**2.2 Over passed borders**

88 Landscape Planning

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

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

Fig. 2. A portion of the present urban area of Cartagena de Indias and, within the circle, the

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

That inherited defensive attitude, that had repercussions on people's perception and interpretation of their relation to landscape, still remains in urbanism practice, particularly

fortified as the first.

and Cultural World Humanity Heritage in 1984.

ancient walled city. Source: Google Earth 2012

reinforced by the infallible wall.

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

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

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, homogenized the peripheral and rural landscape next to urban conglomerates.

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

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 current city (Cano 1985)1

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 resource that has a clear balancing effect.

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

<sup>1</sup> Cited by Arias 2003

<sup>2</sup> Colonel William Light, planner of the city

An Approach to Landscape Planning in Borders 91

important than the assignation of uses to the land. In Colombia the beginnings of this kind of planning attitude could be placed in the 80´s decade, to be followed in the 90´s by the

Environmental issues have been much treated since the Stockholm Conference in 1972. But in the developing world it started to be important enough to be incorporated in local law two decades afterward. In general, the complex environmental problem seems to be increasing in a geometrical tendency, while the solutions increase in an arithmetical way.

Meanwhile, economical factors and land speculation go over the common sense of preserving resources and to treating them in a real sustainable manner. Words such as ecology, green, and sustainable, have lost their actual meaning and are used without measure. The "green wash" has invaded contemporary discourses hiding the real

To complete the spectrum, of zoning + social + environment, and rooted in its agglutinative and unifying role, many signals seem to point to this time being that when the integrator par excellence: THE LANDSCAPE occupies the deserved place as an important determinant in planning decision and purposes. As Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe thought *The world is moving into a phase when landscape design may will be recognized as the most comprehensive of the arts* (Jellicoe 1982).

To deal with the complex issue of indiscriminate urban expansion and moving peripheries a strategic coordination of many actors and factors is necessary. Of course the landscape design discipline is not enough but its contribution is indeed necessary first in helping to understand and balance the multiplicity of facets of the urban-rural border phenomena, and

As mentioned before, research is being carried out at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana related to the landscape in borders in Medellín. The aim of this work is to contribute to the local authorities' acquaintance for better political decisions through the production of landscape guidelines applicable in any urban, civil, architectonic or infrastructural intervention that takes place on borders. This is in order to respect and understand the abundant, and by now abused, streams that run down the valley where the city is settled as a landscape structure on its borders. A very important circumstance comes with the city administrator team recently

Historians have traced Medellin´s act of foundation in four different dates in between 1575 and 1675, and also the site of foundation has been placed in different points. During the 18th century life in Medellín elapsed in a more rural than urban environment and even today this city shows a closer relationship with the rural environment and traditions than other

The city was founded later than many other Colombian cities, for example those on the Caribbean coast or the capital city of Bogotá. Probably due to the location of the Aburrá valley in the middle of an intricate set of rough mountains of difficult access, formed by the Colombian Andes, in Antioquia province a region where the central and west branches of

environmental question posed by the urban expansion.

second to promote integrated answers to the complex trouble.

**3. A research attempt to planning landscape in borders** 

elected, one of whose major interests is focused on the urban rural borders.

environmental worry.

**3.1 Background** 

Colombian towns.

Fig. 3. Adelaide, South Australia. Source: Google Earth 2012
