Gloria Aponte

*Pontifical Bolivarian University Colombia* 

#### **1. Introduction**

84 Landscape Planning

Zölitz-Möller, R. (1999): Umweltinformationssystem, Modelle und GIS für Planung und

Heidelberg, p. 183-190

Verwaltung? – Kritische Thesen zum aktuellen Stand der Dinge, in: Blaschke, T. (Hrsg.): Umweltmonitoring und Umweltmodellierung, Herbert Wichmann Verlag,

> The so-called *urban-rural borders* represent a territorial phenomenon that presents itself as different kinds of landscape, according to the social dynamics of each settlement. Some of those are representative of their historical sprout or boom time, and others of their location. Urban-rural borders represent nowadays a very outstanding development in major cities particularly in developing countries.

> This chapter randomly revises first, as a broad context, the very carefully treated and built borders of walled ancient towns, as representative of the self-centred urban attitude, where landscape is seen as an external reality distant from everyday interests. And second, the growth without borders or, better, without control, originating from the beginning of industry, that manifests itself as an invasive and underhand force that devours natural landscape by slowly ruminating and digesting it.

> Following, as the core of the reflection, the fact that in the second half of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st when it becomes a centre of attention as the border could mean a crucial place to stop destruction of resources essential for life, is addressed. In the developing world the situation is not just severe because of its rapid rendering, expansion and consequent deterioration of landscape, but it is aggravated by social unbalance and complex socio-political situations.

> Landscape studies in urban-rural fringe have not been abundant. Nevertheless, some representatives from very different corners of the planet can be quoted: Qviström and Saltzman (2003, 2006, 2007) from Sweden; Wang, Gu and Li (2207) from China; The Landscape Partnership Ltd. (2007) from the United Kingdom, and Pellegrino (2003) from Brazil. In Colombia some academics have talked about borders, mainly recently, but not precisely about "landscape in borders". For example: Toro, Velasco and Niño (2005), Velasco, Díaz, López (2010).

> As a local application, an academic approach towards the solution to this threatening problem is shown, in a very special and intricate situation: the urban-rural border on steep slope. This is exemplified in the urban fringe of Medellín, settled in the Aburrá river valley. The topographical difficulty in this region is overlapped by a quite difficult social situation derived from rural forced displacement that makes the population, and consequently the settlement, grow not only from inside to outside but also by groups coming from distant places attracted by the urban imagery, but stopped at the periphery.

An Approach to Landscape Planning in Borders 87

The wall signified another difference as well. The dominant people lived inside while the subjugated people lived and/or worked outside. That idea persisted worldwide, and still persists in many places, for a very long time up to the moment when "suburbia" started to mean economic power and high status outside. That is to say that there are at least two ways to inhabit the non-urban territory that surrounds the cities core: one not being able to reach their standards and the other passing those standards. Both ways are observed, in a strong

In some cases, such as Arbela (or Erbil) in Mesopotamia (Figure 1), this division was totally defined by walls, while in Babylon and many other ancient cities the walls that conformed the border were combined with natural or managed watercourses. An outstanding and surprising case is that of Carcassonne, in France, surrounded by a double wall, with one quite close to the other. Some of the walled cities remained firmly throughout the centuries while some others underwent several changes and re-constructions. One such a case is that of the city of Athens, quite didactically expressed by Benévolo in his five volumes work

Fig. 1. Arbela (or Erbil) a walled city inhabited continuously since its creation, B. C., up to

of nature locked up to be enjoyed only by a few people, like an individual property.

That practice of strong separation transcended for centuries, and even though the thinking that something appreciated should be enclosed flourished in managed landscape –or better garden- through the middle ages *orthos conclusus*, and later the green labyrinths, or portions

contrast in many cities today.

Design of cities (1977).

date. Source Google earth 2011.

This is a very dynamic and complex landscape that deserves on the one hand a deep analysis and, on the other, creative solutions to cope with preservation of natural resources, satisfaction of social needs and development of cultural identity. A related research focused on the structural role of streams in the landscape of urban-rural borders on steep slopes has been carried out in the Landscape Design Master Programme at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana."

The research team wondered: *How could we structure the landscape on borders*?

For the specific case of this research, the question was concretized as: How to value the structuring role of the water streams in the fringe landscape on the steep slopes of Medellín?

The purpose has been to produce a set of landscape guidelines to be presented to local authorities, with the aim that those be applied when planning, developing or reorganizing urban-rural borders in the conditions previously mentioned.

