muresan anca-maria man and nature landscape architecture

7/21/2019 Muresan Anca-Maria Man and Nature Landscape Architecture

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Landscape Architecture

Man and nature. Friends or foes?

Comparison between PRES Constitucin Project (Elemental) and Tour & Taxis Project (Bas

Smets Bureau)

Muresan Anca-Maria

Erasmus exchange student, Romania

Coordinator: Viviana dAuria


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Introduction

In this ever-changing world, we tend to panic too often. When a river floods the area around, we like to

build walls. When things have physically changed in our environment, we tend to become melancholic

and dream of returning to that moment in time. But the two projects this paper observes tell adifferent story. Their designers (Elemental for Pres Constitucin and Bas Smets Bureau for Tour&Taxis)

show their concern for working with nature, not against it, deeply understanding its processes and

systems.

The first one, set in Constitucin, Chile, is a forest designed along the river in the more complex plan of

sustainable reconstruction after the 2010 earthquake that was followed by a tsunami, aimed to protect

the city from different natural challenges (future tsunamis, flooding), while the second one is a park of

12 ha, part of a 45 ha industrial site transformed into a mixed neighbourhood. In these projects, four of

the principles that shine through are their contextualism and their taking into account that landscape

has its own program regardless of the ones we assign to it, is unpredictable and often public.1

The Context

Because landscape is immense and it does not care about ownership boundaries, one must try, with

each project2, to make it fit into its greater surrounds. For PRES Constitucin, the first challenge was to

find a way to protect the city from other natural disasters. So they drew their solution by looking around

them, on a forested island that has naturally withstood the force of water not by stopping it, but by

reducing its strength with friction (fig.2).

As Bruno de Meulder talks about in his lectures3, a paradigm shift is taking place in the contemporary

urbanism regarding the new systems, that they should be more natural/seminatural, less obtrusive,

having the capacity to recuperate themselves, thus less expensive. This more cyclical way of thinking is a

result of the recent ecological crisis, with nature taking revenge. It has to do with our attitude towards

1As taken from Sue Anne Wares 9 principles taught during 2014 guest lectures at KU Leuven, 13.10.2014.

2Sue Anne Wares lectures on landscape architecture at KU Leuven, 13 -15.10.2014

3Bruno de Meulders lecture on Theory and Practice of Urbanism since 1945, 31.10.2014

Title PRES Constitucin Tour & Taxis Park

Architects/landscape architects Elemental, in collaboration with:

Tironi, Arup, Fundacin Chile,

Marketek, Universidad de Talca

Bas Smets Bureau

Location Constitucin, Chile Brussels, Belgium

Year 2010(ongoing, in execution) 2012-2017 (in construction)

Client Ministry of Housing and Urban

Development

Municipality of Constitucin

Arauco

Projet T&T


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the problems in the old-fashioned way of the manthe centre of the world, now changing into the man

a part of the nature.

The same principle is applied in the Bas

Smets project, in the big picture of Brusselss

landscape structure, a capillary hydrographybased not on the main river, but on its

ramifications4. Making research by

developing different abstract maps that help

them look at the world differentlyelement

by element and system by system, they

discovered that 80% of the green space is

based on the flood plan of these tributary

rivers (fig.1). So they used this information to

build a strategy based on the interrelation

between topography, hydrography andvegetation. Instead of trying to bring back

what is already lost (the main river that now

is not even recognizable by the vegetation

along it), the bureau took a more

contemporary stand, envisioning the development of 8 tributary rivers for 19 municipalities.5

For the public

Those were their surroundings. But what

about their social, political, fiscal,

environmental or cultural background? Is it

enough to blend the project in its physical

context? The world we live in is much more

complex than that and the Elemental project

has proven it by activating the civil society of

the town. Instead of a top-down approach,

the studio proves to be bold enough to go

for a participatory design, but, as Alejandro

Aravena reveals, this is not about

brainstorming for solutions, but more

importantly about getting to the right

question.6 After entering a democratic

process of debate and prioritizing the problems, they found out that, even more disturbing than a

4Bas Smetss lecture at Harvard Land vs. Landscape

5Landvslandscape

6Alejandro Aravenas interview on ArchDaily

Figure 2. PRES Constitucion plan view. www.elementalchile.cl

Figure 1. Tributary rivers www.bassmets.be


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potential future tsunami, was the flooding occurring each winter because of the inadequate drainage

system, along with the lack of public space, disconnection between the city and the river, etc.7 Of

course, it was challenging. We should only think about what these people had been through prior the

meetings and how much they were filled both with despair and hope for a better future. So giving them

the power to decide, to exert pressure on the authorities, was definitely a big plus.

