Lectures eLEARNING MODULE ALBA GONZÁLEZ JIMÉNEZ
EMiLA 2019
Content Lecture 1 – The European cultural landscapes and their diversity
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Lecture 2 – The European Policy
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Lecture 3 – New challenges in the European landscape
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Lecture 4 – The Urban‐rural relationships in Europe
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Lecture 5 – “Landscape character Sensitivity and Capacity”
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Lecture 6 – “Building for biodiversity”
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Lecture 1 – The European cultural landscapes and their diversity Prof. Eric Luiten Government Advisor on Landscape and Water, Professor Cultural History and Spatial Design. European landscape architecture and cultural landscape challenges in Europe.
What are the methods in saving the typical European identity of cultural landscape the lecturer is bringing forward? The lecturer points to redefining concepts so that historical artefacts can relate to new spatial programs: collection to connection (gradual continuity of patterns for preserving); values to essentials; object to context; preservation to inspiration; statics to dynamics; expertise to opinion; description to design. Professor Luiten also mentions the tools of Belvedere experience: a 10 years national program supporting interaction between protection of heritage and the need for constant intervention and development. The objective is to bring bridges to this societal concern through experimentation and project design: move from a static to a dynamic approach. He also remarks that heritage is not only preservationism, and how it is a tool in the realms of landscape architecture, with the power to give a new meaning in the context of change and transformation. The speaker coins the concept of “Unfinished paradigm shift”: heritage is a sector (preservation of old structures) and a legislation which is attached to it to achieve its goals. To save the European landscape we need a new set of regulations, education and the consideration of research as an industry. It also calls for a great amount of resources for research.
What are the threads towards the typical European identity of cultural landscape the lecturer is bringing forward? The professor considers the topography of Europe as the starting point of identity, as it is one of the most diverse landscape in the world: its alive and there is always something going on (specially wars). The whole sets of characteristics to define European landscape are: ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐
Differentiated geological basis. Considerable climatic extremes. Variety of settlement patterns. Ever‐changing political conditions. Large cultural differentiation.
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The cultural landscape is especially remarkable in Europe, but it can be redefined in multiple ranges: foodscapes, waterscapes, battlescapes, cityscapes, powerscapes, leisurescapes. This diversity is an obligatory part of analysis. Professor Luiten sets the current landscape dynamics as: ‐ Agricultural changes: European policy making, which is under revision in Brussels every 2 years. ‐ Infrastructural works: transportation and energy productions. ‐ Demographic processes: Population growth and decline. Concentration and shrinkage. ‐ Economic shifts: industrialization, tourism, urban pressure. Connection of the old and the new. ‐ Climate change: floods and draught. Urgent new conditions. He also mentions that we need an analytical framework, in order to be specific about the criteria, so that we can differentiate landscapes: ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐
‐spatial characteristics: boundaries / coherence / visibility. ‐ historical qualities: continuity / authenticity / completeness ‐ conservation strategies: repair / regenerate / rejuvenate ‐ types of intervention: material / morphologic / semantic ‐ initiative and governance: public‐ private/ endogenous – exogenous/ top down – bottom up.
What can be the role of landscape design in this? Professor Luiten exemplifies the transformation in landscape through several study cases as models for landscape architects to follow. The common thread is the recovery of heritage through tradition and innovation.
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The first one is about the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall of the War World II, a contested heritage because of its military and political connotations. Notwithstanding, they were adapted to became dwellings, infrastructures, summer vacation houses or artistic installations.
Figure 1 The Atlantic wall, WWII.
Figure 2 The bunkers of the Atlantic Wall turned into artistic installations.
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The second study case is the Mallorca drywalls. Education programs have been implemented to learn how to repair them. This know‐how can be exported to all the Mediterranean area, recovering a long‐forgotten job into a profitable activity based in maintain heritage.
Figure 3 Dry walls in Mallorca.
The case of Cornwall is about maintaining the heritage of mining industry through active restoration works to prevent deterioration of ruins. With clever marketing, the lecturer reflects, could make it a tourist destination.
Figure 4 MIning industry heritage in Cornwall, UK.
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The case of Paanajärvi, Finland (current Russia), is about the culture of narrative and storytelling: recover the knowledge of work in wood in a traditional way. In result, it built a community with wood. People were attired to visit the results of recovering the wood culture before it was forgotten.
