The Landscape Observatory of Catalonia and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona are organizing the International Seminar Creative Landscapes. Art and the Reinvention of Places, which will take place online on June 16 and 17, 2021.
How does artistic creation may contribute to remake emotional and affective links with the territory? Can art reinvest obsolete dynamics? Could it encourage dialogue between different actors, stimulate self-esteem for the place, or reactivate community action in favour of the landscape? How can creative or artistic practices help to transmit values in the landscape, raise awareness, transformation and, ultimately, bring it closer to the population?
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We are facing global and local challenges that force us to rethink the territories where we live. A great diversity of landscapes, both urban and rural, need new ways of approaching them, demanding a change of perspective and a reworking of their stories.
In this context, different artistic practices emerge transforming the territory and reinterpreting the landscape. These are a wide range of initiatives that, linked to specific spaces, challenge our relationship with the territory and generate new places, often far away from official and hegemonic narratives.
Creative landscapes: Transformation and revitalization
The Seminar, organized by the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia and Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona, will explore the potential of creativity to generate dynamics of transformation and revitalization of landscapes. It will also explore issues of territorial planning, heritage activation and local development.
Presentations will be given in the language stated in the programme. Simultaneous translation will be provided for the speeches between 3:00 pm and 4:45 pm on the 16th.
Registration: free but compulsory by sending an email to inscripcio@catpaisatge.net.
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For more information click here.
Text Credits: International Seminar Creative Landscapes
This year’s LE:NOTRE Student Competition invited students to propose a vision for an art-driven revitalisation and a spatial and cultural integration of the Port Island of Gdańsk in Poland. The participants were asked to develop innovative ideas for landscape and green infrastructure in order to increase interest in this area for both: the citizens of Gdańsk and also for tourists. The award ceremony of the competition took place on April 21, 2021 during the digital launch event of the 2021 Gdańsk Landscape Forum, which will eventually be held on site from October 13 to 17, 2021. The first prize goes to a team of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Since the 10th Landscape Forum will be hosted by the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts, the focus of the student competition was on exploring the role of the arts in sustainable landscape development. ‘Transforming Cityscapes with Art’ is the guiding motive, applied to the complex coastal agglomeration of Gdańsk. One can find all relevant landscape issues in the coastal agglomeration of Gdańsk: landscape integrity versus landscape fragmentation, global maritime economy versus local economy, grey infrastructure versus green infrastructure, urban sprawl versus density, gentrification versus inclusion, sea versus land, nature versus industry, past narratives versus today’s realities.
Why Gdańsk?
Sprawling on the southern Baltic coast, the thousand-year old city of Gdańsk shines at the edge of the alluvial delta area of the Vistula River and post-glacial moraines with streams and extensive forest complexes. It is the capital and largest city of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and – together with the nearby cities of Sopot and Gdynia – one of the most prominent urban areas within the cultural and geographical region of Kashubia in Poland. Nature and culture are inextricably connected to each other here, constituting an important characteristic of the local landscape / cityscape.
Rediscovering the distinct architectural language
However, this mixed creation needs to be better emphasised, nurtured and designed. The city struggles to rediscover its distinct architectural language that could build a local identity. Furthermore, it includes large degraded areas or monofunctional special purpose zones along with over-sized structures and systems for transporting people and goods that have distinct stressful environmental repercussions. Finally yet importantly, a large part of the city is located in low-lying areas. Rising sea levels, backflow from seawater and more frequent heavy rains along with overstretched pumping stations constitute a significant threat to the city.
Port Island
Port Island, Wyspa Stogi or Wyspa Portowa in Polish, belongs to the Gdańsk Bay and is located right in the north of the City of Gdańsk. The name refers to the northern harbour that has emerged since the 1970s. The former German toponym Nehrung means in English spit. This is a landform made of sand sediments and very typical of the Baltic Sea. The island includes two relevant heritage sites: the Westerplatte peninsula with the World War II memorial and the old fortress Twierdza Wisłoujście, which is today a Natura 2000 site protecting amongst others a significant bats population.
