Abstract
This essay focuses on the meaning and the role of wasteland in the contemporary city-territory. By looking at two specific case studies the essay displays three possible approaches to the subject: anthropocentric, ecological and cyclical. Each approach is based on both theories/abstractions and visual enquiries/design explorations related either to ‘wasteland’ taken as a conceptual tool or ‘wasteland’ seen as a specific space. Reconstructing a discourse on this formulates awareness on different perspectives about wasteland values and its spatial relation with the urban system, in which wasteland can be perceived as an integral part of the territory as well as the starting point for future territorial, ecological and projective reflections.
PhD 2017: “On Worn out landscapes. Mapping wasteland in the Charleroi and Veneto central territories”. Supervisors: B. de Meulder, P. Viganò.
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Notes
- 1.
For Veneto Central area, the research defines the portion of the territory, located in northeastern Italy, included between the Treviso, Castelfranco, Padua and Venice provinces. It occupies a surface of approximately 30 by 30 km, with roughly 2.6 million inhabitants.
- 2.
The Charleroi territory is located at the centre of the Walloon region, Belgium. The metropolitan area covers an area of 1462 km2 (564 m2) with a total population of 522,522.
- 3.
According to the Biodiversity Information System for Europe, ecosystem services can contribute to: Climate regulation, water purification, soil biodiversity, cultural service (http://biodiversity.europa.eu/topics/ecosystem-services).
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Furlan, C. (2018). After Tomorrow: Three Perspectives on Urban Wastelands. In: Viganò, P., Cavalieri, C., Barcelloni Corte, M. (eds) The Horizontal Metropolis Between Urbanism and Urbanization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75975-3_31
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