UE: EU Submission - Sean Savage and Craig Mitchell

UE:EU

STUDENTS: SEAN SAVAGE CRAIG MITCHELL TUTOR: IAN FISHER MA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE CHATHAM BUILDING LOWER CAVENDISH STREET M15 6BR CONTACT: i.fisher@mmu.ac.uk 07801258917

UE:EU In a Mediterranean climate there is a delicate relationship between the physical resource of water and the pattern of human activity. Historically, territorialisation of the land relied on the availability of this resource and the regularity of its recharge. This supported a largely devolved urban morphology, reliant on an intricate and stable network of physical and cultural relationships. However, the rapid collapse of this system in the last 50 years has combined to expose its vulnerability. A combination of dynamic social, political and environmental factors reflected its minimal capacity for adaptability and change. This has lead to physical and human desertification and the collapse of the urban network, which structured the landscape in the interior of many Mediterranean countries. This project seeks to address how water resources in a period of climatic unpredictability can be reprogrammed as a catalyst for an emergent urbanism. It has been developed in conjunction with MA students in Landscape Architecture, Cristina Rodrigues Architects, the local authority and Centro Cultural Raiano. The damaged and derelict urban systems in and around Idanha-a-Nova municipality in central Portugal, have been used as a laboratory for idea making and testing.

The theoretical discourse of landscape urbanism has been utilised as a means of providing a potential vehicle for staging opportunities for emergent “hydrologic” urban prototypes. The requirement for an approach, which is embedded in to the interrupted and currently unpredictable anthropocentric/biocentric relationship is essential if an ecologically dynamic re-urbanisation of the land is to be successful. This approach needs to adopt a multi disciplinary agenda, which is adaptable and resilient and operates with maximum flexibility in a multi time scale environment. The intention is create new spatial and temporal patterns of inhabitation in which human activity is in a positive ecological relationship with water.

Project one This seeks to establish an emergent urbanism on what is at present considered an inhospitable terrain of topographical extremes. However, these extremes have the potential to maximise the value of water as a “collectable” resource. They also have the advantage of connecting with the River Tagus, which could act as future transport infrastructure. Various water retention systems are proposed, which retain water within a number of parallel valleys. Dependent on gradient, these systems develop intensive agriculture or water storage. The emergent urbanism is directly linked to the “productivity” of these systems and evolves as a suspended three dimensional grid, in which various sub structures for living, processing etc can be inserted. The grid itself is an organic system, sucking up water, recycling waste and acting as a frame for vegetative and algae production.

Project two As the relationship between agriculture and resources collapsed, it was replaced by a monoculture of forestry plantations. This project utilises the degradation of the land, following plantation felling as the stage to introduce systems, which will recharge the soil/water complex as a first stage in establishing a new devolved urban system, which is resilient and adaptable. The key component is the establishment of a series of “land bowls”, which through the use of water retaining polymers and artificial seeding mats aim to re-establish the complex Iberian woodland system, which in the past provided food and materials. Overlaid and interwoven in to this structure is a secondary system of highly productive plants, which will supplement the Iberian woodland complex. This is a multi-scale approach, with initially the “cabin in the forest” as the first stage of an emergent urbanism, which will evolve in time to develop production, processing and selling nodes as part of a re-emergent urbanism.

The collapse of an ‘Urban Framework’

Location and Context:

Castelo Branco Portugal

Idanha a Nova Castelo Branco

Idanha a Nova

Small scale subsistance farming

Despite being situated between three major European cities, Lisbon, Madrid and Porto; Idanha a Nova has minimal connectivity with them and feels geographically isolated in the interior of the Iberian penisular. This project utilises the Municipality as a ‘laboratory’ for testing ideas on emergent urbanism, which could act as a model for future projects, throughout the Mediterranean.