The island covers about 26.4 km² at a length of around 8 km. It faces the Baltic Sea to the north and is bordered on all other sides by arms of the Vistula, in the west and south by the so-called Dead Vistula (Martwą Wisłą) and in the east the by the so-called Bold Vistula (Wisłą Śmiałą). The eastern border of the island was created around 1840 after a flood during which the river broke through the dunes. This area is also under Natura 2000 protection status. Various large lakes can be found on the island as well as coastal woodlands and dunes, especially in the eastern parts.
The Winners of the LE:NOTRE Student Competition
First Prize: University of Ljubljana, Slovenia – “Polishing Amber”
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“A stronger bond between the fossilized diverse landscapes needs to be established, in order to enhance the island’s initial appearance and make it more resistent to external factors.
The proposed revitalisation process includes a green infrastructure plan that not only cleans the port industry air pollutants, but also passes in patches throughout the island. Additionally blurring the strongly expressed land use boundaries and creating passages to maintain a unique coastal wildlife biodiversity with benefits of fighting climate change at the same time. Achieving the goal with infiltration parks, rain gardens, carbon forests and nature parks is beneficial for the well-being of the inhabitants. It increases as the new recreational trail is proposed that allows the users to fully experience hidden parts of the island.
With a newly established Art, Science and Cooperative Centre AMBER, new jobs and opportunities arise on the island and with sustainbale, frequenz and reliable water ferry routes it is even better accessible for the residents from Gdansk as well. Creating a diverse, culturally rich core in Przeróbka raises interest, employability and immigration, especially among young artists and families, which impacts the local and tri-city level.”
Second Prize: Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences and Nürtingen-Geislingen University, Germany
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Third Prize: Huazhong Agricultural University, China – “Banding”
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For more information click here.
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Another design project regarding Waterfront can be found here.
Sugar Beach, set against the silhouette of enormous sugar boats and adjacent to a sugar refinery, is a link between the water and the former industrial sites of Toronto’s waterfront.
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Overcoming the challenges of a large-scale, post-industrial site, Canada’s Sugar Beach has achieved a place on the world stage. Its international recognition is based on the park’s ability to defy its diminutive scale and create a larger-than-life spectacle along Toronto’s new waterfront. Inspired by the painting Bathing at Asnières by Georges Seurat, the design has redefined the public’s relationship to the water’s edge by opening views and vistas to the water and horizon beyond, creating a destination that allows reprieve from the stresses of urban life.
In 2007, Claude Cormier + Associés, together with The Planning Partnership, won an invited international design competition led by Waterfront Toronto. A signature urban public space was to be developed on just under two acres and would serve as a gateway to a new, rapidly growing precinct, provide an anchor for the emerging community, and also create a flexible, dynamic gathering area for all Torontonians. The new space was envisioned as an intensely used urban site that could accommodate large-scale gatherings and performances without compromising anticipated day-to-day informal usage. Building on the success of HTO Park, opened in 2007 and designed by Claude Cormier + Associés with Janet Rosenberg Associates, the winning design for Sugar Beach proposed the site as the next moment within a hierarchal system of urban beaches along Toronto’s shoreline.
The history of Toronto’s waterfront, like many other North American cities, involved extensive landfilling to accommodate rapid growth of industry and commercial activity. The subsequent decline in shipping and decreased reliance on railways rendered the once-bustling area less useful for industrial purposes. Sugar Beach is adjacent to an active sugar refinery, one of the few remaining industrial uses on the waterfront. The industrial heritage of the site resonates throughout its entire design, from the selection of materials to the name of the park. The design team embraced the competition’s mandate by celebrating this industrial use through material selection and designed elements, as well as by accommodating the sugar refinery’s ongoing uses, in particular the theatricality of sugar-boat moorings across the slip.
