Fallout 4 Train Cars On The Train Bridge Between Grey Garden And Oberland Station?

Flowscapes explores infrastructure as a type of landscape and landscape as a type of infrastructure. The hybridization of the two concepts seeks to redefine infrastructure beyond its strictly utilitarian definition, while allowing spatial design to gain operative force in territorial transformation processes. The publication provides perspectives on the subject from design-related disciplines such as architecture, urban design, urban planning, landscape architecture and civil engineering. The book builds upon the multidisciplinary colloquium on landscape infrastructures, that is part of the Flowscapes graduation design studio of Landscape Architecture at the TU Delft. The authors explore concepts, methods and techniques for design-related research on landscape infrastructures. Their main objective is to engage environmental and societal issues by means of integrative and design oriented approaches. Through focusing on interdisciplinary design-related research of landscape infrastructures they provide important clues for the development of spatial armatures that can guide urban and rural development and have cultural and civic significance. The geographical context of the papers covers Europe, Africa, Asia and Northern America. All contributions in the book are double blind reviewed by experts in the field.

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Flowscapes

RESEARCH IN URBANISM SERIES VOL. 3

STEFFEN NIJHUIS, DANIEL JAUSLIN,

FRANK VAN DER HOEVEN (EDS.)

Designing

infrastructure as

landscape

Flowscapes. Designing infrastructure as landscape

Social, cultural and technological developments of our society are demanding a fundamen-

tal review of the planning and design of its landscapes and infrastructures, in particular in

relation to environmental issues and sustainability. Transportation, green and water infra-

structures are important agents that facilitate processes that shape the built environment

and its contemporary landscapes. With movement and ows at the core, these landscape

infrastructures facilitate aesthetic, functional, social and ecological relationships between

natural and human systems, here interpreted as Flowscapes. Flowscapes explores infra-

structure as a type of landscape and landscape as a type of infrastructure. The hybridi-

sation of the two concepts seeks to redene infrastructure beyond its strictly utilitarian

denition, while allowing spatial design to gain operative force in territorial transformation

processes.

This academic publication aims to provide multiple perspectives on the subject from

design-related disciplines such as architecture, urban planning and design, landscape

architecture and civil engineering. It is a reection of a multidisciplinary colloquium on

landscape infrastructures held at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment,

Delft University of Technology, preparing grounds for in-depth discussions and future

collaborations. The authors explore concepts, methods and techniques for design-related

research of landscape infrastructures. Their main objective is to engage environmental and

societal issues by means of integrative and design-oriented approaches. Through focusing

on multidisciplinary design-related research of landscape infrastructures they provide

important clues for the development of spatial armatures that can guide urban and rural

development and have cultural and civic signicance.

FLOwSCApES DESIgNINg INFRASTRUcTURE AS LANDScApE

STEFFEN NIJHUIS, DANIEL JAUSLIN, FRANK VAN DER HOEVEN

Flowscapes. Designing infrastructure as landscape

Research in Urbanism Series (RiUS)

Volume 3

ISSN 1875-0192 (print)

E-ISSN 1879-8217 (online)

Series editors

Frank van der Hoeven, PhD

Steen Nijhuis

Scientic committee (peer review)

Adri van den Brink, PhD

Professor of Land Use Planning and Landscape

Architecture, Wageningen University (the Netherlands)

Robert McCarter

Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture, College

of Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis, (USA)

Martin Prominski, PhD

Professor of Landscape Architecture, Institut für

Freiraumentwicklung, Leibniz Universität Hannover

(Germany)

Kelly Shannon, PhD

Professor of Urbanism, Oslo School of Architecture and

Design (Norway)

Han Vrijling

Professor in Probabilistic Design and Hydraulic Structures,

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Delft University of Technology

(the Netherlands)

Aims & scope

RiUS is a peer-reviewed and indexed academic publication

series that deals with dynamics, planning and design in con-

temporary urban areas. It provides an outlet for investigation,

analysis, and exploration in the overlapping elds of urban

design, urban planning, regional planning, metropolitan

design, spatial planning, urban renewal, urban management,

landscape architecture, environmental design, sustainability,

urban technology, urban mobility and cultural heritage.

RiUS is aimed at designers, researchers, planners, consultants,

decision-makers and politicians. It pays special attention to

design, research, techniques, methodology and theory.

RiUS laboratory facilitates a dialogue between the community

and society at large through high-quality publications focusing

on transformation and sustainability.

Flowscapes

Designing infrastructure

as landscape

Edited by

Steen Nijhuis

Daniel Jauslin

Frank van der Hoeven

Delft University of Technology,

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment

In cooperation with:

Delft Infrastructures & Mobility Initiative (DIMI)

2015

Editors

Steen Nijhuis

Daniel Jauslin

Frank van der Hoeven

Copy-editing

Katherine Sundermann

Marjan Vrolijk

Layout

Linda Swaap, Accu ontwerpers

Photography

Ben ter Mull

Published by

TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands

Keywords

landscape infrastructure; design research; landscape archi-

tecture; urban design; architecture; civil engineering; green

infrastructure; water infrastructure; transport infrastructure;

infrastructural urbanism

ISBN 9789461864727 (print)

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution

4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this

license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or

send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain

View, CA 94042, USA.

Legal notice

The publisher is not responsible for what use might be made

of the following information.

Contents

Editorial

Backgrounds

13 Urban landscape infrastructures

Designing operative landscape structures for the built environment

  SteenNijhuis,DanielJauslin

 35 Mappingows

Switzerland as operational landscape

  MarcAngélil,CarySiress

 57 Planningwithwaterandtracnetworks

Carrying structures of the urban landscape

  SybrandTjallingii

 81 WakingLeviathan

Frank Lloyd Wright's rural urban ideal

  MatthewSkjonsberg

TransPorTaTIon InFrasTrucTurEs

 111 Thediabolichighway

On the tradition of the beautiful road in the Dutch landscape and the

appetite for the magnicent highway in the big city

  WilfriedvanWinden

135 Abridgewithaview,aviewwithabridge

Identifying design considerations for bridges to strengthen

regional identity

  JorisSmits,FrankvanderHoeven

159 AroadtriponEuropeanhighways

Considering the spatial qualities of E75 and E50

  MichelHeesen

grEEn InFrasTrucTurEs

181 CityPigFarm

A design-based research on urban livestock farming

  UlfHackauf

205 Representing nature

Late twentieth century green infrastructures in Paris

  RenévanderVelde,SaskiadeWit

229 Infrastructureaslandscapeasarchitecture

  DanielJauslin

WaTEr InFrasTrucTurEs

255 Thesynergybetweenoodriskprotectionandspatialquality

incoastalcities

  AnneLoesNillesen

275 Designchallengesofmultifunctionalooddefences

A comparative approach to assess spatial and structural integration

  PetervanVeelen,MarkVoorendt,ChrisvanderZwet

293 Acriticalapproachtosomenewideasaboutthe

Dutchoodrisksystem

  TiesRijcken

323 About the authors

Editorial

Social, cultural and technological developments require that we rethink

the planning and design of landscapes and infrastructures while paying spe-

cial attention to environmental issues and sustainability. Transportation,

green and water infrastructures are important agents that facilitate processes

that shape the built environment and contemporary landscapes. Movement

and ows are at the core of these landscape infrastructures. They facilitate

aesthetic, functional, social and ecological relationships between natural and

human systems. We interpret them as Flowscapes.

Flowscapes explores infrastructure as a type of landscape and landscape

as a type of infrastructure. The hybridisation of the two concepts seeks to re-

dene infrastructure beyond its strictly utilitarian denition, while allowing

spatial design to gain operative force in territorial transformation process-

es. The publication provides perspectives on the subject from design-relat-

ed disciplines such as architecture, urban design, urban planning, landscape

architecture and civil engineering. The book builds upon the multidiscipli-

nary colloquium on landscape infrastructures that is part of the Flowscapes

graduation design studio of Landscape Architecture at Delft University of

Technology.

The authors explore concepts, methods and techniques for design-re-

lated research on landscape infrastructures. Their main objective is to en-

gage environmental and societal issues by means of integrative and design

oriented approaches. Through focusing on interdisciplinary design-related

research of landscape infrastructures they provide important clues for the

development of spatial armatures that can guide urban and rural develop-

ment and have cultural and civic signicance. The geographical context of the

papers covers Europe, Africa, Asia and Northern America. All contributions in

the book are double blind reviewed by experts in the eld.

The book is structured thematically in four parts. Part 1 consists of an

overview that addresses the backgrounds of Flowscapes as a theory of net-

EDITORIAL

works and structures. While these papers treat the wider scope they also treat

synthetic positions that overarch the whole variety of aspects touched upon

by Flowscapes, either thematically or in a specic place. From here on the

book is separated into three lenses: parts 2, 3 and 4. These parts focus on

three dierent scopes while they look into the same complexity, from angles

that vary according to the author's multidisciplinary expertise, and each has

a dierent specic place. The division into these three parts therefore is not

to be seen as categorisation of phenomena but rather as an attempt to reveal

similar phenomena in dierent infrastructures and in dierent landscapes.

Part 2 treats the most obvious and spatially dominant type of infrastructure,

which is nowadays transportation. The emphasis of the authors is on these

Flowscapes' diabolic character, challenges for design, and social relevance.

Part 3 treats green infrastructures that are inherently more related to rural

landscapes in the urban context of urbanised farming, the metropolitan park

and architecture as landscape. Part 4 relates to the Dutch water systems and

assesses spaces, structures and risks while considering them as spatial design

briefs for the development of multifunctional landscapes.

An eort like this publication is only possible with the help and coop-

eration of many people. Firstly, we would like to acknowledge the esteemed

members of the scientic committee: Adri van den Brink, Robert McCarter,

Martin Prominski, Kelly Shannon and Han Vrijling for their critical reviews

and constructive comments on the manuscripts. Furthermore, we would like

to acknowledge the Delft Infrastructures & Mobility Initiative (DIMI) for their

generous nancial support. We would especially like to thank Hans de Boer

for making this possible. We would also like to thank Anke Versteeg of TU

Delft Library for her help in the publication process. And nally we would like

to thank Linda Swaap, Katherine Sundermann and Marjan Vrolijk for their

eorts making it a well-designed and accessible book.

The editors

FLOWSCAPES –DESIGNING INFRASTRUCTUR E AS LANDSCAPE

Urban landscape

infrastructures

Designing operative

landscape structures for

the built environment

STEFFEN NIJHUIS, DANIEL JAUSLIN

Nijhuis, S., & Jauslin, D. (2015). Urban landscape infrastructures. Designing operative landscape

structures for the built environment. Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 13-34. doi:10.7480/rius.3.874

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Abstract

This paper explores infrastructure as a type of landscape and landscape as a

type of infrastructure. The hybridisation of the two concepts, landscape and

infrastructure, seeks to redene infrastructure beyond its strictly utilitarian

denition, while allowing design disciplines to gain operative force in territorial

transformation processes. This paper aims to put forward urban landscape

infrastructures as a design concept, considering them as armatures for

urban development and for facilitating functional, social and ecological

interactions. It seeks to redene infrastructural design as an interdisciplinary

design eort to establish a local identity through tangible relationships to

a place or region. Urban landscape infrastructures can thereby be used as

a vehicle to re-establish the role of design as an integrating practice. This

paper positions urban landscape infrastructure design in the contemporary

discourse on landscape infrastructures. The space of ows, as opposed to

the space of places, is introduced as an impetus to develop the concept of

landscape infrastructure into a more comprehensive form of urban landscape

architecture. Furthermore, this paper outlines a set of principles typical for

urban landscape infrastructure design and suggests three potential elds of

operation: transport, green and water landscape infrastructure. The design

of these operative landscape structures is a crosscutting eld that involves

multiple disciplines in which the role of designers is essential.

KEYWORDS

landscape infrastructure; owscapes; design; urbanism; transport; green infrastructure; infrastructural

urbanism; landscape architecture; systems thinking; architecture; regional design; infrastructure

urban landscape infra structures

1. INTRODUCTION

Urbanisation, ecological crisis and climate change are several of the con-

temporary challenges of our society, which are demanding a fundamental re-

view of the planning and design of our landscapes, in particular in relation to

environmental issues and sustainability. While the technical challenges may

be considerable, the spatial and cultural challenges are by far the largest. In

this era known as the Antropocene, a human-dominated geological epoch

(Crutzen, 2002; Sijmons, 2014a), the architecture of the urban landscape has

evolved into a complex system, extending far into the hinterland and deep

into environmental systems, beyond any individual's understanding or direct

inuence. Infrastructures, by virtue of their scale, ubiquity and inability to

be hidden, are an essential component of the urban landscape (Strang, 1996).

Infrastructure has been in service of the conquest of nature, whereby the en-

vironment has been denied its natural dynamism in favour of colonisation

that relies on more controlled and static systems. From the nineteenth cen-

tury onwards, complete river systems became controlled by man in favour of

economic growth (e.g. Cioc, 2002; Disco, 2008). Rail, road and energy infra-

structures were constructed to integrate and control nations (e.g. Badenoch

& Fickers, 2010; Guldi, 2012). Natural landscapes have been transformed into

urban, logistic, industrial and waste landscapes (e.g. Meyer & Nijhuis, 2014;

Waldheim & Berger, 2008; Prossek et al., 2009; Berger, 2006) (gure 1).

Figure 1: The Maasvlakte Rotterdam, the Netherlands, as an example

of a logistical landscape (photo: Ben ter Mull, 2014)

Though often successful in geopolitical and economical terms, the ten-

dency to engineer infrastructures for 'single purpose' often resulted in dis-

rupted landscapes, defaced retrotted constructions and buildings, and

erasure of cultural and natural values (Strang, 1996). However, widespread

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

insights into the potentially irreversible harm such single purpose-design

has done to natural systems resulted in a growing awareness to strive for

more harmonious forms of urban landscape architecture. This leads to large-

scale economical commitment of national, international, European and glob-

al collaborations. Today infrastructure projects play a key role in global policy.

Infrastructure is considered the primary eld of investment of public author-

ities (European Commission, 2011, 2012). It is regarded as a backbone in which

the increasingly privately nanced urbanisation can be grafted (Shannon &

Smets, 2010). As such, infrastructural design emerges as an important way

to steer urbanisation. Yet the responsibility for infrastructural design is dif-

fused, falling piecemeal to disciplines such as civil engineering, architecture,

urban design, landscape architecture, agriculture and landscape ecology (cf.

Strang, 1996). The unravelling of the dialectic between landscape and infra-

structure, and the relationship between processes and formal aspects, is at

the core of contemporary criticism and debate among the disciplines of land-

scape architecture, urban design, civil engineering and architecture. Though

there are interesting examples of multi- and interdisciplinary design-related

research on the infrastructural landscapes themselves, the potentials of in-

frastructure for performing the additional task of shaping urban landscapes

is largely unexploited.

This paper aims to put forward urban landscape infrastructures as de-

sign concept considering them as armatures for the development of urban

systems and which facilitate social and ecological interactions. It seeks to re-

dene infrastructural design as interdisciplinary design eort to establish a

local identity that has tangible relationships to the region. Urban landscape

infrastructures can thereby be used as a vehicle to re-establish the role of

design as integrating practice. The paper elaborates on the hybridisation of

the concepts of landscape and infrastructure and positions urban landscape

infrastructure design in the contemporary discourse on landscape infrastruc-

tures. The space of ows is introduced as an impetus to develop the concept of

landscape infrastructure into a more comprehensive form of urban landscape

architecture. Furthermore the paper outlines a set of principles typical for

urban landscape infrastructure design and suggests three potential elds of

operation.

2. FROM INFRASTRUCTURE AS LANDSCAPE TO LANDSCAPE AS INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure design was an essential feature of territorial planning and

city development. As exemplied by Cronon (1991) for Chicago, Picon (2005,

2009) and Barles (2007) for Paris, and Van Acker (2014) for the Campine Re-

gion in Belgium, major hydraulic and transport infrastructures exert great

urban landscape infra structures

inuence on the possibilities for economic and spatial development of urban

landscapes. Infrastructures make things possible. In the eighteenth century

Paris for instance, urban canals were used for transportation and to power

mills and workshops. Consequently a complex set of manufacturing activ-

ities developed along the river banks (Picon, 2005). In the beginning of the

twentieth century the sewer system of Paris was not only employed for the

removal of human excreta to improve urban hygiene, but also aimed to pro-

duce the fertilizers needed in rural surroundings (Barles, 2007). The sew-

er system steered and facilitated the development of sewage farms, which

played an important role in the food production for the city (gure 2). Though

infrastructures were important technological utilitarian features in the ur-

ban landscape they were usually not imbued with a landscape connotation.

However, appropriating infrastructure as landscape has the potential to gain

operative force in territorial transformation processes and to explore the dy-

namic between structure and process.

Figure 2: Infrastructure as condition for urban development exemplied by Paris (France) at the beginning

of the 20th century. The sewer system steered and facilitated the development of sewage farms which

played an important role in the food production for the city. Map by E. Gerards, 1907

(image from Barles, 2007)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Infrastructures can be dened as "constructed facilities and natural features

that shelter and support most human activities – buildings of all types, communica-

tions, energy generation and distribution, green spaces, transportation of all modes,

water resources, and waste treatment and management" (PERSI, 2006). Landscape

on the other hand is dened as "an area, as perceived by people, whose character

is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors" (Council

of Europe, 2000). As such, the current understanding describes infrastruc-

ture as the human impetus to alter the natural environment, while landscape

is described as the inadvertent result. However, their combination oers an

opportunity to redene both notions into a more integral design brief where

goals and means converge, resulting in operative landscape structures that

serve multiple ends. In this perspective landscape and infrastructure merge

and are the vessels of collective life, and must function, t and be acceptable

in order to enhance the quality of the landscape (Shannon & Smets, 2010).

Hence, conceiving infrastructure as landscape enriches infrastructure with

generating architecture, constructing landscapes and living environments; it

engages social and imaginative dimensions as much as engineering (Shan-

non & Smets, 2010). This implies that infrastructures no longer belong to the

realm of single disciplines like civil engineering, architecture or landscape

architecture, but to a crosscutting eld that involves multiple disciplines and

in which the role of designers is essential (Shannon & Smets, 2011; Bélanger,

2010).

2.1 Infrastructure as landscape

The idea to conceive infrastructure as landscape or landscape as infra-

structure is not new. From the second half of the eighteenth century infra-

structure was regarded an integral part of the landscape by landscape design-

ers. At this time they were involved in the design and scenography of routes

in the English landscape garden. In the nineteenth century, during the in-

dustrial revolution in Europe, parks were regarded as important infrastruc-

ture for healthy cities (Hennebo & Schmidt, [1975]; Chadwick, 1966). The in-

creasing use of automobiles and the vast urbanisation in Northern America

at the end of the nineteenth century initiated the development of metropol-

itan parks and parkways (Schuyler, 1986; Zapatka, 1995; Dalby, 2002). Green

spaces were considered green infrastructures for the city and routes as 'ow

landscapes' were travelling was connected to the scenic experience of the

natural environment. In the beginning of the twentieth century these ideas

exerted great inuence on metropolitan park planning and highway design in

Northwest Europe (e.g. Dümpelmann, 2005; Zeller, 2002; Van Winden, 2015).

From the 1940s onwards landscape architects and urban designers became

also involved in design and transformation of infrastructures for electricity

generation and ood control, but also brownelds (former industrial areas),

urban landscape infra structures

highways, or urban agriculture. Nowadays it is common practice for design

disciplines to look at infrastructure as a type of landscape and they have

developed particular specialisations (e.g. Berger, 2006; Hölzer et al., 2008;

Shannon & Smets, 2010; Sijmons, 2014b; Braae, 2015) (gure 3).

Figure 3: The design of Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord (Germany) in 1991 by Latz + Partner can be

considered a benchmark for the redevelopment of former industrial brownelds into mixed-use use

complexes where ecological and socio-cultural objectives blend (photo: Carschten, 2010, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)

Considering infrastructure as landscape can be characterised as an ob-

ject-oriented approach, where the infrastructure is the object, which is

treated as an interdisciplinary landscape design brief with emphasis on the

'scapes'. It is possible to identify at least four discourses of infrastructural

design, which approach infrastructure as landscape from a spatial, ecological,

technical, or social perspective. In practice these discourses usually overlap

but dier in their main objectives. The spatial approach employs expert, phe-

nomenological and psychological principles to allocate and design infrastruc-

tures, such as roads, dykes, and wind turbines, based on formal-architectural

characteristics and spatio-visual experience (e.g. McClusky, 1979; Thayer,

1994; Shöbel, 2012). The ecological approach employs nature and environ-

mental based techniques as operative instruments to create green infrastruc-

tures (also called greenways, ecological corridors, etc.) which are constel-

lations of open space, woodlands, wildlife habitat, parks and other natural

areas, sustaining clean air, water, and natural resources for sustainable cities

(e.g. Hough, 2004; Rouse & Bunster-Ossa, 2013; Czechowski et al., 2015). In

technical oriented approaches civil and agricultural techniques are the ba-

sis for the design of infrastructure as landscape. Examples can be found in

for instance route design and design of ood control and urban agriculture

(e.g. Snow, 1959; Prominski et al., 2012; Viljoen, 2005). The social approach is

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

characterised by a human-centred perspective which employs participatory

or anthropometric design strategies, for instance via involving people in the

development of infrastructures or the design of public space for reasons of

social engineering and healthcare (e.g. Carr et al., 1992; Woolley, 2003; North,

2013).

2.2 Landscape as infrastructure

Parallel to the notion of infrastructure as landscape the idea of landscape

as infrastructure evolved. Conceiving landscape as infrastructure can be char-

acterised as a goal-oriented approach, where landscape is treated as an opera-

tive eld that denes and sustains the urban development and ecological and

economic processes are employed as formative design tools. Pioneering writ-

ings in that respect include Strang (1996), who coined the idea of landscape as

infrastructure, and Allen (1999) who identied the eld of infrastructural ur-

banism. Recently Bélanger (2009, 2010, 2013) and The Infrastructure Research

Initiative at SWA (2011) introduced the term landscape infrastructure to re-

dene infrastructure as an integrated alternative for improving mass transit,

enhancing public accessibility and ecological performance, while remaining

economically sound. Landscape as such becomes the medium through which

to formulate and articulate solutions for integration of infrastructure with vi-

able programming that can address many pressing issues facing many cities

all over the world (SWA, 2011) (gure 4). In this conception the landscape is

often reduced to a set of essential systems that support cities and regions.

It focuses on the 'hardware' – the systems of transport, water, production

and commerce – and is largely disconnected from socio-cultural or biophys-

ical functions (Duany & Talen, 2013; Carlson, 2013). However, the potential

of considering landscape as infrastructure is put forward by Waldheim (2011,

p. 4): "By postponing the question of urban form, these proponents of a landscape

infrastructural approach to the architecture of the city suggest that a focus on perfor-

mance criteria, operational imperatives and contemporary ows might allow us to

reengage with social and environmental subject."

urban landscape infra structures

Figure 4: The work of Morphosis Architects in the New City Park competition for Manhattan

(New York, USA) in 2009 considers the park as public armature of core programs and infrastructure;

landscape as infrastructure (image courtesy: Morphosis Architects)

Among design disciplines, in particular in the eld of urbanism as in-

terdisciplinary planning and design activity towards the built environment,

there is a recognisable tendency to consider landscape as infrastructure ex-

emplied by the emergence of several 'urbanisms'. Examples of emergent ur-

banisms in this respect are: infrastructural urbanism (Hauck et al., 2011), eco-

logical urbanism (Mostafavi & Doherthy, 2010; Reed & Lister, 2014), agrarian

urbanism (Waldheim, 2010), water urbanism (De Meulder & Shannon, 2008),

metabolic urbanism (Baccini & Brunner, 2012; Ferrao & Fernandez, 2013),

combinatory urbanism (Mayne, 2011) and landscape urbanism (Waldheim,

2002, 2006; Mostafavi & Najle, 2003). Though there are authors who strive for

a more inclusive view (e.g. Tjallingi, 1995; Pollalis, et al., 2012; Hagan, 2015),

several novel approaches to urbanism express a thematic, utilitarian lens to-

wards landscape as infrastructure. Others emphasise the involvement of nat-

ural processes and hardly address socio-cultural aspects. The emphasis is in

most cases on processes as open-ended steering devices, rather than a more

form-oriented architectural approach, neglecting the biophysical landscape

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

as a condition for organising space and its material substance. This type of

binary thinking ('this' vs 'that': 'ecology' vs 'sociology; 'process' vs 'form')

tends to blind design disciplines to see complex webs of relationships which

constitutes the urban landscape (cf. Meyer, 1997). Yet, design is about put-

ting things together rather than taking them apart, integration rather than

reduction: it is about relations between things and not the things alone (Mey-

er, 1997; Sijmons, 2012). Planning and design operations should focus on the

interaction between landscape processes and formal-aesthetic aspects and

facilitate a multitude of relationships between natural and human systems

(Nijhuis, 2013). This type of thinking addresses the integral nature of the ur-

ban landscape as a holistic and complex multi-scalar system and the mutual

relationship between structure and process (gure 5).

Figure 5: The Boston Metropolitan Park System as proposed by Sylvester Baxter and Charles Eliot in 1893

oered a new vison of how a green-bleu system could function as an armature for the rapidly expanding

metropolitan area of Boston (Massachusetts, USA). The plan exemplies the potential to shape urban and

architectural form while employing social and ecological processes to establish a local identity that has

tangible relationships to the region (image source: personal archive S. Nijhuis)

urban landscape infra structures

Considering urban landscapes as systems could provide a strong coun-

tervailing force. Design disciplines need to re-establish the role of design as

synthesising activity (cf. Sijmons, 2012) and stimulate an interdisciplinary

discourse where architects, urban designers, landscape architects and civil

engineers work together on a more comprehensive form of urban landscape

infrastructure design.

3. URBAN LANDSCAPE INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN

Urban landscapes can be understood as complex systems composed of

subsystems each with their own dynamics and speed of change (Otto, 2011;

Portugali et al., 2012; Batty, 2013). In this perspective the urban landscape is

considered a system where dierent processes and systems inuence each

other and have a dierent dynamic of change (Braudel, 1966). Systems are

organised entities that are composed of elements and their interaction, and

consist of structures and processes (Benyus, 2011; Batty, 2013). The urban

landscape as system is a constellation of networks and locations with multi-

ple levels of organisation (Doxiadis, 1968; Otto, 2011; Batty, 2013). Networks

are important for interactions, communications and relationships. Locations

are the result of the synthesis of interactions. The spatial dimension of net-

works and locations can be referred to as the space of ows and the space of

places (Castells, 2000). The space of ows can be dened as the formal ex-

pression of structures for the (1) provision of food, energy, and fresh water;

(2) support for transportation, production, nutrient cycling; (3) social servic-

es such as recreation, health, arts; and (4) regulation of climate, oods and

waste water (gure 6). The space of places can be dened as the spatial ex-

pression of a locale whose form, function, and meaning are a result of social,

ecological and economical processes. Though the relationship between the

space of ows and the space of places is not pre-determined in its outcome,

the space of ows is becoming more dominant as a spatial manifestation of

power and function in our society (Castells, 2000). This shift implies that de-

sign disciplines should not only focus on the space of places but also on the

space of ows because they have the potential to gain operative force in ter-

ritorial transformation processes. The space of ows emerges as a new eld

of inquiry for design disciplines and opens up opportunities for shaping ar-

chitectural and urban form to establish local identity with tangible relations

to the region.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Figure 6: Understanding the space of ows as an formal expression of processes of interaction. Trac

Study project for Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA) by the architect Louis Kahn, 1951-1953 (image courtesy:

Museum of Modern Art, New York)

3.1 Flowscapes: designing operative landscape structures

The notion of the space of ows or owscapes could serve as an impetus

to develop the concept of landscape infrastructure into a more comprehen-

sive form of urban landscape architecture which addresses the complex webs

of relationships constituting the urban landscape. These owscapes can be

regarded as operative landscape structures. They are operative because they

direct and facilitate urban development, stimulate social and ecological inter-

action and establish the relation between process and form, between 'ows'

and 'scapes'. The resulting formal framework is a landscape design, which

organises the space of places and its material substance. In that respect suc-

cessful landscape design establishes a characteristic relationship between

form and content throughout the scales.

Perhaps it is better to speak of urban landscape infrastructures since they

facilitate and frame ows of people, living organisms, materials and infor-

mation. Urban landscape infrastructures are not only support structures that

direct, facilitate and create conditions for urban development, but also have

spatial, ecological and socio-cultural qualities themselves. In the words of

Habraken (1972, p. 72) they "cultivate the garden in such a way that the condi-

tions for the growth of a living culture are set up." As such urban landscape struc-

tures are considered armatures for urban and rural development, and facili-

tate interactions between natural and human systems. The urban landscape

infrastructure is a mediator between nature and society, based on a material

urban landscape infra structures

space that exists as a structure of man-made patterns as well as an ecological

system, and is independent of perception.

Urban landscape infrastructures can be used as a vehicle to re-establish

the role of design as integrating activity in contemporary urban development

and transformation. This implies that multi-functionality, connectivity, in-

tegration, long term strategies, ecology, social-inclusive and interdisciplinary

design processes are at the core of spatial design. It aims to create landscapes

from a perspective of sustainable development, so as to guide and shape

changes which are brought about by socio-economic and environmental pro-

cesses. Thinking in terms of urban landscape infrastructure design suggests

more innovative and integral forms of planning and design. But what is the

particular nature of urban landscape infrastructure design? The presumption

is that the answer can be found in a particular repertoire of principles, build-

ing on grounds prepared by Habraken (1972), Allen (1999) and Kriken (2010).

Urban landscape infrastructure design is about construction of landscapes

itself and not about specic technical constructions in a landscape. It is about

creating conditions for future development. Here the concept of the longue

durée is crucial: understanding the landscape as a long-term structure, which

is changing rather slowly. Sustainable development in its original denition

as planning for future generations (WCED, 1987) is inherent to this approach.

Urban landscape infrastructure design works through the scales from region-

al to local, from general to specic, and maintains overall continuity as well

as facilitates local contingency. The urban landscape infrastructures estab-

lish ways of balancing out services and qualities between parts of a territory

(Busquets & Correa, 2006). Though they are static in and of themselves they

guide and facilitate ows, movement and exchange. In that respect the urban

landscape infrastructures are articial ecologies, managing ows of energy

and resources on a site and directing the density and distribution of natural or

human habitats (Allen, 1999). Urban landscape infrastructure design is about

the creation of robust and adaptive systems, which are open to change. Ro-

bustness refers to the persistence of certain characteristics under conditions

of uncertainty. Openness is the degree to which the urban landscape infra-

structure can adapt within distinct boundaries (Gharajedaghi, 2011). Thus in

order to grow and develop urban landscape infrastructures both must persist

and adapt; their organisational structures are suciently adaptive to with-

stand challenges, while also supple enough to morph and reorganise (Corner,

2004). Urban landscape infrastructure design recognises the collective nature

of the urban tissue and allows for the participation of multiple authors. Urban

landscape infrastructure creates a directed eld where dierent participants

can contribute (Allen, 1999). Urban landscape architecture design is an in-

terdisciplinary eort where specialisations in engineering and ecology blend

with spatial design thinking.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

3.2Potentialeldsforurbanlandscapeinfrastructuredesign

The concept of urban landscape infrastructure oers a renewed under-

standing of the landscape as infrastructure, which needs to be explored on its

opportunities and possibilities for strategic regional design and local inter-

ventions. It stimulates design disciplines like architecture, urban planning

and landscape architecture to cooperate and review the agency of design giv-

ing shape to the built environment, and establishes relationships between

ecology and socio-cultural aspects, between process and form, between the

space of ows and the space of places. Urban landscape infrastructure design

employs civil-, agriculture-, nature-, and environment-based techniques as

operative instruments, which implies cooperation with disciplines like civ-

il engineering, hydraulic engineering and landscape ecology as well. There

are at least three potential elds for urban landscape infrastructure design,

which emerge from practices which employ the principles as described above:

(1) Transport landscape infrastructures

The rst eld is the design of urban landscape infrastructures that facil-

itate dierent modes of transportation, energy supply, waste treatment and

information dissemination (e.g. telecommunications). This category includes

the spatial design of vehicular, rail, and air systems, as well as ports and wa-

terways. Energy systems (e.g. oil, gas, nuclear, wind), their transformation

to produce energy, and their distribution are also important elements (e.g.

power lines, pipelines). When considering these utilitarian systems as urban

landscape infrastructures they become entities of multiple-use and integra-

tion where technical, aesthetic and social values blend. These multi-mod-

al transportation systems shape conditions for urban development and of-

fer opportunities for new types of public space. Typical design operations in

this context are the planning and design of transit landscapes, shared spaces

(trac/public space), multimodal nodes and their environments, transit-ori-

ented development, harbour and browneld transformation and the develop-

ment of energy landscapes (gure 7).

urban landscape infra structures

Figure 7 Transport landscape infrastructures as armature for urban development. Design study by

Venhoeven CS Architecture & Urbanism and others of transit oriented development in Heerhugowaard

(Metropolitan Region Amsterdam, the Netherlands). Development of a multi-nodal hub (1), a multi-

functional park strip with new urban program connected to it (2), urban densication in a park like setting

(3), and transformation of urban tissue in the transport corridor (4) (image source: De Boer et al., 2015)

(2) Green landscape infrastructures

The second eld is the design of urban landscape infrastructures that

maintain and develop natural ecosystem values and provide associated social,

economic and aesthetic benets to humans as a set of interconnected green

space networks. Useful for planning and design is the concept of land mosaics

consisting of green patches, corridors and matrices. Much of the foundation

of this eld draws on the planning principles of regional metropolitan park

systems of the nineteenth century. Green space structures can act as organi-

sational structures for sprawling metropolitan areas, providing space for na-

ture development, leisure/recreation and cultural heritage. Food production

and energy supply are becoming increasingly important as urban landscape

infrastructures. Typical design operations include the planning and design of

metropolitan park structures, development of agricultural urban landscapes,

urban ecology and protection of heritage landscapes (gure 8).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Figure 8: Green landscape infrastructures as armature for urban development. The Emscherpark is

conceived as an interconnected green space network structuring the fragmented 'Zwischenstadt' or

'Middle landscape' in the Ruhr area (Germany) and provides space for nature development, leisure/

recreation and cultural heritage. Top: section of the regional masterplan Emscher Landschaftspark (image

source: Projekt Ruhr GmbH 2005). Below: a local design intervention, the Gleisboulevard in Zollverein Park

(photo: Thomas Mayer, 2008)

urban landscape infra structures

(3) Water landscape infrastructures

The third eld is the design of landscape infrastructures that focus on

water management and riparian zones. Important issues here are coast and

river management – including river modications, seawalls and oodgates –

as well as the use of beach nourishment, sand dune stabilisation, development

of ood forests and coastal/estuarine wetlands to create new multifunctional

landscapes. It includes the planning and design of land reclamations, major

ood control systems (dikes, levees, major pumping stations and oodgates),

drainage systems (storm sewers, ditches), major irrigation systems (fresh

water reservoirs, irrigation canals), and also sewage collection and disposal

of wastewater beyond their utilitarian use. Other important operations are

planning and design of multifunctional ood defence structures, river land-

scape modications, aquatic landscape development, fresh water storage and

supply landscape infrastructures, water fronts, waste water treatment plants,

and adaptive water protection measures (gure 9).

Figure 9: Water landscape infrastructures as armature for urban development. A robust adaptive

framework as alternative water protection measure in the Southwest Delta of the Netherlands. The

sections show the multiple possibilities for multifunctional development of the zones between the

primary and secondary dikes in the rural areas south of Rotterdam (image source: Meyer et al., 2014)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

These elds of urban landscape infrastructure design provide lenses to

a more comprehensive form of urban landscape architecture and need to be

explored and further developed in an interdisciplinary setting. Here research

by design can be regarded as a powerful synthesising journey of discovery.

The design is the vehicle to draw up hypotheses of possible spatial futures

and to test their local and regional consequences. Through interdisciplinary

design-based case studies at dierent spatial scale-levels designers can seek

for a better understanding of the dynamic between social and ecological pro-

cesses and typo-morphological aspects. These inquiries into urban landscape

infrastructures should reconcile the desire for economic growth with eorts

to create a built environment, which is more sustainable, and socially and

ecologically balanced.

4. CONCLUDING REMARKS

In order to redeem control over the processes that shape the built en-

vironment and its contemporary landscapes, a fundamental review of the

agency infrastructural design is needed. This paper has put forward urban

landscape infrastructure design to gain operative force in territorial trans-

formation processes while establishing local identity and tangible regional

relationships through connecting ecological and social processes and urban

and architectural form. The design of these operative landscape structures

is a crosscutting eld that involves multiple disciplines and in this eld the

role of designers as integrators is essential. The ability to interrelate systems

in design becomes increasingly important, as the complex interconnection

of dierent systems and their formal expression is a fundamental aspect of

contemporary design tasks. The concept of urban landscape infrastructure

focuses on the design of the space of ows, which can be characterised as

transportation, green and water landscape infrastructures. While acknowl-

edged in the dierences amongst the three elds of urban landscape infra-

structure design, it is important to understand their relationships and to ad-

dress them integrally as armatures for urban development. With ows and

movement at the core, urban landscape infrastructures facilitate functional,

social and ecological relationships between natural and human systems and

provide conditions for spatial development. Here the landscape is not con-

sidered as something stable, localised and qualied by its own site, but as

the product of operations that are structured through a network of trans-

missions in a regional perspective. To study the urban landscape as a system

of dynamic actions, and as a system of the interaction of space and process,

opens up new perspectives of interdisciplinary spatial intervention, more in

accordance with a society in perpetual transformation, a society in which the

user feels more involved, committed, and in harmony with the environment.

Urban landscape infrastructures as such have always a social and ecological

urban landscape infra structures

vocation, given that they have been conceived to facilitate society as an oper-

ative landscape structure for sustainable urban landscape architecture.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The material as presented in this paper is an elaboration of the concept

'Flowscapes' developed for the Landscape Architecture Graduation Studio at

the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of

Technology (The Netherlands) (Nijhuis & Jauslin, 2013). The authors want to

thank Christopher de Vries for his contributions to the development of the

concept.

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Mapping ows

Switzerland as

operational landscape

MARC ANGÉLIL, CARY SIRESS

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Urbanism Series, 3(1), 35-56. doi:10.7480/rius.3.831

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

Abstract

Drawing on episodes involving the use (and abuse) of maps in Switzerland,

this essay pertains to the geopolitical agency of cartography in the production

of urban territory. Maps generate and maintain particular discourses about

the world, whether factual or ctional, with very real repercussions either way

for the territory depicted. The UN motion made by Libyan leader Muammar

al-Gada to wipe Switzerland o the map, for instance, discloses just how

much sway the cartographic imaginary holds in global relations. Guillaume-

Henri Dufour's mid-nineteenth century map re-territorialised a loose coalition

of ercely independent cantons into that unied economic and legislative

space known as 'Switzerland', while underwriting an infrastructural machine

that remains as central to Swiss self-esteem as it is to the nation's economy.

More recent examples of the map's formative authority come by way of two

unusual bids made in 2010 to redraw the boundaries of Switzerland. The

controversial map by Armed Forces Chief André Blattmann recast Europe as

enemy territory in an eort to rekindle patriotic identity and legitimise the

need for an army. Conversely, right-wing politician Dominique Baettig put

forth an equally contentious map calling for the annexation of regions from

neighbouring countries that would create a new Swiss megacity in the heart

of Europe. Regardless of how it is mapped, Switzerland's contemporary urban

fabric hardly adheres to an immaculate image, manifesting instead a disjunctive

amalgam of bits and pieces that operate according to their own rules and

agendas. And with such territorial entropy increasing on a planetary scale, we

might wonder to what extent the map actively shapes these conditions as an

actor in its own right rather than only neutrally reecting them. In any case,

territory is never simply given, but is constituted through the polymorphous

elements, relations, and domains of reference that it assembles. Whereas the

map might continue to express what is done in the name of territory, we do

not yet know what territory itself can do.

KEYWORDS

mapping Switzerland; cartography; Swiss defence system; urban fabric; infrastructure network

Mapping flows

1. ERASING SWITZERLAND OFF THE MAP

A motion submitted by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gadda in 2009 to the

United Nations General Assembly made a plea for wiping Switzerland o the

map and splitting its territories among neighbouring countries. His rather

bold proposal – announced as an all-out Jihad or Holy War against the alpine

state – came in response to the arrest of one of his sons in Geneva and the

controversial ban on the construction of minarets in the country. In a ram-

bling diatribe at the G8 Summit held in Italy in the same year Gadda labelled

Switzerland a rogue nation:

"Switzerland is a world maa and not a state. It is formed of an Italian com-

munity that should return to Italy, another German community that should return to

Germany, and a third French community that should return to France." 1

An oil embargo was declared, billions were withdrawn from Swiss bank

accounts, commercial ights between the two countries cancelled, and two

Swiss businessmen arrested for alleged visa irregularities. Although such re-

taliatory measures were quite serious and yielded much diplomatic damage,

the media had a heyday with Gadda's bizarre proposal, with countless maps

drawn to illustrate Switzerland's dissolution. Who would get the Gotthard

and who would get the Matterhorn? But humour aside and notwithstanding

Switzerland's long-standing posture of neutrality, the short-lived episode

brings to the forefront how politics and space are brought to interact on the

very surface of the map. Whatever the intentions, whether justied or not,

and whatever maps are drawn, they tend to leave their traces on both the ge-

ography of ideology and space.

2. PUTTING SWITZERLAND ON THE MAP

A signicant amount of eort goes into maps and their production. As

a matter of fact, Switzerland has made a name for itself in the production of

hyper-accurate maps. Its territory, itself a model of accuracy, has been me-

ticulously plotted to the nth degree with an exactitude that would even make

Borges's fabled guild of cartographers green with envy.2 This passion for all

things perfect is more than mere myth, it is the hallmark of Swiss identity

both within and beyond its national borders. To keep things in good order – en

état – is nearly constitutional law. In reality, map-making engenders territo-

ry, if not the nation itself, in the process triangulating scientic knowledge,

politics, and space.3 This threesome fuels an obsessive machine that runs at

full speed, at times threatening to overheat while consuming ever more re-

sources to produce an urban landscape that expands beyond the borders of

the map itself. Since the 1970s, the rate of land consumption for new con-

struction in Switzerland is estimated to have reached nearly 1m2 /sec, a num-

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

ber often cited in parliamentary debates and in the media, though slightly

above the more precise gure of 0.86m2 /sec as calculated by the Swiss Federal

Statistical Oce; the plotting of territory and its dynamics through the ele-

gance of number (Bundesamt für Statistik Schweiz, 2013).

There is indeed a map that put Switzerland on the map. Not by coin-

cidence that landmark document is attributed to a military surveyor, Guil-

laume-Henri Dufour, whose training as an engineer and experience with for-

tications for the French military made him the prime choice for charting the

rst comprehensive map of the country, albeit a country that had not yet been

constitutionally formed. The undertaking comprised a monumental task that

lasted from 1832 to 1865 (Gugerli & Speich, 2002; Gugerli, 1999). Switzerland

at the time was a loose coalition of independent cantons separated by a cap-

sular mentality that survives to this day. Eorts were made nevertheless to

standardise anything from dierent currencies to disparate measuring sys-

tems in order to facilitate commerce and strengthen political cohesion while

maintaining cultural diversity. With the objective of a unied Swiss economic

and legislative space on the table, one of the initial measures was to create a

new map that would give contours to "the topographical designation Switzer-

land" with a precision "beyond all scientic doubt" (Gugerli, 1998) (gure 1).

The project set out to homogenise the heterogeneous and gained signif-

icance as part of a progressive-liberal movement aiming to unite the country

in a military, political, economic, and geographic sense (Gugerli, 1998: 96). A

"gigantic machinery of a new national recording system had come to fruition", and

with it Switzerland was invented (Gugerli, 1998: 97).When the federal state

was founded in 1848, the Dufour Map was well underway, giving legitimacy

to the edgling nation. Dufour himself proted from the enterprise, as he

was elected General of the army just prior to the state's formation, a move

suggesting that the armed forces had already become more scientic in their

orientation. Given that the map was underwritten by military interests, an-

ything that either aided or obstructed the movement of troops was recorded

in minute detail by squads of surveyors scaling mountainous terrain. Con-

versely, the map warranted the creation of new infrastructure – roads, rail-

ways, bridges, tunnels, and communication networks – likewise warranting

the need to discipline, manage, and control territory. We encounter in this

project an unexpected ménage à trois where knowledge, power, and space be-

come entangled. It was little known at the time that to govern is to urbanise.

Mapping flows

Figure 1 Excerpt from Dufour Map, surveyed at the scales 1:25,000 and

1:50,000 under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, 1832-1865

The result is a completely managed landscape whose seamless ows and

operational eciency are understandably the pride of the nation and inspires

awe abroad. Well engrained in collective memory, Switzerland predicates the

image of perfection as a consummate collection of places to remember (Kreis,

2010). Not surprisingly, the conquest of nature by infrastructure and with it

the taming of the Alps is celebrated in popular pastime activities by dads and

their sons re-enacting feats of civil engineering in their basements, by mod-

el train clubs attracting hordes of want-to-be surveyors, and by countless

magazines highlighting the latest accessories for miniature Switzerlands to

customers worldwide (Hermann, 2010). One such model, a replica of the Got-

thard North Ramp, was even built behind closed doors, behind the Iron Cur-

tain to be exact, during the Cold War in the former DDR by model train acio-

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

nados who had never visited the actual site (gure 2). Though born of fantasy,

the project required up-to-date maps that were smuggled in and used to plot

an elaborate duplicate of the real setting, one replete with rock formations,

trees, lakes, snow, and not to forget those Swiss chalets and all the other nec-

essary technical amenities for a picture-perfect, Heidi-esque set. What was

undertaken as an innocent leisurely pursuit eventually got the East German

hobbyists in trouble with agents from the Ministry for State Security, more

commonly known as the Stasi, who were suspicious of the clandestine opera-

tion. But the story had a happy ending, as the maps used were deemed harm-

less by authorities and the co-opted image of Switzerland deemed benign.

Figure 2 Model Train of the Gotthard North Ramp (scale 1:120),

Model Train Club Leipzig, DDR, 1969-89

Without a doubt, the virtue of Swiss maps is their accuracy. Admittedly,

as a cartographer's dream such accurateness can be blinding. Maps, though

cloaked in objectivity, are thoroughly ideological. They are vehicles for trans-

lating values, motives, biases, beliefs, and desires into territory. Such trans-

lations require protocols based on norms that ensure their replication as a

system, which in turn validates the values inscribed in them and the powers

Mapping flows

behind them. Therefore, any change in ideology will inevitably leave its mark

on the land. But such agents for ideology never stand alone. They are often

met with other competing objectives, a clash which translates into territorial

conict, however absurd the grounds might seem.

3. WALLING SWITZERLAND

Case in point, a simple map can make a mountain out of a molehill. A

media event in early March 2010 unleashed a restorm in Switzerland, a

country again long known for its understated political neutrality. The Swiss

press released a military map positioning the small nation in the middle of

hostile territory. Europe is portrayed as a battleground with threatening star-

burst symbols, tanks, nuclear missiles, and dollar signs spotting the conti-

nent. By contrast, the centre, marked by the little white cross on a red back-

ground – by now a brand of anything Swiss –, poised to defend the land's

fragile peace. In place of natural terrain, the map's geography is drawn in

game-board-relief of accentuated national borders rendered as deep ravines

separating countries, with Switzerland cast as fortress. The map's legend is

quite telling: orange starbursts stand for those states posing a threat arising

from political, ethnic, and religious clashes, red starbursts denote post-9/11

terrorist attacks on European soil, black starbursts identify areas of social un-

rest, nuclear missiles indicate neighbouring countries with weapons of mass

destruction, tanks symbolize regions torn by armed conict, and perhaps no

less menacing, the dollar sign represents nations with unstable economies.

Europe is a scary place (gure 3).

Figure 3 Map presented to the Swiss Parliamentary Security Council

by Chief of the Armed Forces André Blattmann, 2010

In reality the map is a carefully fabricated and precisely targeted docu-

ment motivated by multiple agendas, some more clear than others. Its au-

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

thor, Chief of the Armed Forces André Blattmann, presented his case for

maintaining the integrity of Switzerland in a routine military report to the

Parliamentary Security Council. The transparencies used by Blattmann to

make his point were, despite his authoritarian frankness, anything but trans-

parent. The material subsequently made its way to the press who did not miss

a beat to put it in the larger political context and thus highlight the ulterior

motives of the campaign. To ease entry into the story, local television framed

the incident in such a way as to reach the largest audience possible, thereby

capitalising on the scandalous ramications of vilifying neighbours. Popu-

lar vacation destinations across the continent oered the perfect foil for the

spin, with tourist sites now depicted as the source of unwanted migratory

ows of people threatening to invade Confederate Helvetic space. In fact, an

ocial message delivered to the public by the military commander himself:

"[o]ne can imagine situations in which the army has to protect our infrastructure,

for large migration streams might require troop deployment."4 Yet another part of

his argument showcased imminent economic risks, using EU-member state

Greece as a convenient example of an already destabilised nancial system on

the doorstep of bankruptcy. As if this was not enough, he went on brazenly to

warn citizens about the danger of Taliban-launched nuclear assaults on the

nation's power grid just to add fuel to the re.5

Reactions to this episode – which unfolded on the heels of the equal-

ly sensitive Minaret Initiative that had angered Gadda – was broad, cutting

across party lines and national borders alike. As can be expected, local leaders

throughout the country scrambled to soften the blow of political incorrect-

ness, the liberal Swiss Social Party (SP/PS) moved to take advantage of Blatt-

mann's faux pas, and Greece was outraged.6 Ultimately, the fallout led to the

heated question: of all nations, why does Switzerland need an army?7

This seems to be the very question that prompted military leaders to

construct the map in the rst place. Faced with budget cuts, a plan was con-

cocted to breathe new life into the existential necessity of the army. And ter-

ritory played no small part in the case made. Blattmann actually framed his

argument in a newspaper interview from the vantage of real estate and the

immense portfolio of property assets belonging to the armed forces, at the

time of the interview valued at approximately 25 billion US dollars.8 To make

the argument more palatable, he cited in his pitch the decrepit conditions

of barracks and signicant maintenance costs for their upkeep. The message

was clear: more money is needed for the army. Yet, when asked why they had

not resorted to selling portions of the land holdings, he called attention to

the space required for military exercises and related installations. Clearly this

was a concerted eort to cloud the more central issue of winning new prestige

and thereby justifying the military's raison d'être as raison d'état. Indeed, ac-

cording to the Chief, the state of Switzerland does need an army!

Mapping flows

A state of emergency had to be induced and a palpable sense of angst

manufactured to prop up the call for protecting the homeland, with space

played as an agent in a blatant politics of fear. With this agenda, a threat-

map had to be deployed as tactical weapon. A dicult geography emerges in

Blattmann's doomsday scenario as impending terror is invoked to re-con-

struct territory, thus further institutionalising national security. By present-

ing conjecture as fact, he purposely plays the trump card of patriotic identity

versus the evil other. Switzerland is interiorised, walled, not physically but

dogmatically and ideologically, and all in order to secure more funds for the

military and its industry.

There is a precedent to this protectionist impulse that remains deeply

engrained in Swiss mentality. Known as the réduit, or redoubt, the Swiss-con-

ceived alpine stronghold denotes a place of refuge during times of war. The

term has both a physical and psychological dimension. On the one hand, it is

comprised of a series of fortications strategically situated across the country

to defend prominent points and deter enemy attack. On the other hand, it

gures as the core of 'spiritual national defence' invoked to raise collective

morale and remind citizens of the country's critical situation amidst hostile

neighbours (Mooser, 2000). Blattmann plays on this very sentiment.

While of vital signicance during World War II, the réduit dates back to

the early 19th century and later gained importance in connection with the

Gotthard railroad tunnel built in 1882 (Stamm, 2003). And this was no coinci-

dence as the Gotthard Pass lies at the heart of the country and forms the key

link between north and south. A caricature published at that time entitled

'After the Gotthard, the Matterhorn' ironically shows the ramications of the

Alps conceived as weapon (gure 4 & 5).

Figure 4 Caricature entitled 'After the Gotthard, the Matterhorn',

published in the satirical weekly Der Nebelspalter, November 19, 1887

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

Figure 5 Via Tremola, Old St. Gotthard Road,

south side of the St. Gotthard Pass, 1928

Thoroughly excavated by caverns and encrusted with roads and cannons,

the mountain becomes a technological object. During World War II, defence

construction further escalated with considerable investments made in build-

ing more fortications, which to some degree are still used by the army today.

Henri Guisan, General of the armed forces during the war and no doubt a role

model for Blattmann, reanimated the national call for resistance in the spirit

of the réduit (Kurz, 1965). He declared in July 1940 that in case of attack by

Axis forces, the Swiss would defend the high Alps and its infrastructure above

all. To get a sense of the scale of the operation, 40 000 fortresses and subter-

ranean installations were built during the war alone (Kurz, 1965: 77). Whereas

the majority of these structures form extensive hidden networks, they most

often surface in the landscape as idyllic, yet fake chalets, camouaged as quo-

tidian domestic architecture (Schwager, 2004). The Alps have been literal-

ly hollowed to become an infrastructural armature for national defence. The

image of a perforated mountain range, not unlike Swiss cheese, increased the

mythical power of the réduit as the last bulwark of territorial resistance (Kreis,

2010: 182) (gure 6).

Mapping flows

Figure 6 Section of World War II bunker camouaged

as Swiss chalet, 1944 (courtesy of the Swiss Army)

The eort to arm national space continued after the war, with command-

ers of the army still stubbornly committed to the idea of the réduit. While the

rest of Europe had more or less ceased building fortresses, Switzerland kept

looking for its protection underground. While approximately a billion US dol-

lars had been swallowed up for fortifying the nation during World War II, an

additional 10 billion was invested for the same purpose until the end of the

Cold War, providing in the interim a welcome boost to the building industry

(Stamm, 2003: 77).

Whether in the past or now, this intricate coupling of private sector

business with a publicly funded army drives the very production of territory.

This joint venture fuels a political economy that churns out state-of-the-art

infrastructure turning country into machine. Known for its daunting natu-

ral landscape, which challenges the enterprise of grand designs, Switzerland

has mastered the disciplining of topography by deploying civil engineering to

turn an otherwise picturesque setting into strategic advantage: tunnels bore

through miles of solid rock; bridges span treacherous valleys; and highways

are laid with seeming indierence to rugged terrain – all built with rst-rate

cement produced by prosperous domestic industries. The heroics of such ef-

forts were pointedly captured in an early documentary by Jean-Luc Godard

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

entitled Opération Béton released in 1958 – before Godard became the famed

'Godard' – that celebrates the construction of La Grande Dixence, a massive

hydraulic dam built into the rocky landscape of the Alps. His voiceover ex-

presses excitement about conquering topography and a sense of urgency as-

sociated with this national cause.

To top o the overall operation, post-war legislation in 1963, fuelled by

prevalent Cold War fears of a nuclear oensive on home soil, even dictates

that all buildings must be equipped with a subterranean concrete shelter for

every Swiss man and woman (Fuhrer & Wild, 2010; Aeberhard, 1983; Bach-

mann & Grosjean, 1969). Constituting one of the biggest building projects

implemented in the history of the country, this venture takes the concept

of the réduit down to the smallest, most ligree scale to form a decentralised

network of capsular space. Moreover, 'fortress Switzerland' as project works

to merge civilian and military purpose to secure national protection. Moti-

vated by this insular mentality, it becomes clear that Blattmann's map is just

a cog in the wheel of a more complex machine. By demonising surrounding

countries, the map serves the battle cry for ever more infrastructure that, of

course, enables Switzerland to function like a ne-tuned clockwork nation

should.

