7. LANDSCAPE PLANNING

The three studios here zoom out to the regional scale to explore the potential of landscape approaches in long-term planning for desirable economic and ecological outcomes.

AY 16/17-2 LA5702

Key Themes

Shezidao: From Contested Terrain to Wise Urbanism

Tutor: Liao Kuei-Hsien

Spatial and functional pattern analysis; Political and economic decision-making; Understanding landscape planning as a holistic system; Urban fabric transformation; Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches; Eco-tourism; Ecological planning strategies

Students: Chang Mei Fen Pearlyn, Chen Jumin, Chen Wei, Liu Yuahua, Pu Wenjun, Qian Xuanyu, Su Yuting, Tan Wenbin, Pang Yurong, Wang Yuqian, Zhang Qingqing

AY 17/18-1 LA5701

Landscape of Hope: Reclaiming Malacca

Tutor: Laura Cipriani

Students: Chandra Amanda Jennifer, Bai Zhuhui, Sun Hao Jen Ashley, Wu Yitong, Yan Ran

AY 17/18-2 LA5702

Operational and Functional Landscapes of Baoshan District

Tutor: Hwang Yun Hye

(With collaboration with NUS ISD Studio and Tongji University)

Students: Amanda Jennifer Chandra, Bai Zhuhui, Dai Junwei, Sun Hao Jen Ashley, Wu Yitong, Yan Ran

OUR XISHAWEI: ENABLING COMMUNITY, STIMULATING REVITALIZATION by Wang Yuqian, Su Yuting, Chang Pearlyn, and Tan Wenbin (MLA’17) aimed to propose wiser alternatives to the government’s “Ecological Shezidao” plan. They sought to enhance the local identity of and propose economic assistance for the existing Xishawei settlement to prevent gentrification following four main strategies: reorganising circulation and retrofitting roads, facilitating livable homes, celebrating community agriculture and promoting eco-friendly industry.

Many Asian cities are seeing complex and far-reaching changes in their spatial and functional patterns. This is a common consequence of the rapid urban land expansion caused by population densification and the pressure for urban renewal accompanying economic growth. For this reason, regional/ city scale interventions addressing social ecological impacts, including loss of natural resources, inadequate urban amenities, a high level of exposure to environmental pollution, infrastructure deterioration, and reduction of open spaces, are receiving greater attention from landscape designers and urban planners.

Three design studios envisioned planning principles and strategies as a cornerstone of sustainable, livable and resilient cities based on the following questions: Is there any opportunity to re-structure a city’s ecosystem to have a less detrimental impact on the environment while intensifying settlement and building morphologies? Before making site specific design interventions at the district scale, can landscape planners shape new urban forms and ecological networks at the regional scale? What is the best way to distribute natural resources towards inclusive and livable societies by manipulating topography, hydrology and vegetation? Can preemptive design/planning actions ameliorate the environmental consequences of climate change at the territorial scale? Can landscape planning studios in an academic setting use integrated datadriven and science-based approaches beyond administrative boundaries? Given the future development requirements and environmental issues, can we propose design solutions that will incorporate multiple operational and functional values into the urban context?

Shezidao, a flood prone peninsula sandwiched between the two major rivers of Taipei City, was chosen as the first studio site (MLA’17). As the area is home to thousands of socioeconomically disadvantaged households, the studio had a big task. How do residents cope with socio-environmental challenges, including flood risk, soil liquefaction, insecure land tenure, and ignored cultural identity? The second studio, in Malacca, a fortified city in southwestern Malaysia, dealt with the expansion of the contemporary urban fabric in a massive area of reclaimed coastal land (MLA’18). The site requires urgent responses to ecological degradation, rising sea level, soil protection, and a political and social crisis, while maintaining its cultural and historical identity as a UNESCO heritage city. Baoshan, a big chunk of the northeastern part of Shanghai, rapidly transforming from extensive farmland into a major industrial district within the last two decades and more recently into high-dense mixed-used urban fabrics, was chosen for the third studio (MLA’18).

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN by Wu Yitong (MLA’18) was motivated by the culture and history of the land lost during reclamation. The project allowed past landscapes to reemerge and promote the economies of the future by inserting the local craft community and public art spaces along the old and new coastal line of the city. celebrating community agriculture, and promoting eco-friendly industry.

Studio 2018 ended with six showcase projects:

• A REVITALIZED GREEN AND BLUE INFRASTRUCTURE by Yan Ran (MLA’18) socio-ecologically linked the largest city park and other urban fabrics

• REMEDIATED LANDSCAPE FROM NEGLECT TO VALUE by Dai Junwei (MLA’18) transformed a polluted brownfield into an ecologically vibrant neighborhood

• REGENERATIVE LANDSCAPE by Sun Ashley (MLA’18) reconciled the industrial past with an ecological future

• CONNECTED LANDSCAPE OF THE BAOSHAN CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT by Bai Zhuhui (MLA’18)

• EVERYDAY ECOLOGY by Chandra Amanda and Wu Yitong (MLA’18 ) designed edge and in-between landscapes towards an inclusive new town

IN-BETWEEN LANDSCAPE: Inspired by the dynamics of the old town, Wu Yitong’s (MLA’18) project created adaptive landscapes to provide various ecological functions, encourage more interactions between residents and nature, ensure high productivity of local food supply and generate economic benefits towards an socio-ecologically inclusive lake community

As a part of the Shezidao studio, students participated in a five-day interdisciplinary workshop and public forum on the site, working with students of different disciplines from different universities in Taiwan. For the rest of the semester, they developed settlement-specific plans for three of the settlements in Shezidao based on outcomes from the workshop. The Malacca studio included a seven-day field trip to understand the territory through site investigation, collective brainstorming sessions and design development, featuring innovative methods of investigation. Finally, the Baoshan studio created interdisciplinary teams of students in architecture and urban design under the ISD (Integrated Sustainable Design) programme in NUS and Tongji University for collective field work and site analysis. The studio resulted in five showcase design projects integrating findings from the previous layers. Through this process, students extended the role of landscape architect to project’s lead designer, the person who sets the tone for all site design decisions in collaboration with other design disciplines and who devises new strategies and design applications.

Related Outcomes

Student Awards

2017 SILA Student Design Awards, Outstanding Contextual Analysis and Investigation Award (Silver), Living with water – phased adaptations, Pang Yun Rong, Pu Wenjun, Qian Xianyu, Zhang Qingqing (MLA’17)

Studio Books

Hwang, Y. H. (Editor), 2019, Operational and functional landscapes of Baoshan District, CASA, NUS, ISBN 9789811407420

Cipriani Laura (Editor), 2018, Landscape of hope: reclaiming Malaca, CASA, NUS, ISBN 978981181399