Figure 5 The recovering of the wood culture in of Paanajärvi, Finland.
In Slovenia, the coastal area is known for its mineral water and salt production, in the typical Venice manner of producing salt (in Middle Ages, salt equalled to power). The topography of salines were discover as a tourist landscape. It was redesign in the 20s and then abandoned and left to decay. The local museum recovered it with little founding, but great results.
Figure 6 Salt production in Slovenia.
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In the case of the topography of war, erased by overgrown greenery, the question is how to regenerate memories from the WWI. The masterplan combines interventions as graveyards, bomb craters… A constellation of points related is mapped to tell a story. Elements providing information, framing a view, indication a point or moments in the course of the war.
Figure 7 Topography of WWI.
The case of the wall in the west border of the URSS, which was built to prevent information to pass between the border and was later called the iron curtain: cutting through villages, villages from its agricultural land. After the fall of the Berlin wall, the iron curtain fell in other countries. This no man land became a green stripe. In Berlin, the remains of the walls are refurbished to become a park. Some of the parts are even dangerous for the mines; a bunch of small museums along the stripe had appear to explain this condition of limit.
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Figure 8 The traces of the iron curtain.
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The areas of coal mining and steel along the Rhin are an example to explain European heritage as the origin of the EU was an agreement for coal prices. In the Netherlands all the constructions were demolished in the 60s, but in other areas they survived until they were discovered as cultural artefacts. Duisburg Nord, by Peter Latz, was one of the first examples on how to revitalise an industrial site.
Figure 9 Plans of Duisburg Nord Landscape Park, Peter Latz.
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Figure 10 Duisburg Nord Landscape Park, Peter Latz.
Border area between ester Germany and Poland. Huge scale of intervention under the east Germany regime: removing the upper soil to extract the brown coal.
Figure 11 Open mining in Germany.
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What is your opinion towards the content of the lecture; argue this opinion? (whereby you can use specific examples of projects) I consider the fact of recovering a territory through its cultural heritage a main line of work in landscape architecture. We need functioning territories, developed ones, to keep its health. They also link the physical terrain with the idea that a people have of itself, remembering achievements and setting goals for the future based on these potentialities. The self‐esteem of a land is usually attached to the narrative that it has of itself. A paradigmatic project on this regard is the restauration of the harbour El Hornillo, Águilas, Spain. This infrastructure was built in the 19th century to board the minerals extracted on the mountains nearby, in a coast area of great depth between islands. Two railways came from the mountains to the sea. However, it was abandoned for over a century, and its decay made of this a dangerous place: it was closed, becoming a scar in the city as it divided neighbourhoods. The project by Temperaturas Extremas in 2014 restored the ruins, made paths to safely walk along this line, planted autochthonous vegetation to prevent soil degradation by run offs and built safe connections between the park and the neighbourhoods nearby. A successful proposal due to its commitment to recover the heritage.
Figure 12 El Hornillo Harbour Park, Águilas, Spain. Temperaturas Extremas.
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Lecture 2 – The European Policy Prof. Bas Pedroli, Associate Professor Land Dynamics Group Wageningen University, Landscape Europe. Brussels policy gap and the effects on the landscape, how to create a vision towards a European landscape policy.
What is, in the lecturer’s point of view, lacking in European policy regarding an integral vision on landscape at the EU level? The legislative definition of landscape for the European Convention is an area as perceived by people. The lecturer acknowledges that people recompose the landscape in their own mind, but even though the European Union defines boundary condition for landscape development (agriculture, environmental, infrastructural, urban, energy and other policies, usually based on the global market principles), the EU does not consider the consequences of the changes in the resulting landscape. This leads to a paradox today which will be turned into degraded landscapes tomorrow. By means of its organizational structure, landscape is not a competence of EU but of its regions; the consequence is legislation heterogeneity. However, what is important is to reconnect the views of the people with the landscape – even if not everyone is aware of the value of landscape. The characterisation of the European landscape convention can help us to understand its faults: the Council of Europe has 47 members (which part are states of EU, and their basic topic is human rights and to prevent social inequality); they have their headquarter at Staatsburg and they have no money nor power, but a strong ethical appeal. The authority comes from the European Court of Human rights, where they developed the consciousness of landscape during the 90s. The European Landscape Convention is a congress of local and regional authorities who set some key ideas: ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐
Everyone has the right to enjoy the landscape (as human right, even if it is an industrial one). Every landscape is worth being taken care of. Intrinsic values of landscape to be made explicit: basic issue, awareness of values. Landscape is a public good: public authorities are bound to take responsibility. Opposite to EU, which is market‐based.
