Re-Inventing Water–Ground Relations in Landscape Architecture Projects

• Main Authors: Fabio Di Carlo, Alfonso Giancotti, Luca Reale
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-12-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: landscape architecture; water and ground; water urbanism; Urban Quality of Life (QoL); green infrastructure; natural adaptive processes
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10358

In recent decades, the relationship between soil and water has been at the center of many landscape architecture projects and, more in general, of urban transformation. With an ever-increasing recurrence, the interventions reflect on the positive effects of this dialectic, to the point of making it the constitutive element, both in terms of morphologies and of the reciprocal conditions of quality and resilience, combining ecosystem effects and cultural values. This paper thus examines some cases where the use of these elements has assumed the role of “raw material” in those design processes where they are called to specifically question the relationship between nature and human settlements. Three case studies, which with different declinations represent turning points and paradigmatic passages in this context, are here analyzed: the Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, the Cheong Gye Cheon canal in Seoul, and the Candlestick Park in the San Francisco Bay.