Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the landscapebe in the architecture

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny AndrĂŠs Osorio Gaviria

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Image 1: Novo Nordisk Nature Park & Aquatic Centre (Source: SLA, 2014 & L-A-P, 2010)

LET THE ARCHITECTURE BE IN THE LANDSCAPE AND LET THE LANDSCAPE BE IN THE ARCHITECTURE Novo Nordisk Nature Park by SLA Aquatic Centre by Paisajes Emergentes

Danny Andrés Osorio Gaviria Landscape Architecture Master in Urbanism and Strategic Planning KU Leuven 2016

Abstract This current paper is part of the evaluation of the Landscape Architecture course from the Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning offered by the Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning (ASRO) at KU Leuven.

In this paper it is critically correlate two different landscape architecture projects. The first project is the Novo Nordisk Nature Park, located in the city of Bagsværd, Denmark, designed by SLA Architects and the second project is the Aquatic Centre, located in Medellín, Colombia, designed

by Paisajes Emergentes. The comparison derived from the lectures of the Professor Han Lörzing from TU Eindhoven, where highlighting the main principles of landscape architecture it is critically compared both projects to discuss the contemporary practices of landscape architecture.

Keywords: landscape architecture, park, nature, ecology, woodland, wetland, pool, landscape, architecture, public space.

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny Andrés Osorio Gaviria

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Image 2: Novo Nordisk Nature Park (Source: SLA, 2014)

Novo Nordisk Nature Park by SLA “In Novo Nordisk's new park the boundaries between worklife and leisure disappear. Frogs, trees, red cheeks and wonder become natural elements of a day's work.” SLA Novo Nordisk Nature Park is located in the city of Bagsværd in the north of Copenhagen, Denmark and it was a competition for the masterplan and landscape design for the new corporate headquarter of the pharmacy company Novo Nordisk, the first place was won by SLA Architects in 2

association with Hanning Larsen Architects. The project was developed in an area of 31.000 m , designed between 2010 and 2011 and realized between 2011 and 2014.

SLA Architects defined the new Novo Nordisk landscape as a reinterpretation of the Danish woodlands and the “dead-ice” landscape where the natural processes are the main driver for a new

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny Andrés Osorio Gaviria

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definition of landscape architecture. In the park designed by SLA people can walk in a winding path system inside a natural environment composed by a different biotopes where, according to the designers, the creative thoughts and social encounters are stimulated by the experience of the landscape.

Novo Nordisk is a pharmaceutical company which required a green space capable to demonstrate the innovative characteristics of the company. This requirement was the starting point for the development of the proposal based on the nature as the main concept complemented with the concept of walking. “Great thinker like Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche got their best ideas while

walking”

and,

according

to

the

designers, people become more creative, more informal and open to new ideas when they are outside walking through the wild and

Image 3: Novo Nordisk Nature Park (Source: SLA, 2014)

untamed nature.

Another important concept in the design process of the Novo Nordisk Park is the light, in words of SLA: “We are inspired by the natural light because it’s dynamic and sensual. It is quite natural that light moves and changes character. When the wind blows, the leaves of a tree or surfaces reflect

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny Andrés Osorio Gaviria

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Image 4: Novo Nordisk Nature Park (Source: SLA, 2014)

light, so it is always in some sort of motion�, in this way the light plays a fundamental role in the design process of the park, where the dynamic white light defines different habitats inside the landscape.

Image 5: Novo Nordisk Nature Park design layers (Source: SLA, 2014)

As a design strategy SLA used the landscape as an interface for the social activities, especially meetings between the employees of the company, stimulating an active work environment

where

they

can

exchange

knowledge and innovation. In this way the landscape is strategically designed as a scenario where work and leisure are mixing together with recreational activities integrated to the everyday life. The path system was designed based on the topography of the park and the envisioned biotopes provide access from one building to another and in general to the surroundings.

In relation to the natural element of the park, it was used an extensive variety of native plants, more than one thousand trees were planted to Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny AndrĂŠs Osorio Gaviria

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Image 6: Novo Nordisk Nature Park general plan (Source: SLA, 2014)

define a future small forests and self-regulatory biotopes. The vegetation was designed to be wild nature with the maximum biodiversity and the minimal care, dead tree trunks were placed as habitat for beetles, caterpillars, mosses, etc. transforming the landscape with the aesthetic of nature.

