspot.com
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Voer river - Castle of Leefdaal and surrounding park and pond - E40 Highway Brussels-Liège/Genk - Tervuursesteenweg as main connection - Sint-Lambertuskerk - Cemetery Leefdaal - playground Hofakker - Weeberg bos
google.be
Characteristic elements
70
84
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
E40 recycling centre
Tervuursesteenweg
Voer river playground Hofakker
Leefdaal Castle
pedestrian pathways Sint-Lambertus church pedestrian path 78
cemetery Leefdaal
Weeberg bos
71
85
D3b Existing projects reconversion Leedaal centre
Reconversion project for the centre of Leefdaal.
improvemet and implementation of slow and soft mobitilty routes.
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: Gemeente Bertem, VLM Theme: Mobility, Ecology
reconversion leefdaal centre - plan
trage wegen route 78 - plan
vlm.be
LIP trage wegen (i.e. pedestrian path 78)
bertem.be
Actors: Gemeente Bertem Theme: Mobility
72
86
reconversion leefdaal centre - image
bertem.be
bertem.be
reconversion leefdaal centre - section
73
87
88
dorpsstraat, centre of Leefdaal
Boskee, green street connecting Tervurensesteenweg to the centre of Leefdaal
genesisrevelation.be google.be
Leefdaal castle
google.be
Everbergsesteenweg, agricultural landscape
landbouwleven.be
Weeberg bos area between Leefdaal and Neerijse
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Leefdaal centre and castle
blog.seniorennet.be
D3b
74
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
75
89
D4a
Voer through Egenhoven forest
- What to do with the big cloverleaf infrastructures? - Big infrastructures isolating landscape elements and residential areas - ‘Core strengthening’ project (kernversterking) Bertem - Dijle as attraction for recreation
cloverleaf instrastructures - E40 exit Leuven
Dijlevalley recreation (Dijlepad)
hln.be
Challenges and opportunities
theshelter.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Voer river - Dijle river - E40 Highway Brussels-Liège & E314 Highway Leuven-Genk - Cloverleaf infrastructures - Tervuursesteenweg as regional connection - Egenhoven forest - Koeheide natural reserve - Jezuietenpark & Wisteria residence - Leibeek stream
integraalwaterbeleid.be
Characteristic elements
76
90
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
Koeheide
residence Wisteria
Tervuursesteenweg
Jezuitenpark Koning Boudewijnlaan
B2Ai housing project
E314
Voer river
Bertem centre reconversion
cloverleaf infrastructures Egenhoven forest
E40
Dijle river
Leibeek
Dijlepad
camping Camargue
77
91
D4a Existing projects Study core development Bertem ‘Lokale Ruimte Trajecten’ ‘Toolkit kwalitatieve kernversterking’ is a toolkit for strategic densification of smaller municipalities Actors: Provincie Vlaams-Brabant Theme: Strategic densification
masterplan Bertem by B2Ai
New housing development in the centre of Bertem
Masterplan Bertem by B2Ai - strategic densification
b2ai.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: B2Ai & Gemeente Bertem Theme: Housing
78
92
b2ai.be
Masterplan Bertem by B2Ai - plan
79
93
doleegstraat, connection between Bertem and Egenhoven
residence Wisteria
google.be google.be
Egenhoven centre
kuleuven.be
Egenhoven lange hagen - residential allotment
google.be
Tervuursesteenweg
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
dorpstraat Bertem centre, patchwork of open and built space
google.be
D4a
80
94
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
81
95
D5a
Naamsesteenweg - Heverlee station area
seniorenkuleuven.be
Cadol neighbourhood park next to the Molenbeek
google.be
- Dijle river - Heverlee forest - Abbey with park and ponds - Philipssite - cemetery Leuven - railroad pedestrian bridges - Molenbeek and Leibeek streams - Cadol Neighbourhood parc - Small parks: Ruelens park, Paul Van Ostaijen park - communal gardens - Heilig Hart College - Sint-Albertus College - orchard Geldenaaksebaan - UCLL Campus - Sportkot: KU Leuven sports facilities - Haasrode research park - cemeteries - Arenberg castle and campus
Challenges and opportunities - Heverlee station area - Military domain already partially used by sports associations - Leeuwerikenpark and open space between blocks - Terrain vague at railroad junction - Circular future for the Haasrode research park Haasrode research park
ceusters.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Characteristic elements
82
96
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
ringroad
Dijle river Sportkot
Philips site ringroad central reserve Ruelenspark
railroad junction: terrain vague
Park & School site
Paul Van Ostaijenpark
new pedestrian bridge
Heverlee reconversion study molenbeek
Abbey
Cadol park
Heverlee station Arenberg castle Leeuwerikenpark space between blocks ecostrade Oud-Heverleelaan
ponds communal gardens
leibeek
Heilig Hart Institute Sint-Albertuscollege
UCLL campus
Naamsesteenweg
military domain
orchard
cemetery
CIRCULER cemetery
Haasrode research park
Heverlee forest
83
97
D5a Existing projects Ecostrades
Linear renaturalised spaces mostly connecting bigger vegetation areas.
study core Heverlee
strategic study for Heverlee, reconversion OHL site and Sint-Lambertusplein by WIT architects
ecostrade Oud-Heverleelaan
hln.be
Actors: neighbourhood committee buurtcomité Zot Van H and KU Leuven Year: 2019 Theme: Cultural heritage
Actors: stad leuven, Atelier Vlaams Bouwmeester, WIT Architecten Year: 2018 study Theme: Urban restructuring
reconversion Park & School site
Leeuwerikenpark and new development New development project and construction Leeuwerikenpark
OHL site reconversion by WIT
vlaamsbouwmeester.be
Actors: stad leuven, Lava architecten, Cuyper & Q architecten Year: 2020 start of the works Theme: Urban reconversion
Actors: Promobuild, A33 architecten Year: 2018 realised Theme: Urban reconversion
CIRCULER research park Haasrode
Co-creation innitiative to rethink Haasrode as a circular reasearch park Actors: C-Valley, KU Leuven, CLTB, ROOT, POM, Leiedal, InterLeuven, VUB, Leuven participatie-expert,... Year: 2020 start project CIRCULER Theme: Circular processes Park and School sites
leuven.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Park and School site renovation and school extension
84
98
reconversion School site by Cuypers & Q architecten
cuypers-q.be
brainstorm session CIRCULER
hln.be circuler.be
construction parkwegbrug between Philipssite and the Abbey park
circuler.be
bouwenaanvlaanderen.be
Leeuwerikenpark and new residence by A33 architecten
CIRCULER co-creation process - local inhabitants, companies, experts
85
99
Leeuweriken building blocks
Geldenaaksebaan
degregorio.be immoscoop.be
Philips site
google.be
Middenberm park on the ringroad
google.be
communal gardens
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Abbey park and ponds
pers.leuven.be
D5a
86
100
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
87
101
D5b
Challenges and opportunities - Forests as tourist attraction - What can happen with La Foresta cloistre
La Foresta cloistre
Vaalbeek stream
laforesta.be
Heverleebos
ernstguelcher.blogspot.com
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Heverleebos - Arboretum Heverleebos - Meerdael forest - Vaalbeek stream - Zoet Water, lakes and recreation domain - N25 Leuven-Wavre - Naamsesteenweg - B&B Vinkenbos - Water treatment plant - Torenvalk entrance for Meerdaal forest - Harcourt castle
effenweg.be
Characteristic elements
88
102
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2000
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2500m
arboretum B&B Vinkenbos
Naamsesteenweg
Heverlee forest
La Foresta N25
water treatment plant Vaalbeek stream Harcourt castle Zoet Water Torenvalk
Meerdaal forest
89
103
D5b Existing projects entrance gate Torenvalk Actors: ANB Year: 2017 Theme: Tourism & Recreation
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
multimove path
plusmagazine.knack.be
Entrance gate Torenvalk for the Meerdaal forest with watchtower, multimove path and parking
90
104
hln.be
etrance Torenvalk with watchtower and parking
91
105
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
106 N25 Leuven-Wavre Harcourt castle
Naamsesteenweg beeldbank.onroerenderfgoed.be
toerismevlaamsbrabant.be
effenweg.be
Meerdaal forest
google.be
lakes and recreation domain Zoet Water trumpethouse.com
Meerdaal forest etrance Torenvalk
google.be
D5b
92
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250
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750
1000
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1500
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Heather with coniferous forest
Remarkable deciduous tree
Boulevard tree
Tree nursery
Single deciduous tree
Remarkable coniferous tree
Chopwood
Heather with deciduous forest
Single coniferous tree
Deciduous forest
Coniferous trees
Orchard
Deciduous forest without underlayer
Mixed forest
fringe trees
Poplar
Agriculture tree
2500m
tree line
93
107
D6a
Margijs forest
researchgate.net
Challenges and opportunities
Neerijse centre with Sint Pieter and Pauwel church
- Sand quarry as nature connection and reconversion, natuurpunt bought the quarry in 2017 - Water treatment plant, reuse heat (Bouwmeestrescan Huldenberg) - Lack of cycling infrastructure on main road network (projects for N253)
Doode Bemde natural reserve
effenweg.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Confluence Ije and Dijle River - Doode Bemde Nature reserve - Margijsbos - old sand quarry - Appelfabriek: apple orchard - Sint Pieter and Pauwel Church - castle of Neerijse and B&B ‘Baron’s House’ - Blauwhof Loonbeek - N253 - Loonbeekstraat & Langerodestraat connection Overijse-Leuven - ponds, some for fishing: Vissershof, Ijse Club - Neerijse Camping Caravaning Club Du Brabant - Loonbeek Watermill - Blauwhof Orthodox parish
google.be
Characteristic elements
94
108
0
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1000
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1500
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2000
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2500m
confluence Ijse & Dijle
Neerijse castle Sint Pieter- en Pauwelkerk
old sand quarry
Doode Bemde natural reserve
Ijse fishing club
water treatment plant
N253 Ijse river
Blauwhof orthodox parish gardens Blauwhof watermill Loonbeek
Vissershof fishing club Margijs forest Dijle river
Camping Du Brabant
Appelfabriek
95
109
D6a Existing projects sand quarry renaturalisation
renaturalisation of an abandoned sand quarry
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
sand quarry in 2005 - reconversion works
nieuwsblad.be
Actors: natuurpunt Year: 2017 Theme: Ecology
96
110
natuurpunt.be
sand quarry renaturalised
97
111
N253 - Langerodestraat connection Overijse-Leuven
Ijse fishing club
booking.com google.be
Neerijse castle and B&b the ‘Baron’s House’
Christophe Pirotte via google.be
Ijse river
google.be
Langestraat - road to Leefdaal
trekkings.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Langerodevijver and Dijle meander
vildaphoto.net
D6a
98
112
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
99
113
D6b
Florival train station
garesbelges.be
Challenges and opportunities
de Tomme - middle neolithic ‘long barrow’
- Florivalsite renaturalisation as entrance for a new national park (Bouwmeestrescan Huldenberg)
Bois de Laurensart
3.bp.blogspot.com
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Dijle river - Florival train station, on the line Leuven - Wavre - Rondebos & bois de Laurensart - bois de la Hocaille - Leuvensebaan as main connection - Florival industrial site - De Ferme Framboos: biological cultivation of small fruits and B&B (agrotourism) - camping Gali - de Tomme prehistorical landscape monument from the Michelsberg curlture (+- 5000 years old) - Laurensart castle
inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be
Characteristic elements
100
114
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
bois de la Hocaille
Leuvensebaan
De Ferme Framboos
Dijle river
Florival train station
camping Gali Florival site
Rondebos
de Tomme bois de Laurensart Laurensart castle
101
115
D6b Existing projects De Tomme landscape monument project (LIP Missing Links) prihistorcal ‘long barrow’ as landscape monument with new pedestrian connection
study Florival site
What to do with the abandoned Exide factory, development of 4 scenarios: site for ecological development and new economical activity
de Tomme landscape monument - plan
vlm.be
Actors: VLM Theme: Cultural heritage
Florival site one of the four scenario’s
space-lab.squarespace.com
Florival site historical drawing
space-lab.squarespace.com
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Actors: POM Vlaams-Brabant, space.lab, GHARP and PLAN+ Theme: New development
102
116
vlm.be
de Tomme landscape monument
103
117
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
118 Laurensart castle and Dijle valley Florival site
De Ferme Framboos - agrotourism space-lab.squarespace.com
google.be
Phillipe Le Roy via google.be
camping Gali
nieuwsblad.be
Leuvensebaan google.be
Tommestraat - hamlet of Tomme
wikimapia.org
D6b
104
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
105
119
D7a
Nieuwelaan - residential allotment
google.be
Challenges and opportunities
Sint-Agatha-Rode centre with Sint-Agatha church
- Residential allotment as inhabited forest (strategic project Bouwmeestrescan)
Rodebos
toerismevlaamsbrabant.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Confluence Laan and Dijle - Scattered forestry - Care Centre Keyhof - Laan ponds - Hof ter Vaeren: Farm and retail of local products - Rodebos - Sint-Agatha church - Wolfshaegenstraat and Leuvensebaan as main connections - farms surrounded by residential allotment
google.be
Characteristic elements
106
120
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
confluence Dijle & Laan
Wolfshaegen Leuvensebaan
small cemetery
Sint-Agatha church care centre Keyhof
Dijlebrug Dijle river Laan river
orchard
Laan ponds
residential allotment
farms in allotment
Hof Ter Vaeren
Rodebos
107
121
D7a Existing projects Dijlebrug LIP Missing Links
pedestrian bridge connecting both sides of the Dijle
care centre Keyhof
New care centre for nuns next to the cloister Actors: Woonzorgnet Dijleland, Conix RDBM, Group Van Roey Year: 2015 realised Theme: New development
Dijlebrug location
vlm.be
Actors: VLM & ANB Theme: Mobility
from allotment to inhabited forest
care centre Keyhof
care centre Keyhof
groepvanroey.be
Actors: Atelier Vlaams Bouwmeester, gemeente Huldenberg Theme: New development
groepvanroey.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Turn a residential park into an inhabited forstest, strategic project Bouwmeestrescan Huldenberg
108
122
from allotment to inhabited forest - proposal
Atelier Vlaams Bouwmeester
from allotment to inhabited forest - existing situation
vlm.be
Dijlebrug plan
109
123
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
124 Hof ter Vaeren Wolfshaegen
farms in allotment google.com
effenweg.be
effenweg.be
Dijle river
google.com
Leuvensestraat google.com
Laan river
hoftervaeren.be
D7a
110
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
111
125
D7b
Challenges and opportunities
Wavre Nord business park
inbw.be
Templiers forest
- Business Parc ‘Wavre Nord’ - Forest isolated from urban centres by business parc and E411 - surrounding agrarian landscape
water treatment plant
inbw.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
- Lasne river streaming northeast to join the Dijle - Bois des Templiers - Templiers farm, dating back to the 12th century - chaussée de Bruxelles as an historical connection between Wavre and Overijse - E411 Highway Brussels-Namur(Luxemburg) - Business park ‘Waver Nord’ - Water treatment plant - Association Wallone des éleveurs - animal breeding school/association - the farm Hulotte - Rosieres cemetery - chaussée des Collines
google.be
Characteristic elements
112
126
0
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
chaussée de Bruxelles Lasne river Templiers farm water treatment plant association des éleveurs Templiers forest
Rosieres cemetery E411
The farm Hulotte Wavre Nord
contournement Wavre Nord
chaussée des Collines
113
127
D7b Existing projects Contournement Wavre Nord New road infrastructure unburdening E411 and by-passes Wavre by connecting the Ware Nord business park with the Leuven-Wavre highway, cuts through agriculture and natural area
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
contournement Wavre Nord plan
rtbf.be
Actors: Région Wallonne Theme: Mobility
114
128
sudinfo.be
contournement Wavre Nord protest
115
129
rue des Templiers
chaussée des Collines
geoview.info google.be
agriculture landscape
google.be
chaussée de Bruxelles
Nicolas Graux via google.be
association des éleveurs
google.be
summerschool brabantse wouden_selected sites
Templiers farm
mtab.be
D7b
116
130
0
250
500
750
Deciduous trees
Buildings
Orchard
Water
Coniferous trees
Agriculture
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
2500m
117
131
132
© Sara Semlali
03 FIELDWORK 133
134
SENNE WATERSHED 135
S1a & S1b
S1a & S1b
IMRAAN BEGG, RAQUEL JEROBON, SEBASTIAN OVIEDO, CECILIA ALEJANDRA QUIROGA
Senne Watershed
2136
1373
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
Juxtaposed Rationales Contrasting and seemingly disconnected open spaces, rationales and practices are scattered across the landscape of the Lembeek-Lot area. Industrial, urban, agricultural and forest spatialities are juxtaposed. What strategies can harness their structuring potentials to help devise an urban-agroecological reconfiguration of the city-region?
4138
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
The atmosphere of movement The coexistence of planned and unplanned movement patterns, forests and urbanism have created vast tapestries across the Lambeek-Lot landscape embedded within the natural and urban agricultural lands. How can these movement patterns strengthen and (re-) connect in unlocking the potentials of the region?
1395
UNPLANNED FABRICS
Transitional Backyard Spaces How can transitional backyard spaces be leveraged as stitches of opportunity for activity and connection within the Senne Watershed Territory?
6140
HIDDEN JEWELS
Post-covid idyllic The Lembeek-Lot part of the Senne Valley is home to ancient forests and water bodies that have been a source of work and play for the inhabitants of this Flemish region. The shift from feudalism to industrialization separated much of the population from activities tied to the land to waged labor. Industrial scale energy production is juxtaposed to idyllic ways of living that have stubbornly persisted. How does the post modern, post covid framework of work and play shape how the forest and streams are woven into everyday life?
1417
S2a & S2b
S2
Senne Watershed
8142
CARLIJNE LELIÈVRE, DONGLIN LIU, TLHABI SHUBANE
1439
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
The Senne as mediating landscape Why are there more open spaces on lower side of the landscape than on the rest of the sites? Topographical differences segmenting the landscape of the Senne valley. But one element that combined all the segments is the water landscape crossing all parts. Is the water landscape the opportunity to connect the urban landscape with natural landscape?
144 10
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Movement through Topographical Networks The varied topography around the Senne Watershed has produced a context rich in man-made and water-made networks. How can informal movement networks through a drastic change in topography assist in food production processes?
145 11
HIDDEN JEWELS
As found The site is located at Beersel, sub-urban area of Brussels. Along the streets, fragile nature sometimes shows itself through topograhpy with huge height diff ereances. And the water is hidden behind dense forests, which creates great contrast showing another beauty as a hidden jewel. So what can we do in studio under this situation?
146 12
147
S3
S3
Senne Watershed
148 14
LEANDER BAEKE, GIULIA DEVIS, RAYA RIZK, XENIA STOUMPOU
149 15
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
Morphological Remnants The hilly morphology of the Zonian forest has a visible prominent effect in the distribution of the different layers in Sint-Genesius-Rode fabric. So the question here is how can we rekindle the broken links between the dispersed constellations of agricultural plateaus, scattered productive orchards, remnant forest strips and urban tissue?
150 16
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Forested slopes as a backbone Sint-Genesius-Rode’s varied topography has defined its development within the urbanity of the 20th century. The village’s forested slopes, agricultural plateau’s and scattered settlements are key characteristics of the patchwork it has become. As there is a dire need of a shared vision and structural changes, the question arises if the the forested slopes can serve as a backbone to restructure a more qualitative and sustainable embodiment of forest urbanism of the 21st century?
151 17
UNPLANNED FABRICS
The border is not a line Landscape in St. Genesius-Rhode has been overtaken by urbanisation. In this homogenous condition, which lacks identity and cohesion,linear features structure the territory, such as the prevailing railway line, patches of untouched forest in garden boundaries and water streams. How can these vague borders be seen as restructuring territories for an alternative suburban landscape to emerge?
152 18
HIDDEN JEWELS
Stitching the patchwork Sint-Genesius-Rode developed on an old forest area with a sloping topography. This condition left parts of the forest intact on certain slopes and plateaus, allowing this green structure to coexist with the urban tissues which are currently very disjointed. How can this forest reminiscence take part in the requalification and the stitching of the various urban tissues patchwork of Sint-Genesius-Rode ?
153 19
154
DIJLE WATERSHED 155
D1a & D1b
D1a & D1b
Dijle Watershed
156 20
AGNESE MARCIGLIANO, CARLOS MORALES, HAIFA SALEH, TIEN TRAN
157 21
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
Kintsugi Kintsugi resonates with the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi which embraces transience and imperfection, and deals with breakage and cracks as part of the history of an object... Observing the urban landscape of Hoeilaart and Overijse one wonders what potentialities are present to act as gold of rewelding & restoring the socio-economic and ecological cracks within the urban territory and in reformulating the relation between culture & nature?
158 22
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Informal Connections Both Hoeilaart and Overijse are characterized by an established car-driven culture and there is very little interest in the development of a more sustainable kind of mobility. However if we look deeper we notice a shift in behavior which could lead to more subtle interactions between man and nature. How could informal alternative soft mobility be developed in order to create stronger connections between the two disconnected villages, and help restructure the physical and environmental continuity of their surrounding landscape?
159 23
UNPLANNED FABRICS
The real connection? How the wilderness and unappropriated urban spaces of Overijse and Hoeilaart enhance the connection between human and nature, and in the same time, emphasise the presence of forestry valley and pond system as the foundation of urban resilience?
160 24
HIDDEN JEWELS
Amplified Experienes The topography and seasonality of Overijse and Hoeilaart offer diverse perceptions and unplanned activities on the territory. From a naturebased thinking approach, can these become the drivers that enhance the sensory experience and wilderness of place, beyond abeing conceived as mere conditioning factors of the urban development?
161 25
D2a & D2b
D2
Dijle Watershed
162 26
CAMILLE HENDLISZ, CÉCILE HOUPERT, SARA SEMLALI, LUCIE VAN MEERBEECK
163 27
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
The private/ public paradoxe of openspaces How could urban foresty and agricultural fields contribute in the shif from individualism to socialisation and a collective lifestyle in the suburban territory and so reenforce the duality nature/culture ?
164 28
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
(Human) Beings The Dijle Watershed is home to a variety of both human and nonhuman beings. They all move around the valley in different ways, times, and paces. These movements characterize the site and shape the surrounding landscape. How does a deeper understanding of the various movements open new ways to conceptualize and visualize the site?
165 29
UNPLANNED FABRICS
///Insert drawing here///
Framing the unexpected Dijle Watershed - D2
Unplanned fabrics
As a whole planned flemish region, how the “unexpected” leaks through open landscape frames? Can a Landscape Urbanism
Framing the unexpected understanding of the area create a new vision of physical and visual openings?
As a whole planned flemish region, how the “unexpected” leaks through open landscape frames? Can a Landscape Urbanism understanding of the area create a new vision of physical and visual openings?
166 30
Camille Hendlisz, Cécile Houpert, Sara Semlali, Lucie Van Meerbeeck
HIDDEN JEWELS
A glass conundrum From small backyard greenhouses to industrial indoor food production, which opportunities could arise from the different typologies of glass houses sprinkling through the gardens and hills of Duisburg and Eizer’s landscape?
167 31
D3a & D3b
D3
Dijle Watershed
168 32
PEBRI TRY ASTUTI, YING LI, VALERIAN PORTOKALIS, ARTHUR STACHE
169 33
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
Dispersed landscape What is the function of forest? What should we do to make the existing forest landscape more holistica? How can we do to strengthen the connection between open spaces and forest system?
34 170
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Topography of Movements — Movements in Topography Historically, naturally and functionally inherent networks of informal paths entrench the semi-urbanised landscape, juxtaposing patterns of soft movements to more or less planned, hard road infrastructure. Can the system of field paths tracing agricultural patterns, foot and bike paths alogside water flows, hidden links between urban patches and hollow streets as landscape monuments, complement, transform or even partially replace efficiency and covienence-based mobility?
171 35
UNPLANNED FABRICS
Settlements Boundaries as Opportunities The three major settlement logics present on site are producing both qualities and challenges inherent to their situation and development. Are edge conditions opportunities to consolidate and better mediate a territory made of a patchwork of lands shared by settlements and water, agriculture and forest?
172 36
HIDDEN JEWELS
Dijle Watershed - D3 Emphasizing ‘Cracks’
Hidden jewels
Emphasizing Cracks in urban tissue‘Cracks’ mediating two different, contrasting ambience or infrastructure of this site. Can ‘cracks’ incorporated Cracks urban structure tissue mediating two different, contrasting ambience or infrastructure of this site. Can ‘cracks’ of incorporated into the spatial into the inspatial and water management of the site, weaving the different characteristics urban and rural, empty structure and water management of the site, weaving the different characteristics of urban and rural, empty and full, while maintaining the and full, while maintaining the uniqueness and its originality. uniqueness and its originality.
Pebri Astuti, Ying Li, Valerian A. Portokalis, Arthur Stache
DEPARTMENT OF
MASTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS MASTER OF URBANISM, LANDSCAPE AND PLANNING
173 37
D4
D4
Dijle Watershed
174 38
DANIELA COBO, PHILIPPA LANKERS, JENNIFER SAAD, YENTL WULTEPUTTE
175 39
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
Topographic Scapes The existing constellations of open spaces and elements are defined in part by the site’s different topographic levels (slopes, plateau, valleys) and land uses, resulting in a combined tissue of settlements, agricultural fields, and forests. What potential do these spaces have in each case for the implementation of urban forestry strategies that respond to the site’s current particularities and needs but that at the same time can change and adapt to face new challenges over time?
176 40
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Landscape movements Different types of movements resulting from the morphology and functions of site. How can mobility be improved while maintaining and preserving the particularity of movements in the various landscapes and occupations of territories?
177 41
UNPLANNED FABRICS
Unplanned Opportunities Unplanned fabrics don’t have a clear function nor service, which makes them open for interpretation and usage. Which tactics can be implemented to enhance the biodiversity and connectivity of the site and lead to new and qualitative space occupation for all different kind of users?
178 42
HIDDEN JEWELS
Moments of discovery scattered along the varied Voer River How can urbanism strategies maintain the mysterious and temporal moments of discovery while encouraging legibility along the Voer River to create a sustainable urbanism which blends the natural and built landscapes for an enriched experience?
179 43
D5a & D5b
D5
Dijle Watershed
180 44
ARIANE CANTILLANA, YIFAN HU, CAROLINE THALER, YIDNEKACHEW YILMA
181 45
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
Inverse presence The built fabric has been claiming and overriding the natural systems and created contrasting scenarios to the residual nature while fragmenting it to pieces. How can this inverse relation be blurred and complimentary conditions between nature and culture are initiated ?
182 46
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Paths between domains The different domains that coexist in the sites are linked by movements paths that distinct the relation between them, being mostly pedestrian paths. In this context, how the paths between domains characterize the movements inner the sites ?
183 47
UNPLANNED FABRICS
The potential of unproductive spaces The site is a patchwork. Not every patch is used to its fullest potential and there are certainly not a lot of patches with mixed use. How can the unproductive spaces be used to their fullest potential while creating a more continuous landscape, but simultaneously providing more personal outdoor spaces in a (post) covid reality?
184 48
HIDDEN JEWELS
///Insert drawing here///
Blockaded landscape
Dijle Watershed - D5a Hidden jewels Park Abbey, as a hidden jewel, is physically and visually surrounded by messy boundaries. How to use strategies to weaken the influence of private boundaries on it? Blockaded landscape Park Abbey, as a hidden jewel, is physically and visually surrounded by messy boundaries. How to use strategies to weaken the influence of private boundaries on it?
