Design, Visualization & Photography
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Urban Nature - The Inhabitable Edge

Landscape Architecture, Master's Thesis, Visualization

THE CITY LAKES in Copenhagen, Denmark, are a series of man-made lakes between the old center and the surrounding neighborhoods. The lakes hold a strong historic and cultural connection and have been a popular recreational area since the 1800's.

Although the city lakes have been partially remediated they lack the basic necessary natural features to sustain a healthy lake ecology without continuous maintenance. Each spring, algae begins to bloom and by mid-summer the lake surfaces are covered so thickly that the city has to remove algae regularly. Alongside this, the public edges of the lakes are featureless and boring, with ill-defined paths and very few urban spaces.

The lakes hold the potential to become a high quality natural space in the midst of a dense urban centre. My thesis addresses four main goals:

1. To provide a naturalized edge to restore diversity and support the stability of the lake ecology;

2. To soften the transition between the constructed and natural edges through planting and materials;

3. To give a place to stay on the lakes to establish them as a good urban space as well as a natural, recreational area; and

4. To develop a context-sensitive design in the surrounding areas to create a better urban nature

Thesis Blog - Theory, Background & Design Process

Project: Master's Thesis
Institute: Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole
Date: 2011
Supervised by: Merete Anfeldt-Mollerup

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New Edge Strategy

New Edge Strategy

Reintroducing naturalized littoral zones to the hard, unproductive edges allows a healthy lake ecosystem to begin flourishing.

Strategic Plan Diagrams

Strategic Plan Diagrams

The introduction of new edge conditions to the focus area, Sortedams So.

Guiding Theories

Guiding Theories

Remediation Section

Remediation Section

A new freshwater lake ecosystem from edge to edge.

Vision Plan

Vision Plan

Platform Edge Intervention

Platform Edge Intervention

An edge for people & for Nature

An edge for people & for Nature

Edge Section Perspective

Edge Section Perspective

Platform Edge Vision

Platform Edge Vision

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Thesis Synthesis

Thesis Synthesis

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