Image 7: Novo Nordisk Nature Park water balance (Source: SLA, 2014)

The one thousand trees planted in the park are in relation with the local microclimate helping to absorb the rainwater having a one hundred percent natural water balance, capable to handle the rainfalls without directing the water into the sewers, serving as rainwater reservoir of the area.

The lighting takes place as one of the most important elements in the landscape, in daytime the shadows are a texture in the white concrete of the paths and in the night it was created a moonlight effect where “light is not just light. Light is a story about space. It is dynamic. It changes all the time. When light is best, it tells stories and create atmosphere�.

Novo Nordisk Nature Park water balance (Source: SLA, 2014) 6 Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the LandscapeImage be in8:the Architecture - Danny AndrĂŠs Osorio Gaviria

The artificial light in the park provide a spatial characterization inside the park.

The Novo Nordisk Nature Park is a landscape designed with the maximum of natural variety where dense biotopes interplays with the sinuous path system along different types of nature inside the park, providing a “native” landscape

in

an

urban

environment

complemented with the aesthetic experience of nature and becoming a place for recreation, inspiration and social exchange.

Image 9: Novo Nordisk Nature Park water balance (Source: SLA, 2014)

Aquatic Centre by Paisajes Emergentes

“The proposal consisted in the articulation of the four pools through a landscape system with native vegetation from the edge of the tropical wetlands.” Paisajes Emergentes

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny Andrés Osorio Gaviria

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Image 10: Aquatic Centre (Source: L-A-P, 2010)

The Aquatic Centre is located in MedellĂ­n, Colombia, inside the existing main sports complex of the city. The competition for the design of the new place for aquatic activities in the city was won by Paisajes Emergentes and the proposal should reuse the area of the former karting tracks, which were moved, and the former Olympic pool; the space for the new aquatic centre was delimited in the west by the edge of an important urban street parallel to the elevated tracks of the Metro and, in 2

the east, by the new coliseum complex. The project was developed in an area of 16.000 m , the governmental institution in charge of the project was the INDER (Sports and Recreation Institute) and it was designed in 2008 and realized between 2008 and 2010.

The new aquatic centre was designed for the XI South American Games in 2010 and should satisfy the needs for the future competences and at the same time being the centre for swimming training; the requirements for the project were: in first place an Olympic pool, in second

place

a

pool

for

synchronized

swimming and in third place two pools for swimming

training.

The

proposal

was

developed as a composition of public spaces, landscape,

elevated

landscape

and

Image 11: Aquatic Centre pools (Source: L-A-P, 2010)

a

pedestrian circulation system articulated as site and landscape.

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny AndrĂŠs Osorio Gaviria

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Image 12: Aquatic Centre (Source: L-A-P, 2010)

Paisajes Emergentes (Emergent Landscapes) is an architectural office which appropriates the word landscape for describing its professional practice pointing out the ambivalence of the definition of landscape and its recovery as a design strategy for the contemporary architectural practice.

The key concept for the proposal emerged from the complexity of the program where the public spaces should be articulated with the spaces for the athletes. The proposal highlight the public vocation of the aquatic centre preserving the sports activities in the open air and establishing the division between them through landscape operations; this was the key to generate different levels where the courtyards system, the elevated gardens system and the landscape are the structure which articulate different components of the project and it is not just an additional element

Image 13: Aquatic Centre circulation system (Source: L-A-P, 2010)

to complement the architecture.

In the Aquatic Centre the pools are articulated though a system of gardens composed by native vegetation from the tropical wetlands, an aquatic landscape which works as a system to separate public spaces from the sports areas. The architecture is in constant dependence of the landscape, in the low level the basic services, like bathrooms and dressing rooms for athletes and people in general, are articulated by a courtyards system giving natural light to these spaces.

The methodology in this project is based in the atmosphere, specifically the water and air. The designers built a complex urban environment where the water logic, the experience, the light and the air are the main operative systems of a complex public space as a continuous circuit developed from the access to the centre and connected with the other areas of the sports complex.

Image 14: Aquatic Centre section (Source: L-A-P, 2010)

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny AndrĂŠs Osorio Gaviria

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The Aquatic Centre was designed based on landscape, horticulture and botany knowledge, nevertheless, it is not an example of traditional landscaping and rather it is a project related to landform developments and ecological processes as a guideline for the architectural language and the spatial composition. The landscape system is the structure of the architecture and the public space where in between the pools and inside the artificial space grows a native wetland landscape.

Image 15: Aquatic Centre (Source: L-A-P, 2010)

Critical Comparison Understanding the singularity of each project it is possible to say that they are correlated in common relevant points related to principles of landscape architecture, in contrast there are some critical differences, what makes interesting the discussion of the contemporary practice of landscape architecture.

