Curation

<p>Today we see a simplification in our landscapes; a globalisation of culture and landscape that has forced people into a state of disconnection with place. It has divided our world into culturally rich, and culturally absent worlds. Worlds where natural ecologies are seen as separate entities to the human cultures that live on the land. Our landscapes need to reconnect and adapt; not only to the ever increasingly culturally diverse world, but also to the site specific social and natural ecologies that exist. Wainuiomata is no exemption to this condition. Its suburban landscape is divided from the natural ecologies that lay dormant on its peripheries. It is an austere environment, but one with a colourful and culturally diverse community that is unable to express itself. This piece of research argues that landscape architecture has the ability to enable disadvantaged communities to rekindle a sense of connection with, and custodianship over their landscapes. It discusses ways of designing that can reform lost relationships between communities and the common ground they live upon. The work brings forward how landscapes can be designed in ways that provide opportunities not only for communities to self build their landscape, but also how the architect can create frameworks that facilitate a process of engagement at different scales. It further explores how a respect for ecological environments can be instilled into the community through building relationships between ecological and social environments, as opposed to their current segregation. Lastly, the thesis looks at how a landscape architect may design in a way that pushes beyond the final drawings. Doing this with an understanding that it is a curation of a process (one where communities can become a part of the making of a landscape) that will bring a sense of custodianship to its dwellers.</p>

Curation

<p>Today we see a simplification in our landscapes; a globalisation of culture and landscape that has forced people into a state of disconnection with place. It has divided our world into culturally rich, and culturally absent worlds. Worlds where natural ecologies are seen as separate entities to the human cultures that live on the land. Our landscapes need to reconnect and adapt; not only to the ever increasingly culturally diverse world, but also to the site specific social and natural ecologies that exist. Wainuiomata is no exemption to this condition. Its suburban landscape is divided from the natural ecologies that lay dormant on its peripheries. It is an austere environment, but one with a colourful and culturally diverse community that is unable to express itself. This piece of research argues that landscape architecture has the ability to enable disadvantaged communities to rekindle a sense of connection with, and custodianship over their landscapes. It discusses ways of designing that can reform lost relationships between communities and the common ground they live upon. The work brings forward how landscapes can be designed in ways that provide opportunities not only for communities to self build their landscape, but also how the architect can create frameworks that facilitate a process of engagement at different scales. It further explores how a respect for ecological environments can be instilled into the community through building relationships between ecological and social environments, as opposed to their current segregation. Lastly, the thesis looks at how a landscape architect may design in a way that pushes beyond the final drawings. Doing this with an understanding that it is a curation of a process (one where communities can become a part of the making of a landscape) that will bring a sense of custodianship to its dwellers.</p>

Transformation of Danube Recreational Sites

The purpose of the research was to verify models of sustainable urbanization of the Danube riverside landscape in the suburban surroundings of Bratislava. The research focused on landscape-ecological forms of suburban urbanization in the contact of the river Danube, in the context of meanders of the Danube branches with the formation of recreational localities. The implementation of ecological principles was based on the concept of regional structures with a vision of the renewal of the ancient branches of the Danube for the creation of the climatic envelope of Bratislava from the southwestern side. The completion of the Petržalka, Slnečnice, Južné Mesto, and rural structures near Jarovce, Rusovce, and Čuňovo, conditioned by ecological urbanization, will acquire more landscape elements and a system of blue and green infrastructure. The hierarchical transition of the city to the suburban localities is solved by creating zones of recreation and sports on the Danube. Variant case studies of the "Danubia Park" near the village of Čuňovo are located on the southwestern bank of the Hrušov Reservoir of the Danube, with access to the Wild Water sports zone and the Danubiana Gallery complex. The research followed up on the verification of the recreational function in the landscape and focused on the level of low occupancy, the integration of sports and recreational functions, accessibility by all modes of transport, the penetration of recreation into the open landscape. For the identity of the original landscape, freely modeled connections to the riparian zone, work with water flow in the area, port, pedestrian and cycling connections to the EuroVelo route, outdoor museums of the Danube meadows, lakes and wetland communities, workouts, and multifunctional playgrounds, forms of wellness, sauna world and natural swimming. Ecological recreation concepts in the landscape of the Danube floodplains on the banks of the Danube used the modeling of banks, watercourse lines, meandering of recreational areas, green axes, play areas, elements, and zones. They used lighthouses and lookout towers for accent and orientation. The hierarchy of the release of small urban structures and loose forms of sensitive urbanization with functional flexibility and attractiveness proved the justification and location in the landscape of the Danube meadows, in the contact zones of the protected landscape and the watercourse. In this way, the importance of the suburban landscape structure is beneficial for the city not only in terms of functional attractiveness but also in terms of landscape protection and the climatic influence of the city's hinterland on its compact structures.

