From wasteland to landscape: a socio-ecological design study of care

Abstract

“From Wasteland to Landscape” focuses on the development of urban and landscape design approaches and techniques, appropriately hybridised with environmental engineering skills, applied to waste storage and treatment facilities (landfills) to reconvert them (in post- management) into collective spaces for the contemporary city. This project, centred on the macro-sector of Architectural, Urban and Landscape Design, focuses on the necessary and fertile interactions between these design disciplines and those engineering sectors that are traditionally involved in waste and water treatment management processes and environmental protection, such as sanitary-environmental engineering, hydraulic engineering, and geotechnical engineering. The vision of this research project lies in the desire to anticipate, at the time when waste storage and treatment sites are being designed or operated, the unveiling of that formal and spatial potential whose need generally only becomes apparent and imposes itself in terms of an emergency when the facility is closed and enters the so-called post-operational phase. The doctoral thesis proposes a marked contamination between knowledge and skills, capable of fostering the development of complex competences for the development of innovative design and management services for contexts of high environmental risk, tending to promote an up- cycling of waste into a resource for the community, in the perspective of the circular economy, urban-mining, waste-mining, the containment of land consumption and sustainable development. This hybridisation of competences finds a particularly significant breeding ground in the PhD in Civil Systems Engineering and Philosophy of Architecture, which integrates sectors of urban and landscape design. The project From Wasteland to Landscape intends to respond to the solicitations that, coming from diierent national and international contexts, converge in the push towards a responsible use of natural resources, towards the protection of the environment, the definition of di@erent ways of inhabiting the planet as well as sustainable, and regenerative lifestyles. The idea of considering the material waste of design for the formal definition of the contemporary city space finds full congruence with several Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 and in particular with SDGs 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable and 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. The methodology used is Research through/by Design, involving landscape fieldwork at numerous waste landscapes in Greece, Italy, Germany, and Luxembourg, while simultaneously examining case studies from literature reviews and applying both qualitative and quantitative research tools. The dissertation concludes with two design proposals, through which—and as a continuation of the research—a method for designing landfills and generally waste landscapes is proposed that takes the social and ecological dimensions as well as the notion of care seriously into account.

Η διδακτορική διατριβή «From Wasteland to Landscape» (Από Σκουπιδοτοπίο σε Τοπίο) επικεντρώνεται στην ανάπτυξη προσεγγίσεων και τεχνικών αστικού και αρχιτεκτονικοτοπιακού σχεδιασμού, σε συνδυασμό με δεξιότητες περιβαλλοντικής μηχανικής, που εφαρμόζονται σε εγκαταστάσεις αποθήκευσης και επεξεργασίας αποβλήτων (χώροι υγειονομικής ταφής). Ο σκοπός είναι η αναδιαμόρφωσή των χώρων αυτών, μετά τη διαχείριση τους και την ολοκλήρωση του κύκλου λειτουργίας τους ως χώρος εναπόθεσης αποβλήτων, σε συλλογικούς χώρους για τη σύγχρονη πόλη. Το έργο αυτό, ενώ επικεντρώνεται στον μακροτομέα του αρχιτεκτονικού, του αστικού και του αρχιτεκτονοτοπιακού σχεδιασμού, εστιάζει στις απαραίτητες και γόνιμες αλληλεπιδράσεις μεταξύ αυτών των σχεδιαστικών επιστημών και των τομέων της μηχανικής. Η επιστήμη της μηχανικής περιβάλλοντος παραδοσιακά εμπλέκονται στις διαδικασίες διαχείρισης αποβλήτων και επεξεργασίας νερού και την προστασία του περιβάλλοντος, όπως η υγειονομική-περιβαλλοντική μηχανική, η υδραυλική μηχανική και η γεωτεχνική μηχανική.Το όραμα του ερευνητικού προγράμματος «From Wasteland to Landscape» (Από Σκουπιδοτοπίο σε Τοπίο) έγκειται στην επιθυμία να προβλεφθεί, κατά τη φάση σχεδιασμού ή ακόμα και στη φάση λειτουργίας των χώρων αποθήκευσης και επεξεργασίας αποβλήτων, η αποκάλυψη χωρικών τυπικών και άτυπων πρακτικών, που συνήθως γίνονται εμφανής και επιβάλλονται ως επείγουσα ανάγκη μόνο όταν η εγκατάσταση του σκουπιδοτοπίου κλείσει και εισέρχεται στη λεγόμενη «φάση της μετα-φροντίδας». Η διδακτορική διατριβή προτείνει μια έντονη αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ διαφορετικών γνώσεων και δεξιοτήτων, ικανή να προωθήσει την ανάπτυξη σύνθετων ικανοτήτων για την εξέλιξη καινοτόμων πρακτικών σχεδιασμού και διαχείρισης για περιβάλλοντα υψηλού περιβαλλοντικού κινδύνου. Στόχος είναι η προώθηση της ανακύκλωσης των αποβλήτων σε πόρο για την κοινότητα, με προοπτική την κυκλική οικονομία, την αστική εξόρυξη (urban-mining), την εξόρυξη αποβλήτων (waste-mining), τον περιορισμό της κατανάλωσης γης και τη βιώσιμη ανάπτυξη. Αυτή η υβριδοποίηση ικανοτήτων βρίσκει ένα ιδιαίτερα σημαντικό έδαφος στο διδακτορικό πρόγραμμα στη μηχανική πολιτικών συστημάτων, το οποίο ενσωματώνει τομείς αστικού και αρχιτεκτονοτοπιακού σχεδιασμού. Το έργο «From Wasteland to Landscape» (Από Σκουπιδοτοπίο σε Τοπίο) αποσκοπεί να ανταποκριθεί στις εκκλήσεις που, προερχόμενες από διαφορετικά εθνικά και διεθνή πλαίσια, συγκλίνουν στην προώθηση της υπεύθυνης χρήσης των φυσικών πόρων, της προστασίας του περιβάλλοντος, του καθορισμού τρόπων διαβίωσης στον πλανήτη και βιώσιμων και αναγεννητικών τρόπων ζωής.