European Union Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)

Large scale wheat production

Scale of “industrial” agriculture impacts on previous delicate balance between humans and the landscape

Introduction of single specie plantations

In a Mediterranean climate there is a delicate relationship between the physical resource of water, soil, microclimate, indigenous vegetation and the pattern of human activity. Historically, territorialisation of the land created a symbiosis between resource exploitation and renewal, which could support a level of productivity commensurate with sustained economic activity. A combination of social, political and technological factors in the last 50 years have combined to change this relationship between humans and the land, leading to a collapse in the urban framework, human desertification and the exploitation of non renewable resources.

The decline in available moisture:

25 20 15 10

10 8 6 4 2

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2011

2012

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

0

1998

Year of rainfall

0

1997

2012

2011

2010

2009

5

2008

2007 Lack of data

2006

2005 Lack of data

Amount of fog in days

585mm

Year of rainfall

2004

2003

2002 Lack of data

1999

1998

0

1997

2011

2010

2009

2008

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

0

200

2007

20

600 400

2006

40

800

2001 Lack of data

60

30

2000 Lack of data

Rain in mm

80

2005 Lack of data

Amount of rain in days

35

2001

1000

12

2000

100

40

1999

1200

Annual average wind speed (days) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]

1998

120

Amount of fog (days) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]

1997

Amount of rain (mm) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]

Annual average wind speed kmph

Amount of rain (days) [Castelo Brano, Portugal]

Year of wind speed

Year of rainfall

Sampling Infrastructures: Poorly developed and fractured anthropocentric infrastructure has had a profound effect on land use, settlement and transport networks.

Penha Garcia

Medelim

São Miguel de Acha

369 27.1/Km2

Aldeia de Santa Margarida

Aldeia de Santa Margarida

São Miguel de Acha

Monfortinho Alcafozes

Alcafozes

Toulões Salvaterra do Extremo

Idanha-a-Nova

Ladoeiro

560 13.6/Km2

Monfortinho

Zebreira

Ladoeiro

Segura

Zebreira

BASIC AMENITIES

LOW/NO AMENITIES

608 11/Km2

202 3.6/Km2

Salvaterra do Extremo

SUFFICIENT AMENITIES

Rosmaninhal

79 3.8/Km2

355 12.9/Km2

Toulões

Idanha-a-Nova

1345 7.4/Km2

224 3.9/Km2

Idanha-a-Velha

Oledo

237 6.4/Km2 170 2.1/Km2

2352 10.4/Km2

Segura

1028 98/Km2

1290 20.4/Km2

176 2.4/Km2

PREDOMINANCE OF MUNICIPAL ROADS

Rosmaninhal

748 5.8/Km2

272 8.9/Km2

Monsanto

Proença -aVelha

Idanha-a-Velha

Oledo

Penha Garcia

Medelim

Monsanto

Proença -aVelha

PREDOMINANCE OF TERTIARY ROADS

PREDOMINANCE OF TRACKS

537 2/Km2

HIGH POPULATION DENSITY

MEDIUM POPULATION DENSITY

LOW POPULATION DENSITY

Water catchment systems

Green Infrastructure

Urban Infrastructure WATER CONSERVATION AND HARVESTING:

FULLY ESTABLISHED FLEXIBLE FRAMEWORK STRUCTURES :

SPATIAL:

FOOD PRODUCTION:

creating a stage for an emergent urbanism is to capture and harvest precipitation which is normally concentrated in two months of the year, but which has recently become more unpredictable in its timing and volume�

Vegetation encorporated as a spatial tool in emergent urban structures Living Walls, Vertical and Hanging Gardens

Multiple cycles of agricultural production, to achieve self sufficiency

THREE STAGE URBANISM: Stage 1: A flexible framework of 3D grids is proposed, which manifest themselves lightly on the ground and above the valley bottom on a set of fixed points. This reduces to a minimum the land take of level terrain so as to maximise vegetation production, as the most cost effective solution in finding a staging for integrating anthropocentric and biocentric systems.

