后工业景观——当代有关产业遗址、场地改造和景观再生的问题与策略

　　INTRODUCTION
　　The productive life of factories, manufacturing plants and industrial production comes to an end, and is replaced by abandonment and dereliction. (fig.1) For many countries, cities, municipalities and communities a current form of engagement with their urban environment is concerned with the reclamation and regeneration of industrial (or brownfield) sites that by virtue of past industrial production uses, are now physically degraded, environmentally disturbed, and chemically contaminated. (fig.2) Brownfields indicate not just a change in physical appearance or a simple return to the highly productive use of exhausted and currently undervalued plots of ground- a tidying up of the past industrial environment, rather it signals a profound shift in the way in which landscape architects must lay claim to this disputed area. Disputed because it is still a highly contentious part of any national landscape, through it's association with the by-products of heavy industrialization, (vacant buildings, the idled infrastructure of canals, rails, rivers, waste storage, and toxic soils and groundwater), long after manufacturing processes have ceased. This activity concentrates on that part of the current built environment which recent trends in current civic landscape design, open space, 'greenfield' ¹and infrastructure planning and design have tended to overshadow- the reclamation and reuse of the industrial heritage of derelict brownfield land. Collectively they introduce visually compelling but forgotten landscapes – places of devastation, neglect, but ultimately redeemable and vital in any national vision in the 21st century. (fig.3) The class of site known as 'brownfield' is universal. That is, it is not only found across every part of every nation and across each continent. It is also currently the most contentious- politically, ecologically, culturally, economically, and aesthetically.
　　If you look globally at this issue, figures from 1995 ² identify thirty two point two percent (32.2%) of the world's 32.5 billion acres of land as considered either built-on, polluted wasteland, roads, lanes or barren land. Even if you assume very conservatively that 1% of this thirty two point two percent figure (32.2%) is polluted wasteland this amounts roughly to over 100 million acres world-wide. However brownfield definitions vary significantly between countries and across continents. In the United States the latest brownfield bill in January 2002 ³ states: 'A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence, or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant ?" In Europe, brownfield sites are underused urban areas whether contaminated or not, dating from the first phase of industrialization. These are likely to be from 1800- 1914 in the United Kingdom, 1870- 1940 in Germany and 1900- 1970 in much of Eastern and Southern Europe. Although much of the earlier brownfield design work has been focused in Europe and North America and while it has no particular direct brownfield laws, China has strengthened its Environmental Impact Assessment legislation and is considering revisions to its Solid Waste Laws. This suggests that while the correlation between processes of industrialization and environmental transformation are specific to the geography, culture, and legal systems of nations, there exists a common emergence of interest in, and growing concern for this class of landscape site.

　　SITES
　　Polluted riverways, chemical factories and oil storage facilities, landfills and waste dumps, steel mills and smelting plants, derelict waterfronts, and railroad yards, industrial mines and quarries, printers, metal finishing factories and textile mills, (fig.4) these are the current types of brownfield regeneration sites in landscape restoration, reclamation and landscape architecture. What is the relationship of these sites to landscape architecture and design? How does the landscape designer work productively in this territory?
　　The main issue to be addressed is not whether brownfield sites of this type should be reclaimed or redeveloped, or the review of their legal, ownership and regulatory frameworks, however necessary that is. Rather, it is to the precise nature of how this industrial heritage work is to be physically carried out, and specifically, the relationship to landscape design in this endeavor. Groundwater and soils are the most prevalent contaminated media that landscape architects will have to address. In addition, large quantities of other contaminated material such as polluted sediments, subsurface plumes, underground storage tanks, leachate and waste slag are also found in canals, ponds, lagoons and rivers. (fig. 5) Finally there are the physical structures and infrastructure themselves onsite comprising former factories and manufacturing plants in steel, brick and concrete, some of them dating back over 100 years and all in various states of disrepair and dereliction.
　　Today abandoned industrial sites are simply the last available areas in the urban fabric where new parks can be created. The departure of industry and the remaining brownfield lands creates the chance to make a dramatic improvement in the living qualities of the city, and in this respect the creation of high-quality public space is just as important as the construction of new homes or workspaces. City parks on industrial brownfields can in turn become important places of encounter- as a place for daily gatherings and special cultural events.