4. GREATER SWITZERLAND

If Blattmann's map seems outrageous, it was outdone by an even more

outlandish map published a few weeks later. Whereas the protectionist bid by

Blattmann foresaw a walling of Switzerland, a subsequent initiative proposed

by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) envisioned instead an ex-

pansionist course for the country. In place of a military cause, here diplomatic

negotiation was enlisted – a Swiss asset if there ever was one. A motion was

submitted to the Parliament on March 18, 2010 by Senate member Dominique

Baettig and co-signed by 28 of his fellow party aliates. The plan was driven

by the desire for a 'Greater Switzerland' and commissioned the Swiss Nation-

al Council to investigate the legislative steps required to achieve this objec-

tive.9 Simply put, the appeal amounted to a coup as it concerned the annexa-

tion of regions from neighbouring countries. Said takeover would seize parts

of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy, thereby altering the familiar political

geography of Europe. The arguments in favour of participating in Swiss wel-

fare are hard to resist: a direct democracy, an auent market economy, and

low taxes. Polls taken in those respective territories showed an armative

reaction by local populations.10 The message seemed obvious, everyone would

love to be Swiss.

Mapping flows

Known in his pastime as an avid hunter, Baettig made a name for himself

in politics as a staunch conservative. His background includes involvement

in right-wing radical activities and associated journals. He likes to see him-

self as agitator or agent provocateur. In the context of the contentious Minaret

Initiative, for example, he equated migrants with "territorially-foreign species

of invasive insects" when provoking the Parliament to consider the economic

consequences of uncontrolled immigration into Switzerland.11 Intervening in

politics abroad, he even had the audacity in a speech in France to suggest that

minarets are phallic symbols of male potency. He received accolades from a

cheering crowd of extremists in a country where the Muslim issue is already

explosive. Clearly, the ulterior motive was to attack what he considered an

icon not just of religious but also of political power in the Islamic world. He

was caught on camera at this event by Swiss TV, a bout of media exposure that

only reinforced his position with supporters at home.12 What plainly func-

tioned as propaganda ultimately served his later motion to gain a stronger

foothold in Europe for the Helvetic Confederation through the appropriation

of territory from neighbouring states.

Responses to Baettig's proposition varied from applause to dismay, both

nationally and internationally. Domestically, at the highest echelons of pow-

er, an argument was made against disturbing friendly relations with European

neighbours, as those relations had already been tested by recent disclosures

of foreign deposits in Swiss banks made to evade taxes at home. To counter

this argument, the SVP/UDC cited widespread discontent by inhabitants from

bordering regions. Situated on the periphery of their respective nations, this

presumably dispirited constituency, according to Baettig and his party, has

been disenfranchised by their own governments. The case put forth was to

appease these regions by assembling them as new cantons under the um-

brella of Swiss democracy and, in eect, prompt their surreptitious defection

from the European Union. Viewed by the Swiss conservatives with disdain,

EU government ocials continue to be portrayed as an elite classe politique

operating top-down from their remote headquarters in Brussels, the very ar-

gument made by Switzerland itself for not joining the EU. At stake is nothing

less than the mobilization of sovereignty brought about by the annexation of

territory.

This is a touchy issue with a sensitive history. The relationship between

Switzerland and Europe has been marked by ambiguity both now and in the

past. Although proudly autonomous, Switzerland is nevertheless tied to Eu-

rope. The small Alpine country enjoys the best of both worlds by maintaining

independence and cultivating select cross-border relations at the same time.

Basically, it gets its cake and eats it too. But this works two ways, insofar as

adjoining countries have always enjoyed a safe haven of courteous hospitali-

ty coupled with gentlemanly discretion in nancial matters. Maps of Europe

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

most often reveal this dual condition, with Switzerland depicted as either a

blank hole or as privileged refuge. Whatever the case, to be situated in the

middle proves to be an opportune place for manoeuvring, both politically and

economically. This is certainly true for Switzerland in that it plays the role

of strategic relay within a space of circulation. Here again, infrastructure is a

crucial component in the business of routing and re-routing ows.

But these ows are not always visible as demonstrated by Switzerland's

part in World War II. Then, trade relations and territorial disposition, as we

now know, went hand in hand with political diplomacy. The prevalent pic-

ture painted during and after the war was that of a small country at the mer-

cy of great powers – a classic David versus Goliath stando. While guring

the réduit as key to defending Swiss independence might be reassuring even

today, in reality accommodation, negotiation, and political savvy served as

equally eective modes of keeping fascist aggression at bay. Yet, as advan-

tageous as it was at the time for Switzerland to play strategic relay for nan-

cial transactions, including loans and credit to Axis powers, the exposure of

this very practice taints the image of the country's neutrality. The so-called

'Swiss miracle' of coming out of the conict unscathed is widely viewed today

as a 'Swiss malaise' (Perrenoud, 2000: 26-27). It would seem that the busi-

ness of give and take was crucial to national defence. Government authorities

and industrial leaders acted, it is argued, more pragmatically than heroically

when faced with the threat of invasion: industries supplied specialised prod-

ucts and nancial institutions oered the liquidity essential to the war ef-

fort (Perrenoud, 2000: 28).13 To facilitate the movement of goods and money,

things needed to be put in place and a complex apparatus was required, in-

cluding everything from administrative procedures to logistical protocols and

infrastructural systems that stretched far beyond national borders. Project

'network Switzerland' was furthered in the process.

Contrary to the réduit mentality behind Blattmann's vision for a porcu-

pine-like posture toward the outside, the move to extend political and eco-

nomic tentacles into a larger arena reveals another attitude regarding territo-

ry, one this time directed by circulation, movement, exchange, and so forth.

This is what Baettig's scheme banked on, for there are signicant benets to

his expansionist dream. Take the State of Baden-Württemberg for example.

As one of the most prosperous regions targeted in the venture, it performs

as a German Silicon Valley and functions literally as the country's economic

motor, with elite universities and blue-chip company headquarters such as

Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Bosch, and SAP located there. The proposed incor-

poration of the region into Greater Switzerland would yield a match made in

heaven considering the parity of the work ethic between Swiss and Germans,

a deeply engrained ethic founded on a prudent morality coupled with eco-

nomic thrift as addressed by Max Weber in his early 20th century treatise The

Mapping flows

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 2011)). As a matter of fact,

the territories of both countries are already integrated at least infrastructur-

ally and commercially, forming a well-functioning transnational entity. But

remember, Baden-Württemberg is only one piece of Baettig's larger plan for

a Greater Switzerland (gure 7).

Were his motion to be approved by all involved parties, including those

from France, Austria, and Italy, Switzerland would gain an additional 17 mil-

lion citizens and its territory would triple in size overnight. To all intents and

purposes, this would give rise to a politically ratied metropolitan cluster, if

not a megacity in the centre of Europe. Whereas current domestic planning

eorts and academic studies are inclined to view Switzerland as a large urban

conglomeration, most still treat the country as xed in terms of sacrosanct

borders. Conversely, research projects such as those by ETH Studio Basel

and Avenir Suisse have begun to soften the edges of the nation and consider

mergers forming between city regions on its periphery (Schneider & Eisinger,

2003; Diener et al., 2004). This very perspective of seeing Swiss urbanization

leak beyond national borders was taken up in a landmark document entitled

Spatial Concept Switzerland and ratied in 2012 that showed, for instance, the

region of Ticino spilling into the agglomeration of Milan, that of Basel owing

out into the Rhine Valley, and that of Geneva extending well into French ter-

ritory.14 Surprisingly, Baettig's map was not far o the mark, for it seemed to

anticipate the next logical step of a process already underway, one that chal-

lenges the political make-up of Europe as mapped in terms of bounded sover-

eign nations that are held in place by device of clearly drawn lines.

Figure 7 'La Grande Suisse', foreseen expansion of Switzerland's territory

as proposed by the right-wing party, Le Temps, June 2010

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

5. ENTROPIC SWITZERLAND

Looking back at two gments of cartographic imagination, Switzerland

seems to be faced with the incommensurable options of isolation or expan-

sion: Blattmann is pitted against Baettig. Fantasy notwithstanding, the coun-

try is in fact pursuing both routes. What seems like opposing ideologies ac-

tually work in tandem to produce territory by taming space. Each plan relies

on the provision of infrastructural networks to secure optimal channels for

managing order. However, while each ideology aims for order, they unexpect-

edly contribute to an entropic territorial condition. Against better judgment

and counterintuitive to the will to discipline, more control creates more dis-

order.

By now a well-known phenomenon and one that has plagued scores of

scientists, geographers, engineers, planners, and politicians alike, entropy,

or the tendency of a system toward spontaneous change, has spawned ever

new tools to get a handle on a condition that by denition resists control.

From GIS technology and anamorphic mapping to spatial statistics and mor-

phological modelling, empirical data are crunched into what has eectively

become our contemporary version of landscape painting, all diagramming

urbanity without pause. With due respect, such labour faces the Sisyphean

task of trying to contain cities and their metropolitan regions. As composed

as it might appear, Switzerland's urban fabric no longer yields to an immacu-

late image, whether idealised on a map or rationalised in the mind. Quite the

contrary, although clean and ecient, this urbanised country manifests an

amalgam of disjunctive bits and pieces, each operating according to their own

rules and agendas (gure 8).

Figure 8 Anamorphic map of Swiss agglomerations registering

dierent population densities of communities in the country, 2000

(courtesy of Jacques Lévy, Chôros Laboratory, EPFL)

Mapping flows

Though maps tend to homogenise whatever they address, the physical

constitution of the territory at issue is comprised by a heterogeneous mix-

ture of dense urban networks connected by endless conduits of infrastruc-

ture, loose agglomerations lined with industrial and commercial strips, areas

of little or no activity, land set aside for agriculture, restricted military com-

pounds, and plenty of nature to go around, all shaped by the mechanics of

political and economic interests. What results is a fractured space that never-

theless functions as if by its own momentum, a diuse arrangement not just

of stu, but also of regulations, standards, customs, and anything else needed

to manage the operation of capitalising territory.

Switzerland's federalist model of governance exacerbates this condi-

tion, with over 2 700 constituent communities enjoying direct democratic

representation. Everybody has a say. The distribution of power to localities is

stamped directly into the land. Each community, for instance, devises its own

zoning regulations that specify land-use in the spirit of the Charter of Ath-

ens's separation of functions, producing a spatial pixilation of sorts whereby

the urban landscape is peppered with normalising codes ad innitum. Though

maps are the instrument of choice for translating normality into a geographic

order, the resulting proliferation of regulation gives way to spatial cacoph-

ony. This in turn requires even more elaborate administrative protocols for

municipal ocials who are more often than not overwhelmed by the task of

controlling development. But this account is only from the bottom up. Top-

down management of territory involving regional planning at both cantonal

and federal levels is also at play, inevitably leading to conict with communal

ambitions. One example dates from 1958 when a bill was passed in a national

referendum involving a constitutional amendment to give the green light to

a new freeway system that by now stretches over 1800 km throughout the

tiny nation (Heller & Volk, 1999). Add to this the recent trend of roundabouts

that has altered the face of domestic transit, with thousands and thousands of

trac circles introduced as if overnight. Darling of engineers, these beloved

technical objects are the subject of countless manuals that cite their ecien-

cy in facilitating circulation. You never have to stop while driving around in

circles (gure 9).

And, these are only a few examples of the regulatory frenzy that bom-

bards territory at all scales. Disciplining space is the name of the game; dis-

cipline normalises.

"Discipline, of course, analyses and breaks down; it breaks down individuals,

places, time, movements, actions, and operations" (Foucoult, 2007: 56)

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

Figure 9 Swiss military map at army training facility depicting German territory,

Thun, 2005 (photograph by Deane Simpson)

Yet it seems that discipline cannot help but generate its opposite, a

let-be-attitude toward a state of things, when multiplied ad absurdum. As

side eect of hyper-discipline, this laissez-faire or laissez-aller state of things

nds its equivalent in the economy, the key engine of urban development. In-

deed 'letting things take their course' is an integral feature of the free market

(Foucault, 2007: 41). While banking on entropy might well serve the nan-

cial sector, it also recongures contemporary city regions. One critical case

in point are the variously adjusted tax codes at the cantonal and communal

levels, which act as a precisely designed lure to attract both businesses and

auent citizens to settle in specic jurisdictions – triggering a veritable tax

competition between communities. The lower the taxes, the higher the real

estate value of property, leading to an uneven distribution of wealth and so-

cial rank that again leaves its traces in patches throughout the nation. At its

most extreme, companies listed in Switzerland have no more than a post-box

presence here in order to prot from tax incentives. For locals unable to pay

ever rising rents, this often results in domestic migration from high-priced

to more aordable regions. This exodus is compounded by immigration from

nearby countries by foreigners wanting to avoid paying higher taxes back

home while looking for a higher quality of life – an added ow of people that

only sets o more territorial entropy.15

With no option except competition within a milieu of free movement of

virtually everything, space as much as place is bought and sold. The mech-

anisms at work in the nancial sector align with those of urban production.

Anything protable goes, and if not, is disposed of. For land holdings are just

as dispensable as any other commodity, open to the market, with their scraps

scattered across the map. So what is referred to as 'open city' in academia is

Mapping flows

not necessarily an ideal setting for coexistence, for it is most often embraced

by developers and investors as a pretext for anything goes (Christiaanse et al.

2009). Over and above hopeful thinking as so often manifested in pretty ren-

derings, freedom of circulation rules as a technology of power in our current

political economy.

At work here are modes of urban production that are not exclusive to

Switzerland, as this itinerant economic geography knows no borders. With

free circulation as its core principle, the urbanisation of territory gives rise to

a transnational mentality of governance, a form of 'governmentality' to bor-

row an expression of Michel Foucault, that is formed by a nexus where prot

and power trump space (Foucault, 2007: 108).[16] Yet, the pace of de-territo-

rialisation and the appetite for unhindered development at all costs demands

another frame of mind than those that bank on discipline alone. We need to

enter the clockwork itself, operating from the middle-out and reversing its

prescribed course if necessary. This might require a modied political econ-

omy that alters its view of territory as a neutral backdrop left submissive to

forces that act upon it. Instead, territory can be viewed as active, as a dynamic

network of actors in and of itself. This would mean that territory could take the

lead and act to redirect political economy toward a more constructive mind-

set, where the physical milieu is empowered and viewed as an equal delegate

at the negotiating table. Then, the map could no longer master territory, nor

would territory be scattered around as passive victim by the whims of special

interests. Rather, territory would be re-territorialised on interests inherent

to territory itself, as vital resource and source of cultural identity, and not

just raw material awaiting development. But this may require a change of di-

rection, if not a ight of imagination that goes against the ow and counter

clockwise to taken-for-granted cycles of capital.

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

ENDNOTES

1 Excerpt of Gadda's speech at the 35th G8 Summit in Abruzzo, Italy that took place in July 2009, see

Samira Shackle, 'Colonel Gadda: "mad dog"?', New Statesman, February 25, 2010.

2 "In that Empire, the cartographer's art achieved such a degree of perfection that the map of a sin-

gle province occupied an entire city, and the map of the Empire, an entire province. In time, these

vast maps were no longer sucient. The guild of cartographers created a map of the Empire, which

perfectly coincided with the Empire itself. But succeeding generations, with diminished interest in

the study of cartography, believed that this immense map was of no use, and not impiously, they

abandoned it to the inclemency of the sun and numerous winters. In the deserts of the west ruined

fragments of the map survive, inhabited by animals and beggars; in all the country there is no other

relic of the geographical disciplines." Jorge Luis Borges (1935) Historia universal de la infamia 'Etceteras',

trans. Norman Thomas de Giovanni, A Universal History of Infamy (1975), London: Penguin Books, pp

28-29.

3 "The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the

territory – PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA – it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to

revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is

the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer

those of the Empire, but our own." Jean Baudrillard (1981) Simulacres et Simulation, 'The Precession of

Simulacra', in: Simulations, trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton, and Philip Beitchman, New York: Semiotexte,

p. 2.

4 André Blattmann interviewed by Patrick Feuz and Daniel Foppa, "Denkbar wäre ein Pikett-WK", Tag-

es-Anzeiger, March 10, 2010.

5 Patrick Feuz, "Achtung, eine A-Bombe! Armeechef warnt vor Nuklearangri in der Schweiz", Tages-An-

zeiger, March 17, 2010.

6 "Armee Chef Blattmanns kuriose Karte", Tages-Anzeiger , March 15, 2010.

7 See Max Frisch (1989) Schweiz ohne Armee? Ein Palaver, Zurich: Limmat Verlag, written on the occasion

of the national referendum to abolish the Swiss Army and support a comprehensive politics of peace

in 1989 – with 35,6% of the voters in favor of the proposition.

8 Op. cit., Tages-Anzeiger, March 10, 2010.

9 Yves Petignat, "Boutefeu, l'UDC est prête à accueillir Aoste ou la Savoie", Le Temps, June 10, 2010.

10 "Umfrage: Nachbarregionen wollen der Schweiz beitreten", Die Weltwoche, July 22, 2010.

11 Heidi Gmür, "SVP-Nationalrat vergleicht Ausländer mit Insekten", NZZ am Sonntag, October 18, 2009.

12 Hans Stutz, "Es ist mir eine Ehre", Die Wochenzeitung (WOZ), December 10, 2009.

13 See also the report by the Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War

(2002) Die Schweiz, der Nationalsozialismus und der Zweite Weltkrieg, also known as the Bergier Report,

Zurich: Pendo Verlag.

14 Raumkonzept Schweiz, published by the Swiss Confederation (Berne: Schweizerischer Bundesrat,

2012).

15 For more on the uneven distribution of wealth in Switzerland see Philipp Löpfe and Werner Vontobel,

'Die Reichen ins Ghetto', in Aufruhr im Paradies: Die Neue Zuwanderung Spaltet die Schweiz (Zurich: Orell

Füssli Verlag, 2011), 40-59.

16 Foucault denes the term as follows: "By 'governmentality' I understand the ensemble formed by

institutions, procedures, analyses and reections, calculations, and tactics that allow the exercise of

this very specic, albeit very complex, power that has the population as its target, political economy

as its major form of knowledge, and apparatuses of security as its essential technical instrument."

Mapping flows

REFERENCES

Aeberhard, R. (1983) Vom Luftschutz zum Zivilschutz. Solothurn, Verlag Vogt-Schild

Bachmann, A. & G. Grosjean (1969) Zivilverteidigung, Eidgenössische Justiz- und Polizeidepartement.

Aarau, Miles-Verlag

Bundesamt für Statistik Schweiz (2013) Kulturlandverlust zu Gunsten von Siedlung und Wald: Bodennutzung-

swandel in m2 pro Sekunde (2000, revised 2013)

Christiaanse, K. et al. (2009) Open City: Designing Coexistence. Amsterdam, Sun Architecture

Diener, R., J. Herzog, M. Meili, P. de Meuron & Ch. Schmid (2004) Switzerland – An Urban Portrait. Basel,

Birkhäuser Verlag

Foucault, M. (2004/2007) Security, Territory, Population. Lectures at the Collège de France 1977-1978. New

York, Palgrave Macmillan

Frisch, M. (1989) Schweiz ohne Armee? Ein Palaver. Zurich, Limmat Verlag

Fuhrer, H.R. & M. Wild (2010) Alle roten Pfeile kommen aus Osten – zu Recht? Das Bild und die Bedrohung der

Schweiz 1945-1966 im Licht östlicher Archive. Baden, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte

Gugerli, D. (1998) 'Politics on the Topographer's Table: The Helvetic Triangulation of Cartography, Politics,

and Representation', in: T. Lenoir (ed.) Inscribing Science: Scientic Texts and the Materiality of Communi-

cation. Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, pp 96-97

Gugerli, D. (1999) 'Der Hirtenknabe, der General und die Karte', in: WerkstattGeschichte nr. 23. Essen,

Klartext Verlag, pp 53-73

Gugerli, D. & D. Speich (2002) Topograen der Nation. Politik, kartograsche Ordnung und Landschaft im 19.

Jahrhundert. Zurich, Chronos Verlag

Heller, M. & A. Volk (1999) Die Schweizer Autobahn. Zurich, Museum für Gestaltung

Hermann, C. (2010) 'Schweizer Eisenbahn- und Bergidylle im Privatgarten', in: E. Bierende et al. (eds.)

Helvetische Merkwürdigkeiten. Bern, Peter Lang, pp 19-39

Kreis, G. (2010) Schweizer Erinnerungsorte. Zurich, Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Kurz, H.R. (1965) General Henri Guisan. Zurich, Musterschmidt Verlag

Löpfe, Ph. & W. Vontobel (2011) Aufruhr im Paradies: Die Neue Zuwanderung Spaltet die Schweiz. Zurich,

Orell Füssli Verlag

Mooser, J. (2000) 'Spiritual National Defence in the 1930s: Swiss Political Culture between the Wars', in: G.

Kreis (ed.) Switzerland and the Second World War. London: Frank Cass, pp. 236-260

Perrenoud, M (2000) 'Foreign Trade and Swiss Politics, 1939-45', in: G. Kreis (ed.) Switzerland and the Sec-

ond World War. London, Frank Cass

Schneider, M. & A. Eisinger (2003) Stadtland Schweiz, an Avenir Suisse publication. Basel, Birkhäuser Ver -

lag

Schwager, Ch. (2004) Falsche Chalets. Zurich, Edition Patrick Frey

Stamm, P. (2003) 'Farewell from the Réduit: The long walk', in: Bunker: Unloaded. Lucerne, Edizioni Per-

iferia, p. 85 (originally published in 1998)

Weber, M. (2011) Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus.Munich, Verlag C. H. Beck (origi-

nally published in 1905)

FLOWSCAPES - Designing infra structure as lanDscape

Planning with water

and trac networks

Carrying structures of

the urban landscape

SYBRAND TJALLINGII

Tjallingii, S. (2015). Planning with water and trac networks. Carrying structures of the urban

landscape. Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 57-80. doi:10.7480/rius.3.832

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Abstract

The two networks strategy is a guiding model for planning and design that

takes the networks of water and trac as carrying structures. Its origin is in the

early 1990s when it resulted from research by design projects aiming at the

generation of tools for making urban development and the urban landscape

more ecological. Reviewing practical experiences is one reason to look again

at the strategy. A second reason is to explore the possible contribution to

current debates such as those about complexity, landscape urbanism and

landscape as infrastructure. The origin of the two networks strategy goes back

to Ian McHarg's Design with Nature and Michael Hough's City Form and Natural

Process. Inspired by them, the approach does not, in the rst place, take nature

and ecology to create limiting but carrying conditions. This asks for carrying

structures. In the urban landscape there are at least three crucial elds of

synergy between activities that ask for carrying structures: the territorial

or spatial eld or the area perspective, the activities related to ows that

pass through these areas or the ow perspective, and the human activities

involved in the plan and in the planning process or the actor perspective.

The two networks create conditions for two multi-functional environments of

synergy. The fast lane is the competitive prot-oriented zone where ecient

production comes rst. The trac network is the carrier. The slow lane is the

co-operation based non-prot oriented zone where water safety and quality,

landscape and heritage, biodiversity, recreation and local food production are

brought together. Here, the water network based on the drainage pattern is

the carrier.

KEYWORDS

urban planning; urban design; landscape; infrastructure; landscape ecology; water networks; trac

networks; ows; strategic planning

Planning with water and traffic networks

1. INTRODUCTION

How is it possible to design spatial structures for urban and regional de-

velopment that gear the diversity of needs and amenity to the carrying ca-

pacity of the planet and the ecological potential of the local landscape? In

the early 1990s the idea emerged to answer this question by taking water and

trac networks as carrying structures in the making of strategic plans. Since

then the two networks strategy has evolved as a conceptual guiding model for

planning and design projects in the urban landscape.

Traditionally, biologists and environmentalists tend to take ecology

to their own corner, the corner of conservation. Urbanisation is perceived

as the enemy. In search of a more integrated approach and inspired by the

emerging spirit of sustainable development that led to the Rio Conference in

1992, researchers and designers from dierent backgrounds embarked upon

a programme of studies and pilot projects to make urban development itself

more ecological. This implied a reframing of the issue: from ecology provid-

ing limiting conditions to ecology providing carrying conditions. The Dutch

National Spatial Planning Agency initiated and stimulated this process in the

years that followed (Tjallingii, 1981,1995,1996; Zonneveld & Dubbeling, 1996).

The two networks strategy is one of the fruits of this programme. Over the last

twenty years this strategy served as a conceptual tool, a guiding model that

has guided planning and design projects at dierent levels. The purpose of

this paper is to provide a critical review of these practical experiences. Learn-

ing from practice, the paper further elaborates on key elements of the stra-

tegy and explores the contribution that can be made to current debates about

complexity, landscape urbanism and landscape as infrastructure. In this way

the paper is part of a process of learning. In the TU Delft methodology review

Ways to Study and Research this is called study by design (De Jong & Van der

Voordt, 2002:19, 20; Frieling, 2002: 493).

1.1 Basic questions

This paper focuses on the role of the two networks strategy as a guiding

model, as a conceptual tool. How is it used? Did it play the role of creating a

frame for integrated urban development? The term 'integrated' is approached

from three corners (see gure 1). From an area perspective, it is a question of

durable diversity: the use of the identity and the ecological potential of the

area for economic development and other activities such as maintaining bio-

diversity. Do the spatial elements t together? From a ow perspective, it is

a question of the safe and sustained use of resources. This includes balancing

the upstream and downstream use of ows, and working with the 'reduce, re-

use, recycling' principle. Do ows t to the local situation and to each other?

From an actor perspective, the question is about a sustained commit-

ment from the actors. This includes the capacity of the carrying structures

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

to act as a frame for a exible inll that can meet the needs of yet unknown

future activities. Does the structure create conditions for avoiding conicts

and promoting synergism?

Figure 1 Three action-oriented integration

perspectives (Tjallingii, 1996)

1.2 Outline

After a short description of the origin of the approach in an internatio-

nal perspective, the paper will discuss the area, ow and actor perspectives

highlighting practical experiences and comparing with other concepts. In the

conclusions, the paper focuses on the Schalkwijk case, an example of an in-

tegrated project that used the two networks strategy to structure the plan. The

case illustrates answers to the basic questions posed. The nal section com-

pares this strategy with other integrated approaches.

2. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE APPROACH

Rapid urban and industrial development in the period after the Second

World War triggered a wave of environmental awareness in the 1960s and

1970s. Most ecologists with a biological background perceived urban devel-

opment as a threat to ecology. The 3rd edition of the well-known textbook

Fundamentals of Ecology by Eugene Odum, published in 1971, characterised ur-

ban-industrial environments as non-vital systems. (Odum, 1971: 269). Today,

however, urban metabolism studies have become a major eld of research

(Holmes & Pincetl, 2012). And even biological research programmes such as

the Long-Term Studies of Urban Ecological Systems (Grimm et al., 2000) are now

based on two approaches: the ecology in the city, referring to wildlife in the

city, and the ecology of the city, referring to the city itself as an ecosystem.

Planning with water and traffic networks

Unsurprisingly, planners and designers have less diculty with inte-

grated approaches. Frederick Law Olmsted was a great pioneer in this respect

who with his 1887 plan for the Boston Emerald Necklace Park System showed

how urban development can benet from a design that incorporates natural

valleys that act as drainage and water retention systems combined with an

urban park (Spirn, 1984: 147; Ahern, 1999). This is a good case of good practice

preceding the theory of it. Unfortunately, in the rst half of the 20th centu-

ry, practice was dominated by geometric form and function based concepts

and it took nearly a century for Olmsted's ideas to be put into practice again.

Planners like Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford continued and elaborated on

these ideas, but it was Ian McHarg with Design with Nature (1969) who really

brought ecology back as both a source of inspiration and a practical guide for

urban design. To McHarg the use of what he calls natural process lands is cen-

tral. In the urban landscape this implies a central role for the water cycle and

its natural drainage pattern, valleys, oodplains, aquifers, steep slopes and

forests. For reasons of safety, health and identity, urban man-made struc-

tures should t to this existing natural order. Inspired by McHarg, other land-

scape architects, such as Michael Hough and Ann Spirn, further explored and

elaborated this approach to urban design. For them too natural processes, not

nature as an object, constitute the basis for urban design. In his City Form and

Natural Process (1984) Michael Hough argued for an integrated management

philosophy for the planning and design of open space. Beyond recreation-

al and aesthetic values, open spaces should assume multi-functional roles,

including water and waste management and biodiversity. Also in Europe, in-

tegrated ecological approaches to urban planning emerged (Tomasek, 1979;

Tjallingii, 1981; Adam & Grohé, 1984; Neddens, 1986). In this tradition, the two

networks strategy was introduced as one of the conceptual tools of the Ecópolis

strategy (Tjallingii, 1995), later deepened and widened to the Ecological Condi-

tions Strategy (Tjallingii, 1996).

Figure 1 summarises the key issues of this integrated ecological approach

to planning. Traditionally, specialists such as spatial planners, engineers and

policy makers tend to take urban development to their own corners repre-

sented by the area, ow and actor corners of the triangle. The scheme points

at the need to turn around and keep an eye on the whole, represented by the

circle. Just as the specialists in a hospital are expected to keep an eye on the

whole person, the specialists in urban and regional planning are invited to use

their own expertise but share their views with others and together focus on

the integrated urban landscape. This paper approaches several basic action

oriented questions from the dierent perspectives of each of the three cor-

ners. The focus here is on the two networks.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Reframing the role of ecology from creating limiting conditions to cre-

ating carrying conditions leads to a search for spatial and functional carrying

structures. Here, the two networks strategy follows a line of thinking that took

shape in the Netherlands around 1990 with the 'casco concept' (frame con-

cept), a conceptual strategy that takes water networks as a carrying frame for

rural development (Sijmons, 1990; Kerkstra & Vrijlandt, 1990). The casco con-

cept sought to create a frame as a carrying structure based on the synergism

of water management and nature – both in terms of conservation and new

habitat construction – and created conditions for industrial land-bound ag-

riculture in the spaces opened by the frame. The path-breaking plan Ooievaar

('Stork' in Dutch) illustrated this approach for the rivers of the Dutch delta

(De Bruin et al., 1987). The plan proposed a framework of oodplains where

nature was to replace agriculture. The two networks strategy expanded this idea

to include urban development and took the trac network as a second car-

rying structure for both agricultural and industrial activities. These activities

require transport conditions that meet the demands of the dynamics of tech-

nology and economy. After its rst publication (Tjallingii, 1992 English ver-

sion 1995) the two networks strategy found its way to Dutch practitioners (Zon-

neveld & Dubbeling, 1996), to European platforms (Expert Group, 1996: 199)

and to subsequent studies and projects that made use of the strategy (Aalbers

& Jonkhof, 2003; Tjallingii, 2000, 2004, 2005). In 1997, the strategy inspired

one of four prospective scenarios for The Netherlands in 2030, commissioned

by the Dutch National Spatial Planning Agency (Tjallingii, Langeveld & Bus,

1999). At the local level the strategy was used in a number of projects. Some

are discussed in Aalbers & Jonkhof (2003).

3. AREA PERSPECTIVES

How does the strategy work in plans and projects at dierent levels of

scale if we look at it from a territorial quality point of view?

3.1 Design at the neighbourhood level

Figure 2 shows how the model can guide the design process at the scale

of a small urban neighbourhood: the Poptahof project in Delft, the Nether-

lands. The neighbourhood of Poptahof, Delft was built in 1969 and renovated

over the last ten years. (Van Dorst, 2005). The site consists of two groups of

six apartment buildings, 11 and ve storeys high. The schemes on the right

represent them as two grey rectangles. Design option b for the roads and c for

surface waters oer the most promising combination and create conditions

for a quiet central zone of a park with a pond, a place to sit, walk and talk,

where children can play safely. The pond can also store storm water run-o.

Planning with water and traffic networks

Figure 2 Delft, Poptahof. Design options for an urban neighbourhood.

Left: existing situation, light grey: buildings; dark grey: water; black: roads. Right: design options

Figure 3 The city model (Tjallingii,1995)

3.2 A city model (gure 3)

The city model in gure 3 shows a guiding model based on the two networks

strategy suitable for medium-sized cities of 100 000 inhabitants as presented

in Ecópolis (Tjallingii, 1995: 94). In short, the model uses the well-known ex-

periences of many lobe shaped cities with green wedges, such as Copenhagen.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

From an area perspective, the model creates conditions for a long quiet edge

with attractive residential environments, close to urban services and close to

green areas. The green wedges oer opportunities for recreation, biodiversity

and urban agriculture. They also are a basis for a green cycle network and for

water storage. The motorway on the right side gives direct access to the busi-

ness district and connects to the residential areas with minimal disturbance.

In design practice, the use of this guiding model is sometimes met with

diculties. Many cities, for example, are not star-like. The model, howev-

er, is an abstraction and the essential characteristic is not that of star form,

but the edge qualities of a green structure that penetrates into the built en-

vironment. In a European project entitled Green Structureand Urban Planning

(Werquin et al., 2005; Tjallingii, 2007) detailed studies situated in cities from

15 dierent countries demonstrated that it was not the limiting conditions of

greenbelt strategies, but the carrying conditions of green structure strategies

that oered a promising perspective for the qualities of green edges, support-

ed by the two networks strategy.

In some cases the green structure is a new articial design. More often

however, urban green structures relate to river valleys, oodplains, coast-

al zones and other elements of the existing ground layer of the urban land-

scapes. Even in cities with high-density built-up areas and no green spaces,

it is sometimes possible to redevelop old railway yards, industrial or harbour

areas and re-introduce green structures. The city model may oer a strategy

for the integration of green spaces into an existing city.

3.3 A regional model (gure 4)

The two networks strategy introduced in the rst publications did not

present full networks, only parts. Yet at the regional level this is inadequate.

An opportunity to elaborate a full regional network scheme presented itself

in the research and teaching programme of the IUAV University in Venice,

Italy. The structuring capacity of water and asphalt, the infrastructure of

these two networks, is a leading theme in this programme that focuses on

the dispersed form of the European city as found in the Veneto plains north

of Venice (Vigano, 2008). Here, the capillary networks of mobility and water

have created città diusa (diuse city), an urban landscape characterised by

many phenomena that are 'equal in all directions' or isotropic. This area is

also characterised by a high degree of self-organisation based on a culture of

small family based businesses. Yet more recently, these local networks have

become part of global supply chains and market networks. As a result, hier-

archy confronts isotropy. Big 'tubes' of new impermeable motorways cut into

the existing permeable capillary 'sponge' of road networks (Secchi, 2011). An

increasing number of trucks, private cars and farming machines use the same

narrow roads. Expanded paved surfaces increase the risk of ooding. The cit-

Planning with water and traffic networks

tà diusa is under pressure. The Regional Model (gure 4) develops a scheme

that guides the construction of scenarios for the future of dierent parts of

the plains (Tjallingii, 2010). The basic idea is to upgrade and downgrade both

roads and watercourses. The thick black roads will be upgraded to accommo-

date car-based trac, especially goods transport. In this way trac can serve

the needs of industry and world market oriented agriculture. Moreover, these

roads reduce congestion and the risks of busy roads crossing residential areas.

Some watercourses will be upgraded to accommodate water storage and

purication. In this way the plains will be better prepared for climate change.

At the same time these blue-green structures provide attractive green spaces

close to residential areas and supported by multifunctional agriculture.

The landscape will still be isotropic in that it carries a multifunctional

diversity of comparable qualities in all directions. However it will be diuse at

a higher scale. There is no way back to the ne-grained patterns of fty years

ago but at the lowest level there are good conditions for the quality of the

edges. This can also be an attractive perspective for many other regions with

diuse urbanisation processes.

Figure 4 Regional model (Tjallingii, 2010)

3.4 Starting with the network layer

From both practical experiences and further elaboration of the two

networks strategy it becomes clear that it can guide the design of a carrying

structure for activities. However, the relationship to the potentialities of the

underlying urban landscape is also an essential element. The so-called lay-

er model, presented in gure 5, illustrates the position of the networks ap-

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

proach. The layer model is an analytical scheme; it does not guide planning

actions. In practice, planning is often programme oriented: it starts with the

occupation layer, then seeks to develop the supporting networks and then

looks at the way the ground layer has to be adapted to the chosen land-use

objectives.

In this way development tends to generate environmental problems as

undesired externalities. The two networks strategy is dierent. It starts with

the network layer. In designing the water structure it starts with the ground

layer that includes the hydrology of the area resulting from the historical in-

teraction between nature and culture. Designing the trac structure, how-

ever, is starting with the occupation layer, the rst idea about the activities'

programme that triggers the planning process. In this way, the two networks

strategy plays an intermediate role in seeking the best balance in the interac-

tion between activities and the ecological basis.

Figure 5 The Layer approach (Ministerie van VROM, 2004;

Commission of the European Communities, 1999)

4. FLOW PERSPECTIVES

If we were to look at it from a ow point of view, how does the strategy

work in plans and projects of dierent levels of scale?

4.1 Flows and networks

From a ow perspective, the two networks strategy addresses central is-

sues of water and trac ows. These are the ows with most spatial impli-

cations for the plan. Figure 6 presents the model of the strategy with an em-

phasis on the ows.

Planning with water and traffic networks

Figure 6 The two networks strategy guiding model (Tjallingii, 1995, 2005)

4.2 Water ows

The implication is that of all the water ows, the inltration and drainage

networks, can play a role as a spatially organising structure: the inltration

zones, small rivers and valleys, bigger rivers and oodplains, wetlands and

lakes. Shipping canals may have a role in the supply or discharge of surface

water, but their position and direction primarily depend on transport consid-

erations.

In the top left corner of the general model in gure 6 there is a hill with

inltration, then, at the foot of the hill, there is a zone of springs with up-

ward seepage that generates a network of smaller and bigger rivers. A key

element is the presence of water bodies for storage. Increasing paved surfaces

leads to peaks of storm water run-o that require rainwater peak storage to

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

prevent ooding. But too little water can also be a problem. For the green

parts of the urban landscape it is important to have seasonal storage, sur -

face water or ground water bodies that can store water temporarily in order

to use the wet season's surpluses for dry season's needs. The strategy shown

in gure 6 demonstrates creating space for peak and seasonal storage in the

green zone. In the other zones more technical strategies can be applied. For

example slowing down storm water run-o by using rainwater inside build-

ings or by installing green roofs. This is a discussion about quantity. From a

water quality point of view the key question is how to address downstream

pollution problems caused by upstream sources of pollution. If there is only

moderate pollution, as in green and residential zones, wetland treatment can

be eective and the space required can be found by combining the wetlands

with the storage lake. More heavily polluted wastewater from oces, shops,

factories or high production farms may require special technical treatment as

indicated by (t) in gure 6. For water pollution it also applies that 'an ounce of

prevention is worth a pound of cure'. Good design is prevention.

In quiet zones, the green zone and the adjacent quiet side of the residen-

tial zone, the models shown in gure 7 can guide the ecologically and spatially

detailed design process. The bypass and gully model is a strategy to deal with

the risks of river oods. As a guiding model for increasing the ood plain ca-

pacity it is derived from the Dutch Room for the River programme (Rijkswater-

staat, 2000) which has been adopted as ocial policy and is currently being

realised.

The inltration model is a solution for run-o problems in situations

where groundwater and soils allow for inltration. Rainwater can be stored in

groundwater. The circulation model performs the same role in situations with

impermeable clay soils and shallow groundwater tables. In that case uctu-

ating surface water levels can provide storage. The inltration and circulation

models create rainwater storage at the neighbourhood level, a condition for

separating wastewater and rainwater. In the past twenty years these models

have developed as common conceptual design tools (Tjallingii, 2012). Explic-

itly or implicitly the basic principles of these models have been used in a great

number of projects in Europe, America and Australia.

Planning with water and traffic networks

Figure 7 Water guiding models (Tjallingii, 2012)

4.3 Trac ows

Trac can be a ow of vehicles, carrying ows of materials, but it can

also be approached as a ow in its own right. Figure 6 shows a trac corridor

on the right hand side to serve the industrial and agricultural businesses. On

the other side there is no busy trac to disturb the quiet residential and green

zones. How do these simple proposals relate to theory and practice of trac

networks? In practice many cities developed on the waterside at a time that

shipping was the most important way to transport goods. As a result, busi-

nesses set up along the water and big roads were built there to serve them.

Shipping is still important for some goods and for cruises, but the seaport

activities have moved seaward to deeper waters and river harbours have de-

veloped outside the city centres. But many roads are still there. Paris, for ex-

ample, struggles with busy roads on both sides of the Seine that make the

waterside almost inaccessible. Cologne has built a tunnel for trac and on

top of it a river promenade along the Rhine. Many cities, such as Barcelona

have realised similar projects as part of their waterfront redevelopments. And

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

now also Paris has made a rst step. In summer, part of the busy road is closed

and replaced by a temporary promenade along the river: Paris plage. Clearly

watersides are attractive for slow lane activities and these are not compatible

with fast lane dynamics.

Current transport and trac studies (Immers & Stada, 2004) distinguish

between three main elds of choices in trac planning related to urban de-

velopment:

1. the travel market, where the need for transportation is the central question;

2. the transport market, where the choice of transport means is the issue;

3. the trac market, where the opportunities of regulating the ows is the fo -

cus.

Figure 8 shows some trac guiding models for dierent situations that

require dierent detailed trac network design solutions, all tting within

the general scheme of the two networks strategy.

Figure 8 Trac guiding models

The ring road model aims to oer attractive green environments with

residential quality on the edges of the city so that people can buy or rent a

house that is close to both green areas and urban services and jobs. This may

reduce the transport need for commuters who want to live in the green and

work in the city.

Planning with water and traffic networks

The green cycle-track model further elaborates the possibilities of an at-

tractive network for the movement of bicycles based on the blue-green net-

work of the city. Also electric bikes and low-speed electric vehicles may use

this network. Blue-green and slow trac networks are good allies.

The trac corridor model seeks to reduce congestion by functionally sep-

arating long distance and short distance ows. From a spatial point of view

concentration is desirable. The model indicates how spatial concentration can

create eective investment in noise and pollution control and in bridges and

tunnels to reduce the barriers. This facilitates the crossing of blue-green net-

works.

4.4 Industrial ecology and landscape ecology

The two networks strategy model shows a quiet zone or slow lane, carried

by the water network and a dynamic zone, the fast lane, carried by the trac

network. In the slow lane, space is made available for water storage and con-

sequently the hydrology, geology, soils and geomorphology of the local land-

scape play an important role. Here, landscape ecology is a key discipline for

planning. In the fast lane, however, industrial and agricultural activities have

changed the natural landscape more radically and there is a strong competi-

tion for space. Here environmental criteria for design are equally important

but they tend to be more related to resources and waste issues of the wider

environment or other parts of the world. The emphasis of design solutions is

more on technology and the key discipline is industrial ecology.

5. ACTOR PERSPECTIVES

5.1 Social aspects of fast and slow lane dynamics

In urban planning, there are strong arguments for creating zoning for

fast and slow lane worlds: not the traditional mono-functional zoning, but

a multifunctional spatial organisation. The distinction is based on activi-

ties and their spatial behaviour (gure 9). In the two multifunctional activity

zones the ecological approach is linked to social and economic processes.

The social aspect of slow lane and fast lane zoning is based on under-

standing "how vital it is for a town to give people both intense activity and deep

and satisfying quiet" (Alexander et al., 1977). This is the contrast the city has to

oer its citizens. Creating a long edge and quality of the edge is a basic con-

dition for giving access of a great variety of urban citizens to a wide variety of

urban environments.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Figure 9 Activities model of the two networks strategy

5,2 Economic and nancial aspects of fast and slow lane dynamics

The economic aspect of the slow-fast dichotomy is on the one hand the

increasing importance of heavy infrastructure for the industrial and com-

mercial activities that have to survive in a competitive global economy. The

fast lane is the competitive prot-oriented zone where ecient production

comes rst. The role of the government here is to invest in the transport in-

frastructure and to stimulate innovation in production and in industrial ecol-

ogy. Public investment will be recouped from protable business activities.

On the other hand for companies it has become increasingly important

to follow the preference of their employees for close proximity to a green and

quiet residential and recreation landscape. This is illustrated for example by

the collective eorts in the German Ruhrgebiet to revitalise the Emscher Re-

gion blue-green structure as part of the economic survival strategy for the

old industrial area (Schmid, 1995). Thus, the fast lane world depends on the

quality of nearby slow lane environments. The slow lane is the co-operation

based non-prot oriented zone where water safety and quality, landscape and

heritage, biodiversity, recreation and local food production are brought to-

gether to create long term conditions for safety, health and quality of life.

These activities are not suitable for making short-term prots. The role of

the government is primarily to create an institutional and nancial setting for

public and private organisations to operate cost eectively.

Planning with water and traffic networks

5.3 Two economic models for farming

Modern land-based farming is part of the world market and can only sur-

vive if the farms have optimal transport connections. It is part of the fast lane

world. Economic pressure forces the farmers to adapt land and landscape, ll

ditches, lower groundwater tables and cut trees. In this economic context,

land-based farming cannot support ne-grained landscapes. A recent study

by the Institute for Agricultural Economy in the Netherlands has made clear that

a fruitful synergy between agriculture and the urban landscape of the Rand-

stad depends on a new economic model for urban agriculture with short food

chains, sustainable small-scale production and regional products (Vogelzang

et al., 2011). Financial support for these farmers in exchange for what is called

green-blue services is part of this economic model. Only in a slow lane envi-

ronment can multi-functional urban agriculture play a role as an economic

carrier of ne-grained landscapes.

6. TWO NETWORKS STRATEGY IN AN INTEGRATED CASE: SCHALKWIJK

The Schalkwijk case (gure 10) is chosen to illustrate how the strategy

can act as a guiding model in a real process of planning and design. This case

is a good example because the planners explicitly took the two networks strat-

egy as a guiding model. Schalkwijk is a residential district in Haarlem, west of

Amsterdam, with 30 000 inhabitants and built in the post-war period. It is a

one-sided social housing area with predominantly rental apartments and a

shopping centre. As in many of these developments of the same age, this area

threatens to slip into a downward spiral of unemployment, poverty and poor

living conditions due to social and economic change. The two networks strategy

guided the structure plan (Van Eijk, 2003) that was adopted in 1999. The basic

structure has been realised and now serves as a frame for further inll and

detailed projects. Here, we take the basic questions raised in the introduction

of this paper to demonstrate how the strategy guided the structure of the plan

and the planning process.

From an area perspective the Schalkwijk planning process, guided by the

strategy, led to the decision not to build a ring road in the urban fringe but to

concentrate car-trac and slow down its speed in the central zone to give ac-

cess to the oces and the shopping mall that is in a process of modernisation

and upgrading. As a result, the fringe zone with water as a carrying structure

can become a quiet zone with a park, urban agriculture and interesting natural

habitats for biodiversity. This is a multi-functional zone that uses the identity

of the historic landscape structure.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

From a water ow perspective, a storage lake and wetlands in the urban

fringe provide peak storage, seasonal storage and quality control of surface

waters. From the storage lake, the water re-circulates through the built-up

areas and then returns to the fringe. The guiding model used in this case is the

circulation model (gure 7). Only rainfall exceeding the storage capacity ows

into the river Spaarne that runs to the sea.

From a trac ow perspective the ring road is kept at a distance and

the inner ring and access road has reduced speed and improved crossings.

The central position creates conditions for collective transport and the blue-

green structure also carries an attractive network for bikes. In this way the

ring road and green cycle track models (gure 8) have guided the design. The

structure plan creates conditions for more sustainable management of water

and trac ows.

Figure 10 The Two Networks Strategy and the Schalkwijk

restructuring plan. Water is shown in black

From an actor perspective, the network approach stimulated the actors to

discuss their ideas in a long-term perspective regarding needs and potential-

ities. In an early stage a workshop with residents generated seventy proposals

that were used by working groups of public ocials and private organizations

to solve social, environmental and spatial issues in the plan. The redesigned

Planning with water and traffic networks

fringe area greatly enhances the quality of the edge, creating attractive plac-

es for the construction of middle class houses that combine a nice view with

the proximity of both green spaces and the shopping centre. Diversication

of the housing stock is one of the social objectives. For those residents that

improve their income, it creates possibilities to stay in the Schalkwijk area

and move to the new houses on the edge. Given the demand, investment and

development is relatively easy. Also lower income residents from the apart-

ment buildings will benet from the presence of the green and quiet fringe

zone. The durable frame of the carrying structures creates two magnetic elds

of fast lane and slow lane environments allowing for a exible inll in the

future. The spatial structure avoids conicts and promotes synergism.

7. DISCUSSION

7.1 Theory and practice

Urban planning practitioners are often sceptical about conceptual mod-

els such as the two networks strategy, "because our situation is dierent". In

discussions it is assumed that they may be useful in new greeneld urban

developments but not in existing situations. However, the Schalkwijk case

demonstrates how the guiding model is used in restructuring an existing res-

idential area. The regional model also refers to an existing landscape. Even in

old industrial browneld areas, with no green spaces available, the strategy

can be a fruitful guide. In many old cities the river valleys provided hydro-

power and thus became the carrier of early industrial development. The study

by Werquin et al. (2005) discussed many examples, such as Sheeld, where

the industrial backbone is turned into a blue-green axis for recreation and

nature. In more recent transformations, we often see that polluted lands left

behind after the collapse of heavy industry may become part of a green struc-

ture, often in combination with phyto-remediation or other decontamination

procedures. Thus the former fast lane becomes part of the slow lane.

7.2 Cradle to cradle and Blue Economy

The approach of the two networks strategy presented here combines ow

management with territorial structure. From a ow perspective, it is com-

patible with the 'cradle to cradle' vision (Mc Donough & Braungart, 2002),

however the 'cradle to cradle' recycling strategies aim primarily at "remaking

the way we make things" which relates directly to industrial ecology. With traf-

c and water ows the issue is not only recycling but the use of the territo-

rial structure in relation to cascading, storage, model split and the design of

crossings. This implies that the approach starts with landscape ecology before

it goes to industrial ecology. But of course the combination is what counts in

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

the end. In this respect the two networks strategy ts very well in what Gunther

Pauli calls the Blue Economy (Pauli, 2012). Here the issue is the optimal use of

local resources in a multi-functional approach.

7.3 The ecological footprint

In ow analysis and urban metabolism studies, input and output are key

issues. The ecological footprint approach (Rees, 1995) focuses on input and

output and oers a method to calculate the impact of an urban system on

the neighbouring countryside or on other parts of the world. Aside from the

discussions regarding quantitative values used in the calculations, a critical

remark can be made about the implications for planning. The suggestion is

that a small footprint is always better and this idea has stimulated many en-

vironmentalists and architects to design and develop self-sucient buildings

or neighbourhoods. A network approach does not discourage self-reliant sys-

tems, but creates a basis for strategies that seek the synergism between the

parts, for example between town and country, fringe and centre. If synergism

works, the footprint of the parts is less important. The tness of the whole is

more than the sum of the eciency of its parts.

7.4 Coping with uncertainty

The two networks strategy is a guiding model for strategic plans. These

plans aim to improve decision-making. They create the frame for operational

decisions that eectively change the world (Faludi, 1987: 118). This is problem

setting and not yet problem solving (Schön, 1983 [1991: 40]). Weighing and

detailed calculations will play a role in later operational stages of planning.

The strategic frame however, creates a basis for coping with uncertainty. For

example, one cannot with certainty determine the capacity of a retention lake

that can cope with future heavy rainstorms because we do not exactly know

what can be expected as a result of climate change. In such a case it may be

useful to create other good reasons to design a lake with a considerable size.

Creating allies, synergistic systems, is a matter of strategic plans. The water

guiding models address uncertainties related to climate change and the traf-

c strategies address basic complexity and uncertainties related to economic

globalization. By combining them in a two networks approach we create a du-

rable frame that allows for exible inll.

7.5 The layer approach and landscape urbanism

This approach takes landscape as a basis for urban planning. As discussed

in the comments that go with gure 5, landscape is both the ground layer

of spatial potentials and the occupation layer of spatial intentions. The two

networks strategy suggests starting with the water network and the slow lane

environment and adjusting them to the ground layer. Then the trac net-

Planning with water and traffic networks

work and the fast lane environment will be planned on the basis of future oc-

cupation. In this way the two networks oer an action oriented strategy that

ts well in the approach of the studies and plans discussed in the Landscape

Urbanism Reader (Waldheim, 2006). It seems, however, that in most of these

cases more attention is given to industrial ecology than to landscape ecology.

The rehabilitation of abandoned industrial areas, waste dumps, former mines

and other drosscapes (Berger, 2006) seem to play a more important role than

design with nature as design with the ground layer, in the tradition of Mc Harg

and Hough. The two networks approach oers an opportunity to combine the

industrial and landscape ecological strategies. In the context of landscape ur-

banism, the concept of infrastructure is not always clear. In his book Land-

scape Infrastructure, Bélanger (2013), discusses the urban landscape as a whole

as infrastructure in a combined engineering and design perspective. It seems

better to distinguish between landscape as a combination of the three layers

and infrastructure as one of the layers: a network of carrying structures.

7.8 Alexander's Pattern Language

The water and trac ow guiding models in section 5 illustrate the use

of conceptual models to guide the design process. This comes close to the use

of patterns in Christopher Alexander's pattern language (Alexander et al.,

1977). Both patterns and guiding models can act as a documented language

for learning in design and planning practice. However, if patterns look like

forms they may create confusion among designers. The experiences with the

city model point at the advantages of starting with guiding models that pro-

vide ecological-technical structures that can carry a variety of forms. In the

words of McHarg, "form follows nothing – it is integral with all processes" (1969

[1971: 173]).

8. CONCLUSION

The discussion of experiences with the two networks strategy in this paper

demonstrates the feasibility of taking water and trac networks as carriers

for urban development. Learning from practice has enriched the theory and

deepened our understanding of area, ow and actor aspects. The emphasis on

integration characterises the guiding model as a general tool for the making

of strategic plans. To what extent is it an ecological approach?

In general terms the slow lane environment asks for landscape ecolo-

gy that can work on the basis of the ecology of diversity. Activities support

landscape diversity and even urban agriculture ultimately serves landscape

diversity. The fast lane landscape, on the other hand, supports the ecient

productivity of activities. This includes the industrial ecology of recycling,

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

waste treatment and waste prevention strategies. From a planning perspec-

tive the slow lane environment requires for strategies of co-operation and

key involvement from non-prot organisations, both private and public. In

the fast lane, strategies for competition are the driving force. There can be no

fence between the two worlds of course. They need each other and should be

planned as a polarity of magnetic elds that prevent conicts and support a

synergy of activities.

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Waking Leviathan

Frank Lloyd Wright's

rural urban ideal

From Art and Craft Of The Machine (1901) to The Living City (1958)

MATTHEW SKJONSBERG

Skjonsberg, M. (2015). Waking Leviathan. Frank Lloyd Wright's rural urban ideal from Art and

Craft Of The Machine (1901) to The Living City (1958). Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 81-107.

doi:10.7480/rius.3.834

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

'Destruction of Leviathan' 1865 Engraving by Gustave Doré

Waking Leviathan

83 "I readily admit that the Americans have as yet no poets; I cannot allow that

they have no poetic ideas. In Europe people talk a great deal of the wilds of Ameri-

ca, but the Americans themselves never think about them: they are insensible to the

wonders of inanimate nature, and they may be said not to perceive the mighty forests

which surround them until they fall beneath the hatchet. Their eyes are xed upon

another sight: the American people views its own march across these wilds – drying

swamps, turning the course of rivers, peopling solitudes, and subduing nature. This

magnicent image of themselves does not meet the gaze of the Americans at inter-

vals only; it may be said to haunt every one of them in his least as well as in his most

important actions, and to be always itting before his mind. Nothing conceivable is

so petty, so insipid, so crowded with paltry interests, in one word so anti-poetic, as

the life of a man in the United States. But amongst the thoughts which it suggests

there is always one which is full of poetry, and that is the hidden nerve which gives

vigour to the frame."

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Book 1, Chapter XVII: Of Some Of

The Sources Of Poetry Amongst Democratic Nations (1831-33)

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Abstract

There still exists in the collective global imagination a ghostly 'image of

progress' framed by a nature-dominating narrative that distorts reality. As living

standards rise worldwide, the demand for natural resources is accelerating

in a familiar pattern: cities eat the rural, and the rural eats the wilderness.

