SHARING FLUID GROUND A Landscape of Co-existence Building upon the Unstable “New Land” Along the Coast of Stavanger YELIN ZHANG 4617134 NORTH SEA: LANDSCAPES OF COEXISTENCE DELTA URBANISM RESEARCH GROUP / DELTA INTERVENTIONS STUDIO 2017–2018 CONTENT SHARING FLUID GROUND PREFACE A LANDSCAPE OF CO-EXISTENCE BUILDING UPON THE UNSTABLE “NEW LAND” ALONG THE COAST OF STAVANGER INTRODUCTION GLOBAL TRENDS ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHOR: ECONOMIC YELIN ZHANG SOCIETAL STUDENT NUMBER: 4617134 [email protected] FIELD TRIP JOURNAL PROBLEM STATEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC SOCIETAL SUPERVISORS: FIRST MENTOR: RESEARCH QUESTIONS DR.IR./ ARCH. HAMED KHOSRAVI SCENARIO & HYPOTHESIS SECOND MENTOR: INTERVENING SITE: WHY STAVANGER? IR. FILIPPO LAFLEUR IMAGINATION CONCEPT PROPOSITION METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK DESIGN METHODS DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (TUD) 3 SCALES: REGIONAL FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 3 SCALES: CITY RESEARCH GROUP: 3 SCALES: SITE DELTA URBANISM AMPHIBIOUS PATTERNS & COMPONENTS OTHER DETAILS ON SITE PHASING FINAL VISION APPENDIX AR3U022 THEORY OF URBANISM THEORY PAPER REFERENCE SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE SOCIETAL & ETHICAL PARAGRAPH REFLECTION PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES LANDSCAPE OF EMPTINESS PHOTOGRAPHED BY YELIN ZHANG 2097: WE MADE OURSELVES OVER PREFACE INSPIRATION — What is the motivation of my interventions? more densely populated than the inland moun- tainous areas. NORĐVEGR, Old Norse, which is the etymological root of the The mean sea level along the coastline of name of a northern European country, Norway, Norway has been dropping for the last century, and literally means the way northwards and with glacial isostatic adjustment as the main refers to the sailing routes along the Norwe- contributor to GMSL(global mean sea level) gian coast. This is where my graduation project change which could mitigate the ongoing sea locates. level rise in global settings. This means that There is a famous Norwegian documentary se- Norway is not considered to be vulnerable to ries called<Where No One Would Believe that sea level rise, for now. Under this circumstance, Someone Could Live>. Judging by the name lots of transformation projects, such as former of which, one could make a first guess that the shipyards and port areas transformed into resi- urbanization process in this country is a history dential, commercial and office areas area taking of humankind struggling to earn square inch place. of living space from the domination of nature. However, due to the largely concentration of During my field trip to Norway, I found that hu- the population in coastal urbanized areas and man settlements are usually limited to a narrow uncertainties lies in future sea level, it is crucial strip of flat land between sea and mountain. In- to develop an integrated plan or design with frastructure of enormous size is constructed to the IPCC(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate connect mainland and surrounding islands. The Change) projections on sea level change. preciousness of available land for urbanization makes coastal areas incomparably crucial and SOURCE: HTTP://WEMADEOURSELVESOVER.COM/BLOG/WELCOME/ BERGEN INTRODUCTION STAVANGER EGERSUND FLEKKEFJORD LYNGDAL KRISTIANSAND The time scale of this project was set by anoth- from geo-science who inspects on flooding risk MANDAL er science fiction project called 2097: We Made every day concerns most about the life status Ourselves Over. of his family members by then. And children like an 6-year-old pupil are always unfettered by the It is the culmination of a year long project in- bound of reality, and let their imagination roar viting residents and experts on sea-level rise, as high as their are supposed to be. Regardless smart cities and community activism etc, from of what background they are coming from, peo- Aarhus, Hull and beyond to describe their ple all expressed a beautiful and positive wish hopes for the coming century. The project itself for embracing new technology, a better human springs from a desire to explore human capac- society and better environment. ity for self-determination and resilience in this context. It continues our concern with the social As an urbanist, I always have to imagine for the impact and opportunities of rapidly changing future, based on rational analysis. Given the technology on our everyday lives. It takes the context of the North Sea, the first concept come city on a journey into an imagined time at the to my mind is that with the rapid developing close of this century and asks questions about of new technologies, there will not be a clear the respective roles of technology, utopia and boundary of land and sea any more. Without our own imaginations in setting a course for the the limitation of surviving only on land, a lot of future. things could be achieved by human beings. But, great nature could be a good