The method of the research consisted of disaggregation and aggregation. That is to say that the landscape universe was analysed from the diverse points of view that allowed a reasonable panorama of the situation. It meant to focus on the following landscape components: natural, social, morphologic, normative, and spatial/perceptual, for a clear and balanced approach. Although the research team is not properly interdisciplinary, each member took the responsibility of one component. The process was enriched with the advice of four landscape professionals, visiting lecturers from abroad, who came mainly to share their knowledge with the Master´s students.

#### **2. Borders in the past**

As a broad time context following there is a selection of urban development milestones, commenting on them their particularities in relation to the landscape first represented as a menace from outside and later as an injured party of urban growth.

#### **2.1 Walled towns**

When ancient settlements, through the specialization of jobs, grew into villages and then into towns, different reasons drove their inhabitants to identify and separate themselves from the surrounding fields. As a physical consequence, a strong and conspicuous feature emerged in the landscape: the defensive wall. Undoubtedly this feature was seen, recognized and perceived by people who approached them or worked in agricultural fields outside the towns, but probably it was not interpreted as part of the landscape, because that concept did not exist in the vocabulary or imagination of older civilizations.

Of course, by the time that walled cities flourished, landscape was not a planner's worry, or even a simple purpose. The walls, promoted mainly by military and political causes, as well as every huge human construction, had a strong effect on people's perception of landscape, although this was an unconscious perception. Nature was "there", or outside the town, and life, property and safety were "here" inside the town.

"*Sumerian cities…from the III millennium B. C…. were surrounded by a wall and a moat that defended them and separated –for the first time- the natural open environment from the close city environment* (L., 1977)"

This is a very dynamic and complex landscape that deserves on the one hand a deep analysis and, on the other, creative solutions to cope with preservation of natural resources, satisfaction of social needs and development of cultural identity. A related research focused on the structural role of streams in the landscape of urban-rural borders on steep slopes has been carried out in the Landscape Design Master Programme at Universidad Pontificia

For the specific case of this research, the question was concretized as: How to value the structuring role of the water streams in the fringe landscape on the steep slopes of Medellín? The purpose has been to produce a set of landscape guidelines to be presented to local authorities, with the aim that those be applied when planning, developing or reorganizing

The method of the research consisted of disaggregation and aggregation. That is to say that the landscape universe was analysed from the diverse points of view that allowed a reasonable panorama of the situation. It meant to focus on the following landscape components: natural, social, morphologic, normative, and spatial/perceptual, for a clear and balanced approach. Although the research team is not properly interdisciplinary, each member took the responsibility of one component. The process was enriched with the advice of four landscape professionals, visiting lecturers from abroad, who came mainly to

As a broad time context following there is a selection of urban development milestones, commenting on them their particularities in relation to the landscape first represented as a

When ancient settlements, through the specialization of jobs, grew into villages and then into towns, different reasons drove their inhabitants to identify and separate themselves from the surrounding fields. As a physical consequence, a strong and conspicuous feature emerged in the landscape: the defensive wall. Undoubtedly this feature was seen, recognized and perceived by people who approached them or worked in agricultural fields outside the towns, but probably it was not interpreted as part of the landscape, because that

Of course, by the time that walled cities flourished, landscape was not a planner's worry, or even a simple purpose. The walls, promoted mainly by military and political causes, as well as every huge human construction, had a strong effect on people's perception of landscape, although this was an unconscious perception. Nature was "there", or outside the town, and

"*Sumerian cities…from the III millennium B. C…. were surrounded by a wall and a moat that defended them and separated –for the first time- the natural open environment from the close city* 

The research team wondered: *How could we structure the landscape on borders*?

urban-rural borders in the conditions previously mentioned.

menace from outside and later as an injured party of urban growth.

concept did not exist in the vocabulary or imagination of older civilizations.

share their knowledge with the Master´s students.

life, property and safety were "here" inside the town.

*environment* (L., 1977)"

**2. Borders in the past** 

**2.1 Walled towns** 

Bolivariana."

The wall signified another difference as well. The dominant people lived inside while the subjugated people lived and/or worked outside. That idea persisted worldwide, and still persists in many places, for a very long time up to the moment when "suburbia" started to mean economic power and high status outside. That is to say that there are at least two ways to inhabit the non-urban territory that surrounds the cities core: one not being able to reach their standards and the other passing those standards. Both ways are observed, in a strong contrast in many cities today.

In some cases, such as Arbela (or Erbil) in Mesopotamia (Figure 1), this division was totally defined by walls, while in Babylon and many other ancient cities the walls that conformed the border were combined with natural or managed watercourses. An outstanding and surprising case is that of Carcassonne, in France, surrounded by a double wall, with one quite close to the other. Some of the walled cities remained firmly throughout the centuries while some others underwent several changes and re-constructions. One such a case is that of the city of Athens, quite didactically expressed by Benévolo in his five volumes work Design of cities (1977).

