Flowscapes

Social, cultural and technological developments of our society are demanding a fundamental review of the planning and design of its landscapes and infrastructures, in particular in relation to environmental issues and sustainability. Transportation, green and water infrastructures are important agents that facilitate processes that shape the built environment and its contemporary landscapes. With movement and flows at the core, these landscape infrastructures facilitate aesthetic, functional, social and ecological relationships between natural and human systems, here interpreted as Flowscapes. Flowscapes explores infrastructure as a type of landscape and landscape as a type of infrastructure. The hybridisation of the two concepts seeks to redefine infrastructure beyond its strictly utilitarian definition, while allowing spatial design to gain operative force in territorial transformation processes. This academic publication aims to provide multiple perspectives on the subject from design-related disciplines such as architecture, urban planning and design, landscape architecture and civil engineering. It is a reflection of a multidisciplinary colloquium on landscape infrastructures held at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, preparing grounds for in-depth discussions and future collaborations. The authors explore concepts, methods and techniques for design-related research of landscape infrastructures. Their main objective is to engage environmental and societal issues by means of integrative and design-oriented approaches. Through focusing on multidisciplinary design-related research of landscape infrastructures they provide important clues for the development of spatial armatures that can guide urban and rural development and have cultural and civic significance.