How do young generations and educators envision the future of the Wadden Sea territories? How will these landscapes be modified in the years to come? How do we embrace the past and the present and imagine the future? […]@en

In an era of globalisation, landscape architects and urban designers have learnt to think big: large-scale plans with far-reaching visions, saving the planet and solving urgent global challenges. Usually, we try to solve these problems in the same way that we created them: with advanced and generic technological methods, and with significant investments. Yet this bigness is still largely the domain of international players, and its effects do not necessarily foster the quality of urban spaces. On the other end of the spectrum is the small realm of a terrarium, intriguing because of the contradiction between their otherworldliness and the representation they offer of the world as we know it. They share this quality with gardens, described by Michel Foucault as “the smallest fragment of the world and, at the same time, represents its totality, forming right from the remotest times a sort of felicitous and universal heterotopia”1. What if we learned to think small again? What do small gestures have to offer to reveal what is valuable and meaningful and to foster a novel understanding of the relation between humans and nature? How can they sharpen our view for the particular, identifying the places in the landscape in their structural, material, dynamic, practical, atmospheric, mnemonic, and discursive identities? [...]@en

Background: The field of urban forestry encompasses many dimensions, of which that of visual-spatial perception, addressing the spatial relationship between city and trees, has received little attention. Analyzing the urban forest from a visual-spatial perspective is needed to understand relationships between different components as well as site-specific qualities. Methods: Tree configurations describe the relationship between form and space, determined by the relative disposition of the trees which result from an interaction between design and the development over time. Based on field observations, with the city of Delft in the Netherlands as a case study, 35 generic tree configuration types have been defined. With this “vocabulary,” specific tree configurations and their relations are researched, describing the urban forest from an eyelevel perspective as an essential level on which the spatiality of the urban forest can be understood. Results: Unraveling the urban forest components by comparing two emblematic ensembles of tree configurations allows an understanding of their heterogeneity as well as their coherence and dynamics. Conclusions: The relationship of the tree vocabulary with the specific location exposes their role as an ordering structure and a carrier of the identity of Delft, and their differentiation and site-specific qualities, revealing a composition of wooded areas each with their own characteristics, shows both urban and forested areas as equivalent components of an urban forest mosaic. This differentiation can be used as a tool for strengthening relations between the different components as well as diversity and heterogeneity in urban forests.@en

It happens to all of us at one point or another: you walk through a park and think ‘OK, this is really pleasant’, and then leave and kind of forget about it. And when you visit, maybe by accident, for a second time, things have grown, the light is different, you walk from a different direction, you see it from a totally different angle and you recognize a deeper meaning. There is more to it than what you assumed the first time. Second Glance. This is the title of the sixth edition of Landscape Architecture Europe. [...]@en

To understand the role of the urban forest for people and society a focus on the spatial-experiential aspect (in relation to the human body and human perception) is relevant: trees frame the space in which people move, act, experience and appreciate. ‘Tree language’ refers to the spatial relationship between tree species, planting configurations and plantations and their unique location. The notion of ‘plantation’ is explored as one of the defining aspects of such a language (next to ‘species’ and ‘configuration’). ‘Plantation’ is proposed as a term to describe the wooded characteristics of areas in the urban realm, defined by a combination of characteristics of species, tree configurations and the density and morphology of the plantation, comparable to a natural forest mosaic which is also determined by commonalities in species and vegetation community structure, as well as having alternations of densely wooded and less wooded areas. This reveals an urban landscape composed of a variegated wooded mosaic of plantations, which invariably transcend neighbourhood boundaries as well as common understandings of the boundary between city and countryside. In successive density and arrangement, in Delft seven types of plantations can be distinguished, connected and separated by the long lines, the avenues that traditionally formed the connections between Delft and the countryside like spokes in a wheel.@en

The technical landscape of railyard sites brings together a multidisciplinary set of expertise and needs. It entails the union of engineering and landscape design concerns, to redefine these spaces in the way they are maintained and potentially transformed. The paper gives an overview of this interplay, focusing on the Dutch panorama to describe experimental procedures to manage and leverage railyards' green spaces in their transformation. It is presented a specific case study, the design for Amsterdam PHS, where technological advancement allowed to redefine the railyard section, providing a new urban park for the city. Ultimately is explored the potentialities and impact of translating this approach in another territorial context, the Italian one, where abandonment phenomena are widespread. The originality of the contribution lies in correlating aspects usually disconnected, such as technical needs, design, and ecological thinking, to propose an alternative management and redevelopment outlook.

