Caiqi Wang

LET IT CURVE

Landscape Architecture - MLA

Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA)

wangcaiqi1225@163.com

WORKBOOK

Project description

This project aims at transforming the site of Glasgow Airport into a public salt-marsh park, while it can restore the contaminated soil and river water. Finally, this site can be a belt between human and non-humans and create a dynamic and resilient landscape that will protect communities from the effects of the climate crisis allowing them to react to future changes, including the rising sea level and the soil desalinization.

According to the Climate Central risk map, which is based on the sea level rising and flooding index, it shows that this area is at a high risk of flooding. From other some researches, all evidence suggests that by 2050 the site will be under sea level, so the site of Glasgow Airport will be completely unusable and it will be submerged by the river. What’s more, from Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), it is said that the confluence of the rivers is the idealist place for migrating and nesting birds, in that this site will attract groups of birds and be a science place for bird researchers or bird lovers. Therefore, it is proposed to develop the confluence of the Clyde River, Black Cart Water and White Cart Water into a public salt-marsh park for both humans and non-humans.

This project looks back at historic uses of the land on which Glasgow Airport now sits to seek to provide a resilient and sustainable landscape for now, while looking ahead for future generations at all times. Infrastructure on the site will be recycled and converted for the benefit of the community. For example, the watching towers will be transformed into the bird watching platform and the terminal will be reused into a salt-marsh science museum, etc.

The project taps the potential of river, utilizing the curvature and avulsion of water to create a brand new ecological environment. Ultimatly, it will be a framework which connect river and salt-marshes together to protect and empower communities of humans and non-humans well into the future.

DYNAMIC SYSTEM

The most important design element in the Black and White Cart Water project is the river. The natural meandering and erosion pattern of the river is followed by the installation of artificial wetland buffers within site to change the flow of the river. In implementing the artificial wetland buffer, a grid of mounds is placed along the existing river banks so that the river gradually flows into these mounds and, over time, the ground between the mounds becomes a new riverbed. Over time the meandering and erosion, combined with the effects of flooding, the Black and White Cart Water will bifurcate and spread, and the mounds will become a landscape resilience for the wetland area.

Eventually, the site will be transformed from a disused airfield and construction site into a public salt marsh wetland park. As the curvature and flow of the river take shape, with the ebb and flow of the tide and rising sea levels, this area will present a dynamic and resilient salt-marsh park.

OVERALL & DETAILED DESIGN

OVERALL DESIGN

In the overall design, It is mainly divided into these parts, river, flooding, avulsion mounds, wildflower meadow, riparian woodland, salt-marsh habitat, the runway and plank road.

In the project, some infrastructures on the site will be recycled and converted for the benefit of the community. For example, some runway will be developed into the runway garden. The terminal will be developed into a salt-marsh and bird science museum and the watch tower can be a platform for visitors to have a panoramic view. These things are about develop and the following is about recycling.

The project is concerned with sustainability and therefore recycles many materials from the original site in its use materials. These are the existing hard and soft materials in the site. For example, these discarded wooden planks can be recreated into a boardwalk. Hard materials from the eroded and abandoned runway and terminal building can be used as the basis for a gravel slope and mounds. And the plants or the big arbor trees will be replanted to the woodland, grassland and habitat.