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Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate and test the concept of Logistics Landscape developed by Charles Waldheim and Alan Berger. The Logistics Landscape foregrounds the relationship between urban form and economy and shows a way of working to create new landscapes that are shaped by economic systems. Waldheim and Berger see the relationship between economy and landscape as reciprocal. The landscape is not only subjected to the economy but can potentially be an agent of economic activity. The research examines the role of landscape to achieve a major economic shift in the case study of Broken Hill.
Broken Hill in New South Wales is a particularly relevant local case study as the town developed with a very strong relationship between mining economic activity and urban and wider landscape transformation. Also, Broken Hill is at a threshold: there is an impending transition in its economy due to a predicted end of its mining industry. By using the concept of Logistics Landscape, the aim of the research is to explore and test alternative landscape futures for Broken Hill.
A mix of methods for landscape architectural research has been used, including creative practice and research by design. The study is grounded in a documentation of changing historical relationship between mining and urban form from archival and documentary sources. This is augmented by field work to investigate the experiential qualities of landscape and collect data not available in any existing documentation. Broken Hill is identified as a connection place for systems and has been investigated at three scales: territory, city and mine. Through these investigations, three themes at work in this Logistics landscape emerged: water, mine and interstices. Each of the three themes is developed, and together they create a series of interconnected landscape design propositions at three scales that take advantage of the impending transition. These landscape propositions are generated by the existing mining economy but allow it to move to a new economic situation and a transformed urban landscape: an olive grove landscape.
The new olive grove landscape demonstrates the ability of landscape to operate an economic shift from the mining industry. The Broken Hill climate is ideal for olive trees and this speculative project offers the potential to develop a sustainable urban future for Broken Hill.
The new Logistics Landscape is based on the existing logistics landscape of the mine. The infrastructure used for the olive oil transportation is the same as the one use for the mining industry, but the new landscape has an impact at different scales on the economy, the social network and the natural infrastructure of Broken Hill.
The research places landscape in the centre of a strategy to propose alternative futures to Broken Hill at a critical moment. This investigation shows the ability of landscape architecture to engage the theory of Logistics Landscape and expands ways of practice into unexpected fields. It also explores the limit of the professional practice of Landscape Architecture and the need of a multi-disciplinary approach to develop a sustainable urban future.