First of all, in both projects we can consider, according to the Professor LĂśrzing, that the landscape creator is man-made, who as builder is trying to recreate purely natural environments. In the first

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case SLA recreates the woodlands as an urban park and in the second case Paisajes Emergentes recreates the tropical wetlands as an inherent element of the architecture and public space. Both projects are the result of the interaction of the natural environment with the human intervention where we can say there is a rational perspective as artificial environments involving and longing for the ecological perspective as natural environments.

The Novo Nordisk Nature Park and the Aquatic Centre have something in common, the intention to be nature in an urban environment where the man-made component is articulated with a strong natural component.

The basic materials used in both projects are the concrete (artificial – man-made) and nature (natural - the intention of “pure” nature) as

an

attempt

to

recreate

ecological

environments (vegetation, earth and water) conceived, as Professor Lörzing said, places of reconciliation between man and nature.

Image 16: Novo Nordisk Nature Park (Source: SLA, 2014)

From my point of view, I consider both projects as parks. In the Novo Nordisk Nature Park the architecture take place inside the nature, as an element in the middle of the forest, while in the Aquatic Centre the nature takes place inside the architecture, as the container of the nature, which makes them an interesting example of landscape architecture projects with common principles and at the same time different applications and final results. The Novo Nordisk Nature Park can be considered from a romantic perspective due to its organic forms and sinuous path system, however

the

Aquatic

Centre

can

be

Image 17: Aquatic Centre section (Source: L-A-P, 2010)

considered from a rational perspective due to

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its design with geometrical forms. Nevertheless, what makes them similar is the ecological perspective where the integration of natural elements and native species are components of the main strategy: design with nature.

Image 18: Novo Nordisk Nature Park (left) & Aquatic Centre (right) in the Han Lörzing´s diamond (Source: Lörzing, 2015)

As I mentioned before, these two projects as parks have different roles in the city. In first place both are recreational spaces for leisure, in second place both have an ecological role in an urban environment as nature in the city. Although the Aquatic Centre is designed from the concept of water and wetlands, just the Novo Nordisk Nature Park is playing an hydrological role related to the rainwater and water reservoir.

Related to the different types of environment that Professor Lörzing mentioned in his lectures, there is an interesting dichotomy between the two projects. First, in the Novo Nordisk Nature Park the architecture (buildings) is the private sphere while the landscape (park) is the public sphere with a soft orientation to the collective sphere oriented to the employees of the company. In second place, in the Aquatic Centre, the architecture (in this case I am conceiving the whole project as a building) is the public sphere, with some restrictions, while the landscape is the articulator element which defines what is for public domain (public space and circulations), what is for collective domain (services) and what is for private use (in this case areas dedicated exclusively to athletes).

Both projects are connected to the surroundings; however there is a difference, in the Novo Nordisk

Let the Architecture be in the Landscape and let the Landscape be in the Architecture - Danny Andrés Osorio Gaviria

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Nature Park the path system was designed as a network connected to the city while in the Aquatic Centre the designers defined an internal circulation, as public space, connected to other components of the sports complex, however due to the restrictions in the use of the pools, the access to the project is concentrated in specific points at the edge of the project. Another point in common and at the same time difference is the topographical manipulations, first in the Novo Nordisk Park there is a topographical manipulation based on the envisioned stormwater system, the climate adaptation, the creation of the biotopes and the path system, while in the Aquatic Centre it was designed a completely rational topography based on geometrical forms which define the landscape form, circulation as public space and the location of spaces related to services.

In conclusion, the Novo Nordisk Nature Park by SLA and the Aquatic Centre by Paisajes Emergentes are two projects in a dichotomous correlation where there are common concepts and principles of landscape architecture in the conception of the projects, however, there is a completely different application and materialization of these principles and, from my point of view, is the fundamental base of the contemporary practice of landscape architecture: let the architecture be in the landscape and let the landscape be in the architecture.

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Image 19: Aquatic Centre & Novo Nordisk Nature Park (Source: L-A-P, 2010 & SLA, 2014)

Bibliography

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Acuático

de

Medellín”,

<http://l-a-

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PLATAFORMA ARQUITECTURA, “Complejo acuático para los IX Juegos Suramericanos / Paisajes Emergentes”, 2010, <http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/610084/complejo-acuatico-para-los-ix-juegossuramericanos-paisajes-emergentes>, January 09, 2016.

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