We base our work on the principles of sustainable development. Since 2009, we have been involved in cooperation with the Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening in Průhonice in a project researching possibilities of implementation of sustainable development principles.
The project was included in the Research Plan No. 002707301 of the Ministry of the Environment.
The goal of the project is to assess possibilities of implementation of the principles of sustainable development in urban spaces and urban vegetation in general, thus contributing to implementation of this trend in landscape architecture (already popular in other countries) in the Czech Republic.
The research is aimed at establishing correlation between vegetation, its users and the environment in general with regard to valid legislation and related forms of environmental protection. The project does not emphasize individual isolated ways of looking at the environment (environmental protection, recreation, maintenance etc.). On the contrary, it aims for a synthesis of all these functions in a contemporary urban space.
We tried to make sure that various typical forms of urban vegetation are represented taking into account different degree of their urbanness / naturalness, mode of use and maintenance.
The methodology of ‘Assessing vegetation areas in the urban system and their relation to environmental protection plans’ was tested in the municipal district Prague 3 and the build-up area of Benátky nad Jizerou.
The model territory of Anglický park Benátky nad Jizerou, Park Vrch Sv. Kříže in Prague and minor ruderalized area behind garages in Platanová Street in Benátky nad Jizerou were selected for the final detailed assessment of functions, the role in the vegetation system and the current condition of the evaluated areas. Alongside the standard phytocenological and dendrometric assessments we performed biological or entomological evaluation.
Having assessed the analysed areas we proposed measures which need to be taken in order to increase the quality of both vegetation systems and individual areas in line with the principles of sustainable development. The sustainable development approach is based on the natural values of the place and their maximum use in the designed composition. Observance of all natural conditions of a specific biotope reflected in the proposed composition of species, technologies of founding and, subsequently, maintenance, pays in the form of lower operational costs.
In the past, we had also submitted a proposal for the international competition entitled Lenné Preis 2008 – Park Am Reiherstieg in Hamburg designed in accordance with the principles of sustainable development; the design can be found under References.
L&SCAPE s.r.o.
Bělehradská 568/92
120 00 Prague 2
Czech Republic
T: +420 608 235 674
E: info@landscape.archi