Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master of Fine Arts (Two Years)), 20 poäng / 30 hp
With nature having a direct in- fluence on our well-being and behavior, it is only natural that it should be kept close to the city borders. City dwellers benefit from having easy access to rural nature, to give them the opportunity to regulate their own bodybudget through nature.
However, with urban fabrics growing rapidly, this transitional border between cityscape and nature is being pushed further out, every time the city grows and decentralizes. Trapping not only the majority of the population inside the city perimeter, with in some cases, not even a view of rural nature. But this growth in the urban fabric is also slowly breaking down rural nature itself.
In order to start the discussion to stop city sprawling into nature, utopian designs can function as a radical language, to then inspire future developments. Since this urban growth is on such a big scale, it is incomprehensible to solve with just one simple solution, one could even argue, that there is no such solution.
Nevertheless, with a utopian design, focussed on bringing back city sprawling to the phenomena of imbrication, of the city being a ‘guest’ in nature. Subsequently, we can start to envision a new scheme to bring back, or more so, to stop what has been lost.
Through axes visible in urban fabrics, as seen in gridiron Roman Times, assumptions of future growth and decentralization of the city can be made. Making it possible to visualize conceptual borders that could function as transitional spaces between the city and nature.
Since utopian designs do not submit to the boundaries of reality, they will solemnly function as a language to provoke emotion, to then ideally, commence a change in the built environment. A utopia will not propose a solution to the matter at hand, but will rather start the sequence needed for change. The sequence needed to then contain city-scapes.
2023. , s. 17