Ecology, society and economy are not the either/or variables they are often

portrayed as being: there is no society without ecology, and no economy

without society, each is embedded in context. As globalised societies become

increasingly urban, the notion that cities ought to become self-sucient has

been widely popularised in both the architectural profession and in academia,

legitimated through the use of the term autopoiesis (Greek αυ'τo 'self' and

ποησις 'creation'), borrowed from the eld of chronobiology. The opposite

of autopoiesis, a closed process in which context might be an afterthought, is

allopoiesis, the process whereby an organisationally open system produces

something other than itself. Reality is many-layered and emphatically

simultaneous, and while designers are busy ne-tuning daydreams of 'self-

sucient cities', regions and ecological systems now supporting real cities are

being fragmented and erased in vast swaths, often taking once thriving cities

along with them, further accelerating centralised urbanisation. Frank Lloyd

Wright's The Living City is a conceptual rural urban model for decentralised

development that attempts, through its evolution in several iterations (from

1901 till 1958) to provide a humane alternative to centralised commercial

urbanism. Wright's life (1867-1959) and work spanned from the Victorian age

to the space age, and The Living City is arguably his most ambitious attempt

to 'bridge the gap'. In arguing for contextual, open-ended planning methods

it provides a suitable polar counterpoint to contemporary notions of cities as

self-sucient. As a precedent stimulating awareness of the fundamental need

for the 'humane proportion' of industry and agronomy, it is of urgent relevance

today.

KEYWORDS

regional design; infrastructure; networks; regionalism; contextualism; regional design; contextual

infrastructure; dual networks; climatic periodicity; radical contextualism; critical regionalism; second

nature; rural urban dynamics; contrapuntal thinking

Waking Leviathan

1. INTERGENERATIONAL LEGACY

There still exists in the collective global imagination a ghostly 'image of

progress' framed by a nature-dominating narrative that distorts reality – as

worldwide living standards rise, the demand for natural resources is accel-

erating in a familiar pattern: cities eat rural regions, and rural eats wilder-

ness. Ecology, society and economy are not the either/or variables they are

often portrayed as being: there is no society without ecology, and no economy

without society – each is embedded in context. As globalised societies become

increasingly urban, the notion that cities ought to become self-sucient has

been widely popularised in both the architectural profession and academia.

But reality is many-layered and emphatically simultaneous, and while de-

signers are busy ne-tuning daydreams of 'self-sucient cities', however

poetic 1 , the rural regions and ecological systems now supporting real cities

are being fragmented and erased in vast swaths – often taking once thriving

cities along with them, further accelerating centralised urbanisation.

In 45 BC Cicero conceived of rural and urban regions as engaged in a in-

teraction balance involving existing landscapes. Rural and urban are seen

as the mutually interrelated counterparts of the same civilising force, po-

larities of an on-going initiative Cicero termed second nature (Cicero, 2008).

Contemporary recognition of the importance of context is again broadening

the conceptual scope of design. As an alternative to the image of progress,

whose nature-negating narrative was that of 'manifest destiny' - recalling

de Toqueville's text - and contemporary architects advocacy of taking 'in-

sane risks', it is interesting to consider other precedents. Low-risk strategies

that harness urban acceleration and mitigate ecological degradation have an

established legacy, an alternative image-of-progress. Cicero wrote of a rural/

urban second nature, and Vitruvius' reections on the work done in Cicero's

time has had an enduring inuence: from Roman villas, to English public gar-

dens, to Olmsted's urban parks, to Wright's Living City, to Cedric Price's Fun

Palace, Archizoom's No-Stop City and Banham's Architecture of the Well-Tem-

pered Environment, leading straight to the use of contemporary GIS and para-

metric methods in landscape infrastructure-related initiatives. Yet the ten-

dency to reject altogether that which has come before still prevails, causing

wild oscillations in the name of progress – a disruptive intergenerational dis-

sonance. Beaux-Arts was rejected by Wright, while Wright's expressive ma-

chine-ornamentation was called a 'crime' by Adolf Loos. History itself was

rejected by the Modernists, and Modernism was considered a failure by the

next generation. Subsequent movements, whether New Urbanism, Paramet-

ricism, or Landscape Urbanism, are taken up and rejected in turn, often with

little evaluation of internal counter-currents that could fruitfully align these

trajectories. Team 10 is credited with bringing about the end of CIAM, and,

indeed, they seemed to relish doing so – but wasn't a course correction their

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

stated aim? This essay focuses on one project in the timeline, on the eve of the

Frank Lloyd Wright Archives relocating from Taliesin West to Columbia Uni-

versity's Avery Library and what can only be considered a new era of Wright

scholarship. There are many treasures in the archive, certainly – I recall nd-

ing Wendingen journal editor T.H. Wijdeveld's letters to Wright, beautifully

crafted, with translucent paper and gold ink; or Wright's illustrations for Jens

Jensen's non-prot Friends of Our Native Landscape – but I believe among all

the archive's contents it is inevitable that Wright's rural urban strategy, The

Living City, will be given renewed, even urgent scholarly attention.

2. AN ALTERNATIVE TO URBANISM

Frank Lloyd Wright's The Living City (Wright, 1958) is a conceptual rural

urban model for decentralised development that attempts, through its evo-

lution in several texts, and the models and drawings accompanying them, to

provide a humane alternative to centralised commercial urbanism. In that re-

gard it is as interesting for what is omitted as for what is shown in the models

and drawings – that is, the context from which the work emerged, beyond the

models and outside of the drawings. This consideration is an exercise that re-

quires 'zooming out', and taking into account the context in which the work

itself was done. References to this may be found in Wright's numerous texts, in

which he develops what might be called his radical humanism, and in the legacy

of ideas, opportunities and personalities the project engages in its socio-polit-

ical context over time – relating the social logic, physical proportion and spa-

tial anatomy of the strategy itself to its underlying environmental framework.

In Wright's time, as in our own, the rapid urban transformation of formerly

rural sites of strategic interest contributed to a myopic enthusiasm for urban-

isation. This was evidenced then in the widespread adoption of centralised so-

cio-economic models such as Von Thunen's The Isolated State (1826) (gure 1),

as it is now in popular academic and professional ideals of the self-sucient

city. Yet the city has never existed in isolation, and neglecting to acknowledge

the city 'in context' has contributed to both ecological and social degradation

from generation to generation. We have seen that this degradation actually

leads to fewer lifestyle options – and to cities of utter sameness.

Can the technologically advanced city be reconciled with existing envi-

ronmental and social contexts, or must it impose another order? The follow-

ing pages provide an overview of how Wright framed this question verbally,

socially and spatially – and how he responded to it with The Living City. The

text concludes with a critical consideration of this response given the cultural

context in which it was produced, and an evaluation of the contribution that

response might still make to contemporary research.

Waking Leviathan

Figure 1 'The Isolated State' (1826) Johann Heinrich von Thünen developed a model that is considered

to be the rst serious treatment of spatial economics and economic geography – connecting it with the

theory of rent. The black dot represents a city; 1 (white) dairy and market gardening; 2 (green) forest for

fuel; 3 (yellow) grains and eld crops; 4 (red) ranching; the area beyond this represents wilderness where

agriculture is not protable

Origins and elaboration

The main themes developed in The Living City can all be found in Wright's

early writings of the 1890's, and are directly related to his personal experi-

ence. Raised in a socially progressive Wisconsin agricultural community of

Welsh immigrants, his immediate family members were leaders in the Uni-

tarian church, and the important philosopher and educator John Dewey was

an associate of his teacher-aunts, for whom Wright designed the renowned

Hillside Home School in 1896, and additional buildings subsequently. These

ultimately became the home of the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932, initially con-

ceived of as the Hillside School for the Allied Arts in 1928. Of rural origins, as a

youth coming of age he experienced the very modern phenomenon of leaving

the country for the city, living and working in industrial-era Chicago, where

both the vitality and the ills of industrial-era cities were abundantly mani-

fest: from the coexistence of extreme wealth and poverty, to progressive so-

cial initiatives and the exploitation of ever-abundant immigrant labour, to

the creation of remarkable urban parks and the destruction of entire ecologi-

cal systems such as those lost by reversing the ow of the Chicago River from

1892 to 1900 by engineers (Chicago River, 2013). The key themes in his early

texts were also the subject of his personal and professional eorts – namely

the intergenerational continuity of knowledge in a site-specic context, the

creative use of technology for humane purposes, and a notion of rural and

urban settlements together as the living 'body of civilization'.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

These themes coalesced in his essay The Art and Craft of the Machine

(Wright, 1901), which was prepared and delivered for a meeting of the Chi-

cago Society of Arts and Crafts at Jane Addam's Hull House, an institution

with a broad reputation for its advocacy of social reform (cf. Johnson, 2004).

From its founding in 1889 until its sudden, politically-motivated closure in

2012, Hull House was considered a standard-bearer for innovative social, ed-

ucational and artistic programs for immigrant and working-class families.

The Chicago Society of Arts and Crafts itself was founded in response to the

rapid industrialisation of production methods, and sought collective means

by which to stem the proliferation of cheap goods and to retain the arts and

crafts as viable livelihoods. As distinct from the tendency to regard indus-

trialisation of production as exclusively negative in social terms, Wright as-

serted that the machine was but another tool, arguing that in the hands of

the artist and craftsperson it could also serve to bring about a more humane

society. Indeed, the architect accepted the machine as an inevitable means of

production, but sought to control its consequences at the scale of architecture

and the city:

"As we work along our various ways, there takes shape within us, in some sort,

an ideal – something we are to become, some work to be done. This, I think, is denied

to very few, and we begin really to live only when the thrill of this ideality moves

us in what we will to accomplish. In the years which have been devoted in my own

life to working out in stubborn materials a feeling for the beautiful, in the vortex of

distorted complex conditions, a hope has grown stronger with the experience of each

year, amounting now to a gradually deepening conviction that in the Machine lies

the only future of art and craft – as I believe, a glorious future; that the Machine is, in

fact, the metamorphosis of ancient art and craft; that we are at last face to face with

the machine – the modern Sphinx – whose riddle the artist must solve if he would

that art live, for his nature holds the key." (Wright, 1901)

As an extension of human will, he describes the city in terms of an ex-

plicitly biological analogy – the modern city as the ospring of the 'ma-

chine-Sphinx', consistent with the image of the mechanised city as Leviathan

he portrays in the essay's dramatic conclusion:

"[…] be gently lifted at nightfall to the top of a great downtown oce building,

and you may see how in the image of material man, at once his glory and menace, is

this thing we call a city. There beneath, grown up in a night, is the monster leviathan,

stretching acre upon acre into the far distance. High overhead hangs the stagnant

pall of its fetid breath, reddened with the light from its myriad eyes endlessly ev-

erywhere blinking. Ten thousand acres of cellular tissue, layer upon layer, the city's

esh, outspreads enmeshed by intricate network of veins and arteries, radiating into

Waking Leviathan

the gloom, and there with mued, persistent roar, pulses and circulates as the blood

in your veins, the ceaseless beat of the activity to whose necessities it all conforms […].

If the pulse of activity in this great city, to which the tremor of the mammoth skeleton

beneath our feet is but an awe-inspiring response, is thrilling, what of this prolic,

silent obedience? And the texture of the tissue of this great thing, this Forerunner of

Democracy, the Machine, has been deposited particle by particle, in blind obedience

to organic law, the law to which the great solar universe is but an obedient machine.

Thus is the thing into which the forces of Art are to breathe the thrill of ideality!

A SOUL!" (Wright, 1901)

This analogy of the body of civilisation as an obedient, pulsing machine

frames the answer he gives as to the nature of the architect's ultimate ob-

jective – to bring, through art, 'a soul' to the city-machine, the Leviathan ,

rendering it empathetic and benecial to humanity as a habitable artefact. I

believe that it was Thomas Hobbes' classic 1651 text, LEVIATHAN or The Mat-

ter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil (Hobbes, 1977),

which inuenced Wright's choice of that particular term in characterising

the city. Indeed, in LEVIATHAN Hobbes lays the foundation for 'the science

of natural justice', which he regarded as the culmination of 'the science of

consequences' – he illustrates this with a diagram of the elds of knowledge

as then interpreted (gure 2). The holistic, inclusive ambition of Hobbes to

grapple with the issues of society en masse and in situ anticipates the scope

Wright attempts to bring forward in his essay.

When The Art and Craft of the Machine was delivered in Chicago the in-

dustrial age was in full force. Although benetting some, capitalised industry

throughout the world was creating a massive and often genuinely oppressed

labour class, while technologies to increase automated productivity were dis-

placing artists and workers, and ever more powerfully impacting both agri-

cultural and urban regions. In his text, Wright acknowledges the diculties

arising from the machine's implementation, asserting that they are not in-

herent in the machine, but are the result of greed and the misuse of a power-

ful tool: the machine is 'the creature and not the creator' of political iniquity.

His open attitude toward the machine was not then common among artists

and intellectuals involved in the Arts and Crafts movement, many of whom

actively protested any collaboration with industry. By his own account, this

optimism was motivated by having read Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris as

a child.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

Figure 2 Disciplinary Anatomy (1651) Hobbes' indexical attitude resulted in this 'family tree' of the

disciplines, which he describes thusly: "the registers of science are such books as contain the demonstrations

of consequences of one armation to another, and are commonly called books of philosophy; whereof the sorts

are many, according to the diversity of the matter, and may be divided in such a manner as I have divided them

in the following table"

One chapter of the book, usually excized when published in English, is an

essay titled Ceci tuera cela, or 'This Will Kill That' (Hugo, 1831). The essay de-

scribes, through a concise history of architecture, how in the Gothic cathedral

one could see the culmination of architecture as the integration of all the arts:

music, ritual, liturgy, textiles, carpentry, masonry, sculpture and painting.

Hugo goes on to describe how, with the invention of the printing press "the

book will kill the edice"; because of the press, continuity of human thought no

longer required strategies of material permanence, of stone and wood, but in-

stead the proliferation of inexpensive multiplicities suced (gure 3). Hugo

poetically describes the emancipated pages of the printing press blowing in

the wind, "like birds leaving the cathedral at dawn." Wright refers to this chapter

in his early essay as describing for him 'the grandest sad thing in the world':

Waking Leviathan

Figure 3 Gutenberg's press, ca. 1439

"Architecture is dethroned.

Gutenberg's letters of lead are about to supersede Orpheus' letters of stone.

The book is about to kill the edice. The invention of printing was the great-

est event in history. It was the rst great machine, after the great city. It is human

thought stripping o one form and donning another. Printed, thought is more im-

perishable than ever - it is volatile, indestructible.

As architecture it was solid; it is now alive; it passes from duration in point of

time to immortality."

(Wright, 1901)

One can see the further development of this interpretation of the historic

trajectory of technology in The Disappearing City, the next major eort he made

to address these themes. He began writing the book in 1928, and it was pub-

lished in 1932 (Wright, 1932). The book's independent publisher was William

Farquhar Payson, formerly a journalist for the New York Times and managing

editor at Vogue Magazine in the late 1890s, who in 1928 had supervised the

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

publication of Le Corbusier's Toward a New Architecture, and in 1929 had pub-

lished a second book by Le Corbusier, The City of To-morrow and its Planning ,

and Henry Russell Hitchcock's Modern Architecture.

Certainly The Disappearing City can be seen as in dialogue with the archi-

tectural community at large. Prior to its publication, Wright had further de-

veloped his ideas for the book through a series of public lectures with the

theme 'The City' at Princeton University in 1930. In this lecture series he

questioned the nature of the centralised city and speculated about its gradual

dissolution: 'human thought stripping o one form and donning another',

and identied numerous factors of polycentralisation that have since been

widely recognised, such as various forms of mobility and communication

technologies. The Disappearing City issues an unrelenting indictment of the

commercialised industrial city, describing it as "some tumor grown malignant

[…] a menace to the future of humanity." The opening illustration in the book

is an aerial view of New York City eerily shrouded in smog – an illustration

retained in subsequent publications, including his nal book The Living City ,

bearing the caption, 'Find the citizen' (gure 4).

Figure 4 The Disappearing City (1932) features an aerial view of New York City from the early 1900s that

bears a striking similarity to a view of Dubai used on the cover of AD magazine from over a century later –

illustrating what little progress has been made in terms of conceptualising the city.

Waking Leviathan

In place of illustrations are vivid descriptions of what the decentralised

city, in the hands of the artist-architect enabled by the machine, might be-

come:

"Imagine spacious landscaped highways […] giant roads, themselves great ar-

chitecture. Pass public service stations, no longer eyesores, expanded to include all

kinds of service and comfort. They unite and separate – separate and unite the series

of diversied units, the farm units, the factory units, the roadside markets, the garden

schools, the dwelling places (each on its acre of individually adorned and cultivated

ground), the places for pleasure and leisure [...] This integral whole composes the

great city that I see embracing all of this country – the Broadacre City of tomorrow."

(Wright, 1932)

This description of the future city, rst coining here the term Broadacre

City, was to take form in 1934-35 in a series of drawings, models and publi-

cations related to an exhibition of that name which toured from Rockefeller

Center in New York, to Washington DC, to Pittsburgh, and to several cities in

rural Michigan and Wisconsin before embarking on an extensive internation-

al tour (gure 5).

Figure 5 Broadacre City (1934) model quarter section, scale 1 inch = 75 feet (source: The Frank Lloyd

Wright Foundation Archives at The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library,

Columbia University, New York)

In 1945 The Disappearing City was fully revised, expanded, and illustrated

with this new material, and it was published with the title When Democracy

Builds (Wright, 1945).

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Figure 6 The Living City (1958) aerial view (source: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives at The

Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

The architect's nal and most comprehensive treatise on the subject, The

Living City (Wright, 1958) (gure 6), supplements the earlier texts with richly

detailed perspective drawings and reections about the impact of technolo-

gy on an overarching social narrative.2 Under the heading 'Illusion', he again

correlates his key themes:

"Centralization now proves to be something that, used to wind space up tighter

and tighter, smaller and higher, is like some centripetal device revolving at increas-

ing speed until – terrible, beyond control – it turns centrifugal, ending all by disper-

sal or explosion. Meantime, what possible control? Government? No – or only to a

very limited extent. In democracy, more and more limited to expedients: politics. The

only possible control, then, is profoundly educational. In democracy, is education –

when on speaking terms with culture – not the true answer to such exaggerations of

articiality as machine power in production, or as crowding? On behalf of humane

freedom it is the growth of this human intelligence ultimately applied to the city that

we must interfere by such pressures as it can exert there where pressure does most

good. Salvation from the false economies of centralization lies in a wider grasp of the

limitations and danger of these powers – machine powers all – multiplied to excess.

What hope is there for our future in this machine age, if indeed the machine age is

Waking Leviathan

to have any future, unless decentralization and appropriate reintegration are soon

encouraged – given right-of-way in actual practice?" (Wright, 1958: 33-34)

He goes on to criticise the "three major articialities […] grafted by law upon

all modern production": rent for land (leading to speculative development),

rent for money (leading to unscrupulous banking practices), and rent for in-

ventions (leading to patents and proprietary knowledge):

"A new speculative commodity has therefore appeared – money, unnatural as

commodity, now becoming monstrosity. The modern city is its stronghold and chief

defender; and insurance is one of its commodities." (Wright, 1958: 34-35) "And when

urban men of commerce themselves succeed, they become more than ever vicarious.

Soon these very successful men sink into the sham luxury their city life so continually

produces. But they create nothing! Spiritually impotent, a xation has them where

impotence wants them: xation in a cliché." (Wright, 1958: 20)

Thus it is the cliché image of the city-as-progress, and its marketing

propagandists, at which his treatise takes aim:

"So this modern monster, degeneration of the Renaissance city, becomes the

form universal of anxiety, all stated in various forms of rent. The citizen's very life

is tenant, himself rented, in a rented world. Production is now trying to control con-

sumption…this it is that turns the nation into a vast factory, greedy for foreign mar-

kets, with the spectre of war as inevitable clearing house." (Wright, 1958: 21)

In contrast to this, he asserts:

"Our natural resource now is in new possibilities of access to good uses for good

ground: an agronomy intelligently administered…The living, consuming man-unit

of our society will ultimately decide this momentous issue. Consumption must control

production. This matter will only be decided by consumption in proper control of an

organic basis for distribution, man to man, nation to nation…The road to a good life

is still open. But today this road must lead on through public obstruction…hindrances

legally erected, legalities exploiting his good faith – a general depravity in a drift

toward quantity at expense to quality, until we nd all heading in toward war or

revolution: this time the revolution industrial – yes. Agrarian, no. About time now

our agronomy asserted itself in his behalf." (Wright, 1958: 38-41)

In his closing notes, he reects on the various iterations the work has

taken:

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

"Does The Art and Craft of the Machine, rst read at Hull House […] seems to

suer contradiction here? No. I then dreaded the machine unless well in the hand of

the creative artist. Saying so then, I say so now. I knew then that this power we call

the Machine was, otherwise, socially malevolent […] but today the Machine is run-

ning away […] it has been far too exploited by industrialism and science at expense to

art and true religion." (Wright, 1958: 246)

He goes on:

"Machine facilities have increased inordinate quantity production beyond con-

sumption until total mechanization is trying to control distribution and the market.

By total industrialism war, more war is always in sight, paid for in advance – all

but the bloodshed. The machine is now become more the engine of destruction, and

propaganda for increasing our national insecurity by wage-slavery is everywhere

in the social fabric of the news. Higher human faculties, which the machine should

serve to release in our Democracy, are ocially and academically emasculated, the

humane interest fast disappearing. That is why the belated writing of this – seeming

to me now – more timely, more important than ever book, original advocate of or-

ganic architecture; again to take the stand for the 'consumer' (the people) as against

the ubiquitous, thoughtless producer for prot. The 'consumer' now must take what

'production' decides to make […]. This antithesis of the democratic process is a men-

ace, a drift toward deadly conformity." (Wright, 1958: 246)

He concludes:

"Finally, then, this long discourse, hard to write or read, is a sincere attempt to

take apart and show, from inside, the radical simplicities of fate to which our own

machine skills have now laid us wide open and try to show how radical eliminations

are now essential to our spiritual health, and to the culture, if not the countenance,

of democratic civilization itself […]. 'The Living City' then is nothing less than inspi-

ration, or better, than restraint upon the eects of ill planning by the trustees whose

responsibility it is – our young architects. I hope this book is at least an exhortation

for them, a warning for the farmer, a caution and encouragement for the small man-

ufacturer and for national colleges of architecture and agriculture, or such cultural

nurseries as this nation has raised or razed or carelessly left standing. We cannot

achieve our democratic destiny by mere industrialism, however great. We are by na-

ture gifted as a vast agronomy. In the humane proportion of those two – industrial-

ism and agronomy – we will produce the culture that belongs to Democracy organic

[…]. The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In

that lies hope." (Wright, 1958: 248)

Waking Leviathan

3. CRITICAL RECEPTION AND CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION

Historically, academics and architectural professionals have seriously

considered little of Wright's work in the extra-large scale – and when it has

been considered it has generally been done rather cursorily. Architecture critic

Witold Rybczynski summarized a view often held by the establishment when

he described the Broadacre City project as the "embarrassing foible of an aging

master" (Rybczynski, 1996). Herbert Muschamp, before he was the architec-

ture critic of The New York Times, concluded that the plan was "too real to be

Utopian and too dreamlike to be of practical importance." While author, historian

and critic Lewis Mumford had early praise for it: "On the whole, Wright's phi-

losophy of life and his mode of planning have never shown to better advantage", 30

years later he criticized the plan's "sprawling, open, individualistic structure" as

being "almost antisocial in its dispersal and its random pattern." This is a particu-

larly interesting observation, given Mumford's close friendship with Wright,

and his instrumental role in establishing the Regional Planning Association

(Regional Plan Association), an organization closely associated with the Chi-

cago School of Sociology, that nevertheless has been an inuential advocate

of many Living City concepts and remains active today. Of course, among sev-

eral notable exceptions to this historic disregard are Robert Fishman's classic

Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century (Fishman, 1982) and Charles Waldheim's

essay Towards a History of Agrarian Urbanism (Waldheim, 2010) – which aside

from Chris Reed's passing reference to The Living City and inclusion of an im-

age of one of the 1958 aerial perspectives (mistakenly dated 1935) in his essay

Public Works Practice in 2006's Landscape Urbanism Reader (Reed, 2006) also ed-

ited by Waldheim, is the only reference to the project I have come across in

the landscape urbanism discourse.

Wright maintained close friendships and professional collaborations

with many of the individuals who gure prominently in the evolving con-

temporary discourse around landscape urbanism, ecological urbanism, and

landscape infrastructure. Landscape architect Jens Jensen was a long-time

collaborator, and Wright volunteered his services for Jensen's not-for-prof-

it organization Friends of Our Native Landscape; Wright corresponded with

Olmsted, designed houses for his Riverside masterplan, and his son, Frank

Lloyd Wright Jr., worked with the Olmsted Brothers practice directly after

working with his father; landscape architect Lawrence Halprin attests that he

entered the eld after visiting Wright's Taliesin, etcetera. Clearly these ex-

changes exerted a reciprocal inuence, and one can only imagine what deeper

scholarship in this area will reveal. As UCLA prof. emeritus Lionel March has

written,

"[…] contrary to the impression given by Wright's critics, these views [repre-

sented by Wright in The Living City] were in fact shared by some of the most no-

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

table intellectuals and practicing politicians of his day. In particular I have in mind

those social reformers, progressives and liberals […] whom he 'read and respected,'

or whom he knew as friends […] such as William James and John Dewey, the Ameri-

can pragmatists; Henry George the popular economist; two of John Maynard Keynes'

'heretics' – C.H. Douglas and Silvio Gesell – as well as the American institutional

economists Thorstein Veblen and John Commons and the economic historian Charles

Beard; in industry Henry Ford and Owen D. Young (of General Electric); in politics

the 'Wisconsin Idea' progressives, the La Folettes; and in social matters, Jane Add-

ams, Edward Ross, and Richard Ely. All of them are at once idealistic and people of

action […] at least in the context of this particular liberal milieu […]. Wright's views

of society were unexceptionable and […] in Broadacres, Wright was attempting as

the best architect of his day to give potential architectural and urban form to what he

believed to be the best thoughts and the best social actions of his American contem-

poraries […] [they] did not consider democracy to be a form of government, so much

as a way of living. This distinction between form on one hand and way or process on

the other was a preoccupation of American pragmatic philosophy at the turn of the

century […] in contrast to the systematic philosophies of the established old world,

the pragmatists conceived of an open-ended approach to cope with an entirely new

an emergent situation […] the dissemination of the pluralistic values of a polyglot

people." (March, 1983)

March goes on to establish many connections between The Living City

and contemporary progressive initiatives in governance, economic and ed-

ucational policy, substantiating his assertion that the design is indeed more

procedurally – that is to say dynamically – conceived than it is formally, or

statically, contrived. This brings up what is certainly a valid critique of The

Living City: although ostensibly built on the basis of a real quarter-section of

land in the American Midwest, and Wright's initial, evocative hand sketches

of curvilinear, landscape-responsive Broadacre variants exist in the archives

(gure 7).

Waking Leviathan

Figure 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, Broadacre City plan sketch, 1934. Ink, colour pencil on paper. 9 3/8 x 8 1/2 in

(source: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives at The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural

& Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

Wright never illustrated the scheme in the broader regional context.

How was one district to relate to another? Was it to be deployed like a carpet,

as a linear city, or as a polycentric network in which areas like this serve as

nodes? 3 Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that March's extrapolated as-

sessments of The Living City's performative capabilities – made on the basis

of what is represented in the project – provide evidence that rather than be-

ing a short-sighted model of automobile-induced sprawl, as had commonly

been asserted, The Living City emerges as a meticulously scaled diagram of a

compact transportation corridor network, whose rural urban dynamic could

sustain the entire US population within a total footprint of 4% of the nation's

area, leaving 96% to go back to wilderness. These gures include the agri-

cultural and industrial land necessary to sustain the urban districts as well,

creating what is eectively an integrated rural urban regional metabolism, as

distinct from an isolated, self-sucient city (Sargent, 1992). At a one-to-one

scale this is, conveniently, about equivalent to the length of the US Interstate

highway system when two miles on either side of the roadway (gure 8). Of

course, in practice The Living City strategy is unlikely to be either uniform or

symmetrical, as environmental and socio-political settings will vary, and it

was clearly conceived of as responsive to these contextual factors (gure 9).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

100

Figure 8 US interstate highway system, 4% of land mass, equivalent to Broadacre City's footprint

when housing entire US population (2000 census), after L. March

Figure 9 Broadacre City Model (1934) and the Vitra Museum's The Living City (1997): this later exhibition

reinterpreted the models in an aesthetically beautiful way, while neglecting the axial role of the

transportation corridor 'spine' in relation to which the entire scheme is a gradation of density toward the

edge – an interpretation unfortunately obscuring the essential formal logic of the scheme (source: The

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives at The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts

Library, Columbia University, New York (left); Vitra Museum, Basel (right))

Waking Leviathan

101

Although such a digression hardly matches the scope of this essay, it

would be interesting to write the genealogy of ideas leading from Wright to

Team 10 and the Texas Rangers: both these counter-cultural groups gained

ascendancy in the mid-late 1950s as Wright was fading – both emphasised, as

did Wright, the social and spatial as drivers of architecture and urbanisation

– and it seems clear to me that they are the closest thing yet to a 'Wrightian'

legacy in architecture, polemic though that legacy may be. 4

Certainly reactions against this legacy are still present. For instance when

Peter Eisenman (a student of Colin Rowe – a Texas Ranger – and of Wittkower)

was asked about the contemporary relevance of his PhD thesis, in which he

analysed what he described as Wright's 'multi-axial', 'linear spatial' compo-

sitions, he responded:

"I hate Wright. I've always hated Wright. I only studied him to gure out why

I hated him so much […]. I hate nature. If you love nature so much you should be a

damned landscape architect." 5

In the same discussion Eisenman stated that Rem Koolhaas had been one

of his 'great discoveries', and of course it was Koolhaas who has famously

asserted that the subtext of contemporary super-urbanism is 'f**k context'

(Koolhaas, 1998). Certainly there is ample precedent for this apparent com-

pulsion to obscure context. In behavioural sciences it is generally associat-

ed with the repression of memory itself within the subconscious. Repressed

memory is a psychological condition in which a memory has been blocked due

to a high level of stress or trauma – although the individual often cannot re-

call the memory, it may still be aecting him. It is still a controversial topic in

the discipline of psychology, and according to some psychologists repressed

memories can be recovered through therapy, while others believe that re-

pressed memories are in fact a cultural symptom because there is no docu-

mentation of their existence before the 1800s. This is a fascinating question

– but whether repressed memory is an individual or cultural phenomenon, it

may well be that contemporary cities' persistent and general disassociation

from context is attributable to traumatic events, both local and global.

Just so, in counterpoint to ascendant memory-negating theories of su-

per-urbanism, the contemporary historian Sébastien Marot develops a direc-

tion of thought he describes as sub-urbanism, 'a theoretical hypothesis, not

necessarily exclusive of its opposite' in which the conventional urban para-

digm is inverted (gure 10).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

102

Figure 10 'Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory' (2003) Sébastien Marot's

treatise is explicitly written in counterpoint to Koolhaas' 'Delirious New York'

(source: Architectural Association, London)

Rather than program being the dening parameter of the project, as is

the architectural tendency when amplied to the scale of the city, the existing

site – that is, both the landscape and social context – are taken as denitive

of suitable programs. He elegantly characterises such an approach with four

attitudes: an 'active regard' for the memory of the site, an 'in depth' rather

than 'planar' view of open and public space, seeing site and design as 'elds of

relations' rather than as objects, and seeing these as 'processes' rather than

as products. Marot explains, "I regard these four principles not as inexible rules

of ethics but rather as the precepts (themselves essentially relative) of a preliminary

and therefore imperfect code of conduct that, to borrow from Descartes, 'can be fol-

lowed by way of provision, so long as one doesn't know any better'" (Marot, 1993).

Such an approach would indeed be consistent with the principles outlined in

The Living City, and might still provide eective therapy for traumatised, dis-

associated regions and their inhabitants.

4. TO WAKE THE LEVIATHAN

The relationship between individual memory, imagination and cultural

memory played an important role in Hobbes' Leviathan. The source of Hobbes'

Waking Leviathan

103

use of the term was evidently Biblical scripture, in which perhaps the most

famous reference to it is in the book of Job, where Leviathan is mentioned in

the context of its obscuring not only memory, and light, but even time itself.

To set the stage: Job has been a blameless and successful man, living well with

his family and his deserved wealth, until one day he loses everything, even

his health. His friends come to visit him, "[…] and they sat with him seven days

and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suering was

very great":

"After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:

'Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, A man-child is

conceived. Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon

it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness

of the day terrify it. That night – let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among

the days of the year, let it not come into the number of months. Yea, let that night be

barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it. Let those curse it who curse the day, who are

skilled to wake Leviathan." 6

While Job itself is likely not a mythological book, this reference to Levi-

athan is no doubt an allusion to mythology. Many scholars identify the Levi-

athan of this verse with a mythological creature described in Ugaritic myths,

according to which a marine monster named Lotan was capable of altering the

entire world order by eclipsing the sun or moon with its body. 7 So Job, angry

and frustrated, employs the most forceful, vividly poetic language available

to him in order to call for the obliteration of that day. Clearly the evocative

use made of the term Leviathan by Hobbes and Wright is consistent with this

earlier use. When asked by his apprentices in later years what they should

read of the architectural classics, Wright consistently referred to Victor Hu-

go's aforementioned essay, which he cited so extensively in The Art and Craft

of the Machine, and to the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, who in

1868 (incidentally the year following Wright's birth) identied the machine

as promising to full the Gothic ideal in its ability to "express the qualities of

materials and to transform static relationships into dynamic ones based on balances

between opposing forces" (Viollet le Duc, 1868).

Throughout The Living City Wright uses the term static to connote out-

dated notions, and dynamic to connote progress. He describes his interest in

"looking into instead of at", championing the analysis of dynamics over the

comparison of appearances, with practical implications both for structural-

ly optimising oscillations between tension and compression in the form of a

building, as for situating the city within the material and spatial dynamics of

environmental, social, and economic forces. These forces are now common-

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

104

ly regarded, in the parlance of contemporary macro-economic analysis, as

PESTEL: Politics, Economics, Sociology, Technology, Environment and Law.

When correlated with current computational technology at the scale of the

city, these dynamics are seen as even subtler geometric interactions, me-

ta-data describing energetic anities, attracting, repelling, and generating

form. The ever-growing sophistication of technology eventually facilitates

the subtler optimisation of the form of the city and its architecture, enabling

the creation of buildings, environments and social infrastructures that are

profoundly humane. Clearly the scope of Wright's ambition encompassed not

only the city, nor merely the reunication of the arts and crafts that were en-

semble in the Gothic era, but the radical humanisation of the entire ecology

of the forces of our modern era and whose interactions transform the shape

of society – materially and energetically. At the same time, his regard for cul-

tures of the past prompted him to reject as reactionary the dismissal either

of tradition or of the machine. This progressive interest came with a sense

of responsibility to the past – "that the new art to come might not have dropped

too many stitches nor have unravelled what would still be useful to her" (Wright

1901d). After all, we still have the building and the book, rural and urban –

and the ideal city, however imperfect, ought to be inclusive of the humanity

epitomised by each.

Wright's life and work spanned from the Victorian age to the space age,

and The Living City is arguably his most ambitious attempt to 'bridge the gap'.

In arguing for contextual, open-ended planning methods it provides a suit-

able polar counterpoint to contemporary notions of cities as self-sucient.

As a precedent stimulating an awareness of the fundamental need of a 'hu-

mane proportion' of industry and agronomy, it is of urgent relevance today.

Certainly in many ways we are still in that era: although the ever-increasing

precision of modern technology enables incredibly powerful machines, new

scientic insights regularly expand our horizons and every day proud new cit-

ies sprawl Leviathan-like across the face of the earth, it is up to us to require

that they be humane. Perhaps humanity is ever to go on learning the lesson

of the printing press: iterative and exploratory are often still preferable to

permanent and perfect, as they are better suited to our inter-generational

human condition. The Living City – a project resulting from the architect's own

initiative, not a client's – gives form to decentralised power in direct ani-

ty with woman's surage, civil rights movements, anti-trust legislation and

open source networks. If the mythological deep-sea Leviathan can be equated

with submerged, repressed memories, and fear of it equated with individual

or cultural anxieties related to these, then 'waking Leviathan' could be just

the therapy needed for us to realise that the shadow threatening to blot out

memory, light, and time, is our own.

Waking Leviathan

105

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Adriaan Geuze, Phil Lewis FASLA, Oskar Muñoz at the

Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Father van Berkum at Sint Benedictusburg

Monastery. In memory of Rosalyn Tureck and E. Thomas Casey.

ENDNOTES

1 A correlation in emerging academic discourse exists here that is worth mentioning, insofar as refer-

ence to the 'poetic' - here in the sense that term is used in the de Tocqueville citation – is currently

undergoing a dramatic resurgence, thanks in part to the work of Lynn Margulis in the still emerging

eld of chronobiology, which examines periodicity - or cyclic phenomena - in living organisms, and

their adaptation to solar and lunar rhythms. As referred to in the text, current enthusiasm for au-

tonomy, for urban self-suciency, tends to construe the implications of biological analogy along the

lines of ideas like autopoiesis, which refers to a system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself.

However, its opposite seems a more likely biological analogy: allopoiesis is the process whereby a

system produces something other than the system itself, like a crystal, or an assembly line, where the

nal product is distinct from the means of production. Thinking that cities come from cities, or that

architecture comes from architecture, is somehow not quite right. To quote pianist Keith Jarrett as

regards music: "It is like saying babies come from babies. It just isn't true! Music doesn't come from

music – it comes from everything but music." [Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation (DVD 2005)]

2 As for instance from The Living City , p. 42: "'That government is best which governs least' said a Thom-

as Jeerson crossing an Alexander Hamilton. George Washington, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln,

William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Henry George, Louis Sullivan – such

as these and their kind were her sons. In them the original ideal was held clear."

3 See, for example A.C. Nelson (1995) The Planning of Exurban America: Lessons from Frank Lloyd

Wright's Broadacre City, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 12 (4) (winter, 1995): pp. 337-

356, note illustration p. 347, interestingly attempting to situate Broadacre into a Central City/Garden

City/Edge City planning model.

4 It is interesting to note that, according to John Hejduk, Rowe and Hejduk quit the Texas Rangers

because of their incompatible views about Wright: they'd taken tours visiting Wright's projects, Rowe

starting out as a Wright advocate, and Hejduk an advocate of Le Corbusier – by the end of the tour

they'd swapped positions, passionately. Of course, they each went on to their own academic careers,

notably inuencing their students – many of whom are now successful architects, with works strongly

reecting the attitudes of their mentors. For example, Elizabeth Diller was a student of Hejduk, and

is very open to these Wrightian inuences; Eisenman was a student of Rowe, and clearly was not so

inclined to openness – at least in later years. Bernard Hoesli, another Texas Ranger, seems to have

been the peacemaker, usefully integrating both Wright and Le Corbusier in his curricula.

5 This exchange between the author and Peter Eisenman was documented at the Berlage Institute in

Rotterdam, and can be seen on video at The Berlage (The Berlage, 2010).

6 Job 3:1-8; also see Hailey, 1994, p. 49.

7 Payne, 1980, 1: p. 472

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

106

REFERENCES

The Berlage (2010). The Berlage. Retrieved from: http://www.theberlage.nl/events/details/2010_03_23_

genius_loci_and_the_zeitgeist_two_ideologies

Chicago river (2013) Chicago river ow. Retrieved from: http://chicagoist.com/2013/04/18/chicago_riv-

er_ow_re-reversed_to_a.php

Cicero, M.T. (2008) The Nature of the Gods (c.45 BC). New York, Oxford University Press, p.102

Fishman, R. (1982) Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbus-

ier. Cambridge, MIT Press

Hobbes, T. (1977) LEVIATHAN or The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil,

c.1651. Indianapolis, Liberal Arts Press

Hugo, V., Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831

Johnson, M.A. (2004) 'Hull House', in: J.R. Grossman et al. (eds.) The Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago,

Chicago Historical Society

Koolhaas, R. (1998) 'Bigness', in: R. Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL. New York, Monacelli Press

March, L. (1983) 'An Architect in Search of Democracy: Broadacre City (1970)', in: H.A. Brooks (ed.) Writings

on Wright. Cambridge, MIT press

Marot, S. (2003) Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory. London, AA Press

Nelson, A.C. (1995) The Planning of Exurban America: Lessons from Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City,

Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 12 (4) (winter, 1995)

Reed, C. (2006) 'Public Works Practice', in: C. Waldheim (ed.) The Landscape Urbanism Reader. Cambridge,

MIT press, p 281

Regional Plan Association. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Plan_Association

Rybczynski, W. (1996) 'City Life'. New York, Scribner, p 229

Sargent, J. (1992) Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses. New York, Knoll, p 23

Viollet le Duc, E. (1868) Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle.

Waldheim, C. (2010) 'Notes Towards a History of Agrarian Urbanism', in: M. White & M. Przybylski (eds.)

Bracket: On Farming. Barcelona, Actar, p 18-23

Wright, F.L. (1901) 'The Art and Craft of the Machine'. An address by Frank Lloyd Wright to the Chicago

Arts and Crafts Society, at Hull House, March 6, and to the Western Society of Engineers, March 20,

1901

Wright, F.L. (1932) The Disappearing City. New York, William Farquhar Payson

Wright, F.L. (1945) When Democracy Builds. New York, Horizon Press

Wright, F.L. (1958) The Living City. New York, Horizon Press

TRANSPORTATION

INFRASTRUCTURES

The diabolic highway

On the tradition of the

beautiful road in the

Dutch landscape and

the appetite for the

magnicent highway in

the big city

WILFRIED VAN WINDEN

van Winden, W. (2015). The diabolic highway. On the tradition of the beautiful road in the Dutch

landscape and the appetite for the magnicent highway in the big city. Research In Urbanism Series,

3(1), 111-134. doi:10.7480/rius.3.835

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

112

Abstract

The highways of the Netherlands are used intensively, yet most of us are unable

to summon up as much appreciation for them as we can for an attractive

square, park or landscape. Highways may well be component parts of our

public space, but they are not part of our aesthetic culture. From the history

of the landscape we know that the impressionability of the poet and the

depiction of the painting were needed to train the gaze. Appreciation follows

representation. Is there a schematic organisation of visual perception that

could assume the role of yesteryear's landscape painting in the present day?

Here and there voices tenaciously proclaim that no aesthetic principles are

applied in the laying of highways in the Netherlands, and that the road is purely

the product of the art of engineering and the immanent logic of its technology.

In the essay this myth is unmasked and brings an almost forgotten dimension

into the limelight: the aesthetic design. Immediately after the Second World

War, the engineer K.E. Huizinga explicitly gave shape to an aesthetic theory

for the highway. So the design of highways in the Netherlands does indeed

boast an aesthetic tradition of no small measure. Therein Huizinga's 'spatially

expressive approach', the Dutch heir of the parkway and the Autobahn, has

proven to be the leitmotif that courses from the beginnings right through to

the present day. The parkway has found its counterpart in terms of landscape

in the autonomous motorway. Aesthetic as well as sublime ideals of beauty

are, however, carried to the grave by the urban counterpart, the highway in the

big city: the Diabolical Highway. Take, for example, the Boulevard Périphérique

in Paris, which is a Diabolical Highway without compare. We cast our minds

back to Siegfried Giedion. The parkway, his parkway, as the backbone of a new

city planning, gives the motorist the uplifting feeling of rust calm and freedom.

The Diabolical Highway is, however, anything but that. There is no calm rust

and everything is coincidental. They are roads in overly tight spaces, hectic

experiences, but also metropolitan experiences. The essay makes a distinction

between three types of highway, each of which is elucidated by an example:

the parkway, the autonomous motorway and the diabolical highway. Thus in

the design of the urban highway lies the greatest challenge, and as yet few

principles have been devised for it.

KEYWORDS

highway design; scenic road; urban planning; spatio-scenic approach

the diabolic highway

113

1. INTRODUCTION

Some seventy per cent of the world population will be living in urban ar-

eas by 2050, which poses the designers of these urban areas for major design

questions. The future of the metropolis depends on the degree to which con-

gestion can be addressed. Infrastructural networks are undergoing a devel-

opment that is characterised by the pursuit of an optimisation of mobility

by eliminating barriers and an increasing interdependency (Nijenhuis & Van

Winden, 1996). Urban planning will be increasingly connected with the issue

of mobility and the design of infrastructure.

Motorways are used intensively, yet most of us cannot muster as much

appreciation for them as for an attractive square, park or landscape. Motor-

ways may well be part of our public space, but they play no part in our aes-

thetic culture; they have to make do with the status of banal and cursorily

perceived 'surroundings'. The history of the landscape has taught us that in

order to train the gaze we need to have the receptiveness of the poet and the

visualisation of the painting. Portrayal begets appreciation. So which sche-

matic dispositions of seeing would today assume the role of the landscape

painting of yesteryear? What makes a motorway attractive? What are the aes-

thetic paradigms of motorway design?

2. OUTLINE

This essay explores the development of motorways in the Netherlands,

especially their aesthetic design, as a case study. 1 In comparison to other Eu-

ropean countries during the interwar years, the development of motorways in

the Netherlands and Germany was quite advanced. From the 1960s onwards

the construction of motorways became more widespread across the rest of

Western Europe (Crowe, 1960). 2 This essay reveals a modern visual experience

that is universal: that of time and space and the experience from a dynamic

perspective, against the backdrop of the specic historical development of

motorway design in the Netherlands.

The motorway is attractive when the engineer has tailored his practical

art to what the motorist racing along it will experience. The principles of the

attractive motorway are a typical product of modernity: form is considered, as

is time – their object being the spatio-temporal form. These principles show

us how to bypass the mind and appeal directly to the heart, without the inter-

cession of the intellect. It lends itself to comparison with listening to music

or watching a lm and the experience of architecture, but secretly its pact is

with choreography.

The aesthetics of the motorway is partly due to a mysterious conspiracy

between 'the desire for maximum velocity', the 'dynamic perspective' and

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

114

the irresistible 'kinetic thrust' of curves rolling onward without end.

The history of roads, from the Via Appia to the Champs Elysées, teaches

us that endeavouring to create beautiful roads has been a constant, and this

applies for the Netherlands as well: boulevards and avenues designed for the

city and parkways for the countryside. Our day and age are in sharp contrast to

this: we lack any concept of how the attractive motorway in the city, tailored

to the speed of today, ought to look. We have no conception whatsoever of a

contemporary motorway boulevard, motorway avenue or motorway lane. We

are familiar only with tunnels, noise barriers, and poor and laborious attempts

to tame and re-forge the motorway into a city thoroughfare with addresses.

Here and there one encounters stubborn opinions that no aesthetic prin-

ciples have been employed in the construction of motorways in the Nether-

lands and that the road is merely the product of the art of engineering and the

immanent logic of its technology. These criticasters are essentially arguing

that there has been no conscious pursuit of beauty in the design process. This

essay debunks this myth and brings a well-nigh forgotten dimension to the

fore: the aesthetic design of the Dutch motorway.

Immediately after the Second World War, the civil engineer K.E. Huizin-

ga, an employee of Rijkswaterstaat (the Directorate-General for Public Works

and Water Management) explicitly eshed out an aesthetic theory for the

motorway, and not only with his designs – which were wonderful – but also

in his writings, his lectures, his excursions and the course he taught about

road design. The design of motorways in the Netherlands does actually boast

a considerable aesthetic tradition. This has its origins in the 1920s and along-

side Huizinga there were other designers within Staatsbosbeheer (the Dutch

Forestry Commission) and Rijkswaterstaat, such as Overdijkink, Elers,

Zuurdeeg and Nakken, who were part of this ethos.

3. METHODOLOGY

This tradition is not very well documented and has until now been chart-

ed only sketchily. No accessible archives have been collated and much ma-

terial has been lost, because of reorganisations and the extended timelines

of projects. The small amount of documentation has been general in nature,

without mentioning names, never mind any critique. We therefore chose to

interview as many of the people involved in motorway design as possible. In

addition we made a study of the literature, collected widely dispersed docu-

ments and, of course, drove along all the roads.

The study proceeded from a widely accepted periodisation. The pre-war

era, from 1920 to 1940, was reputed to be idyllic and romantic. The period

from 1940 to 1960 was marked by the development of machine and technol-

the diabolic highway

115

ogy. The 1960s was the period of expansion in mobility and the 1970s was the

period of democratisation and attention to safety. Ecology prevailed in the

1980s and the 1990s were typied by congestion and a cultural shift in the

conception of the motorway.

It soon became obvious that this periodisation helped to organise ques-

tions on the planological level, but it does not dovetail with the subject of

this study. It is impossible to divide the aesthetics of motorway design into

periods: it is rather characterised by a limited number of road types, each of

which represents a beau ideal that courses like a leitmotif through the various

periods. We therefore made a distinction between three types of motorway,

each of which is claried by an example: the parkway, the autonomous mo-

torway and the diabolic motorway.

The parkway has its origins in nineteenth-century designs by Frederick

Law Olmsted (1822-1903) and Calvert Vaux (1824-1895), who coined the term

for the idea of connecting the city with national parks by means of recrea-

tional routes. In the twentieth century Robert Moses (1888-1981) elaborated

the idea for motor trac in New York, while Sigfried Giedion (1888-1968)

provided it with a theoretical framework and couched it in cultural terms.

The American parkways, in turn, served as an example for the German de-

signers of the Autobahn.

The autonomous road is as old as the road to Rome and in a certain sense

it is also described in the four books by Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Until far

into the nineteenth century it was the basis of the European road network,

which underwent a massive expansion during the Napoleonic era and pro-

vided the foundations for the system of national trunk roads in the Nether-

lands. The autonomous road is characterised by long, straight sections and

monumental avenues of trees planted on either side.

Huizinga's 'spatio-scenic approach', the Dutch successor to the park-

way and the Autobahn, has proven to be the connecting thread in the aesthet-

ics of Dutch motorway design, running from its origins in 1920 to the pres-

ent day. The design for the A1 near Naarden is exemplary for the parkway.

The parkway has found its rural counterpart in the autonomous motorway,

of which the A6 between Lelystad and Almere provides a ne example. The

aesthetic and sublime beau ideals were, however, consigned to their grave by

their urban counterpart, the motorway in the major city: the diabolic mo-

torway. The Boulevard Périphérique in Paris provides a perfect example of the

diabolic motorway, while in terms of Dutch motorway design, the A10 West –

the western quadrant of Amsterdam's orbital motorway – provides a striking

example.

The description of the three cases employs the terms tectonics and or-

nament. The tectonics is the 'body' of the road, the route, the material form

and its function as a carriageway. The tectonics is the surface to which the

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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ornament can be appended, while the ornament is the make-up or costume

that makes the road scenic.

4. HISTORY

At the rst Nederlandse Wegencongres (Dutch Road Congress) in 1920

it was the architect A.H. Wegerif (1888-1963) who drew attention to aspects

related to the aesthetic values of roadways. His advice was recorded in a re-

port entitled 'De schoonheid, in het bijzonder 't natuurschoon, in verband

met beloop, beplanting en kunstwerken van en aan den weg' (The beauty, in

particular the scenery, in relation to the course, planting and engineering of

and around the road). In his elaboration he drew a distinction between road

and furnishings, which should be understood as everything that is placed on,

in or near a road or carriageway that is not a component of the road proper.

The engineer G.A. Overdijkink had worked as a forester for Staatsbosbe-

heer since 1929 and was involved in the introduction of plants along national

trunk roads. In 1915, Cornelis Lely (1854-1929), as minister responsible for

transport and public works, approached Staatsbosbeheer to serve as a perma-

nent advisor to Rijkswaterstaat, with the intention of fostering greater unity

in views about the integration of infrastructural projects into the landscape.

Initially the eect was minimal and that must also have been why Bond

Heemschut, a heritage conservation organisation, established a permanent

committee under the name 'De weg in het landschap' – The road in the land-

scape – in 1933. The committee was tasked with ensuring the proper landscap-

ing and better care of roads and their surroundings. In 1935 this committee

published an eponymous brochure, 'De weg in het landschap', in association

with the Nederlandse Wegencongres organisers and the ANWB (Royal Dutch

Touring Club), with Overdijkink serving as one of the editors. The intention,

some 14 years after the publication of Wegerif's report, was to propagate in-

terest for what was termed 'the road question'. The brochure's publication

reveals how dicult it proved to attain the unity sought by Lely and to give

aesthetics a permanent place in motorway design.

It was the landscape architect J.T.P. Bijhouwer (1898-1974) who, even be-

fore the war, broke a lance for the parkway in his contribution to the Commis-

sie Wegbeplanting (Committee for Roadside Planting), which was established

by the Nederlandse Heidemaatschappij, a nature development organisation

(Andela, 2011). The cover of the 'Wegbeplanting' report features a drawing of

a road that organically meanders, elegant and joyous, through the landscape.

Road and planting had to be tailored to the surroundings wherever possible.

Overdijkink's ideas clearly resonate in this. Bijhouwer produced a schema of

landscape types and appropriate plants, complete with varietals, which was

the diabolic highway

117

added to the 'Wegbeplanting' report as an appendix. It was intended as a

practical design manual, and shortly thereafter he put the advice into prac-

tice with his planting proposals for Rijksweg 52 (1940) between Arnhem and

Nijmegen, and for Rijksweg 12 (1941) between Utrecht and the German border

(Andela, 2011: 72-73). This is remarkable because such advice was the pre-

serve of Staatsbosbeheer.

In 1941, two years after the release of the 'Wegbeplanting' (Roadside

planting) report, Overdijkink published Langs onze wegen (Along our roads) in a

series of books published by the Bond Heemschut cultural heritage agency. The

aesthetic principles it mentions continue to serve as a guideline for road de-

sign. Decisive aspects in his discourse are the planting, the positioning within

the landscape, direction, width, elevation, layout and character (gure 1).

Figure 1 Right and wrong. From: 'de Weg in het Landschap', in: Wegen, 1936 (source: Archive ANWB)

Overdijkink advocated the regionalist approach. The planting must cor-

respond with the character of the landscape that the road travels through. The

character of the region must be expressed in the road design. This adaptability

paradigm does not substantively dier from the directives that were drawn up

for the Autobahn in Germany. For example, a 1934 article in the Reichsauto-

bahn's periodical Merkblatt states that the roadway must possess a beauty in

keeping with the surrounding landscape and that the planting should include

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

118

only those species that would also grow and ourish somewhere naturally in

accordance with their phytosociological make-up (Merkblatt, 1934).

After the war Overdijkink gained the support of the engineers H.P. Bakker,

A.E.J. Nap and K.E. Huizinga. The latter in particular became a champion of

the regionalist approach, which he later referred to as the 'spatio-scenic ap-

proach' (ruimtelijk beeldende benadering). Overdijkink, Bakker and Huizinga

formed a close triumvirate who went on an excursion to Germany every two

years. The rst time was in 1952, at the invitation of Lorenz and Seifert, who

visited the Netherlands in the alternate years. The civil engineer Hans Lorenz

(1905-1996) and the landscape expert Alwin Seifert (1890-1972) worked for

the Organisation Todt in the 1930s (Seidler, 1986), which partly explains why

these contacts with Germany were kept quiet.

Alwin Seifert had already adopted a stance against the rectilinear nature

of roads, advocating a more organic alignment – Schwingungen in der Linien-

führung – in 1935. The renouncement of straight roads as a functional and

economic principle was a signicant shift. With regard to Nurautostrassen –

car-only streets that were composed of straight sections of road, in 1936 he

commented: 'These roads may well be at home in the steppe, but they are

foreign to the German landscape and alien to the German soul. [...] Curves in

the roads, similar to the course of rivers, would be more proper to the German

landscape.'

