Fem landskabsstrategiske principper: landskab som optik og model i den arkitektoniske planlægning

The question whether the traditional distinction between city and countryside is still adequate in describing and understanding the physical environment, is brought into focus as a new urban-rural landscape emerges. A phenomenon characterised by an increasing dissolving of the boundaries between urban structures and rural elements, a gradual dissolving of conventional hierarchies and a mutual penetration of built form and open space. (Sieverts) What premises does this development set for the planning as a discipline; to what extent can urban planning in its traditional form provide qualitative influence on the physical environment in the new urban-rural landscape? Global market economy and the withdrawal of public authority create a situation where urban development is increasingly influenced by fluctuations on the real estate market and where buildings are considered more in respect to their return as investment, and less in respect to their physical surroundings. Consequently the space “between” the building enclaves becomes increasingly relevant in the architectural planning in terms of creating cohesion in the built environment. (Smets) This change of perspective from the built to the unbuilt can be seen as a trend within the more recent urban research and planning practice, where the development of new urban concepts uses landscape as a theoretical and methodical basis. This article highlights this current trend and tries to explain how the landscape is operationalized strategically and methodically in relation to the premises of urban development, and how the landscape is articulated in specific concepts for urban development. The article is structured around an analysis of six trend-setting urban projects from 1982–2004, which describes the use of landscape on the basis of five simple strategic principles.