Dispersion of the epigeic fauna groups in the agricultural landscape

Changes in the structure of epigeic animal groups indicate ecological stability, which are influenced by urbanization, agriculture, and forestry. The aim of the paper was to assess the impact of agrarian land in the vicinity of urban and suburban landscape and non-fragmented forest in the vicinity of rural landscape on the occurrence of epigeic groups. We recorded the pitfall traps - 19, 676 individuals belonging to 20 taxonomic groups at 9 localities representing 7 types of habitat. Our results indicate a year-on-year increase in the number of individuals of epigeic groups in the city, with surrounding agrarian land. We found a correlation between eudominant epigeic groups of Aranea and Hymenoptera and rural landscape with the non-fragmented surrounding. Coleoptera has shown a link between the conditions of urban and suburban landscape with the surrounding developed agriculture. We confirmed a statistically significant effect for luminosity (p = 0.002), humidity (p = 0.025) and pH (p = 0.017).

The Role of Ethnic Retailing in Retrofitting Suburbia: Case Studies from Toronto, Canada

Today’s immigrants to Canada are increasingly and directly settling into suburban areas of major cities; a trend that has resulted in new retail opportunities: suburban ethnic shopping centres are a growing phenomenon in areas with major immigrant settlement. This paper discusses the development and retrofitting processes of three suburban Chinese shopping malls in the Toronto area. The paper explores how these malls successfully regenerated areas once affected by business decline and how they can act as a catalyst to develop a new urban form that makes the suburban landscape less uniform and more sustainable. Various perspectives from key players involved in ethnic retail activities and developments were collected, including surveys with entrepreneurs and shoppers, and semi-structured interviews with city councillors, city planners, developers, and an architect. The paper suggests that municipalities could invest in established ethnic retail places as an innovative means of “retrofitting suburbia".

The Role of Ethnic Retailing in Retrofitting Suburbia: Case Studies from Toronto, Canada

Today’s immigrants to Canada are increasingly and directly settling into suburban areas of major cities; a trend that has resulted in new retail opportunities: suburban ethnic shopping centres are a growing phenomenon in areas with major immigrant settlement. This paper discusses the development and retrofitting processes of three suburban Chinese shopping malls in the Toronto area. The paper explores how these malls successfully regenerated areas once affected by business decline and how they can act as a catalyst to develop a new urban form that makes the suburban landscape less uniform and more sustainable. Various perspectives from key players involved in ethnic retail activities and developments were collected, including surveys with entrepreneurs and shoppers, and semi-structured interviews with city councillors, city planners, developers, and an architect. The paper suggests that municipalities could invest in established ethnic retail places as an innovative means of “retrofitting suburbia".

Aging in suburban Canada

This chapter talks about Canada's built environment and population growth that predominantly occurs on the urban fringe. It describes Canada as a suburban nation and its largest metropolitan areas, which include Vancouver, Montréal, and Toronto with the suburban residents that exceed 80 percent. It also distinguishes traditional forms of suburban locations that can be characterized by a variety of factors, such as the proportion of single-family housing, car-commuting patterns, population density, and home-ownership rates. The chapter recognizes that the modern suburban landscape is complex and diverse and that there is no single perfect operational definition of suburban. It examines suburban Canada's population that is relatively heterogeneous, compared to rural locations, but is still significantly less diverse than urban Canada.