Urban Wildscapes

Urban Wildscapes is one of the first edited collections of writings about urban ‘wilderness’ landscapes. Evolved, rather than designed or planned, these derelict, abandoned and marginal spaces are frequently overgrown with vegetation and host to a wide range of human activities. They include former industrial sites, landfill, allotments, cemeteries, woods, infrastructural corridors, vacant lots and a whole array of urban wastelands at a variety of different scales. Frequently maligned in the media, these landscapes have recently been re-evaluated and this collection assembles these fresh perspectives in one volume.
Combining theory with illustrated examples and case studies, the book demonstrates that urban wildscapes have far greater significance, meaning and utility than is commonly thought, and that an appreciation of their particular qualities can inform a far more sustainable approach to the planning, design and management of the wider urban landscape.
The wildscapes under investigation in this book are found in diverse locations throughout the UK, Europe, China and the US. They vary in scale from small sites to entire cities or regions, and from discrete locations to the imaginary wildscapes of children’s literature. Many different themes are addressed including the natural history of wildscapes, their significance as a location for all kinds of playful activity, the wildscape as ‘commons’ and the implications for landscape architectural practice, ranging from planting interventions in wildscapes to the design of the urban public realm on wildscape principles.

Anna Jorgensen is a Lecturer in Landscape Architecture in the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the meanings and benefits of urban green and open spaces, and she is especially interested in woodland and other urban ‘wilderness’ landscapes. She is an Associate Editor of Landscape Research.

Richard Keenan has spent the last nine years working on the communication of environmental and social issues both in marketing and communications and as an artist. He began working for a regional organization in Yorkshire in 2002 and left to set up Environment Room Ltd in 2005. After five years as Director, he moved on from the company and is now focusing on his artistic practices with the project The Museum of Now. The project incorporates photography, video, audio and physical installations, to raise questions about contemporary society.

Foreword - The Wild Side of Town Chris Baines Introduction Anna Jorgensen Part 1 1. Learning from Detroit or ‘The Wrong Kind of Ruins’ Christopher Woodward 2. Appreciating Urban Wildscapes: Towards a Natural History of Unnatural Places Paul H. Gobster 3. Places to be Wild in Nature Catharine Ward Thompson 4. Playing in Industrial Ruins: Interrogating Teleological Understandings of Play in Spaces of Material Alterity and Low Surveillance Tim Edensor, Bethan Evans, Julian Holloway, Steve Millington and Jon Binnie 5. Nature, Nurture; Danger, Adventure; Junkyard, Paradise:The Role of Wildscapes in Children’s Literature Katy Mugford Part 2 6. Brown Coal, Blue Paradise: The Restoration of Opencast Coal Mines in Lusatia, Germany Renée de Waal and Arjen de Wit 7. Wildscape in Shanghai: A Case Study of the Houtan Wetland Park – Expo 2010 Shanghai Yichen Li 8. Christiania Copenhagen – a Common Out of the Ordinary Maria Hellström Reimer 9. The River Don as a Linear Urban Wildscape Ian D. Rotherham 10. Enhancing Ruderal Perennials in Manor Fields Park, Sheffield: A New Park on the ‘Bandit Lands’ of Urban Green Space Dereliction Marian Tylecote and Nigel Dunnett 11. Pure Urban Nature – Nature-Park Südgelände Berlin Andreas Langer 12. Upstaging Nature: Art in Sydenham Hill Wood Helen Morse Palmer Part 3 13. Buried Narratives Catherine Heatherington 14. Taming the Wild: Gyllin’s Garden and the Urbanization of a Wildscape Mattias Qviström 15. Disordering Public Space: Urban Wildscape Processes in Practice Dougal Sheridan 16.Anti-Planning, Anti-Design? Exploring Alternative Ways of Making Future Urban Landscapes Anna Jorgensen and Lilli Lička