Oxymoron: Introduction urban landscape

For someone unfamiliar with contemporary discourses within the building sciences, the theme of this Atlantis issue would appear to be something of an oxymoron. The term ‘urban’ surely infers the spatial, organizational, political, social and cultural characteristics of city, a very different notion than the rural or natural environments inferred to by the term ‘landscape’. This paradox is not necessarily restricted to outsiders: within the faculties of the building sciences ‘urban’ and ‘landscape’ are separate and distinct disciplinary traditions. Both fields of enquiry arise from – and are connected to – independent arenas of theory and praxis. The traditional pursuits of these two fields however – the understanding, ordering and design of cities and landscapes - are becoming more and more urgent as time goes on and as such, their legitimacy as independent disciplines is unquestioned. The linguistic union of the two terms therefore, has nothing to do with disciplinary deterioration which commonly herald these kinds of mutations, and everything to do with the pursuit of knowledge and tools to understand and act in the increasing elusive contemporary city – of which more later.UrbanismArchitectur

Laboratory Oerol: Designerly Ways of Knowing in the TU Delft Landscape Architecture elective project On Site, 2018

Discussion on the synergies between scientific and artistic endeavour is a recurring topic in academia, but has gathered a new momentum since the turn of the millennium in response to among other things the urgency of global challenges such as climate change. Aside from some incidental experiments however, a more fundamental and structural synergy between the realms of science and art has to date not emerged. Synergies have been hampered by reservations about the compromising of scientific integrity on the one hand, and artistic creativity and autonomy on the other, but have also been hampered by the fundamental differences between both realms. By extension, viable methodologies to bring both realms together, which might uphold disciplinary independence and integrity, have to date been lacking. Design and design thinking has been mooted as an area which might offer a way forward in this debate. The role of spatial design disciplines forms a small but critical chapter in this discussion. A potential complement to this discussion are approaches from the discipline of landscape architecture, which distinguishes itself by the critical role of site and context in the design process, a working through various scales of design, the development of narratives, and the attention to phenomenology and experience. The chair of landscape architecture has received structural funding from the Delta Infrastructures and Mobility Initiative (DIMI) in 2012, 2016 and 2018 to participate in the Oerol Festival on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands. In terms of discussion of design vs engineering (from the perspective of landscape architecture), there has been a critical impact of site and island context on the design concept. Site readings - particularly the morphological development of the island over a long period - has inputted to the development of an historically-informed scheme. The scale of the installation is also derivative of its context, and the intention to create a form which has the scale of the island and its dune system. The stitching concept moreover, also offered the opportunity to test the effect of different angles of hessian panelling on sand movement and accretion. In relation to the broader discussion of the synergy of science and art, the project can be seen as an example of ‘designerly ways of knowing’ which breach both realms. These include the incorporation of characteristics of the site and its (island) context, and the spatial and experiential aspects of a landscape installation. Landscape Architectur

Transformation in Composition: Ecdysis of Landscape Architecture through the Brownfield Park Project

This study enlarges on the notion of composition in landscape architecture. It builds upon the ‘Delft method’, which elaborates composition as a methodological framework from its sister discipline architecture. At the same time takes a critical stance in respect to this framework, informed by recent epistemological developments in landscape architecture such as the site-specificity and process discourses. The notion of composition is examined from a historical and theoretical perspective, before turning to an examination of the brownfield park project realised in the period 1975-2015. These projects emerge as an important laboratory and catalyst for developments in landscape architecture, whereby contextual, process, and formal-aesthetic aspects emerge as central themes. The thesis of this research is that a major theoretical and methodological expansion of the notion of composition can be distilled from the brownfield park project, in which seemingly irreconcilable paradigms such as site and process are incorporated.By extension, the study elaborates on the disciplinary specificity of landscape architecture as distinct to its sister disciplines architecture and urbanism, propositioning a ‘radical maturation’ of the foundations of the discipline in the period 1975 – 2015, via the brownfield park project. A metaphor for this process is offered by the phenomenon of ecdysis in arthropods (such as the blue swimmer crab), whereby the growth from juvenile to adult takes place in stages involving the moulting of an inelastic exoskeleton. Once shed, a larger exoskeleton is formed, whose shape and character is significantly different to its forebears. The research sketches the contours of a similar ‘disciplinary ecdysis’ in the period 1975-2015, whereby an evolution of design-as-composition praxis in landscape architecture takes place.In the slipstream of these findings, the research sheds new light on the shifts in the form and content of the city itself in this period, and the agency of the urban park in the problematique of the contemporary urban realm. In the cases studied, the park typology has been able to address problems that much of the traditional apparatus of spatial planning and design has failed to do. By extension, the study reveals that many of the paradigms of urban planning and design are in need of major review in the context of deindustrialization. The urban park typology – in its guise as the brownfield park – also appears also able to shape and qualify larger urban regions. As such, the research highlights the rise of brownfield lands and their impact on the fabric of the city, the life of their inhabitants and the paradigms that dominate urban cultures, in turn fundamentally revising the definitions and agencies of notions such as city, nature and landscape.A+BE | Architecture and the Built Environment No 9 (2018)Landscape Architectur