Seifert also referred to Hermann Fürst von Pückler-Muskau's 1834 man-

ual for the landscaping of parks (Pückler-Muskau, 1834), Andeutungen über

Landschaftsgärtnerei (Hints on Landscape Gardening). In a discussion of how

to lay paths he mentions that the straight road divides the space and places

the observer on that road between two spaces, while the curve unfurls an ev-

er-changing perspective, giving the observer the feeling of travelling through

space. In the pre-war years a strip of land at least 40 metres wide was set

aside on either side of the Autobahn for the planting of trees and shrubs. These

generous roadside verges, which were used to create the illusion of the Ger-

man Wald , were called Pücklerstreifen. With the introduction of the German

Autobahn it seemed it would be possible to transform Germany into a huge

national park, reinforced by moving ever onward through the illusion of the

German forest.

5. THE PARKWAY

Bijhouwer published an article with the title 'Autosnelweg of Parkway?'

(Motorway or Parkway?) in 1949: 'In the regimented manmade landscapes of

the West as well as in the picturesqueness of the Veluwe and East-Utrecht, the

speedway remains an alien, tough and impliable element that bores through

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119

the land like a chute for trac. The predominance of technical insight, the

inuence of the technical norm, is so strong that it would barely be possible

to nd roads that are more dignied or more tting to the landscape's char-

acter (Bijhouwer, 1949).' This is once again a championing of the parkway in

which the words of Alwin Seifert resonate and the work of Robert Moses for

New York is cited as a shining example, and for which Giedion's Space, Time

and Architecture probably served as a source of inspiration. 3

In the development of the American parkway from the 1920s on, Giedion

saw a new urban element born of the vision of the new era. Giedion tied in

his parkway with the notion of space-time (i.e. dynamic observation, as de-

veloped in futurism and cubism), which he situated over against the central

perspective of the Renaissance and the rue corridor. In order to save the idea of

the city from the metropolis threatened with demise, Giedion argued that the

rst priority was to abolish the rue corridor, 'with its rigid lines of houses and

its intermingling of trac, pedestrians, and houses' (Giedion, 1954).

'Hausmann's endless streets belonged not only in their architectural

features but also in their very conception to the artistic vision born of the

Renaissance: perspective,' Giedion continues. 'Today we must deal with the

city in a new aspect, dictated originally by the appearance of the motorcar and

based on technical considerations, and belonging to an artistic vision born

out of our period – space-time.' Nature seems to stream in spontaneously

through the street frontage's broken-open perspective. Trac and housing

should be separated from each other by liberating the house from the street

prole and accommodating it in large complexes set in open, natural sur-

roundings. According to Giedion, the reason was that 'man demands for his

existence quietude and the companionship of growing things'.

An exhilarating eect is ascribed to the parkway. The road Gideon de-

scribes in his Space, Time and Architecture could be described as sublime. (The

eect of the angel is exhilarating, a theme also explored by Rilke and Benja-

min.)

For Giedion, who envisaged the parkway as a component of the city of

the future, its essence is to be found in the separation of motor trac from

pedestrians, which reclaims the freedom that is implicit in the unobstruct-

ed circulation for both functions: 'Out of this separation has come the fun-

damental law of the parkway – that there is to be unobstructed freedom of

movement, a ow of trac maintained evenly at all points without interrup-

tion or interference. To secure this steady ow, no direct crossing is permit-

ted, nor do the owners of abutting property have the right of direct access;

at intersections the conicting or converging lines are disposed separately

through the use of overpasses with their cloverleaves of intersecting roads.'

(Giedion, 1954: 728). In contrast to the laying of railways or straight roads, the

parkway is much more humane. Inserted between green hills, it follows the

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

120

contours of the landscape. Between the carriageways runs a central reserva-

tion that is planted with trees. Here the ideal is the total convergence of the

road with its surroundings: the road becomes part of nature. The scale that is

specic to the parkway is so at variance with the existing city that its whole

structure would have to be reconsidered.

Huizinga's spatio-scenic approach is imbued with the scenic eect and

the motorist's experience rather than the implications for society and urban

development (gure 2).

Figure 2 Model research of alignment ca. 1970, by Ir. K.E. Huizinga

An attractive road is a ne road when the embellishment, the scenic

entourage, has a calming eect. His maxim: 'A road must fascinate, with-

out causing tiredness.' The beautiful road harmonises with the landscape and

merges with it. It is a road that seems 'self-evident' and looks natural there,

as if it was not made by human hands. This calls to mind the Bodenständigkeit

– groundedness or autochtony – that was propagated by Alwin Seifert, as well

as the expressionist theme of productive nature. The underlying idea is that

there is a structural kinship between technology and nature, which are acted

on by a similar force. Humankind is merely the vector through which the ob-

ject assumes a form that is organic and dictated by nature.

the diabolic highway

121

In the spatio-scenic approach the planting of avenues of trees is forsworn

and replaced by elements within the depths of the landscape that match its

scenic structure. The aim is to produce an experience of freedom, similar to

that of the Wanderer in German Romanticism. The landscape must continue in

the roadscape and the motorist must have the exhilarating feeling of being in

the midst of the landscape. It is important that the eye should roam. No ob-

stacles, but space for the unfettered gaze. No harsh lines, but vague contours

that cause the road to integrate into the landscape (gure 3).

Figure 3 Parkway, RW 4, Zoeterwoude 1958 (source: Archive ANWB)

The A50 near Renkum, the A58 between Bergen Op Zoom and Vlissin-

gen and the A1 near Naarden are among the most successful examples of the

Dutch parkway. The landscape architects A. Elers (of Staatsbosbeheer) and

J. Nieuwenhuizen (of Rijkswaterstaat) stated that they were able to exercise

plenty of inuence over the A1's tectonics and ornamentation (gure 4). They

had the opportunity to make decisions about the width of the verges, the

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

122

alignment and the integration into the landscape. They acquired land that

penetrated deep into the surrounding countryside in order to oer the mo-

torist the desired aesthetic experience.

Figure 4 Icon Parkway: RW 1 Naarden (illustration: J. Beljaars)

The earliest designs for the A1 were produced in the late 1930s, but the

decision about the route was not reached until the 1960s. The northern route,

running between Naarden and the Gooimeer lake and wetlands, was preferred

on Huizinga's advice. Travelling from south to north, after the northern Bus-

sum exit the motorway curves gently towards the left, towards the Oostdi-

jk. Here the road is raised on a dike. After the Oostdijk the road describes a

sweeping arc around Naarden. What is unusual about the tectonics here is

that the roadbed descends and narrowly skirts the Gooimeer lake. The de-

signers created a very gradual incline in the western inside bend, in order to

draw the surface level and the fortress town of Naarden into the eld of vi-

sion (gure 5). The road then rises again and where it passes the marina it

again runs along a dike embankment. After crossing the Naarder Trekvaart,

the road continues parallel to this waterway towards Amsterdam.

the diabolic highway

123

Figure 5 Panoramic view Naarden, 2007 (photo: Piet Rook/Robert Nagelkerke)

The ornamental layout is intended to surprise the motorist. Trees were

planted to the south of the Oostdijk to connect the rest area to the road in an

aesthetically pleasing manner. On the Oostdijk itself there are rows of trees

set square on either side of the road, thus forming a coulisse. The motorist

approaches a semi-closed frontage, and on breaking through it a resplendent

panorama opens up across the Gooimeer lake and the gently rolling, elegant

curve of the road that unfurls itself within that panorama.

The design is a renaissance of the idyllic concepts from the 1930s, in line

with G.A. Overdijkink's regionalist approach. The aesthetic surprises tumble

into the eld of vision of the unsuspecting motorist. It is like racing along in

a great sweeping curve, in a centrifugal movement that is counterbalanced by

a centripetal force. It resembles a gravitational eld with the fortied town of

Naarden at its magnetic core.

The motorist is repeatedly involved with the surrounding landscape in a

scenography that alternately turns the gaze inward and outward. The parkway

as a paysage parlante connects the motorist with the surroundings.

6. THE AUTONOMOUS MOTORWAY

The autonomous motorway is a type that makes the road independent of

the surrounding landscape. It is a monumental approach that involves striv-

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

124

ing after a strong visual form, which can be explained from the road itself

rather than from the surrounding landscape (gure 6).

Figure 6 Icon Autonomous Motorway: RW 6 Lelystad (illustration: J. Beljaars)

Notable examples include the A2 near Boxtel, which in part follows the

historical route of the Napoleonic highway, and the A6 near Lelystad.

The A6 is an interesting case because it was conceived to traverse newly

created land and sparked heated debate. Its design was by N.M. de Jonge and

was supported by Elers. The idea was to treat the A6 between Lelystad and

the A1 as a gateway to the northern part of the Randstad conurbation. This

could be achieved by creating an avenue-like corridor with six rows of oak

trees. The trees would be set 14 metres from the edge of the road, four metres

further away than the 10 metres that was deemed safe, so that the motorist

would be able to appreciate the whole tree in its full glory. This idea marks the

return of the time-honoured socialist ideal of overcoming the antithesis of

countryside and city, in this case by turning the route between the 'new land'

of Flevoland and the Randstad conurbation into a metaphorical monument

for the connection of city and countryside. For the designers the priority was

to treat the Rijksweg 6 as an autonomous body, as an urban umbilical cord, a

road that would be without precedent.

However, the designers encountered Huizinga along the way. On Over-

dijkink's retirement from Staatsbosbeheer, Huizinga had transferred to Ri-

jkswaterstaat with the intention of assuming overall control of the aesthetic

treatment of roads. In informal discussions Huizinga dismissed the design as

too fascistic, overly monumental and too static because of its long straight

sections. He managed to thwart the plan with arguments about a lack of safe-

ty, criticising aspects such as the 'wall eect' and 'tunnel eect'. 4 He also had

a negative opinion of the supposedly limited view of the surroundings. The

the diabolic highway

125

minimal variation would cause a slackening of the motorist's concentration

and driving past rows of trees at high speed would have a restless stroboscop-

ic eect. "An avenue-like planting along Rijksweg 6 kept as regimented as possible.

Where possible consisting of seven rows of trees set 8 x 8 metres apart and approxi-

mately 20 metres from the side of the carriageway means that road users, especially

the drivers, many thousands per day, will for fteen to twenty minutes, depending on

their speed, be able to observe practically nothing but trees and more trees – besides

the road, the wide verges and a little bit of sky. […] The eld of vision thus restricted

by trees will have so little to oer visually that the attention quickly wanes and any

initial appreciation for the monumental form of the roadside planting will presently

turn into boredom. […] There is nothing else for it but to wait until the passing of the

trees is brought to an end by one reaching one's destination." 5

Huizinga's safety-based arguments meant he was able to settle the dis-

pute to his advantage, so in the end just one stretch of motorway near Lelys-

tad was executed as an autonomous design (gure 7).

Figure 7 Autonomous Motorway, 2007 (photo: Piet Rook/Robert Nagelkerke)

While planners debated and fought out the general introduction of the

'spatio-scenic approach', in the eld totally dierent questions arose to

which no answer was found: the birth of the diabolic motorway.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

126

7. THE DIABOLIC MOTORWAY

Until the 1960s the motorway system in the Netherlands served roughly

two purposes: providing a connection between major cities and opening up

the hinterland. The route came to an end at the municipal boundaries of a

major town or city. The local council was deemed responsible for an eec-

tive handling of trac within the municipal boundaries. This system could

not cope with the explosive increase in road trac in the early 1960s, and

during the 1960s these sections of motorway that were interrupted as they

approached the cities were interconnected.

Construction of the West Axis, which constituted part of an orbital road

for motor trac around Amsterdam, was begun in the early 1960s. However,

in 1968 the minister responsible decided that the ring road would become a

Rijksweg, a national trunk road, with far-reaching implications for its posi-

tion within the urban fabric.

It was designed by the engineers A.H.C. Kandelaar (of Rijkswaterstaat)

and W.A.G. Blom van Assendelft (of Amsterdam City Council). In the history

of Dutch motorway design it is an exemplary route, because for the rst time

the concept of the ring road was applied to the routing of a motorway and be-

cause in part it cut straight through existing urban areas.

The design of the motorway in densely developed urban areas is, as we

shall see, of a dierent order and signicance to the urban thoroughfare that

received more attention from the 1960s due to publications such as Kevin

Lynch's The View from the Road and Robert Venturi's slightly later Learning

from Las Vegas (Appleyard, Lynch & Myer, 1964; Izenour, Scott Brown & Ven-

turi, 1972).

During studies into xed cross-channel connections for Amsterdam's

North Sea Canal, Rijkswaterstaat had preferred a link near the Hembrug and

Schellingwoude, set on the city's periphery as envisaged in the Algemeen Uit-

breidings Plan (AUP, or General Extension Plan). The city authorities preferred

the more easterly position, using the spatial reservation for Ceintuurpark-

weg. This was the rst time that a concession was made to the motorway,

which can be neatly laid down in Holland's panoramic landscape, where it is

subject only to the logic of its own internal laws, such as those of the 'spa-

tio-scenic approach'. According to Rob Nas and Jan Nakken (who were both

employed by Staatsbosbeheer) we should not understand the insertion of the

West Axis as an exercise in landscape architecture. There was simply no space

for it and there was a lack of aesthetic resources with which to approach the

task. Considered from the perspective of engineering theory and the aesthet-

ic paradigms of integration with the landscape, the A10 West can only be de-

scribed as a failure. Here a successful insertion literally meant that it tted.

Let us cast our minds back to Sigfried Giedion. The parkway – his parkway

– as the backbone of a new urban disposition gives the motorist the invig-

the diabolic highway

127

orating feeling of calm and freedom. His parkway heralds the demise of the

concentric city. The Renaissance perspective is supplanted by space-time in

which there are objects interconnected by the parkway. The A10 West displays

the hallmarks of those separate streams of trac. On the A10 West there is

no calm and everything is coincidental. It is a motorway that is challenged

by a severe shortage of space, overly conned slip roads and plenty of trac

ltering in and out (gure 8).

Figure 8 Icon Diabolic Motorway: RW 10 West, Amsterdam (illustration: J. Beljaars)

With his design for Ceintuurparkweg, Cornelis van Eesteren wanted to

reconcile the modern motorway, Giedion's parkway, with the city. The road

runs between the ring-line railway and the existing city like a thin spindle.

Van Eesteren designed various proles with the intention of making Cein-

tuurparkweg alternately narrow and wide (gure 9).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

128

Figure 9 Scetch Cornelis van Eesteren Amsterdam West, 1929 (source: Gemeente Archief Amsterdam)

Through to Heemstedestraat he planned a relatively enclosed prole,

with buildings ranged along the building line, while to the north of this the

prole is open, with vistas to urban chambers in the west and the marina

in the east. In Rembrandtpark there are four rhythmically placed high-rise

blocks and here the prole becomes park-like in character. Further north

Ceintuurparkweg describes an arc as it enters into the residential district of

the diabolic highway

129

Bos en Lommer. From the bridge across the Erasmusgracht canal as far as the

intersection, the road's perspective is once again hemmed in between edi-

ces. Van Eesteren's Ceintuurparkweg ended at this monumental junction

in Bos en Lommer. His design was a deliberate attempt to choreograph the

cityscape as it is dynamically perceived in motion. However, this design met

with its ruthless demise during the road's transformation into the Rijksweg

10 orbital motorway.

The projection of the West Axis of Rijksweg 10 onto the route of Cein-

tuurparkweg prompted no modication to the AUP's urban composition, as if

the designers were insuciently aware that here the motorway was entering

into a totally dierent world. The road surges onward, traversing slow-trac

routes and passing beneath the radial urban thoroughfares. It is an interlac-

ing of motorway and local roads that run perpendicular to it. The motorway's

undulating grade, which at no point converges with the surface level of the

surroundings, divorces the road from the urban context.

The Rijksweg's indierence to the surroundings turns the Bos en Lom-

merplein into a spatial chaos. Sections of this symmetrical plaza were adapt-

ed to the turning curves or disappeared altogether (gures 10 and 11).

Figure 10 Bos en Lommerplein, 1935 & 1961 (source: Stadsarchief Amsterdam)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

130

Figure 11 Bos en Lommerplein North direction, ca 1969 (source: Stadsarchief Amsterdam)

The road occupies its own space, separate from the surroundings. As seen

from the city, the road is concealed behind buildings and amid greenery.

This involved the projection of a foreign element that, because of its id-

iosyncratic patterns, could not be inserted into this composition as an urban

element, at least not in terms of a controlled and orderly urbanity. An object

has ended up being laid across the grid of the "functional, aesthetically pleasing

and hygienic city", an object that is indeed interwoven with the city in terms of

road and trac engineering, but aesthetically speaking it placed a bombshell

under the idea of marshalling the cityscape. They are two relatively autono-

mous systems, two 'worlds' that have been brought into each other's proxim-

ity by superposition, and are subsumed in their mutual negation and rejection

(gure 12).

the diabolic highway

131

Figure 12 Bos en Lommerplein superposition of two 'worlds', 2007

(photo: Piet Rook/Robert Nagelkerke)

It is the obtrusive, pre-existing urban conditions that determine the

road's course rather than its immanent logic. There is no calm and everything

there is coincidental. It is such states of mind that distinguish the hybrid ur-

ban motorway from the motorway in rural areas, beyond the parkway of Gie-

dion, Bijhouwer and Huizinga, and beyond the autonomous highway of De

Jonge and Elers.

It is typical of the arguments of Giedion, Seifert and Huizinga that they

strove after the continuity of the network and the cohesion of the road sys-

tem as a whole. For them it was about the eradication of barriers by means

of the parkway, and about the motorist's experience of speeding along – an

experience that speaks directly to the heart, without the intervention of the

conscious mind.

The aesthetics of the future recognises just one important parameter: the

elimination of anything that impedes. In the post-war years Giedion's mod-

ern aesthetics of space-time dissolved into panoramic vastness. Brasilia, the

only city that has managed to absorb the speed harmoniously, attests to this.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

132

It is the outcome of a sought-after model, the embodiment of a pre-existing

idea. Its soporic scalar excess and unfolding of functions has been careful-

ly preserved by designating the city as a protected monument and xing its

population at 500 000. 'Shadow cities' where two million people live in an

improvised infrastructure have developed around this utopia.

In urban areas it is a matter of maintaining control of the tectonics. There

one nds a paradoxical relationship between the road and the environs, that

we cannot describe as harmonious, nor can we wholly disregard it as if it were

non-existent. Consider, for example, the Kleinpolderplein near Rotterdam or

the Utrechtse Baan in The Hague, hemmed in by the obtrusive mass of the

city, but an independent space nevertheless. Or take the freeways of Los An-

geles: superimposed on the city, they nevertheless form a separate world. The

lack of space means that the usual landscaping resources are inadequate and

unforeseen eects arise there.

8. IN CONCLUSION

According to the French philosopher Alain Badiou, the twentieth centu-

ry has been dominated by paradoxical connections that he calls 'disjunctive

syntheses' (Badiou, 2006). The surrealists created disjunctive syntheses by

conjoining objects from dierent worlds, without striving after an overar-

ching harmony or idea. Coincidence and semantic interferences detach the

component parts from their usual identity.

Something similar occurs with the diabolic motorway. City and roadway

are linked but remain autonomous, the embodiments of two worlds. The re-

lationship between city and motorway is a disjunctive synthesis. Its identi-

ty is not the product of the establishment of a harmonious ensemble, but is

shaped by a memory of a hellish experience. The friction of coincidence and

the wonder of inadvertent eects are hallmarks of the disjunctive synthesis.

A dichotomy that refuses to resolve into unity is something in which the devil

must have had a hand.

Tectonics and ornamentation can feed upon this disjunctive synthesis,

meaning that things can stand face to face without any similarity, provided

that this does not hamper movement or the experience of racing along.

In Europe it is the French architect Paul Andreu who has demonstrated

that stark juxtapositions of distinct worlds can oer exciting design solutions.

In his design for Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport he merges road and build-

ing, for example at Terminal 2, where the motorway crosses the TGV station.

By comparison with the tectonics, the ornament can behave freely. Who

would want to rein in the bad taste and the supposed shambles of the Boule-

vard Périphérique? The metropolitan experience that the road oers is its very

the diabolic highway

133

identity. Using the technique of disjunctive synthesis, the ornamentation

could be radicalised even further into a magnicent motorway in the big city.

The motorway of the future lies in urban territory and the diabolic motorway

is its guiding principle.

ENDNOTES

1 This essay is an adaptation of the study conducted by Wim Nijenhuis and myself. Nijenhuis, W. &

Winden, W. van, (2007) De Diabolische Snelweg – over de traditie van de mooie weg in het Nederlandse

landschap en het verlangen naar de schitterende snelweg in de grote stad. Rotterdam, Uitgeverij 010.

2 Crowe's introduction notes that England lags behind when it comes to the design task of integrating

motorway and landscape. The book primarily refers to parkways in the USA and Germany.

3 Bijhouwer often used this book for teaching purposes. The quote is taken from G. Andela (2011): 127.

4 Interview with the engineer K.E. Huizinga in 1998 at De Bilt.

5 From an internal memorandum by Huizinga in the archives of Stichting VIA.

REFERENCES

Andela, G. (2011) J.T.P. Bijhouwer, Grensverleggend Landschapsarchitect. Rotterdam, Uitgeverij 010

Appleyard, D., K. Lynch & J.R. Myer (1964) The View from the Road, Cambridge MA, MIT Press

Badiou, A. (2006) De twintigste eeuw. Kampen, Uitgeverij Ten Have [French original: Le Siècle (2005) / Eng.

trans. as The Century (2007)]

Bijhouwer, J.T.P. (1949) Autosnelweg of Parkway. Tijdschrift voor Volkhuisvesting en Stedebouw 1: 7

Crowe, S. (1960) The Landscape of Roads. London, The Architectural Press

Giedion, S. (1954) Space, Time and Architecture. 3rd enlarged ed., Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press,

pp 725-6

Izenour, S. & D. Scott Brown & R. Venturi (1972/revised 1977) Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge MA,

MIT Press

Merkblatt 8 (Beratung der Grünstreifen), 10 November 1934.

Nijenhuis, W. & W. Van Winden (1996) 'Een Postmoderne Hemelvaart', in: l'Europe à grande vitesse. Rotter-

dam, NAi Uitgevers, pp. 116-137

Nijenhuis, W. & W. van Winden, W. (2007) De Diabolische Snelweg – over de traditie van de mooie weg in

het Nederlandse landschap en het verlangen naar de schitterende snelweg in de grote stad. Rotterdam,

Uitgeverij 010.

Pückler-Muskau, Hermann Fürst von (1834) Andeutungen über Landschaftsgärtnerei. Leipzig: J.B. Hirschfeld

[Eng. trans. as Hints on Landscape Gardening]

Seidler, F.W. (1986) Fritz Todt – Baumeister des Dritten Reiches. Berlin: Hebrig

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

134

A bridge with a view,

a view with a bridge

Identifying design

considerations for

bridges to strengthen

regional identity

JORIS SMITS, FRANK VAN DER HOEVEN

Smit, J., & van der Hoeven, F. (2015). A bridge with a view, a view with a bridge. Identifying design

considerations for bridges to strengthen regional identity. Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 135-158.

doi:10.7480/rius.3.833

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

136

Abstract

This paper discusses design considerations for creating high quality

infrastructural artefacts with an emphasis on bridges. The authors pursue a

design study and analysis approach to highlight the specics of infrastructure

design for regional identity, based on their own work on a bridge ensemble in

the Dutch Zaanstreek region. Two highlights of this work, the award winning

Juliana Bridge and the wildlife crossing in Rijssen, are used to illustrate how to

create good infrastructure design in sensitive contexts, without making use of

neo-vernacular methods.

KEYWORDS

regional identity, architecture, bridge, wildlife crossing; Zaanstad; Dommel Bridge; Highway of the Future;

Hoogtij Bridge; Zuidelijke Randweg Bridge; Buttery Bridge; Prins Bernhard Bridge; Zaanbridge; Juliana

Bridge; Rijssen wildlife crossing

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137

1. INTRODUCTION

In A view from the road Donald Appleyard states: "ugly roads are often

wrongly taken to be the price of civilisation, like sewers or police" (Appleyard,

Lynch & Myer, 1964). The boring, chaotic, disorientated roadscape seems to

be the natural habitat of that useful but awkward monster, the automobile.

Most infrastructural artefacts that we pass on our daily journeys through our

landscapes seem to have little or no connection to the landscape they trav-

erse, be it urban or rural. This anonymity of infrastructural artefacts along the

highway leads to animosity among the users. This article analyses in depth

the design decisions regarding a key infrastructural artefact in our infrastruc-

ture landscapes: bridges. Its point of departure is that designing bridges as

part of an urbanised landscape should be a self-evident matter.

In this context this paper addresses the question: which design consider-

ations allow us to design bridges that t our social and cultural requirements?

What does it take to make bridges contextually aware? How can bridges be

designed in such a way that they are appreciated by their users as well as those

who live nearby while contributing positively to the identity of place and re-

gion?

The second paragraph of this paper addresses the importance of

strengthening regional identity by means of infrastructure design, and more

specically by means of infrastructural artefacts such as bridges. Dierent

approaches to designing bridges and other infrastructural artefacts within a

landscape, be it rural or urban, are discussed.

The third paragraph demonstrates the contribution of a regional ap-

proach to the identity of an area through some of our projects in the Zaan

region, in the Netherlands. Together these bridges form an ensemble that

provides a sense of regional belonging.

The fourth and fth paragraphs analyse two of our projects to illustrate

the outcome of the design approaches that are presented in this paper. Both

projects dier in terms of typology, context and design approach. The Juliana

Bridge responds to a world heritage site, while the wildlife crossing in Rijssen

deals with an ecologically sensitive area and with dierences between two

landscape types in the Netherlands.

2. STRENGTHENING REGIONAL IDENTITY THROUGH MEANS OF INFRASTRUCTURAL DESIGN

The on-going process of European integration seems to downplay the

role of nation states while allowing regions to play a stronger role than be-

fore. The subsidiarity principle of the European Union states that no unnec-

essary centralisation should take place and that tasks should be delegated if

possible to lower tiers of government. This leads to a trend in which decisions

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

138

on for instance spatial planning or infrastructure planning are increasingly

delegated to regional authorities while in the past such decisions were taken

nationally. This process strengthens the power of regional authorities and in

parallel creates a need to develop or emphasise a newfound regional identity.

While maintaining the socio-cultural characteristics of a region, administra-

tors and politicians feel at the same time a need to underscore the economic

value of their 'brand'.

When it comes to strengthening the identity of a region at the inter-

face of infrastructure and (urban) landscapes, architects and engineers hold

strong tools. Hundreds of thousands of travellers and commuters pass our lo-

cal roads and highways daily. Users of bridges, roads and tunnels outnumber

the number of visitors of our city halls, museums and music centres by a large

margin. That is why the road with all its bridges, viaducts, tunnels and noise

barriers can become a means to bestow character and identity to a region, if

not standardised across the country.

As early as 1941, the Dutch designer ir. G.A. Overdijkink wrote in his book

Langs onze wegen ('Along Our Roads'), that the character of a region must

be expressed in road design (Overdijkink, 1941). By road design he meant

the alignment, the planting, the width and lane conguration of the road.

This adagio should be extended to include the infrastructural artefacts un-

derneath, above and next to the road. If architects and engineers succeed in

bringing across the feeling that a design is tailor made for a specic location,

then ultimately these infrastructural artefacts can contribute to the sense of

pride and dignity that ties people to their region.

Of all infrastructural artefacts along a road or highway, bridges are the

main highlights in the route design. The presence of a bridge enhances the

sense of orientation and gives an idea of the kind of place you are going

through. A bridge is one of the few objects along a road or rail line that man-

ifest itself to the traveller as an elevation with a facade. Traditionally the fa-

cade is the architectural element that articulates the design of the building,

sometimes even becoming monumental like the front facades of cathedrals.

Bridge design can be approached in a similar way, as an act of culture, be-

stowed with an identity that is contextually aware.

When we look at the literature we can nd many books and papers that

treat the design of mobility on the larger scale of the highway and its sur-

roundings (Overdijkink, 1941; Appleyard et al., 1964; Boekhorst, et al., 1986;

McCluskey, 1992; Schöne et al., 1997; Buijs et al., 2003; Houben et al., 2003;

Nijenhuis, et al., 2007). However, the subject of the design of individual in-

frastructural artefacts such as bridges is hardly subject of research. This is

why the following theories are based on our own experience in our projects

and on our observations in the eld.

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139

There are several approaches for creating infrastructure that is contex-

tually aware. By and large we can say that there are two opposite ends in the

appreciation of infrastructural artefacts and the subsequent design approach.

First there are those who are alarmed by the ugliness of the highway.

They preach the repression of vice; their adagio is to hide infrastructure or

to melt it into the landscape. Scars of construction should be camouaged by

planting. In the best of cases the genius loci is interpreted as an elaboration

on the historic idiom.

On the other hand there are those who believe in the power of the design

as a weapon against mediocrity. This calls for a more contemporary approach

and a less literal interpretation of the characteristics of the place and the peo-

ple that live there.

In The Joyless Economy Tibor Skitovsky states that an excess of standard

goods, for example non-exceptional goods, will lead to increased social dis-

satisfaction, because the goods are devoid of real sensory stimulation for hu-

man beings (Skitovsky, 1976). If that is the case we must provide people with

a satisfactory sensory and at the same time pluralistic experience for their

everyday mobility. What better way than to raise the quality of design of our

infrastructure. Can bridge design be an act of culture that creates value in

the eyes of the beholder? There is little discussion about turning the highway

experience into a positive account. Show it o with pride, design it! Just as

the polder landscape was designed (Houben & Calabrese, 2003) (gures 1 & 2).

Figure 1 The Dommel Bridge. The identity of the city of Eindhoven (the Netherlands) as the cradle of both

the Philips light bulb industry and the Design Academy is expressed in this bridge (source: Joris Smits)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Figure 2 Sustainability through innovation is the theme that stands at the base of the highway of the

future in Oss (the Netherlands). Through this strong positioning Oss distinguishes itself in a self-condent

manner as a pleasant place to live, work and recreate (source: Joris Smits)

3. BRIDGES IN THE ZAAN REGION, THE NETHERLANDS

The award winning Juliana Bridge in the Zaan region by Joris Smits,

demonstrates best practice in strengthening the regional identity through

means of infrastructural artefacts. What elements constitute the regional

identity of the Zaan region and how is this reected in the bridges that we

designed and built in this region? This chapter describes how the character

of the Zaan region was captured in the bridge design, through the use of local

elements.

The Zaan region has always been a very industrious part of the Nether-

lands inhabited by a very industrious people. It was in the Zaan region that the

rst signs of industrialisation appeared along the river Zaan. That is why tra-

ditional values and state of the art industry have always gone hand in hand in

the Zaan. The traditional wooden houses, spotlessly clean in shades of white

and green, stand alongside the massive silhouettes of silos, among which the

famous 36 meter tall Lassie silo that was Netherland's rst concrete silo, built

for the shipping of rice, cacao and coee to and from the rest of the world.

Nowadays the industrial heritage of the Zaan region is an important asset for

tourism in the Zaan. We must not forget that the famous line-up of windmills

at the Zaanse Schans was not designed for tourism but to process the wheat

and the barley for the food industry. This region and its people have core val-

ues that reect tidiness as well as a strong belief in modern technology.

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141

How does one reect such a regional identity into the design of a series

of bridges? Some architects believe the answer lies in a neo-vernacular ap-

proach, a semi historical style with a very caricatural reference to an architec-

ture of the past. This belief is most strongly advocated by the Dutch architect

Sjoerd Soeters. Two of his recent designs in Zaanstad for the city town hall

and an adjacent hotel are much discussed and quite controversial. We on the

other hand believe that in the Zaan region contemporary solutions are needed

that t in with the industrious character of the location. In the design of the

series of bridges for the Zaan region this approach is demonstrated.

In a period of ten years, beginning in 2001, the architectural oce of

Royal HaskoningDHV was responsible for a series of six bridges, ve of which

have now been built (gures 3 to 6).

Figure 3 The Hoogtij Bridge for cyclists in the Westzanerpolder, 2005 (source: Joris Smits)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Figure 4 The pedestrian bridge in the Zuidelijke Randweg, 2005 (source: Joris Smits)

Figure 5 The 'Buttery Bridge' for buses spans road and water, 2003 (source: Joris Smits)

A bridg e with A view, A v iew with A br idge

143

Figure 6 The Prins Bernhard Bridge a multi-layered bridge with access to the river quays, 2007 (source:

Joris Smits)

Although they are all individual projects on dierent locations and de-

signed for dierent authorities, there is a visual bond that ties them together

and makes them belong to this region. For lack of a better word we will call this

regional identity. All ve bridges are modern in appearance and reect state-

of-the-art design. They have a consistent look and feel and are construct-

ed from slender steel shapes. The use of steel reects the many industrious

cranes along the shores of the Zaan. The gentle curved shapes and arches

mean that these bridges are not the iconic statements that modern bridges so

often are: dominating shapes with a focus on their own presence and little re-

lation to their surroundings. Rather the elegant arched silhouettes emphasise

their binding function in the urban fabric, manifesting a strong connection

with the ground level from which they emerge: rather earthly than stretching

towards the skies.

All ve bridges have a uniform colour scheme in the local shade of white

called 'Zaans wit' or Zaan white, a well-dened o-white, with a touch of

another local colour: Zaan green. This specic colour scheme makes these

bridges blend in harmoniously with the local architecture and with the green

and blue colours of the Dutch landscape without them being neo-vernacular.

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144

4. THE JULIANA BRIDGE

The setting of the Juliana Bridge is unique. Adjacent to the UNESCO world

heritage site of the Zaanse Schans, the bridge design has been kept rather

modest: undoubtedly a contemporary design, but one that respects its histor-

ical surroundings. The design is light-footed and transparent but also unpre-

tentious. It oers plenty of space for tourists and cyclists by providing them

with their own bridge deck. Maximum attention has been placed on experi-

encing the landscape, both from on the bridge and underneath the bridge. The

panorama deck oers unhindered views of the Zaanse Schans to the north

and the industrial heritage to the south. Even the shape of the lampposts,

emerging from the void in between the two bridge decks, puts the emphasis

on the outward view. The following section describes the design considera-

tions that have been implemented to make the Juliana Bridge a tting design

in this delicate context.

4.1 Rhythm and harmony

The most manifest design decision was to ensure that there was not a

strong presence of any structure above the deck level, be it a lifting structure

or a load bearing structure such as an arch or a cable stay. The Juliana Bridge is

an opening bridge in a busily navigated channel, with an eighteen metre open-

ing clearance within a total bridge length of 200 meters. Most lifting bridges in

the Netherlands are of the traditional drawbridge typology (gure 7).

Figure 7 The Zaan Bridge in Wormer is of the traditional drawbridge typology. Approach spans

and drawbridge form two dierent entities (source: Joris Smits)

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145

But having such a prominent structure with towers and an overhead bal-

ance plate would start to compete with the windmills of Zaanse Schans and

would make the design fall into three parts: two approach spans anking a

lifting part. Instead, we decided to go for a more harmonious approach (gure

8) and to have the counterweight integrated and almost invisible underneath

the deck and to incorporate the span of the moving part into the rhythm and

materialisation of the approach spans.

Figure 8 The opening part of the Juliana Bridge is in harmony with the approach spans

(source: Joris Smits)

By making ten spans roughly twenty meters apart we ensured an un-

disturbed rhythm of piers across the Zaan. Integrating the lifting part and

the counterweight into this sequence was the next challenge. The lifting part

is operated by a series of vertical hydraulic jacks that have been integrated

into the actuator pier. For this reason the actuator pier needed to be much

thicker than the other piers that are only supporting the approach spans. A

solution was found in making each consecutive pier grow a little in size, until

the required nal width of two meters was reached in the actuator pier. This

'growing' of the thickness of the piers is accompanied with an increase in

height, thus respecting the proportions of every individual pier. The result is

a natural sequence of supports that reaches its crescendo in the middle part

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

146

of the bridge. The absence of an enclosed bascule volume and the resulting

transparency underneath the bridge is much appreciated by the inhabitants

of the historical housing on the shores of the Zaan. To quote one:

"What a beautiful bridge! So light and transparent; sitting on the sofa in my

living room I can actually look right through it and see the landscape behind the

bridge. The combination of modern design in a historical context works really well."

(Nieuwburg, 2011)

4.2 Layering and partitioning

Another decision taken early on in the design process was to untangle the

hectic ow of motorised trac from the more easy-going ow of pedestrians

and cyclists, including the thousands of tourists that pass through every year.

The old bridge was infamous for the frequent accidents that occurred when

tourists stepped into the path of motorised trac to take photographs of the

Zaanse Schans and the general scenery. Considering the new bridge as a wide

balcony with a panoramic view was a rst step, and allocating pedestrians and

cyclists a bridge of their own was the next (gure 9).

Figure 9 Pedestrians and cyclists have a bridge of their own. A void separates them from motorised trac

(source: Joris Smits)

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147

The spatial consequences of splitting a rather wide deck into two slender

decks and a void are signicant. From the point of view of the traveller on

the bridge, the visual contact with the landscape and the river is increased.

As you are always close to an edge with a view of the water, people expe-

rience the bridge much more as a bridge. The void between the decks adds

a dynamic quality to the experience of travelling across the bridge, oering

exciting views of the sequence of piers emerging from the river. From a land-

scape point of view, the dierence is perceptible in the amount of daylight

underneath the bridge. Even though the actual width of the total structure in-

creases with the extra width of two more edges with parapets, the amount of

shadow on the water and on the piers decreases and the bridge is experienced

as less of an obstacle. This has to do with the factor of ambient light that has

access to the space underneath the bridge from all sides. This diuse light

supplements the direct sunlight and gives the substructure a less obscure and

more pleasant feeling (gure 10).

Figure 10 Ambient light underneath the bridge increases by the use of a void between the decks

(source: Joris Smits)

4.3 Manifestation and articulation

There are two basic elements in the design of a multi-span bridge that

determine the scale and the inner harmony of the bridge design. The rst of

these elements is the deck that manifests itself as a horizontal element of a

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148

larger scale level. The other element is the pier, or the series of piers, that are

basically vertical elements of a smaller sub-scale.

In the design process the architect can choose to make the position and

manifestation of the piers dominant over the deck, thus reducing the tectonic

scale of the design to the size of each individual span and accentuating the

vertical rhythm (gure 11).

Figure 11 Vertical accentuation of the piers in the authors' design for the new

Sebastiaans Bridge in Delft, 2012 (source: Joris Smits)

This rst approach lends itself to an enclosed and dense urban setting

where lots of visual stimuli and vertical elements predominate. The second

approach would be to give the deck a more prominent position, thus accentu-

ating the horizontality and the total length of the design in the larger scale of

a landscape (gure 12).

In an open landscape with wide panoramic views the second approach is

more suitable. The vertical line tends to blend in with the horizon in a calm

way. Consequently the designer chose the second approach for the design of

the Juliana Bridge. We designed a series of twin piers that emerge from the

water underneath the central void, then cantilever sideways to support both

decks. We gave the piers a setback from the edge where the pier meets the

deck, thus putting the emphasis on the continuous line of the edge. This edge

was manufactured out of bre reinforced polymer segments in Zaan white, a

well-dened local shade of o-white, with a touch of this other local colour

Zaan green.

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149

Figure 12 The vertical manifestation of the deck with set-back of the piers puts the emphasis on the larger

scale and blends into the landscape (source: Joris Smits)

Figure 13 Light masts dene the space and viewing directions. They emerge from the void in order not to

obstruct the outward view (source: Joris Smits)

4.4 Dened space and orientation

On the level of the deck the Juliana Bridge is free of structure. The only

appearance from the traveller's perspective is the prominent sequence of

curved light masts (gure 13). These are positioned along the inner void. Re-

search by Schöne and Coeterier (1997) on the way that drivers experience the

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

150

highway demonstrates that drivers have a restricted eld of vision. As they

are largely preoccupied by watching trac in front and behind, their eld of

vision is largely limited to the right side of the road. In the case of the Juliana

Bridge the best views are experienced outwards, to the right of the driver. As

the Juliana Bridge is foremost a bridge with a view, we did not want to ob-

struct that view by a repetition of a mast along the edge of the bridge. Rather

we chose to let the masts dene the space on top of the deck by opening up

towards the panorama, thus directing the view outward. In a way the central

position of the mast enhances the dynamic experience of the void between

the two bridges. If you look closely you will see that the curve of the masts is

a continuation of the inner shape of the piers.

To conclude regarding the design of the Juliana Bridge, we must remem-

ber that a bridge is foremost a facility for the people who use it or live nearby.

During the construction of the bridge, and also after the completion of it, we

had the chance to talk to many of them. It is worth noting that, when pressed

to give their opinion on the aesthetic qualities of the design, most people liv-

ing near this bridge are full of praise, with most mentioning the curved masts.

Maybe it is a good sign that the bridge itself is so natural and uncontroversial

in its presence that it is not notable to the public.

4.5 Awards

The Juliana Bridge won both the Betonprijs in 2009 and the European

Concrete Award in the category civil engineering in 2010, issued by the Eu-

ropean Concrete Societies Network (ECSN, 2010), demonstrating the value of

this design approach. These awards are a clear recognition that the design

work is outstanding and contributing to the body of knowledge in the eld of

civil engineering. Final praise came from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure

and the Environment in the form of the 'Routepluim 2011', an award granted

for exemplary integration of infrastructural artworks into their context.

5. WILDLIFE CROSSING IN RIJSSEN

If the design of a bridge in a historical urban area is all about capturing

the character of the place and of the people who live there, then the design of

a wildlife crossing is more a matter of listening to the scale, the morphology

and the character of the landscape. How can we translate the intrinsic func-

tion and nature of a wildlife crossing in its design? And do the fragmented

landscapes of Essen and Kampen require a dierent design approach then the

open heathlands?

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5.1 Experiencing a wildlife crossing

When we ask ourselves what the visual and emotional impact of a bridge

design, or more specically a wildlife crossing, implies in the eye of the be-

holder, we must distinguish three aspects: perceiving, experiencing and

appreciating (Boekhorst, Couterier & Hoenagel, 1986; Buijs & Kralingen,

2003). The rst step, perceiving, is quite obvious. An overhead structure of

this magnitude results in a perception that cannot be denied, nor do we have

many means to inuence the perception as the structure cannot be hidden or

softened. It is in the second step, in the experience that our structure oers,

that we as designers can oer something more. If we do our job well we can

be rewarded by the appreciation of the people who pass our design or who live

adjacent to it.

When seen through the eyes of a driver travelling along a road in a rela-

tively open landscape, the passing of an overhead structure marks an impor-

tant event in the trip. The structure will attach itself as a visual beacon in the

awareness of the driver, marking a specic place along the route. The psy-

chological impact of passing beneath an overpass, such as an ecoduct, is no-

table. On the visual and emotional impact of passing underneath an overpass

when driving through a landscape, McCluskey states in his book Roadform and

Townscape: "A notable event relating to contrasts occurs when the route encounters

an overpass. The approach embankments to the overbridge block the view on either

side of the main road and after passing through the gap spanned by the structure a

feeling of release is enjoyed on sighting the uncontained view." (McCluskey, 1992)

In the case of Rijssen the challenge for us, as the designers of the wildlife

crossing, was to turn the event of passing underneath into a pleasant rather

than an eerie experience.

5.2 Typology

The wildlife crossing in Rijssen (gure 14) stands apart from the vast bulk

of wildlife crossings where the road is the ruling principle and the crossing

itself is designed as a functional straight viaduct. Rather, the wildlife crossing

in Rijssen stands in the tradition of that other notable wildlife crossing in

the Netherlands: the 'Woeste Hoeve'. Both crossings are primarily designed

from the green perspective; here it is nature that has the supremacy, in the

form of soil and vegetation, the road is just a perforation of the earth, a guest

that is temporally tolerated underneath it (gures 15 & 16). Such a grand ges-

ture places nature above technology even though it is evidently a manmade

structure (Nijenhuis & van Winden, 2007). The wildlife crossing in Rijssen is

therefore a token of vigour, not so much of Dutch policy-making but more as

an act of our ecological movement.

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Figure 14 The wildlife crossing at Rijssen. On the foreground the open heathlands landscape,

behind lies the fragmented Essen and Kampen landscape (source: Joris Smits)

Figure 15 The highway as the ruling principle with a functional crossing (left),

or nature as the ruling principle (right) (source: Joris Smits)

Figure 16 The wildlife crossing at Rijssen. Nature has the supremacy, in the form of soil and vegetation;

the road is just a perforation of the earth, a guest that is temporally tolerated underneath it

(source: Joris Smits)

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5.3 Design approach

Having said that the landscape has the supremacy over the highway

where they cross, that still does not answer the question of how to make the

design t into the landscape, or better, be a part of the landscape. After do-

ing an analysis of the two types of landscape that are traversed when driv-

ing from Rijssen to Wierden, we decided on a twofold approach: on the larger

scale we manipulated the overall shape of the wildlife crossing to react in an

asymmetric way to the two very dierent characters of the two landscapes on

either side of the crossing. And on the local scale we integrated the shape of

the wildlife crossing to the extent that the alignment and the edges seem to

come forth from the landscape in a natural way, reacting to existing lines in

the landscape such as tree lanes and watercourses.

Figure 17 The asymmetric shape of the wildlife crossing reacts to the two dierent

kinds of landscape on either side; a conned Essen-Kampen landscape to the west

and an open landscape to the east (source: Joris Smits)

On the larger scale we distinguished two types of landscape (gure 17).

On the west approach to the wildlife crossing we travel through a small-scale

'Essen and Kampen' landscape, a scenic landscape with an arbitrary sequence

of smaller open spaces, patches of woodland and green lanes lined with trees.

This landscape oers the driver a conned experience with restricted views

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and without any vistas. The wildlife crossing reacts to this landscape by cap-

turing the driver into a crescent shape on the west approach as he nears the

overpass, thus containing the view.

On the eastside the landscape is very dierent. Here we have a much

younger and rational landscape consisting of heathlands and large land ex-

ploitations. The wildlife crossing therefore marks a boundary between those

two landscapes: the conned versus the open. The eastern edge of the wildlife

crossing reacts to this open landscape with a much wider opening that oers

the driver a full panorama of the entire open landscape.

On the local scale the alignment of the edges of the wildlife crossing was

carefully ne-tuned to match existing lines in the landscape such as tree lanes

and watercourses. As it turned out this approach of reacting to the structure

of the landscape also proved to be the best approach from the wildlife point

of view. Animals have a strong tendency to move along lines in the landscape

such as the edge of a wood or a brook. Thus having our funnel shape in line

with those natural elements proved to match wildlife patterns.

From a drivers point of view the funnel shape of the wildlife crossing

seems to come forth from the landscape in one uent motion, as a green car-

pet that is locally lifted up to make room for trac, then blends back into the

landscape on the other side. Instead of retaining fences along the edges of

the crossing we designed green ridges, steep on the inside to retain wildlife

within the passage, but green and slanted on the outside were they that form

the dominant gesture as they sweep across the road.

Last but not least the experience that the wildlife crossing bestows on the

traveller is determined by the actual event of passing underneath the struc-

ture (gure 18).

Figure 18 'Lifting the carpet' leaves a slit-like opening underneath the green structure. The low parts

of the slit are lled with solid abutments with a set back from the edge. They are materialised in a dark

grey colour in ordwer to blend with the ground rather than with the crescent edge. This results in the

impression of one long continuous edge (source: Joris Smits)

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155

To turn this experience into a pleasant one we looked at the size, the

shape and the partitioning of the overhead structure. The design approach of

'lifting the carpet' leaves a slit-like opening underneath the green structure.

To reduce the span and the costs of the concrete deck, the low parts of the

slit had to be lled with solid abutments. These abutments are set back from

the edge of the carpet, and are materialised in a dark grey colour in order to

blend with the ground rather than with the crescent edge. This results in the

impression of one long continuous edge. To further increase the sensation of

a single arch spanning the road, the sot of the deck follows a vertical cur-

vature just like the crescent edges and spans both lanes in one span. Inclined

abutments further emphasise the dynamic gesture of an arch. Also notable in

the design is the absence of the traditional middle pier. The use of a middle

pier inevitably has a negative eect on our experience of spaciousness; the

view of the beholder is partitioned right through the middle and the focus is

diverted to this odd element rather than to the surrounding space. Using a

middle pier is in that way comparable to building a pillar in the middle of the

central nave of a church. Therefor the absence of a supporting structure in

the middle turns the act of passing underneath into a spacious and panoramic

experience with an unhindered view to what lies beyond (gure 19).

Figure 19 The use of a middle pier inevitably has a negative eect on our experience of spaciousness; the

view of the beholder is partitioned right through the middle and the focus diverted to this odd element

rather than to the surrounding space (source: Joris Smits)

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6. CONCLUSION

This paper discusses ways to strengthen the regional identity through

means of infrastructural artefacts such as bridges. It is our experience that

the best approach to designing bridges within a landscape is to start from the

context without making use of neo-vernacular methods. Bridges are worth

our attention as designers and give us powerful tools to strengthen the local

identity. This adagio is demonstrated through some of our projects in Zaan-

stad and in Rijssen. Properties as scale, orientation, rhythm, articulation, lay-

ering and partitioning of the design are our tools to make a design t the con-

text. To accomplish this we need to think from dierent perspectives, both

literally and guratively. The obvious perspectives are that of the driver, the

cyclist, the pedestrian, the skipper or the badger that passes on or under-

neath our designs. But on a more abstract level we need to think from the

point of view of the genius loci, the commissioning authorities, the tourists

and most important of all, the people who live nearby. The proof that this is a

fruitful approach lies in the many positive reactions that we get on all of our

projects. This varies from the carpenter who complains about the diculty in

making the formworks but at the same time stresses how proud he is of being

able to show his craftsmanship, the alderman who likes to show o with 'his'

brand new bridge, or the lady who sees the improvement on the view from her

backyard. This is the reason why we have such a rewarding profession.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Designing a bridge is always a matter of teamwork. Often there is more

than one author responsible for the architectural design and in some cases

the landscape design. Joris Smits is the designer of the projects discussed in

this paper. He would like to acknowledge his (former) colleagues for their val-

uable contribution to the design of the various projects that appear in this pa-

per. In chronological order: Alessandro De Santis is co-designer of the Dom-

mel Bridge for which Corine Zwart is the landscape architect, Richard van

den Brule is co-designer of the Highway of the Future, Obbe Norbruis is the

landscape designer for the Hoogtij Bridge, René Rijkers is co-designer of the

Zuidelijke Randweg Bridge, Syb van Breda and René Rijkers are the designers

of the Buttery Bridge, Syb van Breda is co-designer of the Prins Bernhard

Bridge, Sven Spierings is co-designer of the Zaanbridge, Syb van Breda and

Alessandro De Santis are co-designers of the Juliana Bridge, Sven Spierings is

co-designer of the wildlife crossing in Rijssen of which Carien ten Cate is the

landscape designer. We would further like to acknowledge Steen Nijhuis for

his valuable advice on writing this paper.

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REFERENCES

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Boekhorst, J.K.M.T., J.F. Couterier & W.J.C. Hoenagel (1986) Eecten van Rijkswegen op de beleving, Wage -

ningen, RBL De Dorschkamp.

Buijs, A.E. & R.B.A.S. Kralingen (2003) Het meten van beleving. Inventarisatie van bestaande indicatoren en

meetmethoden, Wageningen, Alterra, p 782

ESCN. European Concrete Award 2010. Retrieved from http://www.ecsn.net/award/downloads/Con-

crete_Award_2010.pdf

Houben, F. & L.M. Calabrese (2003) Mobility: A room with a view. Rotterdam, NAi Uitgevers.

McCluskey, J. (1992) Roadform and Townscape, p 155

Nieuwburg, C. van [quote 2011], Living next door of the Julianabridge

Nijenhuis, W. & W. van Winden (2007) De diabolische snelweg. Rotterdam, 010 Publishers

Overdijkink, G.A. (1941) Langs onze wegen. Amsterdam, Allert de Lange

Schöne M.B., M.W.M. van den Toorn & J.F. Coeterier (1997) Autosnelwegen in het Landschap; beleving door

weggebruikers. Wageningen, DLO-Staring Centrum

Scitovsky, T. (1976) The joyless economy, an inquiry into human satisfaction and consumer dissatisfaction.

Oxford, Oxford University Press .

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A road trip on

European highways

Considering the spatial

qualities of E75 and E50

A phenomenalist approach in the observation of spatial qualities of the E75

Barentsz Sea – Crete and E50 Brest – Makhachkala

MICHEL HEESEN

Heesen, M. (2015). A road trip on European highways. Considering the spatial qualities of E75 and

E50. A phenomenalist approach in the observation of spatial qualities of the E75 Barentsz Sea –

Crete and E50 Brest – Makhachkala. Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 159-177. doi:10.7480/rius.3.836

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Abstract

This paper takes the reader on a road trip, travelling the longest highway routes

of the European continent and drawing conclusions based on a methodology

of practical observation. The paper introduces a phenomenalist approach

to highway design research, based on using photos and observations as

a source of evidence in its own. The research is based on twelve weeks of

driving, shooting photos, sleeping along the road, eating only in road-side

restaurants and interviews with waitresses and shopkeepers. There used to

be a lot of attention for the scenic experience and spatial quality of highways.

In contemporary designs, however, highways are regarded more and more as

sewage systems: something not to be seen, heard or smelled. Functional aspects

such as noise reduction and trac capacity prevail above spatial design. This

paper shows how dierent countries are coping with these conicting issues.

It shows best practices and how these relate to the contemporary practice

of highway design in the Netherlands.The paper argues that a technocratic

and economically driven approach to highway design is a poor and vulnerable

strategy. The paper further demonstrates that contemporary design policy

in the Netherlands, with a strong focus on the aesthetics of built structures,

neglects aspects that have much more impact on the spatial experience.

The paper zooms in on ve aspects that heavily aect the spatial experience

of a highway: the sense of travelling on one continuous route, the sense of

surveillance and state control, the sense of being part of a high quality public

space, the existence of educating elements along the road and the level of

technology. The paper draws conclusions based on methodologically collected

observations and translates these into recommendations for designers.

KEYWORDS

highways; European highways; E75; E50; public space; transport infrastructure; highway design;

phenomenology

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1. INTRODUCTION: THE DECLINE OF THE SCENIC ROUTE

There used to be a lot of attention on the scenic experience and spatial quality

of highways. The American parkway concept was based on a scenic route, with the

1940 Meritt Parkway in Connecticut as a bright example (Giedion, 1941). The same

goes for the German Autobahn, heavily inuenced by the scenic guidelines of the

German landscape architect Hermann Fürst von Pückler (1785-1871) (Nijenhuis

& Van Winden, 2007). In the Netherlands, the design of the rst highways was

based on similar intentions and was a co-production of state engineers and state

landscape architects (Heesen, 2011a). Until the 1960s, there was an optimistic feel

about highways. City dwellers even used the road shoulder as a place to relax: a

picnic alongside the highway, watching cars and trucks roll by (O.M.A., 2006).

In the 1970s, the dark side of the highway concept emerged. The rst traf-

c jams, deathly accidents, noise and pollution, the oil crisis and the alerts by

the Club of Rome made clear that there were limits to the concept. The opti-

mism of the early days vanished. The spatial intentions became less impor-

tant than functional and administrative aspects, such as safety, capacity and

noise reduction. Highways became canals for cars, isolated by sound-baing

screens and hidden by bushes. For example, since the introduction of the 1979

'Wet Geluidhinder' (law on noise reduction) in the Netherlands, the view upon

the landscape along more than ve hundred kilometres of highways has been

blinded by sound-baing screens (CBS, PBL, 2007).

Highways became like sewage canals: something merely functional and

preferably invisible, not to be heard, nor smelled. The climax of this approach

is currently under construction in the meadowlands between Rotterdam and

The Hague: highway A4. After sixty years of discussion, the construction of

this stretch of seven kilometres of highway was nally accepted by the stake-

holders, under the condition that the new highway would be invisible, not to

be heard nor smelled (Peijs, 2006).

