The Shape of Healthy Lowland Metropolis

Urban Forestry as Landscape Architectural Approach to a Healthy Environment in Rotterdam- Den Haag Metropolis

Master thesis (2022)

Authors

S. KUO Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

J.R.T. van der Velde Landscape Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment (mentor)
C. Forgaci Urban Design - Architecture and the Built Environment (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment, Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2022 SUI-HUI KUO
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

23-06-2022

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

Owing to the unique landscape characteristics of Dutch lowland, forests in Randstad region are found being the result of the interaction between historical development and natural conditions. As cultural influences are genetically embedded in forest formation, the landscape approach to urban forestry provides a novel and wholistic lens looking at the interrelationship between trees and the cities, which enables deeper understandings of analysis and is possible to function as an integrated design tool.

South-west Randstad is facing the pressure of population growth and loss of natural landscape due to projected urban expansion in the following decades. Countermeasures of creating 52,000 new dwellings plus 5,000 hectors of forest by the year of 2040 are proposed in the development vision by the province Zuid-Holland. Therefore, this project aims at providing a spatial scheme that integrates future urban development and forest network that is rich and healthy.

The project starts with urban forest typological analysis, which concludes the interrelationships between underlayers and the urban forest pattens. By the typological analysis, health qualities are evaluated and compared between types that stand for different spatial qualities. The conclusion and comparison of the analysis enable further instrumental function of urban forest typology in landscape design.

The design part of this project envisions a regional urban forest network that consists of existing forest in urban context and an interurban forest which integrates the polycentricity and fragmented forest patches of the region. By the design approaches of structural experiential and dynamic program planning, a throughout design scheme is proposed, leading to desired spatial qualities which are carried out by utilisation of urban forest typology.