These principles are in force since 1st March 2004 for those countries that have ratified it: only Estonia, Germany and Austria (because they are federal states and the authority relies in regional power). If 27/27 countries would ratify it, it would become a de facto EU convention and EU would have to take responsibility on landscape.
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Figure 13 The structure of the European Landscape Convention (Civilscapes are NGOs, Uniscapes are Universities.)
What are the threads towards the typical European identity of cultural landscape the lecturer is bringing forward? According to the lecturer, the ideas defining European landscape are: ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐
A first impression: appearance. Spatial coherence. Temporal coherence Character of place (e.g. what you pay for when buying a house in a valued landscape). Genius loci (spirit of the place).
In depth, we also can categorize what Europe mean for landscape: cultural landscape (the diversity of landscape is an asset of Europe: compared to others big global players); spatial developments are more and more defined by global market (global flow instead of local space: e.g. the price of the wheat above the functionality of feeding the local people); urban fringe (money first instead of quality of life); landscape is a social space requiring an interdisciplinary approach (the farmer was responsible for farming the land, now the market dictates and maybe biofuels are more profitable). An important idea is the demand for regional identity in Europe, based on the following constants: ‐ ‐
Growing demand in Europe for quality of life based on a healthy and specific environment (counteracting the global sensibility). Landscapes without people connected to them are no longer living landscapes (people committed to landscape is necessary, if not, it will degrade faster).
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Participation in landscape: a right and a responsibility, and the only guarantee of sustainability (involve people in the decision making is the only way to turn landscape to living landscape); New consciousness required: multifunctional use (multifarm, connect people to the farmer), regional products, shared gardens, care farms (family farms where handicapped people live, reconnecting with landscape), horticultural therapy or animal therapy (horse whisperers), even prison farms), slow food.
How does this influence the landscape in the opinion of the lecturer? The key idea is nature management: landscape is not a competence of EU, and they do not want this as every country should decide by itself. Because of this lack of common legislation landscapes may degrade. There is a hidden cost of our behaviour if we lost the self‐evidence of unity of man and landscape; we all have a responsibility. The lecturer points out that steps in observation are also steps in consciousness. For instance, problems of violence are the result of detachment of young urbanites or of rural inhabitants in areas in decay. This search for identity is the result of lack of involvements in landscape (“why should I be involved in it?”). In regard of the idea of landscape, the lecturer thinks that even in Greek times was some kind of consciousness around landscape, as an attachment to it, that gives identity.
What solutions are brought forward by the lecturer? Prof. Bas Pedroli identifies the challenges of landscape development: ‐ Revision of common agricultural policy: the effects on rural development on landscape are still unclear. This is capital as 70% of European landscape is agricultural. There are strong opposition to changes, so the objective is to explain and predict the fluctuations. ‐ Societal developments in Central and Eastern Europe, where we can find new growth poles with new rural problems. E.g. the huge developments in Rumania and Poland, where they need to develop in a proper way. ‐ Energy policy and clime adaptation: this has enormous consequences for rural development. ‐ Higher requirements for quality of life and environment. ‐ Shifting relation town‐countryside, adopting opposite characters as dynamic‐quiet: abandonment of the rural, shrinking cities. A reurbanisation trend has appeared regarding the search for a nicer environment for children, especially in remote areas with no services.
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Social demand for improvement of participative processes. E.g. the search for responsibility in colonies of northern Europeans in southern France and Spain.
The professor defines the state of the art in landscape research: ‐
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Great advances in multi criteria analysis, sustainability assessments and modelling tool (SENSOR, SEAMLESS, A TEAM….): new scientific resources decision makers can rely on to choose to develop an area and no other. However, the applicability in practice is lagging behind. Real world impacts of EU policies poorly understood. Problems on multy scalling and gobernance are still big due to decentralization, because many responsibilities lay on regional levels, which are difficult to uniform. Uncertainty in future developments: the economical trends are difficult to predict. We can find many good examples of landscape research regarding integration cultural heritage, biodiversity and public perception: landscape identity is a key issue: Landscape is connected to personal experience, but also to historical events.