friend and an The most interesting thing I found in these awesome foe at the same time. If we don’t have interviewing videos is the complexity of human to struggle against nature anymore, maybe being. Professor coming from a rather rigorous we should question our meaning of existence data researching background seems to possess instead. the wildest imagination, while designer who is However, the landscape of coexistence on the supposed to be more sensitive built his vision context of the North Sea will be an intriguing for 2097 in a more realistic way, and researcher scene to behold! ENVIRONMENTAL: CLIMATE CHANGE GLOBAL TRENDS GLOBAL WARMING & SEA LEVEL CHANGE Climate change is already happening: environ- which in turn results in climate change. Climate mental change is being observed on all conti- change has impacts on the natural environment nents and in all the major oceans. The climatic and major con- sequences for most sectors of changes that have been observed over the past society. 150 years cannot be explained unless anthro- The Norwegian Sea has become warmer and pogenic greenhouse gas emissions are taken saltier since 1978. into account. The combustion of coal, oil and It is uncertain how climate change will affect the gas has generated large volumes of carbon marine environment in the North Sea. Studies dioxide (CO2). These releases, combined with of benthic organisms have shown that many greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation species previously found on the seabed of the and forest degradation and other sources, have North Sea have been moving northwards into resulted in an increase in atmospheric green- the Norwegian Sea. This pattern has been house gas concentrations. According to the found for almost 600 species, and on average Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change their distribution has shifted by 750–1000 km (IPCC), the rise in greenhouse gas concen- during the past 13 years trations is the main cause of global warming, ECONOMIC: LIMITATION GLOBAL TRENDS LIMITATION IN NATURAL RESOURCES & TRANSFORMATION OF TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES All available data point in the sense that the fuels with renewable energy sources to avoid Earth is now reaching its limits in the use of its the catastrophic scenario of using coal as an natural resources. All that has just been de- energy source as well as to replace the current scribed on the duration of fossil fuel reserves model of development for sustainable devel- indicates that, given the longevity of coal, it opment, which, by reverse logistics, with the would be the source of energy to be used in reuse, recovery and recycling of materials, thus the future when other fossil fuels are depleted, reaching the so-called closed production cycle, a fact that would aggravate the greenhouse could delay the exhaustion of natural resources effect in the atmosphere. Humanity must be- of the planet Earth. come aware of the urgent need to replace fossil SOCIETAL: MIGRATION GLOBAL TRENDS HUMAN FLOW The migration of human beings is the ongoing adox is that the whole country is now facing a trends all over the world. political asylum, cli- severe problem of minus growth in population. mate and famine refugees are the main driving The ageing population results in a shortage in force of migration today. labour force. Maybe the growing frequency in According to reliable source of information(UDI), terrorism has lead to Norway’s harsh immigra- the number of asylum seekers arriving in Nor- tion policies. But simply shut down its open gate way drops by 95% since 2016 which they called to immigration won’t do good to anybody. Not refugee crisis. This fact has already caught the to mention that immigrants does not equal to attention of certain human right organisations. terrorists. A mature reviewing mechanism to- It seems like this country is becoming more and wards immigration would certainly have positive more inhospitable to immigrants. But, the par- effects on social stability. FILM BY: AI WEIWEI <HUMAN FLOW> ABOUT REFUGEES FROM SYRIA FIELD TRIP JOURNAL IMPRESSION ON THE NORTH SEA ROAD Although one would never know a place com- was the distant sound of engine of the trucks pletely even if he lives there for a lifetime, in which passed me by. I couldn’t help but thinking order to build a intimate connection with my that maybe hundreds of years ago, this was project site, I took a cycling trip along the North a wonderland for fishes or certain mammals. Sea Road from Bergen to Kristiansund in Nor- Then humankind took place. The great nature is way. What impressed me most was the vast, a miracle. What we could do is respect the dis- vacant, breath-taking landscape along the cipline of nature and admire the beauty of natu- coastline. And that was also what I saw during ral succession. Human society on the planet is most of my field trip. Sometimes I could feel this like a child who is trying to get more attention in overwhelming solitude on my way cycling along front of his mother.