When Martha Schwartz studied fine arts at the University of Michigan in the early 1970s, she was drawn to land art, which uses the landscape as a canvas and incorporates materials such as concrete, gravel and sand.
“I didn’t have enough money to buy a tract of land where I could create land art projects, so I decided to go into landscape architecture, which allowed me to work with the earth,” she said.
After working with the landscape architecture firm the SWA Group, Ms. Schwartz established Martha Schwartz Partners in 1983.
The firm has offices in New York, London and Shanghai.
As she worked on landscape designs over the years, Ms. Schwartz, 73, read numerous books and articles about the negative impact of climate change.
“I realized that we could use the profession of landscape to deliver climate solutions and, around 2015, the focus of my work expanded,” she said.
Since then, Ms. Schwartz’s firm has led the design of nearly 50 urban projects that aim to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Notable ones include the Beiqijia Technology Business District in Beijing, which dates to 2016 and is a mixed-use development with residences, offices and retail.
The design incorporates elements such as efficient and sustainable drainage, harvesting and reusing water from storms, an abundance of trees and water elements that provide natural cooling and a habitat for plants and animals to thrive.
Her firm also designed Zigong Dongxingsi Waterfront Park in Zigong, China, in 2019, featuring sustainable urban drainage that lessens the flooding from the city’s monsoons and rain gardens along the streets to absorb and recycle rainwater.
The interview was conducted on video and by email, and has been edited and condensed.
What are some of the ways you build sustainably to reduce the effects of global warming?
We use solutions such as rain gardens, permeable pavements and native plants. For example, with Zigong waterfront park, the land was on a steep ridge with a river below it that was heavily polluted, including from car oil and tainted stormwater runoff.
We terraced the landscape and incorporated steel ribs to support these terraces. As the polluted water flowed down, the land absorbed the smaller particles of pollution and allowed clean rainwater to enter the river.
One of your current endeavors is promoting the idea of the Linear Urban Forest. What is that?
The project is supported by the Harvard University Climate Change Solution Grant. The idea was that in the future, when there will be automated vehicles and changes to public transport, we will find 30 percent to 50 percent of space within streets empty. Because of the open space, we will be able to plant a Miyawaki forest, which will go throughout the city and be large enough to deal with extreme heat and flooding.
The evermore prevalent heat trapped within cities will help to create the urban heat island effect (UHIE), which many people who live in cities will encounter. The UHIE also leads to flooding, contaminated air and water, and increased energy costs to cool homes.
The Linear Urban Forest concept would create greener space within densely populated urban areas. This would ultimately aid in lessening climate change by reducing our dependence on single-ownership cars, thus less emissions, and by creating a dense urban canopy that will help cool our cities.
Our next step is to create a test pilot. Three cities — Los Angeles, Boston and Riyadh — are interested.
What are the challenges of designing to combat climate change?
The biggest challenges, especially as I’ve encountered while developing the Linear Urban Forest, are the upfront costs, the inconvenience factor of construction and retrofitting older infrastructures with technologically innovative features. There is also a lack of awareness about using the landscape to lessen the damage of climate change.
It can be expensive at the outset to plant native plants and trees and incorporate elements such as bioswales [a trench that collects rainwater]. Over the long term, however, there are cost savings because they are low maintenance and protect from factors such as floods, air pollution and extreme heat, which can cause severe illnesses. They also promote biodiversity.
What positive impact have you seen because of your work?
In Beijing, I see locals flocking to Beiqijia to enjoy the green spaces and cooler temperatures from the water features and plants.
In Paris, we worked on Place de la République [in the Marais district] around 15 years ago. The plaza was surrounded by streets and was used as a parking lot. We created a plan to close one road to traffic, incorporate trees, plants and water features, and make it pedestrian-only. The plaza was connected back to the city and became an extremely popular gathering place for Parisians. It continues to be today.
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