Towards Integrating Wetlands into Urban Design

With the current growth in consumption in cities, increase in CO₂ emissions and loss of biodiversity, there is a lack of examples where ecological awareness can be implemented into a different kind of practice at a larger scale. A trajectory that is important to consider is that of autopoietic performance as seen in ecosystems (Upreti 2024) - and the challenge is how this could be transferred into an urban context.
In doing so, the study explores how wetlands and an increased cultivation of biomass (reeds) within urban areas can provide building façade material while holding potentials for CO₂ sequestration, increasing of biodiversity, water handling, prevention of floods along with recreative outdoor qualities in the given urban context.
This prospective study was done by first analyzing a large area for “blue spots” and then exploring an interdisciplinary urban and architectural design scheme for constructed wetlands that have an autopoietic relation with the building stock (and users of said urban context). The case study area isolocated in the metropolitan region of Copenhagen in the city of Ballerup. Bluespots were analyzed using Scalgo, a GIS-based hydrological webbased modeling platform capable of simulating static and dynamic flooding analysis. From the results best locations were identified in terms of suitability for installation of water handling solutions, material cultivation potential and recreational infrastructure. The proposed framework shows to be a valuable pathway to support urban plan development under the umbrella of the urban wetland concept supporting environmental protection, social and recreative affordance.