The same process could not have been integrated into Bas

Smetss project, as the whole development was new and it

didnt have a community to go to, but it did make use of

the environmental issues of the area in order to come up

with a better solution. The idea of it had its concept hidden

in arts in the landscape paintings8 that showed gentle

slopes embracing the public space where some lovers or

some group of people had a picnic (as Bas Smets always

returns to those painters claiming that, like them, he is only

unveiling the unseen reality9- fig.3,4). It is also drawn from

an easy principle of drainage: have the water gather in a

valley, in opposition to the existing structure of flattened

land for industrial purposes. A positive side effect of this

retrieved landscape was the possibility to create an

underground reservoir (fig.4) that would convince the developers to invest extra money in the park (as

they were initially given only 25/m2).

All these show responsibility. Whether its social,environmental or fiscal, designers have a responsibility

towards their design, but also towards the nature and the

society. A project is not just something pretty that they

come up with; it is something precise that has an impact

way beyond its visual characteristics and its boundaries.

Own program and unpredictability

Going back to our previous thoughts on the Brussels

project, it can be also considered as pursuing other two of

landscape architectures principles the fact that it has

its own program and that is unpredictable. The swamp

like terrain in the project would have been a constant

threat to the accessibility of the park, so adjusting the terrain to its old curvy forms is a reverence made

7Elemental explanatory video

8Bas Smetss lecture on Landscape Architecture at KU Leuven, 7.11.2014

9Bas Smetss TedX talk in Ghent

Figure 3. Conceptual axonometry Tour&Taxis,

www.bassmets.be

Figure 4. Tour & Taxis Park, Bas Smets,

www.bassmets.be


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to the ambition and program of the landscape. As said before, unveiling the unseen is a way to properly

give nature the attention it deserves. At the same time, the underground reservoir should serve as an

acceptance of its unpredictability, for it is preparing for flooding.

The same concern can be found if we go back to Chile, although at a much bigger scale. That the

landscape had its own program was proven in 2010, when 80% of the Constitucin was destroyed. Thesame goes for

Figure 5. Section through the shore, PRES Constitucin, Elemental Zumtobel Group Award booklet

its unpredictability. So the project had to bring something new,

something that would show resilience to multiple kinds of

environmental disasters.10

Using geographical answers to

geographical threats (fig.5), based both on empirical evidence (as

shown above) and on mathematical models/laboratory tests11

, the

project successfully takes into account both the previous

catastrophe and the flooding (solved by laminating the rain water)

that year by year terrorized the inhabitants. The other options for

the shore of the river were the prohibition of the reconstruction in

the affected areas, unrealistic on a long term and also irresponsible,

leading to fishermen building informal settlements or a heavy

infrastructure in form of a monstrous wall towards the river that

would have to resist a displaced mass of water moving at 800km/h,

using a huge amount of public money (financial awareness) spent on

a solution that has proved useless in Japan. Instead, after a

democratic voting procedure chose the expropriation of private land

as the better solution, the historical debt in terms of public space

(from 2 to 7 m2/inhabitant) was also solved

12, in favor of the public

(fig.6-9).

10Aedes (editors) -Zumtobel Group Award 2014, 2014, Aedes, page 58-59

11Aedes (editors) -Zumtobel Group Award 2014, 2014, Aedes, page 58-59

12Elemental explanatory video

Figure 9. PRES Constitucin

www.elementalchile.cl








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By contrast, the project in Brussels focuses more on the details of

the landscape itself (fig.10-11). As we learn from Andrew Revkin,

Ian McHarg13, a leading figure in designing with nature, was an

early advocate of restricting plantings to native species, both for

philosophical reasons and because introducing a foreign species

can sometimes disrupt the ecology of an area.14 Following the

same idea, Bas Smets did research on the evolution of the

vegetation in time, the flowering and the uses of the park, using

slower growing big trees (willows) and fast growing small trees,

thus helping the water and air circulation. Moreover, the

vegetation was implemented in the project according to the

image of the valley (reaffirmed as a landscape structure in the

Brussels urban tissue by the same studio) while integrating

sequences of the industrial patrimony15

, one of the layers of the

palimpsest that is the site, proof that the bureau is not trying to

deny its past, but to improve it.

But after going head to head with the projects, one might

question the PRES Constitucin projects label of a landscape

architecture one. Its winning of the Zumtobel Group Award for

Urban Development and Initiatives could be a setback from

proving it, but the way this part has integrated so well natural elements in both a protective and a

sensitive to nature approach, showing clear attention to details

obviously integrates the project under the professions

mantra: achieving a balance between the built and natural

environments. 16

(especially if we consider the safety paths

designed with lighting based on solar power so it would work

even in the case of a blackout fig.12) Moreover, the line

between landscape architecture and urban planning gets

thinner, as Chris Reed boldly stated in his lecture that planners

become larger complex teams led by landscape architects.17

13His ideas, summarized in his own words on the paperback of his book Design with Nature, the 1995 edition: Our eyes do

not divide us from the world, but unite us with it. Let this be known to be true. Let us then abandon the simplicity of separation

and give unity its due. Let us abandon the self mutilation which has been our way and give expression to the potential harmony

of man-nature. The world is abundant, we require only a deference born of understanding to fulfill man's promise. Man is that

uniquely conscious creature who can perceive and express. He must become the steward of the biosphere. To do this he must

design with nature.14

Revkin, Andrew C - Ian McHarg, 80, Architect Who Valued a Site's Natural Features,New York Times, Late Edition (East

