Yiwen Wang
Flowscapes
Reimagine a City with Wildness: Rewilding for the Schijn Valley with a New Riparian Forest Corridor
The concept of rewilding as a "counter-practice" for restoring domesticated nature in the Anthropocene has long emerged . In the city, however, the practice of rewilding encounters both physical and psychological obstacles; in the tradition of interventions in urban space, "coexistence with nature" has been regimented into a utopian, rational aesthetic notion that excludes and obscures ecological reality.
The project explores a new possibility of "urban rewilding": how to re-establish non-human autonomy in the city? How to make people accept the harsh ecological realities?
In Antwerp's Schijn Valley, a riparian corridor has been sketched out. Through the spatial carrier of the urban forest, wildlife habitats and spontaneous ecological processes are restored.
Meanwhile, a new aesthetic framework for wildness is established. Exploratory drawings and design experiments reveal diverse wild experiences anchored in spaces created by trees. People are able to encounter wildness in forested spaces, reflect on their relationship with the non-human world and imagine a positively palpable, ecologically autonomous urban landscape.