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Aan de hand van de daktuin van de auteur en de ontwikkeling daarvan, wordt de Nederlandse tuintraditie en de verschillende soorten van gebruik van tuinen beschreven. In de Renaissance gaven tuinen uitdrukking aan de nieuwe onafhankelijkheid. Erasmus beschreef de ideale burgermanstuin als een plek die zowel de geest verheft als de zintuigen streelt, en deze tuin was zowel een lieflijke plek om van te genieten, een rationele tuin voor productie, en een plek voor contemplatie, filosofie en samenzijn. Tuinieren, samenkomen en ervaren zijn ook nu nog de drie vormen van gebruik van tuinen. De tuin is een expressie van de relatie tussen mens en natuur, een uitdrukking van de specifieke plek, en tegelijkertijd een plek die afstand biedt tot het publieke domein. @en

As the elementary unit of the urban forest, trees temper thermal extremes in urban microclimates through shading and evapotranspiration, and by altering the movement of air. Metrics on shade performances of different species, however, are currently limited, which can be remedied by the development of a method to describe the range of species and cultivars via a structured overview of physical characteristics impacting radiation reflectivity, absorptivity, and transmissivity. This paper proposes a descriptive framework based on the concept of “tree architecture,” which has developed into a recognized field of plant study from the perspective of their physiognomy, morphology, and morphogenesis. The framework describes various architectural sub-traits within the overall trait categories of Crown, Wood, and Foliage. The descriptive framework can be used to develop a “Cool Tree Architecture Typology” (C-TAT), in which trees can be organized into similar types based on common physical characteristics. Further elaboration of sub-traits using observations of trees in controlled field laboratories resulted in new derivative classes for use as key in classifications for the C-TAT. The C-TAT can be used to organize the many species and cultivars occurring in, for example, Cfb Atlantic climate zone cities, to a lesser number of architectural types. This allows for more rapid evaluation and cooling performance calculations of tree inventories and can also be of value in assisting tree managers to propose more accurate thermal performance standards for trees in urban projects. The elaboration of tree architecture from an urban microclimate perspective complements existing elaborations and approaches in the field of tree architecture.@en

Leftover spaces are urban interstices that are open to spontaneous socioecological appropriation, complementary to defined and managed urban open spaces. The design intervention of leftover spaces poses a paradox: while repurposing leftover spaces to make them accessible, usable and meaningful, design simultaneously runs a risk of closing off opportunities for appropriation. This paper examines the role of landscape architecture design in transforming leftover spaces. Four analytical lenses: the morphological, material, ecological and social lenses, were developed to examine the Dalston Curve Garden. Two essential design lessons for engaging the interstitial condition of leftover spaces were concluded: to design with multiple site qualities and to nurture local stewardship. The study further highlights the role of spatio-physical design as ‘founding’: to establish the beginning of a place-bound transformation without fixing the endpoint and to allow a profound connection between people and place to emerge.@en

'The Garden as an Expression of Supernature' discusses the Wasserkrater Garden in Germany as an entry to define a contemporary interpretation of nature: "super-nature", which might be represented in gardens as a force of abundance, beautiful and dramatic, showing existence to its full extent in which humans are only a small part, and at the same as something close to home, part of our daily environment. The Wasserkrater Garden shows an entanglement of natural and artificial expressing the contemporary understanding of the Anthropocene: the current era after the Holocene, in which humanity intervenes as a force of nature, and nature no longer exists without human influences. Without the distinction between what is natural and what is man-made, the contemporary garden can expose wilderness not in opposition of, but as an integral part of the metropolitan realm and our daily environment, evoking an immersive encounter with nature: an embodied experience.@en

In the format of a round-table discussion, we bring together voices from different departments, sections and roles within TU Delft to explore questions arising from the current issue of the magazine. Unlike the more familiar 'topias' like utopia and dystopia, atopia eludes clear definition and challenges conventional understandings of space in our rapidly changing environments. As we delve into this multifaceted theme, each participant has provided their unique perspective, creating a mosaic of insights and examples that shed light on the ever-shifting landscapes of non-places.@en

Around 1661, Johannes Vermeer painted what has become one of the most famous city views: the View of Delft. The city of Delft is depicted from across the water of the River Schie. We see the city as a collection of brick buildings with lower and higher towers, peaking into the sky, and being reflected in the water of the river. The light looks alive: despite the clouds it is bright, setting the buildings of Delft and the riverbank in the foreground in a palpable warmth. Delft, an intermediate European city in the province of South Holland, between The Hague and Rotterdam, has featured quite prominently in Dutch city narratives, partially thanks to Vermeer’s paintings, which showed fragments of both spatial and social characteristics of the city in the sev-enteenth century. In the same period, biologist Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek experimented with lenses and built a microscope, which led to the discovery of the micro-world of cells and bacteria. The city’s small streets, the canals, the church towers and the market squares still remind us of the times of Vermeer and Van Leeuwenhoek. But Delft today, as a centre of trade, knowl-edge and art, is a very vibrant city, with the University of Technology as one of its most celebrated contemporary inhabitants. The TU Delft is recog-nized around the world for educating progressive thinkers and innovators in varied engineering fields, while its Faculty of Architecture has raised, and keeps raising, inspired generations of architects and designers. As Delft is the city where this Writing Urban Place network originated, and where many members of the network have lived, studied or lectured, or are still doing all the above, we have asked our Delft-related colleagues for their views on Delft, painting for our readers, in words, their accounts of the sociospatial characteristics of this city, their relationship with the water, their favourite urban places, their personal Views of Delft.@en

