LANDSCAPE INTEGRATION

1. L A N D S C A P E I N T E G R A T I O N F O R
S M A R T R U R B A N H O U S I N G
B Y
P R O F S H U B H A D A K A M A L A P U R K A R
A R C H I T E C T U R A L D E S I G N
S U B J E C T C O - O R D I N A T O R – 4 T H Y E A R D D I V
A C A D E M I C H E A D – B N C A
2 0 1 5 - 1 6
Design strategies

2. Rustic
Rural character
You need to generate it through your
planning and design

3. Formal
Manicured landscape
where and how do you do it?

4. Tree avenues and bio-swales
Road side plantation

5. Color
Dynamics
Gulmohar tree
avenue

6. Productive landscapes

7. ASLA 2009 Award
The Productive Landscape: Urban Housing for Autistic Adults
Regionally appropriate and
locally sustainable affordable
housing for adults with
developmental disabilities in
Phoenix, Arizona is in short
supply. This project combines
those elements and socially,
economically, and ecologically
extends into the city to
integrate marginalized
populations with
the community. Sensitive site
planning, rainwater and
greywater management
practices, regionally
appropriate “green roofs”, and
urban agriculture make this
project a meaningful addition
to the conversation of social
justice and sustainable
development in the urban
environment.

8.  The 1.7 acre site is located in Phoenix, Arizona, in a recently redeveloped residential area in the city center. Site
selection was based on the abundance of good public transportation in the city and access to services such as
healthcare facilities, libraries, restaurants, and entertainment centers. The site is also immediately south of a
large public park and the Japanese Cultural Garden, which serve both for recreation and community
integration opportunities. The site was developed to house 22 individuals with Autism spectrum disorder,
limiting site density to respond to requirements for receiving federal aid in funding affordable housing.
With a particular emphasis in rainwater and greywater management, the site is carefully designed to act as a
productive landscape for the inhabitants in terms of spatial organization and plant selection, as well as enlarge
the ecological patch created by the garden to the north in the overall ecological matrix of the city.
Rainwater cisterns are located throughout the site, collecting and storing the water for onsite uses and allowing
for a more lush and verdant landscape. The roof surface of the community center alone provides for 75% of the
water needs of the laundry facility for all the inhabitants of the site annually. greywater to irrigate public
courtyards for community use.
 The roofs of the buildings are planted with a variety of mamalaria, a desert adapted plant that needs only a
very small soil profile while providing many of the passive heating and cooling benefits of a conventional green
roof. Candid site planning oriented the structures for optimal solar orientation and access, while creating a
structured streetscape to maintain the urban qualities of the surrounding neighborhood.
 Onsite facilities for occupational therapy and job training for the residents include a professional kitchen, a
coffee roasting facility, and an extensive plot used for urban agriculture. These training opportunities become
vehicles for community integration when individuals interact with neighbors selling coffee or fresh produce on
the site, at the biweekly farmers market down the street, or in one of the 30 coffee shops within a mile of the
site. The proceeds of these activities subsidize the cost of living on the site for the residents and encourage the
economy of the community.
The biointensive agricultural processes used to organize the garden combined with a sensitivity to water use
were critical in developing a responsible and sustainable cultivation of the land in an urban area. Using crop
rotation across the garden plots and regionally appropriate plant selection in both the gardens and the
orchards mean that once established, the harvest on the site can be continuous. By including a vermiculture
composting system, these practices enrich the soil and the ecology of the site, rather than damaging and
depleting it with conventional agricultural practices. Producing and consuming food, capturing water, creating
solar energy in photovoltaic panels over breezeways, and composting of waste are recognized not as disparate

10. Transition from inner village to public realm strives to harmonize with the scale of
surrounding urban form.
Xeric plants provide shade, add interest and direct circulation. A solar array serves as
shade structure, threshold and covered walk from community center

11. This is the beginning of a sprawl-like native landscape that takes over the river,
providing a functioning ecology and new generator of future urban form

12. Watershed moment: a landscaping project in
Fuzhou responds to the site's topography

13. Edges near water streams

14. Nanhu: Farm Town in the Big City
Jiaxing, China
Client: Jiaxing Alliance Development Corporation
Project Statement
Sprawling megacities around
the world are overtaking arable
land to accommodate increased
spatial demands. The larger
these cities become, the further
agricultural landscapes are
forced away from the people
they sustain. This project brings
innovative hybrid agricultural
and urban typologies into close
dialogue at the crux of two
major metropolitan cities. An
infrastructural overhaul will
treat heavily polluted water as it
flows through the site, and will
establish a new paradigm for
modern agricultural living.

15.  Agricultural land in China is often wiped clean of all previous
historic or cultural significance to make way for urbanization. As the
nation struggles to house the influx of urban migration, agrarian life
is marginalized.
 However, current trends indicate that people are craving a reprieve:
the health effects of industrial pollution are being felt, wealthy
populations are spending money on organic food, and the intensity
of massive dense cities can be crushing and overwhelming.
 Nanhu presents a cultural shift at the intersection of urban and
agricultural life in China through the creation of a dense urban
village and the retention and enhancement of existing farmland.
 The design challenges the notion of typical rural-to-urban
land transformation to instead create a model for
integrated new city development. The design takes
advantage of the site’s agrarian economy, proximity to
transit, and urban amenities to create a village that is
compact, walkable, and tightly-knit, yet has easy access to
open space and maintains an agricultural character.

16. Productive park
A productive park built with recycled materials around Oost Campus (the City Hall
and Civic centre of Oostkamp, Belgium

17. Master plan

19. Housing scheme in
england

21. Housing cluster detail

22. Vertical landscapes

23. In china
commercial zone and farming , mono rail
experience

24. Japan's Namba Parks Has an 8
Level Roof Garden with Waterfalls

25. Making shade an important component in any
design

26. Lego towers
The model looks like every room can be taken off and be placed elsewhere.

27. Building massing and landscape spaces