　　CONFERENCES AND PROJECTS
　　Almost ten years ago in 1998 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, I organized a conference and exhibition entitled Manufactured Sites: An International Landscape Conference and Exhibition on Site Technologies for Contemporary Practice on the topic of post-industrial brownfield sites that attempted to build a more contemporary vision of this aspect of the built environment. It brought together an international group of scientists, civil and environmental engineers and landscape architects (fig.6) to present new research and case studies of reclaimed brownfield sites that was documented in the 'Manufactured Sites' publication 4. Of the examples presented the metamorphosis of a former steel works into the 230 hectare Landscape Park Duisburg North by landscape architect Peter Latz stood as an exemplary model. (fig.7)
　　The project is located in the northern Ruhr area of Germany where toxic waste has set the parameters for site planning and design. To make this area with 2.5 million inhabitants attractive again for new investment, the fundamental ecological base of the landscape was restored. The working method over the site was one of adaptation and reinterpretation, a metamorphosis of industrial structures without destroying them. (fig.8)
　　The toxic material including existing structures, walls and waste could neither be taken away from the site, nor could it be ignored. The design placed highly toxic material in sealed bunkers that were earlier used to store iron ore. Stones were ground down to become new soil and walking surfaces. A series of roof gardens were built on the bunkers and sown with flowering plants. Staircases were developed from dismantled walkways. Passing over these zones pedestrians can watch the slowly growing gardens, built at various heights and depths within the bunker site. (fig.9)
　　So bit by bit, another history, another understanding of the contemporary site and this park and garden is developing. The plan integrated the historical dimensions of the area and worked with the by-products of the earlier activities on the site. It suggests a new point of departure in landscape architecture that cannot be equated or associated with traditional 'greenfield' sites. The task of dealing with contemporary sites such as Duisburg requires new design methods that accept the site's physical qualities, as well as their destroyed nature and topography. This new vision is not based on a total 'clearing and re-cultivation'rather it seeks its justification within the existing demolished and exhausted forms. (fig.10)
　　Iorganized three years later in 2001 jointly with ecologist Professor Robert France a second landscape conference and exhibition event at the Harvard Design School titled Brown Fields Gray Waters- Reclamation Processes and Design Practices. This conference and exhibition was an affiliation of different attitudes to what these landscapes might become and how they may be formed and remade in the twenty-first century around such public and varied brownfield sites as the FreshKills Landfill, Staten Island, New York, the Las Vegas Wash, Nevada, the London Wetlands Center, and the Westergasfabriek lands in Amsterdam, Holland- a former polluted gasworks turned park and cultural center. (fig.11)
　　The former Westergasfabriek site and the cultural programming stands as an exemplary interim project and intense international attention is now focused on the New Westerpark site reclamation and reoccupation as a model for efforts in other urban centers around the world. This recognition is perhaps best explained through three areas of endeavor over the life of this project so far. The first can be directed to the initial perceptions by a variety of stakeholders, residents and city officials of the enormous ongoing cultural, social and civic value of the Westergasfabriek site as a landscape even in it's former abandoned and polluted state. Not only perceptions but the transformation of these opinions and thoughts into a series of clear and directed actions about the interim cultural inhabitation of the landscape and the increasing visibility of the site in the urban social fabric. In this Westergasfabriek points to the temporary inhabitation in the physical structure of a brownfield site as a working method for other communities and cities to recapture the values of their lost or vacant lands. The second is in the development of a consistent and creative vision for the site that at the same time is robust yet flexible over time and embraces all stakeholders and local communities. In this regard, Westergasfabriek through the consistent reinforcement of the initial vision in all forms of media and activities demonstrates for other agencies and countries the seriousness of the act of brownfield reclamation as a social and cultural endeavor. Finally the areas of endeavor associated with the physical, social and material qualities of the site continue to be underscored on the Westergasfabriek project. The project by folding historic surfaces, structures and places with emerging and progressive ideas in public open space, gives direction to other brownfield communities.
　　Abandoned in 1960, the nineteenth century inner city 12-acre gasworks site remained desolate for almost four decades. In 1997 the Council held an international design competition in an effort to solicit ideas for the future reuse of the property. American landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson based in Seattle, USA and London, England developed the winning design. The park design now including the industrial grounds with the adjacent park design for a total of 124 acres provides for both city and nature. (fig.11)
　　The eastern side, towards the center of Amsterdam, is reminiscent of a historical city park; (fig.12) the central area mirrors the use of the landscape as a site for sport and industry; the western side emphasizes harmony with nature¡ (fig.13) The central axis of the park forms the backbone of the plan and is the corridor connecting all areas and buildings. The first part of the project was completed in Spring 2002.

　　ENDING
　　How can landscape architects re-interpret the chronology of a brownfield site, be it natural, industrial or cultural in its disposition, in a specific geographic location and secondly how can design shape this site into a landscape consonant with the cultural artifice of the surrounding urban fabric. By looking observantly, without trite moralizing at the natural world as well as the built and disposable world, the landscape architect builds at the great overlap between the two. This suggests a challenging new paradigm for how the landscape profession ought to work within our contemporary brownfield environment, a new quality of attention to the intricate organic and artificial systems of reality. Looking beyond nostalgia for the impossibly pristine, and clear-sighted beyond disgust for the actual present site conditions.