Being involved as an architect in this project and in a long-term design

strategy for the entire route of highway A4 between Amsterdam and Antwerp

(Heesen & Top, 2005), a number of questions arose. First of all, how are oth-

er countries coping with the design of highways and how do these practic-

es relate to the design practice in the Netherlands? The contemporary Dutch

design policy on highways is largely based on technocratic and economic as-

pects. Spatial aspects of the design are reduced to an aesthetic upgrade and

transformation of the network into uniquely identiable routes, clearly dis-

tinguishable from other routes by means of architecture (Patijn et al., 2001). Is

this a meaningful design strategy? Is it imaginable that a highway has the high

level of spatial quality and attention to detail of, say, an Italian piazza, with

the spatial and social quality of what Jürgen Habermas calls the public sphere

(Habermas, 1962)? And what are best practices in this? And nally, what can

architects and landscape designers learn from all of this?

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2. PHENOMENALIST METHODS: A ROAD TRIP ON THE LONGEST EUROPEAN ROUTES

During the initial desktop research on the dierences in highway design

in dierent countries, a practical problem arose: in many countries, it is vir-

tually impossible to interview an expert. For example, calling the local road

authorities in the Ukraine and asking who has been responsible for the archi-

tectural and landscape design of highway E50, is a dead end street. Yet, the

intention was to compare dierent practices in dierent countries. Instead of

the expert approach of collecting and analysing data, a more practical method

was used, based on observation: a phenomenalist approach. This method of

'research by observation' is a common method in the eld of environmental

psychology, where photos and observations are considered to be a source of

evidence in its own.

In order to introduce a framework for our observations, the following re-

search method was agreed upon: we would travel one designated route and

make an obligatory stop at every public space along the route, for example

picnic areas, parking places, gas stations and roadside restaurants. Addition-

ally, sleeping accommodations and food supplies were solely conned to mo-

tels and roadside restaurants along the route. During stops, the 'inhabitants'

of the E-road, for instance shop keepers and waitresses, were subjected to

interviews (gure 1).

Figure 1 Food and the inhabitants of the E75

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Local memorabilia related to the route was collected, such as postcards

showing a bridge or brochures for new residential areas. Every hundred kilo-

metres on the odometer, a picture was taken of the surrounding landscape.

Whenever one of the members of the research team considered a certain as-

pect to be signicant, a stop was implemented. And nally, the use of elec-

tronic route navigation was not allowed, following the trac signs was to be

considered part of the experience.

The rst road trip took place on the E75, the longest southbound E-route

in Europe (gure 2).

Figure 2 European routes E50 and E75

The E75 is part of the European international system of route designa-

tions, originally envisaged as a grid of highways comparable to the US Inter-

state Highways (United Nations, 1950). The network measures over 150,000

kilometres and includes every regionally important road. The most signi-

cant routes have numbers ending with a ve (direction north-south) or a zero

(east-west).

The E75 starts in Vardø, a Norwegian sherman village on an island in

the Barentsz Sea, located east of St. Petersburg. The route runs approximately

5,700 kilometres across the continent, ending in the harbor of Sitía, a small

village on the Greek island of Crete. It runs through nine countries, linking

Norway, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, the

Republic of Macedonia and Greece. Part of the E75 is a dotted line crossing

the Baltic Sea. This part of the route is a seasonal ferry connection between

Helsinki and Gdansk.

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Including the trip from the Netherlands to the northern tip of Norway

and the route back from Crete, the E75 road trip accounted to approximately

12,000 kilometres. The plan was to analyse the spatial characteristics of the

E75 in the same way as one would analyse an Italian piazza: by documenting

both the physical elements and social, historical and cultural aspects relat-

ed to public space. In order to document the E75 in a professional way, Hans

Stakelbeek, a Dutch documentary photographer and cameraman, accompa-

nied the research team during the whole trip.

After spending one-and-a-half months on European highways for the

E75 trip, we decided to expand our research with another six weeks on an

eastbound route. We decided to go for European highway E50, a route of ap-

proximately 6,000 kilometres between the French harbour city of Brest, lo-

cated on the western edge of continental Europe and the city of Makhachkala,

located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea.

Our method of research and documentation remained largely the same,

except for some slight changes based on the previous experiences along the

E75. We skipped the obligatory stop at every 100 kilometres: the material

gained by this method was not that interesting. In addition, we decided to halt

at a number of local cultural organisations (galleries, embassies, universities

and so on) in order to collect more information on social and cultural aspects.

The biggest dierence with the E75 trip, was that on this occasion we would

not be able to drive all the way to the end of the route: the nal stretch of the

E50 runs straight through the war zones of North-Ossetia-Alania, Chechnya

and Dagestan.

Experienced journalists advised against trying to drive as far as we could.

Instead of hoping not to become a hostage in the Caucasus, we decided to

bend south and travel back to the Netherlands on the E90, passing Istanbul.

The road trip on the E50 brought the overall distance of the project to 25,000

kilometres.

3. OBSERVATIONS ON THE E75 AND E50

During our research on the E75 and E50, many dierent aspects related

to the design of the highway were registered. Observations of ve signicant

aspects that aect the spatial experience of the highway are described below.

3.1Oneuniqueandidentiablerouteorjustconsecutiveroads?

In the Netherlands, a governmental policy document on architecture

and landscape design aims at transforming four international highways into

uniquely identiable routes. The primary aim of the vision is to prevent ur-

ban sprawl and degeneration ('verrommeling') (Fabrique, 2005). The oldest

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165

Dutch highway, the A12 between The Hague and the border with Germany,

is the pilot project of this vision. The route has been labeled 'A12 Regen-

boogroute' (rainbow route), derived from the observation that this motorway

cuts through a variety of landscape types: meadowland (light green), forest

(dark green), city (orange) and urban sprawl (purple).

In order to improve the aesthetics of the highway, an industrial design

oce created a set of geometrically related elements, ranging from a modular

design for sound-baing screens to specications for new light poles, road

crossings, bicycle tunnels, wildlife crossings and so on. As a kind of logo on

this long-term project, each single light pole in the route has already been

marked with a sticker showing a rainbow in orange, purple and two shades

of green. A similar design strategy of transforming consecutive stretches

of highway into one uniquely identiable route is now implemented for the

Dutch part of the route Amsterdam-Palermo (highway A2/E25) and Amster-

dam-Paris (A4/E19) (Heesen, 2011b). Driving on the E75 and E50 we wondered

if the same applied to the E-routes. Are they more than just consecutive

stretches of road through consecutive regions and nations?

As a source of evidence, we decided to ask the 'inhabitants' of the E75 and

E50 (such as shop keepers, waitresses and border patrol) where the route that

we were driving on actually ended. Nowhere along the E75 did we meet any-

one who had any notion of the fact that this route links the arctic circle with

the Mediterranean Sea, that it is an international route between Santa Claus

and the sunny beaches of Crete. There was one exception to the rule: on the

island of Crete, we were able to buy a postcard showing a photo of a topless

girl on the beach and a photo of a reindeer in the snow, separated by a ther-

mometer. The text on the postcard stated: "While I am sun tanning in Greece, you

are freezing up north" (gure 3).

Figure 3 Postcard collected on the island of Crete (Greece)

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Sometimes, it was even hard to nd the E-route at all. The best feel-

ing of one route was in countries where the E-number shares its route with a

national long distance connection. In Finland, for example, where the E75 is

called E75 all the way to Helsinki, the road serves as the main and sometimes

only southbound route. Up north, where the E75 is occasionally transformed

into a landing strip (gure 4), the route even feels like the European version

of Route 66.

Figure 4 Landing strip in the E75 in northern Finland

Albeit there is no slogan (Get your kicks on Route 66), the road itself is

branded as a tourist destination and lined with shops and Bed & Breakfasts.

In many countries though, the E-route is hard to recognize as one con-

tinuous route. In France, the E50 runs on eight dierent highways, all with

a dierent look and feel, ranging from oldschool national highways to the

diabolic Paris Peripherique and state-of-the-art toll roads like the A6. Albeit

the main international routes have been given names, for example 'Autoroute

du Soleil', there is no such label on European route E50. On the other hand,

the lack of border control on the E75 gave us a strong feeling of travelling

in one system, on one international route linking regions and nations. We

managed to pass twenty national borders and board ve ferries in a rusty old

Benz without carrying the legal papers of the car (which the Dutch police had

a road tri p on europea n highways

167

conscated during a routine check of the mechanical condition of the car in

the week prior to the start of our trip). Often, the border between nations was

only visible because of a slight change in the lay-out and appearance of the

highway such as dierent asphalt and dierent colors of lining and signing.

In this aspect, the E50 was not as relaxed as the E75. The further east, the

longer it took to pass the imaginary lines between nations and regions. From

the start of our trip, we already knew that it would be virtually impossible

to cross some of the borders in the Caucasus. A prelude to this region was

the border between Russia and the Ukraine, which took half a day to pass.

Besides physical aspects associated with border control (barriers, gates) and

red tape (passports, visa), it turned out that there were also invisible borders

in other administrative aspects, such as car insurance. During the trip, we

had to switch insurance companies, because the Ukraine and Russia were not

covered by some. When the engine of our W123 300TD research vehicle broke

down in Germany, we were not allowed to take the replacement car oered by

the insurance company into the Czech Republic. Our only option, was to drive

all the way back to Rotterdam and pick up another research vehicle (a W124

250TD).

3.2Asenseofpersonalfreedomorstatesurveillance?

Park your car on the hard shoulder of a motorway in the Netherlands and

within ten minutes, the police or a service vehicle of the national road au-

thority will arrive, the adjacent highway lane will be closed by means of a dig-

ital red cross and your car will get towed away for safety reasons. The cameras

along Dutch highways are able to detect any object larger than 50 centimeters.

The software is programmed in such a way that anything out of the ordinary is

being registered, for example, a vehicle that is not moving.

One of the striking aspects of travelling on the E75 and E50 was that

in many countries we were able to park our vehicle anywhere, at any time

without any authority or road assistance service showing up. The absence of

surveillance led to a great sense of personal freedom. It meant for example,

that whenever we saw a nice panorama, we were able to stop and immedi-

ately take a photo. Or two. Or three. Except, of course, for the Ukraine and

Russia. The main roads of the Ukraine are a source of income for the local

police squad: they typically place a 30 km/h trac sign in such a way that it is

almost invisible from the road (behind a tree, for instance), point a laser gun

at all approaching luxury vehicles and start collecting penalties. Occasionally,

the man pointing a laser gun turned out to be made of cardboard, placed by

inhabitants to bring down the speed of passing vehicles.

In Russia, especially in the Caucasus, local policemen did not even pre-

tend to collect a ne. They simply made all luxury vehicles pull over and pay.

According to some of the locals we interviewed, the required fee depends:

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

168

locals pay less than foreigners, who pay less than Northern European for-

eigners, who pay less than Moscow citizens. The further we travelled east,

the worse it got. The highest fee paid during our trip was 4,000 Russian ruble

(about 120 US dollars). The number was written down with a pencil and erased

immediately after. The local policeman enforced the payment of this fee by

commanding me to sit down on the passenger's seat of his blinded Lada and

pointing a machine gun at me. Then he showed the photos of my children

that he had found in my passport and told me how my car would be cons-

cated and I would be thrown in jail until Christmas. It sounded so ridiculous

that I felt like negotiating, which brought the fee down to 50 US dollars. The

consecutive rip-os by local policemen had a negative eect on our spatial

experience: whenever a village or roadside restaurant came ahead, we were no

longer enjoying the landscape. In order to avoid our foreign licence plate to be

spotted from afar, we tailgated Russian Kamaz trucks.

Halfway into the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, the practice of collect-

ing fees suddenly seemed to have vanished. In fact, there seemed to be no po-

lice at all. On a roadside market, we noticed how people were trading without

paying, bartering onions for coleslaw. Facing the steel canopy of the border

with the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, we decided to contact experienced

journalists, who advised to make a U-turn: this sounded too much like the eye

of the storm. A beautiful landscape is hard to enjoy in the vicinity of danger.

And then again, despite the fact that there was a nasty taste to the bribery

practice in the Ukraine and Russia, the whole thing turned out to be relatively

inexpensive after all: the total amount of 'nes' and 'fees' added up to less

than the toll levied on the E50 in France. One kilometre on the average Péage,

the French network of toll roads, costs about 10 Eurocents.

3.3AtrulypublicspaceorEurodisney?

If you take the exit to a Dutch 'verzorgingsplaats' (fuel station) along one

of the state owned highways, you are likely to observe the following layout:

the highway exit leads to a junction where you will have to choose between

the actual fuel station with shop or a picnic area behind the fuel station. The

picnic area is equipped with wooden furniture and has either no pedestrian

route to the fuel station or a dead-end route, leading to a fenced collection of

garbage cans and a back door with smoking employees. You will probably also

notice dierences in the materials used. The picnic area is owned, maintained

and operated by the state, which generally results in grass and asphalt. The

fuel station with shop is leased by an oil company, usually for a period of ten

years. The relatively short time for return-on-investment stimulates them to

use the cheapest available pavement on their parcel.

Now, compare the described Dutch layout to the general spatial concept

of a French 'Aire de repos' (literally: rest area). The French space is structured

a road tri p on europea n highways

169

like a backbone: with the bones being the parking places and the spine a kind

of pedestrian boulevard, a clearly distinguishable path leading to the back en-

trance of a shop or restaurant. Along this pedestrian route, you are likely to

nd services like a playground or a bouncing castle for your kids.

France has over 8,000 kilometres of toll roads maintained and operated

by private companies. It is big business with increasing revenues that exceed

ination. In 2011, the top three of corporations (Vinci Autoroutes, Eiage and

Sanef) levied 7.6 billion Euro (Cour des Comptes, 2013). The privatisation of

the French motorways has had an eect on their physical appearance.

The rst stretch of the E50, the N12 running through the Brittany region

in France, is a toll-free highway. This part of the route has been designed by

the Germans during World War II and is clearly a road from another era: some

of the buildings along the road are located extremely close to the asphalt, the

public spaces look worn out and they are monofunctional: fuel stations with-

out a picnic area, picnic areas without a shop.

A dierent experience is travelling on the E50 between Paris and the

border with Germany (Autoroute A4), a toll road operated by Sanef: this is a

well-maintained highway with public spaces that oer a high service level,

where picnic areas, fuel stations, restaurants and 'traveller's wellness' are

combined in one stop.The upside of this corporate exploitation is the abun-

dance of convenient things like massage chairs, excellent Italian espresso and

clean toilet seats. The downside of it is that these franchised spaces feel very

much like Eurodisney or the food-court in a shopping mall: a highly serviced

private space with the appearance of being public space, where the traveller is

invited to become a consumer, an example of the non-lieux described by Marc

Augé (1992).

Another aspect of the corporate highway is that there is no escape from

fast food. Roadside restaurants in France, Germany and the Czech Republic

are often part of the same chain, serving the same food. The imaginary line

between 'international food' (such as refrigurated triangular sandwiches)

and locally inspired food is drawn somewhere in the vicinity of Bratislava, the

capital of Slovakia. Order a sausage here, and you will be served a bent piece

of meat, smiling at you in a pool of gravy and mustard. In this aspect, the E75

and the E50 are quite dierent. The shops and restaurants along the E75 of-

fer an incredible variety of food, albeit hardly any vegetables and fruits. The

menu gradually changes from Scandinavian food (such as reindeer sausage

soup and minced reindeer meat with mashed potatoes and blueberries), via

Central European food (cooked potatoes, onions and hash meat with lots of

gravy) to the Mediterranean kitchen (grilled lamb, olives and bread). Order-

ing a coee gets you anything between an Italian style espresso and locally

inspired 'cappuccino' (for example: coee with whipped cream, three table

spoons of sugar, an ooze of lemon syrup and cacao powder).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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The climax in the privatisation of highways was observed in the Czech

Republic. There, not only all roadside restaurants are part of the same fran-

chise concept, also the road shoulders and structures crossing the highway

are loaded with advertisements. In fact, we made the observation that every

single concrete structure crossing the E50 carried one or more advertise-

ments. Instead of a scenic route, a cinematic experience of the landscape, this

part of the route felt like one continuous commercial.

3.4Afunctionalroadorawayofeducatingthepeople?

In the Netherlands, brown-and-white signs along the highway mark

the existence of culturally signicant landscapes such as national heritage

landscapes or reclaimed land. Highway A6, for example, is a route running

on reclaimed land and is equipped with signs showing the level of the high-

way relative to sea-level. The signs were a gift from the 'Algemene Neder-

landse Wegenbond' (ANWB), a private association that has historically been

involved in trac signing and breakdown service in the Netherlands. They

were inspired on a similar system of brown-and-white signs in France and

Germany, where people are educated on history (for example on the vicinity

of a battle eld), culture (the vicinity of heritage buildings, wine regions, fa-

mous cheese) and on technology (the span of a bridge).

Another way of 'educating the people' in the Netherlands, is by means

of art. For example, highway A27 starts in Almere, where Tom Claassen de-

signed a herd of elephants in a concrete jungle. The highway ends in Breda,

where Joep van Lieshout created Big Funnelman, a polyester gure lying on

his back. The artworks were part of a regulation on art ('percentageregeling

beeldende kunst'): if a building initiative nanced by the national govern-

ment exceeded 1 million Euro, 1% of the budget had to be spend on visual arts.

During our road trips on the E75 and E50, we observed many 'educating

elements'. Often in the shape of signs pointing out heritage and historical

facts, occasionally a work of art. In the Ukraine, educating elements are found

inside the concrete bus stops along the E50, where mosaics of tiles propa-

gate healthy athletes, cornelds and other aspects of the utopian communist

life-style. When we mentioned the beauty of the bus stops during a lecture

in a bookshop in Kiev and pitied the lack of maintenance, people in the audi-

ence were surprised that we saw beauty in the old mosaics. They valued the

mosaics rst of all as part of the former totalitarian regime, as part of a dark

episode in history, not as cultural heritage.

3.5Asimplestretchofasphaltorahighlyservicedpieceoftechnology?

In the Netherlands, safety and capacity measures have a great impact

on the spatial experience of motorways. The main routes are nowadays wide

planes of asphalt with four to ve lanes in each direction, crash barriers, au-

a road tri p on europea n highways

171

tomatic speed detection, light poles, route and trac ow information, traf-

c jam detection, emergency harbours, fog warning, dedicated carpool lanes,

rush hour lanes and so on. Every 600 meters, the highway is spanned by a

steel construction carrying trac signing equipment.

In an international context, the Dutch high-tech highways, with metic-

ulously levelled planes of asphalt, turned out to be exceptional. At the other

side of the spectrum was the E50 in the Ukraine, where the potholes in the

road surface were sometimes deep enough to absorb an entire wheel. Near

Donetsk, we observed road construction workers equipped with dust blowers,

removing sand and mud out of large potholes before relling the holes with

asphalt. On several occasions cars were observed trying to make it home with

three wheels or a broken axis. Our own vehicle was no exception: the suspen-

sion broke down.

The bad quality of the roads had an eect on our scenic experience: trav-

elling 30 km/h on a road that looks like a battle eld is a very dierent ex-

perience from gliding on a meticulously levelled plane of fresh, black, rain

directing, noise reducing, highly maintained tarmac with glow-in-the-dark

striping.

Our mechanical trouble also showed the dierence in service level be-

tween dierent parts of the E50. In Germany, where the worn-out engine

of our rst research vehicle broke down, we were towed away to the nearest

Mercedes-Benz workshop and oered a taxi to our destination, some 60 kilo-

metres away. Calling the insurance company from the Ukraine however, their

call center employee was unable to nd a single workshop in the database.

The next day, after we had found a workshop ourselves and were already back

on the road, the insurance company called back: "We have found the nearest

Mercedes-Benz workshop: it is located in Charkiv." The city of Charkiv was about

420 kilometres from where our suspension broke down.

In countries like Slovakia, the Ukraine and Russia, the whole concept of

a service system with insurance and tow away service seemed to be nonexist-

ent. Although in the Ukraine, there is help to some extent: the government

has equipped parking places with concrete roll-on/roll-o structures, on

which you can repair your vehicle or truck. The absence of services was one of

the reasons why we had chosen a Mercedes-Benz research vehicle. As Ameri-

can investor and traveller Jim Rogers states in his book 'Adventure capitalist',

even in the worst failed states, there is at least one workshop with Mercedes-

Benz spare parts, since the dictator usually drives one (Rogers, 2004).

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4. CONSIDERATIONS FROM THE OBSERVATIONS

We came home with many new questions, some on the design of high-

ways, many on the future of Europe. In 2020, will we still be eating a smiling

sausage in a pool of gravy or will all road side restaurants have been fran-

chised? Will it become easier or even harder to travel the E50 in the Ukraine

and Russia? We also found answers to our initial research questions.

One of our questions was: how are other countries coping with their in-

frastructure and how does this relate to the design practice in the Nether-

lands? The start of the answer to this question is: it depends on the stretch

of asphalt that you're looking at. How old is it? Who has designed, build and

nanced it? Who operates and maintains it?

Traditionally, European long distance roads have been designed, built,

nanced, maintained and operated by the state. From the Via Appia and the

other paved streets in the network of the Roman Empire to the Dutch network

of 'rijkswegen' (main roads), initiated by Napoleon. In all European countries,

the design and construction of highways was a state-run business, with state

employed engineers and landscape designers. Only the actual construction

was often outsourced to private companies. In some countries, this tradition

is continued: in the Scandinavian countries, for example, and in Russia. In

many countries though, not only the construction, but also the design, engi-

neering, maintenance and often even nance is outsourced to private compa-

nies or public-private partnerships, for example in France, Poland, the Czech

Republic and Slovakia (gure 5).

Figure 5 Built by Design & Construct: the new E50 near Prague (Czech Republic)

a road tri p on europea n highways

173

These kinds of contracts, based on Design, Build, Finance, Maintain,

Operate (DBFMO), have got momentum: the initial costs do not show up as

a decit in the state budget. Also in the Netherlands, where private-pub-

lic partnership used to be limited to farmers mowing the road shoulder and

keeping the grass as a reward (1950s), the latest highway projects are all based

on Design & Construct (D&C) or DBFM-contracts.

The new contracts aect the spatial experience. The contracts often

highly reward functional and economical aspects, such as trac ow. Spatial

quality is qualied as a 'risk' that has to be 'managed' (the risk of not getting

a building permit for aesthetic reasons).

Albeit these public-private partnerships have led to highways with a high

service level, clean toilets and comfortable restaurants, these places also lack

the feeling of being a truly public space: they feel like airports or Eurodisney,

like consumer space, not public space in the sense of what Jürgen Habermas

calls the public sphere.

Traditionally, the landscape design of highways was to some extent in-

uenced by landscape architects, whereas the design of steel and concrete

structures was merely a civil engineering job in which architects were not in-

volved. On the German Autobahn, for example, curves and panoramic views

celebrate the qualities of the landscape, whereas the structures crossing the

highway are pure and simple, not crying for attention.

In the current practice however,'landscape design' is often reduced to the

area of the road side shoulder. Part of that has to do with modern demands in

terms of noise reduction. The E75 running through Hungary, for example, is

almost continuously accompanied by wooden sound-baing screens. Where

the landscape has become invisible, and therefore also the orientation on

these landscapes, the designers have fallen back on architectural means. In

Slovakia, for example, the exit to every city along the elevated E75, is marked

by a dierent color scheme (gure 6). On some highways in the Netherlands,

designers have introduced the same architectural vocabulary, for example a

yellow color scheme on the highway A2 through the city of 's-Hertogenbosch.

This focus on architectural means seems to neglect more meaningful aspects

of the spatial experience, such as the experience of the landscape, the public

character of the space and the impact of technology.

Why are architects focusing on color schemes when a scenic view of the

surrounding landscape could also tell the driver where he is? Instead of creat-

ing strong architectural identities for sound-baing screens, why not making

them out of glass, oering an unhindered view of the landscape and of cities

and industrial areas? Then, the role of the architect would not be to create a

new identity, but to stress existing qualities by designing the highway in such

a way that all the functional aspects do not degenerate the scenic experience.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

174

Figure 6 Purple color scheme in the new E50 near Presov (Slovakia)

Finally, we wondered if we were able to nd a highway with the high level

of spatial quality and attention to detail of an Italian piazza. I used to think

of the German Autobahn as the climax of infrastructure designed as a public

space: a highway owned, maintained and operated by the state, open and ac-

cessible to everyone, where no entrance fee is required, no toll is levied and

speed limitations are the exception. A social space that is part of German cul-

ture and acclaimed in songs, for example in the 22 minute long hit single Au-

tobahn by Kraftwerk: "Wir fahren, fahren, fahren, auf der Autobahn...". (Hütter,

Schneider & Schult, 1975)

Albeit trucks are now obliged to pay Maut (toll) in Germany and there is

political discussion on levying toll on foreigners, the Autobahn is still very

much a truly public space. A symbol of this is the Autobahnkirche, a nation-

wide network of churches located in the vicinity of the highway and visited by

over a million people a year. The small churches are the religious version of

a roadside restaurant: located next to the highway and lled with convenient

religious fast food, such as electrically powered candles and small take-out

booklets with prayers suitable for trips. Instead of complaining on the tem-

perature of the French fries in the guest book, the traveller can write down

a road tri p on europea n highways

175

the names of victims of trac accidents: enlisting them in the book will lead

to extra prayers by the reverent. The whole concept shares resemblance to an

Italian piazza: a public space with a high level of spatial quality and attention

to detail, a place of social signicance, even equipped with its own church.

The social signicance of the Autobahn was equalled by an experience

on the E50 in central Ukraine. We pulled over at a huge concrete landmark:

a word in cyrillic script signifying the administrative border of the Khmel-

nytskyi Oblast (province). The sign itself was not that extraordinary: many

regional borders in the Ukraine are marked by a large chunk of concrete from

the communist era. Extraordinary was the fact that a couple of newly weds

was blocking the road, urging passing vehicles to pull over (gure 7).

Figure 7 Newly weds collecting gifts on the E50 near Chmelnytsky (Ukraine)

After drinking champagne and swallowing a snack of cholesterol rich an-

imal parts, we were allowed to move on. Fastening our seatbelts, we watched

a family member climb up the concrete landmark, trying to put an empty bot-

tle of champagne as high up as he could.

This place in central Ukraine felt even more like a 'classic' public space:

engineered around a central monument, a social space, commonly shared by

the community, open and accessible to the people. A space with explicit rules

(Don't drink and drive) and implicit rules (Drink! It's our wedding!). This was

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

176

where European highway E50 truly became a piazza.

It is hard to imagine that the current practice of DBFM-contracts, with

their focus on eciency, functional and economical aspects, will lead to the

same kind of spatial quality and social signicance. In this sense, the older

examples oer a lot of inspiration. To all architects and landscape architects:

get out there, it's inspirational and free of entrance.

Have a nice trip.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The road trips on the E75 and E50 were made possible through the gen-

erous support of the Netherlands Architecture Fund (Stimuleringsfonds Ar-

chitectuur), The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Archi-

tecture (Fonds BKVB), Architecture Institute Rotterdam (AIR) and the gold,

silver, bronze and plastic partners of the kaalenkammen crowd-funding pro-

gramme.

REFERENCES

Augé, M. (1992) Non-lieux: introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité. Seuil, La Librairie du XXe

siècle

CBS, PBL, Wageningen UR (2007) Geluidsschermen en ZOAB in Nederland, 1975-2000. Den Haag, Planbu-

reau voor de Leefomgeving

Cour des Comptes (2013) Les relations entre l'État et les sociétés concessionnaires d'autoroutes. www.

ccomptes.fr

Fabrique (2005) Architectonische specicaties Regenboogroute. Delft, Rijkswaterstaat

Giedeon, S. (1941) Space, Time and Architecture. The Growth of a New Tradition. Cambridge, Harvard Uni-

versity Press

Habermas, J. (1962) Strukturwandel der Öentlichkeit. Berlin, Luchterhand

Heesen, M. (2011a) Geheugen van het Snelweglandschap. Delft, Rijkswaterstaat

Heesen, M. (2011b) Routepluim 2011. Utrecht, Rijkswaterstaat

Heesen, M. & R. Top (2005) A4 Architectonische Specicaties. Amsterdam, Zwarts & Jansma Architecten

Nijenhuis, W. & W. van Winden (2007) De Diabolische Snelweg. Rotterdam, 010 Publishers

O.M.A. (2006) Machinekamer snelweg. Den Haag, Atelier Rijksbouwmeester

Peijs, K. (2006) IODS convenant 23 juni 2006, Den Haag, Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat

Rogers, J. (2004) Adventure Capitalist. The Ultimate Road Trip. USA, Random House publishing

United Nations (1950) Declaration on the Construction of Main International Trac Arteries . Geneva, United

Nations treaty series

Patijn, W. et al. (2001) Ontwerpen aan Nederland. Architectuurbeleid 2001-2004. Den Haag, Sdu Uitgevers

a road tri p on europea n highways

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City pig farm

A design-based

research on urban

livestock farming

ULF HACKAUF

Hackauf, U. (2015). City pig farm. A design-based-research on urban livestock farming. Research In

Urbanism Series, 3(1), 181-204. doi:10.7480/rius.3.837

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

182

Abstract

Over the last centuries, the global food system has managed to provide

a growing global population with more and better food. Yet, the system is

criticised for its negative eects, like increasing food miles, monocultures, a

lack of transparency and poor animal welfare. The recent trend to farm more

food in an around cities (urban and peri-urban farming) seems to provide an

alternative to the existing system. Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA)

comes with many potential benets, from reducing food miles and improving

local urban climate to supporting social coherence in local neighbourhoods

and improving personal health. At the same time, the eld of UPA is very

diverse and not each project addresses each of the potential benets. This

paper addresses urban livestock farming as a specic form of UPA. "Livestock

farming" is hereby dened as raising domesticated animals, such as cattle,

pork, poultry or sh for the production of food. Each of these types of farming

has dierent needs and implications when included in the city. This study

specically looks into pig farming in an urban setting. It states that design-

based-research is a useful research strategy to explore the possibilities and

probabilities of this type of UPA. It draws on the design-based study 'City Pig',

conducted at The Why Factory (2009), Delft University of Technology. The

results of this study can be evaluated in order to get a grip on the possible

benets of this specic type of urban livestock farming. An important limitation

is that it concerns virtual, un-built design proposals. As built, productive

examples of UPA are still scarce in the Netherlands and beyond this design-

based-research method could ll a gap and help gathering knowledge for

future project. Therefore, this paper not only evaluates of a specic type of

UPA, but also tests on whether research-by-design studies, can form a useful

tool to further develop UPA in general. The aim of this paper is therefore two-

fold: What are the potential benets of urban pig farming and how can un-built

design projects help to answer that question for future 'real' projects.

KEYWORDS

urban agriculture; urban farming; food production; food system; green washing; design-based research

city p ig farm

183

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, interest in growing food in cities has increased (Mok et

al., 2014). In the Netherlands a number of studies have been published giving

an overview of built and planned projects in the Netherlands and beyond, for

example: Stadslandbouw (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012), Stadsboeren in Ned-

erland (Van Bergen et al., 2013), Food for the City (Van der Sande et al., 2012).

Projects like the restaurant Uit je eigen stad in Rotterdam, where food is grown

next to where it is served, show how farming can become an interesting and

attractive part of the city (Van Bergen et al., 2013). This type of farming with-

in or in proximity to the city is known as "Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture

(UPA)". Veen, Breman and Jansma (2012) dene UPA as follows: "the produc-

tion, processing and marketing of food and related products and services in urban ar-

eas, making use of urban resources and waste" (p. 4). This denition implies that

UPA can comprise of a wide variety of projects, from the beehive on a private

roof over a neighbourhood garden run by a local community, to a high-tech

farm with stacked elds in a closed building. De Graaf (2013: 40) elaborates:

"[UPA projects] dier in their relation to the soil and the built environment,

their relationship with the essential ows of the city, and in the impact they have on

public space socially and aesthetically. Thus they oer dierent benets to the city,

and respond to dierent opportunities."

In the Netherlands however, urban and peri-urban agriculture today is

still in its infancy (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012) and a number of questions

around the topic have to be addressed. Where can it be applied, how can it be

nanced and importantly, what can it actually provide? How can we study the

possibilities of UPA?

Examining examples of UPA in the Netherlands is interesting beyond the

context of the country itself. The Netherlands has a long tradition of inno-

vation in agriculture. Although relatively small and densely populated, the

country is a globally relevant food producer. The combination of close prox-

imity of farming and cities together with the knowledge in innovative and

productive farming could lead to new solutions of UPA, which are relevant in

many other countries.

This paper addresses urban livestock farming as a specic form of UPA.

Livestock farming can be dened as the raising of domesticated animals, such

as cattle, pork, poultry or sh for the production of food. Each of these exam-

ples of livestock farming has dierent needs and implications when situated

in the city. This study specically looks at pig farming in an urban setting.

It uses design-based research, which is a useful research strategy to explore

the possibilities and probabilities of this type of UPA. It draws on the de-

sign-based study 'City Pig', conducted at The Why Factory (2009) as part of

Delft University of Technology. The results of this study are evaluated in order

to get a grip on the possible benets of this specic type of urban livestock

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

184

farming. An important limitation is that it concerns virtual, un-built design

proposals. This implies that many relevant parameters are not known and

the actual performance of the pig farms and their eect on the surrounding

cannot be measured. But built, productive examples of UPA are still scarce

in the Netherlands. This design-based research method could ll this gap

and help gather knowledge for future projects. In that sense, this study is not

only an evaluation of a specic type of UPA, but also a test as to whether re-

search-by-design studies can be a useful tool to further develop UPA. The aim

of this paper is therefore two-fold: What are the potential benets of urban

pig farming and how can un-built design projects help to answer this ques-

tion and contribute to future 'real' projects.

In order to address these research questions this paper elaborates on the

concept of urban and peri-urban farming in a Dutch context and its possible

benets. Then design-based research is explained as a research strategy, ex-

emplied by the work of The Why Factory. The City Pig project is an important

research outcome, which will be described and used as case study for urban

livestock farming. Based on these research outcomes it is possible to reect

on the benets of urban livestock farming as well as on the design-based re-

search methodology and its implications on future UPA projects.

2. URBAN AND PERI-URBAN FARMING IN THE NETHERLANDS

Introducing agriculture into cities may initially seem paradoxical. It was

the separation of harvesting and dwelling, which made cities possible in the

rst place. In a process that took between ve and ten thousand years (Fresco,

2012), humans began harvesting grain and slowly developed agriculture. As a

consequence they had to stay at one place rather than travel in search of food.

And as agriculture slowly became a reliable source of food, there was time to

concentrate on things other than food: specialisation became possible, lan-

guage evolved, health improved and culture became further developed.

The development of agriculture and cities remained dependent on each

other for the next few centuries. For a long time, the size of a city depended on

how much food could be grown in its vicinity and how quickly this food could

be transported into the city:

"Given the physical diculties of getting food into town, it is hardly surprising

that most pre-industrial cities were compact by modern standards. A day's journey

by car, a distance of around 20 miles, was the practical limit for bringing in grain

overland, which limit the width of the city's arable belt. The simple laws of geometry

meant that the larger a city grew, the smaller the relative size of its rural hinterland

became, until the latter could no longer feed the former." (Steel, 2008: 70)

city p ig farm

185

Cities located on a river or the sea had an advantage here. Transport via

sea has always been cheaper than land transport. A close connection to the

sea made it possible for cities like London, Antwerp, Venice or Ancient Rome

to grow more quickly by receiving a supply from a larger hinterland (Steel,

2008). The rise of railways in the nineteenth century reduced this dependence

on sea transport. Innovations in preservation and refrigeration eventually led

to today's global food system, one where production and consumption are

distributed worldwide.

Yet contrary to this movement towards a globalised food system, there

is a long history in developed countries of local food production, based on

small productive individual and collective gardens (Mok et al., 2014; Kimmer-

le, 2011). The main aim of these gardens has changed over the years. The early

focus for urban farming was on food production. The German 'Armengärten',

which dates back to the late 18th century or the 'Victory Gardens' in the UK

during WWII are examples of UPA with the aim to ensure food security (Mok

et al, 2014). Later, recreation and health became important, as in the Ger-

man 'Schrebergarten', which developed in the 19th century. Today, multiple

social aspects play a role in contemporary UPA, such as social cohesion and

placemaking. Also the ecological eect of local food production has become

an important potential benet of UPA. Hynes and Howe (2004) illustrate how

the aims of UPA has changed over time:

"Community gardens and small farms in U.S. cities are not altogether new.

However, their purposes today – neither short-term welfare during periods of re-

cession, nor philanthropic charity to uplift 'the masses', nor patriotic war relief, all

of which catalysed earlier urban horticulture movements […] – are new. Their goals

include teaching inner-city children ecological literacy and diverting them from the

streets; cleaning up overgrown neighbourhood eyesores and pushing out drug deal-

ing, that, like weeds, overtakes neglected vacant lots; growing and preserving food

from seed to shelf; restoring nature to the industrial and post-industrial city using

heirloom plants and bird and buttery gardens; and bringing the farming tradition

of the rural South to northern industrial cities. These are but a handful of the reasons

that urban gardeners have given when asked why they garden." (Hynes & Howe,

2004)

The possible benets of UPA have to be seen in relation to the disad-

vantages it has compared to traditional farming practices. Land prices in and

around cities are generally higher in urban areas than rural areas. Trac and

industries can cause more pollution in air and soil and therefore make urban

areas less suitable for food production. Shadows of buildings can limit the

sunshine hours. Farming is not easily implemented in cities, but there are a

number of potential benets that could balance the disadvantages and make

it worthwhile to include agriculture in urban areas. Mok et al. (2013), Visser et

al. (no date) and Veen, Breman and Jansma (2012) provide a systematic over-

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view of these potential benets, which can be summarised as individual ben-

ets, economic benets, social and cultural benets and ecological benets.

2.1Individualbenets

UPA can increase the aesthetic attractiveness of a neighborhood, with-

holding the citizens of moving to other places (Hynes & Howe, 2004). When

children are introduced to growing food, it can have a positive eect on their

eating habits in later years (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012). Green spaces can

also be a place for recreation. Physical activity in green areas can have a gen-

eral positive eect on health, well-being and recovery. This can play a special

role in health care and day care, such as so-called 'care farms' (Veen, Breman

& Jansma, 2012).

By providing knowledge on food and how it is being grown, UPA can be

seen as culturally important. UPA projects as part of the education of chil-

dren at schools can provide practical insight in farming, and farming your

own food can contribute to satisfaction and self-esteem (Veen, Breman &

Jansma, 2012). A closer contact between food producers and consumers can

create new opportunities for food, which are not available in the traditional

food chain: for example ethnic vegetables for a specic local community or

fragile fruit, which is not suitable for long periods of transit (Veen, Breman &

Jansma, 2012).

2.2Neighbourhoodbenets

UPA can increase the aesthetic attractiveness of a neighbourhood, less-

ening the likelihood of citizens of [or: withholding the citizens of] moving

to other places. UPA has the potential to mitigate outside temperatures and

retain rainwater, thereby improving the local climate and reducing the urban

heat island eect (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012). The maintenance of green

farming areas can replace the maintenance of public green areas or the land-

scape around the city. UPA on vacant urban sites can prevent degradation of

the adjacent neighbourhood (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012).

If a UPA project involves local inhabitants, it can support community

building and social cohesion in the neighbourhood. It can oer people from

dierent social and ethnic backgrounds the chance to work together; food can

be an easy topic to connect otherwise separate social groups. Collaborating on

an UPA project can get local inhabitants 'involved', supporting their identi-

cation with the neighbourhood (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012).

2.3Economicbenets

UPA can provide new job opportunities in the city, whether directly re-

lated to farming or to visitors coming for recreation and education. The lo-

calised production of food can also provide economic benets. This could be

city p ig farm

187

in the form of selling directly to the consumer, without a costly distribution

chain, which can make the food cheaper. On the other hand, distinct prod-

ucts with a local connection can be sold for a higher price, providing a better

income (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012). The attractiveness of UPA beyond

its direct economic model can also increase the attractiveness of the neigh-

bourhood, resulting in higher land prices. It can be a way to make produc-

tive use of otherwise unused areas or buildings. And eventually, UPA can be

a place for individual development. For example, UPA can oer chances for

the long-term unemployed to re-integrate into the regular labour market by

providing certicates and training competences (Veen, Breman & Jansma,

2012). By oering the consumer insight into how his food is grown, farmed

and processed, UPA can help to re-establish trust in the food system. If the

consumer becomes involved in the quality and origin of the food he buys, this

can provide leverage for food coming from traditional sources (Veen, Breman

& Jansma, 2012).

2.4Ecologicalbenets

Crop and livestock farming can extend the habitat for wildlife in the city,

thereby contributing to biodiversity. If local or rare crops are farmed, UPA can

add to agricultural diversity.

By connecting to nutrient, waste, water and energy streams of the city,

UPA has the potential to connect or close dierent resource cycles. UPA pro-

jects can collect and retain rainwater and make use of urban wastewater.

When wastewater and GTF (abbreviation for: Green, Garden, Fruit) waste are

used as fertilizers in UPA, the depletion of minerals and production of arti-

cial fertilizers can be reduced. Dierent types of UPA projects can make use

of excess heat from other urban programs, return heat from greenhouses or

bring energy from biogas installations to the city (Veen, Breman & Jansma,

2012).

UPA can have a positive impact on the reduction of greenhouse gasses

(GHG). A shorter distance between producer and consumer can reduce the

transportation of food and the related GHG emissions. UPA also allows for

carbon sequestration. Finally, by raising the awareness pf seasonal availabil-

ities, it can stimulate a more sustainable and ecological diet (Veen, Breman &

Jansma, 2012).

As stated before, these are all potential benets of UPA. As the diversity of

possible types of UPA projects implies, not each project will come with all of

these potential advantages. A community garden run by volunteers for exam-

ple may not sell any food and therefore may oer no direct economic benets,

but it could greatly contribute to the social cohesion of the neighbourhood.

A series of private rooftop beehives could have no measurable impact on the

food miles of the local population, yet playing a vital role for the local ecosys-

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188

tem. And a closed aquaponic farm could become a thriving business, without

bringing the social benets of a participatory project.

Eventually, more built and running examples are necessary to provide

more insight into the positive (and negative) eects of the dierent types of

UPA:

"The development of urban agriculture in the Netherlands is surrounded by a

multitude of claims and questions, which in many cases are not or insuciently sup-

ported and answered. […] All in all, this means that while our gut feeling says that

urban farming can contribute to social, economic and ecologic sustainability, there is

still little hard (scientic) proof for these claims." (Veen, Breman & Jansma, 2012:

37)

It is with this background that design-based research oers interest-

ing possibilities. Unbuilt design proposals could help to clarify some of the

mentioned claims and questions in order to prepare the ground for more built

projects. This was one of the drivers behind the 'City Pig' project of The Why

Factory.

3. DESIGN-BASED RESEARCH AS A RESEARCH APPROACH

The examined study explores the implications of urban pig farming as

one kind of UPA in a general, not site-specic sense. Although sited on a

given location, it aims to gain insight in urban pig farming beyond the local

context and make the ndings applicable on other locations and potentially

inform other possible UPA programs. The study uses spatial and architectural

design as research method. The presented approach is what Nijhuis and Bob-

bink (2012: 252) describe as 'design-based research': "designs (or the process of

designing) are used as a vehicle to make spatial problems visual and spatial ('fram-

ing') and to generate solutions." The study is in line with both aspects of this

denition: it makes the implications of urban livestock farming visual and

spatial and it aims to provide general solutions of how an urban pig farm can

be integrated into the urban fabric.

A design-based research approach has been used in a number of projects

as part of The Why Factory. The Why Factory is a chair at the Faculty of Ar-

chitecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology and

was set-up in 2008 by Professor Winy Maas, principal and co-founder of the

Dutch architect rm MVRDV. Both institutions share an interest in visionary

thinking about urban futures. As Winy Maas puts it:

"We produce models and visualizations for the cities of the future. Our ultimate

mission is to reveal through bigger projects the mechanisms of thinking about, and

ultimately producing a series of critical alternatives through images." (Maas et al.,

2011: 13)

city p ig farm

189

For the production of these visions and models, The Why Factory com-

bines education in the faculty's Master of Science (MSc) program with re-

search activities. The Why Factory's MSc design studios are based on on-going

research projects and are set-up as systematic design explorations. Two ele-

ments are important in this set-up: a guided solution-nding process and a

generalisation of the process. The rst element means that the students need

to work on complementary strategies, for example choosing dierent scales

or exploring dierent technologies. The aim of the group work is not to get a

few good solutions, but to cover a wide spectrum of diverse possible solutions,

which can be analysed in relation to each other. The second element implies

that the assignment should not be site specic, to allow general conclusions

on the given topic. Often, the studios explore a topic with a 'model city' as a

base, developed under one guiding aspect: for example mobility, bottom-up

planning or automation, and without geographical context. Klaasen (2007)

states that a degree of context-less design is inherent to a research-by-de-

sign approach in urban design:

"In the case of urban design a scientic approach involves the dissociation of

objects of design from a specic design context, i.e. the designing of theoretical mod-

els – resulting in designs that in spatial-ecological and/or socio-cultural and/or

economic-technical terms are independent of a specic situation. By leaving aside

characteristics of specic contexts one can focus on essentials – from simple ones

like universal spatial organisation principles to more complex ones that include some

contextual characteristics, and therefore might not be universal, but certainly are

non-localised."

While MVRDV works towards built architecture and applied urban plans,

the design-based research of The Why Factory results in visual representa-

tion of data and of imagined architectural and urban structures. The role of

these visual representations is two-fold: that of visual thinking and visual

communication.

"Visual thinking implies the generation of ideas through the creation, in-

spection, and interpretation of visual representation of the previously non-visible

(knowledge discovery), while visual communication refers to eective distribution of

ideas in visual form." (Nijhuis & Stellingwer, 2011)

Examples of such projects include Sunny Water Lilies (2010), a proposal

for a solar thermal energy plant to improve the spatial qualities of green in-

frastructure (gure 1), Vertical Village (2011), a model for evolutionary verti-

cal urbanism that combines social and physical 'village' qualities with urban

densication (gure 2) and Transformer (2014), a scenario based on smart,

transformable building materials and how these could change architecture

and urban life (gure 3).

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Figure 1 Sunny Water Lilies as geothermal power plants (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

Figure 2 Vertical Village: Evolutionary vertical urbanism (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

city p ig farm

191

Figure 3 The Transformer: future building materials (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

The City Pig project of 2009 stands out from the projects by The Why Fac-

tory, as the designer-client relationship for this project comes close to the

process of 'real' architectural design, as it has a given plot and a building de-

sign assignment. The project was hypothetical and not meant for construc-

tion, but the realistic background makes it an interesting research-by-design

case study.

4. CITY PIG FARM AS AN EXAMPLE

The chosen case study for this article is the 'City Pig' project, a series of

pig farms designed for a location in The Hague in the Netherlands. 'City Pig'

was a study commissioned by the Centre for Arts and Architecture 'Stroom'

in The Hague as a contribution to the program 'Foodprint: Food for the City',

which ran from 2009 until 2012. The Why Factory developed City Pig in a

multidisciplinary team with designers and researchers from TU Delft, Wage-

ningen UR and the 'Innovatie Netwerk'. Students from the Why Factory's MSc

program took part in the development of the rst proposals. The project was

presented as an animation movie at the rst manifestation of the 'Foodprint'

program, a public exhibition in The Hague in the summer of 2009. Together

with the other projects of the program, the project was later documented in

the publication 'Food for the City' (Van der Sande et al., 2012)

The 'City Pig' study takes an unusual position in the eld of UPA in two

respects. Firstly, it is a proposal for an urban life stock farm, located within

the city and claiming to be economically feasible. Most current examples for

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UPA focus on growing crops, and livestock farming is the exception. Secondly,

the case study is not a built project, but a hypothetical design, developed for

an exhibition. The choice for this case study is a conscious one: the aim is to

reveal the potential of urban livestock farming, while at the same time testing

how far unbuilt design projects can serve as case studies in the eld of UPA.

As stated before, UPA in the Netherlands is still in its infancy and more ex-

amples will be needed to get insight into the eects and benets it can have.

If unbuilt projects can provide such insight, it can be beneciary for the de-

velopment of UPA in general.

The topic of the 'City Pig' study was proposed by Annechien ten Have-Mel-

lema, who played the important role of the 'client' in this project. Owner of a

pig farm herself, she initiated the project in her role as member of the board

of LTO Nederland, the Dutch Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture. She

joined the project to raise awareness on alternative ways for pig farming. The

sector has a negative public image because industrial pig farming with large

stables is generally criticized and not considered animal friendly by public

opinion in the Netherlands. On the other hand, biologically produced pork

has still a limited share in the Dutch market due to its higher price. A pig farm

in the city would allow consumers to see how pork is produced and support bi-

ological farming. The scope of the study was limited. The focus was therefore

more on presenting the design proposal in an accessible way to a wider public

than producing a realistic feasibility study for a soon-to-built project.

The City Pig project consists of eight design proposals, presented as a

narrative. After a general introduction on the theoretical implications of local

food production, a functional pig farm with the main components is illus-

trated. Eventually the eight proposals are shown on their specic locations.

The site for all eight farms is the 'Brinkhorst', a mixed, partly industrial area

within the city proper of The Hague. The site was chose as the exhibition took

place here and as the area will be developed in the future.

The archetypical farm (gure. 4) illustrates basic requirements for a fea-

sible pig farm. The size is large enough for about 200 sows at any time, pro-

ducing about 4.300 pigs per year. A farm of this size is large enough to be

feasibly managed by two full-time farmers. It includes stables of dierent

size for the pigs, from farrowing to fattening. All stables are dimensioned ac-

cording to the regulations for biological farming, thus larger than the stand-

ard industrial pig stables. Next to storage areas, the farm includes a biogas

plant, where the pigs' manure is transformed to energy. A visitor centre and

a restaurant for visitors are added. To avoid transportation of living animals,

a small slaughterhouse is included in the design.

city p ig farm

193

Figure 4 Archetypical Farm (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

A major challenge for urban livestock farming is the required fodder. The

footprint of the farm is limited, but a farm of this size requires about 1.400

tons of fodder per year, equal to about 2.2 km2 of cropland (gure 5). In the

City Pig project, the proposal is to connect the pig farm to the waste stream of

the city and its surrounding. Instead of growing pig fodder – or importing it

from other countries, as most current pig farms in the Netherlands do – waste

from the nearby greenhouse industry in the Westland and residual products

(GFT waste) from nearby food-industry, supermarkets and fresh markets are

used. Pigs are omnivores and can therefore play an important role in the re-

source and nutrient ow of the city.

Figure 5 Spatial requirements of fodder production (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

194

Not all GFT waste is suitable for pigs. Waste, which cannot be fed to the

pigs, can be fermented in the biogas plant, together with the pigs manure

(gure 6). With a capacity of about 50.000 tons of GFT waste and 5.500 tons of

pig manure, the biogas installation would have the capacity to produce about

18.000 MWh of electricity per year, enough for about 5.000 households. The

remaining residue could be used as fertilizer for crop plants (gure 7).

Figure 6 Biogas network (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

Figure 7 Resource cycle (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

Placing the archetypical farm on this location reveals one large challenge

for the project. Within an estimated radius of 400 metres, the stench of the

farm would be too strong to have housing or oces in this area. In a dense

urban area, a pig farm would need to be closed with a ltered ventilation sys-

tem. For the archetypical farm, the closed system is visualized with a trans-

parent cupola (gure 8).

city p ig farm

195

Figure 8 Snowball (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

Based on the archetypical farm, eight designs were developed: The Snow-

ball, The Stack, The District, The Balconies, The Terrace, The Bridge, The Of-

ce and The Strip (gure 9). Each design has a dierent location within the

Brinkhorst and oers dierent ways to interact with the surrounding. How-

ever, all eight designs use the same program and the same surface areas as

the archetypical farm. For this study, four of the eight designs are chosen as

they represent the strongest dierence in approach.

Figure 9 Eight typologies (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

4.1.TheStack

This proposal stays the closest to the archetypical farm. To reduce the

footprint of the farm, the dierent stables are stacked and connected with

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

196

ramps. This allows shrinking the dome as well. The result is a sculptural and

iconic building (gure 10).

Figure 10 The Stack (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

4.2TheStrip

Here, the pig farm makes use of a wide, empty strip of green between the

four lanes of the central road of the area. All stables are arranged as one strip

of one kilometre long, illustrating the cycle of a pig, from piglet to slaugh-

terhouse. The rooftop is publicly accessible, allowing views into the winter

gardens, which pigs can reach from their stables (gure 11).

Figure 11 The Strip (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

city p ig farm

197

4.3TheDistrict

By spreading the stables out and embedding them in an intense green

area with trees and shrubs, the stench hindrance can be reduced in a natural

way. This design relies on additional strategies such as direct separating ma-

nure from urine in the stables to prevent the production of ammoniac. Here

the aim is to integrate the farm with other urban programs, including housing

and partly making use of existing buildings for storage, butcheries or restau-

rants (gure 12).

Figure 12 The District (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

4.4TheOce

An existing vacant oce building on the site meets the overall spatial

requirements for the pig farm. The stables are integrated into the existing

building, making use of the building's shell and the existing elevators. Ramps

are added to the building to increase the capacity for vertical transportation.

The former lobby is used as a slaughterhouse (gure 13).

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198

Figure 13 The Oce (courtesy: The Why Factory, 2009)

All of these proposals should be seen in the context of the exhibition for

which they were designed. They lack detailing and they are exaggerated in

order to inspire and to provoke discussion with a wider public. This may make

them less suitable as case studies than a more realistic design proposal. How-

ever, the aim of this study is not to evaluate the immediate feasibility of the

design proposals, but to gain insight into possible benets on urban livestock

farming and urban pig farming in general. For this aim, the exaggerated char-

acter of the designs is accepted in this study.

5. DISCUSSION: OUTCOME OF THE DESIGN STUDY AND POSSIBLE BENEFITS

In this paragraph, the previous examples are used to evaluate the poten-

tial benets of urban pig farming. The four main categories from the second

paragraph are used as 'lenses' to test potential benet. Here the examples

are treated as dierent variations of the same design intervention. They are

discussed together, dierentiating between proposals when necessary.

city p ig farm

199

5.1Potentialindividualbenetsofurbanpigfarming

Individual health and well-being benets are linked to the direct involve-

ment with the production of food or to working outside in a green environ-

ment. Both aspects are very limited in all four proposals. The contamination

of pigs is a serious challenge in pig farming. In a regular farm, visitors can

only get in touch with pigs after following a strict safety procedure, including

protective or entirely fresh clothes. This makes casual and occasional volun-

tary work, which may be possible in horticulture, dicult in a livestock farm.

From the four designs, The District could become 'recreational'. Also The

Stack can be an attraction for visitors. However, compared to an open farm,

the enclosed space of this proposal is more likely to invite one-o visits than

to become a regular pastime.

By making livestock farming and meat processing visible and transpar-

ent, all four proposals have a cultural benet. The proposals are also well

suitable for the education of children and adults and have a positive eect

on their diet: not necessarily by turning all of them into vegetarians, but by

stimulating a more conscious consumption of meat. A wider variety in the

farmed pig breeds could be supported through the choices of the visiting con-

sumers. The iconic quality of all designs could add to the promotion of the

produced meat and allow for relatively higher prices. Direct sales on the other

hand could reduce the price and partly compensate for the higher cost of bi-

ologically farmed pig meat. Of course, the latter benets have to be seen in

relation to prices for land, ventilation and building, all of which would proba-

bly be much higher than a conventional farm building on a rural location. The

possible benet of satisfaction and self-esteem for the producer would in all

cases be mainly limited to the farmers themselves.

