Abstract
As the force field of urbanization grows in complexity, variety, scale, and rate in the early decades of the 21st century, designers, urbanists, and policy-makers alike must develop new theoretical and methodological approaches. This article demonstrates the use of landscape as a primary framework for theorizing contemporary urbanization and developing pre-emptive design strategies through a discussion of a design research report on the risk of death by landslide in Medellin’s Aburra Valley. Landslides in these geologically hazardous slopes have killed 784 low-income residents in the past 80 years, and by 2030 nearly 350,000 residents will be at risk.
Shifting Ground, a collaboration between the think-tank URBAM of Eafit University in Medellin and the Social Agency Lab of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, proposes landscape-based strategies for redirecting urbanization processes in order to avoid further disasters in the valley and simultaneously produce new economies. Landscape is used as a research and design framework and takes into account the geologic makeup of the slopes, regional hydrology, local economies, and the flow of settlers relocating to the slopes.
Shifting Ground, a collaboration between the think-tank URBAM of Eafit University in Medellin and the Social Agency Lab of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, proposes landscape-based strategies for redirecting urbanization processes in order to avoid further disasters in the valley and simultaneously produce new economies. Landscape is used as a research and design framework and takes into account the geologic makeup of the slopes, regional hydrology, local economies, and the flow of settlers relocating to the slopes.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 148-159 |
Journal | Landscape Architecture Frontiers |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 4 |
State | Published - 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- urbanization
- landscape infrastructure
- design research
- landslide
- erosion