Figure 14 Landscape identity with all its characteritics.
The lecturer also talks about how we use language: a landscape architect and a developer are going to have different vocabulary, which take them to different points of views while talking about the same things. In order to find solutions, the professor defines the role of research in landscape: ‐
Integrate geographical and landscape ecological principles with design, cultural history and socio‐economic considerations
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Focus on landscape as a whole instead of decomposing it into constituent elements. This is a task of EU but at the moment it has not a whole vision. Design with nature but also with culture and people. Integrated study and education, focusing on living landscapes for the future.
We can also analyse the paradoxes of the landscape perspective, trying to find a solution to each one: 1 Many policies have large impact on landscape, but landscape is not a clearly addressed competence. Developing a high‐level think tank to suggest smart solutions for relevant policy fields: e.g. European Landscape Forum or Agora Landscape, which is independent and takes the point of view of science and practitioners. 2 Landscape is a notion that is inherently complex and integrated of character, but science and policy prefer clear‐cut cause effect relationships: a policy maker prefers a fence to defend the landscape. Innovation on landscape: landscape as a narrative as a functional approach. Focusing on production and identity, as every landscape has a biography. 3 European landscape diversity is an asset, but this makes it difficult to develop EU wide strategies for it: because of their differences, as there is no way to take care in a unitarian way. We should use regional development and territorial cohesion to enhance sustainable landscape values. Not on the national level but in the regional one. 4 Landscape is a common good and everybody acknowledges its values, but its societal importance is hardly debated: landscape you cannot own (like Indians considered) because it is no tangible. Fundamental challenge in public participation to enhance cultural landscape identity and living landscape. 5 Cultural landscape and heritage paradox: if you don’t develop a landscape, it degrades. Landscape as a legacy. Protection through development. Some ideas around emerging research are also brought up:
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1 Universal commons: securing landscape as common good. 2 Roots and routes: coming to terms with mobility and evolving lifestyles. 3 Reactions and resilience: long term landscape transformation. What changes is irreversible. 4 Road maps: landscape as baseline and context for future change. (Where we are going to).
What is your opinion towards the content of the lecture; argue this opinion? (Whereby you can use specific examples of projects) The lecturer mentions several tools to intervene in the landscape in order to develop and maintain it healthy, but the most innovative one is participation. Without participation we cannot expect the people in it to feel attached to their territory. An exemplary case is the diagnostics of the Huerta, in Valence, Spain, between 2008‐ 2011, directed by Arancha Muñon and Carl Steinitz. The Huerta is a landscape structure based in a network of irrigation more than a millennium old. The agricultural fields are in perpetual move and are managed by an organization between nature and society called Tribunal de Aguas (Water Court).
Figure 15 The landscape of the Huerta, Valence.
The research focused on visual choices in 8 steps: definition of eight landscape units based on topography, land use and density; a campaign of picture‐taking by the inhabitants divided in exceptional, regular and degraded (5000 pictures were taken); 900 residents were chosen with demoscopic criteria; they were interviewed and ask to sort 60 based on its value, 6 as the most representative; a factor of visual choice was
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set, graded 1 to 5; the results were processed by a GIS programme; a collaborative map was then produced, with a 10x10m definition. This study was used as a tool for sensibilisation and to produce an action plan for the Huerta. As a result, threatened areas near urban centres are now protected and valorised. This experience is considered exemplary in participatory management and was spread through specialised literature.
Figure 16 Action plan for the Huerta after the study in visual choices.
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Lecture 3 – New challenges in the European landscape Marti Franch, Winner of the Rosa Barba Price 2012, EMF landscape architects Girona, teacher at ETSAB Barcelona, Reclaiming landscape from tourism in Europe, Design on Environmental restorations.
What are the new challenges in the European landscape that are put forward by the lecturer? The lecturer explains that sustainable landscape design must do more than function or perform ecologically; it must perform socially and culturally. All in all, it should go beyond ecological performance. He also states that the design of the experience is as important as the design of space and form. The lecturer acknowledges that we should reformulate a mission of restoration into a mission of re‐habilitation. He defines re‐habilitation as the concept of re‐enabling and artificially restore nature into nature/cultural project ready for consumption, via landscape project making.