5.2Potentialneighbourhoodbenetsofurbanpigfarming

The proposed City Pig farms would not have many of the potential neigh-

bourhood benets, which other UPA projects could have. All but The District

work with a closed and controlled environment, which would not improve ur-

ban heat island or rain water retaining. As the projects to do not include 'pro-

ductive green', the synergy with municipal maintenance of public green can-

not be found. Depending on the development of the area, the projects could

have a positive eect on the use of otherwise vacant areas. The Oce shows,

how a vacant building could be re-used for livestock farming, but the neces-

sary adjustments to the building would not make this approach feasible for

short-term temporary use. The 'District'-project could make use of vacant

single storey sheds and halls, with less need for adjustments. If the concept

is applied in a non-residential area, where the stench is acceptable, it could

become a feasible re-use scenario.

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200

Generally, the proposed designs are not bottom-up participatory farms

and would therefore not be able to provide the benets of local collabora-

tion and the related community building. Pig farming comes with strict reg-

ulations around hygiene and possible contamination. Where a fruit orchard

could do well without daily maintenance, a pig stable has tight schedules.

This may limit the possibilities of involving volunteers in the farming. It has

to be said that the disapproval of pig meat in a number of religions might lead

to a segregation of social groups rather than a support to mixing.

5.3Potentialeconomicbenetsofurbanpigfarming

The transparent production of meat is a strong benet in all four pro-

posals. The consumer can see and judge the conditions of the pigs and get

into discussion with the farmer. The iconic character of the project can lead

to leverage beyond the direct consumption around the farm. As mentioned

above, a local and transparent pig farm could promote special products which

respect animal well-being, make use of the nutrients from the city and return

sustainable energy to the city. Products could be sold for a higher price than

traditional industrial pig products. A local butchery and a restaurant could be

a spin-o of the actual farm and provide extra income and job opportuni-

ties. Again, this has to be seen in relation to the higher land prices technical

requirements and general building cost of an urban pig farm compared to a

traditional rural pig farm.

5.4Potentialecologicalbenetsofurbanpigfarming

As the proposed farms are tted with a closed ventilation system, there

is little exchange with the surrounding nature and therefore little support for

biodiversity. Only the 'District'-farm would add to the natural habitat in the

city. The choice of non-standard breeds however could increase agricultural

diversity.

All four proposals show clear benets on the re-use of urban (GFT) waste

and the provision of (waste) energy, making it one of the strongest benets

of the project. Rainwater cycles are more dicult to include, due to the closed

system and carbon sequestration cannot be realized without crop farming.

Regarding the reduction of food miles this project illustrates that the topic is

more complex than it might look in the rst place. The actual volume of pig

meat is small compared to the volume of the required fodder. Thus, the impact

of transporting fodder can outweigh the benet of locally produced food. This

is also the case for traditional pig farming in the Netherlands, where much of

the fodder is imported from other countries. The four proposals aim to avoid

this by making use of local GFT waste. This however has to be collected and

moved to the stables. The more collection points the GFT is coming from, the

more individual trac this is likely to cause. Based on the current state of

city p ig farm

201

the project, it cannot be stated whether the project would reduce transport

related GHG emissions.

6. CONCLUSIONS

Based on the previous discussion, this paragraph draws conclusions in

two directions: how did the design-based research approach play out in the

study and which benets does urban pig farming potentially hold.

6.1Design-basedresearchprojectsascasestudies

As stated at the start of this essay, the design-based research approach is

used for two purposes: visual communication and visual thinking.

Visual communication in the design-based research study

on urban pig farming

The study was commissioned for a public exhibition. It was therefore im-

portant to communicate not only the nal results, but also the background of

the study (urban agriculture and livestock farming) in an accessible way to a

broader public. This was partly done by presenting the study as a movie with

a clear narrative. But the study went further and engaged spatial design as a

means of visual communication. At the beginning of the movie, the (theo-

retical) spatial requirements for local food production are shown as volumes,

which were placed in the city, critically highlighting on the space require-

ments of food production. The requirements of animal fodder are illustrated

in a similar way, emphasizing that it is crucial to include fodder in the discus-

sion of urban livestock farming. The basic pig farm in the movie is presented

as a spatial design, which at the same time acts as a diagram of a generic pig

farm. The stench circle is rst graphically visualized before it is translated

into a spatial design, a large transparent globe, which creates a controllable

local environment. All of these elements engage spatial design to illustrate

inherent problems of urban farming to a broader public.

On the other hand, visual communication was an important part of the

communication during the study within the research team. The expertise on

pig farming present in the team was visualized and translated into a spatial

design. Through the design, the requirements of an economically feasible,

functioning pig farm were determined. Initial ideas, such as an open park with

an idyllic mud pond were visualized and then dismissed during the discus-

sion, as it created organisational problems. The design process here helped

to create and visualize a detailed brief for an urban pig farm, which could be

described as a new building typology.

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Visual thinking in the research-by-design study on urban pig farming

In the second part of the study, the diagrammatic 'basic' urban pig farm

was translated into a number of dierent typologies. Each design addressed a

dierent problem or potential. The Strip for example used an existing vacant

area. Spatial design was required to test the possibility (does the program t

on the location?), the implications (how can the farm be accessed by visitors

or by trucks?) and in how far the proposal can stand in for a general typol-

ogy (how many of this kind of vacant strips exist in the Netherlands?). The

Oce was approached in a similar way: how does the program t into the

given building, how can internal circulation be adjusted and in how far is the

building representative for a larger amount of vacant oce buildings in the

Netherlands. It has to be said here that within the limited scope of the study

and the foremost aim to illustrate the ideas in a public exhibition, the elab-

oration of the proposals is still limited. The ventilation of the buildings for

example has not been addressed, nor has the necessary delivery to and from

the building. These aspects can be addressed in a follow-up study, using the

same design-based research approach.

The latter two examples show, how design-based research in this study

explored technical and functional implications of the concept of urban pig

farming. As important are aesthetic aspects, especially as the 'attractiveness'

of the design plays a role in whether it would be acceptable for local inhab-

itants and thereby raise the quality of the neighbourhood. Attractiveness is

also important for whether the farm would become a destination for visitors

and therefore become a transparent farm where visitors become informed

and empowered consumers. The 'soft' quality of attractiveness is harder to

translate into a general typology, which is independent of the specic loca-

tion, the applied materials and the tools of representation used in the study.

On the other hand, elements like public terraces and open views to the stables

can be part of a general, 'inviting' typology. One challenge here is the relation

between transparency, cost and an attractive appearance. More transparency

will allow for more insight of the visitors into the process, but will also require

more glass and therefore higher building cost. Less glass will allow for cheap-

er construction, but also less interaction with the inhabitants.

6.2Potentialbenetsofurbanpigfarming

As this analysis shows, the benets can be found in the area of empower-

ment and transparency, and in the connection with the city's resource cycles.

Transparency towards the consumer was the main motivation for the

'client' Mrs. Ten Have-Mellema to start this project. Most of the consum-

ers today who buy pork in a supermarket or at a butcher don't get to see the

inside of a pig stable or slaughterhouse. The physical distance between the

stable and the supermarket makes it easier to disconnect the consumer's dis-

city p ig farm

203

approval of industrial 'mega-stables' from the choice for or against biological

produced pork meat in the supermarket. If pig farms expose the way the ani-

mals are kept, raised and slaughtered, this disconnection could disappear and

more expensive but more ethic and sustainable choices could be supported.

This eect is of course not limited to pig farms. The question here is if this

transparency could also be achieved in peri-urban or rural settings, without

the immediate problems of the proposed designs, such as the stench and high

land and construction prices. It is worth noting that urban livestock farming,

through its transparency towards the consumer can lead to increased animal

well-being. This potential benet has not been addressed in the sources of

the previous chapters.

The synergy of nutrient and energy ows with the city is another large

benet, which urban pig farming could provide. Here lies a specic benet of

pig farming, which cannot be directly translated to cow or poultry farming.

Pigs as omnivores have a special potential for making use of the cities GFT

streams. Also for this aspect, it would be interesting to study how peri-urban

or rural pig farms could achieve similar benets without the disadvantages of

higher cost and the stench.

Eventually, the productive, temporary re-use of vacant areas could be

an interesting and surprising benet of pig farming. The example of The Of-

ce is hereby more emblematic and provocative than nancially feasible, as

it includes substantial adjustments to the existing structure. The District on

the other side could make use of existing vacant buildings with less invest-

ment. In areas that are far enough from other urban activities, such a tem-

porary urban farm could function without extra technology to avoid stench.

An otherwise unused area could be productively used, providing transparency

in production, education, possible benets for promoting and economically

producing more biological and sustainable meat and become a temporary, at-

tractive destination.

The study has shown potentials and challenges of urban pig farming. In a

next research step, the given triangle of location (urban), content (pig farm-

ing) and project emphasis (transparent processes and resource management)

could be opened.

One proposal could include a pig farm in a peri-urban or rural setting,

which aims for the same main benets. A similar design-research-study

could be used to explore, how the same transparency could be achieved and

how the pig stable could make use of GFT waste over a larger distance.

Another study could keep the location and the benets, but employ dif-

ferent types of farming. The studies could explore how other livestock such as

sh, poultry or insects could make use of organic waste and provide energy,

and how the farming could be exposed to support informed consumer choices.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

For more information on The Why Factory and the background of the

project, see www.thewhyfactory.com

REFERENCES

Van Bergen, J. et al. (2013) 'Stadsboeren in Nederland – Professionalisering van de stadsgerichte land-

bouw'. Rotterdam, Green Deal: Nationale Federatie Stadsgerichte Landbouw i.o.

De Graaf, P. (2013) 'Systems thinking in practice', in: Miazzo, F. and M. Minkjan (eds.) Farming the city –

food as a tool for today's urbanization. Amsterdam, CITIES, 40

Fresco, L. (2012) Hamburgers in het paradijs. Amsterdam, Uitgeverij Bert Bakker

Hynes, H.P. and G. Howe (2004) Urban Horticulture in the Contemporary United States: Personal and

Community Benets, Acta Horticulturae 643, 171-181

Kimmerle, J. (2011) 'Schrebergärten: Von wegen spießig'. Zeit Online (Zeit Wissen). Retrieved from: http://

www.zeit.de/zeit-wissen/2011/s2/Natur-Schrebergaerten [accessed 30 June 2013]

Klaasen, I. (2007) A scientic approach to urban and regional design: research by design. Journal of Design

Research 5 (4)

Maas, W. et al. (2011) The Why Factor(y). NAi publishers, Rotterdam

Mok, H.F., V.G. Williamson, J.R. Grove, K. Burry, S.F. Barker & A.J. Hamilton (2014) Strawberry elds forev-

er? Urban agriculture in developed countries: a review. Argonomy for Sustainable Development 34 (1),

21-43

Nijhuis, S. and I. Bobbink (2012) Design-related research in landscape architecture. Journal of Design Re-

search 10 (4), 239-257

Nijhuis, S. & M. Stellingwer (2011) 3D-models in landscape architecture. Envisioning Architecture. Con-

ference proceedings European Architectural Envisioning Association. Delft University of Technology,

pp 197-208

Steel, C. (2008) Food City – How Food Shapes Our Lives. London, Chatto and Windus

Van der Sande, B. et al (eds.) (2012) Food for the city. A future for the metropolis. Rotterdam, NAi publishers

Veen, E., B. Breman, J.E. Jansma (2012) Stadslandbouw, Een verkenning van groen en boer zijn in en om de

stad. Wageningen University & Research Centre

Visser, A. et al. (no date), Stadslandbouw. Retrieved from http://www.wageningenur.nl/nl/Onderzoek-Re-

sultaten/Projecten/Stadslandbouw-1.htm [accessed 1 February 2014]

Representing nature

Late twentieth century

green infrastructures

in Paris

RENÉ VAN DER VELDE, SASKIA DE WIT

van der Velde, R., & de Wit, S. (2015). Representing nature. Late twentieth century green

infrastructures in Paris. Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 205-228. doi:10.7480/rius.3.838

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Abstract

The appreciation of green infrastructures as 'nature' by urban communities

presents a critical challenge for the green infrastructure concept. While many

green infrastructures focus on functional considerations, their renement as

places where concepts of nature are represented and where nature can be

experienced and understood, has received little attention in research and praxis.

Contemporary urban societies entertain varied and distinctive ideas on nature

and their relationship to it, themes explored in contemporary urban park and

garden design. These projects can provide insights into the representation,

comprehension and experience of nature in green infrastructures. This article

expands on contemporary conceptions of nature in urban parks and urban

gardens such as those realised in Paris between 1980 and 2000. The projects

all display articulated expressions of conceptions of nature, reecting both a

return to the classical garden tradition, as well as elaborations of nature via

the sensorial, 'abundant nature' and nature as process. These conceptions

can be positioned within the theoretical framework of three forms of nature –

rst nature (wilderness), second nature (cultural landscape) and third nature

(garden). In Paris, contemporary parks and gardens not only express new

forms of nature, they also form part of a green infrastructure network in their

own right. As a series of precise moments connected by rivers and canals,

this network diers markedly from prevailing green infrastructure models.

The network of parks and gardens in Paris represents a green infrastructural

network made up of a layering of historical and contemporary elements

connected in compound ways. The completeness of representations and

elaborations of nature – gathered in the three natures – can be dissected and

spread out over dierent constructed landscapes in the city, and it is up to the

green infrastructure to unite them.

KEYWORDS

green infrastructure; conceptions of nature; three natures; urban gardens; urban parks; sensorial; context;

natural processes

representing nature

207

1. INTRODUCTION

The perception and appreciation of green infrastructures as 'nature' by

urban communities presents a critical challenge for the green infrastructure

concept. How do users – individuals, groups or collective urban populations

– see and value green infrastructures? In his research on the concepts, per-

ceptions and uses of green infrastructure in spatial planning, Ian Mell (2010)

found that the perception of green infrastructures is informed by highly di-

verse factors determined by physical, psychological or social understandings

of the environment. He also found that form and composition of landscape

was central to positive perceptions, and that this perception was linked rst-

ly to its natural or ecological composition and after that its social meaning.

A precise denition of what natural and ecological composition is, was not

given in the research. However his conclusions indicate that natural form is a

principal driver of the perception and valuing of green infrastructures.

According to psychologists Stephen and Rachel Kaplan (1989) the per-

ception of nature is so important because it provides 'restorative experienc-

es' to recover from the fatigue created by mental eort, coping with hassles,

and the everyday demands of living in the modern world. They identied four

factors as being particularly important to the achievement of a restorative

experience: the feeling of being away, fascination (eortless attention), ex-

tent (having both enough scope and enough coherence) and compatibility (in

the sense of the environment being compatible with one's abilities and de-

sires); factors which all play a role in wilderness experiences. However they

discovered that these factors can be found equally in nearby and 'ordinary'

natural environments such as parks and gardens, suggesting them to be

equally valuable as places where concepts of nature are represented and can

be experienced. Consequently, representations and elaborations of nature in

contemporary urban parks and gardens can be used to inform green infra-

structure planning and design. These spaces are an important indicator of

the way in which nature is interpreted, represented and articulated for urban

populations and can provide insights and tools for the development of the

representation and experience of nature in green infrastructures.

This form of investigation also has an historical rationale: the rst green

infrastructures – greenways – developed out of the nineteenth century mu-

nicipal park tradition. Conceptions of nature were central to this tradition.

Moreover, as constructed landscapes, parks and gardens oer important

clues as to how urban societies conceive nature and express it through form.

Green infrastructures are more than just preserved natural areas within de-

veloping regions, they are also invariably built, and cultivated. With a few ex-

ceptions, green infrastructures are thus not necessarily or exclusively natural

areas but rather an interrelationship between 'nature' and 'culture'. This in-

terrelationship resides principally in design and management regimes, and

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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thereby embodies and expresses concepts of nature and landscape held by

communities and society. The focus on technical or planning aspects in green

infrastructures overlooks design and thus the importance of this cultural

component. Ignoring this component may lead to a process that urban parks

experienced in the course of the twentieth century. The rise of standardisa-

tion and normative thinking made its way into the design process and lead to

the standardisation of design solutions. The urban park was reduced to either

a technocratic element for mass recreation, or a 'bio-cratic' element where

nature was left to its own devices and human intervention was taboo (Kegel et

al., 1983). As a result the attractiveness of the park declined; the appeal of a

ubiquitous 'green' alone proved not enough to sustain its popularity.

The focus for this research is thus on evidencing contemporary concep-

tions of nature in designed parks and gardens. The projects examined in this

paper include four Parisian parks and gardens: Parc de la Villette, Parc André

Citroën, Jardin de la Bibliothèque nationale de France and Square des Bou-

leaux. We will look at how dierent images of 'nature' can be understood from

the perspective of historical and contemporary perceptions and expressions

of nature, as a framework for the understanding of the elaboration of nature

in the designs themselves. Additionally we will consider the positioning of

these new public open spaces within a network concept, with this paper con-

cluding with a brief look at the network of green spaces in Paris in relation to

the traditional green infrastructure model.

2. CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATIONS OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURES

Recent developments in research on green infrastructure have led to

a breadth of interpretations of the concept. Early lenses and applications,

which grew out of the historical greenways movement and held sway in the

1980s and early 1990s, saw green infrastructure as greenways: corridors of

various widths, linked together in a network (Fábos, 1995). Subsequent at-

tempts were made to develop categories of greenways, such as urban-ripari-

an corridors, recreational greenways, ecological corridors, scenic and histor-

ic routes and comprehensive networks (Little, 1990). Later interpretations

broadened the notion to include not just linear corridors but all manner of

physically interconnected 'green' space ranging from nature reserves and ur-

ban woodlands to designated cycle routes, channelled rivers and parklands.

Despite this broadening of interpretations, there is a common ground be-

tween the various understandings of green infrastructure, which can be sum-

marised as a set of sustainability principles. These principles reect the foci

of the range of academic elds involved in green infrastructure. In the eld

of conservation and ecology, the emphasis is on safeguarding or developing

representing nature

209

ecological networks and biodiversity (Benedict & McMahon, 2006). From the

perspective of planning and urban development, green infrastructure is seen

as a network for the provision and management of water resources, storm

water and ood prevention, or as a means to locate alternative infrastructures

for commuting. In recreation planning, green infrastructure is envisaged as a

spine or framework of recreational facilities with a focus on their accessibility

and connectivity for urban populations. Synthesised together, green infra-

structure can be described as "the connective features (physical and metaphorical)

linking dierent environmental elements across the rural and urban landscape, thus

providing multi-functional (ecological, economic and social) benets for diverse

populations" (Mell, 2010).

This multi-functional approach is exemplied by the North Brabant

'Streekplan' (1992), which addresses the landscape and environmental prob-

lems created from the conict between intensive agriculture, nature protec-

tion and encroaching urbanisation. The plan segregates developments and

nature protection by proposing an ecological network in which nature may

exist in a permanent and connected system. In principle it links larger habitat

patches with others via a network of corridors, using a target species based

approach, and supported by island biogeography and metapopulation theo-

ries. At the same time it attempts to integrate water management, cycling

and walkways, and recreational facilities within its framework (gure 1).

Figure 1 Functional and ecological approach of green infrastructure: North Brabant Streekplan (source:

Structuurvisie Ruimtelijke Ordening, courtesy Provincie Noord-Brabant)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

210

In terms of social benet to urban communities, research and praxis has

focussed on functional aspects such as sport and recreational amenity, and

routing for connectivity, accessibility and health. The degree to which green

infrastructures oer urban communities spaces that generate and reect

personal and collective notions of nature, has to date received little attention.

Central to these goals is the perception of landscape and green spaces by in-

dividuals and groups, but despite the extent of research into environmental

perception, little work has been done on the perception of green infrastruc-

tures.

3. THREE NATURES

How might the representation and elaboration of nature in constructed

landscapes such as parks and gardens be approached? The classical analysis

of 'rst, second and third nature' (Hunt, 2000) provides a lens for explor-

ing the conceptions of nature in parks and gardens. This reading of nature

stems from the Renaissance, when a conceptual framework for the art of gar-

dens was created for the rst time. Yet this thinking is based on a much older

text, De natura deorum , written in 45 BC, which circulated in many renaissance

manuscripts. In this text the Roman writer Cicero distinguished dierent

'natures.' He described rst nature – wilderness – as the realm of the gods,

untouched by human hands, but also as the raw material for second nature: the

agrarian landscape, encompassing meadows and ploughed elds, orchards,

terraces and rural settlements. This arose out of a process of cultivation en-

acted on the natural landscape. Cicero wrote "We sow corn, we plant trees, we

fertilise the soil by irrigation, we dam the rivers and direct them where we want.

In short, by means of our hands we try to create as it were a second nature within

the natural world" (Cicero, cited in Hunt 2000, p. 33). Third nature is the man-

made nature of the garden, in which, however conscious or explicit, aspects

of both the natural and the cultural landscape are also expressed. This is aptly

represented in the diagrammatic drawing used as the frontispiece to the Abbé

Pierre le Lorrain de Vallemont's Curiositez de la Nature et de l'Art (Curiosities of

Art and Nature in Husbandry and Gardening), a popular book published in Paris

in 1705 (gure 2). Here the garden is succeeded by agricultural elds, and the

view is terminated with a lumpish hillside from the bottom of which gushes

a natural spring. In the other direction – back towards the viewer – the se-

quence is similar: rst the ordered garden, then a grove of regularly planted

trees, then the wasteland.

representing nature

211

Figure 2 The three natures of wilderness, agrarian landscape and garden (Frontispiece Abbé de

Vallemont, Curiositez de la Nature et de l'Art, 1705, courtesy SUB Göttingen)

The relation between urban parks and gardens and the three natures con-

cept becomes explicit in the nineteenth century picturesque park, modelled

on the English landscape garden. The presence of – and relationship between

– the three natures was claimed as an important characteristic of these gar-

dens. William Gilpin (1724-1804) and William Chambers (1723-1796) indicat-

ed three successive types of nature entitled 'pleasing, enchanted and sub-

lime' and used the word 'zoning' to describe their conguration in gardens

(Hunt, 2000).

In the transformation of the English landscape garden to the nine-

teenth-century urban park, these three natures were radically recongured

within new composition schemes. Steenbergen and Reh unravel this trans-

formation at Birkenhead Park in Liverpool (gure 3).

"The common zoning of the landscape garden, comprised of the 'garden', the

'meadow' and the 'wilderness', was essentially turned inside out. With their gar-

dens and parterres, the area in front of the crescents and terraces, on the outside

of the Park road, was now the 'garden'. The pleasure grounds were comparable to

the 'meadow' of the landscape garden, suitable for cricket and archery, then popular

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

212

sports for the more auent. The planting along the inside of Park drive screened the

open, slightly concave, sun-lit 'meadow' from the denser edge zone. The ponds, with

their inaccessible, wild and thickly planted islands, in the centre of the park formed

an inwardly focused transformation of the wild nature, the 'wilderness', which had

lain on the periphery of the landscape garden." (Steenbergen & Reh, 2011)

Figure 3 Three natures in Birkenhead Park (source: Steenbergen & Reh, 2011)

representing nature

213

This three natures concept however, is not a consistent theme in park

and garden design. Steenbergen and Reh chronicle the dissolution of the three

natures schema in the functionalist parks of the twentieth century. They argue

that the three natures of the nineteenth-century park scheme became isolat-

ed into separate elements of the functionalist city. "The 'wilderness' was moved

to the botanical garden, the 'meadow' became a rectangular, multifunctional play-

ing eld, and the 'garden' took on the guise of a recreational facility" (Steenbergen

& Reh, 2011). These developments can be said to adequately reect developing

conceptions of nature in urban societies in this period. Towards the end of

the twentieth century however, a new generation of urban parks and gardens

emerged in which the elaboration of nature returned as a guiding theme. This

paper asks: how has the three natures theory fared in these projects?

4. REPRESENTATION AND ELABORATION OF NATURE IN CONTEMPORARY

URBAN PARKS AND GARDENS

It is possible to examine the developments in Paris in the period from

1980 to 2000 as a case study as this period witnessed the designation and

construction of an extensive series of new public open spaces in and around

the inner city. These developments, together with parallel events in Barce-

lona and the Netherlands, are considered the beginning of a new period of

landscape design innovation embodying emerging societal visions of nature

and landscape (De Zeeuw, 1991). The dissolution and separation of the three

natures in the functionalist period was contributory to the condition urban

parks had reached in the lead-up to the period of construction in Paris be-

tween 1980 and 2000. The brief for Parc de la Villette for instance, went to

lengths to lament this condition. "[…] it can be argued that the 'green' of the city

has been transformed into a mere accompaniment to the buildings: a planted décor,

often without any imaginative power, which evokes not the slightest emotion nor

stimulates any activities, in short, provides not the slightest pleasure" (Etablisse-

ment Public du Parc de la Villette, 1982). The brieng documents thus active-

ly promoted a return to the imaginative conceptions of nature embodied in

historical examples. The reversal of this pattern in Parisian parks indicates

an important shift in the envisioning of nature by contemporary designers,

reecting in turn shifts in conceptions of nature held by urban communities.

The establishment of the Atelier Parisien d'urbanisme (APUR) in 1974,

was central to developments in Paris in this period, replacing modernist

planning dogmas with a new urban architecture paradigm and the return of

centralist thinking (Uyttenhove, 1991). Parks and gardens featured promi-

nently in the APUR's vision, describing, among other things, their impor-

tance as creative gestures to reconnect contemporary urban societies to their

public open spaces. A review of public open spaces of the city of Paris drawn

up by the APUR in 1981 criticised the technocratic nature of green space and

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

214

the lack of identiable, culturally relevant urban parks and gardens (Atelier

parisien d'urbanisme, 1981). In the report, the APUR proposed the creation of

three new urban parks in derelict industrial sites on the edges of the city: Parc

de La Villette, Parc André Citroën and Parc de Bercy, as well as a number of

other public space initiatives (gure 4).

Figure 4 Proposed green space locations along the Seine and its canals

(source: Atelier parisien d'urbanisme, 1981)

This thinking demonstrated the APUR's intention to not only revive the

connection between parks and gardens and urban populations, but also to sit-

uate them within an interconnected network together with existing facilities

in the city. 1

A study of Parc de la Villette, Parc André Citroën, Jardin de la Biblithèque

nationale de France and Square des Bouleaux exposes a range of dierent rep-

resentations of nature.

4.1 Classical interpretations of nature

Two of the parks use representations of nature from the classical garden

traditions. At Parc André Citroën a matrix of rectilinear forms determine the

geometry of the park and its spatial composition. Moreover, this park is care-

fully partitioned into dierent spaces or 'rooms' detailed in varying forms of

representing nature

215

naturalness, echoing the formal French classical gardens in which nature was

dissected into formal categories such as the parterre, tapis vert and woodlands

(Steenbergen & Reh, 2003) (gure 5).

Figure 5 Formal representation of nature in Parc André Citroën.

At Parc de la Villette, the nodal geometry of the folie grid can be seen as

a similar interpretation of nature from the classical garden tradition, in this

case an abstraction of nature via numbers, dimensions and ordering devel-

oped in renaissance thought and artistry (gure 6). 2

Figure 6 Rational representation of nature in Parc de la Villette (numbers, dimensions and ordering)

(illustration: René van der Velde)

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216

This conception of nature is also evident in the gures of the Prairie du

Circle and the Prairie du Triangle, two elds of similar size, forming together

with the rectangular footprint of the Cité des Sciences an enormous diagram

of elementary geometric forms.

Distinctive for Parc de la Villette is its additional incorporation of an Ar-

cadian conception of nature in the composition. The curvilinear gure of a

garden walk distinctly references the lines of nineteenth-century strolling

parks such as Parc des Buttes-Chaumont nearby; a fact various commen-

tators have independently (and wryly) commented on (Baljon, 1992; Meyer,

1991). The sweeping curves and parabolas are no spontaneously evolved hill-

side pathway, but rather a wilful design act resembling the lines of a pictur-

esque park (gure 7).

Figure 7 Picturesque representation of nature in Parc de la Villette. Overlay of the gure ground Parc des

Buttes-Chaumont over Parc de la Villette (illustration: René van der Velde)

4.2 Emblems of nature

Metaphor and symbol used in the classical garden tradition also gure

prominently in the representation of nature in these parks. The gardens in the

Parc de la Villette evoke images of exotic or native landscapes, as for example

the bosco of bamboo in the Jardin des bamboos evoking a primeval forest, or

representing nature

217

the vines and climbing plants in the Jardin de la treille, referencing orchards

or allotment gardens. Similarly, the gardens at Parc André Citroën symbolise

the rich tradition of horticulture in France through elaborate planting designs

and symbolic references.

This use of metaphor and symbols depicting nature had not been seen

in urban parks for much of the twentieth century. In contrast to their use in

nineteenth-century parks, twentieth-century parks were characterised by an

increasing absence of expressive form. Planting design in parks for instance,

changed dramatically. Whereas in the nineteenth-century park, planting had

an independent role in the design, arising out of horticultural traditions and

embodying pantheistic ideals about nature, it became progressively margin-

alised in park design, serving only to demarcate and organise park functions,

or sometimes to simulate botanic communities for ecological purposes (De

Jong & Dominicus-Van Soest, 1999).

4.3 The sensorial

Conceptions of nature in these parks however, go further than can be

claried through the lens of abstractions of nature from the classical design

tradition. While the emphasis used to be on visual experience, in contempo-

rary parks and especially gardens, multi-sensory perception dominates. In

1929 Johannes Granö dened two realms of perception, the Fernsicht and the

Nahsicht. According to Granö, Nahsicht is the environment we can experience

with all our senses; Fernsicht is the part of our environment we mainly ex-

perience by vision: the landscape, determined by the horizon (Granö, 1929).

The relationship between distance and sensory information is relative to

the reach of each dierent element of sensory information. In open space,

sounds do not carry as far as light, and smell has an even narrower scope.

Taste and touch can only be experienced upon direct bodily contact. Because

weight, pressure, and resistance are part of our habitual body experience, we

unconsciously identify with these characteristics in the forms we see. Prox-

imity makes one attentive to the material reality of earth, plants and water,

such as mass, grain, fragility, suppleness or fragility.

In Parc André Citroën, a large part of the park is taken up by a series of

thematic gardens based on the sensorial aspects of nature. The edge of the

park is divided into small, enclosed gardens, where colour, scent, sound and

haptic stimuli are amply used, generating intense sensorial experiences. The

individual relationship of the visitor with the gardens alters with each gar-

den, one being viewed from a balcony, another from a path, and a third from

a self-contained space seen from the inside. Dierent slopes and material

underfoot address the sense of body balance, and plants have various textures

and scents (gure 8).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

218

Figure 8 Sensorial aspects of nature: tactile sensation

in the Orange Garden, Parc André Citroën

Similarly in Parc de la Villette the gardens lining the garden walk rep-

resent the introduction of nature in the park via sensory qualities of nature.

The mysterious grove of spruce and birch in the Jardin des frayeurs enfan-

tines (Childhood fears garden) is accompanied by sinister music. And as its

name implies, the Jardin des ombres (Shadow garden) plays a skilful game

with light and shadow, while the ninety fountains in the Jardin de la treille

(Trellised garden) are a visual and audible sensation of water (gure 9).

Figure 9 Sensorial aspects of nature: visual and audible sensation

of water in the Jardin de la treille, Parc de la Villette

representing nature

219

The most elaborate expression of a sensory garden in the Parc de la Vil-

lette, however, is the Jardin des bambous. Its designer Alexander Chemeto

lowered the garden into the ground to literally escape Tschumi's sequential

imagery concept devised for the gardens (Aben & De Wit, 1999). More impor-

tantly, lowering the garden into the ground not only allows it to escape from

the eeting experience of sequential (visual) images above, but also creates

an enclosure in which sensorial perception can be developed. When descend-

ing, the sound of cascades that accompany the monumental staircase grad-

ually drowns out that of the outside world. The stairs lead to a circular room

with high stucco walls, a break in between the active world of the park and

the relaxation of the garden, with articial frog sounds aurally enlarging the

distance between the urban sounds of the park and the natural sounds of the

garden. A narrow path on a steel grid under which one can hear (but not see)

the water owing, leads the visitor through the dense bamboo foliage while

ducking under the sewer pipes running through the garden. It is warmer and

more humid than above ground and the sound of owing and rippling water is

everywhere. There is so much bamboo that one cannot see the boundaries of

the garden, an exotic wood that seems to go on forever. The Jardin des bam-

bous presents itself as one of the visual images in the park: an abundance of

bamboo, while the details remain hidden. Within the garden, however, there

is no overview, and auditory and haptic stimuli complement the visual, with

emphasis on the earthly aspects (gure 10). So it is within the scope of this

garden that multisensory integration of nature is brought into play.

Figure 10 Jardin des Bambous (Parc de la Villette) exemplies the multisensory experience, evoked by

proximity in an enclosed space (illustration: Saskia de Wit)

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220

4.4 The material presence of nature: abundance

The physical presence of nature was further elaborated in other projects

of this period in Paris with the construction of the Jardin de la Bibliothèque

nationale de France (National Library garden), designed by Dominique Per-

rault and completed in 1989. The library buildings were assembled around a

large central garden, located in a sequence of large urban voids along the river

Seine including Place de la Concorde, Champs de Mars, Invalides, and Parc de

Bercy. In the garden everything is subordinate to the dominating image of a

primordial forest. 250 mature Scots pines, birches, and oaks are planted in a

carpet of heather and ferns. This image is achieved by transplanting a com-

plete fragment of the Fôret de Bord in Normandy. The garden is sunk into a

raised podium, from where escalators descend halfway into the garden. Here

a platform, like a balcony overlooking the garden, allows for access to the

library. From the lower level inside the building, the trees obscure the view

to the facades, making the garden appear as part of an unbounded landscape

space. The visitor, however, remains outside the garden, separated by a glass

facade. The inaccessibility of the garden proper enhances the eect of wilder-

ness, nature untouched by man (gure 11).

Figure 11 Abundance of nature in the Jardin de la Bibliothèque nationale de France

A similar iteration of nature can be found in the Square des Bouleaux, the

central garden for a housing complex in the city centre designed by Michel

Desvigne, constructed between 1989 and 1992. In the isolated space, a 'liv-

ing' environment is introduced – rich, coherent and spectacular. The form

representing nature

221

is entirely blurred for the benet of the richness of its materials and texture.

The birch forest represents an intensied version of nature, suggesting a pri-

mordial nature that has always existed on this location. It is a potent image:

nature transposed to the urbanised context, with natural nature replaced by

articial nature, mimicking the natural processes. Nature is represented as a

creative force for the city. It is the continuous change of natural growth that

determines the design, not the design as a nal product, as a fait accompli

( gure 12).

Figure 12 Abundance of nature in the Square des Bouleaux

4.5 Nature as process

The elaboration of nature as process evident at the Square de Bouleaux

can also be seen in specic parts of Parc André Citroën. Gilles Clément, one of

the designers of the park, envisaged the park design chiey as the "dynam-

ic management of spontaneous vegetation rather than a static visual order" (Gar-

cias, 1993). This radical vision was somewhat compromised in the realised

park. Alain Provost, another designer involved in the design, stated that the

scheme was intended to create a maximum number of natural elements and

to merit its title of 'park' by being "strong, wise, generous and poetic…based on

the strong and indispensible presence of water, the controlled dynamism of the earth

and the rhythm of vegetation" (Provost, 1991). The realisation of Clément's vi-

sion for the dynamism of nature was brought back to his design for the Jardin

en Mouvement, a constantly changing landscape responding to abiotic, biotic

and environmental processes, with a minimum of intervention or regulation

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

222

(gure 13). This garden lies at the edge of the park, next to the river, following

the principle of a progression from natural (the river) to articial (the city).

In the garden the paths shift each year, adapting to a spontaneous spread of

seeds, causing a continuous modication of circulation and vegetation.

Figure 13 Experiencing the natural processes in the Jardin en Mouvement, Parc André Citroën

5. DISCUSSION: THREE NATURES IN CONTEMPORARY PARISIAN PARKS AND GARDENS

We opened the paper with an introduction to conceptions of nature in

urban parks and gardens through the classical analysis of 'rst, second and

third nature'. How then does this view relate to our ndings in the Parisian

parks and gardens?

5.1 First nature

From the research, we can conclude that at Parc de la Villette, rst nature

is not intentionally articulated, while at Parc André Citroën a wilderness of

sorts can be seen in the Jardin en Mouvement (Garden in Movement). This

garden is conceived as a dynamic system of planting subject to the whims of

nature and only occasionally interfered with by gardeners (Clément, 1995).

The representation of rst nature (wilderness) as a sacred, undisturbed en-

tity is also embodied in the Jardin de la Bibliothèque nationale de France.

representing nature

223

These last two examples reect an emerging pattern of envisioning of nature

with natural processes, and the representation of a nature in which humans

are (literally) excluded. The conception of nature as wilderness via notions

of process and 'abundance' developed rapidly in park design discourse sub-

sequent to these projects. Understanding and articulating natural processes

now forms the dominant theme of many contemporary park projects (Berriz-

beitia, 2007; Pollak, 2007).

5.2 Second nature

The articulation of second nature of the agrarian landscape can be evi-

denced in the multifunctional lawns of the Prairies du Triangle and du Cir-

cle at Parc de la Villette and in the more architectonically articulated grassy

planes of Parc André Citroën. The question remains as to whether these ele-

ments can be motivated as a representation of second nature or whether they

are merely a continuation of the functionalist dogma of the Volkspark based on

sociological principles. If however, as argued by Hunt, the historical extrap-

olation of second nature revolved around nature as a useful, productive land-

scape, then the vision for the lawns in these parks as a tableau for a diversity

of activities and uses may still be seen as correlating to second nature. Addi-

tionally, the thematic emerging at Parc André Citroën in which many agrarian

plants and techniques from the French horticultural tradition are used clearly

embodies the idea of second nature.

5.3 Third nature

The articulation of third nature – that of the garden – nds its expression

in a range of features in the Parisian projects. By referencing the main com-

position element of the nineteenth-century strolling park, the garden walk

at Parc de la Villette is a clear iteration of third nature sourced from historical

examples. More unequivocally, third nature is exemplied by the series of gar-

dens realised in both Parc de la Villette and Parc André Citroën. In contrast to

rst nature and second nature, the critical characteristic of third nature, is that

nature is brought into the realm of human perception. In historical examples

such as Parc de Buttes Chaumont and Birkenhead Park, this was translated in

the composition through the emphasis on the routing as a sequence of visual

and spatial experiences. However, in the gardens in Parc de la Villette and

Parc André Citroën a new aspect of human perception comes to the fore: mul-

ti-sensory perception. Sensory conditions are emphasised as attributes of the

design to structure, serve and enhance perceptual awareness of nature.

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6. PARISIAN PARKS AND GARDENS AS COMPONENTS OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

The positioning of many of these new public open spaces within a net-

work structure is of relevance to this paper (see gure 4). Despite its dense

urban fabric, the city of Paris boasts more than 400 parks and gardens, con-

gured within a network of green space which has developed over many cen-

turies. From the sixteenth century onwards, chateaus had been built along

the river Seine. In the seventeenth century the chateaus were enlarged and

reorganised, dominated by the creation of spatial axes, connecting the gar-

dens into an all-embracing system. When incorporated in the urban fab-

ric, these gardens were transformed into urban parks, organised around the

river as a backbone, and connected by avenues. Thus the basis was laid for

the landscape identity of Paris in the seventeenth century, formalised in the

system of avenues, gardens and parks. In the nineteenth century a new net-

work was superimposed on this system, made up of urban avenues, prome-

nades and boulevards, linked to a system of parks, public gardens, and green

squares, and incorporating former hunting forests. The Seine – extended with

the canals St. Martin, Bassin de l'Arsenal and Bassin de la Villette – remained

the backbone of the system but the axial system faded away, replaced by a

network of overlaps and confrontations between the seventeenth-century

formal network and the contemporary urban network. The parks and gardens

realised between 1980 and 2000 form part of this growing network of inter-

connected public open spaces.

The origins of Parc de la Villette and Parc André Citroën, as browneld

parks projected onto derelict industrial sites, was also repeated on a larger

scale. With the canals losing their industrial function in the twentieth centu-

ry, they were transformed into the threads of this extended green infrastruc-

ture. These new facilities each express nature in dierent ways, which, when

viewed as a collection, address the range of three natures. The value of this

green network in the city of Paris is not so much their interconnectedness,

but the multiplicity of conceptions of nature they oer (gure 14).

representing nature

225

Figure 14 The formal network and urban green spaces of Paris (source: Steenbergen & Reh, 2011)

7. CONCLUSIONS

7.1 A catalogue of conceptions of nature

A rst conclusion we can draw is that in these projects nature is repre-

sented and articulated using abstract conceptions of nature from the classical

garden tradition, evidenced in historic parks and gardens such as Birkenhead.

Also derived from the classical tradition is the use of metaphors of nature.

At the same time we can conclude that the nature is also articulated using

elements dissimilar to historical precedents, such as the sensorial, abun-

dance and natural processes, which can give an insight into conceptions of

nature entertained by contemporary societies. In addition, we can draw from

this brief overview that, unlike historical examples such as Birkenhead Park,

rst, second and third nature are not present in equal measure in the examples.

In some, one of the three is lacking altogether; in others the emphasis is on

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

226

one, at the cost of the others. Third nature, when understood as the domain

of nature relating to human perception, is the most prolic and articulat-

ed conception found in the examples, giving room for both classical and new

conceptions of nature. This indicates a broader development of visions and

articulations of nature in parks and gardens.

Contemporary conceptions of nature seen in these examples are diverse

and rich. The application of these insights for the development of green in-

frastructures lies in their explication of conceptions of nature envisaged for

urban communities. Although green infrastructure elements consist of more

than parks and gardens, they are strongly related to them and as such can be

expected to be subject to similar terms of reception and valuing.

A critical aspect of the research is the reception and valuing of these ex-

amples by urban communities. To what extent the presumed representation

of conceptions of nature put forward by designers correlates to how people

receive and value these spaces is an important question for further research.

In addition, cultural dierences obviously inuence conceptions of nature

and have had a clear eect on these projects. The articulation of the concep-

tions of nature in situations outside France deserves further attention.

7.2 The network of parks and gardens in Paris as a green infrastructure

The form of the network is also an important question, with the Paris

network making an interesting case study. The network of parks and gardens

in Paris represents a green infrastructural network made up of a layering of

historical and contemporary elements connected in compound ways, but not

necessarily always physically connected. This network deserves further study

but does show that green systems are also valid even in high-density historic

city cores such as Paris. The parks and gardens in Paris are an example of an

architectural interpretation of a network that permeates the whole city. The

dierent conceptions of nature from the classical design tradition not only

determined the form of the parks, but also the way they were connected and

interrelated within the urban system. The new parks and gardens of the late

twentieth century each had a dierent focus, which, when viewed as a collec-

tion, address a range of conceptions of nature. The value of this green net-

work in the city of Paris is an array of interpretations and representations of

nature, all derived from human perception and use, and thus can be appreci-

ated in dierent ways by urban communities. Where in the nineteenth-cen-

tury parks the triangle of three natures determined the unity of the park, this

does not need to be the case. From the Parisian case study we can see that the

completeness of representations and elaborations of nature – gathered in the

three natures – can be dissected and spread out over dierent constructed

landscapes in the city, and it is the green infrastructure as a whole, which

unites them.

representing nature

227

ENDNOTES

1 For each of the three parks design competitions were drawn up by the APUR. Eventually Parc de

La Villette was designed by Bernard Tschumi and built between 1984 and 1992. For the Parc André

Citroën the two winning teams joined forces into a team consisting of the architects Patrick Berger,

Jean Paul Viguier, Jean Francois Jodry, and landscape architects Gilles Clément and Alain Provost. The

park was executed between 1986 and 1998. Parc de Bercy (which we will not elaborate on further

in this paper) is made up of three gardens designed by architects Bernard Huet, Madeleine Ferrand,

Jean-Pierre Feugas, Bernard Leroy, and by landscape architects Ian le Caisne and Philippe Raguin

between 1993 and 1997.

2 Interpretations of nature through geometry rst emerged in the Renaissance; whereas western me-

dieval interpretations of nature viewed the terrestrial world as chaotic and exemplary of the fall of

man, renaissance thinkers looked on the chaos of terrestrial nature as another form of divine order,

albeit well concealed. In unravelling this divine order, they turned to classical thinking of Plato to un-

derstand and imitate nature via mathematics, expressed in the axiom 'Natura artis magistra est' and

leading to the development of an ideal system of proportions, dimensions and ratios derived from

nature. This system also had as its basis the human gure, which was perceived as the vessel of divine

order in that it was created in 'the image of God'. In architecture, the proportions of the human body,

articulated in Vitruvius's De Architectura (25-23 BC) were thus interpreted as diagrammatic of a cosmic

nature, a metric diagram of the hidden order of nature.

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infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

229

Infrastructure

as landscape as

architecture

DANIEL JAUSLIN

Jauslin, D. (2015). Infrastructure as landscape as architecture. Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 229-

251. doi:10.7480/rius.3.839

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Abstract

In a critical review this chapter shows how the Yokohama Ferry Terminal by

Foreign Oce Architects crossed the three distinct realms of 'infrastructure',

'architecture' and 'landscape'. This key individual project dissolved disciplinary

borders between the three disciplines and achieved new methodical grounds

for design. It is a precedent in a general shift in the development of the

design disciplines of the built environment. The single project shows how

deep conceptual shifts aect the disciplinary assumptions that initially limited

this task for architects–and how versatile the strategies of infrastructure

and landscape are in architecture. While the Yokohama Ferry Terminal is at

rst sight simply a passenger terminal, it is also an infrastructural transport-

related building, used most of the time as a garden-like public space. At rst

elaborating on denitions of the three terms 'infrastructure', 'landscape', and

'architecture', the article will question how plausible and useful these divisions

between the categories are for designers, or if we should rather focus on

the crossings of these divisions. A discipline that wants to be dynamic is

to be explored at its edges as well as preserved in its core. Such crossings

become especially relevant in ambitious projects. With this example at hand,

this chapter explores the disciplinary framework and will touch upon design

methodological denitions. The case study is valuable to show the full depth of

eld that architecture with landscape methods can have within contemporary

architectural production and how landscape and infrastructure can merge

in new kinds of public artifacts beyond object centered design. The themes

that make the Yokohama Ferry Terminal's form or 'scape' can be summarised

under the term 'ow'.

KEYWORDS

architecture as landscape; Yokohoma Ferry terminal; owscape; infrascape

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

231

1. INTRODUCTION

The following paper is a critical review of a design project that crossed

the three a priori distinct realms of infrastructure, architecture and landscape.

In their Yokohama Ferry Terminal (constructed from 1995 to 2002) Foreign

Oce Architects integrated their task of designing a building as both infra-

structural and landscape design, unravelling new methods for architecture.

Alongside highlighting some specic features from the three elds in-

frastructure, landscape and architecture, this paper presents a single project

that crossed disciplinary borders between infrastructure, landscape and ar-

chitecture in a very distinctive manner. This key individual project dissolved

disciplinary borders and achieved new methodical grounds for the architec-

tural design of buildings, but also contains a disciplinary shift in the develop-

ment of the built environment in general. The single project here is needed

to show how deeply each of these conceptual shifts aects the disciplinary

assumptions that initially limited the task at hand – and how versatile the

strategies of landscape are in architecture.

The Yokohama Ferry Terminal 'Osanbashi' in Japan is a much-regarded

work of architecture. Typologically it is simply a passenger terminal, an infra-

structural transport-related building used most of the time as a garden-like

public space. However, this project is remarkable in many respects – to be-

gin, it has an astonishing structural design that integrates form, structure

and space. And all the themes that make its form or 'scape' can be readily

summarised under the term 'ow' (gure 1).

Figure 1 Yokohama Ferry Terminal (photographs by Daniel Jauslin)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

232

The three terms 'infrastructure', 'landscape', and 'architecture' all seem

to describe three clearly divided categories of objects and professional elds.

'Infrastructure' would be understood as public works designed by civil engi-

neers, 'architecture' would be buildings designed by architects, and 'land-

scape' would be something a bit more dicult to dene, but regarded more or

less as settings for these others designed by 'landscape architects'. In speak-

ing generally about 'landscapes' we can say that there are roughly three kinds:

the garden, the cultural landscape and the natural landscape. As extensively

described by John Dixon Hunt (2000), each of these modes of 'second nature'

represent nature in dierent ways or 'stages of perfection'. In modern times

gardens are designed by landscape architects, but their ambitions are now

generally regional in scale. These designers do not want to be confused with

gardeners anymore. Gardens, cultural and natural landscapes are creatively

idealised by artists, poets and other more sensitive humans. In practice often

this idealisation leads to overlapping between the three theoretical categories

of landscape. For example, the urban community garden I am now designing

in collaboration with my neighbourhood council is idealised by some of my

neighbours to be a productive and beautiful garden, the site for group events

in addition to a representative, functioning piece of nature in the city. Us-

ers and designers of projects alike are operating in between disciplines. Civil

works, public buildings and designed landscapes are always attracting a great

variety of interests. Infrastructures, architectures and landscapes literally

become a projection of people's own interests, narratives, long and short-

term agendas, daydreams or life plans.

In modern and more economic terms – and in relation to urban settings

– the practical uses or functions of built human environments are now of-

ten categorised according to the terms 'infrastructure', 'landscape' and 'ar-

chitecture'. Dierent economic concepts are contrived, creating value out of

each. While utilitarian 'infrastructure' is valuable only within the network

of connectivity, 'architecture' is often still valued as a precious object or real

estate, and 'landscape' is an environmental setting, usually with less tangi-

ble value. Again 'landscape' is somehow more dicult to put into economic

terms, unless explicitly in regards to real estate, resource extraction or food

production. Leisure uses, for example, might conict with landscape's other

functions for food production – and each of these will in some instances be

in conict with the need to maintain underlying ecological continuity. A good

design will somehow allow for each of these in such a way as not to be exclu-

sive of the others. Likewise, the activity of gardening often involves manag-

ing entropic processes of growth and decay in relation to seasonal oscilla-

tions; a natural landscape can become multifunctional, and the experience of

it a product marketed as a brand for tourism. The Algarve, as one example, is

the name of a landscape that has been declared a marketing brand: "Visit the

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

233

Algarve – Europe's most famous secret" (Algarve, 2013). While it is a successful

brand of major economic signicance for Portugal, it also provides an exam-

ple of how the priorities of the tourism industry can pose a high risk to natural

landscapes (Nunes et al., 2009). With ten million visitors a year, successfully

branded landscapes can become a threat to themselves.

However plausible the divisions between the categories 'infrastruc-

ture', 'architecture' and 'landscape' are, their usefulness for designers are

questionable. For an innovative design agenda we would rather focus on the

crossings between these divisions. A discipline that wants to be lively is to be

explored at its edges as well as preserved at its core. It is a clear consequence

of the life and dynamics of a professional and academic design discipline to

work not only within decidedly common ground, but also to engage with the

overlap of each discipline with other neighbouring disciplines. This becomes

especially relevant in ambitious projects, sometimes referred to in martial

terms as 'avant-garde', because the most ambitious designers ght on an

imaginary frontline with an imaginary enemy.

If landscape architecture seems to have a more dicult, less dened

place among the design disciplines, we might be better o starting with what

it is not. Meto Vroom (1995) tried this when he said that landscape architec-

ture is simply designed outdoor space. But his denition 'ex negativo' is at

once hollow as a building block to theory and somehow sad as a perspective

for practice. We could try to nd a positive denition for each of the three

categories. In all the three design disciplines we speak of a certain canon

of types: typologies of structures, buildings and designed landscapes. Let's

briey mention two for each.

– A pipeline or bridge would be a type of infrastructure.

– A temple or a theatre would be a type of architecture

– A garden or a park would be a type of designed landscape

So some good examples of the above six types could clearly each be as-

signed to a discipline at rst sight. But if we look closely, many great works

usually engage the boundaries. Finally, dening each discipline with excel-

lent historic, canonical examples does not help in dividing into categories.

But then, if we look at water supply infrastructure: for example, the Pont du

Gard, the religious architecture at the Acropolis and the great gardens of Ver-

sailles, each of them a masterpiece and World Cultural Heritage (UNESCO,

2013), we must admit that each of these great works involves a transgression

across the disciplines. Such masterpieces, even though of undoubted value,

are not easily attributed to design disciplines. Still, let us try to explain the

departure point of the three disciplines through these examples and their

craftsmen: the 'civil engineer', the 'architect' and the 'landscape architect'.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

234

Figure 2 Pont du Gard, Gravure du Pont du Gard by C.-L. Clérisseau, 1804

Pont du Gard (gure 2) is related to water supply and thus infrastruc-

ture, notably a Latin word of Roman origin (in Latin infra means underneath,

structura means tting together). An infrastructure like this is the work of en-

gineers (in Latin ingenium means talent) that uses scientic knowledge for

building structures, engines and appliances. Both infrastructure and engi-

neering come from military use, consequently 'civil engineering', the term

still used today, was established as a discipline to distinguish the applica-

tions of engineering for civilian society from those intended for military use.

The construction of Pont du Gard was also part of a military operation. It was

probably initiated around 20 B.C. by Agrippa (64-12 B.C.) who had served as

a general under Emperor Augustus at Actium. While Agrippa was situated in

Gaul, he established taxation, road and water systems there. Agrippa was the

founder and probably even designer of the rst Roman Pantheon. The Roman

Empire was then a military state at its highest power. Seldom is a brilliant

man reduced to only one specialty: Agrippa was also a geographer and au-

thor of the famously lost Orbis Terrarum, a world map that represented the

Roman Empire in the centre of a globe seen from below. It is not clear to us

if Agrippa can really be called a designer, but at least he had a wide inuence

and versatile interest in scientic approach to measures and constructions

of various kinds. All intelligence of the Pax Romana was used for control, and

clearly infrastructure, like representation in buildings and maps, was vital to

control of the empire. In French both terms are still used for the infrastruc-

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

235

ture of warfare (génie militaire) and of pacied societies (génie civil). The real

power of the Pont du Gard however is not military or political but artistic.

The real poetry develops in the interplay of the rhythmical arches of Pont du

Gard, drawing a strong horizontal line onto the topography the wild uvial

landscape of the Gardon Valley.

The Acropolis of Athens is not simply architecture, but because of its

many references from theorists and practitioners throughout architectural

history, it is perhaps by now the most canonical of all building sites (gure 3).

Figure 3 Acropolis of Athens (photograph by A. Savin)

One of its most praised buildings, the Parthenon Temple devoted to Ath-

ena, was designed by Ictinus, an architect, around 450 B.C. Notably his pro-

fession is identied as the Greek word ἀἀἀἀἀἀἀἀἀἀ – arkhitekton (from ἀἀἀἀ- 'chief' and ἀἀἀἀἀἀ

'carpenter') still used today. The Doric style of the Parthenon and its archi-

tecture, the well-balanced tectonic composition of its facade, and the precise

proportional measurements of its columns have been used by generations of

authors and practitioners of architecture at such dierent times as those of

Vitruvius (85-20 B.C.), Julien-David Leroy (1724-1803) or Le Corbusier (1887-

1965); not to mention innumerable copies in classicist, colonial and postmod-

ern architecture. It is not an exaggeration to call the study and representa-

tion of this single building one of the key representatives of the tradition and

colonisation of western architecture as an academic discipline. But the many

etches and prints and the replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee,

are all not nearly as powerful as the original, sited on top of four limestone

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

236

rocks of the Cretaceous ridge that have been joined in a landll. Still today,

ascending the Acropolis is the essential part of the artistic experience. And

yet it is pointless to simply reproduce that one building. Its great power is

deeply contextual: it is achieved by its unique position at the crown of the city

of Athens, at the core of the powerful city-state.

