Sofia Fourman Portfolio

SOFIA FOURMAN

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

sfourman@hotmail.co.nz linkedin.com/in/sofiafourman issuu.com/sofiafourman6

Landscapes are non-linear, continually emerging and transitioning through different states.

This evolution is influenced by the contextual web in which landscapes are nested and landscape architects need to endorse these through design.

Through ecological design the aim is to take cues from nature, mimic the processes, forms and functions while simultaneously integrating a creative cultural response. The intention is to create a hybrid natural-cultural ecology where presence of each enhances and reinforces this relationship.

Due to the unpredictability of the landscape any applied intervention needs to be flexible and adaptable thus being resilient to change. Landscape architecture has the potential to create places that transition and evolve over time, merging culture and nature into one system.

CONTENTS Tui Glen Filtration Reserve - Year 1

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Oratia Beauty Reserve - Year 1

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Catalina Precinct Hobsonville Point - Year 2

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Pikitu Marae Papakainga Design - Year 3

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Te Atatu Town Centre Tactical Activation - Year 3

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Suburban Stream Restoration - Year 4

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Drawing

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TUI GLEN FILTRATION RESERVE Year 1

Tui Glen Reserve located in the suburb of Henderson is a ghost of its historically lively and prominent self, with effort put in by the council to revive it. The recently completed Tree Tops Play Space acts as an inducement to attract people to the space and progressively recovers the parks former popularity.

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The design facilitates the accessibility and visibility of this destination to augment the amount of visitors, as well as operating as a filtration sponge to improve the quality of the water that enters the stream through the site.

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ORATIA BEAUTY RESERVE Year 1

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The ‘Oratia Beauty’ apple was created by the Glucina brothers when they opened up their own orchard in Oratia in the 1990’s. It’s heritage inspired the design of an orchard park that incorporates the unique apple variety and its cross-pollinating partners.

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CATALINA PRECINCT HOBSONVILLE POINT Year 2

Currently pastoral and a former airfield the landscape of Hobsonville Point has been developed for future urban residential development. Catalina Precinct is a section of the proposition intended to be a ‘park precinct’; a green extension off Bomb Point Park. It is comprised of a spine road and adjoining pocket park. The design reflects the connection of green spaces to existing vegetation links and patches to strengthen the ecological network for avian fauna.

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Project featured in X-Section Journal 2014; Exchange

This design begins by transforming the street into a vegetated corridor with patches in which birds can feed, rest and establish habitats. On ground level this creates a tremendous native forest environment, which contrasts greatly with proposed urban fabrication. The apartment blocks on both sides of the road face a wall of flora, the residents and visitors are able to appreciate the chirping of the birds and watch them scout the skies as they traverse through the space. The proposed pocket park is dense with native flora which is bisected by a curved path network with circular clearings.

These clearings provide freedom for diverse recreation, from open grassy lawns to seating and a central bird basin water fountain for the enjoyment of both birds and people.

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Visitors engage with the space either by walking or cycling through it, relaxing, playing or exploring it. Native flora in a compact urban development draws both birds and people into the area; it is a rich habitat within a residential complex.

One might even mistake the park for wilderness as they are confined by an assortment of immense trees with striking canopies closely resembling the native New Zealand forest.

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Paving detail drawn using Vectorworks. The paving pattern proposed is Herringbone 90 with a row of pavers as the kerb. The road has a Herringbone 45 pattern. The use of the same materiality for the footpath and road removes visual boundaries between the road and the footpath to slow down cars driving through the neighborhood. Furthermore the paving is permeable to prevent over land water flows during heavy downpours.

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PIKITU MARAE PAPAKAINGA DESIGN Year 3

Riparian planting Shelterbelt and food forest Flax weaving gardens Rain gardens Kumara mounds Food gardens Orchard Nursery Cemetry Open space Parking Vehicle access Pedestrian access Community buildings PikitĹŤ Marae

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Totara shelterbelt Flax weaving gardens Rain gardens Apple trees Avocado trees Passionfruit on trellis Open space Vehicle access. Shared gravel driveway Pedestrian footpaths. Permeable paving Homesteads Timber deck Rainwater collection tanks

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Trees are planted around the houses for warmth, shade and act as both visual and auditory buffers. Fruit trees such as apple and avocado also provide food for residents. Dwarf apple trees have been selected so fruit can be picked by children playing in the areas around their homes.

Trellises enclose deck spaces to create privacy and are adorned with passionfruit vines (either native or edible depending on resident preferences).

