Forests are ecosystems, usually acknowledged as spaces with the least human intervention, however, not many of us have been in touch with a virgin forest and its feralness. For most, forest means recreational or urban woods in the vicinity where we stroll and unwind or a mountain forest where we hike or climb. People growing up without such contact find it hard to imagine the concept of nature other than what they see as green in the city and seeing the forest through an image other than that produced by media. And so, the mental images of a forest are different, depending on our surroundings and encounters. The word “forest” is also used as a greenwashing device, similar to “park” is often used to name shopping centres. These misappropriations of words diverge their semantics and can further change their perception. What are the forest typologies that landscape architecture (check out this selection of forest design projects by Zaš Brezar) deals with?
Looking at the forest typologies, we can classify them by the scale of cultural appropriations, maintenance and proximity to urban structures. At the top, closest to the natural ecosystem, would be the virgin forest with no specific intervention, followed by a production forest managed by services of forestry with less specific interventions. Forest as a recreational ground, calls for basic infrastructure, safe paths and wayfinding. Forest as a retreat, needs a clearing. A special category is a sacred forest, throughout instilled with culture and meaning yet expressed with minimal intervention. In the proximity of urban centres, we find urban forest parks, and lastly, a completely man-made forest and its full appropriation.
There are numerous landscape architecture projects with nature paths bringing the forest closer to people, interpreting them, and making them attractive with lookouts and other structures. In nature and forest paths, perhaps Georges Descombes champions this typology with the principle ‘Doing Almost Nothing’ and The Swiss Way project. In this article, we focus on retreats, sacred, urban, man-made and forest appropriations.
A Dune in the Forest by Gruppe F is a project of reintegration of a former WWII ammunition depot near Berlin, back to the Grunewald Forest. The rectangular clearing is in a way a landscape of memory to be taken back by the forest. The pressure is alleviated by covering the bunkers with sand and making them perform the role of seed banks, kick-starting the expansion of flora, being the forest stepping stones. In one bunker, there are winter headquarters for bats. The dunes resemble typical landscape relics of the region.
Forest Path in the Roques Blanques Cemetery by Batlleiroig is part of a cemetery complex, integrated into the Colleserola Natural Park. It interprets the sacred grove by making a clearing for reflection while the burial grounds are incorporated into the slope, supported by decaying wooden urns that in turn “feed the forest”. It somewhat reinterprets the ancient burial traditions.
Urban Forest Parks
Passerelle de la Troche by Bassinet Turquin Paysage is a vivid example of former production grounds where the abandoned quarry has been left to reforest. The intervention is pronouncing this cultural aspect and artificially altered typography by building a bridge, closely resembling the structure once used by the quarry workers. Alongside, their intervention allows woods to become a part of an infrastructure, connecting disjointed parts.
The Warsaw Uprising Mound Park by topoScape is a new urban forest that has overgrown a mound of discarded debris from post-war Warsaw. This anthropogenic topography called for a new type of fourth nature forest, clearly stating this forest consists of invasive species and is a complete effect of human activity.
Forest Garden, Nests house in Mexico is yet another example by Estudio Ome (and Rozana Montiel) that carefully manages human habitation within a forest. Subtle clearings were made for the production garden, pool and other programs, creating specific atmospheres in sync with the surroundings. Moreover, the existing forest of non-native pine trees was enhanced by adding oak and other native plants to help transition from pioneer to mature forest.
Residence on Horseshoe Lake by MVVA is an ingenious example of locating the project within the forest without the need for clear boundaries of where the human settlement ends. Cast concrete slabs contrasted with the natural environment speak clearly about the intervention, yet crude as they are, they present a subtle and humble relationship with the forest. On the other hand, the slabs distinctively frame the space.
Mitigation Park and Seaside Promenade by ELEMENTAL is an answer to protect the land in Chile hit by a tsunami in 2010. To prevent further disaster while using less obstructive measures than building a concrete wall, designers won the favour of the officials to plant a forest. The forest becomes a piece of infrastructure and a social space.
River Forest Island in China by SWA Group is an example of a forest created to prevent erosion, enhance ecological processes and create recreational space. By modelling the river stream, designers were able to use the planted forest of native trees as a prevention measure against flooding.
Another project by Bassinet Turquin Paysage, Ecole Centrale Supélec, is a clever appropriation of a forest, without shying away from its apparent intentionality. Designers take a piece of the nearby woods and replicate it in the site. By putting a focal point of the atrium enclosure on the forest, this fragment speaks to the educative environment of its surroundings.
The Woodland Garden is a horticultural garden within a botanic garden, within a Prospect Park, resembling woods, in the middle of a completely urban area. Since Prospect Park was entirely created and from the time before the colonial clearings for pasture were made, only a few trees still present “The Last Forest of Brooklyn”, this intervention by MVVA presents itself humorous. A concrete folly resembling a ruin is performing a semi-open enclosure of the forest garden, where cultivated plants are distinct from the surrounding and less cultivated, yet far from the incidental forest.
Folly Forest by Straub Thurmayr Landscape Architects
Folly Forest by Straub Thurmayr Landscape Architects uses the concept of a forest to create a magical experience in the midst of the cracked asphalt. Will a folly forest become a forest, time will show. Trees here work as agents of design, hoping to further crack the asphalt-covered surface while growing, penetrating it from below the ground.
Often we overlook the cultural aspects involved in what are seemingly natural environments. What are now urban forests, especially in the cooler climates, were historically used as a local source of wood for heating, pastures for pigs, or completely agricultural fields, now reforested or grown back as heating systems and food production changed. There were much fewer forests in urban areas 100 years ago than there are now (comparing the cadastral maps of the Habsburg Empire, for example). The iconic case of deforestation in history is England with sheep grazing, using timber for boats and charcoal production for the industry. What was before seen as a part of a productive landscape (at large, it still is), is now becoming a metaphor for something that we should as a society strive for – biodiversity, carbon sequestration, change of climate change, multispecies justice and rewilding. Forest is a typology that “is on the rise” yet rediscovered in a new way, as a design choice.
