City Farm Garden : countering the impacts of urban expansion in a rural valley in the Western Cape through a gardening approach to place-making

Abstract

Globally, the uniqueness of rural landscapes is at risk of disappearing (Makhzoumi & Pungetti 1999:16, 24). Global changes threaten traditional landscapes, biodiversity and the structure of rural society, and impact local, regional and global ecological processes that will ultimately determine the future sustainability and quality of life on earth (Redman & Foster 2008:3; Rotherham 2015:305). Rural landscapes encompass semi-natural ecosystems that provide habitat for local indigenous species and are therefore an important priority for biodiversity conservation (Hanspach, Loos, Dorrensteijn, Absen & Fischer 2016:853). Long-term, predictable and traditional uses of landscapes form a critical part of biodiversity conservation, whereas the loss of traditional and customary land management practices, called ‘cultural severance’, is considered to be even more damaging to nature conservation than climate change and have serious adverse effects on rural economies and communities (Rotherham 2015:3405). Land-use change through urban development affects every aspect of the ecology, from soil, air, water quality and wetlands, to climate and biodiversity (Sauerwein 2011:50) and causes the disintegration of landscape as a coherent fabric (Marot 1999:52). In the contemporary context, landscape architecture finds itself positioned at the convergence of agricultural- and urban traditions (Marot 1999:49, 53). In this dissertation I explore strategies and methods how landscape architecture may contribute to the protection of rural landscape character, culture and biodiversity. The central role of landscape characterization as a means to retain continuity in territorial identity led to the study of genre de vie, place-work-folk relationships, traditional agro-ecological knowledge systems (TAeK) and vernacular gardens provided the basis from which a research by design methodology could be developed. Michel Desvigne’s methods and approaches to multi-scalar landscapes led to the exploration of pilot gardens, as places of experimentation and exploration of regional landscape character on a small scale, from which a larger landscape framework can be developed.