Eastern Scheldt: from nature – to human reserve

Deltas are of great importance to humans all over the world. Densely populated coastal areas where land arises from sea. An amazing gradient where two worlds meet and nature and humans traditionally proliferate. It is the area where one hears, smells and sees the awakening of nature between the ebb – and flood line. It […]

First price Archiprix competition won by a landscape machine!

The project ‘Ems, Full Hybrid’ by my former students Remco van der Togt and Jonas Papenborg (co-supervised by Harro de Jong) won the prestigious Archiprix first price 2014. For the project description see here and for the jury report see below: Each year the Dutch institutions offering Master’s programmes in architecture, urban design and landscape […]

Why a landscape machine?

Designers should design landscapes that challenge human beings and human collectives to allow them to redefine nature within and beyond themselves. We are well aware that the two words ‘landscape’ and ‘machine’ are dissonant in many ways; something technocratic versus something pristine? The dissonance is on the other hand exactly right, if you consider an […]

Community Supported Landscape Regeneration

Msc. thesis project Flore Bijker and Lian Kasper whole report can be viewed here Is there social support for the implementation of large-scale landscape machines in populated regions? What is the role of (local) people within the landscape machine concept? What allowances does the re-design of landscapes offer for the creation of (local) maintenance structures […]

mangrove landscape machine

szovetseg’39 saves critical shorelines with caltrope system.

Water Sprung Versatility

The river Roer (Roermond, the Netherlands) has been of great importance to the inhabitants of its valley since the Roman empire. However, anno 2013, the Roer is not only beloved, but also known for its moody character. Due to the increase of precipitation in winter and the decrease of precipitation in summer, the rain river […]

Landscape Machine CHECKLIST

Figure 2: An energy systems diagram of a hypothetical Landscape Machine described by making use of COOS – the key concepts of evolutionary thermodynamics described by Tiezzi. A set of interacting processes, energy and material flows that resemble functions and services performed by a hypothetical landscape machine. Processes, systems and connections among them have a […]

Ecosystems Under Stress

SENSE Symposium: Assessing the impact of chemical and physical disturbances on ecological processes and ecosystem structure This symposium welcomes poster and oral presentations that aim at assessing the impacts of chemical and physical disturbances directly or indirectly originated by humans on ecosystem integrity and ecosystem function at different levels of biological organization and at multiple […]

Best (Dutch) Sustainable Building Project Award 2012

During the Dutch Sustainable Building event (DUBO) in Rotterdam on September 27, 2012, the DUBO-award was presented to the design of the motorway N329 in the municipality of Oss. Commissioned by Oss and the province of Northern-Brabant, a designteam lead by RoyalHaskoningDHV, landscape architect Paul Roncken and artist Wim Korvinus (on behalf of the BKKC) […]

What is a landscape machine?

The definition of a Landscape Machine according to the first publication is threefold: (1) it is a productive landscape that clearly addresses an existent malfunction or disfunctionality related to landscape systems. An improved design to deal with this situation can be evaluated by the input-output ratio and quality of living system components. The ratio is […]