To train the doctoral candidates in transdisciplinary research-through-design, LANDLABS applies a site-based approach. Each of the six beneficiaries has chosen a site in the city or region of their university which is characterized by intensive human impact and which would not qualify as sustainable or beautiful from a traditional landscape perspective. The selection process for these sites was made in intensive cooperation with associated partners, who are local actors mainly occupied at municipal divisions responsible for planning and design of urban landscapes. These six sites are a major component in LANDLABS and the doctoral candidates will study them intensively particularly in the first two years. They will get regular advice from the associated partners who have a direct planning responsibility for these sites and all doctoral candidates will have a five-months secondment with the associated partners.
The landscape laboratory site is located at the Southern edge of the municipality along the border with Croatia. The area is characterized by almost a millennium long extraction of salt and is one of the last active salt extraction sites at the Adriatics. The production on the northern part has been modernised at the beginning of the 20th century while at the southern part traces of medieval salt-production landscape are still present. Currently, the site is caught in conflicts between the protection of nature and cultural heritage, the municipality's economic aspirations, local population, private investors etc. The site's rich and complex history, closely connected to the Venetian Republic and the present Italian minority of Piran, is being flattened by economic pressure giving priority to tourism over local salt and agricultural production, resulting in a clash of interests, threatening to lose the world's unique cultural landscape. This clash misses the opportunity to develop potentials of the site for the benefit of all interested parties. There's an urgent need for a long-term landscape development plan.
The doctoral candidate will collaborate closely with planning experts within the different sections of Tromsø Municipality. The landscape laboratory site, which is owned by Tromsø Municipality, is located at the northern tip of Tromsøya, an island home to one of the largest urban settlements in the Arctic. The landscape laboratory site is a former gneiss quarry that for several years has been used as a landfill. Parts of the site are still actively used as a deposit for clean masses, other parts have been decommissioned and left to ecological succession. The site is host to a novel ecosystem, exemplifies material processes characterising the Anthropocene, and has potential as a new kind of public space.
The doctoral candidate will be sent to the City of Hannover´s Department for Environment and Urban Greenspace, Division of Planning and Construction, which is responsible for developing all public green spaces in the city of Hannover. The landscape laboratory site, which has been chosen jointly by LUH and the City of Hannover, is located at the Eastern edge of Hannover in the Misburg district. The area is characterized by huge chalk extraction sites for the concrete industry, canals, railtracks and motorways. Some extraction sites are already exploited and have developed some biodiversity, while others are still in use. The area is in urgent need for a long-term landscape concept.
The city of Porto, with its deep historical roots and dynamic culture, is struggling with emerging climate vulnerabilities. Central to addressing this challenge is the revitalization of the Quinta de Salgueiros, a 6-hectare site envisioned to become a thriving urban native woodland. By integrating a variety of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), the project aims to enhance the site's resilience against climatic adversities such as intense heat and excessive rainfall. More than just an ecological intervention, the woodland is strategically positioned to connect two disparate city zones, fostering increased social cohesion and facilitating softer, more sustainable modes of transportation. The space will cater to the diverse needs of the community by providing opportunities for leisure, recreation, and sports amidst verdant surroundings. Adjacent to this burgeoning woodland, an urban watercourse presents an opportunity for rejuvenation and renaturalisation, adding ecological and aesthetic value to the landscape. While the project is rooted in Porto's unique context, it holds broader implications for research through design (RtD) in landscape architecture. It provides a comprehensive model for urban revitalization that resonates with global sustainability goals, emphasizing the transformative potential of landscape architecture in shaping sustainable urban futures.
The doctoral candidate will be sent to the City of Vienna´s Department for Climate, Forestry and Agriculture (MA 49), which is responsible for the maintenance and management of forests, meadows, mountain areas, bodies of water, fields and vineyards, in order to secure a sustainably vital existence for the inhabitants of Vienna.
The site chosen for the landscape laboratory is the "Old Freight Yard Breitenlee” in the Northeastern periphery of Vienna. Once planned and used as a rail terminal linked to the regional and international railway network, the partly abandoned freight yard reveals a technical-industrial facet along with biodiverse landscape structures. As the area is also under pressure of diverse user claims, it requires a planning and design approach based on co-creative engagement and cohabitation to keep a biodiverse and social environment, and understand the effects of Anthropocene activities in relation to the site.
The doctoral candidate will work with the Aarhus Municipality’s Department of Water and Nature, which is responsible for developing public blue-green spaces in Aarhus. The landscape laboratory site is placed on Eskelunden, a 30-hectare and 20-year-old urban forest located on a former waste deposit in the Aarhus River valley. Already in 2016, the site was designated as a pilot project landscape laboratory site. Since then, it has played a foundational role in the development of the research network “Atmospheres in the Urban Anthropocene” as well as other landscape laboratory sites in the Aarhus River valley. It is the platform for interdisciplinary collaborations between AAA, ECONOVO – Centre for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere at the Aarhus University, the Museum of Natural History Aarhus and Aarhus Municipality. As a pilot project site, different interdisciplinary experiments on biodiversity and urban nature have already been initiated and the DC will be engaged in the continued exploration of the site as an Anthropocene landscape with its own agency interconnected with human and non-human actors