What effects regarding tourism can be seen in the European landscape? Tourism can be considered as a consumption of landscape: the resources mobilized for tourists to enjoy a place damage the environment that they came to experiment. The concentration of this activity in a couple months a year in an otherwise almost inhabited area results in a pressure of resources and soil hardly sustainable. In the example of the lecturer, many manifested his opposition to the Club Med development in Cap de Creus in the 60s, even thinkers as Dalí. However, the project was built: it invaded the area, changing its vegetation and preventing from experiencing it as originally. However, the final project by Martí Franch does not reject the activity of visiting a place but reformulates it to turn the tourist into a discoverer: the rocks are associated with shapes, as fishermen used to do, finding points of reference in the landscape. The new sensibility tends to avoid dramatic changes in the structure of territory, and finds a compromise between the perils of people going into delicate wild place and developing a region so that landscapes are regarded as useful and appealing.
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Figure 17 Club Med as built in the 60s.
How does this influence the landscape practices in the opinion of the lecturer? The lecturer states that landscape architects must orchestrate scientific and technical knowledge to inform and re‐enable the site in such a way to make possible the co‐ habitation of the natural processes and its cultural experience. Regarding tourism, it means transforming the tourist into an explorer. In practice, we should adapt the “Open project” mentality: prepare the project for postponed decisions. In his example, not all that was design was built. We need to learn to spare decisions, not give so many specifications, delay them while the project is being built. As landscape architects, prepare the people and budget involved for this.
Figure 18 Integration of the project in the original landscape.
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What is your opinion towards the content of the lecture; argue this opinion? (Whereby you can use specific examples of projects) I agree with the lecturer in the analysis of the effects of tourism in landscape, as this very activity damages the environment it says it admires. Exporting a standard of living from very dense cities to isolated places as Cap de Creus results in a consumption of resources unaffordable to the territory. This is a matter of interests in several lectures, where the issue of pressure from tourism is stated as a thread to cities.
Figure 19 A cruise arrives to Dubrovnik.
The way this place is restored by Marí Franch is very interesting indeed, as it does not only recover the former aspect of it, but also takes charge of the materials and they are recycled into the project, avoiding moving it to other locations, which would result in exporting the problem. A very mature approach to landscape restoration. The project of Old Airfield in Frankfurt am Main by GTL Gnüchtel triebswetter Landschaftsarchitekten is also paradigmatic in this regard. After the closing down of the former airfield, this hardscape remained as a relic of the cold war. In the intervention, the asphalt was then fractionated in different grain sizes, creating a wide range of habitat and permeability conditions. The succession processes are exposed, from a desert‐like status to an unheard‐of ecosystem. The strategy of keeping the debris and waste within the area demonstrates a compromise with sustainability, avoiding moving the problem to a wasteland, assuming the responsibility of former mistakes. The landscape of broken pieces of concrete and asphalt generates an innovative image, a geologic mosaic. These grounds are now part of the Frankfurt’s greenbelt.
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Figure 20 Old Airfield in Frankfurt am Main by GTL Gnüchtel Triebswetter Landschaftsarchitekten.
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Lecture 4 – The Urban‐rural relationships in Europe Prof. Han Wiskerke, Chair of Rural sociology Group Wageningen university, Lector at the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam. Urban‐Rural foodscapes in Europe.
What is the relation between European cities and their surrounding landscape with respect to food production? For centuries, the growth rate and size of cities was determined by the productive capacity of a city’s rural hinterland (where food was produced very close to the city as most products could not be storage for long time nor transported long distances); unless they were located near the see or along a navigable river (transportation on water is usually cheaper than over land). Railways and trains in the early 19th century allowed the possibility to transport food over longer distances: the cities began to emancipate from geography in terms of size and location. The lecturer states that nowadays it is an endeavour to feed the citizens, especially when cities are growing at such a high speed. We can identify food regime dominant in Europe as global, industrialised and corporate; a localised traditional and artisan mode is gaining ground in industrialised economies, but it is yet exceptional.
Figure 21 The city and its hinterland: a relationship on productive capacity.