Designed form is not about creating a good appearance. Nor is it restricted to the small scale. The small scale, however, can be used as a valuable playground and laboratory for large scale landscape designs. Three case studies are compared in which similar compositional principles are used at different scales and complexities: the technical, agricultural, pedagogic social reform landscape of the Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz (Duke Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau, 1760-1830), the theatrical urban design for London connecting the government centre with the landscape panorama (John Nash, 1810-1826) and the residential urban landscape of Borneo-Sporenburg in Amsterdam (West8, 1993-2000). In each we can recognize the formal principles of the picturesque garden. Not the style, image, or shape, but the formal (visual-spatial) principles: landscape fragments that are connected by a route as a scenographic succession of composed scenes or tableaux, using the existing topography as a base. Such timeless compositional principles, as the relation between form and space as the initiator and carrier of structure, are versatile enough to accommodate and generate varying uses and processes. These examples illustrate a landscape architectural position that is in its essence not about problem solving but about creating form as condition for different uses, intended and unintended, expected, and unexpected, for human and non-human practices and experiences.@en

Atopias are also often inaccessible and unwelcoming. With the Essenburgpark in Rotterdam as an example, the article explores the possibility of transforming these atopias into heterotopias, or other places: sheltered places that are contrary to their surroundings, and at the same time mirroring, reflecting them (Foucault,1997, 352). This once inaccessible, neglected fringe where the railway cuts through the centre of Rotterdam, has been claimed by the local residents, who added subtle elements such as an entrance, a narrow bridge and stepping stone, just enough to give a hint to the passers-by that they are allowed to enter and explore this wild place, transforming the atopia into a heterotopia.@en

The urban environment is perceived through multiple senses in parallel, which means that visual understanding of space is aided and complemented by auditory, basic-orienting, and haptic stimuli - although mainly unconsciously. Sensory conditions are inherent attributes of urban places, but are often overlooked in research. To include these aspects in any way in analysis of the urban landscape, they need to be understood as properties of urban space, to be translated from attributes of the perceiver to attributes of the perceived. Using the relation between a designed garden and its suburban context in Bad Oeynhausen (DE) as an example, I will explore an alternative analytical methodology that takes the first-hand perspective view of the subject moving through the city as the starting point. The human body explores space by moving through it; walking is the most direct way to access, study, and research the physical qualities of the (urban) landscape, involving not only visual experience but also sound, rhythm, kinaesthesia, balance, and so forth. A notation technique that discloses the interrelation between visual qualities and their perception over time is the technique of ‘scoring’. Scores are symbolisations of processes, which extend over time. They can objectively represent non-visual qualities of space, communicating the relation between such processes and their spatial context to others in other places and other moments. These representations of movement expose the qualities of the surroundings that change as one moves through them, thus communicating the experiential aspects of urban landscape.

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Meaningfulness in the urban landscape is guided by perception: the qualities of the environment only become meaningful if they can be experienced. Experiences are localized in the physical environment: the form of the (urban) landscape - which includes materiality as well as structure - creates the conditions, the organisation, of experience. Thus, the (urban) landscape serves as a stimulus or catalyst for the meanings/meaningfulness each of us derives from, or attributes to the environment. However, the elements of the urban landscape are not so much images with a predefined meaning, but bodily perceivable kinaesthetic events that allow for each and every urban dweller or visitor to create their own narrative, based on these kinaesthetic events being strung together in a perceptual sequence, in mutual, spatiotemporal relationships. In order to generate insights in the role of perceivable form, the position of St. Catherine’s College between Oxford and the Cherwell river meadows will be studied from the narrative, spatiotemporal perspective of the experiencing subject moving through the city.@en

This book is about the first ten years of the master track in Landscape Architecture at the Department of Urbanism in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at TU Delft. It delves into the personal, educational, didactical, organizational and, above all, substantive dimensions of the teaching of this appealing and highly relevant discipline at the academic level. The book has three parts. The first part – PROFILE – discusses the context and events that led up to the development of the master track and influenced its further development – from the very first landscape architecture related appointments and initiatives in the 1940s to the first day in September 2010 when the programme began with seven participants, and on to the celebration of its tenth anniversary in 2021. Infographics show the numbers and profiles of the student population and illustrate the structure of the master curriculum. The second section – WORK – contains snapshots of drawings, photos, collages and other graphic material produced by our students. The images are loosely grouped according to the five stages in the design process: exploring, understanding, conceptualizing, modifying and engineering the landscape. Interspersed with this kaleidoscopic variety of images you will find a series of short essays on key topics in landscape architecture education written by the present staff of the Landscape Architecture section. Finally, at the end of the book you will find a few lists – PEOPLE – of all those involved: students, staff and guest lecturers. They are the ones who made and still make the master track such a wonderful community to belong to. @en

This issue of Spool – ‘Drawing Time’ – departs from the observation that the metropolitan landscape is subject to time, in many ways. The metropolitan landscape, as it has been studied in Spool over the years, is conceived as the interrelation between urban, infrastructural, rural and natural formations: a dynamic, intertwined and layered urban-landscape structure. The urban condition is viewed from the perspective of the landscape as a permanent underlying substructure and as physical open space with its own spatial, compositional and perceptual characteristics. Time...@en