185 49 Yifan Hu, Caroline Thaler, Yidnekachew Yilma Seleshi, Ariane Millaray Cantillana Maturana
D6a & D6b
D6
Dijle Watershed
186 50
GEMMA ANNEAR, ERMIONI CHATZIMICHAIL, SIMON DE BOECK, ELENA GIRAL
187 51
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
The ‘cultured’ landscape - claiming and framing pastoral and forest territories How may the physical modes of pastoral dwelling (the typical dispersed urbanism of Flanders) be structured by ecological thinking to both stabilise dispersion and give expression to a new mode of urbanism? How may nature and culture become mutually influenced, rather than nature as a framed and objectified, picturesque entity?
52 188
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Moving back to the future There was a time where the culture of moving was determined by the accidentality of nature. How can relief, water systems and the coincidental irregularities of urban tissues guide us towards an alternative and sustainable mobility network?
189 53
UNPLANNED FABRICS
Undo, redo, not do. What is the potential of reappropriating neglected and abandoned spaces to foster a sustainable territorial development that will increase diversity and allow new ways of living together? How is it possible to create new synergies and linkages between environmental, social and economic sectors ?
190 54
HIDDEN JEWELS
Embracing the hidden The hidden jewels of the Dijle Valley can be found either in nature or in the urban fabrics. How can they enhance the creation of a forest urbanism area, by keeping their values and at the same time remain incorporated within the existing landscape?
191 55
D7a & D7b
D7
Dijle Watershed
192 56
BING DU, LAETITIA-NOUR HANNA, IZZAH MINHAS, BRIDGET NAKANGU
193 57
CONSTELLATIONS OF OPEN SPACES/ ELEMENTS
Scenography Dijle Watershed - D7
Constellations of open spaces / elements Passing by the two sites next to the Dijle and the Laan watersheds, one could easily observe the embeddedness and juxtaposition of open elements, such as foresats, agricultural lands, farms, business park, etc... without real separation between Scenography them. They are more or less dominant, more or less private and propose a scenography for the visitor, passing from surprise to surprise. this to constellation a gradient one of open from the of openness and bignessofto the Passing by theHow two does sites next the Dijle andgenerates the Laan watersheds, couldspaces, easily observe thefeeling embeddedness and juxtaposition element of separation and privacy? open elements, such as forests, agricultural lands, farms, business park, etc... without real separation between them. They are more or
58 194
less dominant, more or less private and propose a scenography for the visitor, passing from surprise to surprise. How does this constellation generates a gradient of open spaces, from the feeling of openness and bigness to the element of separation and privacy? Bing Du, Laetitia-Nour Hanna, Izzah Minhas, Bridget Nakangu
[INFORMAL] MOVEMENTS
Movement as a Public Trust Research question: Movement is variation/change. How do landscape structures enable and negotiate movement in the form of social, cultural, ecological, economic and political exchange? 刀攀猀攀愀爀挀栀 焀甀攀猀琀椀漀渀㨀 䴀漀瘀攀洀攀渀琀 椀猀 瘀愀爀椀愀琀椀漀渀⼀挀栀愀渀最攀⸀ 䠀漀眀 搀漀 氀愀渀搀猀挀愀瀀攀 猀琀爀甀挀琀甀爀攀猀 攀渀愀戀氀攀 愀渀搀 渀攀最漀琀椀愀琀攀 洀漀瘀攀洀攀渀琀 椀渀 琀栀攀 昀漀爀洀 漀昀 猀漀挀椀愀氀Ⰰ 挀甀氀琀甀爀愀氀Ⰰ 攀挀漀氀漀最椀挀愀氀Ⰰ 攀挀漀渀漀洀椀挀 愀渀搀 瀀漀氀椀琀椀挀愀氀 攀砀挀栀愀渀最攀㼀 䈀椀渀最 䐀甀Ⰰ 䰀愀攀琀椀琀椀愀ⴀ一漀甀爀 䠀愀渀渀愀Ⰰ 䤀稀稀愀栀 䴀椀渀栀愀猀Ⰰ 䈀爀椀搀最攀琀 一愀欀愀渀最甀
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UNPLANNED FABRICS
Unplanned Fabrics as beauty Enriched with a hilly topography, D7 proffers views of unplanned fabrics. How can these unplanned elements offer an opportunity for a sensitive and scenographic crossing of Dijle Watershed and its surrounding?
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HIDDEN JEWELS
The rivers as chains for life quality The lively landscape is under the strong productive-oriented impact as a disordered, scattered pattern. Considering the dynamic of boththe human activities and natural process, how to enhance the quality of spaces and places, in order to revitalize a more ecological, resilient and integrated landscape system for life?
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© Yidekachew Yima Seleshi
04 CASE STUDY RESEARCH
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SENNE WATERSHED 201
S1a & S1b
IMRAAN BEGG, RAQUEL JEROBON, SEBASTIAN OVIEDO, CECILIA ALEJANDRA QUIROGA
THE PROMISE OF CRISIS Weaving the socio-natural tapestry
Introduction The Covid-19 pandemic showed that we are all connected through our planet’s
ements such as trees and wetlands for water management to engineering solutions,
biota. Climate change, similarly, will have a global impact and the level of prepar-
along with other deforestation practices, eroded the forest landscape and eventu-
edness will determine how devastating the effects will be. The consequences of
ally replaced it with agricultural plots. Today agriculture itself is in decline with a
climate change are already wreaking havoc in many parts of the world, as rainfall
3.4% drop in arable land between 2000 and 2010. The disruption to food supply
and drought increase in intensity. Designing with the foresight that these changes
chains during the Covid-19 lockdown highlighted aspects of food insecurity that
will occur can help mitigate some of the damage that may be brought with climate
exist within the ‘complex web of interrelated sectors’ that the EU depends on to
change, it is also perhaps an opportunity to make a shift to more resilient forms of
have their grocery shelves stocked. Increased border controls between countries
inhabiting the landscape.
meant shipments of perishable goods were being delayed in their delivery (Rossi 2020). The tension between the consumption of both forests and agricultural land
Flooding is a concern in the low countries of Belgium and Holland generally and
for real estate development and the need to increase local food production is cur-
it is projected to impact various settlements in the Senne Valley. The Senne Valley
rently manifesting itself in fragmented landscapes with patches of ad hoc housing
currently functions as a defacto “flooded backyard,” for Brussels. Throughout the
emerging on fallow agricultural fields. The historic trends of paving over land has
feudal and industrial ages the waterways have been heavily manipulated to serve
also created a dynamic where rainwater is not seeping into the soil to refill aquifers.
the differing agricultural and industrial needs of the area. However, all the manipulation of the meanders of the rivers and the construction of the Brussels-Charleroi
The current development framework within Belgium creates friction between real
canal has not been able to stave off flooding which is an issue that is projected to
estate, agriculture and forestry. The EU framework recognizes that there is a shared
grow over the course of the next 100 years. Historically the forests were integrated
history within the European continent that translates into distinct, but similar pat-
into the landscape as a green infrastructure that helped with water management.
terns of development. We sought to look at the wider American and European
The water would be channeled throughout the agricultural landscape through
context for examples of new typologies and strategies that address some of the
ditches that were secured in place by the roots of the trees. The trees also served as
issues brought on by potential flooding, urban pressure and food (in)security in
property markers in the landscape to demarcate land used as pasture, orchards or
new and innovative ways. The case studies are oriented towards projects that were
wheat. As industrialization grew in the area the rivers became important transport
able to synthesize various, seemingly competing interests and uses such as these.
routes. The canal became the main water management infrastructure in the area and cement replaced trees in the agricultural ditches.
Solutions around agro-forestry, new forms of housing, re-commoning and the in-
Within the study area located in the Senne Valley, the shift from using landscape el-
tegration of social infrastructure themes are explored for possible adaptation to
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© vandkunsten.com
Clustering of settlement in the Suburb of the Future project, possibilities of landscpe elemnts and public life inclusionin the freed up space. (2018)
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the fragmented Flanders landscape bearing in mind the greater Brabantse Wouden
gian territory, these chaotic juxtapositions of uses and functions result in wasted/
vision-an inhabited national forest. These thematic explorations offer opportuni-
in-between/residual spaces in need of requalification that offer the opportunity for
ties for rethinking settling within the Senne Valley, where our study area is located,
integration, sociality; social infrastructure becomes a means of creating new ways
a means of establishing new ways of living while addressing the prevalent problems
of communal living.
of forest cover depreciation, water management, food insecurity and unsustainable agricultural practices, all premised under a forest and water vision of unification.
New housing typologies emerging in Denmark, like the ‘Suburb of the Future’ by Vankundsten responds to ecological and social priorities by integrating low-rise
Agroforestry is a practice that encompasses a variety of systems where woody
high-density housing within archetypal landscape elements such as ‘forest, stream
plants and trees are integrated with agricultural production. Deliberately inter-
and hill’. The firm’s attitude is that without beauty there cannot be sustained and
weaving these different elements—usually segregated in modern monocultural
they prioritize people and the human scale in their designs. The designs demon-
practices—agroforests pursue compound benefits of increased yields, ecological
strate an understanding that human welfare is not separate from healthy artic-
health and strengthened biodiversity. Through an integrated systemic approach,
ulation with nature (Cutieru, 2020). The ‘cluster’ typology consists of a group of
virtuous partnerships and cycles are pursued by layering native species, woody
buildings organized around a small plaza is a complete urban unit that is then
forests, orchards and fields. Developed primarily in tropical countries, agroforestry
organized around a larger plaza. In between the clusters is landscape that con-
has increasingly gained attention in research, discourse and policy in Europe. In
nects all the clusters together, combining the urbanity of the ‘town square’ and
Flanders, the Consortium Agroforestry Vlaanderen advances research and applied
housing through carefully orchestrated forested paths through wetlands, meadows
projects of different scales across the region. Within the broader context of COV-
and plazas. Furthermore, the cluster typology allows the incremental expansion
ID-19 and climate change, agroforestry, as other agroecological practices, provides
of suburban settlement whilst breaking with the monotony and banality of typical
an alternative to extractive and unsustainable agricultural practices. Reducing ero-
suburban developments found on the site.
sion, sequestering carbon, and increasing crop resilience are some of its benefits. Amidst the Belgian vision to create the Brabantse Wouden, agroforestry provides
Recommoning could be described as a method of reconnecting a disconnected
an opportunity for simultaneously preserving and reproducing highly valuable
or fragmented resource that benefits a community or ecosystem. The notion of
fertile lands, localizing food production, and strengthening the socio-ecological
“ecogenisis” which was adopted in the Mello Barreto Nature Education Park was
matrix of the region.
used as a method of substitution for human intervention to recuperate a degraded landscape as a result of illegal occupation and large-scale development, which
Social infrastructure as an urban strategy refers to facilities and structures that-
consequently disturbed the ecosystem and polluted the lagoon. Here the idea of
promote sociality and communal living within communities. The chaotic juxtapo-
re-commoning is referred to an affected natural landscape which changed to com-
sition of uses and activities within the Belgian landscape creates opportunities for
mon property and restructured around the existing natural flora to reinstate the
exploring new spaces, activities and ways of living through the inclusion of social
ecosystem and the relationship between city and nature.
functions within the primary function of spaces and infrastructure. In the Bel-
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© Uffpaisagismo
Professor Mello Barreto Environmental Educational Park, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, (2015)
Grow Dat Youth Farm in New Orleans,(n.d)
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01_Co-housing/New Typologies SURBURB OF THE FUTURE
Vandkusten
The Suburb of the Future (Fremtidens Forstad) is an urban development project by the Danish architecture firm Vankunsten envisions a new new type of suburban development that embeds high density urban housing within the unique landscape conditions.
giving direct access to nature to each housing cluster. Each cluster has its own town square and its own identity rooted in landscape elements such as ‘the Hill, the Stream, and the Woods.”
© vandkunsten.com
2018
© vandkunsten.com
ÅRSLEV/SDR. NÆRÅ FAABORG-MIDTFYN, DENMARK
The rural town of Årslev/Sdr.Nærå has experienced an exceptional 20% increase in population in the last 10 years and is planning for a further increase of 1200 people in the coming 10 years. The competition winning design proposal by Vankunsten proposes clusters of high density housing which function as ‘islands of urbanity’ within the landscape. The high density of the housing opens up the opportunity to have thick segments of landscape in between each cluster,
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The cluster design, which contains all the architectural and landscape elements to be complete unto itself facilitates the incremental growth strategy of the suburban settlement without losing morphological coherence and a connection to nature. The architecture itself is unassuming, prioritizing community life and connection to nature as the main design objective.
© vandkunsten.com
© vandkunsten.com
v © vandkunsten.com © vandkunsten.com
The cluster of high density housing as a self contained unit of urbanism can be adapted to site specific conditions, allowing for growth of urban settlements without becoming a monotonous or repetitive urban fabric. The spaces inbetween the cluster settlements also provide opportunities for interesting landscape elements, but also perhaps urban agriculture, depending on other site specific factors. The fact that each cluster also comes with a plaza can encourage public life and urbanity without sacrificing a connection to nature. It is a typology which is highly adaptable to different contexts, without being a cookie cutter ‘solution’ to housing.
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02_Social Infrastructure GROW DAT YOUTH FARM
Tulane School of Architecture 2011
Grow Dat Youth Farm is a community farm collective in New Orleans’ City Park that integrates sustainable agriculture, educational programming and community engagement as a means of addressing lack of helathy food access, unemployment and education in the community. The organization applies sustainable agriculture principles where food is produced through supported natural ecological systems while ensuring its preservation for future use through the use of techniques such as composting, cover cropping, companion planting, crop rotation and farmscaping to stimulate and maintain micro-biological activity and soil health.
Architecture in a collaborative process that involved the Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design which is the community design center for the architecture school and in association with Grow Dat Youth Farm, City Park New Orleans, Tulane University, Clean Plate Projects, New Orleans Food and Farm Network.
© colectivonola.com
NEW ORLEANS, USA
The 2011 expansion of the farm was designed and built by the Tulane School of
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The project developed and an eco-campus for the Grow Dat Youth Farm. This was a collaborative design-build project that saw architecture students in studios develop a 6000 square foot campus and a 4-acre organic urban farm site plan with improved soil and water management, landscape plan and architecture of the campus to support the educational program of the organization.
© altruisticdesign.com
© altruisticdesign.com
© growdatyouthfarm, facebook ©altruisticdesign.com
Following the organization’s goals of sustainability, responsibility, and integrity, it made use of shipping containers for the project that ensured the trees in the park were not disturbed during the project. It made full use of interior, exterior and in-between spaces which were repurposed to serve as locker rooms, restrooms, kitchen, refrigerated storage and offices. The project was built by the architecture students within a 2-semester period with supported sub-contracted technical expertise. The project adopted a sustainable matrix that saw on-site handling of all waste and rain water through the use of composting toilets, bioswales and greywater filtration beds. The organization donates 30% of its harvest through its Shared Harvest Pro-
gramme that is distributed to the low-income earners in the community while the remaining is sold to local markets and restaurants. Partnerships established with local schools has ensured that kids learn sustainable farming, food justice and community leadership skills all wile engaging with diverse participants inculcating community living and foundational growth opportunity. The project resulted in the creation of a community centre that provides healthembedded in them.
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03_Agroforestry FAZENDA DA TOCA
2009-
© FazendaDaToca.com.br
© FazendaDaToca.com.br
© Google Earth
Itirapina, SP, Brazil
Diniz Family, Ernst Goetsch
Fazenda da Toca is a for-profit regenerative farming project in Itirapina, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The project was initiated by the former F1 pilot Pedro Paulo Diniz on a farm owned by his family since 1971. Ernst Goetsch was one of the main consultants of the project. The Farm covers an extension of 2300ha, on which a variety of organic practices have been designed and implemented over the last 12 years. The farm was incrementally redesigned and converted from a citrus monoculture system to a layered, rotational polyculture that integrates forestry, silviculture and agricultural practices. Ecological corridors of native species—both preserved and re-
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produced—are interspersed with clusters of agroforestry. Parallel rows of woody plants (eucalyptus, banana trees, citrus orchards) act both as a spatial framework and the initiators of a process of biomass restoration and species partnering. As the predominantly sandy soil is incrementally replenished with organic matter provided by the tree and grass clippings—all left on site—the interstitial spaces are filled with a combination of vegetable and fruit crops. Poultry and livestock has been integrated into the farm, with animals rotating on pastures combined with woody plants and fruit trees. Carefully timed and managed animal grazing fosters mutually enhancing dynamics with soil repro-
© Fernando Brisolla, Plant Project 2018 © Geraldo Lazzari FDT
© FazendaDaToca.com.br © Globo Rural
duction processes and plant cycles. Besides directly selling fruits, vegetables and eggs, the farm processes some of its products to commercialize them as juice, cheese and yogurt, among others.
anchor the project to a more deeply integrated agroecological and food-sovereignty-based practice—as of 2018, most of the farm´s production was exported (Plant Project 2018).
Fazenda da Toca provides a remarkable applied-research example of agricultural and pastoral systems integrated with forestry. In contrast to the well-known and documented conflicts of extractive monocrop and input-intensive farming, the project merges prosperous and highly productive systems with ecological health by foregrounding soil care and biodiversity. At the same time, a step further would be reducing the supply chains to secure local production and
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04_Re-commoning MELLO BARRETO PARK
© Fluswikien
1986
© Fluswikien
Barra da Tijuca,Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Fernando Chacel
The Professor Mello Barreto Nature Education Park in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro is a restoration park project that stems from the idea of “ecogenesis” – recuperating a degraded ecosystem caused through human interventions. The area was first envisioned by architect Lúcio Costa and later designed by Brazilian landscape architect Fernando Chacel which was financed through a local community association (Acibarra). The 50 000 m² (1km long) park – one of three ecological restoration projects – along the Jacarepaguá Lagoon front and enclosed in the Atlantic Rainforest was home to extensive restinga and mangrove ecology prior to the illegal occupation of Favelas and disturbed ecosystem in the 1970’s. Further ecological
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degradation was later caused by increased upmarket, infrastructure and urban development along the peripheries of the park resulting in the forced removals and relocation of poorer locals due to land price spikes. The anthropic substitute ecosystem at Mello Barreto Nature Park aimed to restore, educate and preserve values of conservation within large cities as a means of living with nature alongside aggressive urbanization in modern day environmental realities. Through the idea of “ecogenesis”, the project recuperates the restinga vegetation and mangrove forest as a purification and reproduction device to restructure the ecosystem of native flora. In addition, the park promotes human uses – combining ecological and social functions - open to locals and
© Uffpaisagismo
© Uffpaisagismo
© Alvaro Souza
© Uffpaisagismo
visitors as an educational experience meandering through Atlantic vegetative patches along walkways. The Mello Barreto Nature Education Park sets precedent for large cities struggling to combine nature conservation with urbanisation, and specifically in the context of Rio de Janeiro the parks requirements stem from conservation of riparian corridors. The approach strengthens the recuperation value of its ecology and also educates inhabitants about the preservation of a local ecosystem as the city expands behind the lagoon, the green belt acts as a protection barrier creating a balance between water and environment.
With the notion of “ecogenesis” as a substitution mechanism, Chacel successfully re-established local flora through an extensive investigation. The study of anthropic, biotic and physical landscape elements which constituted the degraded ecosystem became a useful tool for establishing the overarching framework of the park in terms of sequence and inventory. Such studies become valuable in cases of ecological restoration as a means of reconnecting city and nature
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Conclusions In Belgium, forest coverage is continuously depleted to make way for settlement and development. First it was agriculture, then urban expansion and now these two forces threaten the remaining forested patches. Suburbanization is still the favoured mode of settlement, mechanized and industrialized agricultural production is the most prevalent means of food production and market forces are continuously turning farmers into monocultural practices that threaten the remaining patches of forestry, soil health and diversity of produce. These tensions are well captured in our study area, within the Senne Valley where these ongoing tensions are made even more apparent by the ongoing COVID pandemic that brought to fore the need and demand for open space and the benefit of the remaining forested lands, climate change and the predicted heavy floods especially along waterways made even direr because of the high percentage of sealed surfaces and the aggressive control and manipulation of rivers and water systems and predicted drier summer months. Addressing flooding, consumption practices of agricultural land by urban development and consumption of forest land by monocultural agricultural practices, apparent problems within the Senne Valley generally required looking at cases and projects in the Americas and European context where new ways of living, producing and managing resources have been implemented and that could be adopted within the region. In the four cases discussed, we derive examples of adaptation within the framework of, agro-forestry, co-housing/new typologies, re-commoning and social infrastructure. Agro-forestry is explored as a possible solution to the forest and agricultural uses tension apparent within our study area and how Fazenda da Toca provides an example of how ecological and agricultural systems can not only coexist but mutually strengthen each other. By layering livestock, poultry, woody elements and agriculture in a coordinated system, the project demonstrates how the goals of afforestation and agricultural production can help advance the vision of an inhabited and productive Brabantse Wouden. The Suburb of the Future (Fremtidens Forstad) exemplifies how high-density low rise housing as a self-contained unit of urbanism can encourage different relation-
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ships to nature on the edges of urban development. It is an example of a new type of suburbanism that can dialogue with wetlands, forest or meadows and rebuild people’s connection to nature. These innovative housing typologies can create more resilient communities that are better prepared to deal with the multidimensional crises brought about by Covid-19 and which will be exacerbated by the climate crisis. The Grow Dat Farm project offers a lens into a possible basis of community centred infrastructure that integrates community urban farming with social benefits gained through the inclusion of an educational campus that transformed the into a hub within the community where the physical farm served the food security function but still established social and communal linkages. The transformative and adaptable aspect of the project is the capacity to layer multiple functionalities on physical structures, which would be applicable in the Senne Valley context where the layers of infrastructure and residual spaces could be layered in multiple functions that could stitch a fabric of community and interaction through social infrastructure. The Mello Barreto Nature Education Park sets an interesting precedent for land re-commoning and restoration of a disturbed ecosystem through emphasizing and educating the community of the value in preserving such landscapes. The project not only proposes a solution for urbanisation and nature coexisting, it also acts as an instrument for combating climate change. The four cases discussed ties together possible solutions to the tensional aspects of uses and functions in our study area, where forest, agriculture and urbanization attempt to co-exist but inmost cases lead to challenges such as the predicted worsening floods, continued suburbanization, depleting forest land and unsustainable agricultural practices all juxtaposed on a meshwork landscape created by topography and scarred by successive rounds of infrastructure development. The case studies offer examples where agro-forestry challenged dominant agricultural practices and preserved forests in Brazil, where ecological integrity was achieved through the re-commoning and restoration of a disturbed ecosystem in Brazil, where new housing typologies envision occupation within the territory by providing space for landscape elements in Denmark and in New Orleans where an urban farm is leveraged as a communal resource to achieve communal integration and connections.
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References Elmqvist, Thomas, Michail Fragkias, Julie Goodness, Burak Güneralp, Peter J. Marcotullio, Robert I. McDonald, Susan Parnell, Maria Schewenius, Marte Sendstad, Karen C. Seto and Cathy Wilkinson eds. 2013. Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities. New York: Springer Rachele, Rossi. 2020. ‘Protecting the EU Agri-Food Supply Chain in the Face of COVID-19’, 8. xxxx On-line documents and websites : Agenda Gotsch. 2015. “Agrofloresta em Grande Escala - Large-scale agroforestry, Fazenda da Toca.” Youtube Video. 05:49. August 20, 2015. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kujJUso6m1w Agrofloresta do Futuro. 2016. “Agrofloresta do Futuro 29/49- Fazenda da Toca | Pedro Diniz”. Youtube Video. 13:12. June 15, 2016. Accessed March 01, 2021. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXKKnrT9lCQ Altruisticdesign. n.d. ‘Grow Dat Youth Farm’. Altruistic Design. n.d. https://www.altruisticdesign.com/grow-dat-youth-farm. Colazo, Jake. 2018. ‘Spotlight: Grow Dat Youth Farm’. NOLA Family Magazine. 7 May 2018. https://www.nolafamily.com/spotlight-grow-dat-youth-farm/. Colectivo. n.d. ‘Grow Dat Youth Farm - Colectivo’. Colectivo. n.d. https://colectivonola.com/Grow-Dat-Youth-Farm. Cutieru, Andreea. 2020. ‘The Virtues of Wood: An Interview with Vandkunsten Architects’. ArchDaily. 15 March 2020. https://www.archdaily.com/935574/thevirtues-of-wood-an-interview-with-vandkunsten-architects. Fazenda da Toca. 2016. “Conheça a Fazenda da Toca – 2016.” Youtube Video. 04:53. May 16, 2016. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4jrWCFCRwyA Fazenda da Toca. 2017. “Fazenda da Toca – Conceito.” Youtube video. 06:40. March 22, 2017. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKV1PY4-JI Fazenda da Toca. ND. “Nossa História”. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXKKnrT9lCQ Fluswikien, 2009. “Parque de Educação Ambiental Professor Mello Barreto”. Nürtingen-Geislingen University, January 30, 2009. Accessed March 1, 2021. Available at: https://fluswikien.hfwu.de/index.php/Parque_de_Educa%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Ambiental_Professor_Mello_Barreto ‘Grow Dat Youth Farm | The Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design’. 2017. 6 April 2017. https://small.tulane.edu/project/grow-dat-youth-farm/. Grow Dat Youth Farm. n.d. ‘Grow Dat Youth Farm’. Grow Dat Youth Farm. n.d. https://growdatyouthfarm.org/our-story. Plant Project. 2018. “SÉRIE TOP FARMERS - Temporada 1 - Pedro Paulo Diniz (versão completa).” Youtube Video. January 18, 2018. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGWg0QahutA Quirk, Vanessa. 2012. ‘The Grow Dat Youth Farm & SEEDocs: Mini-Documentaries on the Power of Public-Interest Design’. ArchDaily. 22 June 2012. https://www. archdaily.com/245235/the-grow-dat-youth-farm-seedocs-mini-documentaries-on-the-power-of-public-interest-design.
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S2a & S2b
CARLIJNE LELIÈVRE, DONGLIN LIU, TLHABI SHUBANE
NAVIGATING THE CONTEMPORARY CITY Lessons on Urban Design Strategies
Site S2 is located at the in-between area of Beersel, Dworp, and Sint-genesius-rode where is sub-urban area south to Brussels. Except for agriculture, and necessary shops, this site basically is loose residential tissues. Huge height difference dominates this area and creates rich typography making it into fragile “Pockets”. It could be very interesting to connect these pockets through transformed waterways or walking lanes with landscape designs. Therefore, a work from Barcelona has been adopted in this case study session, which shows a way of how to combine junction projects with local contexts. Site a is less urbanism and has a dense forest in the middle of the square. What we found interesting to this site is that there are lots of orchards. On the B site, high rate of urbanism alone the main street is threatened by the potential flooding. However, there are still a lot of houses and shops with large private domain territory. Also, as a residential dominant area, this structure results in shortage of public spaces. Therefore, we have picked a housing project in Antwerp, which adopted a strategy of sharing space such as courtyard and bicycle shed. Public space in larger scale is also important for such a residential area. Case in Brussels called Gare Maritime actually shows a sustainable way of creating a multi-purposes spaces. In the context of Covid-19, locality, which once have been impacted by fast speed transports like private cars in 20th century, has become more significant again. Enriching local activities could also reduce the emissions from vehicles. Furthermorewe noticed that vacant or abandoned spaces are scattered throughout the site. These places could be renewed as pocket parks in an ecological and sustainable ways. Thus, a pocket garden work from Shenzhen has been selected to illustrate how could we transformed a vacant place into a public space.
