fire garden garden water garden

printemps hiver l’automne

Country / City United Kingdom / Edinburgh University / School University of Edinburgh / Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Academic year 2017 - 2018 Title of the project PROTOTYPES FOR A THIRD NATURE Authors Emily Cropton PERFORMATIVE NATURE Barcelona International Landscape Architecture Biennial

September 2018 Barcelona SCHOOL PRIZE

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

TECHNICAL DOSSIER

Title of the project PROTOTYPES FOR A THIRD NATURE Authors Emily Cropton Title of the course Individual Landscape Portfolio Academic year 2017 - 2018 Teaching Staff Elinor Scarth and Lisa Mackenzie Department/Section/Program of belonging Department of Landscape / MLA Landscape Architecture

University/School University of Edinburgh / Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

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

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.

For further information Máster d’Arquitectura del Paisatge -DUOT - UPC

T: + 34 93 401 64 11 / +34 93 552 0842 Contact via email at: [email protected] Consult the web page http://landscape.coac.net/ 1 | Fire garden 2 | Wind garden 3 | Water garden Dry limestone walls threaded through the pine Lines of coastal Australian cypress trees face Excavations of the quarry floor create large PERFORMATIVE NATURE plantation define a pattern of prescribed the powerful wind and and cast concrete shallow pools which diffuse the power of heavy Barcelona International Landscape Architecture Biennial burning to decrease the forest fuel load and walls reflect the sun’s heat to create a rains and enabling the existence of fields of prevent the spread of wildfire. The fire creates patchwork of micro-climates. Planting within vegetation. The flowering steppe changes colour September 2018 Barcelona a gradient of evolving successional vegetation the patchwork forms a living experiment where through the year, but blooms quickly and briefly stages culminating in a cork oak grove, a the suitability of plants from Mediterranean after the spring and autumn rains, producing a SCHOOL PRIZE fire-resistant climax species of the National Park climates around the world can be tested. dramatic sea of colour. of the Calanques. 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 1

TECHNICAL DOSSIER

Title of the project Authors Title of the course Academic year Teaching Staff Department/Section/Program of belonging 3

University/School

Written statement, short description of the project in English, no more than 250 words 2

Seed heads Phlomis fruticosa Fig harvest Olive harvest Nicholas de Staël, La Ciotat, 1952 Quercus suber resilient Aromatic Above Verbascum Winter light against a fast moving fire Quercus Lumière family, La Ciotat, 1910 oils released sp. amongst Yachts on the move Wildfires in the Sites of intervention ilex Flood waters, Coronilla Northern - Southern hemisphere national park Cistus albidus varia September 1958 flowering

Right New growth post-fire For further information Seasonal landscape Máster d’Arquitectura del Paisatge -DUOT - UPC phenomena events

T: + 34 93 401 64 11 / +34 93 552 0842 Contact via email at: [email protected] Consult the web page http://landscape.coac.net/ October November December January February March April May June July August September fire intervention

batter 25

cope stone 1600 Orchidaceae Brachypodium

150 Cistus Rosmarinus 500 500 through stones limestone gravel drainage hole quarried limestone

Primary succession

Quercus coccifera reaction Pinus halepensis

Arbutus unedo

Pinus halepensis

Secondary succession Heat from the fire promotes the germination of seeds released by pyrophytes Increase in species Lignotuber richness during the pyrophytes re-grow first two years after from subterranean Abundance of short- a fire parts such as bulbs, lived herbaceous protected from plants, facilitated by a the fire good supply of nutrients and light

Quercus suber evolution

Quercus suber

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 intervention

albedo value of surface finishes 0.15 - 0.35 0.55 - 0.65

cast red concrete with rough troweled finish

cast concrete with pebble aggregate and polished finish

300

1200

400 1000

Pit for semi-mature 300 wind-break tree

450 500

Pit for sapling proposed planting arrangement wind-break tree

reaction evolution

N

Mis tral

Levant

5-10 year plant arrangement forecast

wind shelter over the course of a year shade over the course of a day