newitalianblood

Can a cultural landscape characterized by agrarian usage become residential and still retain its identity? The concept for Fischbek-Mississippi in Hamburg-Neugraben anticipates a symbiosis of farmland and new residential districts incorporating open plots: traditional farmland is thereby interwoven with land cultivated by local residents. All common land is therefore used, maintained and run either by a local ecological farmer or the residents themselves: for orchards, their horses, sport or picnics, as required. These “settlement pioneers” thereby refuse to accept their fate as “sleeping suburbanites” and become active participants in their cultural landscape. The latter is integrated in the settlement concept and thus assured a sustainable future. With this project Studio UC won the National Award for Landscape Architecture 2003, Germany.