Landscaping is an activity that modifies the visible features of space/areas by flora/vegetation.

The aim of the project was to generate a future scenario, a continuation of the project we did in Typomorphology course in autumn 2014.

In this scenario I focused on the future of land-scaping practice, which I have divided into two:

In the first part, the lack of monetary resources of municipality for maintaining public parks and al-leys, acknowledging the need for new landscap-ing practice and influences by scientists from ecology field are driving forces for establishing the new landscaping practice, which includes more spontaneous vegetation in the concept.

In the second part, the EU Directives for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 has great influence on the decision making of the government and mu-nicipality, in which the decisions for establishing building regulations for green roofs are adopted.

Container landscapingContainer landscaping is not very new landscaping practice, how-ever, the trend is still growing in city as it has been used in front of the buildings to compensate the lack to wide range vegetation.The plants which are used in con-tainers vary from medium scale shrubs to small flower containers.

Parks, alleysThe 19th century landscaping practice with alleys and parks is one of the main landscaping prac-tices which are still used today. The parks are maintained regularly, however, it requires a lot of mon-etary resources and is low in bio-diversity. Since the city has rapidly changed since 19th century, the landscaping practice has stayed the same, however, manicured appearance of the landscapes is not giving great landscaping ef-fect in today’s city thus the land-scaping practice might change in future.

Landscapes of the public space:

Spontaneous plants, unmaintained

The spontaneous plants have always grown in the city, as the weeds and moss grow simply anywhere when there is lack of maintenance or intervention. The landscapes with sponta-neous vegetation is more bio-diverse and durable in city en-vironment than seeded and planted decorative plants.

Conclusion

Decorative elementPlants used as decorative ele-ment has become new landscap-ing practice in city centre, as the plants are used to soften the built landscape and provide some aes-thetical views with greenery.

Landscapes of the public spaces are consisting of multiple elements: Parks and alleys, container plants, decorative elements, and the spontaneous vegetation.

The landscapes in city centre vary because it depends on the possibilities for landscaping the area (if there is enough room for the tree’s roots)interest of businesses, residents etc. (if it is profit-able, necessary or for asthetical purposes) and monetary resources for maintenance.

The landscaping practice in municipality level, which has been established in 19th century, has stayed more or less the same, using the high vegetation like trees and mowed grass in the parks; and the alleys to form the coherent green infrastructure. The maintenance of the vegetation is quite costly and is still low in biodiversity.

The spontaneous vegetation, which on the other hand is uncontrolled, is more biodiverse and is able to resist the urban environment more than cultivated decora-tive species.

As the city has rapidly developed, the landscaping practices should also develop in time. The mowed grass is not simply providing the great landscaping effect in the city anymore, and the fact that there is more built landscape than vegetation it has also an impact on the air quality and microclimate. The new landscaping program (using spontaneous vegetation as a concept of landscaping) and regulations for green roofs might be one possible landscaping practice in the future, to combat climate change and provide more natural and rich in species landscapes in city.

However, another landscaping practices can be spot-ted in cityscape: the private developers, businesses and residents have adopted also new landscaping practices to compen-sate the lack of vegetation in city centre by using con-tainer plants and plants as decorative elements.

The decorative elements are mostly fulfilling the aes-thetical purpose, and not so much the ecological, as the scale of the plants is quite small.

20452015

Illustrations showing the changes in publicly used parks and streets in 2015 and 2045:

The number of residents rising in city centre influ-ence the real estate market, as there is need for new living and working places. The housing areas are expanding at the expense of temporarily used areas like parking lots- Eu-roparks, which would reduce the number of tem-porarily used spaces and building houses also re-duces possibilities for establishing coherent public park.

This would mean that the businesses, private de-velopers try to compensate the lack of vegetation and to soften the built landscapes with few con-tainer plants and additional decorative plants, such as lians, small scale garden, terrace garden and container plants in front of the buildings etc.

2025: Establishing the new landscaping practice

Driving forces and processes influencing the landscaping practice 1

Maintained vegetation overgrows with spontaneous vegetation; becomes the new concept of landscaping practice

2015: Densifying the built landscape in city centre

The existing situation of built landscape and maintained vegetation

The development areas of temporarily used spaces (parking lots)

Since the Estonian population is aging and there is quite a lot of emigration to other countries by young people, the demand for new buildings will decrease, which is why the development plans, constructions and investments lessen.

The decreasing number of citizens will also lower the num-ber of taxes being paied, due to which the budget of the municipality will also suffer.

For this reason, the municipality won’t have enough mon-ey to maintain the vegetation in the city. As maintenance is decreased, more spontaneous vegetation will start to grow in the city.

The new spontaneous landscapes will be more biodi-verse, develop a landscaping effect quite quickly and affect the air quality.

The current parks in Tallinn are low in biodiversity and still require a lot of money. However, as there is lack of mon-etary resources to maintain the parks, the local authori-ties may start to think about new landscaping programs.

There will be a new understanding by municipality towards the need for change in landscaping practice:

With the development of the city the landscaping prac-tice should also develop. As there is more built land-scape in the city than there was in 1950, it is necessary to rethink the landscaping program.

The scientists, who study ecology, the impact of vege-tation on the urban environment and the necessity of biodiverse vegetation are also implying the ecological aspect to the concept of new landscaping practice, which woule be additional argument for the aesthetical and economical aspect. Thus, scientists have a great in-fluence on the decisions of the municipality, as the mu-nicipality establishes the new landscaping program to increase the biodiversity and the landscaping effect by spontaneous, self-seeding plants, which requires min-imum maintenance and thus minimum monetary re-sources.

