ABSTRACT

Urban Wildscapes is one of the first edited collections of writings about urban ‘wilderness’ landscapes. Evolved, rather than designed or planned, these derelict, abandoned and marginal spaces are frequently overgrown with vegetation and host to a wide range of human activities. They include former industrial sites, landfill, allotments, cemeteries, woods, infrastructural corridors, vacant lots and a whole array of urban wastelands at a variety of different scales. Frequently maligned in the media, these landscapes have recently been re-evaluated and this collection assembles these fresh perspectives in one volume.

Combining theory with illustrated examples and case studies, the book demonstrates that urban wildscapes have far greater significance, meaning and utility than is commonly thought, and that an appreciation of their particular qualities can inform a far more sustainable approach to the planning, design and management of the wider urban landscape.

The wildscapes under investigation in this book are found in diverse locations throughout the UK, Europe, China and the US. They vary in scale from small sites to entire cities or regions, and from discrete locations to the imaginary wildscapes of children’s literature. Many different themes are addressed including the natural history of wildscapes, their significance as a location for all kinds of playful activity, the wildscape as ‘commons’ and the implications for landscape architectural practice, ranging from planting interventions in wildscapes to the design of the urban public realm on wildscape principles.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

part |81 pages

Theorizing Wildscapes

chapter |16 pages

Appreciating urban wildscapes

Towards a natural history of unnatural places

chapter |15 pages

Playing in Industrial Ruins

Interrogating teleological understandings of play in spaces of material alterity and low surveillance

chapter |16 pages

Nature, Nurture; Danger, Adventure; Junkyard, Paradise

The Role of Wildscapes in Children's Literature

part |71 pages

Wildscape Case Studies

chapter |11 pages

Brown Coal, Blue Paradise

The Restoration of Opencast Coal Mines in Lusatia, Germany

chapter |9 pages

Wildscape in Shanghai

A Case Study of the Houtan Wetland Park – Expo 2010 Shanghai

chapter |11 pages

Christiania Copenhagen

A common out of the ordinary 1

chapter |11 pages

Enhancing Ruderal Perennials in Manor Fields Park, Sheffield

A New Park on the ‘Bandit Lands' of Urban Green Space Dereliction

chapter |8 pages

Pure Urban Nature

Nature-Park Südgelände, Berlin

chapter |8 pages

Upstaging Nature

Art in Sydenham Hill Wood

part |68 pages

Implications for Landscape Practice

chapter |14 pages

Taming the Wild

Gyllin's Garden and the Urbanization of a Wildscape

chapter |20 pages

Disordering Public Space

Urban wildscape Processes in Practice

chapter |16 pages

Anti-Planning, Anti-Design?

Exploring Alternative Ways of Making Future Urban Landscapes