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2193 © Source
4220 © Donglin Liu
2215 © Donglin Liu
01_Co-housing in a former police station
CO-HOUSING IN A FORMER POLICE STATION
2018
© Stijn Bollaert
Antwerp, Belgium
POLYGOON Architectuur
A former police station in Deurne (Antwerp) offered four families who have known each other already the space they were looking for: a collaborative housing within cycling distance from the city centre, and with shared functions and a shared garden, but maintaining sufficient privacy. The original building was converted into four equal family homes. The typical brickwork architecture of the front facade has been preserved through an intervention placed an extra dividing wall that cuts the original middle bay. To grant the four dwellings a similar surface area, the outer units received an extra extension on the first floor. So each dwelling has a slightly different layout. Despite the uniform exterior, each family enjoys a tailor-made home. The garden and bicycle storage are shared. The basement under the original volume was equipped as a
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common laundry. Here too, there is a balance between interaction and privacy. On the interior, recuperated materials received a second life. The dwellings make efficient use of energy and water and consist mainly of renewable resources, such as wood and cellulose. A green roof, rainwater recovery systems, and solar water heating complete the collection of sustainable interventions. A number of garage boxes on the original courtyard were transformed into a shared garden where kid really enjoy it. The residents can now look down on the garden from their dining rooms, taking a breath of fresh air in busy Antwerp.
© Stijn Bollaert
© Stijn Bollaert
© Stijn Bollaert
© Frederik Beyens
The property also has quite a bit of space on the street side. That area was paved and proclaimed to be a parking space. But the current inhabitants intentionally participate in car-sharing, so space became available for a front garden constructed to form a green view for all living rooms, which are headed to the south with sunshine and neighborhood in surrounding area (Text description provided by the architects)
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02_Gare Maritime
GARE MARITIME
Neutelings Riedijk Architects and Bureau Bouwtechniek 2020-
© Neutelings Riedijk Architects
© Neutelings Riedijk Architects
© Neutelings Riedijk Architects
Brussels, Belgium
Gare Maritime will be much more than a building – it will be a bustling neighbourhood for everyone in Brussels to enjoy (official website of Gare maritime). At the beginning, the existing historic station was carefully restored by Jan de Moffarts Architects, Bureau Bouwtechniek, Ney & Partners, and Boydens.
Under the roofs of the side aisles, twelve wooden pavilions have been added for the new program. They create a new structure of boulevards, streets, parks, and squares that naturallyemerges with urban context and the building structure. The central space is open for public events. Next to the event space, the green walking boulevards are wide enough to plant ten large gardens.
Gare Maritime, once Europe’s largest railway station for goods on the Tour & Taxis site in Brussels, which dates from the beginning of the 20th century, has been transformed into a covered complex with a mixed usage of working, shopping and recreational public space. Under impressive structure of steel roofs, Neutelings Riedijk Architects designed the new Gare Maritime as ‘a city where it never rains’.
The new pavilions have been constructed in Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), with an enormous reduction in the amount of cement as a result. The choice for wood also had a favorable effect on the construction process: thanks to prefabrication and the dry constructing method, the construction time was considerably shorter. (Text description provided by the architects)
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© Neutelings Riedijk Architects © Neutelings Riedijk Architects
© Neutelings Riedijk Architects © Neutelings Riedijk Architects
Gare Maritime is carbon-neutral. The glass facades on Picardstreet are equiped with solar cells. Also, solar panels of 17,000 square meters have been installed on the roofs. Furthermore, at all levels, far-reaching sustainability measures such as geothermal energy and reuse of rainwater have been used in this building.
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03_Pedal Path Barcelona
PEDAL PATH IN BARCELONA
Batlle i Roig Architectes 2018
© Jordi Surroca
Barcelone, Spain
Batlle i Roig Arquitectura, which is resolute commitment to soft mobility and a more biophilic city, has designed an 890-metre pedal path, a small surgical intervention that connects different urban tissues. “The challenge for urban design in coming years is to help overcome the barriers that have been built between natural spaces and the city” (Enric Batlle, 2018).
The project is located at one of the most difficult points in the metropolitan road network: the junction that connects Barcelona’s Avinguda Diagonal with Avinguda dels Països Catalans in Esplugues de Llobregat, a barrier for pedestrians and bicycles for sixty years. The firm designed a gently sloping cycle lane in a renaturalised, landscaped environment that acts as a vantage point over the city and connects the urban network
226 10
of cycle lanes with the system of free spaces in Collserola Park. To impact the natural setting as little as possible, this project firstly adapts to the morphological characteristics of the place, with its variable topography and infrastructures crossing at different levels, either becoming a walkway with a 5.00 m clearance above vehicles on the slip road or a tunnel through the ring road’s abandoned underpass with headroom of 2.5 m. It has transformed a forgotten space, closed off to people, into a place of urban continuity for the metropolitan community. The new path is further integrated into the landscape by adjusting its slope to the level of the roads and using the retaining system with gabions full of stones from Collserola, positioned directly on the ground to enable a dry-construction intervention that is more sustainable and environ
© Jordi Surroca
© Jordi Surroca
-mentally friendly. A greenway, with calmed traffc, evokes slow lanes away from the city and major road. And the cycle lane is continuous and uniform throughout the entire route and enables pedestrians to relate more directly with nature.
year. At the same time, architects spared no effort to conserve the existing trees and incorporate them into the new lanes system.
The ferruginous stone, oxide-treated pavers and the weathering-steel handrail give the whole a unitary identity that stands out from the major road and relates well with the surrounding landscaped spaces. All the vegetation chosen for tree planting and landscaping the edges of the track corresponds to native species with low water consumption and seasonal flowering to offer changing colours and perfumes throughout the
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04_Meifeng Community Park
MEIFENG COMMUNITY PARK
ZIZU STUDIO 2020
© Stijn Bollaert
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
The Meilin area is the “backside” located in the north of Futian District. It is mainly mixed with functions such as urban villages, old houses and industrial areas. The buildings are aging and the spatial quality is quite low. Large number of “urban blind spots” has been formed. Meifeng Community Park is located at the intersection of Zhongkang Road and Beihuan Road. It takes an area of 4,674.35 square meters. This plot originally belonged to the Linbian Community. Due to disputes between the owner and the developer, the site was closed in 2000. The public facilities promised by the developers to the owners have not been realized, and the owners are therefore very sensitive to the construction of the land. They have repeatedly resisted the development of the land, and the land has been idle for nearly 20 years. The site was a vacant reinforced concrete floor, surrounded by walls on all sides, and there is a certain height difference with the
12 228
surrounding land. The interior is occupied as a temporary parking lot. The community park in the city turns the originally enclosed wasteland into an urban park that revitalizes the surrounding communities.Because of long-term vacancy and lack of management, some areas in this site have become garbage dumps. The weeds around the site and the harsh environment are in sharp contrast with communities in the Meilin area Such an abandoned plot is even more incompatible with the surrounding the high-density environment. Due to the short construction period and low cost, it adopts low-cost and low-maintenance strategies for design and construction. The existing reinforced concrete floor
© Stijn Bollaert
© Stijn Bollaert
© Stijn Bollaert
© Frederik Beyens
is destroyed to make the land Re-breath and establish an ecological landscape base; The smashed old concrete blocks are used as landscape materials and stacked to form a micro-topographic crack garden; small fragments are used as materials for filling stone cages; smaller fragments are used as underground gravel layers for sponge city technical measures to drain Seepage rainwater.
cultural display corridors and jogging tracks. Also a simple pavilion has been made for leisures especially for elders chat with each other under a aging situation.
The design of the park is based on the principle of “openness, ecology, and diversity”. The site and its surroundings are systematically sorted out; the walls are removed to open the park so that the park’s accessibility to urban streets and communities is established. Considering the surrounding users demand, designers set up multiple recreational and entertainment venues such as children’s play grounds, stepped squares,
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Conclusions Addressing inclusive rural transformations and food security seems to be one
territory. This operational approach lacks in consideration of the significant cultur-
of the main ambitions of the Chinese government. Many investments have
al legacy of these territories. Displacements and radical agriculture modernisation
been made to foster sustainable development and to support agricultural mod-
are not only erasing the bond between the rural population and the place it is born
ernisation, giving the hope that China could drive significant technologi-
in, but also the possibility of skilful stewardship of these millenary landscapes.
cal innovations able to face food and environmental security simultaneously. Nevertheless, the social and technological innovations in agriculture raise some
Urbanism are always a complex issue. It requires us to work in different scales
doubts about them real inclusiveness. If on the one hand, the rediscovered interest
from small to large, from interior to outdoor spaces, from techniques to strate-
in agriculture has fostered innovative entrepreneurship, on the other hand, these
gies, and from designs to policies. These four irrelevant cases have different
appear to exclude the rural population. The Chinese countryside is going through
characteristics, but all of them focus on the urban problems, which provide
a radical transformation driven by external forces poorly linked with its millenary
us diverse experience for working on our site with comprehensive methods.
agrarian traditions (Liu et al., 2015). The newcomers into the rural landscape raise questions about the future of its inhabitants. Technologies are making the farmers’ job more comfortable, but less in need of human labour, defining future socio-economic challenges. Pragmatic urgencies drive the current transformations of the territory. This operational approach lacks in consideration of the significant cultural legacy of these territories. Displacements and radical agriculture modernisation are not only erasing the bond between the rural population and the place it is born in, but also the possibility of skilful stewardship of these millenary landscapes. Addressing inclusive rural transformations and food security seems to be one of the main ambitions of the Chinese government. Many investments have been made to foster sustainable development and to support agricultural modernisation, giving the hope that China could drive significant technological innovations able to face food and environmental security simultaneously. Nevertheless, the social and technological innovations in agriculture raise some doubts about them real inclusiveness. If on the one hand, the rediscovered interest in agriculture has fostered innovative entrepreneurship, on the other hand, these appear to exclude the rural population. The Chinese countryside is going through a radical transformation driven by external forces poorly linked with its millenary agrarian traditions (Liu et al., 2015). The newcomers into the rural landscape raise questions about the future of its inhabitants. Technologies are making the farmers’ job more comfortable, but less in need of human labour, defining future socio-economic challenges. Pragmatic urgencies drive the current transformations of the
230 14
231 15 © Rula Elkhalili
References Books and scientific articles : Vanneste, D., Thomas, I, Vanderstraetne, L. (2008) ‘The spatial structure(s) of the Belgian housing stock’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 23: 173-198. Kesteloot, C. and De Maesschalk, F. (2001) ‘Anti-urbanism in Flanders: the political and social consequences of a spatial class struggle strategy’, Belgeo: 41-52. Van den Broeck, P. (2008) “The Changing Position of Strategic Spatial Planning in Flanders: A socio-political and instrument-based perspective” International Planning Studies 13:3, Routledge: 261-283. Van Brussels, S. Boelens, L. and Lauwers, D. (2016) “Unravelling the Flemish Mobility Orgware: the transition towards a sustainable mobility from an actor-network perspective” European Planning Studies, 24:7: 1336-1356.
On-line documents and websites : ArchDaily. (2020). “Co-Housing in a Former Police Station / POLYGOON Architectuur + Jouri De Pelecijn Architect”. [online] Available at: https://www.archdaily. com/950875/co-housing-in-a-former-police-station-polygoon-architectuur-plus-jouri-de-pelecjin-architect?ad_medium=gallery [Accessed 06 Nov. 2020]. ArchDaily. (2020). “Gare Maritime Workspace / Neutelings Riedijk Architects + Bureau Bouwtechniek”. [online] Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/949630/ gare-maritime-offices-neutelings-riedijk-architects-plus-bureau-bouwtechniek?ad_medium=gallery [Accessed 16 Oct. 2020]. Gooood.cn (2018). Pedal Path in Barcelona by Batlle i Roig Architectes-A small surgical operation to connect metropolitan territory. [online] Available at: https:// www.gooood.cn/pedal-path-in-barcelona-by-batlle-i-roig-arquitectura.htm?lang=en [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018]. Gooood.cn (2020). Meifeng Community Park. [online] Available at: https://www.gooood.cn/meifeng-community-park-zizu-studio.htm [Accessed 19 Nov. 2020].
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233
S3
LEANDER BAEKE, GIULIA DEVIS, RAYA RIZK, XENIA STOUMPOU
Inhabiting the edge
Re-inventing the urban-forest interface
Introduction The notion of forest historically carries deep cultural connotations, being a sa-
critically re-examine this highly manipulated territory, a series of case studies will
cred place, a retreat, a productive territory or even a place for leisure either for the
be analysed, paradigms of innovative strategies that tackle some of the major issues
few or for the many. Within the contemporary urban context, this diverse, mul-
of flood risk, urban pressure and deforestation that are particularly relevant in the
ti-layered, dynamic ecosystem can also be understood to have a positive impact on
context we are working on.
our livelihoods, ranging from nature conservation, improvement of air quality to effectively mitigating climate change-related issues, up to more pragmatic effects
In this framework, the main focus is how a balance between built and forested areas
such as increasing property values. Reforesting cities and territories is one of the
can be established, though not in a merely quantitative way but rather in an inter-
decisive trends of 21st-century urbanism, with massive afforestation/reforestation
woven superimposed system, unveiling new qualities. The suburban tissue needs
proposals for 1million up to 1 trillion trees, and extended tree canopies that get
to be radically re-examined both in terms of its articulation to natural elements
introduced into urban fabrics in ambitious urban renewal programs all around the
and in terms of density, as a way to accommodate increasing demand without
world.
further consuming greenfields, bundling resources and enhancing common ways of living and communal life. Inextricably linked to this upcoming transformative
In the Belgian context, especially when it comes to the dispersed urbanised land-
process is the necessity to overcome individualism, deeply rooted in the typical
scape of Flanders, city and forest have been historically competing. Urbanisation
model of the single-family house within a privately owned garden, towards more
has been -and still is- colonizing the forest, shaping the image of what Flanders is
flexible schemes of co-ownership and co-stewardship. These transformations ren-
today, one of the least forested regions in Europe. Forest coverage has been system-
der even more urgent vis-à-vis climate change-induced flood predictions, which
atically depleted to make way for sub-urbanization in a process deeply embedded
affect a significant part of the semi-urbanised landscape of Flanders, thus being
within the Belgian lifestyle, which dates back to the beginnings of the last century.
both a necessity and an opportunity for substantial restructuring, interweaving the
Flanders is a highly industrialized, densely populated area. Its landscape has been
systems of water, forest and urbanization.
intensively and systematically manipulated and altered by man over centuries, with often devastating consequences. As we begin to chart the direct consequences we are about to face as a result of climate fluctuations, it becomes utterly clear that fundamental changes are a necessity in order to effectively address the challenges that lie ahead. In an attempt to
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© Source
Caption, year
2353
01_Forest Urbanism REVEALING ISLANDS
2014
©CaSA - colombo serboli architecture
Kalmar, Province of Småland, Sweden
CaSA-Architects & Urban Landscape
‘Revealing islands’ is a winning competition proposal for the reconfiguration of the Rinkabyholm area on the outskirts of Kalmar, in Sweden. The project attempts to radically restructure the area with the addition of new residential developments, taking into account future flood projections caused by climate fluctuations, expected in the next 100 years. Identifying latent landscape structures, a double archipelago emerges comprising scattered elevated forest patches in a valley of arable land and an actual island landscape further into the sea. This dual archipelago is seen as the structuring element of the area together with what lies within the valleys among them. This deep structure is preserved and further enhanced to be proactively transformed as the expected sea-level rise threatens to dramatically alter the landscape. Through a system of cut and fill,
236 4
the strategy suggests a progressive landscape transformation with deepened valleys and further elevated forest-island edges to meet an expected elevation of 3m above sea level, effectively protecting what lies within them. The territorial structure is being preserved and reiterated for the future condition where the coastline is expected to recede further inland. The proposal seeks to address both local and territorial transformations. The area, currently a suburb of Kalmar, holds the potential to be an attraction on its own, taking into account large impact institutions such as the inauguration of a new university and strengthening its direct connections to the highway network and the airport. Building upon the existing road system, coastal and urban-in-
©CaSA - colombo serboli architecture ©CaSA - colombo serboli architecture
©CaSA - colombo serboli architecture ©CaSA - colombo serboli architecture
land, and introducing new transversal connections, the newly proposed residential areas can be transformed into novel places of collectivity. When it comes to the allocation of new residential areas, the strategy is a two-fold one. On the one hand, linear developments on the island edges, which render as prominent places to settle in this archipelagic landscape. On the other hand, selective forest clearings for the creation of denser neighbourhoods in the forest along the urban-inland road, which in turn transforms into a sort of parkway. The strategy also suggests partial emptying of existing blocks allowing the forest to penetrate among the newly added developments. Islands are thus seen as the foundation for inhabiting the territory and valleys as the necessary, multi-functional corridors between inland and the coast. The housing program itself is based
on a modular system allowing for various densities and configurations, able to meet the expectations of an ever-changing social tissue. The design suggests an integrated approach that unfolds consistently starting from the territorial vision up to the architectural design. The proposed building typologies effectively merge with the landscape, with choreographed positioning along the topography and suggestions regarding height and integration in the forest, while also succeeding in fulfilling the territorial ambitions. http://cargocollective.com/CaSA/Revealing-Islands-Kalmar-Sweden
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02_Urban tissue transformation DE NIEUW WIJK
2018 - Ongoing
© Dierendonckblancke & L.U.S.T.
© Dierendonckblancke & L.U.S.T.
© Google Earth
Hemiksem, Belgium
Dierendonckblancke & L.U.S.T.
The project is located in Hemiksem, on the periphery of Antwerp. This area underwent an important urban development in the seventies with the emergence of suburban sprawl coupled with the construction of social housing. In 2020, a competition was launched by the municipality in collaboration with the Vlaams Bouwmester for the requalification, renovation and densification of an area in this agglomeration. The selected proposal for this competition was submitted by the architects Dierendonckblancke, L.U.S.T., Haerynck Vanmeirhaeghe architecten. Aware of the complexity of the urban fabric they were facing and the number of stakeholders involved in this place, the architectural group proposed a de-
6238
velopment plan in several phases. “One might have the impression that this is a master plan that has already been completed, but not at all,” says Peter Vande Sompele (Head of the technical department of SHM and a participant in the project’s focus groups). “The building blocks are flexible enough to allow for different types of housing and even public facilities” (De Bruin et al, 2021). In addition to the flexibility they provide, these different phases also allow the project to benefit from new investments as it progresses. Indeed, each phase has the inertia to launch the next one. Furthermore, all these phases are thought to not compromise the functioning of the district. Indeed, each intermediate phase is considered as a final phase with its own intrinsic qualities.
Green public spaces
Mobility
From private to public
In order to carry out the requalification of this urban tissue, the architects focused on four strategies :
smaller - and therefore on a more human scale - green public spaces that are directly accessible from the surrounding streets.
Densification and redesign of the existing urban tissue. The principal aim of the project is to significantly increase the density of the area in order to revitalise it. By redesigning the urban tissue and adding collective housing, the architects propose to double the district’s population without significantly enlarging the buildings’ footprint on the ground.
Mobility. The architects imagined a way to optimise the streets of the district, which allows for less ‘car space’ in the area in order to have more green spaces and places for leisure activities of the community.
Green public spaces. Instead of having a large central green public space that is not well connected to the rest of Hemiksem, the architects decided to recreate
From private to public. From the beginning of their design phase, the architects undertook a participatory approach. These joint reflections enabled the architects to encourage the owners of private gardens to bequeath part of their land in order to create 5 semi private spacesshared by the inhabitants of the area.
2397
© Dierendonckblancke & L.U.S.T.
Urban tissues
03_Ecological Systems KIRKKOJÄRVI FLOOD PARK
Loci
© By Pyry Kantonen Photography on Landezine.com
2014
© By Pyry Kantonen Photography on Landezine.com
Finland
Formerly a lake, the Kirkkojärvi floodplain in the Espoonjoki river valley was drained in 1959 for the construction of the Finnish National Road 1.
to stabilize the soil.
The water level is mostly low but goes through major flooding seasons, such as snowmelt in spring and heavy rainfall in fall. With the construction of the school right above the floodplain, it became crucial to develop an ecological strategy to control any future seasonal or major flooding events.
The ecological approach to the design has shaped the terrain, the path and the water rhythms throughout the seasons. The flood gardens accommodate for four different levels, from the lowest and most common levels at +3.5 MSL and several flooding scenarios. The three other water levels we see accommodate different future storms.
The first step was to elevate the park boundary from the of the settlements. the boundary outlined by a footpath, which represents the actual former riverbank. The second step was to plant along the edges and within the floodplain in order
Stepping out of the Kaivomestari Square, we find a wooden deck hiding stormwater pipes running underneath. The deck also acts as a picturesque viewshed from where you can follow the tree lines and grass covered terrain.
8240
2419 © By Pyry Kantonen Photography on Landezine.com
© By Pyry Kantonen Photography on Landezine.com
04_Pooling of development rights Trans, Something Fantastic, Monadnock, Marleen Goethals
SCHORVOORT MORGEN
2011-
Current residual value
Flanders has a deeply rooted tradition of individual living. An own piece of land with your own house on it. The result is a progressive parcelling out of the territory. The fragmentation of the land puts a brake on the renewal of housing. So we are faced with the challenge of neutralizing the constraint of the plot as the quantum or smallest indivisible unit of space. In this way, a project that transcends plots can emerge. This is precisely the aim of the Schorvoort pilot project in Turnhout which suffered from the subdivision drive from the 1960s onwards.
242 10
Evolution of residual value after making masterplan
The initiators are SHM De Ark, the city of Turnhout, the OCMW and several private landowners. Together they own three large building plots that qualify for development. The project partners joined forces. After all, each of them has a number of ambitions that they cannot achieve on their own, but which are possible by working together. A financial study establishes the residual value of each land ownership. Owners contribute their land share to a land coalition, which abstracts from plot boundaries. In that way a collective development vision can be made. Once the master plan has been drawn up, a second study determines how the land value has evolved. All parties benefit from an equal percentage increase in the residual value.
© (Vlaams Bouwmeester and Vlaams minister van Energie, Wonen, Steden en Sociale Economie 2014)
© (Vlaams Bouwmeester and Vlaams minister van Energie, Wonen, Steden en Sociale Economie 2014)
Schorvoort, Turnhout, Belgium
1. Reference project 1 2. Reference project 2 3. Reference project 3
1. Valley, living in contact with the water 2. New heart for the neighborhood with amenities and housing for seniors
5. Fase 2 6. Fase 3 7. Fase 4 8. Fase 5
4. Park corridor as a buffer between neighborhood and highway
© (Vlaams Bouwmeester and Vlaams minister van Energie, Wonen, Steden en Sociale Economie 2014)
© (Vlaams Bouwmeester and Vlaams minister van Energie, Wonen, Steden en Sociale Economie 2014)
3. Water park with buffering
4. Fase 1
5. Soft network across existing road structure 6. Collective housing forms
The Schorvoort Morgen plan (2011) resolutely opts for the soft approach. It is not a classic master plan, but a ten-point plan that came about after an intensive participation process with the residents. Key points of the plan include restoring the Aa-valley, making the nature reserve accessible, creating a network for soft connections, re-attaching the district to the city center, adding new public facilities such as sports and playgrounds and care functions, and diversifying the housing supply. Schorvoort Morgen is not a plan of grand urban gesture, but a step-by-step “enrichment” of a lot of sleeping potential. For the first development line, the designers worked out three reference projects. They include some 150 homes complemented by services. The
development has a significant impact on the entire district. The provision of sufficient senior housing and a service center in the center of the district should lead to a sustainable demographic transformation. Elderly people can continue to live in the neighborhood, while their overly spacious homes come on the market for young families. The first reference project, a cluster with housing, service and meeting center by Monadnock realizes the missing link of the soft north-south connection. The second, from Trans, consists of new, compact grouped housing that nestles in the watery valley of the Aa River. The third project, designed by Something Fantastic, links collective housing around a common, covered field.
243 11
Conclusions As climate change becomes more of a tangible reality, there is a dire need for
tion of an existing urban tissue, a similar condition which we are working with in
innovative design strategies able to effectively tackle the pressing issues emerg-
Sint-Genesius-Rode. In this project, the redevelopment of the district follows sev-
ing and directly impacting urban environments and livelihoods. In the Flemish
eral strategies, ranging from the densification of districts, up to the introduction of
context, inundation renders as a major challenge, expected to affect a signifi-
new typologies and public spaces. Through a participatory approach, the architects
cant part of the territory, along the various watersheds. Together with persis-
have encouraged the landowners to concede part of their gardens for the creation
tent and historically rooted issues such as the progressive loss of forest cov-
of public spaces available to all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. These spaces
er in favour of urbanised landscapes, the ever-expanding automobile culture
are shared and maintained by the local community, comprising vegetable gardens,
etc. and the increasing amount of sealed surfaces this generates, let alone the
playgrounds, sports areas, etc. Thus, even houses or flats without gardens can also
unsustainability of the mobility model itself, these problems are expected to
profit from communal open-air spaces. The project unveils ways in which the pro-
further aggravate, taking into consideration the trends of urban expansion.
gressive restructuring of the existing tissue can be paired with community-based approaches, effectively introducing and establishing more collective forms of living.
In areas such as Sint-Genesius-Rode, a rather wealthy suburb on the south-
These strategies can be transcribed in the context of the significant urban sprawl
ern outskirts of Brussels, where the suburban development has been unfolding
that has occurred in Sint-Genesius-Rode and could inspire our future design.
for decades, the questions that arise are complex and multi-faceted. On the one hand, the area being located on the west border of the Sonian Forest, the pro-
Flood risk renders as another major challenge, in our case affecting especially the
tection of the forest renders as an urgent and quite evident necessity. On the
historic core that lies in the valley of Molenbeek. In this regard, the Kirkkojärvi Flood
other hand, being already a densely urbanised site, one cannot ignore the ur-
Park can serve as a valuable example. The project addresses different flooding events,
banisation pressures that emerge and are expected to increase in the future.
whether seasonal or larger milestone storms. The study of the original floodplain is the cornerstone for the design of the park. Creating an ecological contingency plan
Inventing innovative ways to accommodate urbanisation without further compro-
was critical to protect the city and the school nearby. The sunken park serves as a
mising the preservation of the forest, inevitably leads to the re-qualification of the
protective water storage pond for seasonal flooding, as well as for larger rainstorms.
existing model of urbanisation towards more dense typologies. It also implies a
A similar strategy is needed in Sint-Genesius-Rode, as an important part of the ur-
novel way of defining what forest is, variations or ‘shades of forest’ as potential
ban fabric is located right within the predicted 2100 storm floodplain. Understand-
ways to inhabit it. Regarding the ‘Revealing islands’ project, the elaboration of
ing the history and original river movement would help locate and design the flood
an urbanisation strategy that capitalizes on the very structure of the forest, intro-
gardens needed along the Molenbeek valley. Understanding water bodies as inter-
ducing new housing typologies that integrate within it, radically challenges the
connected systems and creating potential water storages in available locations up-
dominant condition of single-family houses scattered along the road infrastruc-
stream can significantly protect adjacent locations or locations further downstream.
ture. Density and dispersal within dense forest canopies, dictated by underlying landscape/forest structure can be seen as orchestrated dialectic strategies to
Lastly, the project of Schorvoort Morgen focuses on an area where several stake-
progressively reorganize the urban tissue, creating an idiomatic forest urbanism,
holders have property that they want to develop, yet these are not large enough or
particularly relevant for our site and especially for the part east of the train line.
not in the desired location. However, some of the plots are adjacent to each other which creates opportunities. By making a shared land coalition and erasing the
The second case study, the ‘Nieuw wijk’, deals with a step-by-step transforma-
244 12
boundaries for a while, all actors were able to reach their goals. Smart coalitions
The selected case studies focus on novel forest urbanism typologies, densification
public space, restore the forest and create more qualitative housing all stakehold-
and requalification of existing tissues, flood resiliency and the pooling of develop-
ers will have to support the same vision, for which they are willing to collabo-
ment rights as a potential tool for development. These four aspects together with an
rate. To maybe give something away, but get something more valuable in return.
urgent mobility shift, we believe, describe the major challenges that the area will face in the next decades and can highlight a framework of site-specific design strategies.
