Country / City

University / School

Academic year

Title of the project

Authors

United Kingdom / EdinburghUniversity of Edinburgh / Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture2017 - 2018PROTOTYPES FOR A THIRD NATUREEmily Cropton

l’automne

water garden

printemps

fire garden

hiver

wind garden

Barcelona International Landscape Architecture Biennial

September 2018

SCHOOL PRIZE

TECHNICAL DOSSIER

Written statement, short description of the project in English, no more than 250 words

X International Landscape Architecture Biennial

Máster d’Arquitectura del Paisatge -DUOT - UPC ETSAB- Escola Tècnica Superior

d’Arquitectura de Barcelona Avenida Diagonal, 649 piso 5

08028 Barcelona-Spain

Title of the projectAuthorsTitle of the courseAcademic yearTeaching Staff Department/Section/Program of belonging University/School

For further information Máster d’Arquitectura del Paisatge -DUOT - UPC T: + 34 93 401 64 11 / +34 93 552 0842 Contact via email at: biennal.paisatge@upc.edu Consult the web page http://landscape.coac.net/

Barcelona

PERFORMATIVE NATURE

PROTOTYPES FOR A THIRD NATURE Emily CroptonIndividual Landscape Portfolio2017 - 2018 Elinor Scarth and Lisa Mackenzie Department of Landscape / MLA Landscape Architecture

University of Edinburgh / Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

The project proposes the creation of a series of public gardens situated between the National Park of the Calanques and the town of La Ciotat on the French

Riviera. The gardens mediate between the control of the landscape in the city, with its ornamental planting and avenues of specimen trees, and the control

of the landscape in the national park, where the geology, topography and weather is allowed to act as designer. In these new spaces, a third nature is created

where designed intervention reacts with environmental forces to set in motion new dynamics which are sensitive to the seasons, orchestrating the processes

which already shape the national park and pulling them into the focus of a garden. The staging of landscape phenomena events on this geographical thresh-

old, creates a magnified nature where people come into an intense contact with the landscape. Whilst the initial move is made by people, it is the environment

which creates the gardens over the long-term and seasonally the landscape phenomena events. The design of the interventions aim to be efficient, not just in

their own construction, but by maximizing the effect of the available environmental resources which will shape the gardens into the future. Each garden is

created on the site of a previously managed landscape and reacts to these existing geometries; a limestone quarry, olive tree terraces and a pine plantation.

Barcelona International Landscape Architecture Biennial

September 2018

SCHOOL PRIZE

TECHNICAL DOSSIER

Written statement, short description of the project in English, no more than 250 words

X International Landscape Architecture Biennial

Máster d’Arquitectura del Paisatge -DUOT - UPC ETSAB- Escola Tècnica Superior

d’Arquitectura de Barcelona Avenida Diagonal, 649 piso 5

08028 Barcelona-Spain

Title of the projectAuthorsTitle of the courseAcademic yearTeaching Staff Department/Section/Program of belonging University/School

For further information Máster d’Arquitectura del Paisatge -DUOT - UPC T: + 34 93 401 64 11 / +34 93 552 0842 Contact via email at: biennal.paisatge@upc.edu Consult the web page http://landscape.coac.net/

Barcelona

PERFORMATIVE NATURE1 | Fire gardenDry limestone walls threaded through the pine

plantation define a pattern of prescribed

burning to decrease the forest fuel load and

prevent the spread of wildfire. The fire creates

a gradient of evolving successional vegetation

stages culminating in a cork oak grove, a

fire-resistant climax species of the National Park

of the Calanques.

2 | Wind garden Lines of coastal Australian cypress trees face

the powerful mistral wind and and cast concrete

walls reflect the sun’s heat to create a

patchwork of micro-climates. Planting within

the patchwork forms a living experiment where

the suitability of plants from Mediterranean

climates around the world can be tested.

3 | Water gardenExcavations of the quarry floor create large

shallow pools which diffuse the power of heavy

rains and enabling the existence of fields of

vegetation. The flowering steppe changes colour

through the year, but blooms quickly and briefly

after the spring and autumn rains, producing a

dramatic sea of colour.

AboveSites of intervention

RightSeasonal landscape phenomena events

October November December January February March April May June July August September

Verbascum sp. amongst Coronilla varia

Quercus ilex Flood waters,

September 1958

Winter lightLumière family, La Ciotat, 1910

Nicholas de Staël, La Ciotat, 1952

Olive harvest

Wildfires in the national park Cistus albidus

flowering

Aromatic oils released

New growth post-fire

Seed headsPhlomis fruticosa

Quercus suber resilient against a fast moving fire

Fig harvest

Yachts on the move Northern - Southern hemisphere

1

2

3

fireintervention

Primary succession

Orchidaceae Brachypodium

Cistus Rosmarinus

batter25

limestone gravel

through stones

1600

150

500 500

drainage hole

cope stone

quarried limestone

reaction

Secondary succession

Increase in species richness during the first two years after a fire Abundance of short-

lived herbaceous plants, facilitated by a good supply of nutrients and light

Heat from the fire promotes the germination of seeds released by pyrophytes Lignotuber

pyrophytes re-grow from subterranean parts such as bulbs, protected from the fire

Quercus coccifera

Arbutus unedo

Pinus halepensis

Pinus halepensis

evolution

10 years after the fire, a successional stage similar to that prior to the fire is reached

If fire is prevented, the vegetation will develop to the Quercus suber, an evergreen fire-resistant species native to the Mediterranean

Fires occur every 30 - 50 years in a natural fire cycle, but due to increasing human activity, their occurrence is becoming more frequent

Quercus suber

Quercus suber

intervention

reaction evolution

N

Mistral

LevantTram

ontane

300

1000

450

1200

400

300

500

0.55 - 0.650.15 - 0.35albedo value of surface finishes

Pit for semi-mature wind-break tree

Pit for sapling wind-break tree proposed planting arrangement

5-10 year plant arrangement forecast

shade over the course of a daywind shelter over the course of a year

cast concrete with pebble aggregate and polished finish

cast red concrete with rough troweled finish