Coast) [New York, N.Y] 12 Mar 2001: B.615

Cycle des conferences Paysages16

American Society of Landscape Architecture about Landscape Architecture17

Chris Reeds Lecture on Landscape Architecture at KU Leuven, 12.11.2014

Figure 10. Tour & Taxis Park PRES

Constitucin www.bassmets.be



Figure 12. Tour & Taxis Park

www.bassmets.be
http://search.proquest.com.kuleuven.ezproxy.kuleuven.be/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/Revkin,+Andrew+C/$N?accountid=17215http://search.proquest.com.kuleuven.ezproxy.kuleuven.be/pubidlinkhandler/sng/pubtitle/New+York+Times/$N/11561/DocView/431702643/fulltext/$B/1?accountid=17215http://search.proquest.com.kuleuven.ezproxy.kuleuven.be/pubidlinkhandler/sng/pubtitle/New+York+Times/$N/11561/DocView/431702643/fulltext/$B/1?accountid=17215http://search.proquest.com.kuleuven.ezproxy.kuleuven.be/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/Revkin,+Andrew+C/$N?accountid=17215


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Conclusion

As some final thoughts arise, we can say that the two projects are consistently rich in their endeavor,

being contextual both in the physical sense and in the environmental, social, financial senses, bringing

innovation to the table. One introducing a new Anti Tsunami Urban DNA, the idea of protecting nature

with nature and one fulfilling its mission by firstly zooming out and seeing what the broad context oflandscape in Brussels is. In the former project, pragmatism had to prevail, though we can still find poetry

in the images showing the bond between people and nature as it is supposed to be, whereas in the BSB

project, as in most of their projects, poetry is transpired both through the discourse of its coordinator

and through the imagery. Their abstract quality (of the conceptual images) underlines the desire to find

landscape quality through a research-driven working process.18

Most importantly, both projects inscribe themselves in a line continuously drawn by other big names as

well, like Manuel de Sol Morales, with his words on public space: Common spaces are what

constitute the wealth of the cities of the past and they will undoubtedly also be the principal structure

of the cities of the future.

19

Or like Shigeru Ban with his world-renowned concern for theunderprivileged, saying that there are no longer natural disasters, but man-made disasters. For

example, an earthquake doesnt kill people, but the collapse of a building kills people.20, he concludes.

If we were to extrapolate, we would find ourselves blaming mankind for not being considerate enough

to everything that surrounds it.

18Holbrook, TomBas Smets, London Festival of Architecture, BD Online, 09.07.2014

19De Sol-Morales, ManuelPublic Spaces, Collective Spaces, Urbanismo Revista, Barcelona, 1992, page 184

20Shigeru Bans interview on ArchDaily


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Bibliography

Aedes (editors) - Zumtobel Group Award 2014, 2014, Aedes, http://www.zumtobel-group-

award.com/download/ZTA2014-140911_FIN.pdfAlejandro Aravenas interview on ArchDaily -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSXPR0MihSE

American Society of Landscape Architecture about Landscape Architecture,

http://www.asla.org/yourpath/docs/WhatISLA.pdf

Bas Smetss lecture at Harvard Land vs. Landscape,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSXPR0MihSE

Bas Smetss lecture on Landscape Architecture at KU Leuven, 7.11.2014

Bas Smetss TedX talk in Ghent -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhAbc0J_aWQ

Bruno de Meulders lecture on Theory and Practice of Urbanism since 1945, 31.10.2014

Chris Reeds Lecture on Landscape Architecture at KU Leuven, 12.11.2014

Cycle des conferences Paysages,http://www.pavillon-arsenal.com/img/conference/274/cp/PAV_274_CP.pdf

De Sol-Morales, ManuelPublic Spaces, Collective Spaces, Urbanismo Revista, Barcelona, 1992

Elemental explanatory video on -http://www.elementalchile.cl/en/proyecto/pres-constitucion-3/

Holbrook, TomBas Smets, London Festival of Architecture, BD Online, 09.07.2014

Revkin, Andrew C - Ian McHarg, 80, Architect Who Valued a Site's Natural Features,New York Times,Late Edition

(East Coast) [New York, N.Y] 12 Mar 2001: B.6.

Shigeru Bans interview on ArchDaily -http://www.archdaily.com/583088/archiculture-interviews-shigeru-ban/

Sue Anne Wares lectures on landscape architecture at KU Leuven, 13-15.10.2014
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