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Amager gardens & Queens forest
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This project is a vision for a new formal garden and forest on Amager Fælled in order to safeguard the area from new urban development. Two former landscapes are being highlighted and re-interpreted: the military shooting range and the old coastline (A.). They represent the contrast between the aesthetics of hortus and the aethetics of pastoral. The existing structures and elements (B.) are worked into the design proposal (C.). The military landscape becomes the grounds with seven gardens, and the coastal landscape becomes a wetland and forest with the former coastline itself becoming a walkable route.
THE GARDEN
The design of Amager Gardens and the surrounding grounds revolves around the linearity of the mounds in the former shooting range. The strong, linear structure influences most of the elements in the gardens which display many different, classical garden features like a rose garden (5.), mirror basins (6.), a sculpture garden (3.) etc. The linearity is broken in selected areas to create dynamics, and to integrate the garden into the surrounding city structure.
THE GARDEN COLLAGE
The conceptual collage conveys the different atmospheres and elements enclosed in Amager Gardens. The visitors can experience classical garden features through differently themed gardens. For example in the Hanging Garden, the hammocks give the visitors the opportunity to gently swing in the wind like the climbing plants in the pergola.
THE QUEENS FOREST
The former coastline becomes a route leading south-east through a pastoral landscape. To emphasize the former coastal area, the landscape west of the old coastline has an open character to mimic the vastness of the sea, whilst the landscape east of the old coastline has a dense, closed character. The open becomes a wetland and meadow, and the dense becomes a forest with selected clearings and glades.
COASTLINE COLLAGE
The collage illustrates the moods and experiences of the coastline route. The forest type allows both high biodivesity and recreational value in the midst of a city context. The visitor can experience an array of spatially diverse settings along the coastline route, such as walking on the forest edge between the open and closed landscape, and under the oak canopies in the Queen’s Forest.
PLANTING STRATEGY
The new forest consists of mix of native, broad-leaved trees. The management strategy consists of different approaches. The planting strategy along the coastline route is a dense grid planting (I.) in order to quickly establish vegetation. The grid will be dissolved over time by selective thinning. A more sensitive planting strategy is chosen for the remaining area. Trees planted by seed dispersed by birds (II.) will fill out the remaining open land and support the existing forest over time (III.).
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