by Gracie Villa (MLA I ’21) — Recipient of the Thesis Prize in Landscape Architecture
Based in the belief that the quality of the urban landscape directly reflects the quality of its soil, I propose to utilize processes of beneficial disturbance to reorder the vegetative and soil regimes in the city’s public realm. The outcome is a regenerative living infrastructure identified as the City Forest; a collection of trees, associated undergrowth, and soil where people live, work, and play. This topology offers an alternative to the objectified street trees that make up most of America’s urban vegetation and curates an intensive dialogue between people and forest, or city and forest, not possible under current spatial practices.
In this case study, the City Forest redefines major corridors in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as an efficacious place to begin intensifying the forest. Cambridge is a leader in urban forestry but has yet to boldly confront the socioeconomic practices inhibiting a healthy future. By rejecting the hierarchies and land–use patterns inherent to our car-centric landscapes, the City Forest emphasizes solidarity with nonhuman nature and advocates against destructive forms of economic practice and ontological distinction, asserting that the natural capital that accumulates in the forest reciprocates directly with a healthy lived experience in the city.
The City Forest will be planted in 3 phases. The first includes larger trees, shrubs, and plugs in the most visited parts of the public realm, such as Central Square.
The City Forest will transform Massachusetts Avenue into a shared street. Without curbs, storm water can sheet into the permeable ground and ensure access for all throughout the space.
The City Forest will transform Massachusetts Avenue into a shared street. Without curbs, storm water can sheet into the permeable ground and ensure access for all throughout the space.
The City Forest will be planted in 3 phases. The first includes larger trees, shrubs, and plugs in the most visited parts of the public realm, such as Central Square.
The city plan lays out all the three ecotypes, from lowlands to low-uplands to uplands. This map is intended to guide how different sections of the proposal are planted out as it is implemented. These zones are based on precipitation and flooding projections produced by the City of Cambridge.
This city plan identified the primary and secondary corridors in the City Forest proposal. As a regenerative infrastructure, the City Forest is also a political movement. By utilizing processes of beneficial disturbance to dismantle the city’s most prominent built infrastructure, the City Forest reorders the vegetative and soil regimes across the public realm.
These sections show how the City Forest will transform the street section. In the City Forest, soil and the lived experience take center stage while private vehicles are excluded, Leaving only 20′ dedicated bus lane, which will always be required for transit and life safety.
Resilience, use and equity are all key themes in the Healthy Forest, Healthy City report. As a result, the city’s action plan created a framework for the City Forest implementation Plan. That action plan lays out 9 initiatives to be completed by 2025, and the City Forest’s implementation will fold into and ultimately expand 4 of them.
