Alia Shahed
Flowscapes
Rejuvenating links: Estates & Hinterland - (Re)exploring the value of productive cultural landscape and its link to the heritage estates of Baakse Beek area
The hinterlands, composed of agricultural land and forestry, used to be lifelines of the estates in the Achterhoek region (Province of Gelderland, Netherlands), even in the early 20th century. But today, the richly protected heritage estate zones only cover the estate building and the garden, and there is little heritage awareness of the hinterlands. This hinders their integration into the larger landscape. There consequently is a need for re-exploring the value of the hinterland and finding new links between the hinterland and the estates. In the current situation, the estates are faced with severe water scarcity leading to many other problems following from climate change. Introducing wetness retention in the productive cultural landscape can create a new possibility for reviving the old links, both functionally and experientially, while at the same alleviating the water scarcity. Thus, the thesis portrays how landscape architectural interventions can couple heritage values with future resilience strategies.