245 13
© Source
is a strategy to implement within Sint-Genesius-Rode as well. In order to expand
References
On-line documents and websites :
De Bruin,J. Malliet, A. “Pilootprojecten : Collectief Wonen Vijf masterplannen uit de startblokken”, Vlaams Bouwmeester. Consulted 2 march 2021. Dierendonckblancke, “ Research, piloot project de nieuwe wijk”, architect’s webiste. Consulted 3 march 2021. Url : https://dierendonckblancke.eu/news/ TRANS architectuur stedenbouw. 2015. “Masterplan Schorvoort Turnhout.” TRANS architectuur l stedenbouw. Consulted 2 march 2021. https://www.turnhout.be/ schorvoort-morgen-masterplan. Vlaams Bouwmeester and Vlaams minister van Energie, Wonen, Steden en Sociale Economie. 2014. “Pilootprojecten Collectief Wonen Vijf Masterplannen Uit de Startblokken.” Joeri De Bruyn, Anne Malliet. Consulted 2 march 2021. https://www.vlaamsbouwmeester.be/nl/publicaties/pilootprojecten-collectiefwonen?subsite=collectief-wonen. Wambecq, Wim. 2018. “Hidden Forest Figures in the Horizontal Metropolis: From Placeholders to Micro-biotopes, the Case of Liedekerkebos.” In The Horizontal Metropolis Between Urbanism and Urbanization, edited by Viganò P., Cavalieri C., Barcelloni Corte M., 331-339. Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-75975-3_32v
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247
248
DIJLE WATERSHED 249
D1a & D1b
AGNESE MARCIGLIANO, CARLOS MORALES, HAIFA SALEH, TIEN TRAN
Choreographed natures
Towards a more balanced territorial development
Introduction Going hand in hand with urbanization is the huge impact of human-beings on the
has an important role to play because it ensures the comfortable living environ-
natural environment. In order to deal with the threats in the future, the balance
ment due to satisfying settlement requirements and providing high quality of life
between human development and environment is one of the most important key
(Stein 2017).
factors.
Formulating an interconnected infrastructure system not only meets the basic
The importance of reclaiming the balance is emphasized due to the advantages of
demands of people in different aspects in living (such as education, entertaining,
natural ecosystems against the pollution from man-made activities, which can be
commerce & services, administration, etc.) but also enhances the qualities of the
considered as the foundation for sustainable development. Hence, Urban forest-
site by creating opportunities for people’s physical and mental connections, which
ry has become an important nature-based solution to deal with challenges at the
obviously has an important role to play in preventing social injustice. Furthermore,
global scale related to big issues such as climate change or biodiversity loss among
besides reinforcing the relationship between people and social infrastructure, ur-
others, but also at the local scale tackling issues such as heat islands, surface sealing
ban forestry also has the ability to bring human-beings closer to nature thanks to
or flooding.Also, nature-based thinking offers the opportunity to reflect on how to
diverse activities related to natural advantages and hence, intensifies the qualities
develop our cities in a balanced relation between humans and ecological systems,
of the site.
acknowledging that it is the environment and its natural processes the main frame
Last but not least, because housing demand is one of the key factors which cause
to approach to urban inclusive planning, being inspired by nature, to act socially,
the uncontrolled urbanization, it is necessary to inquire into the effectiveness of
environmentally as well as economically in the transition towards sustainable cities
transition tools. Recommoning is introduced as an alternative to pressing issues of
(Bandrup et al 2020).
privatization of common wealth steered by neoliberal state policies and deregula-
Moreover, to tackle the pressing climate change issues and the general pollution
tion including the market driven housing & real estate sectors, leading to spiking
problems related to CO2 emissions, it is essential to rethink our transportation
prices of property deeming it unaffordable to the mass majority of people creat-
system, both for people and goods, as to find new sustainable solutions in line with
ing imbalances not only on the socio-economic level but also putting more and
future climatic objectives. This calls for radical social change and for the develop-
more pressure on the natural environment and the ecological system, as well as
ment of structured soft mobility systems on a large scale, that will complement the
threatening the food sovereignty as we witness the urban sprawl on arable land.
sector of public transports to achieve equal accessibility for all population groups
Recommoning reasserts “greater participatory control over those resources and
(Morency 2013). On a smaller local scale, soft mobility gives the opportunity to
community life.” (Bollier 2015, 2) having a great social and cultural influence re-
have a more intimate and closer experience with our surrounding environment
building identity and introducing new social intergenerational and collective roles
and can be a driver for the creation of new public common spaces, as well as pro-
and agencies and fostering more accessible and ecological communities (Bollier
moting a slower and healthier life pace. Besides that, the social infrastructure also
2015; Aernouts and Ryckewaert 2018).
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© vzw “de Rand”
Overijse A rupture in the natural landscape
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01_Soft/Shared Mobility ENVIRONMENTAL RECOVERY OF LLOBREGAT RIVER
2007 - 2015
©Jordi Surroca, dng, Divisare.
©Jordi Surroca, dng, Divisare.
©Jordi Surroca, dng, Divisare.
Río Llobregat (Barcelona), Spain
Battle i Roig Architectes
Historically the Llobregat River has been the usual corridor for the infrastructures of the metropolitan area of Barcelona (roads, highways, railways, high-speed trains, and all sorts of services and facilities). This process has damaged the natural spaces and their ecological value, and the infrastructure network has become a huge barrier that hinders and even impedes access to the river from several towns in the surroundings. The recovery design proposal of the river is based on two complementary strategies, with the aim of considering the water figure as whole system embedded in a unitary landscape. In the landscaping proposal the river is considered as a living, changing entity, full of life and natural space, with its own dynamic and functioning, but at the
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same time also as a peri-urban green leisure space, a place that residents can enjoy while appreciating the environment in which it is set. Rather than carrying out extensive interventions along the riverside, the idea was to introduce one-off operations that generate major changes in accessibility to the embankments, and their uses, restoring the interactions between the water figure and the cities in its proximity. The project was carried out in phases, first establishing a connection between the two banks of the river with punctual crossing, joining up the network of existing paths and bike lanes and proposing a form of plantation that was coherent with available water resources.
© Battle i Roig Architectes
Connectivity Interventions
© Battle i Roig Architectes
© Battle i Roig Architectes
Accessibility Interventions
© Battle i Roig Architectes
Morphodynamical Interventions
Small elements (stream deflectors) were introduced to alter the course of the river and reconfigure its meanders, while patches of native flora have been reintroduced, which in time will recolonise the embankments leading a process of naturalization of the river that will develop autonomously, despite its manmade nature. The result is an new peri-urban park, reconnecting on a larger scale the city with other natural areas, and enhancing the great potential of the river as a public space. The impact of the heavy infrastructures present on site is mitigated by a new restored and adaptive ecology, and soft mobility gives a chance of a slower and more intimate experience of the landscape.
The project is relevant in terms of social and ecological impact, giving an example of how design can also work together with nature, following mid to long term strategies, also to give it space and time to develop of its own accord.
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02_Social Infrastructure MANITOBOGGAN SLIDE
2018
© Public City Architecture 2018
Winnipeg, Canada
Public City Architecture
Manitoboggan in Winnipeg is the first universally-accessible toboggan slide structure of the city. It is designed by Public City Architecture and signifies the City’s commitment to barrier-free, social infrastructure. The structure of Manitoboggan is combined of two toboggan slides, a tower for sightseeing, a warming hut that also plays a role as the lodge for the picnickers and a ramp that strolls through the existing forest canopy to a wheelchair-accessible toboggan launch and inspecting sundeck (Archdaily 2019). The slides have elevation differences and can be easily accessed by ramp or stairs. The warming shelter with heaters is located underneath the deck of the lower slide. Spaces for social connection and communal activities, especially picnic and for younger kids playing with the snow while elders spend more time with the
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slides and sightseeing throughout the year thanks to openable large pivot doors (Archdaily 2019). The main material used is steel, which is convenient for installation and creates a solid structure, avoids the removal of natural trees in the forest. The wooden floor is used in combination with steel mesh to create a sense of closeness to nature thanks to the diversification of vision and sound. The warming hut was constructed using the materials from former pinic shelters around the site. Overall, the materials are low-cost and easy to construct, the structure mainly is the combination of beams and columns, which brings people closer to nature.
© Public City Architecture 2018 © Public City Architecture 2018
© Public City Architecture 2018 © Public City Architecture 2018
Manitoboggan is with simple idea but meets the need to form the social infrastructure which is accessible for everyone. The project is particularly suitable for mountainous areas and forest where the light material is the most suitable for construction and has the least effects on trees and plants. Moreover, it has the ability to exploit the advantages of the site such as sightseeing and activities for thrill-seekers of all ages. The project can be considered as the typical module which can be built easily throughout the site, which will formulate the social infrastructure system that can be used for diverse purposes such as entertaining, office, commerce & services, etc. due to cheap constructing materials and multifunctional spaces.
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03_Urban Forestry THE METRO-FOREST PROJECT
2012-2015
© Landscape Architects of Bangkok, 2016
Bangkok, Thailand
LAB
The Metro-Forest Project is a man-made urban forest designed by the Landscape Archictects of Bangkok (LAB), located on the eastern outskirts of Bangkok and is part of a national initiative that aims to reforest the country and raise environmental awareness. LAB’s project promotes the ecological and forest recovery of an abandoned site contaminated with solid waste, of approximately 2 hectares, in order to generate an outdoor exhibition space (LAB in BIdPB 2016) on the possibilities that the forest offers to address the problems derived from urban development such as pollution, deforestation, suburban sprawl and heat islands (LAB in Landezine 2016), at the same time, aims to generate environmental awareness about the
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importance of forests for the recovery of historically local (either native and introduced) lowland tropical tree species (LAB in Landezine 2016). It is important to highlight that 75% of the site has been planted with approximately 60,000 trees of about 280 unique species, under the forestry technique of Dr. Akira Miyawaki who indicates that “no management is the best management” (LAB in Landezine 2016), that is, whose management has been conceived as part of an adaptive process of forest species to local conditions that after a short time will not require human intervention, and rather will be enhanced with rotational forestry.
© Landscape Architects of Bangkok, 2016 © Landscape Architects of Bangkok, 2016
© Landscape Architects of Bangkok, 2016 © Landscape Architects of Bangkok, 2016
Two of the main aspects of the project to be highlighted are 1) the sectional design and the stratified conception (subsoil, soil and air) that takes into account the variable condition of forest species over time, as well as 2) the distribution of forest species in relation to each successional group, the composition of the soil, proximity to bodies of water, water and climatic variations, all with the aim of promoting new topographies and micro-ecologies conducive to generating growth environments and optimal development of forest species, to the while close-up views of the maturing canopy are possible (LAB in Landezine 2016).
associated with the growth or evolution of native species, generating a new habitat for flora and fauna, and whose landscape design is more beyond the aesthetic condition, addressing larger-scale environmental issues that represent challenges that need to be addressed today for a better future.
The project is considered relevant insofar as it represents an exemplary case of urban forest and whose reforestation strategy recognizes a dynamic landscape
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04_Transition Tools 325 FISHPONDS ROAD
2016
© SPREAD-I 2016
© STRIDE TREGLOWN 2021
© SPREAD-I 2016
Fishponds, Bristol, UK
Stride Treglown
The 12 homes on 325 Fishpond road in Bristol is the Community Land Trust (CLT) community-led pilot development project completed in 2016, was initiated with the notion of creating shared-ownership and affordable rent homes as to nurture and thrive within a collaborative community, who are active members of the CLT manifesting its ethos in the building of their neighbourhood. The project is built on a land acquired from the Bristol City Council, on which sits a 150 year old chapel-turned-school building that had been vacant for many years which was renovated and partially demolished to accom-modate the new housing units (Bristol Community Land Trust 2021, Stride Treglown 2021). As a response to the housing crisis in the UK which is highly dependent on the supply and demand, creating huge imbalance due to the increase in demand
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with an unmatched supply, housing prices are spiking not only effecting the poor residents but even the corporates and the population at large. The CLT initiated the process by relying on initial debt to finance the construction works including foundations and superstructures done by contractors which was paid off by home rents later, furthermore they introduced a new economic model that combines common and private ownership by separating land from building ownership, where the former can stay out on the market whereas the latter can be bought by people on the lease, encouraging local authorities to build and develop democratic housing forms, giving tenants a larger role in the management and part-ownership of the property. (SPREAD-I 2016, Stride Treglown 2021).
© BCLT 2021 © SPREAD-I 2016
© BCLT 2021 © SPREAD-I 2016
This manifested through integrating a concept they called “sweat equity” which is reliant on self-finished labour by the community members, who were expected to put in 12 hours/ week, which could either increase their share of their owned property or reduce their rent as it reduced the costs of the contractor furthermore it created a platform for getting to know each other as well as encourages the enthusiasm of youth to be entrepreneurial exemplifying a social sustainable method where people have a stake in the community developing their resilience, sense of ownership not only as individuals but as a community with a shared aim (Stride Treglown 2021). A balance had to be created between the necessary management and control of the process and the fluidity and flexibility of the self-help as to keep the spirit alive (SPREAD-I 2016).
This method was not free from flaws, as some residents reported despite their satisfaction with the overall experience, that the self-finished segment needed further organization and perhaps training on basic skills, although this created a collaborative vibe within the community, it put more load on those who had more skills in teaching and executing by hand (Stride Treglown 2018). The design of the project played an important role in enhancing the communal spirit and sense of privacy, surveillance, and safety for the children as it was designed around a shared flower meadow which became a place for neighbour encounters, shared events, kids’ playground as well as a meeting place for discussing their upcoming common projects (SPREAD-I 2016).
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Conclusions Hoeilaart and Overijse are unique sites that have a strong presence of major ecological
infrastructure system of the site to meet the demands of the residents, in addition
assets. Embraced from the west by the Zoinien forest and crossed from east to west
to forming a balance between humans and the natural-environment as part of the
by the ijse river, the two sites are characterised with distinctive topography, and the
process of urbanization and development.
traces of their prominent history of glasshouse agriculture sitting on the plateaus
The Metro-Forest Project offers insights on how to promote forest restoration
are still apparent till this day on the parcels and the morphology of the land.
strategies to address problems derived from urban development, taking into
Both sites are distinctively facing a form of expansion and rapid urbanization
consideration the temporality of the ecological processes and of the species used.
characterized by parcellation of private allotments followed by a web of sealed roads
The applied strategies are based on a stratified understanding of the characteristics
encroaching on productive lands and the Zonien forest. This process combined
of the ecosystem such as water and soil composition, as well as notions of
with the predicted ecological and climatic crisis of flooding, water and air pollution
agroforestry, which include the use of rotating and transition of plant and forest
will endanger, not only the quality of living within the urban centers, but also the
species.
ecological environment and its biodiversity. Hence, a call for a balanced territorial
The community land trust economic model in the 325 Fishponds Road Project
development strategy is necessary to tackle these diverse challenges from a holistic
combining both the public and the private interests in ownership, could provide
perspective that is anchored in socio-ecological based thinking, which the chosen
an innovative way of recommoning the highly privatized land in Hoeilaart and
cases have informed and inspired.
Overijse, as to facilitate collective access to common natural and urban spaces and
The approach towards the environmental recovery of the Llobregat river is an
in providing affordable housing to underprivileged groups, and regenerating social
inspiration on how to deal with the current and highly relevant climatic challenges
and natural interconnected relations, as it also inspires practical ideas of rebuilding
on our site. The Ijse river is considered the spine of the territory therefore,
the identity of the community in relation to the urban and natural assets through
devising a strategy of re-naturalisation would help to bring back the water body
cooperative, participatory ecosystems, introducing modes of work that are not
to a semi-original state, by the creation of new meanders (re-tracing the historical
exclusive to housing which can extend to coworking, co-owned and co-managed
conformation of the river) as well as wetlands with appropriated plant species.
institutions shifting into a communal governance of tangible and intangible
By perceiving the river as a whole system we plan on restoring the ecological
community wealth where the value is distributed rather than concentrated.
continuity of the valley, associating blue and green networks and enhancing the relationship between the two, and their relationship with the urban fabric. A restored connection to the river would also have a strong social impact, giving the opportunity to activate new open spaces in relation to water and nature, that could be connected all together by a new and improved soft mobility system. Manitoboggan reflects the ambition of creating accessible and inclusive social infrastructure, as to ensure social equity. The project succeeded in forming new spaces for both sightseeing and communal gathering, integrating the mountains and the forest as ecological assets of the site to enhance the relationship and interaction between citizens through creating a shared and diversified social platform. Moreover, using low-cost materials, simple structure and multifunctional spaces, it inspired the development of an eco-friendly, urban module for the social
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Hoeilaart
261 13 © vzw “de Rand”
References Books and scientific articles : Aernouts, Nele, and Michael Ryckewaert. 2018. “Beyond Housing: On the Role of Commoning in the Establishment of a Community Land Trust Project.” International Journal of Housing Policy 18 (4): 503–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2017.1331592. Randrup, T.B., Buijs, A., Konijnendijk, C.C. et al. 2020. “Moving beyond the nature-based solutions discourse: introducing nature-based thinking.” Urban Ecosyst 23, 919–926, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00964-w Stein, Elena. 2017. “Improvement of Social Infrastructure as a Way to Ensure a Comfortable Urban Environment.” In MATEC Web of Conferences. Vol. 106. EDP Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201710601036.
On-line documents and websites : America Society of Landscape Architects. 2016. “The Metro-Forest Project”, ASLA (www.asla.org). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.asla.org/2016awards/172029.html . Arquitecturaviva. date not given. “Environmental Recovery of Llobregat River”. Arquitecturaviva (www.arquitecturaviva.com). Accessed March 3, 2021. https:// arquitecturaviva.com/works/recuperacion-de-los-margenes-del-llobregat-0 . Battle i Roig Architectes. date not given. “Environmental Recovery of Llobregat River”. Accessed March 1, 2021. http://www.batlleiroig.com/en/landscape/recuperaciomediambiental-dels-marges-del-llobregat/ . Battle I Roig Arquitectes. date not given. “Environmental Recovery of the Llobregat River / Battle I Roig Arquitectes”, ArchDaily (www.archdaily.com). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.archdaily.com/508720/environmental-recovery-of-the-river-llobregat-battle-i-roig-arquitectes . Belmonte, Lisa. 2019. “A Manitoba Toboggan Slide Was Just Named One Of The Best In The World”, Narcity (www.narcity.com), November 13, 2019. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/news/winnipeg/winnipeg-toboggan-slide-is-now-one-of-the-best-sports-and-leisure-sites-in-the-world . Biennal Internacional de Paisatge Barcelona. 2016. “The Metro-Forest Project : Bangkok Urban Reforestation”. Accessed March 1, 2021. http://www.arquitectes.cat/ iframes/paisatge/fitxa/9999 . Bollier, David. 2016. “David Bollier.” Commoning as a Transformative Social Paradigm”, David Bollier blog (www.bollier.org), May 17, 2016. Accessed March 3, 2021. http://www.bollier.org/blog/commoning-transformative-social-paradigm . Divisare. 2012. “BATLLE I ROIG ARQUITECTES. ENVIRONMENTAL RECOVERY OF LLOBREGAT RIVER BAIX LLOBREGAT”, Divisare (www.divisare.com), February 21, 2012. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://divisare.com/projects/191235-batlle-i-roig-arquitectes-jordi-surroca-environmental-recovery-of-llobregat-riverbaix-llobregat . Holmes, Damian. 2020. “Manitoboggan | Winnipeg, Canada | Public City Architecture”, World Landscape Architecture (www.worldlandscapearchitect.com), February 17, 2020. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://worldlandscapearchitect.com/manitoboggan-winnipeg-canada-public-city-architecture/ . Horne, Martin. 2018. “Martin Horne: self-finish living”, interview by Stride Treglown. Stride Treglown (www.stridetreglown.com), January 9, 2018. https://stridetreglown. com/inhabitant/martin-horne-self-finish-living/ .
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Landezine. 2016. “The Metro-Forest Project”, Landezine (www.landezine.com), July 14, 2016. Accessed March 2, 2021. http://landezine.com/index. php/2016/07/metro-forest-bangkok-urban-reforestation-by-lab?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=f31fcca222cd09e992b7b3c4f665c98518574194-1614798131-0AcWj0FxaDVZ1eOppQvq-1-V3dFXzObjfOnqHxukQLH2UcqmkWAg4eHPAMu9ytp_YA1X2k00IN4A7pG2vWfiBJBX0iKMk3AS-sE_Zc5NYyuDthKjW3Sa2rVU 62yz6lAGnLx_G-62sY3BiphxAbLJ3vOK24sOszeSdsTsjMGZio2iTf2A7eHxqpFFP8XtdCj4kZPNIXnrQeDP1bAsROH6zGjbdPEZzIsCv9AgCH_sQARxKu7n8X4tH ENyCECDr8a59pC20LrsdAtkGEOq8b6Zts37hryvh8IcPPw5AfcavZHCC9gQ3Bz1xcQYr33CBnjS6yDa4uz73ecB1PYqReMsrsz7MIfoJ0k3upKHA-nQ1vv1B5fPyAV_ x1nVOfmDOyWupUT34VIT205qoHuDGgDALZq8 . Morency, Catherine. 2013. “Sustainable Mobility: definitions, concepts and indicators”, interview by Mobile Lives Forum. Mobile Lives Forum, February 12, 2013. Accessed March 3, 2021. https://en.forumviesmobiles.org/video/2013/02/12/sustainable-mobility-definitions-concepts-and-indicators-622 . Pintos, Paula. date not given. “Manitoboggan Slide / Public City Architecture”, ArchDaily (www.archdaily.com). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.archdaily. com/917247/manitoboggan-slide-public-city-architecture?ad_source=search&ad_medium=search_result_all . Publiccity. date not given. “MANITOBOGGAN - ST VITAL PARK TOBOGGAN SHELTER AND SLIDES”, Publiccity (www.publiccityarchitecture.com). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.publiccityarchitecture.com/manitoboggan . Stride Treglown. date not given. “325 Fishponds Road: An unselfish ‘self-finish’.” Stride Treglown (www.stridetreglown.com). Accessed March 1, 2021. https:// stridetreglown.com/projects/325-fishponds-road/ . Vimeo. 2017. “Bristol Community Land Trust” [video],12:21, directed by Kwansoo Ahn. London: SPREAD-i. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://vimeo.com/195620242
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D2a & D2b
CAMILLE HENDLISZ, CÉCILE HOUPERT, SARA SEMLALI, LUCIE VAN MEERBEECK
SHIFTING TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOODS AND RESILIENT CITIES Four case studies from Europe and Australia
Introduction Over the last decades, it has become painfully clear that fundamental changes are
tainability, and encourages a design approach in which top-down and bottom-up
needed in the way we, humans, use and consume our environment. Many negative
strategies mutually inform and reinforce each other.
consequences resulting from climate change, resource scarcity, population growth,
The following paper will present a collection of case studies that all tackle one or
etc. are increasingly being felt all over the world. As the built environment often
more of the present day issues discussed earlier. First, the concept of zero energy
plays an important role in some of the most pressing present day issues, many ur-
development will be illustrated. This concept can be understood as that particular
ban projects are nowadays centered on tackling these problems. Not only in large
way of building and dwelling in which energy efficiency is combined with renewa-
cities, but also in local municipalities, inhabitants become increasingly aware of
ble energy generation. As such, the goal is to only consume as much energy as the
the impact of urbanisation on the environment, and these cities and municipal-
total amount of renewable energy produced on the site (OFFICE of ENERGY EF-
ities have been on the lookout for more sustainable solutions and practices that
FICIENCY & RENEWABLE ENERGY, n.d.). These kinds of development projects
would reduce their footprint. Consequently, in recent years, more and more urban
are often highly engineered and make use of technology such as high efficiency
projects emerge, seeking to address and respond to some of the aforementioned
insulation and windows, heat pumps, and solar panels (Pless and Torcellini, 2010).
issues. Within these kinds of urban projects, many innovations and experimenta-
Due to governmental tax regulations, and reduced energy costs, zero energy devel-
tions have been taking place at the local level. Think of desealing projects aiming to
opment projects remain financially viable.
reduce droughts and floods which are an inevitable consequence of climate change
Second, the paper discusses a cooperative housing project. Generally spoken, a
and global warming, urban forestry projects in which tree populations are (re)
housing cooperative represents a legal entity that owns several residential build-
planted, protected and maintained in order to improve the urban environment, or
ings. Unlike traditional (single family) home lay-outs, housing cooperatives consist
collective projects in which communities are built.
of many shared spaces (shops, offices, social infrastructure, housing) where neigh-
From the above, two major trends in urban projects can be distinguished. The
bours meet, share and interact. By sharing some of their daily activities, taking care
first trend is centered on environmental sustainability, and is characterized by an
of each other, collaborating and co-creating, inhabitants of housing cooperatives
emergence of nature based solutions to reduce the environmental footprint of ur-
rethink and reinvent the art of living together. As such, a community emerges in
ban growth. These kinds of solutions include among others net zero urbanization,
many of these cooperatives. Additionally, the concept of social sustainability is tak-
agroforestry, water sensitive urban design, and urban forestry projects. A second
en into account in these kinds of projects as they start from social models based on
trend that cannot go unnoticed is the emergence of new governance models, in-
housing policies that are accessible to all.
volving citizens as active partners by implementing participatory approaches to
Third, a description of an urban forestry project is presented. As is generally
urban planning and development. This trend focuses on the social pillar of sus-
known, trees play a crucial role in (cities’) ecosystems and they are indispensable
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when it comes to improving air quality, mitigating extreme heat, and facilitating water infiltration. Additionally, trees provide spaces to escape from the hustle and bustle of city life, and they overall improve (mental) health and well-being. Within urban forestry projects, trees and other types of vegetation - located in urban settings - are planted, maintained, protected and taken care of. With the aid of strong management, the benefits of trees in urbanised areas can be realised to their fullest. Additionally, urban forestry projects often go hand in hand with a variety of multidisciplinary activities such as research, policy, and community engagement (American Forests, 2020). Finally, the concept of urban commons is discussed by means of an illustrative case study. At their heart, urban (re)commoning projects allow for affordable access to a variety of resources (material and immaterial), but by doing so these kinds of projects often bring in and build up community resilience, and offer a counterbalance for increasing privatisation and financialisation of resources. (Dellenbaugh-Losse, 2020). By bringing commonly owned spaces and services into the urban fabric, an attempt is made to reclaim cities for the benefit of the public, offering a bottom-up and participatory alternative to top-down urban development (McGuirk, 2015). In the collection of case studies presented here, participation covers the issue of active citizenship, in the sense of possibilities and opportunities for citizens to get involved in urban development projects and bring their expertise and experience of the city to these projects.
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01_Case 1 Urban systems / Net zero urbanisation BEDZED ECO-VILLAGE
2002
© ZEDfactory
London, UK
Bioregional, ZEDfactory, Arup
Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) was created on the initiative of Bill Dunster Architects and BioRegional Development Group, and it is by far one of the most visited green district projects in Europe, with a total of 8,500 m² of residential and professional spaces, including 120 housing units. This project represents a milestone in the history of construction reuse (Opalis, nd). It is considered as an inspiration for low-carbon, eco-friendly housing developments projects around the world (Openhouse London,nd). What sets BedZED apart is the vision of the founders, who wanted to “make the adoption of sustainable lifestyles attractive” and prove that it is possible to live sustainably without sacrificing modern comforts (Naghiem, 2013).
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Completed in 2002, BedZED is a pilot experience within the framework of eco villages and sustainability. The project idea is in line with the principles of the One Planet Living (OPL) approach. While BedZED sets the goal of reducing the ecological footprint of our lifestyles by half, OPL aims to reduce by 2/3, in order to “live with one planet”. Concretely, BedZED aims to reduce water consumption by 33%, the heating demand by 90% and the volume of waste. The project promotes the use of renewable energies and recycling, starting with construction materials, which are mostly salvaged from abandoned neighboring sites, resulting in an almost zero footprint from this point of view (Naghiem, 2013).