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What effects regarding urban growth and the intensification of food production can be seen in the European landscape? The lecturer identifies several effects in this regard:
The margin of production for farmers is reducing as the difference between costs and revenues are closest: prices are stabilizing but at the same time labour and land are more expensive. Some crops are more expensive to recollect than to left to rot. Therefore, the rural land is not attractive for people to leave, fleeing to cities. The reduction of farm labour is a concern as in 30 years’ time we might lose the agricultural know‐how. A mayor concern is the competition between food production lands and infrastructures and land for housing. Also, biofuel moves the production of food for better paying industries, which is especially distressing in Africa. The effect of landgrabbing: China is buying regions of Africa, so people must move from their lands. The methane emitted by cattle is a strong greenhouse gas. Loss of diversity of species: e.g. we are losing a variety of potatoes.
Figure 22 The loss of diversity in vegetables.
Great amounts of water and energy is used to produce food, specially meat. In 2050 there will not be enough water nor coal. Inefficient system from energy point of view. Before industrial revolution, 5‐10 calories with 1 calorie of fossil fuel; now 1 calorie is produced with 10 fossil fuel
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calories. Besides, 1/3 of food is thrown away, wasted, while obesity and problems related to unhealthy diet rocket.
How does this influence the landscape practices in the opinion of the lecturer? The lecturer points to a new way of food producing localised mode, with the example of Dar es Salaam eggs. This influences the design of the city and its infrastructures, as short chains require less infrastructure, with less emission of CO2 due to no need to long distances transportations.
Figure 23 Localised mode of food production: Dar es Salaam eggs experience.
In 2050 there will be 9 billion people to feed: changes are needed to make urban food provisioning. We need a more sustainable way of production, consuming less water and fuel. Also, it should be healthier, with fibre and vitamins. As an example to this approach, we should concentrate production in agro‐industrial parks in harbours, so that the food directly sent onboard frighters.
Figure 24 Concentration of agro‐industrial parks in harbours.
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We should adapt the agro‐ecological paradigm: food is a human right protected by food sovereignty. We should seek product diversification, integral and place‐based approach, locally produced. For this objective, we need to redesign everyday environment in a way that new sustainable routines are facilitated, and existing unsustainable routines are hampered. The lecturer gives clues as to how design a sustainable foodscape: nested foodscapes, in which agriculture helps maintain landscape, bringing the countryside to the city. The different scales approach different challenges:
Regional and supra regional: diversity of products / distribution and logistics / infrastructures. City‐region: urban‐rural relations / special planning / mono or multi functionality. City / neighbourhood: mono or multi functionality / location and type of food outlets. Combine functions. House: kitchen (kind of; absent or present); dining room / table. Utensils: size, portion.
All in all, new landscape architects seek to create neighbourhoods integrating all functions (food, dwelling, work, leisure), contemplating geographical diversity and local specificity (analyse of the specific situations of production patterns). Sustainability is more than reducing ecological food print: food produced without oil and less water is the aim. Food security is also about affordability: combatting hunger by producing more food. Healthy eating is not individual responsibility, as it influences society as a whole.
What is your opinion towards the content of the lecture; argue this opinion? (Whereby you can use specific examples of projects) The question of food production within the European landscape is an urgent matter to address, as we cannot keep on relying on eating food produced thousands of miles away due to the enormous costs of fuel to transport it and the loss of sovereignty attached to this. Europe needs to be able to feed itself as a strategic principle, and to achieve it in the most effective and sustainable way. An interesting and experimental example is the Baix Llobregat Agropark, the fertile land south of Barcelona. After decades of degradation, when the agricultural areas were considered nothing more than potential urban land, in 1998 3.330 ha of fertile soil 15 km from the city centre were protected to create new model of metropolitan management. eLearning Module_EMiLA 2019 26
This agricultural land was then defined as tactical land to feed the metropolis and its hinterland. A new institution was created to manage these lands: the Consorcio del Parque Agrario, where the public and the private demands are aggregated. In this way, the coordination results in an efficiency: it encompasses 14 municipalities and big infrastructures as main airports, highways and railways. Nowadays it is economically viable, and it achieved the objective to develop a land threatened by a huge city and also it is able to provide for it with food of local production.
Figure 25 Baix Llobregat Agropark, Barcelona. Joaquim Sabaté.
