alpbacher architekturgespräche 2003 - ATP

the surrounding countryside.Waves of migration from country to city led cities to become increasingly
dense, with negative consequences for the citizens.Today, in the dense cities of the west, those
who can afford to are fleeing to the countryside and this is leading to major land-use pressures in
rural areas.The city is consuming the countryside and replacing it with a sort of country-city mix.This
uncontrolled growth of today’s cities will transform the landscape – even if it remains at least partly
recognisable – into a sort of city fragment. Of course today’s city has developed its own sort of ecosystem,
with all types of flora and fauna adapting to and flourishing in the urban environment. However,
the true natural experience that the countryside offers to men and women is in danger of being lost.
In the early history of humanity (as well as in today’s few remaining areas of dense undisturbed nature
such as the tropical rainforests) the area of influence of man on his environment was limited. The
type of relationship enjoyed between man and nature is dependent upon the availability of resources.As
long as man has a close relationship with (and is dependent upon) the processes of the natural
world, he himself will act as a part of it.
“We need nature as a primary need – we need water, air, food, building materials and space”. 2 The
relationships between man and nature, and changes in these relationships over the years, have been
heavily modelled by the various resources of the geo-eco-system.The countryside as we know it
emerged as nomads dependent upon cultivation and herding evolved into settled farmers and hunters.
A rural landscape developed which was still heavily influenced by the forces of nature. Location was
still dependent upon the availability of land and water, and the land (meadow and forest, river and
sea) was at the same time a place of production and source of supply.
In early settlements, there was generally a very close relationship with the surrounding area or landscape.
Man lived with and from it. Settlement types developed whose forms were influenced by their
physical location (forest or ribbon settlements).Today’s city has lost this identity with its spatial context
and operates almost independently from the surrounding landscape. It is a point of contact for traders.
It allows one precisely to throw off the shackles of the environment and through opportunities for
exchange and the division of labour to broaden the area of man’s influence.Today the city is supplied
with food from all over the world and fresh water from, sometimes, very distant sources. Similar global
sources satisfy its requirements for raw materials and food. At the same time it sends its sewage via
the rivers to the sea. Its waste is sent by air to distant regions, by land to neighbouring countries or
by ship across the sea.The area across which today’s city makes itself felt is very wide – and is
becoming ever wider.The city has tertiarised some of its functions. Certainly, work is still mostly carried
out in the city itself, but sleeping, leisure, relaxation, education and communication take place in new,
often widely dispersed, locations. Ever large areas of the globe are becoming effective supply regions
for our major cities.Through these long distance relationships, the influence of our cities has crossed
political borders.The lives of people no longer take place in a defined physical place but rather in the
space between meta-structures. No longer merely an area which supplies the city with food, the rural
surroundings to a city have been overlaid with a series of new functions (transport routes for road
and rail, drainage and sewage routes, electricity corridors, flightpaths, leisure activities, the dispersal of
urban pollution), each of which bring it into a more complex relationship with the city.
A large proportion of the settlement area of the future is already developed. Formerly independent
communities have been subsumed by the growth of larger population centres. In dense areas the
residential districts of neighbouring towns and cities begin to merge, creating the new phenomenon
of the City Region.Throughout history, complex relationships between cities and their neighbouring
communities have developed, with an excellent example being the City Region of the Ruhrgebiet.
“The more advanced the urbanisation, the easier it is to ignore once significant natural limitations.The
more a city appears to have developed as an independent entity, the more disastrous the results for
the surrounding communities.” 3
Sustainability in the Society of Possibilities
“The perfect city would be that which gave just as much to the environment as it took from it.” 4
This is a tough demand, and we are very far from meeting it. Our commitment to sustainability – that
is to say the future-orientation of man and his actions – is very underdeveloped. In a “Society of Possibilities”,
with seemingly endless opportunities for the individual, any attempts toward a true futureorientation
seem to be overwhelmed.
“We humans are as much as ever parts of the great machine of evolution, but at least we have the
power to steer it a little.” 5
“Such steering would be to choose another form of rural planning.” 6
“The free rural landscape will also become a planned space, which must create and then embody the
identity and uniqueness of the Zwischenstadt.” 7
“For large cities, the transformation spaces between city and country are of immeasurable value. In
coming decades, the protection and development of these spaces will gain immense significance, similar
in importance to saving the inner city through regeneration.The quality of a city is significantly determined
by its relationships to the surrounding area.” 8
The problem is to decide precisely how this should be done. Is there a necessary minimum level for
the relationship between man and nature? It is difficult to find an answer just by addressing such secondary
environmental issues as comfort and satisfaction.
The Minimum
By reducing the question to the major issues, two requirements can be defined.
• This transformation space is a regeneration space for climate and air, allowing the dirty air of the
city to be cleansed, and residential areas to have better air, without the need for it to be transported
from long distances
• This transformation space also serves as a space for the regeneration and movement of people
seeking leisure, made easier by the protection of quiet areas and the improvement of accessibility.
But how much space does man need? How wide should be the mesh of the urban network? Is an
adequate distance from sources of noise pollution the only requirement for the dimensioning of a
quiet area? Should we always fulfil the minimum or should we seek more?
Does man provide the scale for defining the networking of city and country? Or should we let the
territorial needs of the Uhu define the area required to guarantee biodiversity? What do we want?
What do we need?
This transformation space can also contribute – as nature has shown us – to avoiding that man and
nature grow apart, for it will promote the relationship between man and nature.
These questions address our planning philosophy. But to whom in such a pluralistic world community
can we turn for a clear answer? How can the decision process be steered, controlled and influenced?
Rural planning is becoming an increasingly crucial responsibility as communes and regions seek to
guarantee living standards. Classical planning instruments must be expanded by the definition of quiet
and bio-rich areas at a regional scale.
Managing the density of cities and improving the integration between city and country are the key
issues facing the planners of the future. But the integration within and between cities is also key if
transport and energy support systems is to be optimised and climate change brought under control.
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