Landscape Architecture: A Very Short Introduction by Ian H. Thompson

Author:Ian H. Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

Regenerative design

The idea that landscapes can do things for us was captured in the idea of ‘regenerative design’ advanced by John Tillman Lyle (1934–98) who was a professor of landscape architecture at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Lyle was the author of Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development and the principal architect for the Center for Regenerative Studies at Pomona, where a community of faculty and graduate students developed a community which produced its own food and energy and treated its own wastes, thus demonstrating that it was possible to live within the limits of available resources without causing environmental degradation. Lyle drew a distinction between two ways of living, which he called ‘degenerative’ and ‘regenerative’. Degenerative living uses up limited resources and fills natural ‘sinks’, such as the atmosphere, lakes, rivers, and the oceans, with damaging waste products. It is a linear process, a ‘one-way throughput system’ heading toward a dystopian future. Regenerative living, on the other hand, provides for the continuous replacement of the energy and materials through forms of recycling. Lyle shows how the landscape can be modified to incorporate regenerative systems. Infiltration basins can be constructed above aquifers to help them to recharge. Solar collectors can be positioned where incident radiation is high. Grey-water from activities like doing the laundry, dishwashing, and bathing can be reused for irrigating crops. Lyle’s books are bursting with suggestions, and many of these ‘neotechnologies’ (to borrow his phrase) have been put into practice at Pomona.

Many of the technologies collected by Lyle have now found their way into mainstream landscape architecture practice. A good example would be the design of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), sometimes referred to as Water Sensitive Urban Design. In traditional drainage systems, water is channelled away from the site in pipes and sewers. In many old urban systems sewage and storm-water share the same conduits and this can have unpleasant consequences if capacity is exceeded. Manhole covers blow off and the streets are treated to the delights of faecal fountains. As global warming disrupts weather patterns, deluges of rain and the associated damage from extensive flooding have become more common. Sustainable drainage systems use vegetated swales (broad ditches) and filter strips to slow down runoff, while permeable surfaces and infiltration devices such as soakaways, rubble drains, and infiltration basins help water to percolate into the ground, reducing the risk of flooding (Figure 6). The principle is to dispose of water, as far as possible, on site, rather than to pipe it somewhere else. This is characteristic of many regenerative technologies, they are small scale but widely distributed. If the aesthetic problem which challenged 20th-century landscape architects was how to accommodate a relatively small number of giant dams and massive power stations, the challenge now is how to site hundreds of thousands of wind turbines and solar panels.

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