Each deck is generous in size allowing for outdoor entertainment and utility. It is slightly raised serving as an accessways between interior and exterior spaces.

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TE ATATU TOWN CENTRE TACTICAL ACTIVATION Year 3

How might we activate under utilized spaces to improve pedestrian and cycling circulation and experience in Te Atatu town centre?

Te Atatu town centre encompasses a range of community and commercial destinations for residents and visitors. This lively community destination is dominated by vehicles and is fragmented with inactive spaces that disrupt pedestrian and cycling experience and safety.

Occupation of carparks at the store front for the utilization of local businesses and to extend the public open space at the Te Atatu town center.

This space can be adopted by local businesses such as food outlets for their own customers, or can be sanctioned by the council to create a public open space for the use of everyone.

12 carparks are occupied for the purpose of this parklet. It features a turfed area with seating and shade. A bike lane runs behind the space so cyclists are discouraged to drive through the space where people are eating and socializing. A flexible parklet allows for the transformation of the space for events, a play street or markets.

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This alleyway is activated to create a pedestrian and cycle route that is safe and attractive for users. Wall art creates a pleasant and interesting walking environment that reflects the culture, ecology or uniqueness of Te Atatu Peninsula.

A coloured shade/rain cover made like a greenhouse tunnel is a fun, quick, fast method of creating a pleasant shaded and protected environment from the elements. Therefore this creates a great area for wall bike parking where users can park their bikes and explore the Te Atatu town centre on foot. Hanging lights from the cover create a safe and beautiful environment during the night where the colours of the tunnel are reflected on the wall art further enhancing the experience of the area.

The shell pattern on the crossing suggests the 1960s Te Atatu Peninsula when the roads were covered with shells gathered from the banks at the end of the Peninsula and creates an interesting walking environment for locals. This also links to Pringle Park and other local art which references the sea at the Peninsula.

Project featured in X-Section Journal 2015; Emergence 21

SUBURBAN STREAM RESTORATION; ENRICHING THE APPROACH Year 4 - Negotiated Studies Project

PERSPECTIVE 1 Streams in developed areas are often neglected and polluted. It is overlooked that these sensitive environments are habitats for a variety of wildlife and urbanisation is putting increasing pressure on these ecologies. The typical stream restoration technique is to improve and expand riparian cover.

However the large-scale stream restoration Project Twin Streams, in West Auckland’s HendersonMassey area, has had over 12 years of riparian enhancement with no significant improvement.

Dense riparian vegetation can also isolate the streams from the public open spaces through which 22

PERSPECTIVE 2 they flow, disconnecting the streams from the local community. The project aims to explore how the current approach to stream restoration can be strengthened by an exploration into biomimicry, which looks to nature for time-tested solutions to human challenges. Through research by design and the application of the biomimetic approach, the concept is critiqued in reference to its potential for stream restoration.

How can current stream restoration techniques be strengthened by keying into social networks and an exploration into biomimicry?

PERSPECTIVE 3 Swanson Stream was chosen to explore the potential of biomimicry to strengthen stream restoration techniques. Polluted stormwater runoff discharged directly into the stream and rubbish dumping are the key issues that affect the health of this waterbody. Stormwater daylighting and phytoremediation has been applied to address polluted stormwater runoff and floating vegetation islands are examined to target waterborne pollutants such as zinc and copper in the stream.

PERSPECTIVE 4 Through the application and examination of the biomimetic process it has been concluded that biomimicry as an approach risks the chance of excluding “human nature� from design solutions thus not responding to stakeholder needs. It has been found that activating the space by keying into social networks such as accessibility and community needs bridges this gap, thus enhancing the environment and facilitating the human aspect into the design.

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PLANTING PLAN

Scale 1:1000

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The project aims to reconnect the people with the stream by providing a community destination around the existing waterhole and community gardens, improving and enhancing these. It is designed to act as a community attraction with hopes of changing the community perception of the stream environment; discouraging rubbish dumping and encouraging interaction. Access to the waterhole is created with spaces to swim, sit or observe.

Scale 1:1000

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Phytoremediation planting and filtration islands address aspects of localised pollution not currently targeted by riparian planting. Stormwater drains are daylighted and water is directed through the site via phytoremediation gardens, filtering water through plant uptake by Manuka, sunflowers and Carex, before it is further filtered by the riparian margins and subsequently enters the stream. Any remaining contaminants are treated by the floating vegetated islands in the stream, planted with bullrush, Azolla and water milford that take up pollutants such as copper and zinc.

DESIGN DETAILS

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DRAWINGS

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