The overall park design consists of three main areas: an urban beach, defining the west and south edge of the site; a tree-lined promenade that runs diagonally north/south through the site, forming the eastern edge of the beach; and an event space with both earthen and granite landforms providing seating, adjacent to a media/entertainment complex on the east edge of the site. The design palette is simple and robust, with special care and consideration given to the overall detailing and grading of the site.
The layout and positioning of the urban beach maximizes the frontage to the dramatic operations of large-scale sugar boats. It is carefully sited to expand the amount of space available for viewing the unloading of raw sugar. Dozens of white beach chairs are sprinkled throughout the “white sugar” sand, situated in intimate pairings and larger groupings to create viewpoint clusters. The element that defines the urban beach is the pink shade structure designed to look like an umbrella. Conceived by industrial designer Andrew Jones, the 36 permanent shade structures were designed and constructed for all-season waterfront exposure, withstanding high winds and intense UV rays. The pink color of the umbrellas uniquely contrasts with the surrounding context of the sugar boats, the refinery structure, the sand, water, and the ever-changing sky, creating a bold presence that resonates at all times of the day, through all kinds of weather, and in all seasons.
See more in Topos 89 – Creating Places.
Sugar Beach, Toronto, Canada
Client: Waterfront Toronto
Landscape architects: Claude Cormier + Associés, Montréal
Collaborators: The Planning Partnership, Halsall Associates Limited, The Municipal Infrastructure Group, Dillon Consulting Limited, Éclairage Public, Andrew Jones Design
Realisation: 2008 – 2010
Area: 8,500 square metres (2 acres); shoreline frontage: 225 metres
The Portuguese city of Pombal’s castle testifies to the power of time as being the main contributor to the transformation of the built environment. The top of a hill overlooking the valley of the Arunca River has been occupied since the time of the Roman Empire, and since then has had a variety of roles and has been a determining factor in many spatial and social practices. From a small provincial community, the castle evolved into a vital defensive structure in a territorial network of military apparatuses, and eventually became a tourist destination and an identifying feature in the region. After working on the reorganisation of the hill surrounding Pombal Castle, comoco arquitectos were commissioned to design a visitor centre for the castle’s ward, including the landscape design of the area and the revitalisation of amenities already installed in the Torre de Menagem (the castle’s keep).
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The commission’s main challenge was to develop a design strategy that could live up to the richness of the castle’s multi-layered history without being either ostensive or subdued. It was important to find the castle’s voice among the very many built artefacts that occupy the space. These artefacts, most of them ruins or derelicts of the past, are parts of the collective memory that we would like to critically preserve and, furthermore, to enhance. This was the idea behind the fundamental principles that guided the design approach.
The design strategy for the landscape design of the castle’s ward and for the revitalisation of the castle’s keep was relatively straightforward. First we repaired the existing limestone cobble pavements and filled in the remaining parts with gravel. In a later phase we made minor changes in the railings in the cor-ten steel volume and designed the layout and furniture for the exhibition spaces that occupy the rooms of the tower. The main challenge for the commission was to design a new volume to accommodate the visitor centre. The design brief for this amenity stated that it should offer three spaces: a reception area for visitors, a room in which to view a virtual history of the castle, and a storage area.
As the area of the castle’s ward is relatively small (1,200 square metres), and contains many elements, introducing a new volume implied an inevitable confrontation with the existing elements that define that space. In the end, this circumstance became the driving force behind the development of the project’s main idea. We thought of the new volume as an object that should embody some ambiguity: On the one hand it should seamlessly mingle with the existing features in the castle’s ward, and on the other hand it should become a conspicuous new addition to the existing built structures. In other words, we sought to have a creative dialogue with the situation “as found”, attempting to take advantage of the new structure as a way to activate dormant spatial experiences.
The program was reduced to the minimum and the centre’s volume was shaped in such a way as to make it a spatial device inspired by the tectonics of the castle’s stone masonry, especially the stairs connecting the platforms inside the castle’s precinct. In fact, the new volume creates a new platform that enables access to the level of the 16th century Manueline-style windows on the southwest side of the castle’s curtain wall. It creates a liminal space that recreates the spatial experience of the castle as a device for exerting control over the landscape at the same time that it serves as a safe haven for those looking for protection from the threat of the unknown.