Stage 2: The grid acts as a mediator, providing shelter and shade, passive cooling, energy, transportation conduits for water and waste, recycling of materials, support for vegetation growth, frames for public/private space, spaces of transaction and permanence.

Stage 3: The aim is for the framework to act as a prosthetic for an emergent urbanism. The 3D aggregation of space and form, containing multiple activities, but in intimate dialogue with physical resources will gradually adapt and grow in order to colonise the heterogeneous topography.

1.3 - Multiple Gradient Intervention “The key operation in CONTOUR SWALES:

WEIRS:

RAINSAUCERS:

SILT TRAPS: RESOURCE[FULL]:

Vegetation structures create humidity and shelter and reduce evaporation

PROJECT_1

Valley Type 1.2 - Shallow Gradient

Upcycle vegetation - Reed Beds, Algae Tubes and Ponds, Capilary Transfer, Bio-Fuel and Compostable Materials

UPCYCLE:

Valley Type 1.1 - Moderate Gradient

Valley Type 1.0 - Steep Gradient

Monocultural Forestry Planations *plantation forestry

Environmental Impact

Establish vegetation and enrich soils

120

3.47M hectares 38%Total Forest Cover

100

Forestry [Portugal]

Less labour intensive employment [Portugal, 11,000 employed in forestry]

Land Bowls

Lack of data

Amount of rain in days

40

20

Increased scale of industrial plantations [Portugal]

Lack of biological understory [increased evaporation]

2011

2010

2009

2008

Rain statistics [Castelo Branco, Portugal]

Duel system of Iberian woodland complex and multi-productive plantation sub grid

Natural colonisation in interstitial spaces

2007

Year of rainfall

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

2005

1999

2000

1998

0

Incubator system -Mycorrhizza fungi -Water absorbing polymer, -Seed mat of Iberian woodland as incubator vegetation system

This project utilises the degradation of the land, following plantation felling to introduce sustainable systems and a loose grid of highly productive plants, which will recharge the soil/water complex as a first stage in establishing a new devolved urban system, which is resilient and adaptable. Through the use of water retaining polymers, soil enhancing fungi and Iberian woodland seeds embedded within a hemp matting system, a sustainable ecology will be created improving humidity levels and availability of water.

60

1997

1990

1,234,000 ha

5.37M hectares

1,034,000 ha

80

550,000 ha

As the relationship between agriculture and resources collapsed, it was replaced by a monoculture of forestry plantations. These type of plantations have increased significantly over the past 40 years. In the same time period water availability and employment has decreased. This proposal addresses physical social and cultural issues by introducing a new urban morphology, which replaces the plantation system to create a sustainable infrastructure whilst biologically in dynamic equilibrium.

Increased fire risk [Portugal, 2002-12 average 141,356 ha forest destroyed]

Utilised on previous forestry plantations After harvesting, the land has the greatest potential for change.

Unsustainable plantation economics are replaced by the economics of sustainability through the ‘land bowl’ system Secondary grid of productive plants

‘Cabin in the forest’

PROJECT_2

Establishing sustainable industry

First stage of emergent urbanism

Plantation forestry

Ref

Ref

Vegetated ‘land bowl’ Ref

Site specific structure ‘Node’ of activity

As the multi layer forest matures, transient seasonal harvesting will require permanent structures to process, manufacture and trade, leading to an emergent devolved urbanism in tune with the rhythms of the forest productivity cycle

Ref

Ref

Connections between grids Developing Infrastructure

Isolated ‘land bowl’ situated within a plantation forest with a site specific structure.

Separate grids of ‘land bowls’ interconnect creating ‘nodes’ of access/activity/trade etc.

Grids and localised industries expand improving levels of infrastructure and further development.

Grids expand further creating numerous ‘nodes’ of activity developing the infrastructure, beginning the process of reemergant urbanism.

Individual grids evolve into a complex system that can self sustain ecologically and economically.