Habitat Embroidery

Abstract

The thesis aims to explore the possible spatial transformation and design principles for introducing a landscape infrastructure that could facilitate the establishment of a new relationship between human and nature. Flevopolders in the IJsselmeer delta area is chosen as the site of study due to its unique natural and cultural settings, which represents a hard technology-based living environment that is dealing with its environmental vulnerability, the metropolitan pressure and the climate change uncertainty. The application of landscape infrastructure is based on the concept of integrating natural and human habitats through biophysical forces to form an operative landscape structure. It is implemented through-scale under the guidance of two fundamental design principles, ground level adjustment and water level management. The overall operative structure consists of the prepared ground of the territory and a robust ecological backbone. It helps the territory to pick up the lost natural dynamics and habitat diversity, as well as to guide the cultural development in an ecological-based, multifunctional and adaptive way. The notion of landscape infrastructure and its application transform the original landscapes in Flevopolders into an interwoven landscape that contains diverse and flexible interconnected spaces. It becomes the new framework that guides the future development of the territory, and reveals the optimal characteristics of a delta area.