Papers by Dominique Rossi Breetzke
Landscape architecture is a design discipline and a form of art. It is an art which grows, transf... more Landscape architecture is a design discipline and a form of art. It is an art which grows, transforms, dies and revives itself in engagement with the physical world. It needs, as a design discipline, to engage with these multiple layers of the physical world to support healthy living, beauty, renewal and even survival. The environmental and social benefits urban nature provides and relies on have in recent times been redefined as 'ecosystem services'. As part of this discourse, landscape design is an art which is becoming all the more relevant for the physical world in the wake of escalating population growth, urbanization and climate change. There are still however left-over voids of land within our settlements that can become valuable for social, economic and environmental purposes. The paper explores the possibility of using these for allotment community gardening through a case study in Sunnyside, Pretoria. An abandoned stretch of land along the Walker Spruit served as a model for testing the hypothesis of increasing food security and social capital through a design that embraces urban ecology. The literature review provides numerous ideas and examples to substantiate the rationale of the approach. Guerrilla Gardening is investigated as a response to recent concepts of ecological justice and politics. The allotment culture is revisited as re-explored in recent times in Britain, Canada and Switzerland. Subsequently the concept of green infrastructure is used to explore the theory of a Continuous Productive Urban Landscape. The findings suggest that allotment culture and permaculture can be ways of reconnecting people with urban nature. The design concept of the 'three natures', builds on this underlying idea and propose how it can become a physical reality. As a result, a new identity that ties in with the original genius of place can unite two very distinct neighbourhoods in the city: Clydesdale and Sunnyside East, while providing the required social and biophysical services sustainably. The study upholds that as urban development continues to strive for greater resilience in the future, community involvement can only be central to its vision.
Landscape architecture is a design discipline and a form of art. It is an art which grows, transf... more Landscape architecture is a design discipline and a form of art. It is an art which grows, transforms, dies and revives itself in engagement with the physical world. It needs, as a design discipline, to engage with these multiple layers of the physical world to support healthy living, beauty, renewal and even survival. The environmental and social benefits urban nature provides and relies on have in recent times been redefined as ‘ecosystem services’. As part of this discourse, landscape design is an art which is becoming all the more relevant for the physical world in the wake of escalating population growth, urbanization and climate change. There are still however left-over voids of land within our settlements that can become valuable for social, economic and environmental purposes. The paper explores the possibility of using these for allotment community gardening through a case study in Sunnyside, Pretoria. An abandoned stretch of land along the Walker Spruit served as a model f...
Uploads
Papers by Dominique Rossi Breetzke