As the world’s population continues to grow, urban areas are consistently becoming more and more congested. Cities are getting not only denser, but they are beginning to sprawl out and are becoming these massive areas of impenetrable hardscapes. Because of this, a need for a new urban planning strategy is necessary to help make our cities become more livable, enjoyable, and sustainable. Landscape Urbanism, an innovative planning strategy to incorporate the natural environment into the city fabric may be just the solution.
Landscape urbanism is unfortunately a newer perspective on how to organize an urban environment. Today too many cities have become concrete landscapes, where the occupants have little to no exposure to nature. We have become immune to providing our selves with what we think we need instead of what we actually need. Landscape urbanism design begins to provide that integration of nature with in the dense urban areas. “It would be equally fair to say that landscape urbanism remains the most promising alternative available to urban design’s formation for the coming decades.” Creating pockets of exposure to nature throughout a city, allows people to experience a healthier way of living both mentally and physically, while providing a sustainable alternative to urban design.
For centuries we have been struggling to create the ultimate urban design. Several different design strategies have been combined and overlapped to make up our cities today. However, many of these designs focused only on the needs of the people economically. Many may have been successful, but most of them completely ignored the human element. Humans are complex; they required a daily amount of exposure to other humans, light, and nature to provide a healthy lifestyle. While cities provide a great amount of human interaction they seam to disregard the essential experiences with nature and sunlight. By incorporating vegetation that is found in our natural environment on all levels of the city, people are able to experience trees, grass, and natural light to help contrast our man mad materials relieving and opening up the city. Having a vast amount of landscaped areas also encourages architects to spread out the built environment furthering sun exposure to the people socializing at ground level. Cities that begin to become completely integrated with landscape, create an atmosphere that is much more pedestrian friendly. People are able to walk through public landscapes and occupy private roof gardens and office courtyards, all places that have been designed with the environment in mind, creating that happier and healthier lifestyle.
Landscape urbanism can also be seen as a sustainable green way to design. Finding a way to use nature to decrease our carbon footprint is the ultimate goal. People are constantly traveling away from a city to interact with the surrounding landscapes. This not only raises our footprint but also these spaces lack in life and activity, city residents are so drawn too. Landscape urbanism also allows people to expose themselves to nature without intruding on the natural undeveloped environment, leaving the outside landscapes in a better, more uncontaminated condition. “Many city dwellers see peripheral green zones as valuable green background, but also as dangerous and to be avoided…with interesting features like topography, water or vegetation this re-­‐created nature can even surpass the original.” Natural green spaces like forests are always going to provide a different feeling that cities struggle to achieve. However, large suburban parks are usually readily available outside an urban center. They are often barren and occasionally hold events to promote a little life and activity. When designing these spaces for a city it provides a landscape that is an engaging the environment surrounded by activity and opportunity. Landscape urbanism allows for people to experience nature while still being exposed to the comforts of their community. A person living in a city has access to a variety of programs making the city so rich and diverse, why was urban landscaping never considered?
Fredrick Law Olmstead, a urban landscape designer, is famous for his work with Central Park in Manhattan as well as the Emerald Necklace in Boston. He has several other works are also prime examples of how to incorporate nature into an urban fabric. Similarly to what we know in Boston, his systems of parks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin break up the manmade structures both unifying and opening up the city. Also I was really drawn to his work in Washington DC. He was able to recreate a natural environment by replicating the emotion through an entirely man made structure. These are the types of techniques are crucial when designing urban landscapes.
As we continue to grow in numbers so will the expansion of our cities. It is important for us as architects and urban planners to integrate nature in all urban expansions, no matter the scale. Our economy may play a role in what seams most efficient. However, we live in a time of progression, and by incorporating landscapes with sustainable design we can achieve not only a comfortable place to live, but also a series off places that promote interactions and environmental design.