Our design strategy for Pombal Castle’s visitor centre pursues a deliberately ambiguous condition between a topographical feature – a limestone monolith, and an amiable wanderer, a stranger in search of a welcoming new home in which to rest.
Pombal Castle Visitor Centre Pombal, Portugal
Client: Pombal Municipality
Architecture: Luís Miguel Correia, Nelson Mota e Susana Constantino
Project / Construction: 2011-2014
Site Area: 1,200 square metres
Structural Engineering, Hidraulic and Acoustics: ABL – Gabinete de Projectos Lda
Electric devices: Luís Ribeiro
Mechanical devices: João Gonçalves Madeira da Silva
Contractors: ALVAPE, Construção e Obras Públicas, Lda
Photography: FG+SG – Fotografia de Arquitectura
The snail-shaped hothouse in the Botanical Garden in Aarhus is a national icon with regard to hothouse architecture. It was designed in 1969 by C.F. Møller Architects, and is well-adapted to its surroundings. It was therefore important to bear the existing architectural values in mind when designing a new hothouse to replace the former palm house, which has been literally outgrown. “The competition sought an independent and distinctive new palm house, but it was essential for us to ensure that the new building would function well in interplay with the old one,” says Tom Danielsen, architect and partner with C.F. Møller Architects. The organic form and the large volume, in which the public can go exploring among the treetops, experience botany and take a journey through different climate zones in a way which makes the new hothouse in Aarhus an attraction in a pan-European class of hothouse architecture. An assortment of tropical plants, trees and flowers fills the interior of the greenhouse’s transparent dome, which is built on an oval base. A pond is located at the centre of the space, while an elevated platform allows visitors to climb up above the treetops.
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Energy design
The design of the new hothouse is based on energy-conserving design solutions and on knowledge of materials, indoor climate and technology. Using advanced calculations, the architects and engineers have optimised their way to the building’s structure, ensuring that its form and energy consumption interact in the best possible manner and make optimal use of sunlight. The domed shape and the building’s orientation in relation to the points of the compass have been chosen because this precise format gives the smallest surface area coupled with the largest volume, as well as the best possible sunlight incidence in winter, and the least possible in summer.
The transparent dome is clad with ETFE foil cushions that have an interior pneumatic shading system. The support structure consists of 10 steel archesthat fan out around a longitudinal and a transverse axis, creating a net of rectangles of varying sizes. The cushions used on the south-facing side were made with three layers, two of which were printed. Through changes in pressure, the relative positions of these printed foils can be adjusted. This can reduce or increase, as desired, the translucence of the cushions, changing the light and heat input of the building.
Botanical Knowledge Centre
The overall project also includes a comprehensive restoration of the old hothouse, in which the palm house becomes a new Botanical Knowledge Centre aimed at the general public. This will take place at the same time the complex is extended with the new tropical hothouse.
Sustainable hothouse, Botanic Garden, Aarhus, Denmark
Client: Aarhus University and Danish University & Property Agency
Architect: C.F. Møller Architects
Landscape Architect: C.F. Møller Landscape
Engineering: Steel load-bearing structures: Søren Jensen A/S; Foil cushion planning: formTL GmbH
Size: 3,300 square meters (1,242 square meters new tropical hothouse and 2,071 square meters renovation and rebuilding of existing hothouse)
Realization: 2009-2014
Prizes: 2009 1st prize in an architectural competition, 2014 Aarhus Municipality Architecture Award
Australian landscape architecture firm, Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL) has scooped one of the world’s most prestigious landscape architecture awards, from a field of eleven international projects. The Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize was awarded to TCL and New Zealand firm, Wraight + Associates (WA) for the transformation of Auckland’s waterfront which was completed in 2011. The Auckland Waterfront project, comprising North Wharf Promenade, Jellicoe Street and Silo Park, involved the transformation of a decrepit industrial maritime site into a vibrant and diverse public precinct. The design challenges conventions by celebrating its original elements and encouraging public interaction with the waterfront’s industry. (see Topos 81). “We’re extremely honoured to win this prestigious award in what is the first time it has been opened to the international design community. The Rosa Barba Landscape Prize recognises the world’s best in landscape architecture from the past years,” TCL Director, Perry Lethlean said.
