A9 Urban Forest
Individual phase of the Atelier
In my individual phase I choose to work on the last part of our A9 HighPark which is constituted of an area that we called the Urban Forest. This area is thought as the place where the natural character is more dominant; moreover we wanted to play with the contrast between the more humanized characters embedded on the highway theme and the wild one emerging from the woodland environment. In our programme this area is intended as a playful forest for children, “where they can experience playing in a more naturalistic way”
The driving concept behind the last part of the linear park, the Urban Forest, consists on the justapposition of typical urban elements (the street's landscape features) within a forest like environment. Looking through the critical perspective of New Urbanism at a first glance appeared to me that this place could be certainly improved. I thought: how this place would appear in night time situations or simply when kids are not there to play? Considering New Urbanism principles is important to foresee the use of an area by different users and at different times if we want it to be a pleasant place to be.
Two parallel studies have been used; one concerning the definition of forest and related scientific knowledge upon it, and the other more about the forest as a design issue for recreational environments, I come up with two distinctive models. The first model is called the Bright Forest, is based on the definition of open forest, and therefore has a tree cover that goes between 10 and 40 per cent. In this model are also integrated the factors, taken from the literature, that contribute to make such an environment a safe place to stay also at night. On the other side, the second model is the Dark Forest, based on the definition of closed forest, with a tree cover over 40 per cent. The model plays also with the fascinating atmospheres of dense natural forests, as a romantic sublime experience.The combination of the two models brought to a design in which the main attention was focused on the designing of the paths, on the height differences, on the types of vegetation, on the animal presence, on the lighting system and on the playful episodes placed hear and there.