Fig. 1. Arbela (or Erbil) a walled city inhabited continuously since its creation, B. C., up to date. Source Google earth 2011.

That practice of strong separation transcended for centuries, and even though the thinking that something appreciated should be enclosed flourished in managed landscape –or better garden- through the middle ages *orthos conclusus*, and later the green labyrinths, or portions of nature locked up to be enjoyed only by a few people, like an individual property.

An Approach to Landscape Planning in Borders 89

within residential units or condominiums and may be seen everywhere in Colombia. This phenomenon results in a kind of landscape that wastes the wide richness of local landscape

Over the centuries, the population growth led inhabitants to pass the second wall, when it existed, and to invade the nearest surroundings in a, at the beginning, moderate process,

Pablo Arias (2003), while revising urban history concludes that from the Roman city up to the eighteenth century, the formal and physical relationship of the city with its surroundings would remain relatively stable, with a closed city stated in the territory as the central fact

Traditional agricultural practices accelerated by new technologies, utensils and machinery depersonalized the previous relationship between towns and their territories. New tools formed part of the everyday landscape, and the result of their use, in many cases,

Following the mentioned author, the difference between the ancient towns and the modern city, in terms of expansion, is the different behaviour in relation to its surroundings. The old historic towns reinforced their identity through the manner in which they were linked with the territory. Modern cities, on the other hand, exert the right to prey on the territory in searching of resources, some indispensable to live such as water and food, and some others

The confusion of this overwhelming texture of networks and frames depersonalized the old heritage sense of the city image in its territory; it is one of the most significant losses in the

The city of Adelaide (Figure 3) represents an interesting example that illustrates a historical border that persists despite the later strong urban sprawl. Founded in 1836, the origins of this planned city have very little to do with walled towns, but the observed plan shape tells the story of a historical centre, a surrounding fringe and the later irregular sprawl. Adelaide was planned under *Light2 Vision*, and the fringe –the Adelaide Parklands- that initially acted as the growth limit, contention and definition of the inside and the outside, now represents a great advantage. The needed green areas, usually desired when the population increases, were already there, bordering the old town. Although their general shape does not follow the Torrens river flow or other natural features that surely were there before the city construction, that green area represents an outstanding environmental and landscape

Besides the environmental damage widely analysed under the concept of ecological foot print (Rees & Wackernagel 1994), the growth without borders or, better, without control, triggered by the conjunction of diverse forces that result in an invasive stain that spreads on

which was later accelerated by the effects of the industrial revolution.

and character, without altering the environment in which it was settled.

homogenized the peripheral and rural landscape next to urban conglomerates.

necessary for social and economic development, such as roads and factories.

and hurts the local landscape identity.

**2.2 Over passed borders** 

current city (Cano 1985)1

1 Cited by Arias 2003

resource that has a clear balancing effect.

2 Colonel William Light, planner of the city

the natural support to blot out all traces of what it was before.

Once the social and political circumstances that caused the growth of walled towns had changed and overcrowding became a problem, the surroundings had to be occupied. However, the feeling of being unprotected promoted in some cases the construction of a new peripheral wall that would symbolize security. This second wall, though, was not as fortified as the first.

By the time when walled cities reached their peak in Asia and Europe, in the land that later would be named America, a very different thinking guided its inhabitants relation to the earth. They used to define themselves, and still remnant tribes do, as part of nature. This thought is quite nicely expressed by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, who states, even opposed to the Catholic believe of God's Ten Commandments, that God forgot the eleventh commandment: You will love and will respect nature to which you belong. (Galeano, 1994).

The conquering army's power defeated the natives´ thought power and a result of that was the establishment of a walled city with the most extensive fortifications in South America: Cartagena de Indias, which is still the best example today. (Figure 2). Described as the masterpiece of Spanish military engineering in America and located on the Atlantic coast to the north of Colombia, the walled part of the city was declared by UNESCO as a Historic and Cultural World Humanity Heritage in 1984.

Fig. 2. A portion of the present urban area of Cartagena de Indias and, within the circle, the ancient walled city. Source: Google Earth 2012

Surrounded by water, although not rectified or geometrically transformed as had previously happened in other walled cities, in Cartagena de Indias the sea and the swamp offered the right environment to settle an urban core defended by bodies of water, which were reinforced by the infallible wall.

That inherited defensive attitude, that had repercussions on people's perception and interpretation of their relation to landscape, still remains in urbanism practice, particularly within residential units or condominiums and may be seen everywhere in Colombia. This phenomenon results in a kind of landscape that wastes the wide richness of local landscape and hurts the local landscape identity.