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Lecture 5
– “Landscape character Sensitivity and
Capacity” Dr. Simon Bell is a forester‐turned‐landscape architect. He is a part‐time Associate director of the OPENspace Research Centre within ESALA. He is a Professor in the Latvia University of Agriculture as well as having been Visiting Professor in 2013 at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Recently he became a visiting professor at Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin. In 2012 Simon was elected President of the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS). Simon Bell is a true European professional.
What is the European landscape character assessment LCA? The EU defines landscape as “an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and human factors”, and also states “it is our duty to understand, protect and enhance this heritage”. The lecturer gives an alternative definition: landscape is an inventory of the landscapes of their country as a tool for planning and managing them in the future, therefore we need to have a method. The process of identifying and describing variation in the character of the landscape and using this information to assist in managing changes the landscape. It seeks to identify and explain the unique combination of elements and features that make landscapes distinctive. This process results in the production of a LCA. It is produced at different scales for different purposes; it may be hierarchical (regional down to local), with each being related to the one above or below.
Why is a landscape character assessment important? At present, in many parts of Europe, the rural heritage is being rapidly eroded and even destroyed by social or technological changes, modern agriculture, urban growth or neglect, among other forces. The professor defines what is to be kept: it is justified as heritage value. The planning system should facilitate positive change whilst maintaining and enhancing distinctive landscape character. The design of development should take account the local landscape character. Development management decisions should take account potential effects on landscapes and the natural and water environment including cumulative effects.
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New developments should be designed to reflect the landscape characteristics and special qualities identified in the LCA of the area in which they are proposed. The Council wish to encourage measures to enhance the landscape characteristics of the area. We can define LCA as a supplementary guidance on siting and design and sustainable design.
What is the absorbing capacity of the landscape? The absorbing capacity is the extent to which a particular landscape can absorb certain kinds of developments until it reaches a tipping point of quality and characters that turns it into a different landscape. This capacity is the ability of a landscape character type or area to accommodate a specific change without undesired effects, influenced by landscape sensitivity. Varies according to the type and degree of change and reflects the value of the landscape. E.g. wind energy: a hundred turbines may have a huge impact, depending on the visual.
What is the sensitivity of the landscape? The sensitivity of the landscape reflects its vulnerability to change; the ability of a system to take pressure. Within a landscape, certain attributes may be more vulnerable to change than others.
What is an approach to assessment to sensitivity and capacity? Landscape sensitivity and capacity gives a powerful means of justification for strategic landscape planning decisions. It is based on factors that can be clearly argued, tested and agreed by all parties concerned. It can be used in public participation processes. This tools protect the concept of maintaining landscape diversity at a range of scales We should be aware that are not stable concepts: regular monitoring of landscape quality and a more process‐based approach can be implemented. The landscape is sensitive to different forms of development. For example, building a development, infrastructure, energy, industry, recreation and tourism. Capacity is the ability by which the landscape can accommodate a particular type or scale of development in relation to its sensitivity. A landscape with grater sensitivity to a development has usually lower capacity to accommodate this.
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The lecturer acknowledges a common approach to assessing Landscape Sensitivity: a sensitivity to a specific development is influenced by landscape character, affected by aspects as:
‐ Visual/experiential: scale, diversity, complexity. ‐
Geology, geomorphology, hydrology, soils.
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Ecology, vegetation/land cover.
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Land use, including settlement types, infrastructure, building types.
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Historical, social and cultural aspects.
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Nature conservation/landscape value.
We should have into account the criteria: ‐ Along a defined scale: quantitatively (high, medium or low), numerically on a scale (1‐5). We must define the rationale and definition of different levels. ‐ Each unit or combination of units is assessed for sensitivity to the specific type of development proposed: land cover, visibility, openness. ‐ T‐ ables: for each key characteristic and other aspects. ‐ Overall sensitivity: combining the individual sensitivities. But also it should show the analysis of individual sensitivities, avoiding averaging or cancelling‐out assigned levels. We should weight some aspects: some are more important than others (multiplying factor). If we find one whih is very high, don’t cover it. Eg: for recreation: winter/summer, land/water, motorised/no motorised tourism. To asses capacity we find the general rules: ‐ Assess each LCA unit to its suitability for the potential development type (e.g. renewable energy) including consideration of landscape value. ‐ Categorise the different types of development and assess the varying capacity of these (e.g. different sizes, numbers and layouts of wind turbines). E.g.: which forms of activity are most suitable for a specific LCA: it may be only hiking.