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The prize was announced on 26 September as part of the 8th International Biennial of Landscape Architecture in Barcelona, 25–27 September 2014. The international jury was headed by Michael van Gessel from The Netherlands. In addition to the winning prize, German Del Sol Guzman received a prize for the public vote for Termas Geométricas in Chile. (see Topos 59).
The finalists as selected by a preliminary jury were:
• Ballast Point Park, McGregor+ Coxall, Sydney (Australia)
• Landscape Archaeology for the Friendship Sreet, Pedro Camarena Berruecos, México City (México)
• Qunli Stormwater Park, Turenscape, Heilongjiang (China)
• Parque de Aranzadi, Iñaki Alday Sanz and Margarita Jover Biboum, Navarra (Spain)
• Folly Forest, Dietmar Straub and Anna Thurmayr, Manitoba (Canada)
• Termas Geométricas, German Del Sol Guzman, La Regiòn De Los Lagos (Chile)
• Queens Plaza, Margie Ruddick, New York City (USA)
• Making Space in Dalston, Johanna Gibbons, London (United Kingdom)
• Auckland Waterfront – North Wharf Promenade and Silo Park, Taylor Cullity Lethlean and Wraight + Associates, Auckland (New Zealand)
• The High Line, James Corner Field Operations, New York City (USA)
• The Landscape Restoration of the Vall d’en joan Landfill Site, Batlle | Roig, Barcelona, (Spain)
In the name of urban renewal, Anaheim tore out most of its historic downtown decades ago. Where Orange, a neighboring town, restored its historic town center and parlayed it into a magnet for restaurants, shops, entertainment, and the local creative class, Anaheim replaced its historic center with a bland mix of modern office towers.
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But now the town has a much-needed focal point, Farmers Park, landscape architect Ken Smith’s latest work in the area. Smith is also designer of the still-developing Orange County Great Park in Irvine.
The Anaheim Packing District is a three-parcel site with two significant historic buildings, part of the Colony Historic District in Anaheim, the oldest city in Orange County, California. The Packing House, built in 1911 is the last remaining packing house in the city and was originally home to the Sunkist Company. Built at the edge of downtown Anaheim and alongside the Southern Pacific rail line, the Packing House is listed on the National Historic Register.
The 1925 mission revival Packard Building is considered a locally significant historic structure originally designed as a car showroom. Both the Packard Building and the Packing House are reminders of Southern California’s agricultural and transportation heritage as well as prime examples of the mission revival architectural style that were popular in Southern California at the time.
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The empty lot between the two buildings was redeveloped along with the two historic structures to create a unified three-block park, retail, restaurant and market oriented district that is part of the City of Anaheim’s master plan for revitalizing the downtown area of the city. Ken Smith Landscape Architect collaborated with a multi-disciplinary design team, retail developers and city officials to create an urban district that preserves the historic structures while making adaptive reuse improvements and creating a landscape-oriented setting linking together indoor and outdoor use areas. The team worked closely with historic preservation consultants and SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) officials to sensitively integrate new uses into the historic area.
The design and material vocabulary of new improvements emphasizes durable historic materials such as wood, steel and concrete. A historic rail spur was recreated and two flat bed cars were installed in a historically correct location to be used as outdoor dining terraces for the building’s restaurants.
Shade structures were incorporated into the design to provide comfort as part of the sustainability program for the project. Porous joint paving for storm water infiltration and dark sky lighting were other components of the sustainability features.
Photo: Ken Smith Landscape Architect
