Geological Islands

Nested along the Vesdre river, this prospective project illustrates water-sensitive approaches to architecture, local sector plan and water regulations, which are still based on the outdated paradigm of intensive riverbanks urbanization. This project shows possible futures, making water resilience and soil as main design constraints.

The devastating floods that took place in July 2020, along the Vesdre river in western Belgium, can be partly explained by a loss of local knowledge on the specificity and complexity of territorial water cycles. More specifically, it is the intimate relation between water and soil that particularly dragged our attention. The project is declined in 4 different approaches, varying in scale, and located on top of the most porous soil of the valley: the old alluvial terraces. \nFirst, how can the bocage landscape, as an already water-sensitive solution for agricultural parcels, could be seized and amplified to cope with climate change effect on rainfall? The bocage landscape divides not only agricultural lands, but also allows water runoff to be captured and infiltrated back into the soil. Amplifying the size of these bocage could help reduce floods caused by concentrated rainfalls, and also help store water during dry seasons.\nSecondly, how can upstream rainwater runoff be retained, stored, and used to redefine peri-urban development? By analyzing micro watershed, the amount of runoff water that could be made available for domestic use is considerable. With a simple linear infrastructure along this watershed, the collected water could be divided in small reservoirs that could lead a peri-urban development. The distribution and consumption of water could be valued as a visible shared asset.\nThirdly, how can these soils be productive by retaining water? A linear infrastructure along a main road could direct water runoff to be collected and infiltrated into the terrace. Absorbing and retaining a maximum of water could offer a great production opportunity. What is produced should vary depending on the amount of soil humidity and water available. \nFinally, how can architecture and its site be adapted to use the soil as its natural water reservoir? Most of the time, in an urban context, the water runoff ends up in the sewers. By rejecting used water into phyto-purification ponds, the slow filtration and infiltration process could eventually fill up the fluviatile terrace as a natural water reservoir.