© Guide perrier.ca
© Fracademic
© ZEDfactory
© Open house
The social dimension was also one of the major priorities of BedZED in a sense that the designers wanted to encourage a strong sense of community by creating indoor community spaces available not only to BedZED dwellers but also to the surrounding community. Moreover, the project takes into consideration social diversity by adapting the housing offer to different kinds of families: it guarantees both access to property for wealthy families and rental for households with modest incomes. Factors related to the use of housing and the neighborhood also contributed to the definition of the project. With a view to optimal autonomy and local development, the location of the district was decided on the basis of the residents’
travel needs (Carfree, 2008). The designers of BedZED have focused their efforts on reducing the need for private car travel and on less polluting alternative solutions. The objective was therefore twofold: to reduce residents’ dependence on cars, and to limit pollution (use of fossil energy, noise pollution): the traffic is organized in such a way as to expel the cars to the periphery of the neighborhood where they can circulate and park while the streets network running between the building blocks are car-free, guaranteeing a better quality of public space and encouraging neighborliness (Openhouse London, nd). In other words, the public spaces have been designed to favor pedestrians and cyclists.
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02_Case 2 Urban systems / Co-housing KALKBREITE
2014
© Genossenschaft Kalkbreite, Volker Schopp
Zurich, Switzerland
Müller Sigrist Architekten AG
Housing cooperatives account for more than a quarter of the rental housing stock in Zurich, Switzerland economic capital, and have made a major contribution to its urban renewal. Historically linked to the expansion of industry, cooperatives have been designed as a way for factory workers to escape their precarious housing conditions and to find safer, more accessible and less expensive housing near their factory (Peltier, 2019). Grouped together in a cooperative association, workers would buy a piece of land, build a building and live in it together, also taking care of the building management and common housing chores. In 1907, a law was adopted to mandate Zurich municipality to build more social housing. It turned
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out that a housing cooperative was a more efficient model to promote than the direct construction of social housing by the municipality. A special bond was founded at this moment between housing cooperatives and the municipality and has made the model a special part of the housing identity of Zurich. Contemporary cooperatives follow a set of principles, such as mixed uses of space (housing, shops, offices, social infrastructures), social and cultural mix of the residents’ profile, and environmental sustainability. Conceived with the direct participation of residents, cooperative housing often includes large, shared flats and numerous shared spaces, and encourages mixing and mutual aid. The obligation to reinvest rental income in building maintenance or densification
© Genossenschaft Kalkbreite, Volker Schopp © Genossenschaft Kalkbreite
© Genossenschaft Kalkbreite, Volker Schopp © Genossenschaft Kalkbreite
becomes a bulwark against speculation and a development tool for a more inclusive and sustainable city. With rents that are 25% below the average prIce of the private market, the cooperative model benefits mostly families, middle class, excluded from social housing but too modest to become owners of their house (Peltier, 2019). The Kalkbreite cooperative, founded in 2007 as an association of residents, is a direct heir of this tradition of non-profit housing and a physical translation of the above-mentioned principles. Situated on a former tram depot and brownfield land, it is composed of 97 apartments and a variety of commercial spaces. Social interaction takes place on the terrace, which also marks the entrance of
the building. Besides the apartments, the building includes an array of common spaces such as a cafeteria, library and laundry room (Kalkbreite, 2020). More than just housing, the Swiss cooperative model has proved a means of combating gentrification and urban sprawl and reinvented the art of living together. Zurich municipality has even committed to ensure that co-operative housing will account for one third of the rental housing stock in 2050, compared to around 28% in 2019 (Peltier, 2019).
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03_Case 3 Ecological systems / Urban forestry URBAN FOREST STRATEGY
2012-ongoing
© ABC News: Seraphine Charpentier-Andre
Melbourne, Australia
City of Melbourne
Urban forests are composed of all the trees and other vegetation (including the soil and water that supports them) within a given municipality (source: Melbourne urban forest strategy, p.9). In cities, trees are an essential part of the ecosystem and critical for preserving air quality, providing shade, filtrating water, but also creating a connection to nature that is often perceived as lacking in major urban areas (source: Melbourne urban forest strategy, p.9). Melbourne’s urban forest includes trees planted in the public realm (streets, parks, promenades) and private realm (gardens). In total, Melbourne’s tree population counts 70,000 council-owned trees, worth around $650 million and about 20,000 trees located on private lands (source: City of Melbourne web-
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site). Trees are a defining part of Melbourne’s identity and liveability, and highly appreciated by the local community. However, the city of Melbourne realised that it might lose 44% of its trees in the next 20 years (source: Urban Forest Strategy infographic). A combination of factors would lead to this situation: recurring severe droughts, an ageing tree stock, and higher temperatures. Reasons behind are a warming climate, urban heat island effect and urban population growth. To prevent it from happening and preserve the ecology, health and liveability of the city, Melbourne has been implementing since 2012 an urban forest strat-
© Melbourne urban forest strategy
© Melbourne urban forest strategy
egy. The strategy aims to adapt the city to climate change; mitigate the urban heat island effect by bringing the inner-city temperatures down; create healthier ecosystems; become a water-sensitive city and engage and involve the community (source: City of Melbourne website). The main goal is to increase the urban canopy cover from 22% to 40% by 2040 and improve the general health of the tree population. The city wants to achieve this by planting 42,000 trees over the 20-year life of the strategy, increasing forest diversity and using alternative water sources (source: Centre for Public Impact). In 2015, already 12,000 new trees had been planted. The city council has used disused car parks and roads to plant and replace trees (source: Herald Sun, 10
April 2015). Trees had been mapped in an Urban Forest Visual interactive website (accessible here: http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/), each tree being assigned an identification number and an email address for the community to interact with the project. Many people started to send emails professing their love for the local trees, sometimes even from far away countries (source: The Guardian, 15 July 2015). Overall, the project engaged the local community through a number of programmes to raise awareness, educate and teach citizens and residents how to manage, preserve and enhance the urban forest for generations to come (source: Melbourne urban forest strategy, p.56).
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04_Case 4 Transition tools / Recommoning R-URBAN
2008
© R-URBAN
© Public space
Colombes, France
AAA – Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée
R-URBAN is a project started in 2008 in Colombes, a suburban town near Paris, home to 84,000 inhabitants. R-URBAN is a bottom–up collaborative strategy for resilient urban regeneration initiated by Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée, a collective of architects who take urban commons as the foundational principle of their work (Bloemen, de Groot, 2019). R-URBAN focuses on promoting an alternative model of urban living, producing and consuming, introducing at the same time collective practices in the everyday life of citizens and directly involving them in the process of making, shaping and creating their daily environment and neighbourhood. In R-URBAN, associations, inhabitants and local authorities organised as a coop-
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erative civic land-trust launched three pilot projects to introduce more collective practices in the daily lives of residents of Colombes. AgroCité focuses on urban agriculture and its educational opportunities; RecycLab promotes recycling, eco-construction, and social economy; and EcoHab is a cooperative housing unit. Collectively run, these three pilot projects generate local resources, involve local businesses and contribute to the generation of a sustainable and resilient urban living community. By testing and experimenting between key urban fields of activities (economy, housing, urban agriculture, culture), the three pilot projects are also bringing the notion of commons into practice. Commons here are understood as shared
© Public space
resources that everyone has the right to use but not the right to own, and that need to be taken care of by the community as a whole. The prism of the commons allows R-URBAN to advocate for a general change in how cities are managed and created. R-URBAN proposes alternative collective practices which, in addition to reducing the environmental footprint of urban practices, also contribute to reinventing a civic life and foster relationships based on solidarities (Petcou, Petrescu, 2015). The community is involved in shaping a more resilient and sustainable future for the city while also looking at societal change and political and cultural reinvention.
As well as acquiring individual skills, teamwork abilities and ecological awareness, the residents participating in the different programmes have become citizens who contribute to the co-production of their own neighbourhood. In the future, the project intends to grow into a strong network of collective facilities, each with complementary urban functions, bringing together citizens and creating spatial and ecological agencies to enhance urban resilience (Architecture in Development, 2014).
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Conclusions In this incredibly complex context in which the area between Tervuren and Over-
Conclusively, the themes and trends studied through the lens of the presented case
ijse is localized, emerging questions regarding the space’s future will induce the
studies, browsing different urban and landscape projects, shows that a real change
work. While ecological issues would request afforestation, a regreening of this pro-
is at play both in urbanites’ mentalities and in the cities’ physical forms. These pre-
ductive landscape, and a shift in the car-use city paradigm, demographic research
vious examples serve as an inspirational source to further build up on and adapt
proved the need for constant housing proposal and structure evolution. Trying to
according to the specific needs of the site considered.
frame the urbanization to what is already existing is a real challenge when densification politics will be applied in the future. The buried Nellebeek stream has also shown its limits, urging the de-corbelling works. The area now defined by engineered water systems in its North and South parts will have to deal with natural flows integrated into the landscape and spread urbanities. Presented case studies can help twisting the existing paradigm and work towards a more sustainable development in the area. BedZED shows an excellent example of how reconversion projects, stirring in this phase of densifying the neighbourhood’s existing structures, can provide new social infrastructures and new housing typologies. Furthermore, co-housing proposals, as shown in Zurich, perfectly follow the transformation of the so-called typical nuclear household, inducing new diverse arrangements in the housing units’ structural construction. On a bigger scale, the third case study presents the importance of vast green structures inside urban entities. Duisburg and Eizer are two municipalities bordering the Sonian Forest. Following Melbourne’s example, the physical link between the already present green structures guides us towards densification and a strengthening of the forest edges, sewing a new attachment between the inhabitants and their landscape. The junction between the urban part and the forest becomes an entity itself, working with diverse techniques as agroforestry, urban-forestry and food forests. Lastly, the urban commons concept could help implement community instances and give importance to community building, which is particularly important in neighbourhoods marked by separated houses and low gathering infrastructures.
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277 15 © vzw ‘de Rand’
References Books and scientific articles: atelier d’architecture autogérée. 2014. “R-Urban: Resilient Agencies, Short Circuits, and Civic Practices in Metropolitan Suburbs”. Harvard Design Magazine 37. [online] Available at: http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/37/r-urban-resilient-agencies-short-circuits-and-civic-practices-in-metropolitan-suburbs Dellenbaugh-Losse, Mary. “Commons & Crises: Community Resilience from Feudal Europe to Today.” Shareable, August 28, 2020. https://www.shareable.net/ commons-and-crises-community-resilience-from-feudal-europe-to-today/. Nghiem, Thanh. 2013. « Bedzed: De l’éco-quartier au changement des modes de vie », Multitudes, 1, no. 1 : 52-58. https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.052.0052 Petcou, Constantin, Petrescu, Doina. 2015 “R-URBAN or how to co-produce a resilient city”, Ephemera, 15, no. 1: 249-262 Petcou, Constantin, Petrescu, Doina. 2019. “Designing, Sustaining and Defending Resilient Urban Commons”, Our Commons, edited by Sophie Bloemen and Thomas de Groot, 66-71. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures Shanti Pless andPaul Torcellini, June 2010. Net-Zero Energy Buildings: A Classification System Based on Renewable Energy Supply Options.” National Renewable Energy Laboratory report: NREL/TP-5500-44586, June 2010. Twin, Chris. 2003. “BedZED”, The Arup Journal, Issue 1: 10-16. Available at: https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/the-arup-journal/section/the-arupjournal-2003-issue-1 Newspaper articles: McGuirk, Justin. “Urban Commons Have Radical Potential – It’s Not Just about Community Gardens.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, June 15, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/15/urban-common-radical-community-gardens. Peltier, Cécile. 2019. « A Zurich, « la coopérative est au service d’une ville plus inclusive et plus durable. » Le Monde, December 10, 2019. https://www.lemonde.fr/ economie/article/2019/12/10/a-zurich-la-cooperative-est-au-service-d-une-ville-plus-inclusive-et-plus-durable_6022365_3234.html (accessed 27/02/2021) Peltier, Cécile. 2019. « A Zurich, les coopératives d’habitation réinventent l’art de vivre en ville. » Le Monde, December 4, 2019. https://www.lemonde.fr/smart-cities/ article/2019/12/04/a-zurich-les-cooperatives-d-habitation-reinventent-l-art-de-vivre-en-ville_6021637_4811534.html (accessed 27/02/2021) Prime, Toby. 2015. “Melbourne’s Urban Forest Strategy to double canopy ‘most impressive’ in the country”. The Herald Sun, April 20, 2015. https://www.heraldsun. com.au/leader/north/melbournes-urban-forest-strategy-to-double-canopy-most-impressive-in-the-country/news-story/0e9dceb2a32b806cdbad2d3e48f68d0f (accessed 21/02/2021) Tran, Monica. 2015. “Leaf letters: fan email for Melbourne’s trees pours in from around the world.” The Guardian, July 15, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/ australia-news/2015/jul/15/leaf-letters-fan-mail-melbourne-trees-pours-in-around-the-world (accessed 21/02/2021) Online documents and websites AMERICAN FORESTS. “What Is Urban Forestry? A Quick 101,” November 17, 2020. https://www.americanforests.org/blog/what-is-urban-forestry-a-quick-101/.
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Architecture in Development (nd), “COLOMBES, FRANCE. R-URBAN”. Architecture in Development [online] Available at: https://www.architectureindevelopment. org/project.php?id=463 [Accessed 20 February 2021] CarFree, La vie sans voiture (2008), «BedZed, un écoquartier durable au Sud de Londres », Car Free [online] Available at : http://carfree.fr/index.php/2008/02/28/ bedzed-un-ecoquartier-durable-au-sud-de-londres/ [Accessed 02 March 2021] Centre for Public Impact (nd), “Responding to climate change: Melbourne’s urban forest strategy”. Centre for Public Impact Foundation [online] Available at: https:// www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/urban-forest [Accessed 21 February 2021] City of Melbourne. Urban Forest Strategy: Making a Great City Greener. 2012-2032. Melbourne: City of Melbourne. 2012. Accessed February 21, 2021. Available at: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/community/greening-the-city/urban-forest/Pages/urban-forest-strategy.aspx Kalkbreite (nd), “A new part of town” , Kalbreite Cooperative [online] Available at : https://www.kalkbreite.net/en/kalkbreite/ [Accessed 02 March 2021] OFFICE of ENERGY EFFICIENCY & RENEWABLE ENERGY. “Zero Energy BUILDINGS.” Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/zeroenergy-buildings. Opalis (nd). BedZED. Opalis [online]. Available at: https://opalis.eu/fr/projets/bedzed [Accessed 02 March 2021] Openhouse London (nd). BEDZED. Open House [online] Available at: https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/1594 [Accessed 02 March 2021] Public Space (nd), ““R-Urban”: Network of Urban Commons”. Public Space [online] Available at: https://www.publicspace.org/works/-/project/j281-r-urban-networkof-urban-commons [Accessed 21 February 2021] R-URBAN (nd). About. R-URBAN [online] Available at: http://r-urban.net/ [Accessed 20 February 2021]
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D3a & D3b
PEBRI TRY ASTUTI, YING LI, VALERIAN PORTOKALIS, ARTHUR STACHE
SETTLING THE SLOPE
Trajectories towards new systems, types, forms and places
Introduction Flanders’ territorial structure can be comprehended as a mesh of urbanisation in
interaction between urban and forest systems, may be a key to make those seem-
all possible forms and shades, from suburban to rural settlements, stretching be-
ingly opposite elements supportive to each other.
tween historical urban centers towards all directions, while being highly interwoven with landscape elements, as are its watercourses, forest (remnants), and culti-
Places for Movements
vated land. It is undeniably a highly engineered landscape. In an effort of a critical
The suburban condition in the Belgian and more particularly the Flemish context,
reflection toward a vision for its adaptation to future challenges, a multitude of
conquered the rural as major ramification of targeted public mobility policy during
elements of this mesh need to be reexamined. By means of a series of selected case
the 20th century. (De Meulder, et al. 1999) The model of the single-family house
studies, issues of suburban settling typologies, shifting needs in mobility, landscape
with individual garden somewhere in the territory, while always referring back to
fragmentation as well as water management and flood prevention are addressed.
an adjacent large urban pole, could not be realised without convenient ways of getting back and forth. It happened though that the most convenient means, namely
New Intertwined Systems - New Typologies
the individual car, is also the most destructive and space consuming one. In this
When it comes to the envisionment of new typologies as reaction to current sub-
light, without neglecting the suburban altogether but rather strengthen its poten-
urban patterns, special attention comes to the intertwining of the adjacent systems
tial for living quality, the number of transfers, the means of transport, the purpose
of forest and settlements. The forest in the Belgian context is a fundamental struc-
of connections and the spatial products of mobility cannot but be addressed to-
ture. It used to be a large ecological support system for both ecology and urban
gether with every alteration or shift of the suburban, toward both the urban or the
environment (De Meulder, Shannon 2019). In attempt to formulate a new relation
rural. As the Flemish residential morphology is intrinsically linked to particular
between those systems, forest urbanism relies on the forest as a structuring de-
forms of mobility, projected and proposed forms of living will have to invent and
vice across scales and dimensions (in relation to mobility, settlement, and ecology)
produce their own forms of moving, consonant to their new -if so- multifaceted
(ibid.). Forest and urbanism are intertwined and interact resulting in the different
structure. In soft surroundings, mobility cannot stay hard, in a territory of multi-
variation of settlement and forest interfaces. With forested areas becoming deci-
plicity, transport cannot remain mono-functional. Hence, mobility systems need
mated and eaten over time by urbanism and agriculture, their ecological function
to be restructured into places for movements.
became highly limited. Human settlements, infrastructure, and agriculture - all three extremely diffuse, spread out and simultaneously present - have significantly compromised the connectivity of the landscape and substantially reduced biodiversity (ibid.) A radical change is needed in order to rebalance the equation. The
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© Valerian A. Portokalis
Hollow Street — Means of settling the slope
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From Fragmentation to Synergies The territory of Flanders is a constellation of units - of smaller or greater amplitude - each of them referring to a different owner who makes a particular use of their land. This disruption of the greater landscape as it is cut into pieces, is probably one of the greatest challenges of this contemporary territory. Innovative policy tools need to be brought forth as well as new development and design practices. Pooling and transfer of development rights are policy levers that need to be embraced in the hope to recreate a sense of belonging in the dispersed settlements currently at play through "an intermediate field of action mediating between individual needs and the sustainable collective" (Wambeck 2018, 331). However the visions that aim to reconnect, rearrange, reconfigure vast territorial systems are confronted to a myriad of different actors; hence, hard to carry to completion. This thus requires a radical shift in our way to apprehend redevelopment and to design the built environment toward multi-scalar visions of a desirable future. The creation of tools that enable coalitions and synergies between multiple stakeholders who share common values is becoming crucial to our ability to engage in change. From Backyard to Backbone Water is undeniable an intrinsic element of the Flemish landscape. Despite its overall flat appearance, the topography is substantially formed by natural and manmade drainage systems. There may be no deep valleys or dramatic canyons, but there are uncountable foldings, streams and tributaries, giving the landscape its very particular shape, which in turn informed human settlement structures. Over the course of the last century, when open watercourses became of less importance for human settlements, a unprecedented colonisation of land with no ties to underlying topography would begin, turning literally its back to water. However the latter will push back into importance, at the latest when it will find its way into the front gardens. Flood predictions unveil that a new relationship between urban systems all over Flanders and water bodies is inevitable. In this light, it is to acknowledge new scenarios of flooding as opportunity rather than mere risk. Hence, future urban-water relations can inform the reconfiguration of public spaces, forms of leisure, as well as living and production, creating multiplicity rather than conceiving drainage in a linear way as it is currently the case. Water is thus a potentially driving force for (sub)urban restructuring and could constitute once again the backbone of the settling process.
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© Valerian A. Portokalis
Frozen Water Retention Pond — Potentials & Opportunities
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01_Urban Systems: New Typologies HELSINGE GARDEN CITY
2016
© Karres Brands
© Karres Brands
© Karres Brands
Helsinge, Denmark
Karres Brands, Atkins, CBFO, Trafikplan
Located in a suburban area north of Kopenhagen, Helsinge Garden City is a 65ha new residential enclave developed as the answer to the ever-growing demand of people to move from the city to the countryside. Based on the research made for Homeowners Knowledge Database, Bolius, it was said that one in five people have a plan to move to rural areas, looking to be closer to nature and improving their life quality. This meant transforming traditional mono-cultural agriculture fields into diverse mix of nature, live a sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyle while also strengthening the sense of community.
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The master plan has been developed with three main parameters in mind: environmental, social and economic sustainability. It was organically designed by blending the landscape and building seamlessly. The housings are in form of dense clusters where they have limited private garden but large greenery in between and communal areas used for recreational, producing food by urban farming, permaculture, and husbandry, also enriching biodiversity. Instead of monotonous agriculture area, the compound is surrounded by different types of green open spaces, like wetlands, meadows, forests, gardens, and husbandries. Food and decentralized energy production are designed to support selfsufficiency and help decreasing energy consumption and food waste while strengthening their community.
© Karres Brands
© Karres Brands © Karres Brands
The project consists of 25 small villages, where each of them has its own characteristics based on its natural qualities, built around a common space (pond, square, park) where the community activities thrives and unfold. To create more diverse social structures in term of income and lifestyle, the design is also intentionally mixing different typologies of housing, materials, sizes and types of ownership.
Roads and paths are deployed as branches out from the main street into the clusters, connecting the them to the rest of town. The food hub reveals to be a strong identity of the site, where it is pictured to be a main driver connecting the residents and visitors. Together with the landscape transformation, it will become a social hub and center of activities where farmer’s market and community gatherings can be held.
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02_Urban Systems: Soft/Shared Mobility POYNTON TOWN CENTRE SHARED SPACE
2012
© Hamilton-Baillie Associates
© Planit-IE Lanscape Architects
Cheshire, United Kingdom
Hamilton-Baillie Associates
Poynton is a rather small town of merely 16000 inhabitants south of Manchester in the UK. As common to settlements evolving in historical context, its very heart was organised around a crossroad which in the course of the last century transformed into a major traffic junction. Heavy through-traffic would thus deprive the town of its very center with cars and trucks cueing and idling along the multilaned roads cutting through its tissue. In order to accommodate the increased amount of vehicles accumulating at the traffic signals and special lanes for left and right turns, the street profile was consumed nearly in total by space dedicated to vehicular traffic. In an effort to reactivate communal life and commercial uses along the degraded town center and with the given condition, that heavy and continuous
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vehicular traffic could not be diverted, a twofold approach was pursued - an intertwined traffic and urban design strategy: Firstly, the traffic signals would give place to a round-about scheme, thus allowing for constant flow of vehicles and subsequently diminishing the need for excess lanes for vehicles on hold. Secondly, and most importantly, the new traffic scheme was adapted to the village’s particular built environment and an unusual double round-about was created, giving a new form to both flows and physical environment. Materials and design formulate the crossroad as public space and the carefully calibrated vagueness of the traffic flow decrease velocities and increase awareness, eventually establishing the transformed junction as a ‘shared space’, a condition where the role of car traffic shifts from dominating to being tolerated.
© Hamilton-Baillie Associates
© Satellite Imagery: Google — Copernicus / Landsat
© Satellite Imagery: Google — Infoterra Ltd. & Bluesky © Hamilton-Baillie Associates
The tremendous decrease of spaces solely dedicated to vehicular movement made street crossings substantially more easy, going from four lanes to just two, while thus freed spaces can accommodate other uses and activities enhancing the communal potential of the town center and its regained ‘Fountain Place’. Transitional gateways, visually narrowed carriageways and bold courtesy crossings, combined with paving materials and design elements referring to pedestrian spaces and the complete absence of regulatory inventory of typical road environments, both, establish and demarcate the special condition of slow and ‘unregulated’ movement. In its first years of implementation, the new scheme increased commercial activity, the village’s vitality and road safety due to decreased severity of accidents at
lower speeds. It is described as “an extremely courageous scheme which has succeeded in achieving significant economic and social benefits through the enhancement of ‘place’ whilst continuing to provide a route for significant volumes of traffic” by CIHT Award Judges for the 2013 ‘Street Awards’. (Planit IE, 2013) Criticism, on the other hand, comes foremost from people with different kinds of special needs, since it is often difficult or even impossible for them to establish the needed interaction with other road users to safely navigate the unregulated movements in absence of safe crossing times. However, the new crossroad condition in Poynton accomplished to reformulate the street as a tangible local public place, rather than a mere segment of an abstract and highly normalised system.
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03_Ecological Systems: Water Sensitive Urban Design QUNLI STORMWATER WETLAND PARK
2010
© Turenscape
Harbin, China
Turenscape
Turenscape has been commissioned to re-design a wetland park of 34.2 hectares which is listed as a protected regional to play a key role in its urban context, both as a means to mitigate flood events and support city life. The site is surrounded on four sides by roads and dense developments. As such, water flows toward this former wetland were being cut, resulting in an ecological system under threat. Turenscape’s strategy was to transform the dying wetland into a ‘green sponge’ - an urban stormwater park, which is not only a way to rescue the endangered wetland, but that would also provide multiple ecosystem services to the new urban community.
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The challenges are obvious: How can a disappearing wetland be preserved in the middle of the city when its ecological and biological processes have been cut off by the urban context? How can such an urban wetland ecosystem be designed to provide multiple ecosystems for the city? And what is the economic way to deal with such a big landscape? The solution was to transform the wetland into a multi-functional stormwater park that will collect, filtrate, store stormwater and infiltrate to the aquifer, whilst being productive and life supporting, providing new recreational and aesthetic experiences for the city. In the image of the ojectives, the design strategies were multifaceted and multilayered.
© Turenscape © Turenscape
©Turenscape © Turenscape
1. Leave the nature core alone: The central part of the existing wetland is untouched and left alone to allow for the natural process to have the opportunity to evolve and adapt as needed.
3. The path and platforms: On the ground level, following the cut-and-fill water filtration land form, a network of paths are built into the pond-and-mound ring allowing visitors to have a walkthrough forest experience.
2. Cut-and-fill strategy to create an outer ring: This pond-and-mound peripheral ring surrounding creates a stormwater filtrating and cleansing buffer zone for the core wetland, and a welcoming landscape filter between nature and city. Stormwater from the newly built urban area is collected into a pipe around the circumference of the wetland, and then released evenly into the wetland after being filtrated and deposited through the ponds. Native wetland grasses and meadows are grown in the different ponds.
4. The upper layer above the natural landscape: A skywalk links scattered mounds allowing surrounding residents to have an above-the-wetland and inthe canopy experience. Platforms, pavilions and viewing towers are set on the mounds and are connected by the skywalk to allow visitors to have distant views and observe the nature in the center. Through the transformation of this dying wetland, stormwater that frequently causes flooding has now become a positive environmental amenity in the city.
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04_Transition Tool: Pooling of Development Rights LAGE WEG PILOT PROJECT
LAB XX (51N4E, Connect&Transform)
Antwerp, Belgium
2015
1
2
3
4
1
Fragmented Block The city of Antwerp seeks to develop qualitative projects through an urban renewal of its periphery to accommodate its rapidly growing population. The situation is complex and embodied by a large quantity of fragmented blocks; fragmented physically by their intricate parcellisation, and fragmented socially with the absence of any feeling of belonging to a particular neighbourhood or community. The lack of public space and recreational green space are also at the forefront of the absence of any social capital. These issues are what the city authorities are tackling as they try to recreate common values by bringing several key actors around the table.