The Versailles Gardens (among many others in and around Paris) were

Roi' for King Louis XIV. Le Nôtre is undoubtedly a historical predecessor of

modern professional landscape architects. The latter English term was prop-

agated by Frederic Law Olmsted (1822-1903), who modernised the discipline

in the United States alongside several of his contemporaries. The title of

'architect' should express a certain qualication, while the French modern

word paysagiste does not need this 'awkward' expression (Hunt, 2000). The

title 'Jardinier du Roi', was not only an appraisal but also an obligation. While

Le Nôtre had worked for the Bourbon Kings since Louis XIII, he also served

others, namely Nicholas Fouquet, a minister of nance to Louis XIV. Fouquet

commissioned the building of his castle Vaux-le-Vicomte from the architect

Le Veau, sculptor le Brun and gardener Le Nôtre (gure 4).

Figure 4 Castle and Garden of Vaux-le-Vicomte (photograph by Peter Bolhuis)

All together, the reworks, dinner, water games, and a Moliere play ev-

idently overstressed the king's patience – in addition to the intrigues of his

adversaries. The Aaire de Vaux – when Louis XIV ordered the incarceration

of Fouquet and commandeered all the artists for his own court – established

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

237

the 'monopoly of splendour'. Vaux is said to be the origin of Louis XIV fa-

mous saying "le roi c'est moi", for the French even more important in political

history than in art history. In reaction to Fouquet's display of ambition, the

king literally re-established his rule of power with the building and grounds

of Versailles. Before the site of Versailles had merely been a hunting ground

that the Bourbon Kings received from their Florentine friends, the Gondi. The

mathematical and compositional mastering of nature of the vast lands be-

hind the absolutist king Louis XIV's giant new court, is of architectural order

(Steenbergen & Reh, 2003). It is a manifestation of power in an artistic sense,

overruling Fouquet's Vaux with a giant mark of power and control in the land-

scape. Further, controlling all of the arts at one absolutist court was the ulti-

mate sign of godlike power.

With these few examples we could possibly argue that the deliberate

crossing of a discipline's border is not limiting, but rather expanding the

quality of a work. However, this might be an overly optimistic view; or the

projects cited might just be some rare cases of outstanding artistic perfor-

mance. The crossing of disciplinary boundaries can also possibly be interpret-

ed as risking the loss of quality, or at least leading to some confusion about

the potentials and inuences of design practice on our environment. Let us

discuss this blurring in the next section.

2. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INFRASTRUCTURE, ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE?

Now, whatever happened to the division of the built environment into

these three disciplines? As Marc Angélil and Anna Klingmann (1999) pointed

out in an essay analysing the situation, the dissolving of boundaries between

traditionally separated disciplines is the core element of Rem Koolhaas' cru-

cial essays 'Whatever happened to Urbanism' and 'Generic City' (1995); both

of which are roundly critical of the production of urban space at the end of the

twentieth century.

"If architecture is declared landscape, infrastructure is declared architecture, and

landscape is declared infrastructure, the precondition is created to understand the

phenomenon of the city otherwise" (Angélil & Klingmann, 1999: 20). The term

town-scape prex. In the late 1990s architects like Rem Koolhaas and Peter

Eisenman connected the creation of space to the idea of the smooth space of

Felix Guattari's and Gilles Deleuze's Mille Plateaux (1980, English translation:

A Thousand Plateaus, 1993). In their critique of the Cartesian deterministic

model, these post-structuralist philosophers used spatial metaphors of the

'smooth' and the 'carved' landscape as alternative thought models, as the

nomadic is introduced in opposition to the settled or resident inhabitant of

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

238

the world. These thoughts, often in literal translation, have strongly inu-

enced architectural discussion.

As Angélil and Klingmann (1999) rightly observe, the form of the city is

reality, a uid continuum of interweaving systems. This is not always posi-

tive: while infrastructure is facilitating space and architecture is occupying

space, landscape is suering from loss of space. Of course there is also a pos-

itive side, and the relative forces of the three disciplines taken together can

be seen as constructive for an urban structure. Such an argument can be re-

garded as a generally accepted aspect of current, although maybe less heated,

disciplinary dialogues.

In the mid-1990s, however, architects – maybe in a 'n the siècle' de-

lirium – could not escape the idea that 'what ever happened to urbanism' is

the loss of something. Something is broken. 'The City as Scrambled Egg' is

another image, introduced by Reyner Banham (1959) as a counter concept to

Le Corbusier's image of the medieval city as an egg. It is illustrated by Cedric

Price's sketch (2003), often understood as a cynical or joking remark (gure

5).

Figure 5 The city as an egg by Cedric Price, ca. 2001

(courtesy Cedric Price Fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal)

In his essay Banham may really have seen the scrambled egg as an image

of loss. He quotes science ction writer Isaac Asimov with "a highly mech-

anised garden city spread evenly over a whole planet, its well-bred citizens commu-

nicating with one another electronically, not person to person" (Asimov, The Naked

Sun, 1957). Does this not evoke our current life in social media networks in the

twenty-rst century, more than 50 years after it was science ction?

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

239

Architects and urbanists do seem too often deplore current urban situa-

tions, using negative images and dystopian imagery. Current economics can

lead us all to be pessimistic about the role of architects; Rem Koolhaas is also

arguing that the understanding of architects (in their profession) has not de-

veloped since medieval times, stating: "[e]very profession has been inspired by

the market economy but we are still stuck in some kind of esoteric guild" (Koolhaas

in Lee & Baumeister, 2007: 348).

We could summarise the current situation of urban theory and practice

with the aforementioned triangle of words. Reecting on Rosalind Krauss'

essay 'Sculpture in the expanded Field' (1979), Angelil and Klingman illus-

trated this with the following diagram (gure 6).

Figure 6 Left:Diagram on the relation of Infrastructure, Architecture and Landscape

(Angélil & Klingmann, 1999) Right: Diagram from 'Sculpture in the Expanded Field' (Krauss, 1979)

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

240

But nothing bright and clear emerges out of that operation: from a clear

set of distinct bodies of knowledge we are left to foray into a eld of half

terms, not excepting the author of this paper.

But can we live like that as designers? Can we just throw out word frag-

ments, like tweets @Archi on the #scape of #land of the #tecture? In practice

we see a new disciplinary model. I think rather than completely dissolving

disciplinary boundaries, I would like to maintain the disciplinary triangle:

infrastructure, landscape and architecture. But after introducing the subject

with references like those above, I will use one single case for the rest of this

paper.

As a practicing designer and design educator, however doubtful of pre-

conceived notions and humble towards the natural environment, I am among

those who should answer questions regarding the built environment of our

time – be it that of urbanity or that of shrinking regions – with a creation.

When I encounter a theory I often ask myself: "can I make a drawing of it?" If

I nd that I cannot, I nd little value in the idea as an architect. One thing I

have realised in my rst years of practice (starting in 1997) is that what we

propose as designers, rarely, if ever, gets any better in realisation than the

actual drawings we made. Now, in order to draw clearly we must think clearly.

How can we tackle such vast elds, these quickly developing forces that shape

the contemporary living environment?

I rediscovered an earlier project of OMA with the inuence (and collab-

oration) of landscape architect Yves Brunier when it was recently exhibited

in Frankfurt (Elser, 2012): a masterplan for Melun Senart (1987). This project

is represented by an astonishingly beautiful architectural model, depicting

not the space to be built, which was designed seemingly randomly, an ar-

chitecture left to uncontrollable forces of markets and the interpretation of

builders, but designing the void that should not be built. The architects of

OMA write:

"The built is now fundamentally suspect. The unbuilt is green, ecological, pop-

ular. If the built – le plein – is now out of control – subject to permanent political,

nancial turmoil – the same is not yet true of the unbuilt; nothingness may be the

last subject of plausible certainties. […] At a moment when the complexity of each

three-dimensional undertaking is infernal, the preservation of the void is compara-

tively easy. In a deliberate surrender – tactical manoeuvre to reverse a defensive po-

sition – our project proposes to extend this political shift to the domain of urbanism:

to take urbanism's position of weakness as its premise." (OMA, 1987)

The project is creating the voids, and therefore preserving the real quality

of the new city: its landscape.

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

241

3. MEGASTRUCTURE, MEGAFORM, MEGASCAPE

One reaction to the loss of control of space in architecture and urban-

ism is the strategy of increasing scale. The term 'megastructure' arose in the

1960s. Fumikhiko Maki (1964) explains the concept of megastructure as a

principal of form, later dierentiated from megaform large buildings within

the urban tissue by Kenneth Frampton (1999).

"The megastructure is a large frame in which all the functions of a city or part

of a city are housed. It has been made possible by present-day technology. In a sense,

it is a human-made feature of the landscape. It is like the great hill on which Italian

towns were built. Inherent in the megastructure concept, along with a certain static

nature, is the suggestion that many and diverse functions may be benecially con-

centrated in one place. A large frame implies some utility in combination and con-

centration of functions." (Maki, 1964)

Kenzo Tange's 1960 proposal for Tokyo's extension into Tokyo Bay as lat-

er used as an illustration by Maki to the concepts of that time (gure 7).

Figure 7 Extension of Tokio Bay by Kenzo Tange

The megastructure was taken to almost surrealistic extremes by Super-

studio's 'Continuous Monument' (1969): by extending a single piece of ar-

chitecture over the entire world, it was established to assert cosmic order on

earth (gure 8). It's extremely abstract architecture is enjoyable largely be-

cause it is only just readable, and is only represented in contrast to natural

landscapes or older city structures.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

242

Figure 8 Continuous Monument Superstudio

(courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York 2009)

As multipurpose buildings, megastructures typically do not dieren-

tiate between building typologies. It is not uncommon in the history of ar-

chitecture that large buildings change their use. For example, the Roman

Market and Legal Court Basilica have become the prototype for the Christian

Church, still carrying its original name in Romanic languages. However, the

design of such border-crossing structures is truly, enduringly modern. Over

time architecture became, among other things, a science of building types:

multipurpose structures would not be considered architecture. Like Joseph

Paxton's Crystal Palace (1851), which revolutionised industrial building pro-

duction with pre-fabrication and standard elements. According to Kenneth

Frampton (1980: 30) this was not a question of culture but one of engineering.

Of course, in reality designers are not only passively promoting typolo-

gies, but actively creating them. Since the end of the twentieth century, ar-

chitecture, landscape architecture and urbanism have been shaking up the

disciplinary framework from within each of their realms – after all, they had

only recently been so dierentiated. Again, Gilbert Laing Meason coined the

term 'landscape architecture' in 1828, rst being used as a professional ti-

tle by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1863. Academic programs in urban design

only began to appear after the Second World War (Harvard celebrated the

50th anniversary of their program in 2010). Between landscape and urbanism

the term 'Landscape Urbanism' was established at the end of the twentieth

century, and 'landscape infrastructure' came along at the beginning of the

twenty-rst century in the context of theoretical debate, since facilitating

the naming of many educational or practicing design studios. In architecture

'bigness', yet another term propagated by Koolhaas (1995), ideologically fer-

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

243

tilised disciplinary grounds for the design of megastructures, megaforms or

even megascapes.

The on-going negotiation between disciplines is probably a sign of qual-

ity. Each discipline is expanding methodological dierences beyond the need

for classication. If each specic design method is based on experiences of a

specic discipline, that transgression beyond the discipline could be the stage

of ow and the blurring of disciplinary boundaries could lead to genuine in-

novation. The owing between disciplines is legitimate. I believe designs that

result from an integration of the disciplines enhance each of them.

Pessimistic critics of culture warn us that craftsmanship falls apart,

leaving our disciplines utterly powerless in navigating the forces of modern

times. I would like to introduce one work of architecture that, in my opinion,

successfully crossed these three disciplinary borders in a single stunning act

of design integration.

4. FLOWSCAPES AT YOKOHAMA FERRY TERMINAL

Is the dissolution of disciplinary borders really a sign of the crisis of plan-

ning strategies? I do not think so. In the introduction paper we explained the

roots of this concept as the marriage of two landscape architectural traditions

represented in 'ow' and 'scapes'. We can see the introduction of 'ows-

capes' as a way to operate within the contemporary, post-urbanist milieu.

The Yokohama project has been cited by many relevant experts as an

example of a new trans-disciplinary practice. It has been cited in overviews

of architecture as an expansion into the domain of landscape as Megaform

(Frampton, 1999), Groundscape (Ruby, 2002), Groundwork (Balmori & Sand-

ers, 2011), Landform Building (Allen & McQuade, 2011). In Landscape of Con-

temporary Infrastructure (Shannon & Smets, 2010) it is rightfully qualied to be

'infrastructure as public space'. All three disciplines seem to converge on this

single building. But how has this been done?

Osanbashi was the result of an international competition that targeted

a very ambitious architectural intervention. Yokohama, at the southern end

of Tokyo Bay, prides itself on being the most important harbour city of Japan

and hosting a terminal of national importance for the largest cruise ships. For

the FIFA 2002 World football championship Yokohama was to build Japan's

largest stadium, to be the venue for the nal.

Alongside other city development initiatives the City of Yokohama

launched the Ferry Terminal competition for cruise ships. Compared to other

Japanese cities that historically reect the culturally closed society of the ar-

chipelago state, as a port city Yokohama was more heavily inuenced by Chi-

nese and European culture and architecture. It became a relatively open city

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

244

long before modernism. The 1970s economic boom in Japan, and ship trade

and transportation was certainly an important factor in this development.

The competition was announced in 1994, and nalised in 1995. Six hun-

dred and sixty teams participated, roughly half of them from overseas. In the

same span of time Rem Koolhaas was nishing his inuential 1995 publication

S,M,L,XL, which I have already quoted several times as providing examples of

a kind of disciplinary confusion. In many ways the Yokohama Ferry Terminal

looked like the answer to questions then being posed about the possibilities

of form-nding within the architectural debate of its time. It seemed to hit

a disciplinary nerve, and from the start the project grabbed the attention of

architects, in both academia and in the profession.

From among the many architects who entered the competition, includ-

ing both established architects as well as the young and ambitious, two com-

plete unknowns Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo (2002) emerged

as rst in the selection procedure. In collaboration with structural engineer

Cecil Balmond of Arup, they proposed a very innovative structure; while in

terms of practical experience in construction, they were still relatively inex-

perienced. At the time they were teaching at the Architectural Association,

and they said, "this is a project we never planned to win." (Salazar et al., 2002: 9)

Rather it was designed to "explore some possibilities that we had become inter-

ested in" through three projects for publication in the AA Files, the magazine

of the London Architectural School (which became the cover of AA Files 29,

1994) (gure 9).

Figure 9 Yokohama Ferry Terminal, FOA 1993-2001,

on the Cover of AA Files nr. 29

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

245

In his appraisal juror Rem Koolhaas describes the winning design, stat-

ing: "it is unique (there has never been a pier like it), and it is architecturally an ex-

periment: an investigation in a new, more uent way of organising ows – no longer

everything 'put in its place' but a freer language that can make the familiar exciting

again." (City of Yokohama, 1995: 9)

Both young architects had actually worked at Rem Koolhaas' rm OMA

in the early 1990s. At that time other members of OMA developed the Yoko-

hama Masterplan and Jussieu Libraries (1992), and both evidently left certain

traces (see Ruby, 2002). During the time of the Yokohama competition, AA

published the Jussieu Libraries of OMA 1992-1993 (gure 10).

Figure 10 Two Libraries of Jussieu, OMA 1992-1993,

on the Cover of AA Files nr. 26

It was the cover page of the same magazine that Moussavi and Zaera-Po-

lo were developing their design for, and was a project of one of the assigned

jurors. In the same period former OMA colleagues of Moussavi Zaera-Polo,

Winy Maas and Jacob van Rijs of MVRDV, started their design of Villa VPRO

(1993-1997), which in many ways applied the concept of OMA's Jussieu Library

into another type of building. They would later postulate, "The Building is the

Landscape" (MVRDV, 1999). Likely these connections are more illustrative of

the context than somehow indicating a continuation. Even so, the Yokohama

project must be seen as quite an exceptional case of successfully negotiating,

through collaborative means, between disciplinary boundaries.

As an architect myself, I had followed the project ever since it rst ap-

peared in publications. It was then an interesting experiment, and many col-

leagues were curious whether and how it was actually going to be built. I still

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

246

remember my own surprise when I saw the completed building published

(Salazar et al., 2002) – after having somewhat lost track of it while busy with

my own early built projects. I rst visited the building in 2010 on a conference

visit to Japan as a eld trip in my PhD Research on 'Architecture with Land-

scape Methods' at Delft University of Technology. Even knowing the building

rather well, from the aforementioned publications since the competition's

inception, in reality it has still many surprising aspects. Firstly, one's ap-

proach to it – from extremely busy Tokyo through dense Yokohama – pro-

vides for a sudden relief and surprising calm. While at the entry trac lanes,

taxi and bus stops dominate, soon after curb side begins a large and extremely

calm world. The sea view and gently undulating surfaces create a very special

atmosphere. One senses that the giant pier is totally encompassed by the sea,

although the harbour situation at Yokohama is quite industrial when com-

pared to a beach at the open sea. In this regard it is very much comparable

to a English landscape garden, where movements and routings and views are

guided through, and framed by, the manipulation of a designer in order to

connect a space to the wider landscape of the elds – or, in this case, of the

sea. Even for someone who studied this building the spatial appearance is

surprising, even stunning, in reality.

The most surprising thing though is the usage of the building. In general

it is quite unexpected to see joggers, people with baby strollers and couples

taking wedding pictures in a building – here it is commonplace. Also common

are bridal couples posing for their wedding albums. People oftentimes sit on

towels or cushions, just as they would for a picnic in a garden or park. A friend

of mine observed how people strategically reserve a little space for their fam-

ilies to see the reworks by spreading blankets on the wooden deck. Many

visitors alongside appear just to enjoy the building for leisure time, talking

to friends, outdoor exercise and merely walking. It is obvious to the visitor

that this infrastructural building is also used as a kind of a park or public open

space. Its indoor and outdoor spaces are inviting for walking and experiencing

as a landscape – this curious convergence of uses does clearly not match the

above separation of disciplines.

The intended infrastructural use – the docking of ships, ostensibly the

main purpose of the building – is actually not requiring much more than a

continuous connection on one level, on two sides, to the entry deck of the

ships. The buildings' main passenger ow is from street level to boat level,

xed in the competition brief at a height of 5.2 metres above the pier. This

function requires large capacities for thousands of passengers boarding or

clearing large ships at peak times. The trac zones, designed to host large

numbers of visitors, often remain unused. These halls, then, sometimes re-

main empty, but are often also being used for strolling and connecting: a con-

ventional, if rather informal, leisure activity for a pier.

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

247

The Yokohama Ferry terminal design proposed a series of three contin-

uous undulating planes, intersecting with each other on many levels with a

total of eleven ramps. All of the passenger connections form one continuous

ow through the building – or rather the projected ow chart diagram of the

building generated its continuous form (gure 11).

Figure 11 Circulation Yokohama Ferry Terminal (courtesy Foreign Oce Architects)

This ow was designed with a owchart: a diagram of the circulation pat-

tern was drawn up to understand the ows of passengers across the building.

In the original competition drawings this ow chart is broken down into a set

of views, as a nonlinear, manifold storyboard, identifying a series of view-

points in between the undulating planes in addition to framed views of sky

and water. This method of using ows for creating a scenic route is practiced

in landscape architecture as a 'sequencing of composed views' (Nijhuis, 2011).

Having more in common with Frank Lloyd Wright's notions of plasticity and

spatial continuity (perhaps best realised in his Guggenheim Museum of 1938-

59), in architectural terms this organisation of the space in section and plan

goes far beyond other modern spatial concepts – such as Le Corbusier's Plan

Libre, or Adolf Loos' Raumplan (Risselada, 1988) – and to this day Osanbashi

still remains a rare example of this high level of spatial, structural and formal

integration.

Hokusai's famous woodblock print of a giant tsunami wave inspired the

designer's formal approach to the problem, connecting the typology with a

strong image. The building also uses the form of folding waves for the struc-

tural design. The main planes integrate the bearing system: there is no oth-

er structure of columns and walls to do the usual shifting and distributing

of horizontal to vertical load bearing elements that architects call tectonics.

It has also been described in architectural terms as an 'a-tectonic' building,

although plate tectonics (the geological movement that besides erosion and

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

248

sedimentation shapes landscapes) could very well describe the analogy to the

form-nding of this project. The theoretical discussion of architecture was

then much revolving around continuous space, folding, etc. Such terms were

vividly discussed by prominent architects such as Peter Eisenman in Fold-

ing in Time (1992) or Gregg Lynn's formative AD issue Folding in Architecture

(1993) that both refer to 'The Fold' again – like Angélil's (among may other's)

quotes from Le Pli by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (English translation:

The Fold, 1993).

The civil engineering side of the project is also mirrored in a novel struc-

tural 'folding' approach. The folded planes and main structure of the two

large girders are structurally seen as steel tube bridges (gures 12, 13 & 14).

Figure 12 Roof Plan Yokohama Ferry Terminal (courtesy Foreign Oce Architects)

Figure 13 Floor Plan Yokohama Ferry Terminal (courtesy Foreign Oce Architects)

Figure 14 Section Yokohama Ferry Terminal (courtesy Foreign Oce Architects)

infrastruc ture as landscape as architecture

249

Figure 15 Yokohama Ferry Terminal (photograph by Daniel Jauslin)

In the rst competition design the analogy with waving was translated

into a bearing system of steel plates inspired by corrugated cardboard, the

most common and cheapest packing material. Later in the design develop-

ment that system was replaced by a steel truss system that consisted of spatial

trusses as a primary structure, introducing the folding analogy into the sec-

ondary structure or actual form of the beams – providing more visual impact,

while at the same time apparently dissolving the structure into space. In both

structural approaches the tertiary longitudinal beams are four giant girders,

comparable to trapezoid sections of steel or concrete bridges, though vastly

more complex in geometry. Both structural approaches follow the same goal:

the structure uses no columns, forming large continuous spaces that open

onto the harbour city panorama and to the sea itself on three sides. This gives

the impression of a passageway, the far-ung feeling one can experience on

a ship deck – at a scale comparable to that of the longest ships of the world.

The application of a new form of structural design was solved in numer-

ous interesting ways for this project. Precision and structural optimisation

within the main structure could only be achieved by using the high preci-

sion structural welding techniques that are used for ship hulls: large pieces of

structure were consequently prefabricated on several competing shipyards,

and large steel units were shipped by sea to the site in a process very similar

to bridge building. Certainly this process, guided by architects, is very remote

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

250

from the antique Greek carpentry that inspired the formal system of Western

tectonic architecture.

Negotiating the whole range of disciplinary transgressions possible

among the three disciplines in one single project, Yokohama is as much in-

frastructure as it is architecture and landscape. It uses all of the disciplinary

frameworks, merging them but not losing ground, creating an anti-object

with iconic strength, an experiment with technological vigour. In exception-

ally good or intriguing cases of architecture, the formal and theoretical, the

constructed and diagrammatic, are not only complementary but inform each

other, of which this project is a proof.

The fascinating result of Osanbashi's intended experiment in spatial

design methods is that several polar oppositions between disciplines are

transgressed and replaced by productive relationships. The complex three

dimensional spatial composition manages to multiply its utility and spatial

experience in versatile ways: diverse programmatic congurations are based

on ows of people, but also on the reuse of spaces conventionally optimised

for only a few occasions in a manner that renders them useful for multiple

functions in non-peak moments. They become inter-operative.

The spatial eect of this piece of the transportation network goes beyond

its mere utility as a terminal; it could be called 'infrastructure as architec-

ture'. Conversely, if we describe works of architecture as objects of design,

then the landscaped infrastructure at Yokohama Ferry terminal is a non-ob-

ject alternative we could call 'architecture as landscape'. Osanbashi provides

what is perhaps an unparalleled example of a trac infrastructure turned

into a widely popular public space, enabling experience of the seafront in a

dense urban situation: 'infrastructure as landscape'.

Most importantly, all three disciplines are integrated and mutually rein-

forcing one another, working together in an innovative, unied spatial com-

position, while facilitating diverse purposes. In short: infrastructure as land-

scape as architecture.

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sum, Thoth

The synergy between

ood risk protection

and spatial quality in

coastal cities

ANNE LOES NILLESEN

Nillesen, A. (2015). The synergy between ood risk protection and spatial quality in coastal cities.

Research In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 255-274. doi:10.7480/rius.3.840

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Abstract

Coastal regions throughout the world are subject to ood risk challenges. This

paper concentrates on the Netherlands; its coastline fulls an important role

in the protection of the Dutch delta. Due to the expected sea level rise, part

of the Dutch coastline will have to be reinforced. Along most of the sparsely

occupied coastline, the space needed for the reinforcement of the ood risk

protection infrastructure can be found easily, either on the seaside or inland.

However, some segments of the coastline have been built upon and are

dicult to reinforce; buildings have limited the adaptability of the originally

exible coast. One of these locations is Scheveningen, a borough of the

city The Hague and a seaside mass-tourism resort operating on a national

scale. It is dicult to reinforce the borough's ood risk infrastructure without

signicant restructuring. In addition to water-safety issues, Scheveningen

faces social-economic challenges and needs a qualitative programmatic and

spatial impulse. An integrated approach to spatial and ood risk design is

essential to come to a qualitatively as well as functionally acceptable solution

for multifunctional ood defences. This paper describes and demonstrates

the approach and application of an integral 'research by design' study for

ood risk management and spatial quality in Scheveningen. It is the result of

a collaborative eort between spatial designers and ood risk engineers, who

worked together in so-called 'Delta ateliers'. Three dierent ood risk strategies

('a sandy shore', 'a hard protection body' and 'a perpendicular dam') are used

as leading principles for integral designs in which both the spatial assignment

as well as the long term ood risk protection assignment are addressed. This

results in three dierent designs that are discussed in relation to their spatial

potential and hydraulic eciency. This applied research by design approach

was considered very valuable–even essential–to feed the debate regarding the

choice of a ood risk intervention. As a result, this approach will be continued

throughout the Dutch National 'Delta Programme' that focusses on long term

ood risk protection.

KEYWORDS

ood risk protection; seaside; waterfront; spatial quality; integrated design; Delta Programme; research by

design; Dutch delta; Scheveningen

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1. INTRODUCTION

Coastal regions throughout the world are subject to ood risks challenges

(IPCC, 2007). This paper concentrates on the Netherlands, where the coast-

line plays an important role in the protection of the Dutch delta. Erosion, cli-

mate change and the growing economic value of low-lying parts of the coun-

try create signicant long-term ood risk challenges. The Delta Programme

was established in order to dene suitable strategies and interventions to

answer these challenges (Delta Programme, 2008). Through several projects

the programme is orientated towards specic regions, such as the south-west

delta and the Wadden region, and specic topics, such as freshwater supply.

One of the regional sub-projects concentrates on the Dutch coast.

In this project, a series of expected short-term (2050) and long-term

(2100) weak spots in the Dutch coastal defence system were identied and

addressed. The short-term weak spots have been strengthened through reg-

ular maintenance of existing ood risk protection infrastructure works. In

the long term, regular maintenance will have to be carried out continuous-

ly to compensate for erosion. In addition to erosion, rising sea water levels

will contribute to the creation of new long-term weak spots as well. In these

coastal sites, the ood risk protection infrastructure will have to be rein-

forced. This infrastructure consists of a combination of natural stretches of

sandy dunes or barrier islands and elements such as dikes, barriers and dams

(Hidding & Van der Vlist, 2009).

Given the sparse occupation of most of the Dutch coastline, the extra

space needed for the reinforcement of the ood risk protection infrastructure

can easily be found either at the seaside or inland. However, some settlements

are located in close proximity to, or even directly on the coastal defence line.

One of these is the former shing village of Scheveningen that dates from the

Middle Ages. Nowadays Scheveningen is a relatively densely populated bor-

ough of The Hague and a seaside mass-tourism resort operating on a national

scale. For such a location, it is dicult to reinforce the ood risk infrastruc-

ture without signicant restructuring, which is controversial and costly given

the private ownership of most of the properties. In addition to water-safety

issues, Scheveningen faces social-economic challenges. The old town centre

has degraded and needs qualitative programmatic and spatial improvement

(Municipality of The Hague, 2009).

An integrated approach to spatial and ood risk design is essential to

come to a qualitatively and functionally acceptable solution for multifunc-

tional ood defences. Such an integrated approach becomes even more rele-

vant if the ood risk protection task coincides with a complex spatial assign-

ment. The latter is the case in Scheveningen. Given the dual requirements

of social-economic and ood-risk improvements, an opportunity for synergy

arises (Nillesen, 2014).

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258

This paper describes an integrated research by design study that is con-

ducted in order to develop designs for ood risk interventions that are eec-

tive from both the perspectives of ood risk management and spatial quality.

It is the result of a collaborative eort between spatial designers and ood

risk engineers, who worked together in so-called 'Delta ateliers'. In this

study, three dierent types of interventions for Scheveningen were devel-

oped and evaluated. The interventions are referred to in this document as 'a

sandy shore', 'a hard protection-body' and 'a perpendicular dam'.

The methods paragraph starts with a brief introduction on the concepts

of the delta ateliers and research by design approach. Subsequently, the ood

risk assignment and spatial assignment for Scheveningen are described, as

well as specic choices regarding design goals that serve as starting points for

the development of the aforementioned designs. Then the designs for ood

risk management and spatial quality themselves are described. The paper

concludes with a reection on the methodology.

2. METHODOLOGY

Atelier sessions and research by design are approaches that are often re-

ferred to in contemporary design related studies. The exact meaning of those

terms often remains vague or undened, therefore this paragraph will start

with the description on how those approaches are used within this research.

The use of the layer model as a conceptual framework to describe and

understand the essence behind the ood risk assignment in Scheve-

ningen is then set forth.

2.1 Delta ateliers

Workshops or design ateliers that bring together dierent stakehold-

ers and multidisciplinary experts are successful work formats to reach an

integrated design (Prominski et al., 2012). Atelier work sessions in which

stakeholders and designers work together to develop a holistic plan are of-

ten referred to as 'charettes' (Girling, Kellett & Johnstone, 2006). However

this term is typically used to describe interactive sessions for community

participation (Sanof, 2000; Girling, Kellett & Johnstone, 2006), whereas this

research focuses on integrated design and participation among professionals.

Because of the community participation connotation, the term 'charettes' in

this study is deliberately avoided and the design sessions are referred to as

'delta ateliers'.

During this research two types of delta ateliers have been applied: 'in-

teractive stakeholder sessions' and 'expert sessions'. Interactive stakeholder

sessions are workshops in which professional stakeholders and experts in-

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259

teract. The goal is to share knowledge, to establish joint fact-nding, to

identify relevant topics and assignments, and to create understanding and

agreement on dierent standpoints and visions. An interactive stakehold-

er session consists of a general presentation to bring participants up to date

and the actual interactive workshop, for which the participants are divided in

small groups that discuss topics under guidance of a team leader. At the end

of the workshop session, there is a feedback round followed by a discussion

under the direction of the atelier leader and agreement is reached on stand-

points and visions.

Expert sessions focus on collecting, sharing and creating knowledge.

During sessions with a core team of multidisciplinary experts (urban design-

ers, landscape architects and civil engineers) insights are created and shared,

knowledge gaps are identied and measures and strategies are proposed, in-

tegrated or assessed. In instances when a knowledge gap is identied, ex-

perts are requested to do additional research. The urban design oce Defacto

Urbanism supported the delta ateliers by preparing the sessions, performing

additional in depth analysis and further developing, integrating and visual-

ising the conceptual visions and design proposals as formulated during the

ateliers. The outcomes of the delta ateliers and the additional research and

design proposals were combined in a research report De Stad aan Zee (Atelier

Kustkwaliteit, 2011).

During this research three interactive stakeholder sessions were or-

ganised. The rst session focussed on the problem denition, the sharing of

knowledge regarding ood risk protection and spatial tasks and ambitions.

Agreement was reached on the long-term goals and the future development

scenarios that will be applied.

As a preparation for the second interactive stakeholder session a spatial

analysis of the area was performed by the urban design oce based on the

information shared during the rst session. An expert session was conducted

in order to formulate and select three ood risk interventions that were ef-

fective from a hydraulic point of view. During the second session three eec-

tive interventions from a ood risk point of view were confronted with spatial

considerations of the area. Opportunities and threats were identied and dis-

cussed. The outcomes of the rst and second sessions were used as building

blocks in the preparation of the third session.

Based on the building blocks as described above, the design oce per-

formed a research-by-design exercise in which integrated designs were made

that address both ood risk and spatial considerations. The development of

the integrated design was done in cooperation with the multidisciplinary ex-

pert team that provided detailed information on the ood risk related aspects

of the design alternatives. During the third interactive stakeholder session

the outcomes of the research-by-design exercise were presented and dis-

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260

cussed among experts and stakeholders.

2.2 Research-by-design

Dierent denitions of research-by-design exist (Geldof & Janssens,

2013). The research-by-design method used during this research assumes a

denition in which a single parameter is systematically varied (the type of

ood risk intervention) while xing other parameters (such as the location,

the expected scenarios for climate change and economic development, and

the spatial design component). The dierent ood risk interventions are

used as a leading principle for an integrated design in which both the spa-

tial considerations and long-term ood risk protection are addressed. In the

Scheveningen case this results in three dierent designs that are discussed

in relation to their spatial potential and hydraulic eciency. The aim of this

research-by-design study is not to develop and select the most favourable

alternative, but to feed and support the on-going debate regarding ood risk

interventions for Scheveningen by exploring strategic opportunities for ood

risk protection. 1

2.3 Layer analyses and complex systems

In this study the 'layer model' is used as a conceptual framework to de-

scribe and understand the essence of the ood risk assignment in Schevenin-

gen. The layer model was documented by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure

and Environment (VROM, 2001) and based on the triple layer model by Ian

McHarg (1969). The layer model contains three conceptual layers: The sub-

stratum (the natural layer of the subsoil in which changes take place over the

course of centuries), the network (the layer of the infrastructural networks,

changing over the course of 50-100 years) and the occupation layer (the layer

of the human occupation, changing over the course of 25-50 years) (Meyer &

Nijhuis, 2013). In the current research context, these layers are interpreted as

the three layers of water, ood risk infrastructure and occupation.

3. THE FLOOD RISK PROTECTION TASK

The coastline is part of the Dutch ood risk protection system, protect-

ing low-lying parts of the Netherlands against oods in the event of a storm

surge. The Dutch coastline used to be a dynamic landscape that transformed

over time due to erosion, sedimentation and varying water levels. However in

1990 the Dutch government decided to dene a base coastline (basiskustlijn )

to prevent further erosion of the coastline. The main goal of this measure was

twofold: to protect both the sea defence line and the functions in the coast-

al zone. The coastline is maintained by Dutch water boards and if the dunes

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261

do not meet the ood risk protection standards anymore or there is a severe

deviation from the base coastline, action is taken to reinforce the coastline.

When it comes to reinforcing the coastline, dierent landward and seaward

interventions are possible, varying from more natural sandy reinforcements

to hard structures such as dams, quays and barriers to hold back the seawater.

The Dutch erosion management policy is referred to as 'dynamic preservation'

(VROM, 1990) and prescribes a sequential preference of measures. Preserva-

tion and free transport of sand along the coast is encouraged. If an interven-

tion is necessary, this is done with sandy (or 'soft') measures, only using hard

measures such as constructions when they are unavoidable (VROM, 2006).

Figure 1 Scheveningen coastal protection zone

Scheveningen is part of the sandy coastal stretch referred to as the 'Hol-

land coast' (Mulder, Hommes & Horstman, 2011) which protects the core eco-

nomic and urban centre of the Netherlands (the Randstad) from ooding. In

gure 1 the coastal protection zone of Scheveningen is visualised. The coastal

protection zone consists of both the actual ood protection body as well as a

reservation zone, anticipating future land or seaward extensions of the ood

risk protection body. When the ood risk protection body is a dune (as is the

case in Scheveningen) the possibility of that part of the dune collapsing during

a storm surge is taken into account. The dune is designed to be wide enough

to still function as a ood protection body after a partial collapse. The line

that should still be able to shield the water under all circumstances (within

the range of the ood risk protection standard) is referred to as the 'water

shielding line'. In Scheveningen, the water shielding line is positioned in the

densely built centre. This complicates the enforcement of the sea defence line

since the ood risk protection body as well as most of the reservation zone are

built on and with that, xed.

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When following the layer model theory the occupation layer is regarded

to be the most exible layer. In this case, the occupation layer has actual-

ly become the xed layer. The dynamics of sedimentation and erosion on a

local scale have already caused changes to the base coastline and protection

standard over the course of decades. This asks for the involvement of the in-

frastructural layer. However, the occupation layer on top of the infrastructure

layer consists of buildings that do not match the theoretical life span from

the layer model of 25-50 years: For example the famous Kurhaus building, a

hotel along the beach-promenade that was built in 1887 and many heritage

protected houses that date from around the year 1900. Of course such mon-

uments can be regarded exceptions, but even the 'modern' privately owned

seaside apartments already date from the seventies and are expected to last

at least some more decades. In other words, the necessary dynamic of the in-

frastructural and occupation layer to adapt to natural processes is in practice

limited by the built tissue of the occupation layer.

Figure 2 Indication of expected weak spots of the sea defence (in red) over time

When considering the maintenance of the ood risk protection standards

on the short term (up until the year 2050) a weak spot was identied in the old

village of Scheveningen (gure 2). This weak spot has been already resolved

with the realisation of a higher boulevard. With that addition, the coastal

protection is extended seaward by the construction of a hard structure. Figure

3 indicates the new extension movement of the water shielding line seaward.

This new extension by the Spanish architect de Sola-Morales has been praised

for the added spatial value that the enforced boulevards oer Scheveningen.

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In the long term (2100) the whole sea defence of Scheveningen including the

new extension is expected to need re-enforcement.

Figure 3 The boulevards' extensions shifts the water-shielding line seawards

During the rst interactive stakeholder meeting the position was tak-

en that restructuring the complete sea defence line at its current location, or

land inward is neither feasible nor desirable. This means that the focus of this

research is a seaward extension. During the rst expert meeting three main

principles for extending the sea defence line were decided upon: a sandy dune

extension, a hard protection body and a perpendicular dam. An important

starting point was that the dimensions of the proposed ood risk protection

bodies should be viable from a ood risk protection point of view until 2200.

4. THE SPATIAL ASSIGNMENT

Two important positions with respect to long term scenarios were taken

during the rst stakeholder sessions: in the long term the city of The Hague

will still grow regarding both economics and population, and the borough

Scheveningen will remain an important part of the city of The Hague and

should reinforce the identity of The Hague as a city by the sea.

During the rst interactive stakeholder session the governmental vision

and ambition for Scheveningen were presented. The ndings were later sup-

plemented with the outcomes of a spatial analyses performed by the urban

design oce. The spatial tasks that were identied concerned the identity,

accessibility, spatial quality and vitality of Scheveningen.

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4.1 Identity

Within Scheveningen three dierent coexisting identities can be distin-

guished: that of Scheveningen harbour, Scheveningen village and Schevenin-

gen resort. The harbour in the south of Scheveningen has a rough character

and oers potential for redevelopment now that many businesses are relo-

cated. The adjacent part of Scheveningen is the authentic centre of the his-

toric shermen's village Scheveningen. Here we nd small-scale residential

buildings. The central axis of the village is directly connected to the seaside.

North of the village the futuristic seaside resort can be found, characterised

by the faded glory of the boulevard, the Kurhaus hotel and the Pier.

The dierent seaside towns along the Dutch coast all have their own dis-

tinctive characteristic and identity. The wish to contain and strengthen this

dierence of identities is expressed in a regional vision (Provincie Zuid-Hol-

land, 2009). Scheveningen stands out as the only seaside town with a metro-

politan identity. However the city centre of The Hague is not well connected

to the borough of Scheveningen. You could say currently Scheveningen is a

village by the sea instead of The Hague being a city by the sea. In order to en-

force the identity of a city by the sea the ambition is to develop Scheveningen

to become a mixed-use urban sub-centre of The Hague (Municipality of The

Hague, 2009).

4.2 Connectivity

At both the city scale and the local scale, Scheveningen is poorly con-

nected to the seaside. From the The Hague train station it is a 40-minute tram

ride to reach the seaside. During sunny days, regular car trac is hampered

by trac jams. Both directions of travel bring you to either tram stops or

parking garages. At these points, although you are very close to the seaside,

the seaside is not experienced. The sections in gure 4 show how the barrier

formed by the dune top separates the arrival point and the tissue of Scheve-

ningen from the actual seaside.

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265

Figure 4 Scheveningen sections; from its entry points to the shoreline

4.3 Spatial quality

During the rst interactive design session the experts and stakeholders

were asked to name the qualitative aspects of Scheveningen (gure 5). The

participants constructed a map, indicating the challenges from a spatial point

of view (gure 6). In general the spatial quality in Scheveningen was consid-

ered to be poor. Buildings alongside the boulevard are oriented towards the

sea only, and many streets have blind facades or parking garages on street

level. The streets close to the sea lack any trees or any qualitative public green

due to the strong salty wind. Additionally, many buildings are due for renova-

tion and the partly abandoned harbour is fenced o. The proximity of the sea

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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and some of the majestic buildings along the boulevard oer a great poten-

tial, as do the characteristic 1920s and 1930s neighbourhoods. The character

oered by the old harbour oers potential as well.

Figure 5 Qualitative elements in Scheveningen

Figure 6 Scheveningens' poor quality areas

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267

4.4 Vitality

Tourism is an important economic contributor for Scheveningen. The

seaside now mainly attracts day-trippers that do not spend much on aver-

age. Such tourism is seasonal and only pays o for part of the year. The goal

for Scheveningen would be to create a mixed programme that is interesting

for both tourist and business visitors, and secure a year-round programme

to attract more long-stay visitors. The faded glory of the boulevard could be

supplemented with a new contemporary identity to attract a wealthier group

of tourists.

5. THREE INTEGRATED DESIGNS FOR A SAFE AND VITAL CITY BY THE SEA.

To integrate the three dierent ood risk protection interventions with

the spatial considerations and the ambition of Scheveningen, three design

concepts for the long-term have been made. The three research-by-design

studies resulted in dierent designs. The rst design concept with a hard

ood risk protection body is labelled 'the city at the sea', the second concept,

with a sandy ood risk protection body is labelled 'the city behind the dunes'.

Finally, the third variation based on the perpendicular dam led to the design

for 'the city in the sea'.

Within the three designs we can both nd generic interventions applied

in all three of the design variations to address part of the spatial issues of

Scheveningen, as well as specic spatial interventions that are unique for one

design variation and relate directly to the choice for a certain type of ood risk

intervention. First the generic spatial interventions will be described. Subse-

quently, the unique qualities of the three design variations in relation to the

applied ood risk intervention are described.

In all of the designs a new seaward city extension is used to connect the

three parts of Scheveningen: Scheveningen harbour, Scheveningen village

and Scheveningen resort. The dierent identities and characteristics of the

three town parts are reected in the new design of the boulevard. The exten-

sion oers space for new economic functions and allows for a new identity

of the Scheveningen seaside. There are two essential historical points con-

necting the existing tissue and the sea: the endpoint of the central street of

Scheveningen village and the Kurhaus. At both locations the direct visual and

functional relationship between the existing tissue and the sea is retained

and enforced. The monumental square in front of the Kurhaus is restored al-

lowing the Kurhaus to become a landmark that marks the transition of one

of the main entrance roads to the sea. The tramline is diverted seaward and a

direct view of the sea is established at all stops.

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5.1 Hard seaward extension: City at the sea

The hard seaward extension brings the boulevard and the water shield-

ing line seaward (gure 7). This gives space for an additional permanent pro-

gramme resulting in a metropolitan city by the sea. A reference project for

this identity is the new business and living district of Hafencity in Hamburg,

Germany.

Figure 7 City at the sea design plan

The height of the water shielding part of the boulevard must be +14 me-

ters NAP in 2200 (Arcadis & Alkyon, 2005). The current boulevard is +6.7 me-

ters NAP. This new height of the boulevard can lead to an undesirable de-

tachment between the boulevard and the sea. Therefore maintaining a strong

relationship between the new boulevard and the sea was an important design

theme. The choice was made to create a stepped boulevard with three dier-

ent ood risk protection levels. Moving from the water shielding line towards

the sea, an unembanked area at the height of +7 meters can be found, which

will ood in extreme weather conditions during the winter months. In this

unembanked area additional ood risk protection is achieved by ood proof-

ing the ground oors of individual buildings and applying functional uses

less vulnerable to ooding such as car parking. The third element is a timber

boulevard in close proximity to the sea. This part of the boulevard brings vis-

itors close to the sea (as does the beach area currently) and will ood regu-

larly during the winter season. The functions positioned along this low-lying

boulevard are seasonal functions such as surf rental shops and beach bars

that are disassembled in winter.

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269

The ood risk protection body is designed in a way that it can be hinged

on a complete oor level, which makes it robust. However, working with a

hard construction in the natural surroundings of the dunes creates lots of

erosion; sand will have to be supplemented repeatedly under the water level.

5.2 City behind the dunes

To extend the dunes seaward, sand is supplemented in front of the cur-

rent boulevard (gure 9). Depending on the desired proportions of the dune

this extends the current beach with tens of meters and heightens it to ap-

proximately 12 meters above NAP (Arcadis & Alkyon, 2005). The water shield-

ing zone covers the part of the dune that could collapse in case of a storm.

This section should be extended in case of sea level rise or erosion. Therefore

it is essential that this zone of the ood risk protection body remains exible

and will not be xed by the infrastructural layer.

Figure 9 City behind the dunes design plan

The necessary exibility of the dune is the main design theme of the

city behind the dunes. In the water shielding zone, only exible or seasonal

buildings can be positioned. In this zone exible artist residences and tour-

ist apartments could be located. On the beach itself, which is subject to sea-

sonal tides, seasonal pavilions can be realised. There is potential for pavil-

ions and pools to be also located in the sea. When the dune is extended far

enough landward of the water shielding zone the opportunity arises to build

permanent buildings. Permanent apartment blocks are proposed within the

dune near Scheveningen harbour. Along the current boulevard a new neigh-

bourhood is designed, referring to the majestic living neighbourhoods of the

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thirties (gure 10). The character of Scheveningen will be that of a city with

grandeur positioned on the beach.

Figure 10 Dwellings amongst the sand dunes

Lots of sand will have to be supplemented to create these new dunes and

since the dune is positioned seaward it will erode. The erosion does not have

to be problematic; the sand gets transported along the coast and Schevenin-

gen will function as a sand engine, supplementing Holland's northern beach-

es (this principle is currently tested near Hook of Holland), but on-going

maintenance will be necessary.

5.3 City in the sea

The third design variation is the city in the sea. Here a perpendicular dam

extends Scheveningen into the sea and protects the coast from eroding (g-

ure 11). If a perpendicular dam is applied, additional erosion and sedimenta-

tion will aect the beaches nearby. The rule of the thumb given by the partic-

ipating engineers is that along a stretch of beach of approximately 1.5 times

the length of the dam, sedimentation will take place. Beyond that part of the

beach, extra strong erosion will occur.

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271

Figure 11 City in the sea design plan

Figure 12 Dam placement evaluations

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The main design theme of this design variation was nding the optimal

positioning of the dam. An optimal placement would be beneciary to both

the ood risk assignment as the spatial quality assignment. The design has

been formulated by testing multiple locations for the dam and then evalu-

ating these locations (gure 12). Finally the dam was positioned in between

Scheveningen village and Scheveningen beach. The dam divides the current

seaside in two parts: on the south the calmer beach for the local inhabitants

and on the north the touristic resort. The tramway can be extended to the

end of the dam and bring tourists close to the beach. The type of beach town

emerging on the elevated dam with a gradual slope can be best compared with

Mediterranean seaside towns.

After placing the dam, the natural sedimentation will already take care

of some of the needed supplementation. However, a big supplementation is

necessary to extend the beach to its maximal volume. The dam protects the

sand from eroding so less maintenance will be necessary compared to the

other design variations.

6. CONCLUSIONS

This paper described the outcome of an integrated research-by-design

study that was conducted in order to develop designs for ood risk interven-

tions that are eective from both the perspectives of ood risk management

and spatial quality. Using dierent optional ood risk interventions as design

themes, three dierent designs were created that demonstrate dierent op-

tions for The Hague as a city at the sea. Although similar spatial interventions

and concepts were used to address the spatial considerations as prescribed

(the improvement of the accessibility, vitality, spatial quality and identity of

Scheveningen), the three designs show completely dierent types of beach

resorts with dierent identities. This relates to the choice of dierent ood

risk interventions. The various ood risk interventions lead to dierent main

design themes and, as a result, a dierent design focus for each of the three

design variations. Additionally, the physical requirements and characteristics

of the ood risk interventions (for instance the dierence between a hard

quay or sandy dune) directly relate to specic conditions and thus dierent

possibilities for, and atmospheres of, seaward development. Using this ap-

proach the spatial characteristics and consequences directly related to dif-

ferent choices regarding ood risk interventions could be explored. This was

considered very valuable – even essential – to feed the debate regarding the

choice of a ood risk intervention. As a result, this approach will be continued

throughout the Delta programme.

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273

This design study qualies as research-by-design, as the inuence of

varying a single parameter in the ood risk intervention on the design out-

come is transparent, understandable and replicable. The design variations

could be assessed from a ood risk perspective in relation to the robustness

and necessary maintenance of the design solution. However, there are no

objective assessment criteria available to evaluate the dierent alternatives

from a spatial quality perspective; the dierent designs were mainly judged

based on personal preference. In that sense, the sub-study preformed to

identify the protable location for the perpendicular dam both from a ood

risk as well as a spatial perspective. This could be considered a more pure form

of research-by-design since the dierent options are assessed both from a

functional perspective and a spatial perspective, resulting in the preference

for an alternative. This sub-study also ts the denition of De Jong and Van

der Voordt (2005) for research-by-design as not only systematically testing

dierent options but also testing them on dierent locations.

The use of the layer model as a conceptual framework was very useful. It

helped to clarify that in the case of Scheveningen, the occupation layer, which

is usually considered the most exible layer, is in fact a xed layer. This is

essential in order to understand the problems related to the current ood risk

assignment. The relationship between the layer model and the current ood

risk assignment in the Netherlands is subject to a continued research eort.

ENDNOTES

1 see http://www.deltacommissaris.nl/onderwerpen/delta-atelier/

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Design challenges of

multifunctional ood

defences

A comparative

approach to assess

spatial and structural

integration

PETER VAN VEELEN, MARK VOORENDT, CHRIS VAN DER ZWET

van Veelen, P., Voorendt, M., & van der Zwet, C. (2015). Design challenges of multifunctional ood

defences. A comparative approach to assess spatial and structural integration. Research In Urbanism

Series, 3(1), 275-292. doi:10.7480/rius.3.841

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Abstract

Due to the changing climate and increasing urbanisation delta cities are faced

with an increasing ood risk. In The Netherlands many of the ood defence

infrastructures, such as dikes and ood walls, need to be adapted or improved

in the near future, to comply to current or improved safety standards. These

improvements directly aect landscape and urban development. In its 2008

report, the 2nd Delta Committee presented the idea of multifunctional

ood defences, which are ood defence structures that deliberately provide

opportunities for other functions. Since then, spatial designers and hydraulic

engineers together delivered a wide palette of designs and concepts, resulting

in a rather uid and indenable concept of multifunctional ood defences. This

paper presents a method to describe the level of multifunctionality, based on

two existing spatial and structural assessment methods from the elds of civil

engineering and urban planning. The combined method distinguishes four

ascending levels of integration, ranging from spatial optimisation to structural

and functional integration. The combined classication method is tested on

a selection of cases of multifunctional ood defences in the Netherlands.

Based on this test, it is concluded that the classication method is a useful

and generic method to describe the level of multifunctionality. Some of the

selected examples look very innovative and multifunctional at rst glance,

while the level of spatial and structural integration is limited. Other examples

might not be very spectacular from a spatial designers point of view, but

show that true functional integration of ood protection with multiple other

functions is already feasible, depending on the local context. The method

helps to bridge the gap between the practices of civil engineering and urban

and landscape design. Also, it makes clear that ood risk management is part

of an overall process of integrated area development, anticipating on what

could be described as a multifunctional ood defence zone.

KEYWORDS

multifunctional ood defence; multifunctional dike; integrated ood defence; integral ood design;

interdisciplinary design; delta management; design; ood defence design; dike design; delta dike; climate

dike; super levee; ood defence zone

Design challenges of multifunctional flooD Defences

277

1. INTRODUCTION

The densely populated Dutch delta is vulnerable to both coastal and u-

vial oods. A large network of ood defence structures like dykes, dunes,

dams and locks protect the major cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the

low-lying polders of the Randstad. These structures are gradually incorporat-

ed into the urban fabric as a result of rapid post-war urbanisation and – more

recently – the transformation of former port areas outside the levee protected

areas. Here future ood risk management conicts with the spatial interests

and ambitions of local stakeholders. In areas where dykes and the urbanised

landscape have almost merged, traditional dyke reinforcement results in an

undesirable claim on space, high expenses and an extended planning and re-

alisation process (Van Veelen et al., 2010). In large urbanised deltas outside

the Netherlands, whether it be highly developed urban areas such as the New

York-New Jersey Estuary, or developing metropolitan regions such as Jakarta

and Ho Chi Minh City, the integration of ood risk management with urban

developments also presents a challenge. The question is how to improve ood

defence structures, while avoiding enormous social costs and uncompromised

spatial solutions.

Both in the Netherlands and other urbanised delta regions, concepts of

integrating ood risk management structures with other functions are cur-

rently being developed and tested. The Dutch Second Delta Committee em-

braced the concept of 'multifunctional ood defences' (2nd Delta Committee,

2008) as an overarching concept describing structures that are designed to

integrate ood protection with functions like infrastructure, housing, recre-

ation and ecological spaces. New ideas from research and practice such as the

'unbreakable' dyke, delta dyke, and climate dyke were developed. Although

integrated ood defences have already been planned and realised in many

dierent places throughout the Netherlands such as Katwijk, Scheveningen,

Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Tiel and Vlissingen, an assessment method that inte-

grates both the design approaches of civil engineering and spatial planning is

still missing.

In this chapter, a comparative assessment method and classication is

introduced that aims to assess both the spatial and structural composition

of multifunctional ood defences. This method is based on an integration of

the design methods of urban planning and hydraulic engineering, to provide

a way of design as an "important and essential approach to intentional change"

(Nelson & Stolterman, 2012) that could help both urban planners and hydrau-

lic engineers to develop a mutual language. It should also enable the link be-

tween the strategic level of landscape and ood risk planning with a concrete

feasible level of structural design. The proposed method could thus form a

useful tool to support both horizontal cooperation on operational level of de-

sign and improve communications between the strategic and tactical level of

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

278

decision-makers and designers. In this way, this approach contributes to a

design culture, as proposed by Nelson & Stolterman (2012), where "it is im-

portant for leaders to recognise that their challenge is that of a designer."

To get a grip on the structural design of multifunctional ood defences,

the following section rst briey describes the evolution of ood risk strat-

egies and ood defence design in the Netherlands. Following on from this,

the composition of traditional ood defences and some new concepts are ex-

plained. Then, the assessment method of the structural and spatial integra-

tion is introduced, based on an overview of design perspectives. This meth-

od is applied to several cases: the Dakpark and Hilledijk in Rotterdam and

the Noordendijk in Dordrecht. The chapter ends with conclusions and rec-

ommendations for the spatial and structural design of multifunctional ood

defences. Although the cases studied in this chapter represent typical Dutch

ood risk management structures, the assessment method is generic and can

be applied in other delta regions where similar integration challenges play a

role.

2. TOWARDS NEW FLOOD RISK STRATEGIES AND CONCEPTS

2.1 An introduction to the ood management system of the Netherlands

Dutch ood risk management has evolved over time and in recent years

has been ever more inuenced by societal developments (Heems & Kothuis,

2012). There are several recent changes to the current Dutch ood risk man-

agement system that have a substantial impact on the design and layout of

ood defences. To understand the impact of these changes it is necessary to

introduce some key elements of the Dutch ood risk management system and

local design methods.

The Dutch ood protection system is based on closed networks of pri-

mary ood defences: so called 'dyke rings' that protect both urban and more

rural areas along the North Sea coast and the main rivers. The traditional de-

sign of ood defences was based simply on experience and local conditions.

