An ever-changing landscape that brings life to the city before it is built, and nature that cleans pollution, creates new communities and provide amenity value for all. That is the fundamental idea behind the development of a temporary, recreational landscape as a precursor to the overall urban development of a new city in Denmark that is now in the finals of one of the world’s most prestigious urban development awards, the World Smart Cities Awards 2013.
The nature project FredericiaC is designed by the Danish landscape architects SLA and involves a whole new landscape architectural way of thinking about urban development. The project converts a poetic temporary landscape into a permanent landscape strategy that creates commitment, involvement and social, economic and climatic sustainability in the new city.
“When I lecture for colleagues and clients, it is always the nature project in FredericiaC which generate the most attention. The project shows how an empty industrial area over time can be transformed into a vibrant and cohesive part of the city by integrating ever-changing nature in the long-term urban development while creating genuine value for the citizens from day one. This method we call ‘process urbanism’. Normally one thinks of the smart city concept as primarily technological solutions, but here we show how the use of nature not only can create smarter cities – but better cities,” says Stig L. Andersson, creative director and partner in SLA.
Throughout the 20 th century Fredericia’s harbour was dominated by heavy industry. In 2004, one of the harbour’s most prominent chemical plants, Kemira Grow-How, ended operations leaving the site as a gaping void in the city. The philanthropic foundation, Realdania and the city of Fredericia have since formed FredericiaC P/S in a joint venture to transform the polluted harbor area into a new, attractive part of town – Fredericia C.
World Smart Cities Awards 2013 recognizes and rewards the most ambitious, advanced and innovative projects and initiatives from around the world that develop and rethink the smart city concept. The landscape project in FredericiaC is in the ‘project’ category finals together with six other smart city projects from Japan, Germany, Spain and China. In total World Smart Cities Awards received over 200 applications from 35 countries. FredericiaC is the only landscape architecture project in the finals.
FredericiaC | Fredericia Denmark | SLA
Images and Text Credit | SLA
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