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Living social fabric In the ambition group ‘living social fabric’, we explored opportunities to mobilize the project area for the improvement of the level of facilities in the broader surroundings. The large scale of the terrain, the open space and the empty industrial infrastructure can provide room for many public functions that are currently lacking in the neighbourhood. Community gardens could, for instance, sell vegetables to a local restaurant, which in turn could co-finance the activity of the community gardens. Pending a development, undeveloped spaces could be occupied temporarily as exhibition space, community centre, artist studio, play area or skatepark.
available in the fields of recycling, construction and logistics can be an occasion to introduce new economies. The Lageweg is a suitable site to experiment with new building techniques and materials, such as the application of 3D printing in construction. Thanks to the presence of schools on and near the project area, the Lageweg can grow into a professional ‘learning environment’, in which companies and schools exchange space and knowledge.
a meeting or play area. In the ambition group the inhabitants also expressed the desire to introduce new forms of housing – care housing, co-housing, etc. The much needed renovation of the Amelinckx blocks can be an occasion to experiment with new models of lifelong housing.
The ambition group ‘ sustainable surroundParticipatory Process ings’ raised the question as to the ambition of the pilot project in termsof of sustainability. The Lageweg has a complex property structure with different types owners. The Lageweg offers an opportunity to achieve 3 New housing experience The plots are the property of Inprivate individuals, businesses, groups results in a education relatively short term and on a this ambition group, the inhabitants explored relatively large scale. Demolition waste, for in which housing and industry could be and various authorities. Ten ofways the owners who represent the majority ofonthe instance, could be recycled the siteblock and be organized in such a way that they neither hinnor disturb one another. This is possible by reused as construction material. Companies are brought to the discussionder alongside with residents and external actors. “The shaping the housing fabric in such a way that could also experiment with new forms of transany direct relation between housing and work is port and distribution (e-bikes, electric car shar2 Urban economy parties concerned were not ‘consulted’, but instigated to dialogue, creativity, avoided as much as possible. Another possible ing, etc.). The proximity of Blue Gate Antwerp In the ambition group ‘urban economy’, a number of ideas emerged regarding the embedding strategy is to mobilize the qualities of the indusand the new residential development Nieuw doubt and conflict” (LAB XX 2015, 61). The complexity of the situation and the of economic activities in the urban fabric. Empty trial heritage to enrich the housing experience. Zuid on the quays of the Scheldt creates posinfrastructureof couldinterlocutors be rented at an advantaFor instance, workplaces or car parks of could instruments: sibilities in terms of the exchange ofgroup, materials, amount brought up a series ambition geous fee to start-ups. The activities already be given a new function after work hours, as goods or residual heat (heat network). design table, site safari, statement of involvement, focus group, mind opening 63 dialogues, etc. All these tools were meant to bring information to emerge and to establish intense collaboration between the participants. 4
Sustainable surroundings
© LAB XX
© 51N4E
The ambition groups
From Classic urban development processes turnaround time from 10 to 15 years
Expert-driven Master plans and Allocation Plans Design activities
To Co-creative urban development processes turnaround time from 3 to 7 years
Expert reading of the potential Parallel approach Design and tuning activities
Co-creation Content and process tuned to one another
Social actors Learning and acting together Shared support
Co-creation as an iterative process
Co-creation of results
Expert reading of the potential
© LAB XX
Solutions for interdependencies
Constantly outlining the visions, considerations, project parameters
Dialogue platforms
Interweaving and building up intelligence
Experience-based learning
Social actors
Building on decision-making capacity
© 51N4E
Representing the experience
The essence of co-creationa
Stakeholders Coalition 88 The aim of the project was not to focus on spatial ambitions and masterplanning the area but rather on trying to create a coalition between the stakeholders in the hope that by blurring the property lines a qualitative multi-scalar project would emerge. By working on establishing trust and cooperation between the different actors, the process led to the establishment of a statement of engagement, of the creation of a common basis on which a healthy and durable discussion can occur. This non legally binding document allowed them to commonly hire an external firm to design a financial model going forward. “It is precisely because the model was paid for by the owners themselves that a feeling of ownership emerged: the Lageweg was increasingly their own project” (LAB XX 2015, 75).
Land Bank The land bank model “takes the form of a company whose shareholders are the landowners. Its capital consists of the property assets. In the context of the Lageweg, return on investment will evolve gradually with the project development, while risk is cut back by the creation of legal certainty in the form of a partnership agreement, a master plan and a rezoning plan by the city” (LAB XX 2015, 93). In principle there is only a very limited need for money to be injected in a land bank as the properties represent the main assets. Still, the value of the site is still only appreciated but not entirely known. However the sum of the parts is greater than the parts individually, both in terms of economic worth for the landowners and of project opportunities for future developments.
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Conclusions New housing typologies are needed to densify the urban fabrics while further
design of the street and, in this particular case also the crossroad, profile and
increasing the forest area, emphasising the ecological systems at stake and
layout can overcome traffic imperatives even as creative opportunity for new
reinforcing existing biodiversity dynamics. The project of Helsinge Garden City
forms. This approach may inform the public realm and its spatial configurations
proposes an alternative to existing archetypal models. The idea of making urban
inside the historic urban ribbons of Vossem and Leefdaal by opening up space
settlements connected to and part of nature is not only inspiring but something to
and transforming the single-coded street into a multi-coded common living space.
thrive for. Although in the Flemish context, direct implementation of the proposed
After all, the street is all the urban ribbon has to offer to public life inside the urban
solution would not be appropriate as it would lead to additional land consumption
corpus.
and, in the long run, to the disruption of forest and agricultural areas. The Flemish conditions call for an inversion, to avoid further encroaching on the forest by an
The case of Qunli exemplifies solutions for stormwater drainage within the urban
extensive urbanisation and rather to thicken the forest borders and diminish the
context as a way to trigger the creation of public space. The simple understanding
urban area while making it more dense. The idea of a comprehensive system of
but yet radical lever of project is that giving more space to water within urban
living (environment, social and economic sustainability) is a clear target and the
tissues reduces many of the problems that it otherwise creates. Not only does this
community roles are important to create those interlinkages. Community is indeed
strategy address water retention, but it also simultaneously tackles heat island
one of the intangible potentials of Vossem and Leefdaal. It creates opportunities
effects, becomes a support for shifted mobility and increased biodiversity. In the
related to the agricultural and forest realms. It can help narrowing the food circle by
context of the Dijle valley, floods are threatening urban tissues as conventional
creating local food hubs and farmers markets, partake in managing the forests and
drainage systems do not suffice to absorb the overflows. As water becomes a
making an urban farming group or other activities which not only are productive
critical question, the ever increasing presence of water in the context of the Dijie
but further strengthen the sense of community.
Valley indicates that a more bold and integrated approach is needed. When water plays such an important role and simultaneously forms such a threat for urban life,
Characteristic for the historically predominant type of ribbon-like urban
considering it as a primary element to structure the city should be at the forefront
development in the Flemish - then rural, now semiurban - context is the absence
of urbanisation. As we embrace potentials offered by flood events, wetland now
of squares or other open spaces as container of public life in the inside of this
becomes an integral part of the urban public realm.
settlement type. Inherently, this function is rather to be met by the street as a longitudinal public space. This condition cannot but question in a fundamental
All these challenges, inherent to the conditions present in the Flemish region and
way today’s traffic-informed segregation of the street profile. Hence, being
discussed through the case studies, can only be successfully addressed by arranging
designed for unhindered vehicular flow along the road axis, the village street in its
synergies between different actors as a way to enact change. This is fundamental
existing form is solely an axial connector rather than allowing for perpendicular
to be able to shift our way to conceptualise the territory and to strengthen the
and even uncanonical connections and movements. This mono-dimensional
fashion in which urbanism is nested within larger nature systems. Policy tools, like
orientation leads also unavoidably to a mostly mono-functional space. Located in
it is done in the project of Lage Weg, must be thought as mediating instruments
a very comparable built context the case of the transformation of “a traffic signal-
capable of transforming the processes of production of the built environment. It
controlled wasteland” into the long lost “heart of the village” (Cassini, 2013), is a
is only through trans-scalar visions and by bringing different actors to the table
telling example of how the space of the street can become an entity performing
(institutions, associations, communities, businesses, land owners) that a radical
on a multitude of levels and directions. It illustrates eloquently how the physical
change in urbanity in all its complexities and relations can be envisioned.
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Interplay of Agriculture, Water, Forest and Urbanism
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References Books and scientific articles : De Meulder, B., Shannon, K., Nguyen, M.Q. 2019. “Forest Urbanisms: The Belgian Sonian Forest and Environs.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers (LAF), Vol. 7:1, February 2019: 18-33. De Meulder, B., Schreurs, J., Cock, A., Notteboom, B. 1999. “Patching up the Belgian Landscape.” Oase: Tijdschrift voor Architectuur, (52), 78-112. Huang Yujia. 2019. “On the Urban Infrastructure in the Practice of Landscape and Urban Theory” in Chinese and Foreign Architecture. December 2016: 66-70. LAB XX. 2017. Lageweg pilot project. Antwerpen: Patricia De Somer. http://assets.antwerpen.be/srv/assets/api/download/fbcbdc83-472e-4dcf-8770-25bc0423253a/ Lageweg_20170325_EN.pdf. Wambecq, Wim. 2018. “Hidden Forest Figures in the Horizontal Metropolis: From Placeholders to Micro-biotopes, the Case of Liedekerkebos.” In The Horizontal Metropolis Between Urbanism and Urbanization, edited by Viganò P., Cavalieri C., Barcelloni Corte M., 331-339. Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-75975-3_32.
On-line documents and websites : 51N4E. n.d. “Lage Weg.” Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.51n4e.com/projects/lage-weg. 51N4E. n.d. “Civic Design.” Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.51n4e.com/programs/civic-design. Antwerpen morgen. n.d. “Labo XX stadsvernieuwing in de 20ste eeuwse gordel.” Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.antwerpenmorgen.be/nl/projecten/labo-xx/ over. EFFEKT. n.d. “Helsinge Haveby: Village of tomorrow”. Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.effekt.dk/helsinge. Hamilton-Baillie Associates. n.d. “Poynton.” Accessed March 2, 2021. http://hamilton-baillie.co.uk/projects/poynton/. Karres Brands. n.d. “Helsinge Garden City”. Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.karresenbrands.com/project/helsinge-nord. Planit IE. n.d. “Poynton-Cheshire.” Accessed March 2, 2021. https://www.planit-ie.com/portfolio_page/poynton-cheshire/. Speed, B. 2015. “Shared Spaces: a clever trick for safer roads or a step backwards into chaos?” CityMetric, April 30,2015. https://citymonitor.ai/skylines/shared-spacesclever-trick-safer-roads-or-step-backwards-chaos-981?page=2 Turenscape. n.d. “Qunli Stormwater Park: A Green Sponge For A Water-Resilient City.” Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.turenscape.com/en/project/detail/435. html.
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D4
DANIELA COBO, PHILIPPA LANKERS, JENNIFER SAAD, YENTL WULTEPUTTE
21ST-CENTURY URBAN CHALLENGES Lessons from four innovative perspectives
Introduction Through the last decade, the world has recorded the highest greenhouse gas emis-
the production of goods outside of Leuven (ibid). This is because CO2 and NO2
sions, the highest temperatures and rising sea levels. Millions of people have been
gases are at the basis of air pollution and global temperature rise. Cars account for
affected by flooding, tsunamis, heavy storms, wildfires and other alarming events
the highest percentage of gas emissions in the world. The European Council and
which raise climate change as an urgent matter of concern. World leaders have
Parliament aim at reducing the average CO2 emission by 37.5% in 2030 (Lemerle,
been long occupied in gathering forces to generate strategies for the mitigation
Benz 2019) while multiple European cities have pledged the banning of combus-
and reduction of climate change impacts. The 2015 Paris Agreement, for example,
tion cars by then. These policies require the implementation of sustainable urban
aims to reduce global temperature rise. The fast climate changes, however, require
mobility policies that emphasize the use of other types of mobility with less emis-
prompt and efficient solutions targeting each and every component causing these
sion rates.
degradations. In response to this, Copenhagen is one of the first cities to apply such policies In 2018, Leuven published their “Leuven 2030 Roadmap” (2018) which responds
aiming at reducing car usage to 25% of all commuting trips by 2025 (Kobenhavns
in its own way towards a goal for climate neutrality in the city and surrounds by
Kommune. N.d). Today, almost 60% of traveling trips are made by bicycle. This
2050. The document (ibid) acknowledges that the 2015 Paris Agreement goal to-
target could not be attained without the implementation of sustainable urban
wards limiting global temperature rise as well as the issues of controlling carbon
mobility strategies that create better environments and conditions for commut-
emissions, is moving further out of reach. The consequences of not responding
ers encouraging them to walk, bike or use public transportation. Public-private
to climate change will result in more frequent and ultimately catastrophic climate
partnerships are at the basis of these changes with the projection of visions for the
events. The Roadmap states: “Climate change will have far-reaching impacts not
future. For instance, the Danish architecture firm Dissing+Weitling declares its
only globally, but also at the local level, jeopardizing the liveability of cities. Leu-
contribution to the goal of Copenhagen City of “improving the bicycle infrastruc-
ven, like other cities, will be confronted with an unpredictable climate, marked by
ture with bicycle bridges, cycle superhighways and other mobility improvements”
frequent and longer periods of drought, flooding and heat stress.” (BUUR 2018, 2)
(Dissing+Weitling N.d.).
One of the key elements of the Leuven Roadmap is the issue of carbon emissions.
Climate change is not solely due to greenhouse gas emissions, however. Human
The Roadmap’s core goal is to reduce emissions by at least 80% by 2050 (ibid, 4).
endeavours and man-made changes to natural systems have drastically impacted
This includes not only Leuven’s emissions, but takes responsibility for those emis-
our planet’s ‘balance’. The next three case studies focus on responses to this human
sions beyond the city’s administrative borders for travel to and from the city and
intervention. The first issue is that of drastic changes in the natural floodplains and
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Air and noise pollution. E40 Highway infrastructure, Leuven, Belgium, 2021
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river systems and the second issue is that of massive deforestation in the European
private spaces and mixed urban/reforestation activities, provide innovative solu-
context and resulting sealing.
tions to tackle the worldwide challenges. Likewise, The Serenbe’s Biophilic Neighbourhood emphasizes the ‘transfer of development rights’ to protect green spaces
In north-western Europe in particular, we see that river valleys have been heavily
and control urban sprawl.
manipulated over time. Historically, most of NW Europe was covered by forest and the river valleys of SW Flanders were marshy environments “with Alder carr
Through the following case studies, we find a strong connection between the
forests and shallow lakes and a multichannel drainage network.” (Broothaerts et
control and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through innovative aforestry
al. 2013, 1413). Human settlement and production along the floodplains increased
combined with housing, and transferring development rights to encourage land
deforestation and the resulting sediment run-off ultimately caused the geoecolo-
appropriation for extended wilderness. This, combined with alternative mobility
gy of the floodplains to change from marshy forests to meandering river systems.
networks such as cycle superhighways, pose possible answers to the aforemen-
Combined with climate change and without the ‘buffer’ of a marshy forest, many
tioned, urgent questions. Flooding ties into this as a byproduct of climate change
river towns are at risk of flooding with several homes and other buildings already
induced by greenhouse gasses among other problems and so while in some cases
predicted for inundation.
looking to reduce human impact on the planet is important, it is also necessary to consider immediate and increasing threats of flood and drought. As a bundle
In response to this change in rivers and increasing flooding, countries worldwide
these four case studies could act as highly relevant tools to the concerns of Belgium
are looking for solutions. Having ‘engineered’ infrastructural responses over the
around its river valleys and forests.
last few decades in an attempt to control these natural systems, the more contemporary approach takes the natural rhythms of nature into account. The example in Spain, for example, re-engages the role of the meandering river in the seasonal flood cycle to reroute and protect the existing city and historic agriculture fields. Contemporary solutions also look to multiple uses of infrastructure interventions - encouraging a multiplicity of uses for humans, animals and natural systems alike. Urban sprawl and sealed surfaces are similarly problematic for both increased water run-off and heat island effect. Flanders has the highest percentage of sealed areas in Europe where almost 16% of its surfaces are paved and is expected to reach 20% by 2050 if no action is taken (Openbaargroen 2020). New urban projects around the world, such as the ‘Urban Super Forest’ in Vienna, adopting densification approaches with new modular housing typologies, reduced
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Urban sprawl in Bertem, Belgium, 2021
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01_New Typologies
URBAN SUPER FOREST
2015
© SUPERFUTUREGROUP
© SUPERFUTUREGROUP
© SUPERFUTUREGROUP
Vienna, Austria
Anna Jurkiewicz and Robert Lamprecht
The project called “Urban Super Forest” proposes a way of transforming cities radically, pushing their complexity by adding a layer with a new housing typology. It was initiated in 2017 when a group of citizens made a rooftop extension shaped like terraced housing platforms in the 1st district of Vienna (Super Future Group 2015). According to the architects, the platforms are covered with vegetation, and housing platforms give specific answers to the main problems of modern cities. The project used the existing infrastructure and extended them vertically with light wooden constructions, resulting in higher density and reduce land-use. Wood was selected as the main structural material due to its renewable nature;
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it also lowers primary energy use by 1/3 and functions as carbon dioxide storage (Brink 2016). The project explores the qualities of forest ecosystems and urban metropolises to transform the current idea of a city. It intends that by 2050 almost 96% of Vienna roofs are activated as Urban Super Forest. FOREST ECOSYSTEM Forest ecosystem is considered in every community. They are directly connected to public forest platforms and residents use the added forest landscape as an outside space. Trees provide multiple benefits; they improve air quality, help to lower temperature, moderate local climate; they also provide shade, humidity, wind and acoustic control, and stress relief (Future Architecture 2016).
© SUPERFUTUREGROUP © SUPERFUTUREGROUP
© SUPERFUTUREGROUP © SUPERFUTUREGROUP
SHARING COMMUNITIES-A NEW TYPOLOGY OF HOUSING Living in community and sharing spaces have several advantages in space, tools and time. Therefore, the project proposes a new housing typology to minimize the average of living area in Austria. The new typology reduces private space with flexible furniture in prefabricated boxes, and provides each flat with generous space for shared use, including kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms, offices and workshops for people to meet, socialize and play (Future Architecture 2016).
PRIVATE PREFABRICATED MODULES The prefabricated ergonomic boxes are adequate for every type of people and their different needs (singles, couples, friends, multigenerational families, and others). They are flexible and can be expanded or reduced by adding/subtracting modules and reorganizing the community. Each flat is provided with kitchen and bathroom, and with smart furniture like hidden beds, mobile tables, and folding elements (Future Architecture 2016).
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02_Soft/Shared Mobility CYKELSLANGEN COPENHAGEN: AN URBAN SNAKE
2014
A meandering cycling track named “the bicycle snake” was designed by Dissing+Weitling for the city of Copenhagen to build a continuous cycling path between Havneholmen and the Fisketorvet shopping mall. Initially appointed to replace an adjacent staircase by a ramp which posed a barrier for more than 12,500 cyclists commuting daily through the area, the architects have proposed an innovative solution prioritizing continuity of movement and safety of users (Architizer N.d.). Cyclists have faced multiple obstacles through their passage such as dangerous corners and pedestrians. The slow movement of pedestrians visiting the shopping center or experiencing the public space have been in opposition to the fast movement of cyclist. The creation
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https://architizer.com/projects/cykelslangenthebicycle-snake/
https://architizer.com/projects/cykelslangenthebicycle-snake/
https://architizer.com/projects/cykelslangenthebicycle-snake/
Copenhagen, Denmark
DISSING+WEITLING
of a distinct path separating cyclists from other types of users helped in assuring a continuous, safe and fast cycling pathway linking Kalvebod Brygge to the Brygge island (Archdaily 2014).
https://architizer.com/projects/cykelslangenthebicycle-snake/ https://architizer.com/projects/cykelslangenthebicycle-snake/
https://architizer.com/projects/cykelslangenthebicycle-snake/ https://dissingweitling.com/en/project/bicyclesnake
“With its clever urban adaptation, harmonic flow and elegant structure, the Bicycle Snake has become an icon for Copenhagen’s status as the world’s leading bicycle city, and a symbol of the city’s praised urban qualities“ (Dissing+Weitling N.d.).
The waving light steel structure surface gives an elegant and attractive appearance to the cycling bridge. The vibrant orange surface produces a clear visual path for cyclists and the embedded lighting illuminates it at night providing a safer environment.
The project consisted of a sculptural bridge providing users with a unique experience riding at 6-7 meters above the water surface. The 200m ‘bicycle snake’ created a roof for pedestrians along the Fisketorvet quayside protecting them from hot and bad weathers.
The ‘bicycle snake’, as multiple cycling tracks, create safer and improved conditions for bikers inspiring more citizens to use the bike rather than the car even for long trips (Architizer N.d.).
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03_Water Sensitive Urban Design
Aldayjover arquitectura y paisaje
ARANZADI PARK Aranzadi Meander, Pamplona, Spain PARK IN ARANZADI MEANDERⰀ PAMPLONA
2008-2012 aldayjover ARQ. Y PAISAJE
© Aldayjover.com
Before
© Aldayjover.com
© Aldayjover.com
After
The Aranzadi Park project was initiated as an international competition. Aldayjover Arquitectura y Paisaje won this competition and completed implementation in 2012. Their scheme is one which merges the needs of Pamplona’s citizens, the river itself, and the orchard farmers into a new vision for the river meander. According to the architects, the site is a highly sensitive one because of the various requirements that it needs to consider. The purpose of the proposal was primarily to provide for the river’s natural flooding patterns - allowing for both wet and dry scenarios in such a way that not only protects the surrounding city, but provides public space for its citizens.
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The architects began with an analysis of the micro-topography as their guiding tool to understand the hydraulic logics of the flooding and deduced that the functionality of the park could work to decrease the frequency of the flooding of the adjacent agriculture, while simultaneously “creating a river landscape within the park, a natural subject to the seasonal dynamics of flood water.” (Aldayjover, 2008)
aldayjover ARQ. Y PAISAJE
© Aldayjover.com
© Aldayjover.com
© Aldayjover.com
© Aldayjover.com
PARK IN ARANZADI MEANDERⰀ PAMPLONA
All new structures within the park take the relationship with the flooding into consideration. The new Agriculture Interpretation Centre by Aldayjover, for example, was designed on raised pilotis and adjacent terracing to accomodate flood waters.
thinking, Aldayjover encourages us to rethink our preconception of floods as ‘catastrophe’.
The central focus of the project was to “restore the dynamism of a natural meander, in terms of its environmental role with the river corridor” which accordinlgly, “means working the vetegation, wildlife and hydropower.” (Aldayjover, 2008) Allowing the natural patterns of the water system to fluctuate as they should is considered a healthier balance to the ecosystem and not only protects human endeavours, but encourages balance for fauna and flora as well. Through this
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04_Transfer of Development Rights
SERENBE’S BIOPHILIC NEIGHBOURHOOD
1991
https://serenbe.com/about#serenbe-history
https://archive.curbed.com/2019/6/14/18677653/serenbe-atlanta-biophilic-design
Atlanta, Georgia (USA)
Stevbe Nygren
Serenbe’s is a biophilic community located in Atlanta, Georgia. The main driving force behind this community is the idea that humans have an instinctive bond with other living systems, harmonizing the lives of its residents with nature. This way of living would improve mental and physical health, reduce stress and even crime and violence (Budds 2019). The Serenbe is a certified Earth Craft comunity, consists of an 25-acres organic farm and five hamlets each focusing on different aspects, such as: arts, education, health, wellness and agriculture. The founders of the Serenbe community are convinced that changing the world, starts with change in your backyard. The vision got established as an effort to protect the rural countryside on the Chattahoochee Hill Country, right outside Atlanta.
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Since 2002, Serenbe follows a new land-use plan, called ‘the Transfer of Development Rights’. This plan is a program where landowners sell the rights for development of the land to a developer. The most common uses for such a TDR program are the protection of farmland and natural resources, and guidance of New Urban Development in communities dealing with fast urbanization. The implementation of a successful TDR program is defined by four main aspects, namely: pick a specific area (the sending area) which the community would like to protect. Secondly, an urban growth zone needs to be identified where the growth can take place. After the specifications on the sites, the specific and longterm development rights need to be formulated. The last aspect is defining the procedures and transfer ratio, setting up guidelines to support the landowners
https://archive.curbed.com/2019/6/14/18677653/serenbe-atlanta-biophilic-design
https://archive.curbed.com/2019/6/14/18677653/serenbe-atlanta-biophilic-design
and developers. The TDR program is an intensive program, requiring a certain budget, public and political acceptance and levelled out over different scales (Center for Land Use Education 2005). For Serenbe specifically this plan meant a denser development, with a saving of 60% on infrastructure. More houses were permitted than in a normal none-TRD situation. “The whole purpose of Serenbe was to save the greater area. Our initial success was changing zoning, then the success was that it actually functioned. That we could sell houses. That we could be placemakers and put people on top of the forest (Stevbe Nygren).”food is becoming a trigger for new forms of business linked to agriculture.
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Conclusions Climate change issues can be tackled with innovative strategies in the urban ar-
land to a land developer, but seeking the common good. The sold land will then
eas as seen in the projects explained before. Many of these solutions are adapt-
be protected, fostered as a natural resource, or guided for new urban development.
able to different contexts, so lessons from them can be learned and applied to the
This strategy can be adapted to our context since most of the properties are private
site D4a. Regarding the Urban Super Forest project, the development of a new
land, so negotiations with the owners could be addressed based on this notion.
housing typology that integrates forest ecosystems in every community, radically changes the conservative idea of an ideal housing. The concept of an ur-
The four case studies focus on mobility, new forest ecosystems, flooding-re-
ban super forest could be translated into strategies that integrate flexible hous-
silience of a built environment, and the transfer of development rights.
ing spaces combined with collective spaces for communal activities, where
Four different aspects giving interesting insights on how to tackle the in-
forests are not treated as separate elements, but rather the main components
creasingly drastic climate change and problems linked to it. These new in-
that requalify the existing urban tissue. With this new idea, CO2 emissions
sights and principles can be adapted to our specific site and inspire new strat-
could be reduced, but also stored, and the heat island effect could be mitigated.
egies for the further development of the ‘Quilted System’ where urban growth, flooding risks and pollution are key elements threatening the site.
