Sustainability has become more and more of a household name over the past decade. This has mostly been caused by the consequences of climate changing becoming clearer and more obvious. So humanity is now stuck in a situation where on one hand they are experiencing a climate with more extreme weather every year, while on the other hand our living environment is completely unsuitable for absorbing these extreme climate effects.
As a way to change this unsuitability, designers have come up with interventions that can make cities adaptable to climate change, and more importantly, these designs are actually carried out. Instead of falling back on the old civil engineering solutions, which were often hidden from the public view, the designs now integrate public places. In theory these public water squares would help create unique changing spaces where the people could see the water system of the city above the ground.
In reality quite a few of these designs look like public swimming pools.
And of course they are a tremendous help in managing the water of the city, but the idea behind them is lost. While they are dry they usually have some sort of function, there are football fields and playgrounds and benches. But as soon as the water hits, the people cannot use this space anymore. The water squares have lost their function and become sinks instead of squares.
Basically we’ve falling back on our old habits of storing it and then ignoring it until it’s gone.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. I would like to point at another type of waters square: interactive ones. There are a few design studios who are creating such spaces [1]. These squares come in wildly varying shapes and shades and forms. They give us the opportunity to experience the current status of the water system. When we were children, the best way for us to learn how to deal with new situations was by experiencing them. This is what we are now missing out on. Water squares give us the unique opportunity to bring the water system of our cities to the surface, and to create visceral changes in the landscape when this system is unbalanced. By showing people when the system is unbalanced, and by letting them interact with the consequences of this unbalanced system, designers have an unique opportunity to teach and spread information. But knowledge is not the only objective. These new water squares create interactive, unique environments, which can help us regain the same joy we found in our surroundings when we were children. If we want to keep living in cities, that are expanding and swallowing the landscape around them, we can’t keep pretending that what happens in the cities doesn’t matter for the water balance of the entire landscape.
The city has to become a cityscape, a landscape with varying sights, people and environments. It has to be able to absorb the impact of the extreme weather. As a designer sustainability is of vital importance, but so is creativity and vision. Use your skills and knowledge to teach people about living and breathing cities, cities who adapt to nature, cities of the future.
[1] Boer, F., Jorritsma, J., & Van Peijpe, D. (2010). De Urbanisten en het Wondere Waterplein. Rotterdam: nai010.
[Image] VHP & Urban Affairs. (2007). Waterpleinen. lay-out, 02, 14.