Future Landscapes

By: Khris Kirk

The population of today's world is over 7 billion people and growing (World Population Clock). The amount of births in the world far exceeds the amount of deaths, which is the reason why the population is growing very rapidly. In 2045, the world population is predicted to reach 9 billion people. As the population grows so do the cities that these people live in. Over the centuries, the people of the world have slowly been moving towards more urban areas rather than the rural areas. A statistic done in 2010 shows that 50.5% of the world is urban population (World Demographic Profile). With the consistent growth of the world, eventually most of the world will be urban areas. By having an urbanized world, that means there are few gardens, parks, or green spaces. This is a major problem. The world depends on having forests, gardens, and vegetation. The world needs to have plant life because it helps regulate the air, provides food, houses homes for wild life, and provides soft spaces in comparison to the hard spaces of buildings.

            With the constant growth of cities, there are only a few options to having gardens, parks, or plant life. One option is for the cities to set aside land specific for botanical gardens like Catherine Mosbach’s jardin botanique in Bordeaux. Mosbach’s botanical garden is in an industrial area, which is probably how many future gardens will be placed. It also houses the original vegetation from around France. Therefore, the garden has become a museum, promenade, and a soft space among the industrial background. More of these types of gardens will start rising up over the years, as a means to preserve the plant life of countries.

            Another type of garden that will arise will be hortus conclusus. Hortus conclusus comes from the term used for gardens of monks. They are personal, meant for meditation, and transform a small space into a garden. As cities grow, there are small spaces available for garden areas. They would either be in squares between buildings, alleyways, or on roofs of buildings. One example of a roof garden is Ken Smith’s Moma Garden in New York. Although this garden is using completely artificial and recycled materials, it is still a garden. This garden provides texture to the top of the inaccessible roof of the Taniguchi building (ASLA Awards). The Moma Garden creates a visual appeal against the harsh landscape of the skyscrapers of New York. Eventually many roofs will become gardens and provide that soft space within the urbanized world. They will become people’s personal oasis.

            Overall, constant growth of the world’s population is causing people to rethink how their surroundings will be. As the cities get bigger and more urbanized, the rural areas start to get smaller. Landscape architects have to be more creative with the amount of space available, materials to use, and feel they want to implement for a person within the space they are creating. In the future, these spaces will become very popular and much needed to bring nature back into the forest of buildings. The future awaits these new gardens.    

Links:

World Population Clock
World Demographics Profile 2012
Ken Smith, Moma Garden, New York