Tracing the development of contemporary park-city relationships: Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën (paper + presentation)

Since the late post--?war period the relationship between park and city has significantly altered. Parks established between 1980 and 2000 in Paris --? in particular Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën – exemplify developments in park design and the park--?city relationship in this period and form precedents for many subsequent parks worldwide. Park designation in this period was related to the reform of public (open) space policy by urban administrations in many European cities in the early 1980s. Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën were also seen as tools for spatial, economic and social urban regeneration, and as vehicles for political expression. Developments in the park--?city relationship in Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën were influenced by their location on former industrial sites; obsolete urban territories were designated as sites for green space, nature and landscape. They necessitated the translation of urban artifacts into landscape space. In these parks there was little ‘former’ landscape to work with and the importance of the natural and cultural landscape as a basis for place--?making diminished. At the same time layers of urban history were integrated into designs. La Villette demonstrates a new and extensive interrelationship between park and city on a spatial--? morphological level with the integration of canals, squares and threshold buildings in the design. Moreover, a folie grid was superimposed over the park as an urban layer. The result is a fundamental shift in the distinction between city and park. Site conditions and compositional schemes in both parks resulted in the blurring of the park ‘edge’ and its extension into the city. City form thus became a landscape architectonic problem again – as city form in Paris was historically a landscape architectonic activity.UrbanismArchitectur

Urban forestry programme outline

1.Domain & Initiative2. Embedding 3.Scope & Focus 4.Research Projects & Initiatives 5.Education 6.Valorization 7.Outcomes & Deliverables 8.Advisory Board 9.Researchers 10.Areas for further research 11. Graduation Lab Urban Forestry 12. ReferencesLandscape ArchitectureCommunication BKMarketing and Communicatio

IOPM 2017 - PIN(K) A PLACE: Result Elective - Landscape Architecture ON site, being part of Oerol 2017

This booklet shows the results of a project developed at the TU Delft in a Master elective course offered by the chair of Landscape Architecture: Landscape Architecture ON site. The project revolves around the realization of a temporary, interactive ‘design-and-build’ project in a landscape setting, for the yearly Oerol festival held on the island of Terschelling in June each year. Students research, conceptualize and construct an installation to be visited by festival public.The project combines specific landscape conditions of a site with the interaction of visitors and the dynamics of onsite construction, exploring the role of spatial designers in situated, interactive projects.Students: Bella Bluemink, Eva Ventura, Eva Willemsen, Federica Sanchez, Ge Hong, Ilya Tasioula, Jan Gerk de Beer, Joey Liang, Lukas Kropp, Maël Vanhelsuwé, IVIax Einerf IVlichelle Siemerink, Qingyun Lin, Timothy Radhitya Djagiri.Yao Lu.Tutors chair of Landscape Architecture: D.Piccinini and R.van der VeldeLandscape Architectur

Aeolis_Gap the Border: Landscape Architecture On Site, Oerol Festival 2018

Expected sea-level rise poses an increasing threat to Dutch coastal areas. Continuoushuman interventions in these areas aim to prevent the lowlands from drowning.This booklet shows the process and results of aeolis-gap the border developed during the elective course Landscape Architecture ON Site, offered by TU Delft MSc Landscape Architecture. As part of the research program related to coastal defence, the group developed an architectural intervention in the dune landscape to accelerate the growth of dunes.The Wadden islands have been barrier islands for the Netherlands for hundreds of years but due to the rising sea level they are under great pressure. Therefore, the Oerol Festival at Terschelling is a great platform to experiment and understand this concept and interweaving it with art. Landscape, art and science come together in this project. The design process is based on experiences of the place, experiments, prototyping results of theoretical and landscape studies, workshops and brainstorm sessions.Landscape Architectur

Wesense: Social sensing the quality of urban environments

Landscape ArchitectureEnvironmental Technology and Desig

Pilot metropolitane landschapskarakterisering Provincie Zuid-Holland

Deze publicatie vormt het eindverslag van de pilotstudie Metropolitane landschapskarakterisering.UrbanismArchitecture and The Built Environmen

Metropolitan landscape characterization: A typo-morphological approach

Dispersed urban regions are characterized by blurred boundaries between urban and rural areas resulting in complex new configurations of urban tissue and landscape space. These new hybrid landscapes challenge existing tools for landscape characterization, which are based on a traditional separation of urban and non-urban realms. This paper presents the results of the elaboration and testing of the method for character assessment using continuity and land-use for the study of the morphology of the metropolitan region of Rotterdam. The applied method combines mapping as a classical tool for urban morphology with landscape character assessment. For this purpose specifically chosen combinations of data sets produced first-stage categorizations for metropolitan landscape types. Results indicate the existence of 100 landscape character types in the city-region of Rotterdam among which the “hybrid” ones draw the special attention. Data analysis also show an extensive disparity between in the planning practice assumed location of the urban periphery of Rotterdam, and one that came out of this study. Distribution of green and built-up elements that resulted from GIS analyses were used to further understand patterns of dispersion, diffusion, periphery and fragmentation. The method applied showed unexpectedly interesting results and can be highly recommended for morphological and comparative studies of other urban regions.UrbanismArchitectur