The bicycle snake deals with mobility, and offers a new possibility for a major change in planning, design, and implementation of urban roads. Cyclists are the main users, as well as pedestrians that can walk under the highway in a safe manner. The project opens up the possibility of reformulating the existing mobility that gives priority to private vehicles, to integrate a new approach that prioritizes soft mobility. This principle could be adapted to our site, considering the gigantic infrastructure that is present at the moment, which doesn’t allow cyclists to travel safely and comfortably along it. The Aranzadi project is particularly relevant to our site since it addresses possible flooding events from the site’s topographic logics, preventing the adjacent agriculture fields from flooding. It is important then, to consider the flooding patterns (during wet and dry scenarios), as well as the possibility of complementing flood mitigation strategies with other uses (for recreation or connectivity). The creation of a river landscape that adapts to present and future climate change events, is an applicable principle to consider in the Voer River. The Serenbe’s Biophilic Neighbourhood has to do with tools for implementing new strategies where land is already someone’s property. It is based on the idea that humans are interrelated with other living systems, so nature plays an important role within the community. The Serenbe’s plan could be an adaptable and applicable strategie for our project since it consists of selling the rights for development of the
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References Books and scientific articles : Arendt, Randall. 1994. Rural by Design: Maintaining Small Town Character. Planners Press. American Planning Association Chicago: Chicago, Ilinios Broothaert, Nils, Gert Verstraeten, Bastiaan Notebaert, Rick Assendelft, Cornelis Kasse, Sjoerd Bohncke and Jef Vandenberghe. 2013. “Sensitivity of floodplain geoecology to human impact: A Holocene perspective for the headwaters of the Dijle Catchment, central Belgium.” The Holocene. no. 23 (October): 1403-1414. DOI: 10.1177/0959683613489583 hol.sagepub.com BUUR cvba (ed.) 2018. Leuven Roadmap 2030 vzw. Leuven: unpublished. Accessed March 03, 2021. roadmap.leuven2030.be/pdf/L2030_Roadmap.pdf Verstraeten, Gert, Bastiaan Notebaert, Nils Broothaerts, Jef Vandenberghe and Paul de Smedt. 2018. “River Landscapes in the Dijle Catchment: From Natural to Anthropocentric Meandering Rivers”. In: Landscapes and Landforms of Belgium and Luxembourg, edited by A. Demoulin. 269-280. World Geomorphological Landscapes. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58239-9_16 Daniels, Tom and Deborah Bowers. 1997. Holding Our Ground: Protecting America’s Farms and Farmland. Island Press: Washington, D.C. Pruetz, Rick. 1998. Putting Growth in Its Place with the Transfer of Development Rights. Planning Commissioners Journal, Issue 31
On-line documents and websites : Alday Jover. 2008. “Aranzadi Park”. Accessed March 03, 2021. http://www.aldayjover.com/en/component/articulo/?idcategoria=17&idarticulo=251 Architizer. Nd. “Cykelslangen/ The Bicycle Snake.” Accessed March 01, 2021. https://architizer.com/projects/cykelslangenthe-bicycle-snake/ Brink, Nick. 2016. “Urban super forest by super future group imagines invisible city”. Designboom June 2016. Accessed March 02, 2021. https://www.designboom. com/architecture/urban-super-forest-concept-super-future-group-06-22-2016/ Budds, Diana. 2019. “This suburban utopia is all about worshipping nature”. Archive Curbed. June 14, 2019. Accessed March 01, 2021 https://archive.curbed. com/2019/6/14/18677653/serenbe-atlanta-biophilic-design Center for Land Use Education. 2005. “Planning Implementation Tools - Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)”. November, 2005. Accessed on March 01, 2021. https://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/clue/Documents/PlanImplementation/Transfer_of_Development_Rights.pdf Dissing+Weitling. Nd. “Bicycle Snake. Urban boost and added value”. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://dissingweitling.com/en/project/bicycle-snake Future Architecture Platform. 2016. ”Urban Super Forest - Imagine a City you can not see on Google Earth”. Accessed March 02, 2021. https:// futurearchitectureplatform.org/projects/4894b2d6-195d-432a-9c9b-3dfae7488f72/ Grawe, Kathy. 2020. “Tour of Serenbe, a Biophilic Community”. Sigearth. February 17, 2020. Accessed on March 01,2021. https://sigearth.com/tour-of-serenbe-abiophilic-community/ Kobenhavns Kommune. N.d. “Mobility in Copenhagen”. Accessed March 02, 2021. https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/artikel/mobility-copenhagen
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Landscape International Landscape Award. “Aranzadi Park”. Accessed March 03, 2021. https://landezine-award.com/aranzadi-park/ Lemerle, Maxime, Benz, Anja. 2019. “New CO2 emission regulations in Europe: A perfect storm for car manufacturers?”. Euler Hermes, May 24, 2019. Accessed March 02, 2021. https://www.eulerhermes.com/en_global/news-insights/economic-insights/New-CO2-emission-regulations-in-Europe-A-perfect-storm-for-carmanufacturers.html Nd. 2014. “Bicycle Snake / Dissing+Weitling architecture”. Archdaily, Jul 08, 2014. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://www.archdaily.com/522669/bicycle-snakedissing-weitling-architecture Openbaargroen. 2020. “Actualiteit. Vlaanderen breekt uit/ Proeftuinen ontharding”. Accessed March 03, 2021. https://www.openbaargroen.be/nieuws/vlaanderenbreekt-uit-proeftuinen-ontharding Serenbe. Nd. “Rediscover Living - About Serenbe”. Serenbe. Accessed March 01, 2021. https://serenbe.com/about#serenbe-history Super Future Group. 2015. ”Urban Super Forest”. Accessed March 02, 2021. http://www.superfuturegroup.com/#/urbansuperforest/
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D5a & D5b
ARIANE CANTILLANA, YIFAN HU, CAROLINE THALER, YIDNEKACHEW YILMA
Finding balance and giving space The challenge in the face of climate change
Introduction In this booklet we present four cases that each focus on a different aspect that
with their community, whether the projects started as a community initiative or
contributes to the discussion of the Dijle Watershed urban landscape. The first
their work focused on creating benefits for the community. This implies that the
case presents the Temporary Gallery in Shichengzi Village in China, where easy
communities are clearly identify, but also their issues and needs are known by the
scaffolding creates a multipurpose space for visitors but more importantly for
professionals involved in the project design. Additionally the study cases all share
the local residents. This infrastructure is embedded within the existing rural
the pursuit to reconnect with nature. The close relationship that each of the projects
structures of the village and the use of scaffolding in colourful materials makes
aspires to establish with their communities, aims to integrate the natural aspects of
this new space recognizable for those who use it. The second case is the Capitol
the landscape into daily lives of people and maximize the benefits associated to the
Canopy designed by Atlas Lab in Sacramento. The proposal of a boulevard with
overlapping of human settlements and natural landscapes.
commercial spaces integrates a layer of forest system with the aim to re-articulates streetscape configuration. The master plan considered a time frame of 25 years to
In recent decades, climate change has taken prominence in the discussions following
develop green infrastructures in order to provide a multipurpose public space in
various hazards that are happening at different places in the world. The way of
the central area of Sacramento. The third case, Aito Yellow Nanohana Eco Project
living and urbanizing as we know it is in question. Climate change has numerous
is located in Japan and it focused on the resource recycling of rapeseed crops. This
consequence to human settlements and the increasing urbanization process
project aims to make the monoculture production landscape, such as rapeseed
altered the balance with their landscape through deforestation, fragmentation
fields, sustainable from an ecological point of view, emphasizing the relationship
of natural systems, urban expansion, among others. In the case of Flanders is
with the local community, providing spaces for social and leisure activities but also
resulting in average temperature increase, heat waves, extreme weather, raised see
environmental education. Lastly, the fourth case is the Kalevanharju Community
level and more humid winter. The Flemish government set an ambitious plan to
Garden, where a local community of Tampere organised themselves to gain
reconnect the patches of forest and create four national parks, in order to reverse
permanent access to a collective garden for food production in the urban context.
the process of fragmentation of the woods. This situation frames the local conflicts
Taking into consideration as a secondary aim, to give a new use to brownfields
that each one of the study cases wants to tackle in their own way. In this scenario
within their neighbourhood and restore connections to the surrounding landscape
it is imperative to study and share new design proposals that seeks the balance
of the city.
between urbanization and human life with the elements and systems of the natural landscape. The balance between nature and the built environment is the main
More important than their each individual focuses are the common aspects within these study cases. In general, all the cases aspire to establish a closer relation
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point of discussion on which the present booklet will focus.
© Group file
The lost balance of human and natural interaction, 2021.
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01_Case 1 Social Infrastructure TEMPORARY GALLERY IN SHICHENGZI VILLAGE
2019
© Yingbin Fu
Shichengzi, China
Fuyingbin Studio
In 2019 the farmers’ harvest festival took place in the village of Shichengzi. Fuyingbin studio was asked to design a temporary gallery to host the exhibition that is on display during the festival and to provide a media center. Instead of the original placement alongside the road, the architects proposed to use the alleyways of the village as a backdrop. Not only for its visual support, but also to attract visitors into the village “and fully perceives its distinctive rural space”. Due to cost and availability constraints, the design was made out of scaffolding. This material needed a modular approach that is adjusted to the existing space in between the houses. Often the scaffolding is used in combination with scaffolding safety nets. Thus the designers worked with polyester nets in multiple colors, not only to have shading, but also to add decorative elements.
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This choice of material added a new constraint to the modular system that was already in place. The scaffolding now had to be assembled according to the sizes of the mesh.
© Source
© Source © Source
Three consecutive elements were placed on site. The highest structure that functions as media centre is connected to the street via an (art) gallery. The gallery used to be a traffic space, but has transformed into a place where all people stop by and look. “The gallery appears in different sections in the roadway, sometimes hidden, and sometimes undulating, where the sunshade through the orange mesh echoes the scattered roofs of the folk houses.” The mill gallery is an abandoned mill that becomes an extension of the art gallery by continuing the scaffolding into the little building and creating a contrast between the new and the old structures.
The structures were short-lived and were taken down after a week, without leaving any trace. Despite this, it has had an impact on several aspects. First of all it has proven that ‘rural revitalization’ does not need to fall back to antique or classical styles. Secondly the gallery was assembled by professionals, but enough jobs were still left to the locals, both in construction and dismantlement. Lastly, despite the low cost approach both in materials as in the standardized construction process, the project “has become the art piece itself, showing a fresh new look.”
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02_Case 2 Forest Urbanism CAPITOL CANOPY
2011
© Atlas Lab
© Atlas Lab
Sacramento, United States
Atlas Lab
Capital canopy is a speculative master plan project for Sacramento’s Capitol Mall Boulevard with an award winning status. The proposal seeks to use Capitol Mall as a platform and catalyst for re-establishing and nurturing Sacramento’s tree canopy. The canopy is developed through a serious of phases spanning over 25 years; starting from the revitalization of the Capitol Mall grounds in the heart of Downtown Sacramento and developing to robust urban canopy that supports a multitude of city events and somehow foment the urbanization. The proposal explores forest elements and ecological structure for their cultural value and their productive function. Through the phased development the forest system has a potential of developing to a structuring, self-sustaining element.
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The proposal re-articulates streetscape configurations, deploy region specific tree canopy along the Capitol Mall and use the existing median for a spectrum of activities that support cultural events. The canopy is considered for its advantage of reducing heat island effect through the provision of shade and the creation of microclimates; and also enhance the pedestrian realm.
© Atlas Lab ©Atlas Lab
© Atlas Lab
The scheme also extends to acquiring large enough canopy cover in the city to reduce air pollution through bioaccumulation and the production of oxygen. It also tries to integrate the urban forest with the daily functioning of the urban life in terms of organization which are not apparent in rural areas. For the forest element and its canopy, a region specific tree canopy that consists of three distinct plant communities that foster urban habitat are proposed as a way of overcoming the lack of framework or proposed funding to re-establish the canopy which is said to return $50 million dollars in environmental benefits each year.
This proposal works beyond the consideration of trees as a design objects and explore forest elements and ecological structure, embracing the process-based routines of forest management. It also recognizes that the urban forest is an important part of every thriving city.
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03_Case 3 Agro-Forestry AITO YELLOW NANOHANA ECO PROJECT
1998
© http://greenaccess.law.osaka-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/06en_fujii.pdf
Aito, Japan
Environemental Co-operation of Aito
Nanohana Project is a pioneering project in Japan, aimed at establishing resource circulation in society based on production and utilization of rapeseed by various collaborating participants. This project has also been practiced in 46 other regions in the country with the aim of establishing resource circulation in society. Aito Yellow Nanohana Eco Project is a recycling system based on canola blossom cultivation in Aito Town, Japan. This project focuses on the actual conditions and the formative process of collaboration toward the establishment of resource circulation in society.
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This regional system was established in 1998. It was formed gradually, in parallel with the movement toward environmental improvement. So far, this regional system can be classified into nine sections: canola blossom cultivation, canola blossom harvest, extraction of rapeseed oil, manufacture and sale of rapeseed oil, use of rapeseed oil, collection of waste oil, manufacture and sale of soap, refinement to bio-diesel fuel (BDF) and the use of BDF. Canola blossoms are cultivated as energy crops on fallow lands. Rapeseed oil is extracted from harvested rapeseed and the oil cake is utilized as organic fertilizer to grow canola blossoms. Rapeseed oil is a commercial product. Besides tourists and residents purchasing the rapeseed oil, it is also used for cooking school lunches. Used cooking oil (waste oil) from rapeseed and other
© http://ai-eco.com/observe/nanohana_eco_ project/ © http://ai-eco.com/observe/nanohana_eco_ project/
© http://ai-eco.com/observe/nanohana_eco_ project/ © http://ai-eco.com/observe/nanohana_eco_ project/
commercial vegetable oils is collected with residents’ participation. Collected waste oil is utilized as a raw material in recycled soap and biodiesel fuel (BDF). Refined BDF is utilized as a fuel for official vehicles and agricultural machines, the latter being used to cultivate canola blossoms. The Environmental Cooperation and the Town Office played major roles in the establishment and management of the system. Besides these two bodies, the regional system comprises 14 bodies such as enterprises, residents, elementary, junior and high schools, tourists, etc. The incentives to participate in the Nanohana Project are numerous. They can be divided into approximately five categories: economic profit, the promotion of environmental activity, social service (public welfare), leisure and environmental education.
This is a typical case of good combination of ecological, economic and sightseeing values. At the social level, it takes into account the interests of multiple actors, enhancing community cohesion and residents’ sense of participation. On the ecological level, it gives full play to the value of canola flowers at all stages.
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04_Case 4 Recommoning KALEVANHARJU COMMUNITY GARDEN
2013
© Urban Allotment Gardens. (2016)
© Pikner, T., Willman, K. and Jokinen, A. (2020)
Tampere, Finland
In 2012, a small group of citizens started gardening as part of a summer project organized by a local organization in Aspinniemi, nearby Tampere city centre. Despite a statutory land-use plan being implemented in the area, a private construction company had given temporary permission for gardening to occur on the land they owned. This was the beginning of a journey for the gardening group in which commoning started to develop under the influence of a shift in terms of sites, participants, landowners and planning practices. After two gardening seasons, construction work on the site began, which forced the gardeners to move. The gardeners did not want to give up their project but started to search for a new place for their garden. After brief negotiations with the Evangelical Lutheran parish, the gardeners landed in Kalevanharju.
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Like the original site, the garden in Kalevanharju was a brownfield, an unused gravel area left behind after greenhouses had been demolished. In 2015, the municipal authorities became interested in the gardening community and the possibility of using bottom-up urban gardening as part of the place-branding for a lakeside site. In the spring of 2016, the city officials decided to provide a mobile floating box-garden on the surface of a lake in Hiedanranta. Now, the gardeners had not only established themselves in Kalevanharju, but also had one foot in the Hiedanranta project. All these moves and the expansion of their gardening action represent the temporalities of change and commoning dynamics entangled with collective gardening.
© Urban Allotment Gardens. (2016) © Pikner, T., Willman, K. and Jokinen, A. (2020)
© Urban Allotment Gardens. (2016)
About the collective gardens, the concept of ‘the commons’ problematizes the accessibility, justice and organizational issues related to shared resources. The uncooperative attitudes of humans leading to the collapse of environments, accommodated commons mostly outside state and private property in the sphere of self-organization. The logic of urban action for recommoning spaces challenges the formal institutions of the modern state through ‘informalization of the state’, thus generating conditions under which the state, the market and civil society cannot be strictly separated. However, the growing process of urbanization motivates the interest to investigate the common complex of shared resources and knowledge. The urban commons can include diverse shifts between informality and formality, which coexist with the characteristics of
urbanity. If urban politics indicates the essential dynamics of the informalization of the state, then a closer examination of the particular urban dimensions of commoning makes it possible to indagate in practices that co-generate informalities and a wider socio spatial change. Shared spaces for growing edible plants in city areas can represent complex constellations of urban commoning. The persistence and ability of collective gardening to adapt to ever-changing conditions makes it particularly interesting. The growing of food on collectively managed sites can indicate diverse dimensions of urban commons because this practice negotiates and promotes shared resources between the social group and the environment (Pikner, Willman and Jokinen, 2020).
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Conclusions To summarize, the particular aspects of each of the study cases presented will be
In relation to the community gardening project in Finland, the main aspect to
addressed. This aspects are link with the larger concepts within which they are framed
highlight is the generation of a space for growing food in urban areas through
– urban systems, ecological systems and transition tools - and at the same time with the
the recommoning process. Community organization is a key element for the
general idea of this brochure, which is related to finding balance and giving spaces, in
development of sustainable settlements, likewise the reuse of brownfields by
the context of the analysis and definition of strategies for the Dijle watershed proposal.
communities constitutes an act of appropriation that fosters social cohesion and an integral improvement of life in cities. In this scenario, the value of re-establishing
The main aspect to highlight of the temporary gallery project in China as
the link with the landscape is noteworthy, it allows us to understand the
an urban system is the temporality of the space that it proposes as a social
multidimensionality of the urban landscape, as a natural, productive and habitable area.
infrastructure. In order to give rise to the annual events in the village, the investment in the construction of a permanent space could have been a type
In the context of the analysis and definition of strategies for the Dijle watershed
of solution. However, and for reasons beyond the strictly environmental,
proposal, the intervention strategies highlighted in each of the study cases constitutes
the proposal considered the provisional installation of a light structure
a beneficial learning in the development process of the following definitions to be
that leaves no traces and also works from the existing rural infrastructure.
considered. In general terms, the balance achieved through design with nature, but also with the inclusion of sustainable policies in the development of projects
Also within the category of urban systems, the Capitol Canopy project manifests
represents the main value in the construction of new spaces where the different
itself as an urban forest in downtown Sacramento. The low permeability of urban
elements of the natural landscape coexist harmoniously with the built environment.
soils causes changes in the course of the surrounding waters that turn out affecting the balance of the ecosystem in cities. Faced with this situation, the integration of woods into urban areas contributes to maintaining the balance not only in terms of green spaces, but also as an area of infiltration of rainwater, which in the context of climate change in the Flanders region, has become more present during the winter season. Under the concept of ecological systems, the eco-project for recycling resources in Japan promotes the circular economy under the concept of agroforestry, as a strategy for the sustainable management of rape fields. In the contexts of the growing world economy and the expansion of urban areas, more and new sites are required to cultivate products for human consumption. A circular perspective of agroforestry in the productive processes of the landscape could constitute a radical action in the preservation of forests and slow down the process of conversion areas of woods into agriculture.
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© Group file
Giving space for the community in between the agriculture and culture, 2021.
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References Books and scientific articles : Carlisle, S., Pevzner, N. and Piana, M. (2014). Introduction: Building the Urban Forest. Scenario 04 (spring). Available at: https://scenariojournal.com/article/ building-the-urban-forest/ Pikner, T., Willman, K. and Jokinen, A. (2020). Urban commoning as a vehicle between government institutions and informality: collective gardening practices in Tampere and Narva. International journal of urban and regional research, 44(4), pp.711-729. Nakajima, M., and Senga, Y. (2007). A Study on the Actual Conditions and the Formative Process of Collaboration towards Realization of Resource Circulation in Society Based on Biomass: Case of ‘“Aito Yellow Nanohana Eco-Project”’ in Aito Town, Japan. Springer 5: 131–42.
On-line documents and websites : ArchDaily. (2019). Temporary Gallery in Shichengzi Village / Fuyingbin Studio. [online] Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/926050/temporary-gallery-inshichengzi-village-fuyingbin-studio [Accessed 28 Feb. 2021]. Atlas Lab. (2011). Capitol Canopy. [online] Available at: https://atlaslab.com/work/capitol-canopy/ [Accessed 2 Mar. 2021]. Explorative urban gardening in Finland. (2021). [online] Available at: https://kaupunkiviljely.fi/brief-%20in-english/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021]. Green Access project. An Overview of the Nanohana Project. [online] Available at: http://greenaccess.law.osaka-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/06en_fujii.pdf [Accessed 2 Mar. 2021]. NPO Ai-no-Machi Eco Club. Nanohanakan [online] Available at: http://ai-eco.com/ [Accessed 2 Mar. 2021]. Urban Allotment Gardens. (2016). 07 - Urban Gardens in Europe [online] Available at: https://www.urbanallotments.eu/07_FS_ final_end055.pdf?id=252&type=0&jumpurl=uploads%2Fmedia%2F07_FS_final_en.pdf&juSecure=1&locationData=252%3Att_ content%3A604&juHash=9399ae7b0bb6bf2fb886b8c9ddbb37d2e69a7c04 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].
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D6a & D6b
GEMMA ANNEAR, ERMIONI CHATZIMICHAIL, SIMON DE BOECK, ELENA GIRAL
New Typologies
Forestry and urbanism as a response towards fragmentation and isolation
Introduction Society has changed dramatically in the last decades, and continues to do so at a
as a structuring device across scales and dimensions (in relation to mobility, set-
great pace. Changes in the way we interact, we live together, we share the space,
tlement, and ecology)” (De Meulder, Shannon, and Nguyen 2019). It is the inter-
finances and work have meant that most of the traditional systems, and particular-
action between forest and urbanism, which allows nature to reclaim the landscape.
ly urban systems have become at least partially obsolete. Rapid urbanisation and
The extra green areas and trees can help improve the micro-climate, the health
population growth have meant a significant degradation in natural ecosystems,
of the people and create a more pleasant environment. The aim is not to provide
while also implying a radical decrease in the quality of housing, paired with loss
green ‘zones’, but a real superposition of uses, that will fight the loss of ecological
of acquisition power of the average family. The tendency to move to cities has also
systems and biodiversity.
meant in many cases the partial abandonment of rural areas, which are left in a
This coexistence can have a really positive impact both on nature as well as on
situation of isolation, while in lack of basic services. This means on the one hand
the quality of housing and urban spaces. Looking at this type of ‘’mixity’’ of uses
that these rural populations are forced to use road transportation systematically to
and spaces, we can find a number of new typologies that reflect important societal
access goods and services. On the other hand, this has meant a systematic loss of
changes, as well as a new demand for shared commonalities in an era of an increas-
the feeling of community, since no casual interaction exists, outside of the remain-
ingly individualistic society.
ing ‘’communal spaces’’ (eg. the school, the church). In parallel to all social chang-
Housing cooperatives look at new ways of living together as well as means to pro-
es, there is an even more pressing one: environmental degradation and climate
vide an affordable high-standard solution for housing, which has become a com-
change. Human action has caused a great loss of forest and natural surfaces by
plicated subject in the last two decades, where housing precarisation is on the rise.
urbanisation as well as agricultural production. The combination of this loss paired
These grouped organisations also appear as a response to the establishment of
with other human activities, pollution, emission of gases has meant an increase in
the mononuclear family type, which may no longer be the norm. The space is re-
temperatures, and events like drought and floods.
thought, creating a superposition of uses between what is private, what is shared and what is public. This type of dwelling often looks at the notion of reappropria-
New urban development projects seek to respond to these problems, proposing
tion or reuse of existing buildings (planned for old, often obsolete uses) rethinking
alternatives to traditional processes that adapt to new needs while mitigating envi-
of the readaptation of the space in the most flexible manner.
ronmental damage and creating opportunities to increase social cohesion. Forest
Increasing cohesion in communities is also achieved through the use of ecological
urbanism appears as a response to the lack of green spaces in urban areas, utilizing
systems such as community orchards. Following the notion of reappropriation of
green areas not only as a way to ‘’fill the space in between’’ but as a real infrastruc-
unused spaces, this type of project creates a sense of community as well as auton-
ture that is used by citizens in their daily life. “Forest urbanism relies on the forest
omy or self-management.
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Neerijse, Belgium 2021
3273
The production of ‘’KM0’’ food can have multiple benefits as it provides healthy and affordable alternatives, particularly for lower-income families while creating new social links and serving as an educational activity. Simultaneously, it helps reduce the need for transportation of goods, while serving as a green space, where unpaved soil allows for adequate drainage and a diversity of plants and trees can improve air quality. These types of mechanisms can be used as transition tools that support social cohesion while bringing new opportunities for least favored populations. The concept of Social Forestry appears as a socioeconomic land use process, that simultaneously preserves the environment and provides means of subsistence. The focus is enhancing participation while providing financial support to certain individuals, creating financially profitable plantations such as firewood, while often reappropriating abandoned or neglected surfaces, in compilation with bigger, publicly-administered plots, that also serve as an opportunity for resettlement of this population. This type of project can be of great interest in lower-income areas, but replicable in different contexts like educational activities.
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Neerijse, Belgium 2021
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01_ New Typologies LA BORDA HOUSING COOPERATIVE
2018
© Lluc Miralles
© Lluc Miralles
© Lluc Miralles
Barcelona, Spain
Lacol
La Borda is a housing cooperative project in Barcelona that was organized directly by the end users as a means to create high quality affordable housing in a city where speculation has raised prices dramatically in the last years. The project originated in 2012 from a community process to recover industrial tissue in the neighborhood of Sants, obtaining a social housing permit and a lease of 75 years from the public authority.
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The project aims at re-defining collective housing with a model of flexible units of 40-75m2 mixed with communal spaces that create a gradation between the private and the public. There are shared spaces for the kitchen, dining, laundry, guests, health, storage.. as well as semi-exterior spaces like the patio, roof as well as the central corridors of access, which follow the traditional Spanish typology of ‘’corralas’’. The project also has an important focus on the environment and sustainability, using low-impact materials for the construction, re-using existing ones to minimize the waste and paying attention to isolation and energy consumption, prioritizing a passive strategy and increasing comfort.
© Lacol © Lacol
© Lacol © Lacol
Participation was another central aspect of the project. Future inhabitants were involved from the beginning through an architecture commission, which linked their global assembly to the technical team and prepared a series of design workshops where the different aspects such as environmental impact, typology and overall strategy were discussed and validated.
The architecture office in the lead, Lacol, is a cooperative that works towards a social transformation ‘’using architecture to critically intervene in the environment’’ in a horizontal manner. The aim is to transform the city through active participation and purposeful action, encourage debate and discussion for uses and management of urban spaces, models for the city, and claiming back heritage.
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02_Agro-Forestry POP PHILADELPHIA ORCHARD PROJECT
2007
© Philadelphia Orchard Project
Philadelphia, USA
Paul Glover
The Philadelphia Orchard Project is an initiative which started in 2007 by Paul Glover and has evolved into a nonprofit organization which works alongside communities to plant orchards in Philadelphia. Their goal is for every community in the city to be able to have the ability to plan and grow their own fruits, which will provide them with a healthier way of life no matter their background. Their vision is to help create ecosystems within the urban environment, which at the same time will form exciting green areas, enhance the sense of community amongst the neighbors, offer them real manual and active participation experience as well as plan and grow their own healthy fruits.
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To this day the organization has planted 50 orchards and 1472 trees in total and 3377 shrubs and vines and had more than 1200 volunteers helping. The core values of POP are education and learning, justice, permanence, regeneration and beauty. The city of Philadelphia has one of the highest poverty rates among America and has round 40,000 vacant lots. The location of the garden can vary, they often use empty lots, urban areas or community gardens and schoolyards mostly in low-income districts, where the residents have little access to fresh fruits. The price of energy, food and health care constantly increase, the low-income areas of the city are the most at risk of hunger and health issues, and those are the areas that POP mostly focuses on.
© Philadelphia Orchard Project © Philadelphia Orchard Project
© Philadelphia Orchard Project © Philadelphia Orchard Project
By planting orchards and small vegetable gardens, they can help the people’s food needs, as the gardens can be used by the whole community and they can have immediate access to sustainable food. The organization decided to plant orchards as they assist initiate agriculture as a more long-lasting part of the environment, economy, and culture of Philadelphia. In addition, the trees help by providing shade, ameliorate the air quality and lower the air conditioning costs. Lastly, the whole image of the city and the specific neighborhoods change, as POP transforms the abandoned spaces in the urban environment to well-kept and aesthetical areas.
The organization has collaborated with various groups and volunteers to organize and plant orchards, which have many nutritious and edible plants all over Philadelphia. They do not only help to plan but also offer design guidance, plant materials and educate people on how to take care of them. The communities then are the ones responsible for the orchards, as they own them and are in charge of maintaining and harvesting them. Through this practice the organization creates more healthy neighborhoods, helps restore the fertility of the land and promotes environmental justice and balance.
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03_Forest Urbanism ÉCOQUARTIER ROUGET-DE-LISLE
2013
© Archikubik
Vitry-Sur-Seine, France
Archikubik
The project has the main objective of re-healing the wound opened by the Avenue Rouget de Lisle (RD5) that cuts the city of Vitry-sur-Seine in two. Another feature of the area is the well-differentiated or isolated centralities and uses, and the topography caused by the hills, that create a view of the Seine alley towards the Park des Lilas.