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How could you use the mapping to research the sensitivity and capacity of the landscape in your country? GIS may be used to assist data analysis: identify capacity in relation to individual landscape character units, individual character types, areas, combining all the latter, area‐wide attributes (landscape scale, landform shape and indivisibility). GIS tools offer a rational and objective application we should take advantage of.
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Lecture 6 – “Building for biodiversity” Landscape architect, one of the founders of DS landscape architects. Van Stiphout served on the ASMAL committee and the Culture Council and is a member of several quality teams and advisory groups. She was a jury member of the Heritage Award, the Prize for Cultural Heritage of the European Union, and has been a guest lecturer at the Academies of architecture in Arnhem and she is the former head of Landscape department at Amsterdam. She has the platform for building for biodiversity named nextcity.nl, together with Mathias Lehner. 1. Why should we design for biodiversity? The lecturer states that biodiversity increases the quality of life and wellbeing, as it is scientifically proved that people stay shorter in hospitals in a biodiverse environment. 2. How can biodiversity contribute to the quality of life in the city for all that lives? A biodiverse ambient, with its greenery, absorbs the CO2 and gives Oxygen. It also cools the air reducing the heat island effect. It is also important for culture, as art, music or architecture find in it an attachment to the territory.
Figure 26 Ecosystem services in the city.
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3. What are the design tools for you to design for biodiversity? Explain each of them. The lecturer catalogize six tools: the first four we can discuss during design process, the last two are important regarding biodiversity.
Conectivity: with the context (the streets, the inside and outside, vertically/horizontally). Example: connecting the water for people and also for the animals to come out from the water.
Figure 27 An structure allowing humans and animals enjoy the river.
Redundancy: in an overlapping way. Example: design for more than one species. The climate is changing, so we are bound to find several habitats at the same place.
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Figure 28 Nests integrated in buildings for different animals.
Modularity: difference in structures and size that we find in the city. Examples: A road, small houses, a river…
Figure 29 Welcome a wide range of animals in urban environment.
Diversity: in species (the more variety, the stronger the ecosystem can be). Maintenance: how we carry on once its built. Biodiversity possibilities.
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Stewardship: getting the people into contributing into the biodiversity. Make participate the users. Example: the literature of animals in the city can be a powerful tool in divulgation. Communication: goals achieved in a certain neighbourhood. Example: the camera in a nest for the world to see it. Informing of neighbourhood achievements through postcards. 4. Which examples are given in the lecture? Amsterdam: allows everyone to change their house one way or another. The city changes to house more animals. Stockholm: the animals can migrate to the neighbourhood. Nature and commercial goals go together.
Figure 30 Biodiversity structures in Stockholm.
Birds are allow to live in colonies:
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Figure 31 A colony for birds.
Venice: the architect Scarpa introduced structures for nesting in his designs in the 50s. 5. What kind of examples of planning policies are given in the lecture? In Manchester the canopy of trees reduced the temperature by 1 to 3 degrees. Increasing the canopy by 10% is important due to climate change. In Switzerland people wanted more biodiversity. So, it was established that 15% of every development needs to be reserved for nature. 6. How can you convince a client to make costs on research on biodiversity in the project? The most successful way of working for designers is looking at the city as a rock. In a cross section we can see the modularity, continuity, diversity, redundancy… These concepts can be discussed with clients.
7. What do you think you will be confronted with, making a biodiverse project in your country. And how are you tackling the problems? The lecturer advises that we should think of what we can do for others, not only for our clients. This is especially true as more people are migrating to live the cities; we should improve eLearning Module_EMiLA 2019 36
biodiversity, be aware of the possibilities it offers, and think of implementing biodiversity from the beginning as, in this way, it does not cost more.
Figure 32 Integration of biodiversity in architecture.
There is an interesting proposal from the Barcelona City Council consisting in installing “insect hotels” in parks where pollinators can hatch. This way, the health of plants with flowers increases. The problem is when these initiatives remain in the public realm: if there is some kind of advantage for private contractor regarding integration of biodiversity in their projects we will be able to spread the range of species in our cities.
Figure 33 Hotels for insects in Barcelona.
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