The new landscaping program is inspired by the sponta-neous landscape, as it is resistant to urban environment, is more biodiverse and gives quicker landscaping effect than mowed grass.

The monetary resources might be used in the beginning for seeding some of the plants and establishing the project.

As the new landscaping practice is consisting of the self-seeding plants, characteristic to the Northern-Esto-nia, and is let to grow spontaneously, it doesn’t need much intervention afterwards.

The trend for using spontaneous vegetation as a concept of landscaping practice changes the aesthetic percep-tion of the citizens as well. As a result of that citizens be-come to value more the natural landscaping.

Closer to the city

The landscaping program would be connected to many other projects in the city, such as educational project, and the Let’s do it collective activities project (Teeme ära talgud).

In the educational projects children would be guided to the outdoors to learn more about the natural science in real life instead of books. Teaching the children about the biodiversity outdoors could be one active way of ed-ucating them about its necessity in ecological, aestheti-cal, practical levels.

The development of technology might have huge impact on the next generations, as a result the children might be less socially and physically active, then combining the new landscaping and educational project could have positive impact on this.

The collective actions (talgud) would be held seasonal-ly (involving volunteers) in order to maintain some land-scapes in the city.

The collective actions will also have an impact on the social activities and is a way to make the citizens feel closer to the city.

The works of the volunteers would be coordinated by ar-borists (workers of the municipality, non-governmental in-stitutions etc).

Few examples: High Line planting in New York and Mont Evrin Park in France has spontaneous landscaping in the landscaping concept, which are inspired by the self-seeded land-scapes.

Driving forces and processes influencing the landscaping practice 2

2035: Establishing building regulations for green roofs

Avoiding to construct the green roofs

2045: Invoking competition with green roofs

The 1000m2 buildings which have to have green roofs according to the new building regulations established by the government

Regulations for constructing green roofs forbuildings which are with the surface area of 1000m2, have flat or 30 roofs

20452015

Green roof with extensive landscaping

Green roof with semi-intensive landscaping

Green roof with intensive landscaping

Green roof requirement zones in central area of Tallinn

The additional regulations might get controversial opin-ions by the citizens as well, as the regulations are the same for the people who live in the suburbs, where the amount of vegetation is high.

As a result, the municipality establishes green roof requirement zones, which sets the necessity of green roofs more specifically in the city.

The green roof regulations would invoke competition between developers and businesses as it is effective for profit making (green roof restaurants, observation plac-es, green gardens for growing vegetable etc).

At first, these roofs would be used to combat climate change by reducing heat loss at roof level, absorbing rainwater, increasing biodiversity etc.

Later on the green roofs would be considered as luxuri-ous element and possibility for profit making.

The green roof industry would grow into a vibrant, profit-able market.

Due to immigration waves into Estonia and Tallinn (because of complicated external affairs; Estonians are returning to homeland etc.) the demand for new living and working places will start to grow again, which would increase the investments, development plans and con-struction works in city.

The EU regulations to combat climate change by reduc-ing carbon emission in cities for achieving carbon neu-trality by 2050 are influencing the decisions of Estonian government and municipality, in restricting or taxing diesel and gasoline car access to the city centre and es-tablishing building regulations in which the requirement for green roofs shall be established on buildings which surface is larger than 1000m2 (example from Dublin).

The building regulations for constructing green roofs might be received negatively by private developers, as it might be expensive and considered unnecessary.

For this reason, the new planned buildings would be con-structed with a surface area smaller than 1000m2 , which would affect the appearance of the urban structure.

The new constructed buildings with smaller surface area than 1000m2 is received negatively by the municipali-ty. The next step by the local authorities it to require the private developers to landscape the surroundings of the building with vegetation.

As the landscaped areas are still quite small and not fulfilling the ecological aspect for combating climate change and achieving carbon neutrality, the municipal-ity would then make a Green Roof Project, which would involve the entire city of Tallinn and would apply for the EU Regional Development Funding (ERDF) and would start to fund the constructions for a short period of time.

The pressure on the government by the EU to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in Estonia is forcing to make additional changes in the building regulations.

The government will take initiative from Copenhagen, who will have had achieved the purpose already in 2025.

The new building regulations would set requirements for green roofs to all flat or 30 degree roofs.

The private developers might think of another possibili-ties to avoid constructing green roofs by constructing the roof pitch greater than 30 degrees.

Depending on the construction of the building, three different types of green roofs are possible to construct:

Extensive landscaping: would have mostly ecological value

Semi-intensive landscaping: has ecological value, aes-thetical value, social value (if roof top garden is for pub-lic use); and also for profit making for businesses (restaurant, selling gardening goods etc.

Intensive landscaping: Would have ecological value, aesthetical value and social value (if roof top garden is for public use)

The first businesses who would have had constructed green roofs might use it for their own advantage and profit making (i.e. green roof restaurants).

Avoiding to construct green roofs; new buildings are with smaller surface area than 1000m2.

Buildings with green roofs after the ERDF funding

Avoiding to construct green roofs on flat or 30 roofs by constructing the roofs with greater pitch

The urban structure after establishing the green roof regulation zones

The green roofs which would be construct-ed would affect the air quality, the micro-climate by reducing the heat at roof level, absorbe the rainwater and increase the bi-odiversity as well.