Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow

Abstract

Around the world lie dormant landscapes, altered by mankind and subsequently abandoned. Often these sites contain cultural significance that UNESCO works endlessly to protect, conserve and manage; but what of the sites they cannot, as for example ruins from our own time that have not yet gained the official moniker ‘heritage site’? What is to become of them? Will they become lost to time, or can Landscape Architecture provide the necessary incision to ensure their survival?

In the abandoned Greek town of Levissi, Turkey – deserted and displaced by a devastating war – thistles have taken over the city, the houses conquered by weeds and thorn bushes. Without a viable plan to preserve the site, the town has been left to slowly decay; this thesis explores how landscape architecture can help prevent the further destruction of Levissi, preserving both the landscape and its story – by integrating resilience with narrative design –for future generations to help them remember this event so that it may never happen again.

This thesis investigates how Landscape Architecture can help to mitigate the environmental weathering of culturally significant ruins and help to prolong their life with the use of contemporary interventions that can serve as the catalyst for further revitalization of these abandoned sites. This thesis proposes that through contemporary design we can create a humble palimpsest born out of admiration for a site – not from the simple goal to preserve, but to understand the place – which in turn can enable a culturally significant contemporary landscape to survive and provide the foundation for it to become a protected World Heritage Site in the future.