“From Wasteland to Landscape” si concentra sullo sviluppo di approcci e tecniche di progettazione urbana e paesaggistica, opportunamente ibridati con le competenze di ingegneria ambientale, applicati agli impianti di stoccaggio e trattamento dei rifiuti (discariche) per riconvertirli (in fase di post-gestione) in spazi collettivi attrezzati per la città contemporanea. Questo progetto, incentrato sul macro-settore della progettazione architettonica, urbana e paesaggistica, si concentra sulle necessarie e fertili interazioni tra queste discipline progettuali e quei settori dell'ingegneria che sono tradizionalmente coinvolti nei processi di gestione dei rifiuti e del trattamento delle acque e nella protezione dell'ambiente, come l'ingegneria sanitario- ambientale, l'ingegneria idraulica e l'ingegneria geotecnica. La visione del progetto di ricerca “From Wasteland to Landscape” nasce dal desiderio di anticipare, nel momento in cui i siti di stoccaggio e trattamento dei rifiuti vengono progettati o gestiti, la rivelazione di quel potenziale formale e spaziale la cui necessità generalmente diventa evidente e si impone in termini di emergenza solo quando l'impianto viene chiuso ed entra nella cosiddetta fase post-operativa. Il corso di dottorato propone una marcata contaminazione tra conoscenze e competenze diverse, in grado di favorire lo sviluppo di competenze complesse per lo sviluppo di servizi innovativi di progettazione e gestione per contesti ad alto rischio ambientale, tendenti a promuovere un up-cycling dei rifiuti in una risorsa per la comunità, nella prospettiva dell'economia circolare, dell'urban mining, del waste mining, del contenimento del consumo di suolo e dello sviluppo sostenibile. Questa ibridazione di competenze trova un terreno particolarmente significativo nel dottorato in Ingegneria dei Sistemi Civili, che integra settori della progettazione urbana e paesaggistica. Il progetto From Wasteland to Landscape intende rispondere alle sollecitazioni che, provenienti da diversi contesti nazionali e internazionali, convergono nella spinta verso un uso responsabile delle risorse naturali, verso la tutela dell'ambiente, verso la definizione di modi di abitare il pianeta e stili di vita sostenibili e rigenerativi. L'idea di considerare lo scarto materiale della progettazione per la definizione formale dello spazio urbano contemporaneo trova piena congruenza con diversi Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile dell'Agenda 2030 e in particolare con gli SDG 11. Rendere le città e gli insediamenti umani inclusivi, sicuri, resilienti e sostenibili e 12. Garantire modelli di consumo e produzione sostenibili. La metodologia applicata è quella della ricerca-progetto, con indagini sul campo condotte in numerose discariche in Grecia, Italia, Germania e Lussemburgo, esaminando parallelamente casi di studio tratti dalla ricerca bibliografica e avvalendosi di strumenti sia di ricerca qualitativa che quantitativa. La tesi giunge a due proposte progettuali, attraverso le quali, e in seguito alla presente ricerca, viene proposto un metodo di progettazione delle discariche e spazi di scarto che tenga seriamente conto della dimensione sociale ed ecologica e del concetto di cura.