After the catastrophic 1953 ood this deterministic approach was replaced by

a ood protection philosophy based upon a cost-benet optimum analysis

wherein the cost of increasing protection is balanced against the reduction

in ood risk. Because of the availability of statistical data of water levels and

the development of an advanced analysis method, the ood risk could be re-

lated to the exceedance frequency of a critical water level. Flood defences had

to be designed in such a way that this critical water level could be resisted.

This method is known as the 'semi-probabilistic design method' because the

strength of ood defences was still considered as a xed value (TAW, 1998).

This new approach resulted in ood protection standards that dier per dyke

Design challenges of multifunctional flooD Defences

279

ring, depending on the economic value of the hinterland it protects and char-

acter of the local hydraulic conditions.

2.2 Towards a risk-based approach

In spatial planning, however, ood risk soon proved not to be a deter-

mining factor. Low-lying polders were urbanised, resulting in a gradual in-

crease of the consequence of a ood. The Environmental Assessment Agency

noted already in 2004 that human lives and economic values are less protect-

ed than originally intended when the current safety system was introduced in

1960 (Ten Brinke & Bannink, 2004). To address this imbalance between safe-

ty standards and growing consequences, these safety standards are currently

under discussion. A tightening up of the ood protection standards, however,

implies a drastic improvement of ood defences in the urban or rural envi-

ronment.

In parallel, the design method of ood defences is changing. A full 'prob-

abilistic design method', where the strength of ood defences is considered

as a distribution instead of a xed value, is a more accurate method than a

semi-probabilistic method. Recently, numerical methods have been devel-

oped to carry out this way of design. In addition to the traditional design cri-

teria based on overtopping and overow of the structure, also failure mecha-

nisms based on the stability of the structure (for example piping and sliding)

are included in the risk calculation.

2.3 New ood defence concepts

The advancement in risk analysis together with societal developments

has led to a new direction in a multi-layer ood risk approach where risks

are not only reduced by preventing measures (layer 1), but also by adapting

spatial planning and urban design (layer 2) and by introducing disaster man-

agement (layer 3) (Ministry of I & M, 2009). Although the cost-eectiveness

of investments in reducing risk strongly varies per layer and depends on lo-

cal conditions and the specic nature and probability of a ood (Kolen et al.,

2011), this new approach oers possibilities for the integration of ood risk

management and spatial planning.

A change to a risk-based approach has consequences for the design and

layout of ood defences. The Dutch research institute Deltares studied the

relative eectiveness of creating 'unbreachable' dykes to reduce the mortal-

ity rate for each dyke ring area (De Bruijn & Klijn, 2011). These unbreacha-

ble structures can be dened as ood defences that remain stable even when

the Normative Water Level is exceeded, reducing the probability of an un-

controlled ood by 10 or even 100 times. This concept of unbreachable ood

defence structures forms the basis for dierent multifunctional concepts that

are known under a wide range of names, such as the delta dyke, super dyke,

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

280

broad dyke, robust dyke and climate dyke (gure 1). The premise is that the

concept of unbreachable and multifunctional dykes is more cost-eective

than conventional dykes because of real-estate development opportunities

and benets of optimal land use. Although some case study research (De

Moel, 2010, Veelen et al., 2010) supports this claim, the cost eectiveness of

unbreachable and multifunctional ood defences has not yet been researched

in depth.

Figure 1 Cross-section of a multifunctional 10 x stronger dyke: in dark grey prole of a mono-functional

river dyke, in light-grey a 10 x stronger dyke and zone for multi-functional use (adapted from: Tromp et

al., 2012)

3. SPATIAL AND STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION

In this section a method is proposed to assess the structural and spatial

integration of multifunctional ood defences, based upon combining a clas-

sication of the structural elements composing a ood defence, with a classi-

cation of dimensions in multiple spatial use.

3.1 Structural elements

To evaluate the degree of spatial and structural integration of ood de-

fences, it is necessary to understand the geometry and composition of a tra-

ditional dyke. The composing elements can be derived from the main char-

acteristic of ood defences: water-retaining elements, elements that provide

structural stability and strength, and elements that have a positive (or nega-

tive) inuence on hydraulic conditions.

Drawing on the research of Huis in't Veld et al. (1986) and Venmans

(1992), the main elements of a ood defence can be grouped according to their

structural role:

- Water retaining elements provide protection against oods through their

height and water resistance (impermeability).

- Supporting elements support the water retaining elements by providing ad-

ditional strength or stability. This element type includes erosion protective

elements and transitional structures.

- Objects do not have a ood protection function but are part of the ood de-

Design challenges of multifunctional flooD Defences

281

fence and have inuence on the strength and stability of the structure as a

whole.

- Structural elements that change the hydraulic boundary conditions.

- The subsoil, which should nally resist all forces acting on the ood defence.

Figure 2 Cross-section of a lake dyke with indication of the structural element types

These element types are illustrated in gure 2, which could represent a

sea dyke, but the basic components can be recognised in other types of ood

defence structures. Generally, water-retaining elements (type 1) consist of a

clay layer or a wall (sheet piles or a gravity structure for example). Supporting

elements (type 2) are the core of a dyke and the anchors of a retaining wall,

but also the revetment that protects the inner slope of a dyke against erosion

due to overtopping waves. Objects (type 3) consist of houses, roads, parking

garages, etc. Often such an object is not currently part of a ood defence, but

will become part of it when the ood defence is widened. An example of a

structural element that changes the hydraulic boundary conditions (type 4) is

an outer berm, which dampens the waves and thus reduces the wave overtop-

ping volume. Also, foreland and vegetation can act as elements that inuence

the boundary conditions. Finally, all forces acting on the ood defence and

the forces exerted by the ood defence itself (mostly its own weight) have to

be resisted by the subsoil (type 5). For hydraulic structures it is typical that a

major horizontal load (from the adjoining water) is transferred to the subsoil.

By classifying these element types, the degree of integration of objects

with the basic elements of a ood defence structure can be determined.

3.2 Spatial dimensions of multifunctionality

In the context of urban planning, multiple land-use refers to situations

where the existing space is more intensively used (Hooimeijer et al., 2001).

This can be achieved by the morphological integration of functions (the stack-

ing of multiple functions in one building or construction), by mixed space use

(multiple functions in a certain dened area) and by temporal shared-use of

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

282

the same space. The degree of spatial integration used in this chapter is based

upon a classication by Ellen (2011) and adapted by Van Veelen (2013), who

distinguishes four spatial dimensions of multifunctionality. These dimen-

sions are used for evaluating the degree of spatial and functional integration,

with slightly adapted terminology (see also gure 3):

- Shared use. A ood defence structure is (temporarily) used by another func-

tion, without any adjustments to its basic structure. It is generally possible

to use the ood defence for infrastructure, recreation and agricultural uses,

as long as the functioning of the ood defence is not impeded.

- Spatial optimisation. The basic shape of the ood defence is adapted to create

space for other structures. These structures are technically not part of the

ood defence structure. Spatial optimisation is found in many places in the

highly urbanised areas of the Dutch delta. The most compact and spatially

optimal shape is obtained if a vertical retaining wall is applied which replac-

es a dyke slope or berm, leaving space for housing or other functions.

- Structural integration. An object is built on, in or under the ood defence

structure, but does not directly retain water. The concept of structural in-

tegration is used in situations where the current dyke is over dimensioned

(super dyke) or many times stronger than necessary (unbreachable dyke).

- Functional integration. The water-retaining element of the ood defence also

functions as a part of the structure with another function (the 'object'). Al-

though this concept is technically feasible, it is hard to nd realised ex-

amples of full integration. There are some historically evolved situations in

which the dyke is part of a medieval city wall (as seen in Kampen) or a row of

old buildings (as seen in Dordrecht).

Figure 3 Various examples with dierent degrees of spatial integration

Design challenges of multifunctional flooD Defences

283

3.3 The combined approach

The determination of the degree of integration starts with identifying the

compositional elements of a ood defence structure. As a rst step it should

be determined whether an element has a water-retaining function or inu-

ences the strength and stability of the ood defence structure as a whole. If

this is not the case, the integration is categorised as 'shared use', as long as

the basic shape of the ood defence is not altered. If the ood defence shape

is adapted to allow more spatial compactness, the situation is categorised as

'spatial optimisation'. If the object, or part of it, fulls a structural role in

the ood defence structure, it is evaluated as 'structural integration'. If this

structural role is retaining water, the category is called 'functional integra-

tion'.

This method will be used in the following sections where three multi-

functional ood defence structures are evaluated.

4. ANALYSIS OF EXISTING MULTIFUNCTIONAL FLOOD DEFENCES

The described analytical method to determine the degree of spatial and

structural integration is tested with help of real cases. These cases are select-

ed based on an overview of existing studies and reports on multi-functional

or innovative ood defences. The majority of these cases are briey analysed

in terms of spatial and structural integration based on the available literature.

Three cases of multifunctional ood defences are analysed in more detail, us-

ing urban master plans, original building permits, archival research and in-

terviews with key players during the design process. These cases are selected

because they are clear examples of three dierent dimensions of multi-func-

tionality and because these examples are well documented. The cases are as-

sessed on (1) design criteria (2) spatial integration (3) structural integration

and (4) ood defence concept.

4.1 Dakpark Rotterdam: Shared use

The 'Dakpark' is an elevated park on a former railway yard in the Delfs-

haven quarter in Rotterdam. The park is located on the roof of a new shop-

ping centre, which includes a parking garage (hence its name: 'dak' in Dutch

means 'roof'). The park is the largest green roof in Rotterdam and one of the

largest in the Netherlands. The park oers a playground, communal garden

and a Mediterranean garden with an orangery. The Dakpark is 1000 m long

and 80 m wide. The park is situated 9 m above street level. The car park has

space for approximately 750 cars. The Dakpark is combined with a dyke, the

'Delandse Dijk', that is part of dyke ring 14, which protects the urban area

of the Randstad.

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284

The idea for a large city park is part of a longstanding agreement with

residents to add more green space, stemming from the urban renewal process

of the surrounding 'Bospolder-Tussendijken' district. The district authority

nally decided to designate 80% of the space that became available for 'green'

purposes. The project developer and owner of the area, the Rotterdam Port

Authority, intended to develop a commercial and industrial zone, which was

conicting with the residents' ideas. Ultimately a multifunctional structure

has been designed that accommodates shops, oces, and a parking garage

on the ground oor and rst oor and a park with leisure functions on the

rooftop (Kennisbank Platform31, 2013). Important issues that had to be solved

were the division of the costs, the presence of objects like stair-cases in the

ood defence, and the by-law of the Water Board which contains regulations

regarding building in the vicinity of the ood defence (Van der Leeuwen,

2008).

Figure 4 Cross-section of the 'Roof Park' Rotterdam

The original dyke is not integrated into the new structure of the Dakpark

building itself (gure 4). Instead the shopping, oce and parking complex is

situated next to the old dyke and the space in between the complex and the

dyke has been lled out by soil. Meanwhile, the crest height of the dyke was

raised to make it 'climate-proof', which means that a worst-case scenario in

terms of sea level rise has been taken into account for the design lifetime of

the ood defence. The complex is situated in the outer zone, the 'inuence

zone' of the ood defence according to the denition by the Water Board.

Building in this zone is only allowed under exceptional circumstances, but

in this case it is compensated by the reinforcement of the park strip. Sever-

al agreements including those regarding the foundations of the core zone,

Design challenges of multifunctional flooD Defences

285

and ease of inspection, ensure that Dakpark will maintain its ood protection

function in the future (City of Rotterdam, 2008).

The Dakpark complex itself does not contain structural elements that are

part of the ood defence. The additional soil layer on top of the dyke is not

considered to contribute to the retaining height because the Water Board re-

gards the existing prole as the ood defence. This dyke prole has not been

adapted to make space for other functions. The Dakpark therefore is classied

as 'shared use'.

4.2 Hilledijk Rotterdam: Spatial optimisation

The Hilledijk in Rotterdam is one of the last remnants of the old river

dyke that protected the land from ooding from the river Maas. The dyke to-

gether with an old railway yard currently function as a spatial barrier between

the Afrikaanderwijk and the new developments of Kop van Zuid. One of the

key principles of the 2004 Parkstad masterplan is to dissolve this barrier by

redeveloping the railway yard and transforming the dyke into a gradually as-

cending landscape, visually softening the height dierence between the ele-

vated area and the low-lying Afrikaanderwijk. This new 'dyke landscape' will

be used as a base for the development of dierent building blocks accessed

through a new road on the top of the existing ood defence. The area between

the buildings will remain accessible for inspection and maintenance (Palm-

bout Urban Landscapes, 2009).

During the process of drafting the Parkstad masterplan the Holland-

se Delta Water Board had scheduled a dyke reinforcement for a section of

the Hilledijk, to be nished in 2014 as part of the Flood Protection Programme

(Hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma ) 2 . The spatial and temporal coincidence

of both developments contributed to public support for a multi-functional

solution, where both parties benet.

An important design principle is that the new ood defence is spatially

and functionally separated from the new buildings lined up on both sides of

the crest. The new buildings are not integrated in the actual water defence,

but will be constructed just outside a theoretical prole of the new ood de-

fence. This means that when the buildings will be removed, the ood defence

structure remains intact. The ood defence itself will be designed to a design

water level corresponding with a 100-year moderate sea level scenario. One

of the additional design criteria is that the water defence should resist a ood

level corresponding with an average frequency of 1/10.000 per year, although

the dyke ring 17 has been standardised to a 1/4000 per year exceedance fre-

quency. Although the new buildings are legally not part of the ood defence

they will contribute to the strength of the embankment, creating a virtually

unbreachable dyke that is many times stronger than actually necessary. The

Hilledijk can thus be considered as practically unbreachable (gure 5).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

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Figure 5 Cross-section of the 'Hilledijk' in Rotterdam

Because the oor levels of the existing houses along the Hilledijk are

much lower than the desired level of the proposed street, demolition of these

building blocks is inevitable (Palmbout Urban Landscapes, 2009). Due to

the current nancial crisis the development of the Parkstad Masterplan has

slowed down and the demolition of buildings blocks has been postponed. The

question has arisen whether the interdependence in the design of the ood

defence and urban development is a restriction to adapting to changing cir-

cumstances.

The Hilledijk can be classied as a situation of spatial optimisation by

using overlay of urban functions, without structural or functional integration.

4.3 Noordendijk Dordrecht: Functional integration

After the disastrous ood of 1953 the urbanized part of the Noordendijk

(North Dyke) in Dordrecht was reinforced with a coerdam, to avoid dem-

olition of the historical buildings lined up on both sides of the dyke. In the

late seventies this dyke, although suciently strong, did not comply with

the more stringent height requirements posed by the rst Delta Commit-

tee. Creating a higher dyke proved to be dicult. The initial plan of the water

board consisted of a traditional dyke reinforcement by strengthening the out-

er-slope of the dyke towards the river slack tide. This required demolition of a

row of historical buildings and relocation of a power plant and the last wind-

mill of Dordrecht. When in September 1987 all reinforcement projects were

provisionally suspended by new plans for a storm surge barrier in the Nieuwe

Maas, the planning process came to a halt (Erfgoedcentrum DiEP).

After the realisation of the Maeslant barrier in the early nineties the pos-

sibility appeared to integrate the reinforcement of the ood defence with an

urban renewal project on the south slope of the dyke. A oodwall was realised

in sections with insucient space for a slope. This 500 meter long L-shaped

concrete oodwall with a seepage screen (of steel sheet piling) is at some

Design challenges of multifunctional flooD Defences

287

places fully integrated into the structure and the foundation of a new row of

single-family homes (gure 6). The retaining wall derives its stability from

concrete partition walls that connect the oodwall with the structure of the

houses (Waterschap De Groote Waard, 1997). The resulting space functions as

a private parking garage, accessible from the low-lying polder level. The roof

slab of the parking garage is used as a public space, side walk and bike path

(Van den Merkenhof, et al. 1998).

Figure 6 Cross-section of the 'Noordendijk' in Dordrecht

The retaining wall is over-designed with a surplus height of 65 cm to an-

ticipate future climate change. Although the concrete structure is designed

for a life span of 100 years, no additional provisions have been made in the

structure of the houses to allow the functional separation of the two struc-

tures, in case of eventual future demolition or renewal (Van den Merkenhof,

et al. 1998).

Although the oodwall is almost entirely covered by a 3.5 metre ele-

vated built-up waterfront zone, making the wall technically functioning as

a soil retaining wall, the Hollandse Delta waterboard considered the wall as

the primary ood retaining structure (Waterschap Hollandse Delta, 2010).

The oodwall is owned by the water board, but given that it is situated on

private property the water board had to make special arrangements with the

homeowners to obtain access rights to the parking garage for inspection and

maintenance. Additionally, in the purchase contracts binding restrictions

are incorporated on making changes in the water retaining walls (Koekkoek,

2013). Because there is clear evidence of the integration of the water-retain-

ing oodwall with the structure of a row of houses (the 'objects') the Noor-

dendijk can be classied as an example of functional integration.

Several other multifunctional ood defences have been analysed using

the assessment method. It appears that only a few of them can be classied

as functionally integrated, while most of them are examples of structurally

integration, spatially optimisation or shared use.

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5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Evaluation of the method

The aim of the proposed assessment method is to nd a way to describe

the degree of structural and spatial integration of the ood defence function

with other functions. This section discusses the ndings coming from the ap-

plication of the proposed method.

The proposed assessment method is tested on a set of cases, of which

three are presented in this chapter. In all cases it proved to be possible to

distinguish the composing structural parts and to determine the integration

category. It also appeared that the method is systematic and transparent and

can be generally applied to a wide range of multifunctional ood defences.

During testing it turned out that application of the method contributes to

a better understanding of the structural composition of the sometimes incon-

sequently used spatial concepts like 'super dykes' and 'broad dykes'. It also

increases insight into the eciency of the combination of functions: some of

the selected examples look very innovative and multifunctional at rst glance,

while the level of spatial and structural integration is limited. Many examples

are spatially optimised, but not structurally or functionally integrated. Other

examples may not be very spectacular from a spatial designers point of view,

but show that true structural integration of ood protection with multiple

other functions is already feasible, depending on the local context.

A better understanding of the integration of functions or structures

could also contribute to a better allocation of responsibilities for inspection,

maintenance and future investments. After all, a clear understanding of what

structural element serves what purpose provides a common starting point for

discussions.

The main generic conclusion is that the method will help both urban

planners and hydraulic engineers to develop a mutual understanding of the

various interests from a ood management and spatial development perspec-

tive. Because of the design-based classication, the method can be applied to

discuss spatial integration of multifunctional ood defence structures in dif-

ferent governance contexts.

5.2 Design challenges of multifunctional ood defences

The cases show that all categories of integration are technically feasi-

ble and in compliance with the current safety standards. This does not imply

however that the authorities responsible for ood protection have no reser-

vations when it comes to issues of inspection, maintenance and sustainability

of multifunctional ood defences.

The case Hilledijk shows that the strategy of oversizing the ood defence

is a promising strategy to increase space for intensive urban use and at the

same time to redesign the ood defence into a virtually unbreachable struc-

Design challenges of multifunctional flooD Defences

289

ture. Especially in highly urbanised areas all over the world where traditional

dyke reinforcement would have negative spatial impacts and be an extended

and costly process, this concept is a promising strategy to align spatial de-

velopment with ood risk management structures. Although wide and mul-

tifunctional used ood defences already can be found at several places (for

example Maasboulevard and Hilledijk in Rotterdam, the Super Levee in Tokyo

and the boulevard in Wuhan, China), the realisation of this approach on a

larger scale would imply a complete redevelopment and redesign of the urban

waterfront zone, which is not always feasible and applicable.

The case Noordendijk shows that it is necessary to develop design strat-

egies that are able to deal with dissimilar life cycles of urban and ood risk

management structures. In general, ood protective infrastructures have a

designed life cycle of at least 50 to 100 years, while urban functions are de-

signed for a life cycle between 20 to 50 years (TAW, 2003, NEN-EN 1990). Also

uncertainties, caused by demographic changes and climate change, require

exible design concepts. It is necessary to develop construction methods and

design that enable easy replacement or adjustment if necessary, with mini-

mal destruction or demolition.

5.3 Multifunctional ood defence zones

To fully exploit the spatial and functional benets of multifunction-

al ood defences, modications to the regulatory framework are necessary.

While considering the degree of integration, for example, it becomes clear

that the Dutch ledger zones (legal zones that restrict building activities in a

certain area) are often not tailor-made for multifunctional ood defences.

A striking example of this situation is the Noordendijk in Dordrecht, where

the integrated oodwall has not resulted in a protection zone that matches

the actual failure mechanisms of a oodwall. This mismatch between legal

protection and structural and spatial state of a ood defence is particularly

relevant for oversized multifunctional dyke concepts, where the water boards

still lack the legal instruments to appoint the oversized multifunctional zone

as a crucial part of the structure.

This is also the case for the legal protection of structural elements that

inuence the hydraulic boundary conditions. Forelands, for example, often

play a role in wave reduction, but are not included in the dyke height estima-

tion because they are out of the regulatory framework of water boards (i.e.

beyond the widest ledger zone). By not considering ood defences as line

infrastructures, but more as multifunctional ood defence zones, forelands

could become legal elements of ood defences, resulting in more cost-eec-

tive designs.

The challenge is to deal with these issues and to take them into account

during the planning and design phase. The method described in this chapter

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

290

helps making ideas more specic and easier to discuss. It is therefore recom-

mended to use this method in both national and international contexts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The following people contributed to this article by providing information

or linking us to experts. Paul Ravenstijn and Luc Verschueren of Witteveen+-

Bos, Hessel Voortman and Marco Veendorp of Arcadis, Edwin van Son and

Ahmed Boudihe from the Municipality of Dordrecht, Daniëlle Wijnen from

the Municipality of Papendrecht, Bernd Fetlaar and Maaike Buysse from the

Zuiderzeeland Water Board, Edwin Santhagens of Buro Sant en Co and Theo

Koekkoek from the former De Grote Waardt Water Board. All their help is

highly appreciated.

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Waterschap De Groote Waard (1997) Several technical drawings for the licence application. Ge-

meentearchief Dordrecht [May 2013]

Waterschap Hollandse Delta (2010) Legger primaire waterkeringen

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A critical approach

to some new ideas

about the Dutch

ood risk system

TIES RIJCKEN

Rijcken, T. (2015). A critical approach to some new ideas about the Dutch ood risk system. Research

In Urbanism Series, 3(1), 293-322. doi:10.7480/rius.3.842

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Abstract

Decisions on measures to improve a ood risk system are in part supported

by general ideas about how the system works and should work. After the

completion of the Dutch Delta Works around 1990, such new ideas regarding

ood risk emerged. Some of these may be appealing at rst, but appear

debatable after a closer look. In this paper, fourteen such debatable ideas,

familiar to most Dutch water professionals, are formulated and criticised, in

order to nd out what can be learned from them. The most important Dutch

national ood risk policy documents since 1990 are reviewed for quotes

that illustrate these ideas, complemented by scientic papers and other

documents. These quotes present dierent expressions of these ideas, and

their number can suggest whether they are broadly shared or marginal. In

twelve of the twenty most important government documents, 47 quotes were

found; in 26 documents of other types, another 39. Eleven quotes describe

the idea that 'water should not be our enemy, but our friend'. Fifteen quotes

were based on the idea that ood protection entraps us in a dangerous 'spiral

of risk', which can be stopped, 44 quotes are related to the idea that ood risk

reducing measures should be 'natural' or 'move with nature'. The remaining

quotes illustrate other debatable ideas, such as 'water should lead spatial

planning' and 'rivers should not be squeezed into a corset'. The frequency of

such quotes suggests that ideas about 'water as a friend', the 'spiral of risk' and

'moving with nature' have not been marginal. It is however dicult to determine

how inuential they have been in decision-making, since general ideas are not

the only factors leading to decisions. The general critique to the three ideas is

that they present preferred measures as generally logical conclusions without

a systematic comparison of alternatives for particular situations. Behind the

new ideas lies increasing societal interest for objectives like an attractive water

landscape (water as a friend), reducing our dependence on technology (spiral

of risk) and nature conservation and development (moving with nature). This

analysis further suggests a couple of nal remarks, which are hard to prove

and are open for discussion.

KEYWORDS

ood risk; water infrastructure; systems analysis; policy analysis; soft objectives; quality; aesthetics;

meaning; storytelling

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1. STUDYING DEBATABLE IDEAS ABOUT FLOOD RISK

The Dutch landscape may for a large part be seen as a gigantic highly

man made water processing machine. A primary objective for this machine

is to limit the probability that the seas and main rivers break through its el-

evations, the dykes, which protect 65 per cent of the country from ooding.

Throughout the centuries, the Dutch water machine has continuously been

improved and upgraded: the cross-section of a medieval sea dyke was at most

50 metres squared, reaching two or three meters above mean sea level, now-

adays a dyke at the same location is easily four times as high and ten times as

voluminous.

The water machine is never nished. Under the Delta Plan (1953-1997),

over a thousand kilometres of dams and dykes along the coast and estuaries

were newly built or upgraded. Between 1995 and 2015, about 500 kilometres

of rivers were tackled in the projects Delta Plan Large Rivers and Room for the

River. Currently, upgrades are being conducted under the High Water Protection

Program prepared by the Delta Program . Since 1960, average yearly costs of

ood risk system upgrades are estimated 400 million euro (in 2014); mainte-

nance and operations cost about the same.

How are decisions for upgrades made, and which choices do deci-

sion-makers have? According to TAW (1998), Vrijling, Van Hengel and Hou-

ben (1998), Eijgenraam (2007), Kind (2013) and others, upgrades are viable

when the benets of an investment (primarily risk reduction) outweigh the

costs (primarily building costs). The ood protection standards in the Dutch

Water Act are derived from such a cost-benet analysis. The system has to

match up to the standards, but in practice, decisions for upgrades are often

postponed and nally happen only after a ood or near-ood, or when times

are right for other reasons.

When ood risk reduction is wanted somewhere, in a ood risk system

that includes dykes, there are ve types of measures available: (1) improved

disaster management such as evacuation plans, (2) local measures behind the

dyke, such as ood proof buildings and risk zoning, (3) dyke upgrades, (4) load

reduction by river widening and deepening (spatial measures), (5) load reduc-

tion by control objects redirecting ows on a higher scale level for instance

a storm surge barrier (Klijn et al., 2012). Figure 1 shows examples of types 2,

3 and 4. Each of these measures can impede or support a wide range of ac-

companying objectives related to shipping, freshwater supply, transportation

infrastructure, ecosystems, and so on.

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Figure 1 Three ways to reduce ood risk, next to disaster management and measures to redirect ows on

a higher scale level (like a storm surge barrier or a spillway near a river bifurcation)

Decisions regarding which measure to take are made in an elusive pro-

cess, one where ideas, beliefs and preferences among a large group of people

converge (Rijcken et al., 2012). There are many theories about political deci-

sion-making, like the systems approach, revolving around system models,

versus the network approach, revolving around actors and processes. Deci-

sions may be rational or emotional, be comprised far-reaching blueprints or

adaptive incremental steps or be pragmatic or appeal to a grand vision. In

whichever way they are made, general ideas about how the ood risk system

works and should work, play a major role. Someone may be in favour of a

storm surge barrier because of the outcome of a specic cost-benet analysis,

but also because he or she believes in the general idea that a river mouth near

a major port ought to be protected by a moveable barrier, regardless of the

specic analysis.

In scientic discourse, most time is spent on elaborating good ideas and

some time on dismantling bad ideas. Critical publications about ood risk

ideas are usually personal opinionated essays (Boorsma, 2007; Rijcken, 2008;

Vrijling, 2008; De Wit, Jongejan & Van der Most, 2010 and Jonkman, 2013), or

comments on specic publications or policy proposals (Rijcken, 2007; Jonge-

jan et al., 2008 and 2012 and Waterforum, 2013).

This paper is more extensive and makes an inventory of the major Dutch

policy documents, looking for multiple ideas which can, carefully, be called

debatable. Related quotes are collected, classied, dated and tallied in order

to be able to make a conclusion whether an idea is marginal or more broadly

shared. Three debatable ideas are scrutinised in terms of the reasoning used

and the potential harm. The nal general discussion considers what these de-

batable ideas have in common and suggests what can be learned about related

preferences and perceptions in society.

The literature review begins around 1990, the nal years of the Delta

Works. In 1986, the famous Eastern Scheldt barrier was completed and a year

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later parliament voted to build the Maeslant barrier. These feats of engineer-

ing marked the end of a technocratic mind-set, according to many (Van Rooy

& Sterrenberg, 2000; DG Water, 2006; Meyer, 2012; Correljé & Broekhans,

2014), which the debatable ideas in this paper appear, at least in part, to rebel

against.

Method

The research starts with a list of debatable ideas, collected in the years

leading to this article. A debatable idea is an idea open to discussion because

it seems to contain inconsistencies, logical formal aws or otherwise present

conclusions which do not logically follow from the premises. 'Climate change

forces us to improve our evacuation plans', is debatable because improved

evacuation plans are not the only possible response to climate change. 'We

prefer evacuation plans over other risk-reducing measures', is a preference,

not directly formally debatable.

A debatable idea is revealed in illustrative quotes. These quotes can sim-

ilarly be debatable on formal grounds, or otherwise illustrate the debatable

idea. 'The main part of our organisation believes that climate change forces

us to improve our evacuation plans' is not formally debatable, but reveals the

presence of the debatable idea.

A debatable idea is not marginal when related illustrative quotes are found

in more than 10% of the twenty most important national policy reports, and

furthermore in multiple scientic publications and other professional docu-

ments.

Of the list of debatable ideas, the three most prevailing and most contro-

versial ones are elaborated. For each, the most illustrative quotes are selected

and the idea is explained in pictures and drawings. Each idea is then explained

and criticised both in terms of its reasoning and the potential harm. It is then

made clear which types of risk reducing measures are supported by the idea.

These are put together to support the nal remarks in the general discussion.

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Figure 2 Examples of illustrative quotes. The ones related to water is our friend in blue, the spiral of risk

in orange, moving with nature in green, other ones in grey. The captions give the document titles (for

the major national policy documents) or the type of document (for other types of documents); between

brackets () the reference

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2. THREE DEBATABLE IDEAS

We conducted a survey, searching for quotes that illustrate the following

fourteen ideas, each well known to most Dutch water professionals.

- Water is our friend, not our enemy.

- A focus on preventing ooding catches us in a spiral of risk, which should

and can be reversed.

- We have to move along with nature and strive for natural solutions.

- Because of climate change, we have to innovate.

- Innovative solutions are better than traditional solutions.

- Spatial solutions are better than technical solutions.

- Precipitation should rst be retained, then stored, and then discharged.

- Water should take the lead in spatial planning.

- Water problems should not be passed on to adjacent water systems.

- Rivers should not be sandwiched, laced up, or squeezed into a corset.

- We can't go on raising the dykes forever.

- Flood risk reducing measures are part of a safety chain with links that should

all be strong.

- In a risk system, every layer of risk reduction has to be addressed with

measures.

- Residual risks have to be addressed with measures.

To illustrate these ideas, the twenty major policy documents since 1989

are read or scanned (Ctrl-F in PDF les) for the words leading, diverge, store,

lace up, corset, forever, chain, vicious, residual risk, spiral, friend, enemy, moving

along, and natural (in Dutch). Figure 2 shows examples of illustrative quotes

found in the survey.

Of these fourteen debatable ideas, numbers 4 to 14 are not further elabo-

rated; ideas 4, 5, 6 and 7 favour particular measures in such an obviously gen-

eral way that they are hardly controversial. Ideas 8, 9 and 10 are well-known,

but few written quotes with logical aws were found. A critique of 8 would

be that when land use and water management are intertwined, it is not clear

which of the two leads, and why this matters; regarding 9 it would be that

water management is essentially about passing problems on towards the best

locations to solve them; to 10 that rivers are not human bodies which can be

squeezed in a corset, but volumes discharging precipitation, dened by a sur-

rounding geometry of mostly sand and clay. Ideas 11, 12, 13 and 14 overlap with

number 2. Ideas 1, 2, and 3 seem to be the most prominent and controversial.

Figure 3 lists the document types scanned. Figure 4 shows when the debatable

ideas were found. Quotes illustrating a struggle with the concept of nature are

the most abundant.

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Figure 3 The twenty most important national policy documents on the Dutch ood risk system were read

and scanned for quotes like the ones in gure 2

Figure 4 Most quotes were found in the 2000s and few before 1995

1 – Water is our friend, not our enemy

In his foreword to the nal report of the (State) Committee Water Man-

agement 21st century, the chairman writes: "there is no doubt that in the Neth-

erlands, the sink of Europe, a dierent approach is needed. Too much we still deal

with [only] technical management, while time is pressing for a dierent water policy

[…], where water is less seen as an enemy who should be fought, but as an ally with

nature, agriculture and urbanisation." (Commissie WB21 2000)

In 2006, the ministry wrote: "[t]here is a growing awareness that living with

water contains risks, but also oers opportunities, such as quality of life, economic

prot, and roots for national identity" (DG Water, 2006). This notion was a central

theme in the 45 million euro knowledge program Living with Water, whose

chairman wrote:

"Living close to the river doesn't only entail ood risks but is also deeply con-

nected to quality of life. […] this idea is put to work in the design of river manage-

ment that includes the local problematic aspects of making room for the river but

also provides new opportunities for economic and social development. This expresses

and supports the paradigm shift from 'ghting the oods' to 'living with water'."

(Swanenvleugel, 2007)

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World Wildlife Fund put it like this: "[w]e don't stand a chance ghting the

far reaching consequences of climate change, when we keep seeing the sea and the

whimsical tides as the prime threat against which we have to arm ourselves" (Braak-

hekke et al., 2008). Figure 6 is taken from a Living with Water document.

The quotes were often practiced in a context of certain popular or pre-

ferred measures – see gure 7 for an indication.

Figure 6 'From averting the water […] to accommodating' (Programmaorganisatie Leven met Water, 2006)

Figure 7 A brief indication of the types of measures favoured and disfavoured in the context of the quotes

illustrating the idea that water is our friend, not our enemy

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Figure 5 Quotes illustrating the idea Water is our Friend, not our Enemy

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The statement that water should not be our enemy but our friend makes

a pledge for an attractive landscape and other 'soft' values on which the ood

risk system can have an impact. Yet, the idea opposes two approaches that

have always existed, and will always exist, side by side. Under the old para-

digm perhaps, the aesthetic and emotional values of water were not acknowl-

edged by policymakers (but they certainly were by others). Still, water has

always had functions through which it is logical to consider water as an ally,

like shipping, drinking water and agriculture. Under the new paradigm there

will still be storms and heavy rainfall, at rare times, when the water surely

feels like an enemy to all.

Furthermore, it is not clear exactly why this polarisation is made. It would

be a clear standpoint to want to allocate a smaller part of the water manage-

ment budget to ghting oods and more to increasing quality of life, or to

obtain additional budgets to nance particular water-as-a-friend objectives,

separate or integrated with ood risk. Instead of taking a clear defensible po-

sition like this, it is often claimed that when we treat water as a friend, its

hostility will be reduced – a confusing idea that can never be true in general.

How could this idea be damaging? When it is unclear how enemy and

friend-oriented objectives and budgets are connected, it matters which parts

of the budget is directed to which issues, making it harder to make and ex-

plain decisions. The prerequisite that projects have to address water as an en-

emy and as a friend simultaneously, excludes packages of measures that meet

both objectives separately against lower costs than their integrated alterna-

tives (gure 8). In 2005 the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis

(CPB), presented an alternative to the concept of 'making room for the river',

with ood risk reduction projects and nature-orientated projects partly sep-

arated, generating lower total costs but with more total natural value (Ebregt

et al., 2005). The recommendation was discarded, possibly inuenced by the

idea that 'water as a friend' should not be treated separate from 'water as an

enemy'.

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Figure 8 The idea that water should become our friend to reduce its hostility, favours certain measures

without carefully considering the pros and cons of alternatives. In this gure, the three redesigns of the

river prole give the same increase in discharge capacity. Option 1 treats water as an enemy. Option 2

is a typical room for the river oodplain excavation: water as a friend. Dyke heightening is avoided, but

to achieve the same increase in discharge capacity as option 1, more than ten times as much soil than

with option 1 has to be displaced. The resulting nature is high-maintenance; vegetation has to be cut

frequently to keep roughness low. Option 3 treats water as friend and enemy separately. Vegetation can

grow freely in the ood plains (water as a friend) because the increase in roughness is compensated by

the dyke (water as an enemy). This option, if mentioned at all, has no support in the Netherlands

2 – The spiral of risk

In the cabinet's decision on the fourth water plan, the ministry of public

works and water management wrote:

"In the Netherlands we have been building levees and quays for many centuries.

The higher and stronger these become, the larger the sense of safety. This makes the

embanked land attractive for developers and investors. Large investments in their

turn ask for more protection and therefore more enforcement of ood defences. This

makes us go around in a vicious circle. […] Extreme circumstances like storms at sea

and high river discharges ask for extra space, space with which the spiral of land

subsidence and raising dykes, of encroaching development and the call for ood pro-

tection, can be broken." (V&W, 1998)

Two years later, a heavyweight report by multiple governments from the

lower rivers region stated: "upgrading levees alone is eventually a dead-end road,

and will lead to increasing risks for consequential damages of possible oodings"

(de Jong et al., 2000). A scientic publication mentions that in the Nether-

lands "the height of the dams will have to be increased for centuries to come […] the

chance of ooding is reduced, but the potential damage after a storm ood is en-

larged: seawalls and dykes provide a false sense of safety against ooding." (Smits

et al., 2006) Figure 10 was published in a national policy vision document.

See gure 11 for an indication of popular or preferred measures found in the

context of the quotes.

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Figure 9 Illustrative quotes to the idea of The Spiral of Risk.

The captions give the document titles (for the major national policy documents)

or the type of document (for other types of documents).

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Figure 10 'Higher dykes, larger risks' (DG Water, 2000). See also gure 12

Figure 11 A brief overview of the types of measures favoured and disfavoured in the context of the

illustrative quotes to the idea of the spiral of risk

This concept of a vicious circle relates to a fear of relying too heavily on

technology. It is sometimes called technological entrapment (Van Herk, 2014),

or the spiral of risk (Rijcken, 2007). The idea has three parts: (1) investments

to reduce ood probability and potential ood damage enhance each other

eternally, (2) this should be stopped and (3) this can be stopped.

Flood probabilities often contribute to decisions to settle or invest some-

where, and settlers tend to want to further reduce ood probabilities when

they develop. This can come to a halt for some time, for example when ood

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protection is over-dimensioned and growth slows down. There will always

be maintenance however, so when this is taken into account we may speak

of being entrapped in never-ending eort. But should this really be avoided?

The historic transition from hunting and gathering towards agriculture and

industry is a tremendous entrapment, yet acceptable to most of earth's in-

habitants.

Figure 12 Part of the spiral of risk idea is that dyke heightening provides a 'false sense of safety'; risks

would increase because higher dykes lead to higher inundation depths. In this reasoning, damage is

confused with risk. For Dutch rivers, roughly, a 40 centimetre higher water level has a ten times lower

probability of occurrence. According to the stage-damage curve for an average dyke ring, a 40 centimetre

higher inundation depth yields less than 10 per cent more damage. As risk is probability times damage,

the new risk is 0,1 x 1,1 = 0,11 as large as the old risk. With dyke heightening, risk decreases more than

ten times faster than damage increases. Safety is the inverse of risk. A sense of absolute safety may not be

justied, but a sense of increased safety when a dyke is heightened, surely is

Several options have been presented to break out of the vicious circle of

levee enforcements. For example, lowering high water levels – rst by ex-

cavating the agricultural ood plains, then by relocating the embankments

away from the river (Helmer et al., 1992; DG Water, 2006; PBR, 2013). In the

Netherlands, if these types of measures would be implemented to the fullest

there would still remain an average of 7 to 8 meter dierence between the

design water levels and the embanked land (Silva & Van der Linden, 2008).

Slightly lowered water levels will not stop the spiral of risk from spinning.

Figure 13 New neighbourhoods on mega-mounds to avoid an increase in

ood damage and thus ood risk (designed by landscape architects Stroming.

Images taken from: Aerts et al. 2008)

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A second way out of the vicious circle could be oered by additional ood

risk reducing measures on scale levels lower than dyke rings, like risk zon-

ing, abandoning areas, ood-resistant buildings, mounds (gure 13) or evac-

uation plans (Saeijs et al., 2004; Pols et al., 2007). This idea inuenced two

popular concepts: the Safety Chain (Ten Brinke et al., 2008) and Multi-Layered

Safety (DGW, 2009; Hoss et al., 2013). Much can be said about which aspects

of these concepts make sense or not, and which aspects are related to values

and politics. The essence is that throughout the world a pragmatic approach

to ood risk has always been to focus on the most eective measures, instead

of spreading measures between scale levels as a goal in itself.

In the Netherlands, investments in prevention (mainly dykes) cover a

small area and protect a large area, and when they work, they work complete-

ly. Measures inside the protected area (like ood-proof buildings) however,

have to be applied in vast areas, and have a limited total eect when the pre-

ventive scheme fails (Jongejan et al., 2012; ENW 2012). Figure 14 illustrates

some of these principles. When a country has arrived at a point where suf-

cient prevention requires no more than maintenance and occasional up-

grades, this is from a pragmatic perspective, not an entrapment, but a safe

haven. The illusion is not complete safety, but that the spiral of risk should and

can be broken.

Figure 14 The spiral of risk idea suggests that the interdependency between ood protection and

economic development is dangerous and can be reduced, for example by ood-proof buildings and

risk zoning. Looking at properly scaled typical cross-sections, knowing that a Dutch dyke ring is easily 25

kilometres wide (on the scale of this drawing another ten meters to the left), it appears that ood-proof

buildings (option 2) protect only new developments and quickly require much more soil displacement (or

eort) than dyke heightening (option 1). The idea of risk zoning (option 3) is that higher areas are favoured

for development over lower areas. This dyke ring oods, say, with a probability of 1:1000, and ood

damage as a percentage of building costs may be 40 per cent for option 1, twenty per cent for option 3.

Yearly ood risk relative to the building costs now diers between option 1 and option 2 by 0,02 per cent.

In practice, the benets of risk zoning will be crushed by other considerations for development, such as

land value and proximity to infrastructure

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The spiral of risk idea is potentially harmful in many ways: in an attempt

to break the vicious circle, tax money earmarked for risk reduction is spent

on projects while cheaper alternatives for more risk reduction are neglect-

ed; ood-proof building regulation and zoning add unnecessary red tape to

city and landscape development, public awareness campaigns to change the

behaviour of citizens end in vain, hammering on potential ooding deters

foreign investors, etcetera. This is a sensitive topic in current Dutch poli-

cy-making – it is stressed that these are potential pitfalls.

3 – Moving with nature

In a report for the Fourth National Water Plan, a group of senior consult-

ants write, "the river ghts back", referring to the swollen rivers of 1993. They

ask: "when we build, operate and manage infrastructure, do we choose to connect

to natural processes, or will on the contrary, the oppression of natural processes be

our starting point?" (Projectteam NW4, 1995). The cabinet's position on water

management states that:

"The natural coping capacity of the delta has largely been lost. With technical

means like raising dykes and pumping alone we reach the limits of what is possi-

ble. (…) The restrained natural forces will sooner or later be stronger than man. This

can be avoided by no longer working against nature, but working with nature." (DG

Water, 2000)

An essay published by the ministry of spatial planning and the environ-

ment contains another example:

"Moving with water means that where ows are too strong, we will give; where

sediment accumulates, we will take. […] The Netherlands will thus achieve its natural

water order, and will no longer be a giant prosthesis." (Van Schuppen, 2007)

The Delta Commission of 2008 recommends that new developments

should: "move with natural developments, induced by climate change and other

natural processes. We build and develop the country as much as possible in harmony

with ecological processes." (Deltacommittee, 2008)

The recent annual Delta Program reports mention 'moving with natural

processes' a few times, and use the term 'natural ood defences' more than

ten times, especially in the 2013 report (Deltaprogramma 2010; 2011; 2012;

2013). Figure 16 shows a typical example of a natural ood defence. The quotes

were often practiced in a context of certain popular or preferred measures; see

gure 17 for an indication.

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Figure 15 Illustrative quotes to the idea of Moving Along with Nature

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Figure 16 Redesign of the Dutch Closure Dam by landscape architect Hosper (Lammers, 2009). The green

land to the left is currently not there; vegetation is to grow over articial sand nourishments of several

metres high. The concept is promoted by the NGO Natural Climate Buers, in which the major Dutch

nature conservation organisations collaborate. The NGO frequently uses the terms natural safety and

natural ood defences in their communication, for example towards the Delta Program (SNK, 2014). Also

see gure 19

Figure 17 Brief overview of the types of measures favoured and disfavoured in the context of the

illustrative quotes to the idea of moving with nature.

These quotes reect a strong interest in nature conservation and resto-

ration, and in something transcending human interventions and technology,

but the terms are not clearly dened. What does it mean to connect to a nat-

ural process or to give in when a ow is too strong? In the documents, this is

not dened, but exemplied by measures, likes ones that direct water side-

ways instead of upwards (gure 18). Other typical measures are coastal sand

nourishments (gure 19) and excavated bends to de-canalise rivers. A term

cannot be dened by examples however. In the Dutch dictionary, the word

'moving along' does not exist, and in the water literature, a working deni-

tion is nowhere to be found.

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Figure 18 The idea that the ood risk system should move with nature favours additional horizontal

space over extra space in a vertical direction. According to the formula Q = C · B · H3/2 , roughly 0,5 metre

dyke heightening (option 1) and 150 metre river widening (option 2) give the same additional discharge

capacity. Both result in highly man-made river proles

Figure 19 Articially elevated foreshores along the coast are often considered natural ood defences. How

much soil is to be displaced by machines does not determine how natural a measure is. There is currently

no scientic agreement that option 1 can provide the same protection as option 2

The frequent use of 'natural ood defences' might be a serious indication

that among water professionals the denition of the word 'natural' is chang-

ing. Most commonly, something is considered natural when its shape or place

has been caused by a force other than induced by a conscious human decision.

The forty-four quotes in gure 15 are all made in a context of human inter-

ventions: no one advocates making the ood protection system more natural

by doing nothing. So what is meant by a natural measure or a natural system?

Let's consider some contexts in which these terms are practiced. The

concept building with nature is clearly dened: wind and currents distribute

building materials (mainly sand), and/or building components are designed

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

316

such that they attract or facilitate ora, fauna and/or entire ecosystems (e.g.

Waterman, 2008; Deltares, 2014). Nature is a for ce or a cause.

Most room for the river projects are about lowering or widening the river bed

by turning agricultural ood plains into natural parks, digging bypasses and

lakes for sh and birds or growing wild vegetation on excavated farmland (e.g.

V&W, 2006; Q-team, 2008, 2012). Nature is an occupant of space.

Along the coast under the dynamic coastal management policy, twelve to

twenty million cubic metres of sand is added to the coastal system each year

to maintain a certain geographical base coast line and allow more sand to blow

freely through the dunes. This contrasts to an alternative with less replenish-

ments and more dunes xed in place by planted grass or revetments, which

would create a less diverse and smaller dune landscape (e.g. DGW, 2009).

It seems that a measure is called natural when it supports a native, diverse

or attractive ecosystem. A system is natural by the same denition, or when it

resembles the way it was before the interference of man. With this additional

denition of natural, about half of the quotes in gures 13.3 and 13.4 could be

removed. The other half refers to the poorly dened idea 'moving with nature'.

Both terms however are likely to arouse suspicion by an observant reader, and

this suspicion is why an unclear denition is not only a linguistic aw, but can

represent a serious political issue.

According to epistemologists Collins and Evans the argument for the nat-

ural is "about as unsophisticated an argument as one can nd" (Collins & Evans,

2007). People using the term natural ood defences may be suspected to not re-

ally know what they are talking about or not to express the real arguments. In

the Netherlands, societal interest and political lobby for ecosystem conserva-

tion and restoration are strong. To many lobbyists the end justies the means,

and for the environmental lobbyists it is attractive to connect their cause to

ood safety, a strategy publicly announced by World Wildlife Fund (Opmeer,

2013). Ambiguous and undened terms can obscure the fact that a budget for

an integrated project is primarily justied by providing safety, but is spent pri-

marily on nature development.

3. DISCUSSION

The search for debatable quotes could have been more extensive but was

sucient to explain and discuss the debatable ideas and show that they are not

marginal. More quotes and debatable ideas could be found with deeper search-

es in the same documents, other documents, or with web searches, possibly

extended towards documents from international sources. A strict distinction

between dierent types of illustrative quotes could help to reveal when an idea

is formed, when it is taken for granted and when it might have disappeared.

A criti cAl ApproAc h to some new ide As About t he dutch flood r isk syste m

317

A quoted author might say that he or she meant something else than what

appears in this paper. It would be respectful and interesting to interview the

authors of each quote or to take an entirely dierent approach and send a ques-

tionnaire about the same ideas to water professionals. This might yield ad-

ditional debatable ideas or dierent interpretations of the fourteen selected

ones. It would also be interesting to include the background of the authors, like

engineering, geography or law, and see if there are correlations with certain

ideas.

Still, many water professionals, engineers and others, will recognise the

fourteen ideas, and acknowledge that it is healthy to discuss them. Achieving

safety and related objectives require reasonings that are able to withstand cri-

tique.

After the Dutch Delta Works, new ideas about the ood risk system

emerged among Dutch water professionals. These new ideas deserve a criti-

cal analysis. In this paper fourteen ideas that can be carefully called debatable

but are also well known were formulated and scrutinised. Twenty of the most

important national policy documents and 26 other publications were searched

for quotes illustrating the ideas and to nd out whether the ideas are broadly

shared or marginal. The three most prominent and controversial ones were

selected to elaborate further. Ten quotes were found related to the idea that

'water should not be our enemy, but our friend', fteen to the idea that ood

protection entraps us in a dangerous 'spiral of risk' which should and can be

stopped, 45 were related to the idea that ood risk reducing measures should

be 'natural' or 'move with nature'. These numbers suggest that these three

ideas have not been marginal.

The general critique to all debatable ideas would be that they present pre-

ferred measures as generally logical conclusions without a systematic com-

parison of alternatives for particular situations. Clearly negative eects such

as reductions in safety, deliberate deception of the public or squandered tax

money cannot be established, and general beliefs among the decision-makers

are not the only factors leading to decisions. In this paper it was chosen not to

delve into all considerations leading to the major decisions since 1990.

Behind these new ideas lies increasing societal interest in objectives like

an attractive water landscape (water as a friend), reducing our dependence on

technology (spiral of risk) and nature conservation and restoration (moving

with nature). Some might argue that these worthy ends justify all means, even

conceptual weakness in the underlying ideas. Others believe that the content of

ideas is of minor importance, as long as a proper democratic decision process

has been followed. This paper revolves around the idea that content matters,

and that widely shared ideas about the system in one way or the other have had

an impact on decisions. If arguments contain questionable ideas, this weakens

the outcome of decision-making: the means justify the ends.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

318

Figure 20 Favoured and disfavoured measure types in the contexts of the three debatable ideas.

It seems they all favour river widening and deepening, and disfavour dyke upgrades

This survey leads to a couple of conclusions, presented as theses, open for

discussion. Under almost all debatable ideas lies a general aversion towards

dyke heightening – see gure 20. Throughout history, conceptual thinkers

have always pointed out negative aspects of dyke heightening (Van der Ham,

2004), and dyke heightening has met erce opposition by local habitants (Van

Heezik, 2007). Perhaps after the River Delta Plan (1995-2000), avoiding dyke

heightening became an objective in itself, and people were less critical to-

wards the underpinning of available alternatives to dykes.

Studying 'water as a friend' and 'moving with nature' has suggested

that people, by merging ecosystem restoration and nature development with

ood risk objectives, conceal how important nature really is to them. Perhaps

stakeholders are ready for 'natural' ood defences but do not dare to take a

stand for nature development as an objective in itself, deserving a large na-

tional budget.

Perhaps people are attracted to debatable ideas because the ood risk

system is not easy to comprehend. Grasping risk and probability is notori-

ously dicult (Ropeik, 2010; Taylor, 2011) and the interplay between ood

risk-related objectives can be complicated. Nowadays more people are in-

volved in the decision-making process than half a century ago, but many

stakeholders have little time to learn about the system. It is fast and easy to

hitch on to a simple grand idea that appears to have transcended the com-

plexity of the system.

The topical concepts storytelling (Hajer et al., 2011) and framing (De Bruijn,

2011) explain, and in part support, the power of general ideas. An eective

story creates meaning and engages a community; an eective frame wins a

political dispute. Narrative persuasion is important to get things done, but

A criti cAl ApproAc h to some new ide As About t he dutch flood r isk syste m

319

the ood risk system heavily relies on a complicated physical reality, well

served by craftsmanship and custom-made solutions. The problems and

budgets at stake are large enough for a systematic unravelling of objectives

and an overview of the spectrum of possible solutions, before any decisions

are made. General ideas distort a well-balanced overview, but they will always

be around. New interactive information systems, like the SimDelta concept

illustrated in gure 21, might lend the systematic approach a helping hand.

Figure 21 The SimDelta concept (Rijcken et al. 2012; Rijcken & Christopher 2013; DUT 2014) aims at

representing the Dutch ood risk system in a clear consistent graphic language. Web technology enables

insight and overview. There is room for general ideas, stories and framing, but these are subordinate to

fundamental concepts about risk, objectives and solutions

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Delft University of Technology and Knowledge for Climate for

facilitating this survey and for stimulating free thinking.

Not all quotes found are presented in gures 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 15. National

policy documents in which no illustrative quotes were found, are not added in

the reference list. In some documents, more than one illustrative quote was

found.

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

320

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about t he authors

323

About the authors

Marc Angélil is professor at the Department of Architecture of ETH Zurich

(Switzerland) and conducts his research at the Network City and Landscape

(NSL) and Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in Singapore.

UlfHackauf is architect and researcher and teacher at the Faculty of Archi-

tecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology (the Neth-

erlands).

Michel Heesen is architect and principal of Michel Heesen Architecture &

Landscape design (the Netherlands).

Frankvan der Hoeven is associate professor of urban design and director

of Research at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft

University of Technology (the Netherlands).

Daniel Jauslin is researcher and teacher in landscape architecture at the Fac-

ulty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technol-

ogy (the Netherlands).

SteenNijhuis is assistant professor of landscape architecture at the Facul-

ty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology

(the Netherlands) and initiator of this publication.

AnneLoesNillesen is PhD candidate and teacher at the Faculty of Architec-

ture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology and principal

of D.EFAC.TO Urbanism (the Netherlands).

TiesRijcken is a researcher in hydraulic engineering & society at the Facul-

ty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology (the

Netherlands).

FLOWSCAPES –Designing infrastructur e as lanDscape

324

CarySiress is architect and a senior researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory

(FCL) in Singapore as well as Guest Professor at the Graduate School of Archi-

tecture of Nanjing, China.

MatthewSkjonsberg is architect at Collab Architecture and PhD researcher

at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Laboratory of Urbanism (Swit-

zerland).

JorisSmitsis architect at Royal HaskoningDHV and Lecturer at the Faculty of

Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology (the

Netherlands).

SybrandTjallingii is independent researcher in urbanism and ecology.

PetervanVeelen is PhD candidate at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built

Environment, Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands).

Renévander Velde is associate professor of landscape architecture at the

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Tech-

nology (the Netherlands).

MarkVoorendtis researcher multifunctional ood defences at the Faculty of

Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology (the Neth-

erlands).

Wilfried van Winden is architect and principal of WAM Architects (the

Netherlands).

SaskiadeWit is assistant professor of landscape architecture at the Facul-

ty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology

(the Netherlands).

ChrisvanderZwetis landscape architect at VolkerInfra (VolkerWessels) (the