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The operational principle structures the urban tissue by considering this wound an opportunity. The road is requalified as an ‘’urban boulevard’’ which allows to introduce the concept of ‘’ductile public space’’ which closely mixes with private participatory space. This wound is stitched together with the use of transversal vegetal plots that come from the hills working as eco-connectors. These green corridors assist with the extension of the biodiversity and ecosystems contained in the Parc des Lilas into the gardens of the suburban morphology.
© Archikubik
© Archikubik
The territory is articulated by the vegetal grid, reducing the perception of density. The centrality is reinterpreted by projecting on a human dimension, restructuring the territory from a more sensitive, friendly and domestic scale. The intention of the architects is to ‘’redimension the city of the 21st century into the city of the senses’’ by reinterpreting the area based on the existing environment.
The aim is to promote a sustainable ecological and social transition by establishing a solidarity-based urbanism. The planning integrates the notion of mutualization of parking lots and public spaces, creating horizontal circulation, parking lots with natural lights and ensuring the inclusion of private participatory spaces in all buildings.
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04_Transition tools – Social Forestry SOCIAL FORESTRY PROJECT
1980-
© beesbd.org/
© assignmentpoint.com
Bangladesh
BGD Forest Department
Social forestry was introduced in Bangladesh in the 1980s in order to increase forest coverage and has been acknowledged as a fruitful strategy which has been included as part of the rural development (Muhammed et al. 2008). Although, the traditional forest management led to a net loss of forest resource cover, social forestry helped to expand and increase the forest cover, which is very helpful for poor people. Between 2000 and 2003 more than 23,000 people benefited from the felling of various plantations (Muhammed et al. 2005). Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the World and due to the slow growth of industries, the rates of unemployment are high and the Agrarian rural citizens, who live around the forests, depend on them for their livelihood and that has resulted in the depletion of natural resources and degradation of forest ecosystems. Social forestry is a techno-socioeconomic land-use
336 12
process aimed at improving the socioeconomic status of rural poor people and the sustainable development of degraded and marginal lands while also preserving the environment. The engagement of people in all different parts of the social forestry projects is crucial, as it is the only way to ensure progress (Ahmed, 1991). Social Forestry in Bangladesh is used more to refer to the public, private and community initiatives that try to enhance the “active participation by the rural people in planning, implementation and benefit- sharing of tree growing schemes” (Behera 2009). It involves various afforestation projects in marginal and degraded forest areas, as well as in forest areas of communities, village woodlots, farm forestry, strip plantations, ‘community plantation’, homestead forestry and other forms of manifestation of agro-forestry.
© Theindependentbd.com.
The strategy of Social Forestry Bangladesh has received great recognition for the management of forest resource, but also for the development of rural areas. The most common type of social forestry is Agroforestry, since it can be applied extensively. It can produce various crops and can reassure the utmost usage of the land, which can help satisfy the requirements of the people. Strip plantations on marginal land are also used by private and public organizations and aim to use the marginal land like the slopes of railway lines, roadsides of highways, canal bank, and embankments. Then the Forest Department also developed woodlot plantations for both short-term fuel wood and to re-settle rural and poor people. The lands on which the woodlot plantations were grown are totally barren and unused.
The woodlot plantations are efficient for growing short rotation fuel wood and can be viewed as a good attempt at land regeneration (Safa 2005). The project can be considered quite successful as it achieved its initial goals and also managed to involve the participation of citizens in forestry activities, as well as to include women as part of the community forestry programme. Since the first successful project in 1982, which helped the participants to earn income, many other social forestry projects have taken place all over the country. Despite the various difficulties, such as organizational problems, the government made a real effort to include it as a prosperous strategy, which follows a bottom-up approach for the elimination of poverty and socioeconomic growth (Muhammed et al. 2005).
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Conclusions Social as well as environmental changes are a pressing condition for urban
nection is also present in nature, where the forest has been broken into pockets
and landscape development projects today. It is imperative to find new ways of
that remain isolated from each other, invaded by an ever-growing urbanisation.
planning that seek to adapt to new needs while fighting deforestation and providing new ways of living that result in less environmental damage. This can be
This sprawl does not allow for a conducive use of space nor an access to nature, as it of-
achieved by numerous strategies that regard both direct interventions in na-
ten grows along riversides, or forest limits, creating a significant barrier between these
ture or changes in housing, urbanism and transportation to reduce impact of
and urban spaces. Strategies that look at reconnecting and reintroducing the forest,
human activity. Direct natural actions can consist on protection or reforest-
while providing the opportunity for the creation of new uses and relations, particu-
ation, while looking at increasing biodiversity and ending the ‘’mono-type’’
larly in terms of public space, seem necessary for the future planning in the region.
zoning that has been imposed in nature in the past decades (Wambeq, 2013). Nature can also be introduced as a tool and as an urban use in itself. Urban strategies look at new typologies of green infrastructure and eco-neighborhoods, where nature and forest become a fundamental part that not only increases quality of life but also fosters community cohesion and exchanges. In this regard, communities can be an active part of this infrastructure, by participating in diverse projects of shared commonalities. These common projects can serve to provide an income via productive lands or to increase the diversity of food available for families. Finally, new times demand new types of projects that adapt to changes in the way we live together, we work, and we share. By creating new housing typologies and reusing and reappropriating otherwise obsolete spaces, urban and architectural projects can provide new options that reduce the need for space by sharing common uses, while creating a stronger sense of community. Flanders is a territory characterized by a significantly dispersed urbanisation of the territory. This is also strongly defined by its generally flat topography as well as its dense network of small streams and rivers. These have however been overall invaded by urbanisation and successive layers of transport infrastructures (Nolf and De Meulder 2013). In the southern area of the Dijle valley, this disperse condition is highlighted even further by complex topography, differing from the rest of Flanders, usually characterised by a very flat landscape. The territory presents a marked fragmentation both in terms of landscape, built environment and social cohesion, with a significant absence of open public gathering spaces. This discon-
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Florival, Belgium 2021
339 15
References Archikubik. 2013. “Écoquartier Rouget-de-Lisle – Archikubik.” Archikubik - Architectes Paysagistes . 2013. https://archikubik.com/en/projets/ecoquartier-rouget-delisle/. Behera, M C, ed. 2009. Globalising Rural Development : Competing Paradigms and Emerging Realities. New Delhi Sage Publ. Forest Department - Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. 2019. “Social Forestry.” 2019. Accessed March 1, 2021http://www.bforest.gov.bd/site/ page/665d37e7-ce3a-4117-af13-f8147d448e98/Social-Forestry-. Lacol. 2018. “La Borda .” Archdaily. 2018. https://www.archdaily.com/922184/la-borda-lacol. Lacol. 2020. “(Virtual) Visit to the Building of La Borda – La Borda.” Lacol. Youtube . http://www.laborda.coop/en/2020/10/03/virtual-visit-to-the-building-of-laborda/. McGuire, Virginia C. 2007. “Replacing Neglect with Peach Trees (Published 2007).” The New York Times, September 2, 2007, sec. Real Estate. https://www.nytimes. com/2007/09/02/realestate/02nati.html. Meulder, Bruno De, Kelly Shannon, and Minh Quang Nguyen. 2019. “Forest Urbanisms: Urban and Ecological Strategies and Tools for the Sonian Forest in Belguim.” Landscape Architecture Frontiers 7 (1): 18. https://doi.org/10.15302/j-laf-20190103. Muhammed, Nur, Masao Koike, Md. Sajjaduzzaman, and Kim Sophanarith. 2005. “Reckoning Social Forestry in Bangladesh: Policy and Plan versus Implementation.” Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research 78 (4): 373–83. https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpi045. Muhammed, Nur, Masao Koike, Farhana Haque, and Md. Danesh Miah. 2008. “Quantitative Assessment of People-Oriented Forestry in Bangladesh: A Case Study in the Tangail Forest Division.” Journal of Environmental Management 88 (1): 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.01.029. Nolf, Christian, and Bruno De Meulder. 2013. “From Planning to Profiling: Reactivating Characteristic Watermarks to Structure the Flemish Territory.” Journal of Landscape Architecture 8 (2): 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2013.864123.ç POP. n.d. “Philadelphia Orchard Project – Philadelphia Orchard Project.” Accessed March 3, 2021. https://www.phillyorchards.org/. Safa, Mohammad Samaun. 2005. “NGOs’ Role in Improving Social Forestry Practice:does It Help to Increase Livelihood, Sustainability and Optimum Land Use in Bangladesh?” In 17th Commonwealth Conference Proceedings. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/id/eprint/10862. Syed Salamat Ali. n.d. “Social Forestry - Banglapedia.” Banglapedia. Accessed March 3, 2021. http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Social_Forestry. Wambeq, Wim. 2013. “URBAN FORESTRY OR FOREST URBANISM?” In. Tartu, Estonia. Zizzi, Alexa R. 2016. “Sustainability: The Philadelphia Orchard Project Provides Fresh Fruit to Communities.” Philadelphia Neighborhoods. June 24, 2016. https:// philadelphianeighborhoods.com/2016/06/24/sustainability-the-philadelphia-orchard-project-provides-fresh-fruit-to-communities/.
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D7a & D7b
BING DU, LAETITIA-NOUR HANNA, IZZAH MINHAS, BRIDGET NAKANGU
MOVEMENTS AS COLLECTING AND CONNECTING Movements as conveyors of opportunities and better living conditions
Introduction Since inception of human life, movements (roads, rivers etc) have played a crucial
deforestation and forest degradation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity.
role in the development of societies. Most of the ancient cities in the world were
Between 1990 and 2000, Belgium lost an average of 1,000 hectares of forest per year
established along movements as they proffered a role in sustaining the city itself.
attributed to the same cause (Butler, 2006).
Movements contribute in forming the specific characteristics of cities they inhibit.
Currently, forest cover in Belgium, accounts for 22.58% of total land area. The vi-
“These characteristics are based on the natural particulars of the region where the
sion is to increase the existing forest cover in Flanders by 4000 ha in 4 years, es-
water stream flows across and on the ways people utilize and treat the water for
pecially in already existing forest ecosystems. On the other hand, water systems
use” (Phong, 2015). Rivers provide water, help in management and support of nat-
in the region are threatened by individualistic planning, that disorient sustainable
ural processes like flooding and provide habitats for plants and animals. These are
planning of the watersheds as a whole. Human activity in the watersheds has in-
essential to the existence of the city. Similarly, rivers connect communities, create
creased over time, modifying the landscapes in the region. By 2100, the Dijle and
opportunities for recreation and recommoning and formation of new urbanism
Laan river watersheds, will be affected by flooding, if the current sequence/ pattern
typologies. However, over time the explicit value of rivers has been ignored or
of built fabric is not modified as a wholesome for sustainable development.
overlooked by many people and policy makers.
“Water was originally the main spatial structure, however, its role has been mini-
Meanwhile, cities are developing as the most threatened elements by increasing
mized over the last two centuries with the manipulation of the hydrologic network,
climate change, and as the first responders to it (Rosenzweig et al, 2011). Under-
the overlay of infrastructures, and a generalized urbanization.” (Nolf, de Meulder,
standing the impacts of climate change on the urban environment will become
2013). Characterized by a scattered urbanized territory, the recent Covid 19 crisis
even more important, with increasing urbanization (UN-Habitat, 2011). It is note-
in Flanders has expressed a dire need for more resilient urban ecological systems.
worthy that urban forestry plays an important role in the urban environment.
As a result, new concepts/strategies in urbanism that promote safe working en-
Forest ecosystems are crucial elements of the world’s biodiversity. This is attributed
vironment in the era of pandemics are required. Subsequently, among concepts/
to the variety of life they inhibit. In fact they are considered to be more biodiverse
projects that have been popularized are those related to mobility, whereby the use
than other ecosystems (FAO, 2020). Currently, Forests cover 31 percent of the
of sustainable non-motorized means of transport and the blending of such trans-
global land area (FAO, 2020). However, in an era of global urbanization, deforest-
portation systems with the natural environment and human settlements. Second-
ation and forest degradation continue to take heed which contributes significantly
ly, current designs should be conscious of the new methods of telecommuting,
to the ongoing loss of biodiversity. Increased human activity since 1990 has led
whereby work is mostly executed from home areas to encourage recommoning
to loss of an estimated 420 million hectares of forest through conversion to other
and forge social cohesion in the neighbourhoods. Thirdly, there is need to miti-
land uses (FAO, 2020). Agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of
gate a crisis in retail and wholesale trading, where it is no longer recommended
4342
© Bridget Nakangu`
The river as a movement connecting the different sequences. 2020
3435
to shop in large numbers from large stores as they become centres of contamination. Fourthly, changes in housing typologies to promote home based enterprises, a link between home and work such that a home is more perceived and designed to accommodate the natural environment, working environments, recreation and family responsibilities. Thus, given that the region provides an important ecological landscape with diverse biodiversity, yet strategically located to provide housing for diverse interests, there is a need to balance ecological interests with human needs especially those related to housing, commerce and industry. Movements including roads, rivers, rail could prove ideal for this transformation. The strategic location of these water catchments and forest ecosystems near Brussels and other emerging suburbs poses a threat to their existence. Yet, their very existence is dependent on the policies and strategies developed by local authorities. Hence, the symbiotic nature of relations between the natural ecosystems and manmade housing systems and support infrastructure and services are important. Coupled with new challenges brought by the pandemics, indeed a new thinking, a new strategy of urbanism that recognizes the existence of these ecosystems in their natural state as well as support human existence in the ecosystems is sought.
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© Laetitia-Nour Hanna
The road as a collector of atmospheres, 2020.
3457
01_Co-housing / New typologies HOMBORCH
2018 - competition
© Ledroit Pierret Pollet
© Ledroit Pierret Pollet
© Ledroit Pierret Pollet
Brussels, Belgium
Ledroit Pierret Pollet
The project is situated in Uccle, Brussels and won 3rd place in a competition for the Housing Company of the Brussels-Capital Region, by Ledroit Pierret Polet Architectes in 2018. The main concept was to devise a plan for the densification of a garden city by proposing the construction of 84 social housing schemes, 10% of them consisting of intergenerational kangaroo livings. A kangaroo housing is a construction where two to three generations live under the same roof. It is arranged so that each family core has private and independent rooms, and shares common area with the other tenants. Situated on an undulating landscape, the project is characteristic of forming and transforming communal spaces as a shared trust to develop intrinsic methods
346 8
of exchange in the form of care and support for the elderly, children, adults, immigrants etc. in intermediate and transitional spaces. The built structures are distributed as such that the surrounding open spaces are enclosed by them, however maintaining the permeability of access and proliferation of green/vegetative areas. There is modular as well as multi story development to reduce consumption of vegetative surfaces and building density while creating new opportunities for indoor and outdoor integration. This project is interesting for us because it has recourse to an implementation that takes advantage of the existing topography, while proposing a new urban typology within the building blocks in a suburban context. The created blocks allow a better connection between the existing and the proposed, while being
© Ledroit Pierret Pollet
© Ledroit Pierret Pollet © Ledroit Pierret Pollet
well implemented within the existing and steep topography. Thus, the will to create intergenerational housings presents different benefits, mainly in terms of encounters and dependence of elderly people. Thanks to this program, each generation takes advantage of this situation, therefore promoting interweaving rather than separation, which is the case in traditional housings projects. There, elderly people are less isolated and the sense of intergenerational solidarity is enhanced.
3479
02_Community Land Trust LOPEZ COMMUNITY LAND TRUST
2009
© Lopez Community Land Trust
United States of America
Soesmith Cox
The inception of Lopez Community Land Trust stems from the American trend of the affluent acquiring country living. This up-scaling would cause locals to move out eventually so a model needed to be devised to help create sustainable opportunities and growth for the rural community, affordable housing being the primary concern. In 1989, the Lopez Community and Land Trust was formed as a non-profit corporation with the help of Peter Fisher and Sandy Bishop. The goal of this trust was to ensure holding land as a shared trust, creating opportunities for local businesses, rural forestry, sustainable agriculture and the primary objective being affordable housing. Since the feasibility of a single person owning a 5-acre land was not possible, dense housing would be the solution. In 1992, seven detached, single family cooperative houses were erected
348 10
on a one acre leased land. The core essence of this model was community involvement in building homes, environmentally friendly usage of land, and generating permanent access to affordable land for co-operative housing, removing land from the speculative market. In the following years, housing projects such as net-zero houses in Salish Way with studio cottages and permanent affordable homes for 3 households; Tierra Verde houses a different makeup of a household with number of occupants being 6 adults and 9 children; Common Ground consists of 11 houses and 2 rental units. The construction and maintenance actively involve the community, also offering internships to college students to join hands in the building process.
© Lopez Community Land Trust © Lopez Community Land Trust
© Lopez Community Land Trust © Lopez Community Land Trust
Furthermore, efforts to encourage the use of locally produced farm products by devising a guide to accessing homegrown goods, promotes and supports local agriculture. The Lopez Community Land Trust empowers the community into developing systems for the availability of affordable housing and sustainable agricultural that caters to the needs of the locals in a closely knit system. It consists of programs such as the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) that focuses on ethical and sustainable methods of land holding, education, production, consumption and distribution of locally produced goods in a just and sustainable way.
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03_ Shared Workshops / New Workplaces MOKRIN HOUSE
2014
© Relja Ivanic
Serbia
Studio Autori
Mokrin House in northern Serbia is a contemporary urban spot in a rural surrounding characteristic of co-living and co-working (mainly working remotely) facilities, founding workshops, training and cultural activities for the inhabitants of the village. A former rural estate, the site consists of Houses C and D designed by Studio Autori in the year 2014, a part of the ‘Terra Panonica’ estate where the program concentrates on projects encompassing design, education, social and agriculture development. The physical composition of the complex is characteristic of the physical impression of the indigenous houses on the site, following functional logic as present in the rural housing. The complex as a whole consists of multiple facilities for accommodation and offices. House C is symbolic for the transformational quality of the spaces in the facility
350 12
evident due to the existence and utilization of mobile interior partitions, customizing the space as per the purpose of use at different times. It acts as the meeting point for the visitors and residents on the site. A multipurpose space, it creates opportunities for different events to take place e.g., concerts, exhibitions, screenings etc. It consists of moveable interior partitions, rotating work station and large openings on the façade. These encourage indoor-out-door integration maintaining connections with the vegetable garden and sheds. In addition, these characteristics make House C flexible for several activities. House C evokes a comprehensive experience of the local context and environment as a whole. Similarly, House D follows the geometry of the corn shed once situated in the
© Relja Ivanic © www.mokrinhouse.com
© Relja Ivanic © Relja Ivanic
same place, incorporating a prefabricated structure of a nearby housing unit; with the key element imposed in its raised above the ground quality. The terrace establishes connection between the exterior and interior. It is a common workshop designed for diverse types of creative work. It is a modern craft workshop for different professionals including artists, designers, developers and researchers. It is considered as an integrated two-level flowing open space. The first level put aside for manual work while the second level designed for computer work, conferences and meetings. This project has been referenced as it offers opportunities for shared work spaces. It offers opportunities for the development of new forms of urbanity involving common work places in different neighbourhoods. It serves as a remedy
for the new normal in the current post COVID-19 era. As we move into a future defined by some ever-present level of social distancing , coworking spaces will not just serve the needs of remote workers but also present themselves as supportive structures for small businesses and entrepreneurs, sole proprietors and the self-employed. They will be significant in forging social cohesion. Entrepreneurs and business owners will need this kind of social networks and local connections more than ever to regain their footing post COVID-19.
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04_Water Sensitive Urban Design REDEVELOPMENT OF THE TONGELREEP STREAM VALLEY
2018
© Waterschap de Dommel
Province of North Brabant, The Netherlands
H+N+S
The project is located in the Netherlands and executed by Royal HaskoningDHV. The stream valley is part of the Natura 2000 area “Leenderbos, Groote Heide & De Plateaux”. The area has important natural biodiversity shared among European countries. The natural values in the Tongelreep brook valley are under pressure due to among others, desiccation and an increase in nitrogen content. As a result protected plants and animals have disappeared while others remain endangered. Therefore, the aim of the project was to ensure that these nitrogen-sensitive habitat types do not deteriorate further than they already have. This is important because the survival of the biodiversity of the stream valley directly affects the micro-climate of human settlements and life systems that are in
352 14
proximity of the stream valley. Besides, other migratory fauna and flora may be directly or indirectly affected by its demise, if it is not restored or utilized sustainably. However, the specific objectives are to restore nitrogen sensitive habitats such as Humid alluvial forests, High Peat Forests and Acid Fens. Formerly, a swampy region abounding in water, a handmade dewatering system of ditches and streams was introduced to drain the land quickly for agricultural purposes over the past century. This has had an effect on cities, agricultural fields and nature conservation areas. Water related problems abound in the area. In this era of climate change, flood related problems downstream and scarcity of water upstream are prevalent in the region. The ambition is to hold as much water as possible along the rivers (in agricultural fields, cities and
© Waterschap de Dommel © Waterschap de Dommel
© Waterschap de Dommel © Waterschap de Dommel
nature conservation areas). As a result, downstream flooding will be mitigated and water availability upstream will be increased. A climate proof stream valley landscape is desired in the project. To obtain an overview of the measures, the Tongelreep Project examined both the water management and the non-water management measures. Hence, the project involved taking remedial measures to safeguard the conservation of the valley through hydrological restoration practices such as raising the level of the Tongelreep and filling in ditches. Therefore, the project carried out a more natural, robust and climate-proof design of the Leenderbos and the Tongelreep brook valley.
This case study project has been referenced because it entails features relevant for the rejuvenation of both Dijle and Laan watersheds. The catchments have been modified by human activity that has affected their biodiversity. It is envisioned that by 2100, the watersheds may be endangered with flooding. Hence, the methodology and design fundamentals for the Tongelreep project prove fundamental in stemming these catastrophes.
353 15
Conclusions Urban forestry in Belgium is key to harmonizing the growth and overlapping of
While this may pose a threat to the optimum utilization of land for farming, food
the metropolitan with the forested land. In examining the existing and projected
production and food security, there is also the issue of land ownership and rights
vision of ecological and environmentally friendly methods and policies to inte-
in the region that helps determine the kind of produce it may yield and towards
grate the two, in a way that maintains the integrity of natural resources, there are
whom it is aimed.
policies aimed at growing trees on 4000 hectares of land for example.
For the four projects chosen, the common theme lies in communal living and land as a shared trust, respecting environmental and ecological processes.
However, goals such as these take into account the stakeholders in the course of its action, that function in a different trajectory e.g., sustainable agriculture, indus-
To avoid lucrative gains from agriculture, to also help preserve and help regenerate
trial production etc. In this regard we examine the existing conditions/processes/
the integrity of farmland, and provide affordable housing for rising population, the
phenomenon on the site of the Dijle Valley, and the challenges faced in light of
Lopez Community Land Trust encourages energy efficient methods of production
urbanization.
and consumption in the form of net zero affordable housing units, as well as community supported agriculture for justice in agricultural land tenure.
The common features of D7a lie in its organic, scattered layout where the distribution of forests, residential quarters and agricultural land is dictated by the topog-
The intergenerational house presents a solution to the population rise foreseen in
raphy of the region. The site is undulating, where the steep slopes are covered in
the future, where it controls the expansion of low dense housing and densifies set-
forests, and houses rest on plateaus. Agricultural practices include production for
tlements by integrating households comprising the elderly with the youth to create
domestic use, privately owned farmland with recreational activities for children for
more sustainable systems of management and encourage exchange through com-
example, cattle farms etc.
munal/shared spaces.
The housing typology consists of a traditional layout with household structures
Similarly, the Mokrin House enables connectivity between work and home by ap-
varying from single person, couples and families, with a rise in 3 person house-
propriating space for working remotely in a shared space where the physical layout
holds; the layout follows an orchard and extended garden for growing vegetables
follows the same language as existing households. It is also responsive to the natu-
for each household. Furthermore, the presence of patches/pockets of agricultural
ral elements in the surrounding by encouraging indoor outdoor integration, which
land as well unplanned fabrics in between create a scattered sequence of natural
again is ideal for the situation of proximity of work and home in the site.
reserves. On another note, D7b is more diluted in terms of its division e.g., structured business park Wavre, highways slicing through site, presence of dense forests and the river. A shift from country housing viewed as areas of large land acting as the backyard, with real estate prices that are far from plummeting, this trend features a rural setting in a suburban sense with more non farming people moving to areas of agricultural potential.
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355 17 © Laetitia-Nour Hanna
References Books and scientific articles : Lenel, Emmanuelle , François Demonty and Christine Schaut. 2020. Contemporary experiences of co-housing in the Brussels-Capital Region Hedendaagse cohousing experimenten in het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest. Brussels Studies. Open edition Journals. Accessed 26/2/2021: https://doi.org/10.4000/brussels.4207. Miller Rhea. 2015. Lopez Community Land Trust, 1989. Roots and Branches: A Gardener’s Guide to the Origins and Evolution of the Community Land Trust. Nolf, Christian and Bruno De Meulder. 2013. “From planning to profiling: reactivating characteristic watermarks to structure the Flemish territory.” Journal of Landscape Architecture 8, no. 2: 32-41. Phong, L. H. 2015. “The relationship between rivers and cities: influences of urbanization on the riverine zones–a case study of Red River zones in Hanoi, Vietnam.” WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment 193 27-43.
On-line documents and websites : Battista Paola. 2014. ‘Kangaroo’ houses help Belgium’s elderly and immigrants. Residential forum. Accessed 28/2/2021 https://residentialforum.tumblr.com/ post/183455006816/kangaroo-houses-help-belgiums-elderly-and Butler, Rhett. 1994. Belgium. https://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/archive/Belgium.htm. Accessed March 02, 2020. Coworker Idea. 2017. Mokrin House: The real beauty of the rural co-living. Accessed: 1/3/2021 https://coworkidea.com/en/mokrin-house-coliving/ Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations. 2020. The state of World’s Forest, http://www.fao.org/state-of forests/en/#:~:text=Forest%20ecosystems%20 are%20a%20critical,of%20the%20global%20land%20area. Accessed March 02, 2020. Garcevic Srdjan. 2018. Mokrin House: AGlobal Village in North Serbia. Balkan Insight. Belgrade. Date Accessed 28/02/2021: https://balkaninsight.com/2018/05/14/ mokrin-house-a-global-village-in-north-banat-04-22-2018/ International Living Future Institute. (date unavailable). Lopez Community Land Trust: Common Ground. Net Zero Energy Certified. Accessed: 28/2/2021 https:// living-future.org/lbc/case-studies/lopez-community-land-trust-common-ground/ Ledroit Pierret Polet. 2018. Humborch, Brussels. Accessed: 26/2/2021 https://www.lpparchitectes.be/projets/archives/homborchveld/ Lopez Community Land Trust. 1989. Lopez Island. Accessed 28/2/2021 https://www.lopezclt.org/ Mithun. (date unavailable). Community Positive. Lopez Community Land Trust: Lopez Common Ground, Lopez Island WA. Accessed: 28/2/2021: https://mithun. com/project/lopez-community-land-trust/ Mokrin House of ideas, 2014. About Mokrin House. http://www.mokrinhouse.com/about-us/. Accessed March 02, 2020.
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Royal Haskoning DHV. 2020. Redevelopment of the Tongelreep valley. https://tongelreep.ireporting.nl/ontwerp-projectplan-waterwet-fase-2/deel-i-projectherinrichting-beekdal-van-de-tongelreep/aanleiding-en-doel. Accessed March, 02 2021. Studio AUTORI. 2015. House C and House D. https://www.archdaily.com/589942/house-c-and-house-d-studio-autori> ISSN 0719-8884. Accessed 2 Mar 2021.
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