Design generally relates to society and is a reaction to the present. Designing in the Anthropocene means to react to places heavily influenced by human endeavors, that inherited their present shape from an accumulation of activities. In this scope, even mundane and transient landscapes bear high potential for a topological continuity, where the design idea could profit from an increased terrain knowledge. Analyzing the topography as constructive heritage establishes a close contact between the form of the site and future visions, enabling a more respectful reaction to existing site identities. Existing qualities can be highlighted through the investigation of digital models, blending digital techniques with analogue field studies. In particular, point cloud models produced with laser-scanning draw from measured dimensions and reveal the way constituent parts of a site are physically connected and arranged, expressing morphological and cultural traces imprinted in the terrain. Point cloud models document the site geometry, providing a deeper insight in morphological and cultural traces. Establishing observations already during site analysis helps designers to cultivate a relationship to the precise shape of the landscape. Informed choices for shaping the site can respond to the underlying morphology of the landscape, avoiding contradictory operations. The inspection of the model helps designers to understand how the current topography is arranged, in which direction the water flows or where it stagnates, and what the dominant characteristics of the site, such as steepness and elevation, are. The model also provides accurate information on the environment of the site, such as the composition and type of vegetation, the visual relationship of the site with its context, and the precise location of the infrastructure already existing in the field. The topic is illustrated with a case study in Antananarivo. The capital is located in the Central Highlands of Madagascar. In the past, the Merina culture acquired expertise in handling water building dikes for flood protection and diverting water for irrigation, resulting in the establishment of rice cultivation in the plains. From the 1950s onwards, urbanization accelerated and the city progressively expanded into the rice-growing plain, disrupting the original rural system through mining for brick production and the extension of embankments reducing the water retention capacity.
Philipp RW Urech is a Swiss architect. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Swiss-Italian Academy of Architecture (USI) and his master’s degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. He contributed to numerous projects in Swiss architectural firms, including building submissions, planning studies and competitions for both architectural and landscape design. In 2021 he founded his firm Topostudio for urban landscape design and for consultancy in digital modelling. Since 2010 he is a research associate at the chair of Landscape Architecture of Professor Christophe Girot at the ETH Department of Architecture. He taught landscape and urban design in master’s studios, thesis projects and postgraduate study programs. Philipp was a guest lecturer and teacher in parallel programs at the ETH Zürich, at the NUS Singapore, at the Technion in Haifa. He also led design research studios at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) while conducting a doctoral research at the Singapore-ETH Centre in Singapore. His thesis “Shaping Physical Landscape” devises a design methodology based on innovative 3D modeling techniques that gives designers new means to interact with the physical geometry of the environment. Philipp is currently postdoctoral researcher in the module Resilient Blue-Green Infrastructures at the Future Cities Laboratory Global in Zurich.